Go figure. My first post of the new year, and it’s a rant. Oh well, I guess I have to start somewhere.

Earlier today, I was helping a presenter setup his laptop with our projector. While I was doing this, a random guy attending the presentation (with no affiliation to our organization, other than being there to listen to the speaker) suddenly spoke up:

Him: Hey, you’re the IT guy, right?

Me: Yep.

Him: You have to help me get games loaded on to my kid’s iPod Nano!

Me (Jokingly): Well sure, but my rate is $50 an hour.

Him (Ignoring the comment): I bought this damn thing from Future Shop, and they told me I could load games on it!

Me: Okay…as far as I know, the Nano is just a regular iPod. I’m not really an Apple guy, but I think you need an iPod Touch to do that.

At this point, the guy goes off about how he was lied to, and that to add games on a Nano one must break it’s encryption with a special code that no one wants to give him, and that everyone at Future Shop are a bunch of idiots. When he finally calms down a little, he just stares at me, expecting an answer.

Me: Well, you could always just take it back and exchange it for an iPod Touch.

Him (turning to the person next to him): See? None of these ‘IT’ people are any help.

The unfortunate thing is, this kind of behavior is all-to-common. An increasing number of people seem to be under the assumption that anyone who works with computers for a living knows everything about not only computers, but anything electronic. And aside from thinking that we know everything about everything, they also assume that *love* to help with every manner of problem, like it’s an addiction that they’re all too happy to feed.

I’d go on, but that wouldn’t help any. Suffice to say, this annoys me to no end. Hopefully I’m preaching to the converted though.