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From: dgriffiths@ebay.sun.com (Darren Griffiths)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Pepsi-Cola Hits The Spot: Switchboard Shuts Down
Message-ID: <10244@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 30 Jul 90 22:27:15 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 529, Message 10 of 10


I'm sure that many people are posting similar stories but I can't
resist adding my twenty cents worth (inflation due to the S&L
screw-up.)

Back in my days at UCSB I was responsible for taking care of some
VAXen that were shared between researchers and secretaries.  One day a
particularly crazed secretary called me up with the usual complaint
"My computer doesn't work."  For some reason these people, supposedly
trained extensively in word processing and technical writing, never
quite understood that they had a terminal and the computer was a long
ways from them and probably working fine.  Nevertheless, I went
through my standard list of things to try and avoid walking to the
secretary's office until I was finally convinced that the terminal was
in fact switched on, plugged in, online and the person in question
hadn't hit the scroll-lock key.  Somewhat dejectedly I went up to the
office to find it empty, I sat down at the terminal and spent ten
minutes playing with it until I was pretty sure that the keyboard had
died.  I unplugged it and was carrying it out of the office when in
walked the secretary holding a cloth dripping with water.  She looked
at the keyboard and said "Oh, you're not taking my keyboard are you?
I've just spent twenty minutes cleaning it."  I suppose some people
were just not meant to use computers.


darren