The Left Side of Normal Airplanes, The Internet, and Everything Else

As someone who works in the IT field, especially working on networks, servers, and building software, I have a lot more understanding of how computers and the Internet work than your average person.  Occasionally I'll be finding myself in a discussion or on a support call trying to help someone and have to actively try to understand what the user is thinking, the sense of panic, blame, or flat out lack of understanding they have about what they are doing.  For the problems that come up over and over again I sort of know what to expect and have built up good ways of explaining the issue or providing instructions.  I had a support ticket today from someone who thought their bulk e-mail template was broken.  Among technology people, it's well known that most modern e-mail programs will not load images used in an e-mail unless the recipient specifically selects to view them or has the sender in their address book (among other things).  This person wasn't aware of that and just assumed that when they send their e-mail out, it will all show up perfectly without any other action required by the recipient.  After explaining this, I think they understand, but of course they have the same questions that everyone else does when they first hear about this (namely, is there any way to force the images to load automatically; the answer is no).  Unfortunately, many people that are put in charge of managing websites, online marketing, or other areas requiring technical knowledge, they have none, or very little.  It's an extreme example, but recently when Google featured a Pac-Man game on its home page, a lot of people didn't know how to react or what to do.  In many of these situations, troubleshooting requires feedback from the user, but in many cases they don't even know where to look on the screen to find the information we need, or are unable to follow basic instructions or answer basic questions about their computer (such as what web browser they're using, or even what a web browser is).  In these situations, a support call can go from bad to worse in a matter of seconds.  Tempers flare, the user gets frustrated, and the support tech simply can't help them without answers to some questions.  I've found that in these situations, it's best to simply use a remote access tool such as Fog Creek Copilot and actually see what the user is seeing on their screen.  If an interactive session isn't possible, a basic screen capture can also go a long way toward understanding what the user is experiencing.  As the adage goes, "seek first to understand..."  Understanding the point of view is invaluable in solving problems, especially when the user doesn't have any understanding of what is being asked of them.

I'm lost for words.  Photo from the Boston.com "Big Picture" photo blog with a few photos from the Louisana shoreline in the midst of the BP oil spill.  I'm going to give my ducks a hug when I get home.

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

I saw a story on Slashdot this morning about a school using fingerprints to check out books at the school library.  Of course, privacy advocates are up in arms, though they likely do not understand what the system is doing.  It's not like the students are dipping their fingers in ink and leaving a physical fingerprint on a card every time they check out a book.  Instead, the fingerprint readers convert the fingerprint into a string of characters which represents the fingerprint.  Essentially, parts of the fingerprint are used as markers to generate a one-way "hash" of the fingerprint which the computers can use to identify the student.  Nothing more.  It's the same as presenting a library card, except that you no longer need the card, and nobody can steal it and pretend to be you when they take out books.  I'm all for privacy, but this doesn't worry me.

Actually, it reminds me of a system I worked on at Annex a decade ago where a school would install a fingerprint reader outside the door of each classroom.  As students entered the class, they would "check in" using the fingerprint reader.  On the teacher's computer, a list (with photos) of those students who hadn't checked in would appear on their screen.  They could verify that those students weren't there and continue with class.  The premise was that teachers have a very limited amount of class time, and part of it was getting sucked up by having to take attendance multiple times per day.  By using biometrics to let the students check themselves in, it would save X minutes per day, 5X minutes per week, 20X minutes per month, and so on, which would be "recovered" time that the teachers could use to teach more.  That system had a variety of problems of its own (cost, privacy concerns, unreliable scanners, etc.) and it never made it off the ground from what I recall.  The internal system was web-based and we were building some of the user interface components.  The project just sort of vanished off the list of active projects one day and I never heard anything about it again.

It would seem that some people will still scream bloody murder when biometrics and schools are mentioned in the same sentence though.