OT: New definition of a job required, beyond PC support ... On-call PC operator :-(

[SteveH]

Yup, give me a PC full of malware or with some broken drivers any day :-)

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian C saying something like:

That's the problem. With universal access to cheap PCs it's become painfully obvious over the past decade especially that some people are too stupid to use a computer. I don't mean they are necessarily stupid people, it's more of a technophobia that set in years ago and they just don't have (never developed) the slightest ability to do anything technical.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "ARWadsworth" saying something like:

"Fuck off, I'm busy" has been heard to emanate from me, occasionally.

[Dave]

The number of times my wife has asked me how to attach something...

Dave

[Victor Meldrew]

Actually that's crap.

My partner had no idea how to do anything computer related but is a very intelligent person.

Once explained she worked out most things out for herself.

I think this idea is mostly a myth exploited by inadequate male geeks.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Victor Meldrew saying something like:

Read what I wrote. Obviously, comprehension is not your strength.

[djc]

'past decade'? Yes, it has got worse since the internet became a mass market. But things were pretty bad two decades ago when desktop PCs replaced typewriters, and I don't recall the typical data entry clerk being too bright anytime in the last three decades.

[Bruce]

Overall educational standards may not have dropped so much, but there is no doubt that they haven't kept pace with changes in IT. Not by a long way. There is now a dearth of unskilled jobs and even the most junior customer service roles require a level of competence in IT that is way beyond the abilities of many of the British people in those jobs.

That's partly why the Eastern European influx (mainly from Poland) has been a boon to employers. I doubt that recent Polish immigrants are representative of Polish society as a whole, but they are far better educated, far more able and speak far better English than the average young British person behind the counter.

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Stuart Noble writes

Thus spake the optimist.