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One day in the computer store...

T

Terry Yager

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Joined
May 1, 2003
Messages
8,763
Location
Saginaw, MI, USA 48601
A few years back, I was hanging out in my favorite computer store. I used to lend a hand there by chatting up the customers, answering thier questions, etc. while Mark (my friend, the store owner) was busy with another customer. (Gotta keep 'em interested, y'know). I went over to a guy who was browsing around, and struck up a conversation, during which he assured me that he knew all about computers. He even had one at home, an Amiga that he used mostly for playing games, but he was interested in getting a new computer to play newer games on. I pointed him to a shelf of computers that I thought would make suitable gaming machines, then stepped back to let him to browse. He was checking out a certain system, reading the little card taped to it with all the specs printed on it, when he turned to me with a question.

Customer: "How many mags does it have?"
Me: "I'm sorry, do you mean how many megs of RAM?"
Customer: "No, how many mags?"
Me: "Oh, oh, you mean the hard drive? How big is it?"
Customer: "No, how many mags does it have?"
Me: "Oh, megahertz! You want to know it's speed?"
Customer: "No, I just want to know how many mags are in it?"
Me: "Oh...four mags and a four-on-the-floor." (I couldn't resist any longer).
Customer: "Huh...?" (He didn't get it).
Me: "Yeah, four mags and a four-on-the-floor."
Customer: "Oh, four mags?" (Still clueless...).
Me: "Yep. And little fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror."
Customer: "Whaaa...?"
Me: "Maaarrrrk...!"

(True story, really happened to me).

--T
 
Also in the computer store...

A favorite question of mine, asked by many customers:

Customer: "Can you get the Internet in this?"
Me: "No, the Internet is much too large to fit in a box this size."

--T
 
Probably the guy wanted to know how many magazines were dedicated to this particular computer, so he could learn something and get support from a community. Maybe not the first question one asks, but buying something odd which has little support and user base can turn into a dead end if you are not able to program yourself all the software you would like to have.

I remember when my big brother bought his first VIC-20 and had been promised an instruction book/manual. When he didn't get one for free, our mother became upset and threatened the reseller so much that he had to go to the sister computer shop and fetch a book, since he didn't have one in store himself.
 
It reminds me of something I read in a computer magazine. Clas, the editor, had been in the business for many years, back to the day of the adventure game The Hobbit (1984 or so).

One day, the telephone had rung on the editorial office. Clas answered with a cheerful "Hi!" and was greeted with a thundering voice:

-"What shall I do with the ring?!"

Clas thought it was odd that someone calling the office didn't say their name or why they called. He had no real clue whether this man was talking about car engines, wedding rehearsal or computer games, but since The Hobbit was on everybody's lips, he gave him a solution how to use the ring in the game. When he was finished, the other party just hang up without even saying thanks.

This man only asked one question, never told who he was or if his question was properly answered. Clas thus remembered him as the strange guy who asked about the ring...
 
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