REPLY: 2:5059/38 61e0c849
MSGID: 1:3634/12.73 61e15735
PID: GED+LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
CHRS: CP437 2
TZUTC: -0500
TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 17-02-17
 On 2022 Jan 14 03:33:40, you wrote to me:

 ml>> when i lived in xxcarol's area back when we joined fidonet, we had
 ml>> installed a number of computers with networking and printers in a law
 ml>> firm... i don't remember the exact number but it was a decent sized
 ml>> contract so let's call it 50 systems... in the initial week, we they
 ml>> were getting used to the systems and installing all their software,
 ml>> we fielded several calls a day, generally from the typing pool, about
 ml>> the ANY key... after several days of this, i was told, "go over there
 ml>> and solve the problem once and for all."

 AM> I'm surprised this problem existed in English-speaking countries,
 AM> where everyone knows meaning of word "any".

the problem is/was that people were adding "the" to what they were reading...
they had been conditioned to hit the keys they were explicitly told to hit so
when they were told to "Hit any key to continue" they promptly looked for "the
ANY key" instead of "just any key"...

another of our techs had this method of "solving the ANY key problem"... they
would tell the user to close their eyes, place their hand, either hand, on the
keyboard, choose a finger on that hand, and use it to press any key they felt
with that finger... it worked! the really funny part was that users would then
look to see which key they had pressed and use that one all the time when they
saw the "Hit any key to continue" prompt... sometimes there would even be
arguments about which key it was...

on the one hand it was quite funny... on the other hand, it was rather sad but
understanding the rote learning and conditioning techniques that are used, it
is also understandable since the prompt triggered switching gears from rote
repetition to free thinking mode...

 AM> In Russia it was much harder, because in 90's most software was not
 AM> translated to Russian. We even had special job title "anykeyshik" -
 AM> junior sysadmin who tells users where is "any key".

understandable... also Russian language doesn't have the articles "a, an, the"
so that kinda makes a difference... "a" and "an" are indefinite articles
(close a door, eat an apple) meaning any one of them while "the" is a definite
article (close the door, eat the apple) meaning that specific one...

)\/(ark

"The soul of a small kitten in the body of a mighty dragon. Look on my
majesty, ye mighty, and despair! Or bring me catnip. Your choice. Oooh, a
shiny thing!"
... Better to live with one spider than many bugs.
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