The
state of mind of a
non-technical person where they are over come with the fact that what they know about computers (or any other
jargon-laden fields {
skate boarding,
psychology, etc}). This is sometimes a useful state to put people in so as to
shut them up when they try to
talk to you.
EXAMPLE:
Scenario: I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with a computer, I have a screwdriver in hand and my head in the case.
Shockee: So...um...is the harddrive the problem?
Me (Shocker): no.
S: But if the cable is loose couldn't it make the Internet not work?
M: No, thats not the problem.
S: Is it the BIOS, maybe thats went bad?
M: While it would be possible for the problem to be the boot ROM on the NIC, it doesn't happen to be one. But in fact, there are TCP checksum errors which would normally indicate some kind of problem with the software, the configuration is of all the computers. Any errors in the RAM would be sporadic, and anyway there is plenty of core without even going into swap. So, I'm going to replace the NIC, cause even though the 3c509s are good cards, flukes happen, but it's not like were working with a tlan or something.
S: Um...OK...I'm going to go get a cup of coffee.
Note the use of synonyms (RAM and core) and lots of unnecessary part numbers (3c509)
NB: If your going to just make something up, it's OK, but be very sure that the Shockee doesn't really know anything.