Engineers in IT have to laugh once in a while to keep from going crazy. Here are a few of the funnier items I’ve come across in my career. All are true- I didn’t mention any names to protect the…well embarrassed.
We had one user who kept trying to order a larger mouse pad. Curious, I stopped by her office to ask why. She said because she couldn’t get to the other side of the screen with her mouse. I explained that you can pick up the mouse and move it back, she said never mind on that order.
A customer brought in a computer for repair, because the credit card reader was broken. Puzzled, the tech used needle nose pliers and removed three credit cards from the floppy drive. Reminds me of the cup holder calls- many people believe that the CD drive shelf is for holding a beverage, not a CD!
I got a call from a frantic executive assistant who couldn’t power up the boss’ computer after some furniture moves. As we went through the troubleshooting over the phone, it seemed like she wasn’t getting power, but she assured me it was plugged in. It was. I drove out, the power strip was plugged into itself rather than the wall.
I got a call from a CEO late one Friday night because the clock on his computer didn’t match the clock on his phone. He explained he need those extra minutes and they should match. I think he was kidding, but I got to install a time server anyway.
Help desk received a call from the warehouse supervisor who had received a new computer. Everything was working fine but the foot pedal. Tech went down, the foot pedal in question was the mouse.
We had a server in a remote office that would lose power and go on battery backup twice a week, at different times and always after hours. We had the electricians out, no one could find a thing wrong. I sat up with a book next to the server one evening, and the cleaning staff came in. And unplugged the server to plug in the buffer. Sigh.
Here are a couple funny pictures that made me chuckle. XKCD is a webcomic that ocassionally focuses on amusing areas of technology:
