>Tom,
>
>I know the feeling. Last time I called Crystal tech support I should have had an interpreter to translate what the person on the other end of the phone was saying to me in BROKEN-English (no offense to the person who tried to help me and no offense to foreign languages and no offense to foreign countries intended - we're all in the same technology boat). I had to have the support person repeat themselves more than once. I was really listening intently to get the instructions. Usually I have better luck with knowledgebase websites rather speaking to tech support, but when I get desperate I sometimes call tech support.
>
>I also been on the tech support side for part of my existence so I know what they have to put up with. The noose swings both ways. One time as a tech supporter, I drove about 20 miles to plug in someone's monitor power plug into the wall because they told me their monitor died. They swore it was connected when I interviewed them over the phone - NOT! I don't think I charged them the going rate because I felt sorry for them. You would think an attorney would be more with it than that. LOL! I used to help engineers with PHDs read their computer manuals. I could never understand how they ever PHDs and how they ever became engineers. LOL! No offense, Thomas Engineer!
>
>Have a good one. It helps to vent.

Steve;

How true! I have met many engineers with Ph.d's that had no practical experience and did not have a clue how to use an oscilloscope to make a basic measurement. One professor of engineering I met had never worked in industry. I told him a few of my “reality stories” about what the practical world of engineering was like. I suggested he find out what I was talking about as he was pumping out engineers into an industry he really did not understand. Politics, schedules, weekly reports, meetings, long hours and unemployment. Just the facts of life.

Then we have a number of Ph.d’s from places like Stanford University, just up the road from me. Do you have any idea how many people are employed in Silicon Valley and around the world because of these people? In is unreal! They may not know how to do anything of a practical nature but his/her abstract creative abilities are worth billions of dollars and have fueled industries.

Chances are when you call some company’s customer service centers you are talking to an H1B who has accepted a job and has little ability to communicate with clients. Companies save money by doing this. Then companies make up all these great terms to pump up employees. Team member comes to mind. There is a long list, which includes company specific acronyms.

Persons who have no understanding of technical subjects write technical manuals. The manual is incomprehensible as English (in any form) is his/her third language and they have only studied a four-hour crash course.

Major corporations (H.P., and Seagate for example) have been caught using illegal aliens as a source of technical labor. H.P. had two Russian programmers held in a farm house in Virginia. They were prisoners and for 14 months were not allowed to go outside. H.P. sent the families of the two men $15 a month. The two men escaped and went to the authorities. The end result? We heard no more about this. It was on national news.

Seagate had illegal aliens from Taiwan working at the Scotts Valley Campus – just up the hill from me. These men worked and slept on the floor and were given rice and little more to live on. They were not allowed outside the building. When this was revealed on the media people were in shock! We heard no more about this event. Who knows what is going on. I have a list of local things that are hard to believe. It is a big world and hard to believe this area is the only one with such stories.

Tom