Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!percival!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: computer follies
Message-ID: <1037@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 1 Sep 88 02:27:36 GMT
References: <5856@ihlpf.ATT.COM> <57438@ti-csl.CSNET> <741@etive.ed.ac.uk>
Reply-To: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Organization: Rick's Home Grown Unix; Portland, OR
Lines: 38

In article <741@etive.ed.ac.uk> nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) writes:
<>>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.

<Or the WP operators who kept key disks for their word processors attached to
<a filing cabinet with a magnet.

This one ain't fictional! I used to be on very good terms with a Customer
Service Rep at a Radio Shack Computer Center (back when the Model 3 was
the latest thing!) One day she told me of the long running problem with a
user that she'd just solved that day... 

Under TRSDOS 1.x files can have a limited-backups attribute. And they can also
be made non-copyable except by backup. The usual limitation is two backups.

This gentleman had kept coming in because his backups kept "going bad". 
After going into *incredible* detail over the phone, she finally got it down
to this:

He:	Ok, it is done backing up.
She:	Ok, now what are you doing?
He:	I put the original in the jackeet,
	put the jacket in the sleeve in the manual.
She:	Ok, what are you doing with the backup?
He:	I put it up on the the file cabinet.
She:	Up on the file cabinet?
He:	Yes, I take the magnet and stick it up on the file cabinet...
She:	ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Moral: It isn't always the secretaries. This guy was the BOSS....
-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I used to be a hacker. Now I'm a 'microcomputer specialist'.
You know... I'd rather be a hacker."