Well, to be fair, I'm also not very well versed in the intricacies of connecting with British nobility.

One day I'll catch that jerk Peer! So rude, always closing my connections!

More than once I had trouble calls about an "error message" that basically said "everything is fine, click ok to proceed"

In the admins defense. "Closed by peer" can indicate everything from a safe closure to an unsafe closure to a server connection terminating which causes the peer to terminate.

Like that's a fair point of confusion.

What bugs me is when the error says something stupid specific and obvious such as JavaScript heap out of memory or dd: error writing *pathname*: No space left on device

You can just do Ctrl+C on a Windows error message btw if that's what you're talking about. Yes, just press Ctrl+C while the window is in focus.

THIS. The people who actually read the error messages aren't going to stop there, they're going to look up said error message, find a solution on their own, and continue with their day without having to interact with another human.

Are these laptops provided by the faculty?

In any case I do not mind so much the "I should try to fix this on my own first". If it's your own device and accept the risks/consequences. But if it is a work/university provided laptop then it makes no sense to attempt to fix it on one's own.

I can feel your pain trying to fix/repair something you have to figure out what kind of stupid stuff was done to the device.

I'm more surprised that your school doesn't go by the "Wipe and reimage" policy. Most every school now uses some form of cloud service. No reason to spend time troubleshooting when you can just do a stock image and have the student sign in again

but the faculty leaders insist, against empirical evidence, that they’re smart enough.

To be fair, you're only seeing the dumb ones.

If that user-installed RAM stick had worked, they wouldn't have come to you about it.

If they had installed their dual boot Ubuntu setup correctly, they wouldn't come to you about it.

Presumably, there are a lot of smart students out there fucking with their laptops without breaking them, which you never know about because they never bring those laptops to you to fix. And locking down the computers would prevent those smart students from being able to do the things they want.

I guess you get good at Unix and refrigerator by reading it, so why not?

It's Read The Fucking Manual not Fuck The Reading Manual

Lol no, the most writing I do is comments on Lemmy

My VIC-20 and Commodore 64 came with pinout charts. Every single internal and external connector was labelled.

It's been about 15 years since I did appliance servicing. But back then many of the dryers would still include a circuit diagram with wire color codes and a timing chart for the controller. But the fancier appliances that had digital control boards, touch panels, etc... Like LG and Samsung didn't include crap unless you paid for their service portals. But, what they had behind the pay wall was often fairly detailed with tear down instructions and even full details of circuit boards including each pinout and often even flow charts for diagnostic steps making diagnostics almost dummy proof.

LG would even put on training and we'd get full inch to inch and a half booklets full of service details for a line of their products.

I still would never buy an LG appliance though. There was a reason they had to provide so many service details. Their appliances might have some fancy cushy innovations. But what good are these fancy features when your fridge doesn't cool?

You are talking about a manual that explains how to make your washing machine wash. That is important, yes, but I am talking about a manual that explains how an appliance works.

Many appliances have service manuals and wiring diagrams hidden inside their cover plates somewhere, even today.

I agree with the fact that there are not thorough diagrams with part numbers and wirijg diagrams like there used to be. A part of it is the fault of the manufacturer, and a part of it is just the way things are made now. Circuit boards are not as simple as they once were to include comprehensive wiring diagrams. They could absolutely break the modules into different boards and label the boards with different part numbers, so rather than replacing a resistor you'd just have to replace that board. It's also not clear to me how many people actually have a comprehensive understanding of the item being sold.

But there is the obvious fact that companies want you to buy another one and not repair it. It's often cheaper for them to not repair the product themselves, and just replace the entire unit. They dont keep a surplus of parts for repairs, nor do they want to spend the man power troubleshooting and fixing the issue. It's just cheaper to replace it entirely. If they themselves will just replace rather than repair why would they bother keeping detailed documentation. If anyone cared for the enviornment more than money, they'd probably do it. But we all know how that goes.

I would also add that even previously they were prioritizing money. It was just cheaper for them to make it repairable, especially if they are going to offer some sort of warranty. It was also good for business since it made customers happy. I think at some point it became cheaper to do it the way we do now

It's not a terrible idea. ChatGPT is great at summarizing info, especially stuff you'd use manuals for. I make sure to ask it where certain info came from (so I can try to verify) OR having it explain its approach so I get it in the future.

Ah, yeah, forgot that was another one I've done. It seems like I've taken apart most of my household appliances at this point.

It's more likely than you'd think!

(Most new appliances come with warranties. And if the appliance breaks under warranty, the company will need to pay to send a technician to fix it. The technician may or may not be familiar with that exact appliance. Now, which would be more cost-effective for the company? A: Pay the technician's hourly rate while he spends time trying to look up the manual and the wiring diagram for this exact version and this exact revision of this exact appliance. B: Include a printed manual and wiring diagram inside the appliance's cover that the technician can quickly and efficiently locate. The company often decides Option B is more cost-effective, so they include a manual hidden inside for the warranty repair technician to find. Happily for us, that manual doesn't disappear when the warranty expires.)

Generally microwaves are amongst the devices I tag as "do not self repair" I lack the confidence in my repair skills to fuck with the machine with giant caps and built in death ray.

Ass Ads grass commercials or gas sponsors, nobody rides for free

This vacuum is not water resistant and no part of it shall come into contact with water. Do not operate this vacuum on wet floors.

(Which you, of course, find in the manual of your robo-vacuum that runs automatically and has no way to know if the floors are wet or not.)