It's the busiest time of year for those poor folks in tech support. I'm Fred Fishkin with Bootcamp. I've been collecting some of the funniest computer tech support stories for years. You'll find them at a web site called techtales.com. A lot of people do a lot of funny things with computers if they haven't used them before. If you've just unwrapped a PC under the tree, don't be embarassed about mistakes. A lot of us have been there before. Dudley Atkins runs the Ask Dudley support site on the web for Dell Computer. It lets people ask questions in plain English. Some tech support questions are pretty common....

"Well, of course, the any key question. I can't find the any key and some of the error messages say press any key and we get of course...where's the any key." That happens a lot I guess. "Well, it's...yes."

Other stories have become legendary...

"Some of the other was ....I've held a piece of paper up to my screen, why can't I fax? Another one was, of course, why doesn't my mouse work, I'm stepping on it and it doesn't appear to be working or anything."

Atkins says computers really are a lot easier to use than they used to be. If you are just getting started you may find that hard to believe. Dudley's basic advice... just follow what you see on the screen... and...

"It should go flawlessly."

Just remember to keep smiling.