The other day a user sauntered into the office complaining that she was having problems with the library’s proxy server. Naturally, she neglected to bring her laptop with her, so I could only suggest some general configuration tips.

It quickly became clear she was not the most computer-literate user on campus; the question "Mac or Windows?" elicited several minutes of brow-furrowing concentration. "Macrosoft, I think" was the eventual response. Gently-posed, ancillary queries regarding her OS went nowhere. "Okay", I replied, "what browser do you use? The program you look at web pages with? Which one do you use?"

She brightened visibly, happy to finally field a question she could answer. "Oh, now, that I remember. I have Mazola Firefox."