Comics I Don’t Understand

Shut it Down

Cidu Bill on Feb 8th 2009

Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Unshelved, comic strips, comics, humor | 25 responses so far

25 Responses to “Shut it Down”

Mateus Feb 8th 2009 at 12:57 am 1

It’s the computer version of “turn it off, turn it on” which is what most people believe is helpful advice (and rarely is). This can apply to computers, cars, televisions, etc. The point is that the guy is trying to be helpful by giving the only point of advice he knows.
bAT L. Feb 8th 2009 at 01:01 am 2

Working in a computer Help Desk, I think this is a joke on how the best advice for any problem is just to restart the computer. Either it’ll work seemingly randomly or you can stall from actually having to help them. Knowing how much we do about Dewey, this is probably the case.
Charlene Feb 8th 2009 at 01:57 am 3

My brand new wireless router caught on fire yesterday (no damage otherwise). When I called Staples to enquire about an exchange, the guy asked me if I’d tried power cycling it first. This after a long description of how it spewed orange flames.
furrykef Feb 8th 2009 at 02:05 am 4

I think the more common version of this joke is “reinstall Windows” rather than “shut it down”, but it still works. (When told among real nerds, instead of “reinstall Windows”, it’s “install Linux”.)
Lisa Jones Feb 8th 2009 at 03:18 am 5

I think he just doesn’t want to deal with everyone’s silly questions so he just tells them to turn the computer off and figures those people are clueless enough to go along with it…
Kit Feb 8th 2009 at 05:40 am 6

I think his point in the last frame is, if you don’t know how to email by now, you’re better off writing a letter
Elliott Feb 8th 2009 at 07:34 am 7

This is why trained support desk personnel always fail at brain surgery.
Elliott Feb 8th 2009 at 07:36 am 8

Oh, and while we’re at it, we can add Sunday’s Dilbert to the mix.
Keera Feb 8th 2009 at 08:36 am 9

I know that I could never send an e-mail to my grandma; her generation doesn’t own computers. My take is that “Shut it down” is the correct advice in both cases.
Nicole Feb 8th 2009 at 10:33 am 10

The support guys answer to every computer problem is “shut it down” .

What I don’t understand is why the guy who was having the problems in the first place had to crossdress to write to his grandmother.
Nicole Feb 8th 2009 at 10:34 am 11

oops forgo
t to click the notify box
Rainey Feb 8th 2009 at 11:54 am 12

Nicole, I think the person in the last panel is actually another person at another computer. Take notice that the screen is also lighter in the last panel.
Nicole Feb 8th 2009 at 01:26 pm 13

Rainy — I actually knew it was a different peson — I was trying to make a joke that apparently was not a joke — oh well they can’t all be funny — LOl
Izzy Feb 8th 2009 at 01:40 pm 14

Nicole- I thought it was funny.
Michael Feb 8th 2009 at 07:25 pm 15

I’m with Keera, I figured emailing grandma would be pointless since the stereotypical grandmother wouldn’t be an emailer (although that’s a pretty outdated stereotype in my experience). The correct answer would be, “Turn off the computer and pick up a pen and paper.”
Lost in A**2 Feb 8th 2009 at 08:05 pm 16

In the real world of tech support, the response would be, “What is
her e-mail address?” And the answer would be either, “I don’t know,”
or “She doesn’t have one.”
Cidu Bill Feb 8th 2009 at 08:32 pm 17

I have to disagree with Keera: My mother and my aunt — who I’d wager are at least as old as Keera’s grandmother — are quite comfortable with e-mail.
Lessa Feb 8th 2009 at 10:48 pm 18

This e-mail is proof that Grandmas do use the computer. I have 5 grandchildren, 2 mos, 2 yrs, 6 yrs, 9 yrs and 14 yrs. The teen has even graced me with an invitation to join his MySpace page. I did, but am still trying to figure it out
buzz Feb 9th 2009 at 12:24 am 19

And the real kneeslapper is that this Sunday’s DILBERT is essentially the same gag.
Daniel J. Drazen Feb 9th 2009 at 10:47 am 20

I think the black-shirted techie works for Dell because that’s their default answer to everything when you’re on hold waiting to talk to a human being: “turn it off and wait 30 seconds.”
Frank Feb 9th 2009 at 01:20 pm 21

The first thing I learned on my introduction to computer related hardware some thirty years ago was that cycling the power (after running TSD if appropriate )was
solved many problems. Still works.
Bleu Mune Feb 9th 2009 at 04:24 pm 22

Actually, there’ve been a few times when I thought my whole computer had crashed, but turning it off and on again miraculously fixed the problem and it never recurred.

As a scientist I always want to know how things work and why, but computers have taught me to just be grateful it works - and a lot of the time it doesn’t matter why.
jjmcgaffey Feb 10th 2009 at 01:02 am 23

As a tech - you know the old description of madness, “repeating an action and expecting a different response”? With computers, it’s “expecting the _same_ response”. And it’s amazing what a quick reboot will solve (particularly with Windows, but I’ve had quite a few Macs respond well as well).

Daniel J. Drazen - he’s a librarian, the closest thing to a techie there. Which isn’t very close…but I know what you mean about Dell. They’re annoying even to a tech (really hard to get them to skip part of the script!).
Todd Feb 11th 2009 at 05:04 am 24

My mom, who is a great-grandmother, does a lot of e-mailing.

The strip, published this year, begs the question: What person young enough to have a still-living grandmother doesn’t know how to e-mail?
Cidu Bill Feb 11th 2009 at 08:11 am 25

Todd, I can name at least two people young enough to have a still-living grandmother who don’t know how to e-mail. Or, for that matter, feed themselves yet.