Girls and computers do not mix

[amazingtrade]

Some girls and computers do not mix

This girl is running win xp with 128mb ram plus load of other dodgy programs such as kazza. Complains its running slow I tell her she needs more memory, she says mummy said its ok.

WTF. Argggghh Why can computers just not have a DOS startup screen these people will not bother using them!

I told her PC is slow because its using virtual memory instead of real memory but she will not believe me.

 

[Nepherim]

I'm hoping you're subject was written when you were tired or pissed off, cause otherwise you are way off base.

Without doubt there are less women in computing than men -- what the causes are is for another discussion.

But, of the many, many hundreds of men I interview for IT/development positions in the course of a year, a very low percentage get anywhere close to being of a quality I'd hire -- possibly 10-20% of men I interview I hire. That percentage is very much higher for women, even though I receive applications from fewer women -- probably around 40-50%.

My point is that there are people of both sexes who should be separated from computers by a big friggin wall. That doesn't mean all women fall in that category.

And yes, 128Mb is not enough memory for XP with other programs running. But it'll still work -- just slooooowly. Maybe her mummy can get the memory cheaper somewhere else...?

~ ~ Dave

 

[julian2002]

a very un pc thought but men and women, by dint of evolution are suited to different tasks. it is a testemant to the adaptability that either sex can trancend this and apply themself to any task they have to, or, want to, do. I believe it's proven that men are more suited to focussing on one task to the exclusion of everything else whilst women are more able to multitask but with less complex tasks. this aparently was from the hunter gatherer days when men would track an animal for days whilst women looked after the home and children (not that i'm going all mysoginist and saying that this is how it should still be). as a test for those who drive, if you are going somewhere new on your own and the directions are a little difficult and you have to concentrate on the directions, the map, driving and looking for street signs. do you turn the radio down? i know i do, however i used to be able to focus on the tv to the exclusion of everything else , including my wifes nagging .

amazingtrade,
you seem to be very focussed on what this girl does with her computer. i seem to remember you posting on this before? unless she's running a webcam porn site and letting you sit in on the sessions i'd move the relationship to another area, cos 'mummys' always right... to quote the crow ' Mother is another name for god on a childs lips'. let her mum f*ck up her pc and then help her when *SHE* asks for it. there's nothing as annoiying as unsolicited advice - so feel free to totally ignore me
cheers


julian

 

[PBirkett]

Originally posted by amazingtrade
Her mum work in an it support job so she will be more qualified than a university student who is half way to gettign a degree in computing, and i have built more computers than I care to remember. Her mummy has to take the PC to PCWORLD to be upgraded.

I will probably fall out with her by end of the evening I don't like being undermined.

First point here. If her mother was any kind of good IT Support officer, then although you say you have are studying it at university, what makes you think you would have more experience? OK, so she doesnt sound too hot after you stating she needs to get PCW to upgrade memory in her own PC.... however, I also work in IT support, and I believe I am miles more experienced than any student who studies IT at uni. Experience counts for a lot, and university doesnt really give you that, but its amazing the amount of arrogance that comes from students because they "have a degree" or are working towards one. If I was hiring IT Support technicians, I'd be taking the most experienced, not the jumped students who have a bit of paper, but no experience.

Falling out with a girl just because she doesnt want you to sort her PC out is just daft. Chill out !

 

[amazingtrade]

First off sorry about this post I was very tired and angry, she is a database support officer. I have spoken to a few people since and they all say that 128mb RAM as not enought to use XP properly.

Its what annoyed me is the way she said when I told her I think she needs more RAM (we've been here before remember and mum said you were wrong then) well that was when I said that a Celeron 300 was not fast enough to cope with the demands on xp.

I didn't mean anything I said about women shouldn't work in I.T because I know some men are properly equaly as bad. From what I can work the girls mum is responsable for removing viruses.

I know a few people that have got annoyed like I have done is a similar position and they say the best thing is when she starts talking about computers again is just to say "let your mum sort it out".

She was constantly going on at me that her PC was slow then when I tell her she needs more RAM she says I am wrong. Even though I had to tell her what RAM was, what virtual memory is and what the hard drive is.

And the final point I never said I would fix it for her, I made it clear that she should take it to her mummy's work to have it fixed after the last argument. I feel like buying an extra 256MB RAM for my PC today just to make me feel better, Photoshop, Illustrator, .NET, Dreamweaver, Flash etc don't go that well under XP with 256mb RAM (though its not as bad as you would think).

P.S I edited my original post as I know I probably went to far with it.

 

[Hex Spurt]

LMAO at A'Trade (no offense mate) . You really crack me up sometimes :green: I think Granada should come make a Reality TV program about you. That would be so funny 'cause you don't half get your undies in a knot about small stuff. It'd be like Frank Spencer for the 21st Century.

Julian was on the right track here

Originally posted by Julian2002
men and women, by dint of evolution are suited to different tasks.

Blokes like to fix the problem, but women like to talk about the problem first. A lot.

She gave you a big clue here...

Originally posted by amazingtrade
She was constantly going on at me that her PC was slow

You are :banghead: with this girl because you are trying to do the bloke thing when she's not ready for a solution; she wants to talk about the problem with someone. I'm afraid there's more bad news ahead for you too...

If she picked you out specifically then there's a good chance that she views you as more "femine" and non-threatening than the other blokes around. On this basis, your relationship with her is unlikely to ever progress further than friendship.

The girl has obviously had a deep emotional effect on you. This is the second time you've bared your soul about the way she has made you feel. You'll end up carrying a torch for this girl if you aren't careful.

 

[amazingtrade]

I think you are very right I know nothing will probably happen between us but I still think about her lot which is why this thing wound me up so much. With most people I would not care and just have the suit yourself attitude with them but for some reason things really get to me with this girl. Its probably party she feels she can confide in my because I am online a lot so maybe I am being taken for granted. Oh well I will be online less on MSN from now on.

Sorry if this is all a bit deep for a HIFI forum! Its just good to talk with other techies.

 

[nsherin]

Originally posted by PBirkett
Experience counts for a lot

Agree with that, mate. Having just graduated from university, I can tell you straight, that the course covered virtually nothing when it comes to IT support. My knowledge of PC support is based from building/upgrading/repairing/troubleshooting PCs for the last 10 years or so.

I started my own freelance PC support business at 16, was systems administrator/desktop support techie for the school I went to and have worked for a number of small companies and individuals - to gain experience (and earn some dosh).

Unfortunately, the narrow-mindedness of the majority of large organisations seems to consist of taking into account what qualifcations you have and not the experience you've got. I'm in a dilemma at the moment, where I'm in a job doing mainly database administration and want to get back into PC/Server support, as I feel my skills are wasted and having now got that bloody certificate, I'd like to get more experience under my belt.

That's not to say that all students at uni don't have the experience - I knew several that did - and they did prove it with their skills and knowledge. I found gaining the knowledge through on-the-job (no pun intended ) experience, far easier than classroom-based theory, which is probably why I struggled with uni and really wished I'd just worked my way up the ranks with a steady IT support job.

We've got a few women in IT at work who are very switched on and definately know their stuff, so I think both can be good with IT (they're not bad looking, either, which is a bonus - a pity they're taken ). . It's more a case of having an interest and the knowledge and that applies to both sexes.

Oh and PC World - the less said about them, the better. When I went in to 'enquire' - i.e. test their knowledge once, they claimed the best way to upgrade a hard drive was to just copy the files over. They were adiment that Ghost or DriveImage weren't needed. To do the job simply and successfully, I know what I'd use......

 

[amazingtrade]

I think a bit of both is needed the problem with the purely practical approach is some times vital theory is missed out which will make doing the practical stuff much easier. My universiy tends to teach you all the theory first then do the practical stuff. For example programming modules we have to design somthing on a given design breif so all the experience is valid. I am hoping to do a sandwhich year so I have that experience I just need to find the right company where I can offer my skills which is basicaly delivering multimedia products via the web such as video/sound streaming etc. It this area where I want to setup my own company when I graduate (and yes I will employ women and none graduates if they have the experince).

I am going to make an ASP driven Online CV tomorrow (We are not doing PHP till after christmas).

I think what uni has been good for with me is getting rid of all my old bad pracitices. Before I start uni I would not think twice of using goto in programming. Now I just pretend goto dosn't exist and use the alternatives such as subroutines and to some extend do while loops.

All I know is that I have a lot more confidence now than I ever have done before.

A good trick with PCWORLD is to ask what chipset the motherboard uses on a particular computer, its so funny here to salemen avoiding the question "it has a cd writer".

 

[nsherin]

Agree that a good balance is needed. Perhaps I found the practical side of things easier and it was down to delivery by the university, plus the fact I find theory difficult at times.

Probably also down to the course to some extent - it focused heavily on Systems Analysis and Design and a few business orientated modules - it was a Business Information Systems Course. But, as I'm weak in maths/programming, Computer Science definately wasn't for me either!

Would have loved to get into multimedia, but I'd guess an arty side is needed. I've had a passion for sound/vision since the age of about two and this is definately reflected by my love of music, photography and hifi! I'm crap at graphis and web design though!

A good point that Uni does get rid of those bad practises in programming. However, when I started again at uni (programming in ADA95, back in 1998), it was around 7 years or more since I'd touched BASIC, so probably didn't do me much good. But for budding programmers,. it certainly sets them in good stead!

VB programming was fun (especially UI design). I have to maintain a few Access databases at work and I've been complimented a few times on how I build UIs for ease of use! The task-orientated attitude is definately the way to go - take into account much of the software today (WinXP is a prime example) and they focus much more on the bells and whistles. Designing a UI that is both easy to use and task orientated, without the crap isn't that hard!

I hope you manage to find a placement that offers you what you are looking for and ultimately manage to get your business off the ground. The IT sector at the moment is worrying and it's times like these when I really regret doing IT. The increased method of outsourcing (even down to the level of your callcentre) doesn't inspire confidence either.

I've considered a few times about going out on my own and doing IT support, but the comfort of that regular paycheque into the bank each month and the risk always makes me think twice. Still do freelance support work though, which pays for the tunes, toys and more beer

I must be a different kettle of fish though - it's work that has made me more confident!

Ah - just to get this one off my chest! Whilst on the subject of girls - has anyone noticed how they can get completely offhand/grouchy/not in the mood/distant when they are tired?

 

[Rory]

Originally posted by nsherin


Ah - just to get this one off my chest! Whilst on the subject of girls - has anyone noticed how they can get completely offhand/grouchy/not in the mood/distant when they are tired?

don't we all
girls are just like us, human beings, believe it or not. just see things from their perspective and you won't go far wrong (says he whos been single for 3 months :banghead:

 

[amazingtrade]

I think all people are like that when tired. I was tired when I made this stupid post.

Conclusion to this story is that the girl actually has a brain and when I explained the concepted of RAM, hard drives and virtual memory she believed so she now believes me over her mother.

 

[MO!]

Originally posted by amazingtrade
she now believes me over her mother.

WHO's YA DADDY!!!!!

LMAO at A'Trade (no offense mate) . You really crack me up sometimes I think Granada should come make a Reality TV program about you. That would be so funny 'cause you don't half get your undies in a knot about small stuff. It'd be like Frank Spencer for the 21st Century.

LOL!

BTW I run XP Pro on a 450Mhz 192MB With a 6GB Hard drive. Am I due to explode? Not had any problems since switching to XP. I have AutoCAD 2000 running pretty much constantly (which i'm assuming is pretty meMOry hungry).

 

[amazingtrade]

Try running it on 128MB RAM though, I have 256mb RAM and that seems plenty of all the latest Macromedia/Above stuff but thats twice as much as 128mb. The basic XP operating uses almost 128MB RAM when thinks like I.E are loaded so when you start using MSN, word, media player etc it needs morre RAM.

I have a 1.6Ghz AMD Althlon 2000+ which is pretty quick as I don't play any games these days.

 

[PBirkett]

I can get XP running on 128Mb machines very acceptably. You just have to know how to set it up properly

 

[amazingtrade]

Does that include running the dodgy version of kazza and a million TSR programs?

 

[PBirkett]

No because thats not what I'd call setting up a machine properly.

 

[amazingtrade]

aha ok I will let you off . Well this girl has all them TSR's and all sorts of crap and claims she needs them which is why 128MB isn't enough. I think after 256MB though you don't notice much improvement at all.

My mum asked me to put XP on her machine but I refused unless she upgrades to 256mb. She downloads all these dodgy screen savers and god knows what spyware.

 

[domfjbrown]

Originally posted by Rory
don't we all
girls are just like us, human beings, believe it or not. just see things from their perspective and you won't go far wrong (says he whos been single for 3 months :banghead:

3 months is nothing dude. You should be enjoying it anyway - the old ball and chain thing sucks if you ask me...

That aside, would an Athlon 750 with 256mb and 32mb graphics run XP reasonably? Bearing in mind win98's install is f***ed on it and I don't want to a) reinstall that and b) spend a lot of money (barring a soundcard and modem since the shoddy combi card HP put in it doesn't have XP driver support) am I likely to NEED to upgrade the mobo etc - I don't play games on it and want to get a stable platform to get some computer music sorted....

 

[amazingtrade]

That aside, would an Athlon 750 with 256mb and 32mb graphics run XP reasonably?

I had no problems with my old Duron 1Ghz and 256MB RAM. I have a 32MB graphics card too. I would say it will be fine unless you want to run the latest version of photoshop etc.