Newbies

[Huge]

I subscribe to a number of techie newsgroups and am continually amused by the steady stream of postings along the lines of;

I need to do {really complicated thing that will take an experienced practicioner some time}. Can someone help me? Don't these people ever think about what it is they are asking? Are they genuinely that dumb?

[The Natural Philosopher]

The ones I see are more like this

i want to mak a jet engin i know it cant be hard because my teecher says i have a very hi intelligence and nothing is too hard reely because if one man can do it so cun anuther i have this old turbocharga off a car an i understand that will work for the main bit, but how do i make the think burn jet fyul and wher can i get sum

followed by:

i think it reely mean of you my spelling and inglish are fine and no one needs full stops and stuf my teecaha sez thats not nessessary and i am not a dumass teenager i am 27 and have a digri in aeronoughtics i thort you people were supposed to know stuf anyway you must be a sick bunch of loosers if you cant answer a simple questjun.

[dom]

If you did tell them, would it be assisted suicide?

[John Rumm]

Often just a total lack of conception of the depth of the problem they are trying to solve.