Thursday, February 8, 2007

The place I make my rent

Two days a week, I work at the New College Library as a "Computer Lab Assistant".
This is my "job title". I put this sign on my little desk, and hope someone will have trouble with one of the 20 WinXP computers and ask me to help them.



There are quite a few interesting questions I have got. I always answer them patiently - after all this world is not perfectly filled with nerds like me.

"How do you..turn on the Internet?"
- Click on the "e" sign on the front.

"How do you open another window?"
- I pressed Ctrl+N for him. He was very happy.

"What's wrong with this computer? It wouldn't load MySpace."
- (Apparently MySpace uses some funky Flash that crashes IE every time.)
Go talk to Microsoft...(Of course I could ask the system admin to update the Flash plug-in...meh - library computers aren't for MySpaces.)

"UTORMail is not working! Can you check this computer?"
- Looks like this computer can't access UTORMail when they are doing its maintenance. Give it a few minutes I guess?

I rarely get asked difficult or even technical questions. The most work I've done was to set up a girl's MAC wireless connection- it was fun.

When people are busy with their important business such as facebook, I look around or study. When you have to sit at a fixed spot facing the same view 6 hours a day, you start to appreciate its profoundity and beauty.

This is the exact view from my angle. Figured out where I sit yet?



The other side. These books are Encyclopedia Britannia, published in the 1910s. Over 100 years of wisdom is all written in these thick, fine-covered books.



This is the study area. Quite fancy light - it reminds me of the honey nut cheerios :)



It is fairly easy work - a part time work in a library to make up my monthly rent. I am not asking for more.

3 comments:

Thuan said...

I wish I had you as my personal tech support personnel. Then I can ask you to help me build and put together my n-th computer. Maybe you'll find that more fun than answering questions. ^_^

Muhammad Ali said...

Nice work environment. But it needs some improvements on the lighting, before it can be truly conducive to studying.

Unknown said...

you are still working at new college library?