Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!etive!lfcs!nick From: nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: computer follies Message-ID: <741@etive.ed.ac.uk> Date: 29 Aug 88 11:25:46 GMT References: <5856@ihlpf.ATT.COM> <57438@ti-csl.CSNET> Sender: news@etive.ed.ac.uk Reply-To: nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U Lines: 39 >>If you have any funny stories like this let me know, I'd be >>interested in them. Well, I know one or two, most of which probably have fictional (or semi-fictional) origin. Like the secretary(*) who tried to correct typing mistakes on her word processor using liquid paper. Or the secretary(*) who did a daily backup of her floppy disks with a photocopier. Or the broken floppy disk drive. The repair man found a compact audio cassette rammed into the innards. Or the WP operators who kept key disks for their word processors attached to a filing cabinet with a magnet. Or the teacher who didn't like the QWERTY layout of the keys on the school computer, so he re-arranged the key tops into alphabetical order (despite repeated pleadings from his pupils that it wouldn't work). Or the WP user who kept getting read errors on floppies. After an examination of the machine, numerous questions, etc., the Tech Support guy asked him, "Do you have one of the floppies which is giving you trouble?" "Sure," he said, pulling a 5" floppy out of his back pocket and unfolding it. Nick. (*) Don't take these references to "secretaries" as sexist put-downs. It's just that secretaries are the unfortunate, untrained people most often given these machines and told to "start using" them. -- Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh. nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk !mcvax!ukc!lfcs!nick ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ...while the builders of the cages sleep with bullets, bars and stone, they do not see your road to freedom that you build with flesh and bone.