Job Depends On This

External Since: Jul 22, 2005 Posts: 5

Yeah, and I'm sure all the ideas in your professional life have been
original, if you've had any at all.

"Opinicus" wrote in message

> "R2D2Groupie" wrote
>
>> knowledge of computers. I'm unable to come up with anything that would
>> impress them. Can anyone suggest anything? Desperate Dan
>
> How about "Therefore I am not really qualified for this job position"?
>
> --
> Bob
>
>

External Since: Jun 13, 2005 Posts: 6

Teach them how to post on a newsgroup without regurgitating every single
sodding previous message.

"Sparda" wrote in message

> "" wrote:
> > "R2D2Groupie" wrote in
> > message
> >
> > > I'm a finalist for a computer trainer/support position and
> > Monday
> > > morning
> > > they want me to do a 15 minute test teach "on some aspect or
> > option in
> > > Windows XP that users probably don't know but could probably
> > benefit
> > > from."
> > > The users are accountants and financial gurus who have a
> > good but not
> > > great
> > > knowledge of computers. I'm unable to come up with anything
> > that would
> > > impress them. Can anyone suggest anything? Desperate Dan
> >
> >
> > Tell them about Microsoft's support site
> > (http://support.microsoft.com/)
> > and show them how to perform basic and advanced searches.
> > That way,
> > with a hint towards inclining them to do even a little bit of
> > investigation before crying for help, maybe they'll use that
> > instead of
> > calling or posting with their knee-jerk inquiries. Telling
> > them how to
> > use the Start -> Help and Support menu would be obvious but
> > lots of
> > users never even bother looking there, either.
> >
> > Otherwise, and besides the security topics already mentioned
> > by other
> > respondents, tell them the advantage of defragmenting their
> > hard drives,
> > how to run it, and how to schedule a regular defrag of their
> > drives
> > during off-hours (but note to them that the computer must not
> > be in
> > standby or hibernate mode unless they enable the wake-up
> > option - but
> > that will also bring their computer out of hibernate mode).
> >
> > Tell them how to use msconfig.exe to disable startup programs
> > to help
> > when troubleshooting a problem in behavior of their computer.
> >
> > Try to instill in them the need to backup their system either
> > by saving
> > drive images and/or by backing up their data. Yes, they are
> > accountants
> > and should be familiar with backing up their data but often
> > they assume
> > that a network admin is backing up some networked file server
> > from which
> > they retrieve and write their files and yet that doesn't help
> > them when
> > their own workstation crashes because of a hard drive failure.
> > Mention
> > to them that the included NT Backup program will only span
> > tapes and not
> > any other type of removable or fixed media, like CDRs, Zip
> > disks, or
> > hard drives, so they'll need a non-crippled 3rd party backup
> > program to
> > do that.
> >
> > For those still too lazy to do backups, tell them how to use
> > the System
> > Restore utility (to create their own restore points and how to
> > use
> > them). Remind them that this is for restoring the system and
> > NOT for
> > their data, so they should not be trying to use it as a
> > equivalent to
> > GoBack or RestoreIT.
> >
> > When using NTFS, you can create ADS (alternate data streams)
> > on files.
> > Their filesize reflected in Windows Explorer will only show
> > the size for
> > the primary data stream and yet when they try to copy a 10KB
> > file onto a
> > floppy they lose the 10MB ADS attached to that file. However,
> > it is
> > likely that you don't know how to manage and create ADS'es,
> > either. See
> > http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs-multiple.htm as an intro to the
> > subject. There
> > are tools to let you see if ADS is used, like LADS and
> > CrucialADS. Some
> > anti-virus products, like Kaspersky, use the ADS to store a
> > hash code of
> > the file and a status of a scan, so a subsequent scan on an
> > unchanged
> > file can be skipped and how Kaspersky sped up their scanning.
> > Unfortunately, uninstalling the product does not also have it
> > remove all
> > those now superfluous alternate streams that they attached to
> > the files.
> > Few anti-spyware will scan the ADS (AD-Aware does but only
> > since the SE
> > version), so malware could reside in the ADS and not get
> > detected;
> > however, eventually it needs to be read by a program to load
> > the content
> > of the ADS (to read it or to execute it) and that is when,
> > hopefully,
> > the anti-spyware's real-time scanner or the anti-virus
> > on-access scanner
> > will detect the malware on your system. Few anti-virus
> > programs scan
> > the ADS of files, and some only do so by enabling some option
> > that
> > doesn't sound like anything to do with ADS, like archive
> > scanning.
> >
> > Tell them how to create junctions and hard links to files and
> > folders.
> > Under Unix, you can create soft links and hard links. Soft
> > links are
> > like shortcuts in Windows: they are fixed in their definition
> > and point
> > to where the file was when the link was created. If you move
> > the file,
> > the soft link can't find it (unless the OS helps out to update
> > the soft
> > link). Deleting a soft link (i.e., shortcut) does not delete
> > the file.
> > A hard link is another entry in the file table for that file,
> > so
> > deleting a hard link will delete the file. A hard link will
> > know
> > wherever is the file after you move it. Peculiarly Microsoft
> > calls hard
> > links for files as hard links but hard links for folders are
> > called
> > junctions. Same thing.
> >
> > Install the Windows XP powertoy for multiple desktops, enable
> > it in the
> > taskbar, and show how they could have multiple virtual
> > desktops to
> > reduce the clutter of having lots of windows open on the same
> > desktop.
> > This powertoy is limited and sometimes popup dialogs will show
> > up in
> > other virtual desktops, but it will give them an idea if it is
> > something
> > that they might be interested in rather than using multiple
> > monitors and
> > video cards.
> >
> > Have them us the TweakUI powertoy for Windows XP and configure
> > to group
> > all icons for an application under one button in the taskbar.
> > That way,
> > they can get the equivalent of tabbed browsing, for example,
> > for
> > Internet Explorer. Click on the one taskbar button for IE and
> > get a
> > roll-up listing of all open instances of IE with the full text
> > of their
> > titles without ending up with a dozen buttons for IE in the
> > taskbar that
> > get squished into tiny buttons with useless truncated titles.
> >
> > Show them how to use Fast User Switching (provided your
> > audience
> > actually perceives any value for that feature).
> >
> > Tell them how to enable and setup the Fax Service so they can
> > fax from
> > their computer (provided they have an analog modem with fax
> > capabilities). Unfortunately, it is not designed to send
> > multi-page
> > faxes but you could use Word to compose your fax and then
> > print it to
> > the Fax printer to then send your multi-page fax. Faxing
> > isn't much
> > used anymore but sometimes they may need to use it.
> >
> > Somehow, by asking what topics to discuss in just 15 minutes
> > to train
> > your pupils, it looks like instead are a wannabe trainer in
> > need of
> > training yourself. I've run out of interest in coming up with
> > more
> > topics since there are plenty. You could simply walk through
> > your Start
> > menu looking at all the submenus to pick out something that is
> > little
> > used or little understood by non-techie users. You could also
> > just lurk
> > around the newsgroups for Windows XP and look at past posts to
> > see what
> > type of questions are asked that you are qualified to answer.
>
> searching microsoft web sites is far easyer by just using
> site:support.microsoft.com on google, the search engian on microsofts
> site is the most pathetic search engian i have ever used.
>
> I think teaching "How to use google" should definitly be in basic
> computer training, how many poeple have i found that dont know how to
> google, more thne 1 is too many, i have found more then 10!!
>
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