I was calling to sign up with a new DSL provider. When the guy asked what operating system I was using, I said, “Linux.” I was put on hold for five minutes, and then a supervisor came back and told me, “You can’t use Linux to connect to the Internet. It’s a hacker tool, anyway.” I almost fell out of my chair.
- Friend: “I heard about this thing called ‘Linux’.”
- Me: “Oh, I use Linux.”
- Friend: “What is it?”
- Me: “An operating system.”
- Friend: “Like Firefox?”
I saw two older looking ladies trying to figure out the computers at a local store. I knew one of them would say something that I could send to Computer Stupidities, so I tried to listen in.
- Woman 1: “What is that little trash can on the screen?”
- Woman 2: “My son says that is call the ‘recycle bin’. He tells me when I don’t want a Word document anymore and I delete it, it really goes in there.”
- Woman 1: “Why in the recycle thingy? Can’t you just erase it?”
- Woman 2: “Oh no, Word wouldn’t work for very long if I did that, I would run out of blank pages.”
- Woman 1: “Why?”
- Woman 2: “Because it cleans the words off the pages, then sends the blank sheets back to Word so they can be used again. That’s why it’s called the recycle bin.”
