In this job, I never cease to be amazed at how badly some people, who have no excuse, use technology.

For example, I’ve just received a press release from an agency called Text 100, that addressed me as “Dear Green” – thus ensuring that said press release will be deleted without ever being read, let alone turned into a news story!

Clearly that PR agency could do with sending some of its staff on a basic course on how to do a mail merge properly.

On the train in this morning, there was a person sitting opposite me making a phone call. No problem with that, expect that every time they went to speak, they moved the phone away from their ear, held it in front of their face and yelled at it as if it were a walkie talkie!

Then there is the person in my office who seems to print out every single email they receive, no doubt in order to read them rather than doing it on screen.

Finally, my sister, who seems to break every piece of technology she comes into contact with in record time. I don’t know how she does it, but everything from Sky+ boxes to computers to sewing machines die the moment she comes into contact or ownership of them.

Some people don’t deserve access to technology, others simply shouldn’t be allowed near it – if only to protect the rest of us!

This was linked to by The Worlds Leading where Ben Schmark said…

The bloke is a pompous buffoon. In my opinion, he has all the charm of a hungover John Prescott with halitosis and a nail in his foot.

He doesn’t get out much. He’s half man, half desk.

You notice how he’s not insulted that Text 100 think they can send him a mass distributed press release which he’ll run as a story. Clearly he’s up for that. (Wow, that’s cutting edge journalism. I don’t imagine John Pilger or Paul Foot re-wrote too many corporate press releases.)

No, what really upsets him is that someone at Text 100 has entered his surname in a database field clearly, I say clearly, intended for his christian name!
Which obviously can have tragic mail merge consequences. Dear of dear. Don’t these people read the manual?!

In Chris Green’s litle world, there’s no greater outrage than people who don’t read IT manuals, know how to configure a router or have an opinion on the latest Battlestar Galactica.

It’s very lonely in his comfort zone, and when he’s wrenched out of it, by some poor overworked flack at Text 100, he’s naturally going to feel very defensive.

I feel that Ben might not like Chris all that much…. Just a hunch.

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Chris Green, The Worlds Leading, Ben Schmark, Love hate relationship