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- Couldn't be bothered to start yet another social network profile. I'm getting tired.
- I'm connected to everyone I want to be connected to via other means. I mean, how many times are we all gonna 'add each other'??
- I remember signing in once, it wouldn't let me sign up as dekrazee1
But that's my name!! - Did I mention I didn't want to be part of yet another social network?
- I didn't want to get my different lives mixed. Sounds silly I know, but it's how my life is. Twitter is mainly professional, Friendster (which I don't really use) is for my friends, Trillian for people from my past, Skype for people from my present. E-mail for everyone.
Okay, so I finally bit the bullet and joined Facebook. I'm famous for proclaiming 'I'm not on Facebook!'. Now I'll have to think of another tagline. Bummer
Why I was avoiding facebook -
- I got ticked off that it wouldn't accept Rai as a name. I mean, what happens to people who really only have one word for a name??
Let me explain -
All my online people know me as dekrazee1.
A subset of that know me as Rai
Taking ALL the people in my life, majority know me as Rai, slighty less than that know I'm also dekrazee1, even fewer know that Rai isn't my first name, a handful know my first name, and mainly family members and friends know me only as my pet/home name. It doesn't make sense for me to put my first name in Facebook. Probably 5 (depending on who else I find on it) know it! (I had a nice Venn diagram drawn up to illustrate, but my comp ate it.) - Set up was well done, but I found it a pain. So many things to fill in, so many steps. C'mon.... how much does it take to prove I'm a human?
- Not easy to find friends. I couldn't find a place where I could just put names in and search. They require e-mail addresses. How am I to know who uses which address of the many that everyone has these days?
- Adding friends is a pain. You've gotta type in stupid unreadable words twice!
- After a day I realised that you need to validate the account (AGAIN) via phone to not have to type in those words. I don't want to!! dek = not happy
- I signed up last night. Logged in this morning, and had a gazillion things people invited me to. Werewolf, vampire, slayer stuff. *GROAN*
- The UI (I think that's what it's called) is slick. Nice, very nice. Except I couldn't find the join this group link for ages.
- I started a group, and set it to Australia. I think because of that, some people (who are affiliated) can't join. (ffs!)
- Within 2 hrs of joining, my e-mail was flooded with e-mails from FB
Upon joining, initial thoughts:
Back to the UI. It's excellent. Setting all the things that irk me aside, it really is a pleasure to use. I can't think of anything else like it. That's a good piece of design, and credit where it's due - Well Done.
It's exactly what I want from banking website, govt sites etc. Those suck big time
Personal dislike - the initial profile fields I had to fill in:
Networks: Australia
Sex: Female
Hometown: Singapore
Political Views: Other
Religious Views: unfound
So that's my identity as a person? That's it? The cultural studies part of me was repulsed, but it wouldn't let me go on without answering those (if I remember correctly)
Sounds hideous on multiple levels, and good on several levels.
I'll be continuing to avoid it and similar sites 
Good on ya!!
I can't even find a pic of myself to use there! hahaha
but, but ...
will you be my friend?
Mais oui!! If I ever find you...
I'm not sure who I am on it... I did sign up but I haven't been active... I'll have to check any email I get through it might be going directly to the virtual dust bin....
I saw someone with the same name as you, but the person's located in Aust
Found you.... sent a be my friend request....
Mick mention a long time ago that he has a friend (or it might have been just an acquaintance) with the same name as me... No relation as far as I know but there are a few hardy Souls spread throughout the world.
Hurrah... Dek's my friend! 
hehehehe
Yeah, I think I saw that person in either Mick or Marty's profile.
Welcome aboard
Bricoleur, I'm quite a good friend of your Australian namesake
Now the challenge to find Dek begins....
@Ali - Look for Pratibha Rai, with the pic same as this avatar
@Nathanael Fanks!
LOL @ ^!!
hehehehe
I lurrrve xkcd
Me 2.
HEHEHEHEH
Love that humor.
Hey, what is that cartoon, where did it come from??
It's called xkcd, and it's brilliant!! Gotta have that in your feed!
I wish people had more respect for those of us with 1337 regexp hax0ring skills ... we are worthy of respect! We can build entire clean databases from nothing from a heap of rubbish. We can move jumbo jets with a single hand.
Our tagline: There is not much we can't do
You can't make others understand a word of what you're saying
Ignorant Person: So, what do you do for a living?
IgnorantPerson becomes OhDearIRegretAskingThatIn2MinutesPerson
(which we'll call Person A from now on)
PersonB: I write stuff like [a-zA-Z0-9\*]\s*(a-z\-)*\s*&
Person A: *cries*
Person B: Oh it's quite simply really; basically we're searching for any alphanumeric character - for which I could have used \S or ...
Person A: *runs off, still crying*
ROFL!
More like -
IgnorantPerson becomes EyesGlazedOverNoddingEarnestlyPerson
Everyone in a geeky profession should know that their job title is "works with computers" unless they're talking to someone who is also in a geeky profession.
This does mean that the person asking won't really go away knowing what you do for a living, but they didn't really care - most likely this was an ice-breaker/conversation opener. The unfortunate result is when they then ask if you can help with something completely unrelated to your actual job, except by the fact that they both involve a computer (database admin being asked to take a look at a PC that won't boot, or a programmer being asked advice on printers)
The geeky person may well know this stuff.. but it's not their job to and it could be awkward if they don't
I know a little of everything, but I'm not really a pro at anything yet...
Anyway - GEEKYNESS FTW!
Well in my case I usually just say "I do websites" or "I design websites" (or using the pre-1999 terminology "I build web pages")
Rather than: I'm a web user interface and user experience designer (with interaction design being a subset of UX) for the Government ... but I'm not a graphic designer (eeewww, lame
Graphic designer: O_o look at me pretty icons I did. I have no idea what to do with them to get them up on the intarnetz but they look nice in ImageReady!
Me: You suck ... /g33kslap
Heh... even people who work with computers don't get what I do.
I tend to just say where I work and describe that rather than what exactly I do
Super-King you are scarily correct. This is exactly what happens when people in my family are talking to each other about what I do. For years I got 'she's studying IT' followed by blank looks then a helpful 'she works with computers' explanation and then said person looked satisfied.
Unfortunately for me, that usually leads to me being the go-to person for my family and extended family's tech support needs. I'm a researcher/analyst/consultant/budding project manager and I have about as much clue about your printer problem as you do
.... the difference is that I'm willing to go and read up on the problem in order to learn how to fix it and they aren't.
Yeah, I used to be the person asking for help. It's not for a lack of initiatives. Really. It's a fear of technology and a lack of knowledge that were my reasons for not trying to fix a comp myself. I mean, c'mon, we all had comps put in front of us, and we were suddenly supposed to know how to use em and then maintain them and fix them too?
It is really overwhelming...
And guess what? My parents and most of my friends have no idea what I studied and what I do. My dad asked me a few months ago - so how are your classes?
I said - what classes?
He said - your uni classes
I said - I graduated last year remember?
He said - Oh! So no more classes for you?
*groan*
oh no Dek, that's pretty bad.
You win because you want to learn though, I've had so many who are content to know nothing about computers and have me learn on their behalf.
But that's the thing.... I myself didn't start learning until I started working for Tangler, and people gradually stopped wanting to help.
IMO there are few comp people who are willing to sit down and tell you what you need to know. All of a sudden everyone's answer to a question is Google. There's a reason I didn't use Google... I didn't trust it! (Still don't to an extent)
Very fair call, it's difficult to find people who can explain things without leaving you feeling like an idiot for even asking. Google is good for general info but I find asking people for more specific resources to be more useful and credible.
I kind of started learning when I was doing my degree, also having friends and a partner (at the time) who knew a lot about it and were somewhat willing to explain things helped.
Yeah.... Just having someone who makes it all less scary is a big help.
I equate using a comp to driving. You gotta build up confidence
I'm gonna slap the next person who asks me for help with their printer; there's a reason I had a semi-career change at the age of 17 away from desktop support
I'm not in IT - but i like to problem solve so I'll read up and try to work things out. I can pretty much fix stuff that needs to be fixed in the office - like the printer, laminating machine and computers hanging. Unfortunately that has created the the misplaced notion that I'm miss IT-Fix it!!! Now I'm expected to resolved software issues. Like Real!!! I dun even know how to read a program!!!
pfft.... printers are easy!
If nothing else works, a few slaps brings any printer back into life!
there are easy - that's why I can do it!!! 
Laminators are easy too - just very greasy!!! So i'm a manual fixer upper!
LOL!
Meanwhile, I probably should mention that I plan to address this divide between the comp and the not-comp users soon. I think as someone straddling the two, I could do something to help
oh yeah, add one more to the 'printer query = free slaps' club
I think when you're involved in something pretty deeply it can be hard to understand how anybody could *not* be. Thus it becomes to find a way to explain something on a basic level.
Yeah, I completely understand that. Takes a lot of patience.
I can see how it's frustrating for comp-literate people. I wonder if most of them understand how frustrating it is for the other side.
I guess what I'm concerned about is the tinge of disdain I hear all the time when a comp-literate person talks about someone with a lack of comp knowledge... It ranges from 'I can't believe they don't know that' to 'I know it, you don't, Oh, I'm a superior human being'
I'm not saying that they don't help.... but I'd like to not be made to feel like a complete imbecile when someone is fielding my query
(right about now I'm wishing we had the ability to split topics)
Isn't that what GoTG was all about?
I guess so...
Not sure really
I guess what I'm concerned about is the tinge of disdain I hear all the time when a comp-literate person talks about someone with a lack of comp knowledge... It ranges from 'I can't believe they don't know that' to 'I know it, you don't, Oh, I'm a superior human being'
What about the computer illiterate people who look down on the "computer nerds", who make everything work, in a "don't know why you'd waste time bothering to learn to do that" kind of way. The ones who have a problem, want it fixed now (if not sooner) and will get pissed off if it isn't, don't care to learn to fix anything themselves, or even to respect the fact that they're being helped and ought to be grateful.
Basically your standard bullish luddite who resents the fact that "computers are hard" and that they are now required to have some semblance of a clue when placed in front of one, because that's what their job involves.
I don't look down on people who are willing to learn a few simple things themselves (anything along the lines of "hey, how'd you do that, maybe I can do it next time that breaks" scores a lot of points, so long as it's genuine). I don't look down on people who are clueless around computers but nice about it (the one's who don't blame you for stuff breaking, and will be nice to you when you fix it). But the people who will look down on me for being tied into the big computerised conspiracy to frustrate and annoy them... them I look down on.
You're right that a good support person should have some people skills and not make you feel like an idiot, but with the volume of stupid they have to deal with each day it has to be hard to not become a little bitter about it.
Good point there SK. However, IT support people are no different from anyone else and they wouldn't be needed if IT was simple. You may be able to administer the most complex systems in the world but that doesn't give you the skills required to justify it's existence. The IT Director is under pressure to provide business systems and applications that the Sales, Marketing, Manufacturing and Delivery Directors can use to keep their people running efficiently and therefore keep the Managing Director (and hence shareholders) happy with overall business performance and therefore justify the existence of the complex IT systems.
Imagine being in IT support at 4am and being hassled by someone from the sales office who hasn't got the slightest idea as to why he needs to click on this or that before he can access the high quality printer to print a proposal document for some widget arm that has taken weeks to put together and has to be delivered that morning. He's working late because the last crucial bit of information for the proposal arrived from the factory in China at 1pm the previous day. However, the IT people had just put in a new "state of the art" email filter which picked up the fact that the email from China included a drawing in JPG format and quarantined it but, because the roll-out of the filter was taking longer than expected it didn't alert the recipient who then had to spend hours chasing down the people in China for the missing email and eventually re-emailed the file at 2am. By now the quarantine alert was working and notification arrived. After an hour and a half trying to convince the help desk that the SLA of 4 working hours to release the email wasn't appropriate he then got the file, updated the proposal and then tried to print it.
That is generally why the so-called numpties of this world treat IT support with utter disdain.
Being any kind of 'help desk' isn't easy.... trust me, I know.
It does take a lot sometimes to keep your cool and give them the information they need, and not think 'how do you not know that?' or 'If you'd just click around you'd figure it out!'
But it goes back to the earlier point I made about people not using initiative cos of fear
I'm glad that I rarely encounter that fix-it-faster attitude, although my family can get ennoyed way too easily sometimes when I'm helping them.
It's good to know something about everything, because then you can usually figure out what's wrong in most of the cases when people ask you for help so that you at least know what to google for when trying to fix it.
I always try to show people how to fix it while explaining, so that they might be able to fix it themselves the next time.
Yeah, that's a good approach.
People who don't like being helpful, or have a low irritation threshold, aren't really suited to help desks.
Unfortunately, a lot of the best techies aren't what you'd describe as people-lovers, so a lot of the time you end up with either a belligerent super-geek, or a clueless but nice help-person with a script to read from. Either of which can be useful, depending on you and your issue (for a complex issue, you want the super-geek, but it won't help matters if you're also an abrasive personality.)
I'm something in the between of he two "extremes" that you describe.
I have a tendency to be able to fix almost everything that I really wants to fix, but it rarely takes 5 minutes and I usually have to google around a bit (so sometimes you could probably say that I didn't fix everything myself - but then I at least knows what to do the next time!).
I always try my best to do what I can when I help people.
But then again, there's always those times when we need help ourselves and we discover that we acts just like that person last week that asked you for help and that made you go nuts...
LOL!
Never know when the tables turn eh?
This applies to comps too:
Okay.... Need your collective help with my name change thing.
It still irks me to have my full name up on FB. It's just causing waaaay too much confusion, and I'm sick of having to constantly explain to people who I am.
I'm trying to think of a work-around - something to replace my first name. But it can't be nonsensical, cos the point of it is to avoid confusion.
I'm thinking of changing it to Ms Rai, but they might disapprove that. Anyone got any better ideas?
Why not make it Misrai? It says what you were thinking you'd like to call yourself but it's presented as a whole name which probably fits your ethnicity (although I haven't got the faintest idea what Misrai as a phonetic might translate to).
Has to be two words cos the idiots require a first and last name.
I've seen ppl get around it by making a first name up. But the point of this exercise it to reduce confusion....
I guess I could go Mis Rai?
dek razee1
Can't have numbers... i tried that too
If I remember correctly, I also tried dek razeeone
Honestly, their name policy irks me till no end....
I met someone who has one name on his FB, and he said that he had to PROVE to them with OFFICIAL documents it was his real name.
Unbelievable. Who do they think they are?!
Try Noname Rai...
hahahahaha
That's an idea!
"Thisisnotmyfirstname Rai"
I have people on my friends list with 2, 3, 4, even 5 names. Why not use you real name and then put dek, or your other common names around it somehow.
Cos the point of contention is that few know my full real name.... I've been introducing myself as Rai for well over 20 years now!
*thinks*
Why not an initial?
hmm..they probably wouldn't allow that though...
Yep, you got that right....
Them silly people don't allow that either
&^@^%@&*# ^@*^%$@^&%#!!!!
What about "rai rai"?
One question - is rai pronounced like ray or like rye?
Or some other pronunciation I hadn't considered?
You got it - 'rai as in rye bread' is how I usually introduce myself in person.
It's amazing how much grief a 3 letter name causes me
Just submitted a change name request to FB. Wonder if they'll disable my account because of it.
Oh, and I went for Mis Rai
I'd been mentally pronouncing it as rye, then realised I didn't know
WHOA!
You be one of the rare ones!
Just as I decided it was time for me to depart FB, you decide to join. sigh.
hehehe Don't you dare bail on me!!
hey dek! i know i'm not a part of this forum, but i saw this and just couldn't resist:
HAHAHAHAHA
That's hilarious!!
And thanks for dropping by bluegirl.
You're more than welcome anytime!
