Category: Support This!

These audio files came to me by way of an ex-Apple employee who had worked tech support. This person did not personally take any of these calls, but I trusted the source enough to know they were real. I know these are just eighteen calls out of millions that Apple Tech Support has handled over the years; but even as such a small sampling it serves as a reminder that not everyone out there is as comfortable with computers as us geeks. It has always been a struggle for me to get my co-workers to picture their parents, rather than an ideal user, when trying to design features and user flow.

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What does an ‘e’ look like…

Another case of language and cultural differences hindering tech support. I can’t imagine where I would start in trying to explain what an ‘e’ looks like over the phone. (I wonder if they ask that one in the list of Microsoft interview questions.)



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Social Engineering for Dummies

Kevin Mitnick is a big fan of social engineering. Most of the ‘hacking‘ that he did was just a matter of calling someone up and convincing them to give him information without proof of authorization. This woman is no Mitnick, as he would have never called Apple Computer and asked them how to hack the FBI criminal database.



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