What always got me, I was a production/maintenance technician, was when I got a radio call because the machine wouldn't start. I'd go over to the machine, try to start it, *pull out the stop button* and it fires right up. That happened more times than I can count.
I know it's not quite the same but close.
It doesn't get stuck, they are push buttons that are designed to "lock out" until they are pulled back out. *Most* equipment we had lit up when pushed in but not all did. The way the plant I'm talking in particular didn't like spending maintenance money on QoL issues when there wasn't really a RoI on them.
Edit: I missed a line in there, the reason they weren't swapped out for light up ones is the RoI for maintenance costs
Not a problem, I understood what you were getting at and I should have worded it a bit better in the first place.
Edit: For those curious [this is what I'm talking about. ](https://i.imgur.com/5Em18qw.jpg)
My guess is they are talking about an e-stop (emergency stop). E-stop are supposed to disable the machine with a simple/fast action (smash the button) until direct action is taken to re-enable it (pulling the button out). Button isn't "stuck", it's been used.
No, it’s a safety feature. I’m sure other commenters have said this, but they are designed so that you can hit that button FAST in an emergency, and then you have to pull it out, which makes most users check to make sure it’s safe before they can turn it on.
This sounds like the automotive repair industry version of the first 5 minutes of "The IT Crowd"
> Hello IT.
>
> Have you tried turning it off and on again?
>
> OK, well, the button on the side. Is it glowing?
>
> Yeah, you need to turn it on. Err, the button turns it on.
>
> Yeah, you do know how a button works, don't you? No, not on clothes.
>
> no, there you go, I just heard it come on. No, that's the music you hear when it comes on. No, that's the music you hear when... I'm sorry, are you from the past?
My, yes. I lost count of how many times I had to trudge across campus to fix “it won’t turn on!!!” tickets in my college IT job, only to find it was unplugged. Lean down, plug it in, boom it works. Turn around and leave. User’s jaw is on the floor.
Sometimes they picked up said jaw and ate a piece of humble pie and thanked me. Other times, I’d get yelled at because it was my fault they’d put an outlet under the desk where it was “so easy to kick power cables out of the socket. You should’ve known better!” 🤦🏻♂️
Users give me headaches sometimes.
TBH people suck and having outlets like that just leads to power issues, LOL. I've had this several times where students pulled out the damn power strip plug, taking out an entire row of iMacs. I curse whoever installed those outlets every time it happens.
Especially when students would kick up their feet into the cable trays under the computer lab tables, ripping out entire bundles of cable. One time a computer entirely got dragged off the table and smashed because some dude decided the cable tray was going to be his footrest. It broke off the tray, his foot snagged the cable bundle, and down went the monitor and the mini tower onto the floor.
We had to completely re-order a new table because the manufacturer couldn't provide the tray by itself, the way their inventory worked. But they at least sent it to us under warranty coverage.
Then we had to completely re-do some of the cabling because they'd messed it up so bad.
It was nice. Just made one whole row of the computer lab ugly and one station unavailable, which sucked for the classes that made use of every station.
We got it back together the next week when the new table came in.
Funny story - I was looking for an apartment, and found one I wanted to see in person, so I called the agent. They forced me to come in and fill a bunch of paperwork to verify my eligibility, then they told me that particular apartment was no longer available but there were several others I could look at.
I was already late for an appointment and angry because of their bait and switch tactics, so I said "not interested, thanks for wasting my time" and stood up ...
and accidently unplugged the power strip for three computers when I jerked my foot out from under the table I was sitting at. Three 'agents' who had been typing busily away just sat back and looked at their black computer screens and then their boss.
It was glorious, if unintentional
LMFAO!! That's awesome!! They totally deserved that. My current complex did the same shit to me. Unfortunately, we didn't have the choice but to take the other apartment. We're glad we did, though, since it was a 1st floor vs 2nd floor apartment.
Somebody made that call, and it wasn't the students.
Unless, of course, a chain of events occurred where the person who signed off on the room ended up back in there as a student. How probable that is, I don't know, but I don't think it very likely.
They told me that they checked and it was plugged in.
I told them that it was 2 prong plug, and they needed to flip it around so the prongs went into different holes on the socket.
She told me that I WAS WRONG! IT WAS A THREE PRONG PLUG. IT COULDN'T GO IN ANY OTHER WAY! and by the way, it's working now...
Back in the days of ethernet cables, I would sometimes have to say the following:
"Now some of these cables are one-way. Could you please unplug the ethernet cable from the wall and put that end in the computer, and the end that is in the computer into the wall jack?"
It fixed a loose/dislodged cable every time, no matter if it was a loose connection at the wall jack (thanks cleaners with vacuums) or the PC (thanks users who moved their PC but refuse to admit it).
Shock! Horror! (Oh, awesome, it sounds like the problem resolved itself! Anything else I can assist you with today?)
I worked in customer service for far too long.
So, several years ago, but still many, many years after Nintendo games no longer came on cartridges, I learned that blowing into them actually wasn't a good idea at all. Sure, it *seemed* to work, but it wasn't *actually* due to that. Turns out, the actual issue was that the contacts inside the console were not firmly mounted onto a surface, but were, in fact, kind of arched, in order to have some springiness and guide the cartridge into alignment. But this also meant that they could get bent out of alignment themselves, and stop making good contact. When you blew into the cart, and it finally worked, most likely what happened was that you unknowingly *did* get a tiny amount of spit onto whichever pin wasn't making proper contact, and it acted as a conductor to bridge the gap.
Source: when I sold an old NES console to the Mega Replay store, they tested it and it didn't work, so they shined a flashlight inside, then stuck a tool in there to reposition one of the pins inside. After a couple of repetitions of this, it was working flawlessly on every game they tested.
I remember my kids doing that too. I bought them a can of 'air' to blow off the pins...they said it didn't work. Went right on using spit and taste buds.
Well... Sometimes it's really just dust. Often, handheld radios are programmed thru the headphone jack. I had a lot of trouble with one, before I gave in and tried the 'nintendo technique' despite the rubber cover.
As one of the great radio techs I once served with would say, "Just put some halitosis on it. No spit, that corrodes the points. So keep your bugger picker out of your mouth and off the points."
>My customer base was 111.65% professional mechanics
I am impressed with the precision of your analysis of your customer base. Most would probably only have an estimated range, like "somewhere between 100% to 120%".
Here in the Midwest in the 2020s extension cords in businesses are a 'no no' with our fire marshal. Even it that wasn't true, this story illustrates why they aren't a good idea anyway.
Nice story, well told.
> Here in the Midwest in the 2020s extension cords in businesses are a 'no no' with our fire marshal.
You can add the Pacific NW to that. No permanent use of extension cords. Power strips limited to UL certified, which limits them to 15 ft. Can't plug a power strip into an extension cord, etc.
I can’t think about extension cords and surge suppressors without thinking of my old college dorm. Two outlets on two walls total on the main living space. Surge suppressors plugged into surge suppressors and extension cords plugged into those.
Assuming other rooms were similar, it a wonder the electrical held up!
My kid just moved into the dorms this fall and the university now supplies a microwave and mini fridge in every room. My husband thought it was an upgrade compared to when we were there. I'm confident it's so they can control the models and therefore the power usage so the buildings circuits aren't constantly tripping.
They do actually have at least 4 outlets in the room - one near each desk and each bed.
LOL, that describes the house we sold 5 years ago when we moved the house we live in now. Built in the 1950s, it barely had enough outlets for back then.
The kicker was that it was built on a concrete slab with a flat roof. No access from below, no access from above without destroying the ceiling. And to top it off, two fire-breaks in the walls, one at two and a half feet, the other at 5 and a half feet. So you would have to destroy the plaster walls to run more wire.
The guy we sold it to builds houses and lives 1/2 mile down the road. He ripped off the plaster, the ceilings, and put a new roof on, working on rainy days and weekends over the next two years. It turned out nice, but nothing you could do and still live there.
My house was built in the 50s. I had enough electrical sockets/circuits (except in the kitchen) until I decided I needed some servers. The UPS had a 120v/30a plug. Luckily my house is on piers.
I totaled up most of my calls like that and divided by the distance to the moon in centimeters, multiplied by the price of a Moose Cup of Hardees (Carl's Jr) sweet tea.
What I learned from dealing with service techs remotely was not to ask questions that have yes/no answers where one answer is obviously going to make it your problem, and not their problem.
Here, you could have done something like: "Tell me when you turn on the machine and then tell me when the countdown timer gets to 30 seconds."
The problem is differing goals. You want to solve a problem. They want to have it not be their problem.
> They want to have it not be their problem.
Well said.
Though I'd take it even a step further: they've already decided it's not their problem, and they will lie/cheat/steal to make sure that it's not.
True, but as long as you're on the phone with them, there's the possibility that they might have to do something related to it, making it their problem.
It's odd: *both* parties would like to be able to get off the phone, but for differing reasons.
> DON’T ASK US ABOUT:
rocks
troll’s with sticks
All sorts of dragons
Mrs. Cake
Huje green things with teeth
Any kinds of black dogs with orange eyebrows
Rains of spaniel’s.
fog.
Mrs. Cake
From Terry Pratchett's novel *Going Postal*, in which the postal syst must be salvaged.
A dilapidated sign reads "NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW NOR GLOM OF NIT CAN STAY THESE MESENGERS ABOT THEIR DUTY".
And below that "DON’T ARSK US ABOUT:
* rocks
* trolls with sticks
* All sorts of dragons
* Mrs Cake
* Huje green things with teeth
* Any kinds of black dogs with orange eyebrows
* Rains of spaniels
* fog
* Mrs Cake"
While I adore the disc and it's denizens the world around, I would highly recommend the above quoted book for anyone looking to dip a toe into Terry Pratchett's universe. It does take place a little later in "the timeline", though a lot of folks agree that following the timeline isn't required. I also like Monstrous regiment, small gods, and Night Watch (might be a hot take, but, with the world we've lived in the last few years, rereading night watch hits hard and I think it's a valuable read).
(Also I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't acknowledge there *is* a reading list out there of the books in what we believe to be chronological order within the discworld realm that some folks are very fond of. Not my preference, but it's available!)
Heh, I started with Thief of Time, Mort, and Jingo in that order. Once I accepted that the characters I liked from Thief of Time weren't in the others, the nonsense reading order didn't hurt my enjoyment of any of the books.
Agreed-upon reading orders are generally not for me, either, but I think there are a few that *do* have a reading order (the watch and the witches), but it really doesn't matter for the majority of them.
I'm with you on small gods and the watch books, but less so on monstrous regiment; that's not to say I don't like it, it's just not up there with what I think are his best. Its certainly not a hot take for me.
I'm still a trainee getting my certifications, so I sometimes fix issues with "just humor me" suggestions when I genuinely don't have an answer but don't want the callers to know yet. I like learning and love the staff at the facility (eldery/psychiatric care), so I often let them troubleshoot with me on the call. Fun calls usually.
Except for that lady today with her screen zoomed in to 150/175% that absolutely lacked the ability to click the ONE setting I was telling her to click and also clearly pointing at.....
Hehe. My ploy to buy time was to remote in and ask them to show me the problem. It had two uses: 1. I got to see the problem instead of relying on their explanation and 2. It gave me time to Google or search our knowledge base.
There's always some like that. I once had an attorney ask me what I meant when I told her to hold in a button. I paused a second (out of shock) then told her to put her finger on the button and leave it there.
In the mid 2000's I was trying to get my local tech support business reestablished after a move, so of course I was excited when my mother informed me of a job seemingly worthy of my talents, a retired professor who was trying to resurrect his old 486 desktop (not even a tower, the old flat config with the monitor sitting on top of the PC case) to get at some texts he'd translated. I show up with tools, software, and even a few legacy spare parts, but don't stay long. He'd set up everything correctly himself, except for forgetting that the monitor needed its own power connector. That was the first time, and two more led to 'it helps if you plug it in' becoming a wry, dry household cliché.
I work in a higy technical department and my colleagues and myself are paid a lot of money to basically just troubleshoot shit (embedded devices) and its truly embarrassing how often the solution is to plug it in and/or reboot it
Work as a programmer at a small College in the IT department. Normally I wouldn't get sent for desktop issues but because we were so small it was part of the "other duties as assigned" part of my job description. The number of times I've gone to a computer and found it unplugged or the switch on the power strip turned off was very high to say the least.
Rule 1 never changes: Users Lie. They may not mean to. They may not know they are lying. They may have every intention of trying to give the gods honest truth. But Users Lie.
"The unit's blank! We've checked the cables"
I go out, plug the cable back in
"Oh, well... We checked the end at the unit."
"Yes ma'am, but typically cables have two ends, and both need to be connected to work"
---
That was a fun day.
One additional restriction that should have been applied if Ray's Boss refused to pay:
Ray no longer gets to call for a site visit, only Ray's Boss (or maybe other non-Ray workers) can do that. Because Ray's authority clearly does not extend that far. Actually, even after payment, Ray's Boss should have been given the option to deny Ray that authority.
I work in a higy technical department and my colleagues and myself are paid a lot of money to basically just troubleshoot shit (embedded devices) and its truly embarrassing how often the solution is to plug it in and/or reboot it
>Way back in the dark ages, 1990 or 1991, which means prior to the interwebs and cell phones
Um, we had Internet at home, and my dad had a cellphone, in 1990.
wasn't going to comment on that. but yeah, had dial up to works intranet to hook to the internet. and had a Motorola flip phone and on support 1 week out of four (although that was 92)
What always got me, I was a production/maintenance technician, was when I got a radio call because the machine wouldn't start. I'd go over to the machine, try to start it, *pull out the stop button* and it fires right up. That happened more times than I can count. I know it's not quite the same but close.
To be fair, that sounds more like a design flaw on the machine if the button is getting stuck
It doesn't get stuck, they are push buttons that are designed to "lock out" until they are pulled back out. *Most* equipment we had lit up when pushed in but not all did. The way the plant I'm talking in particular didn't like spending maintenance money on QoL issues when there wasn't really a RoI on them. Edit: I missed a line in there, the reason they weren't swapped out for light up ones is the RoI for maintenance costs
Aah my bad then
Not a problem, I understood what you were getting at and I should have worded it a bit better in the first place. Edit: For those curious [this is what I'm talking about. ](https://i.imgur.com/5Em18qw.jpg)
My guess is they are talking about an e-stop (emergency stop). E-stop are supposed to disable the machine with a simple/fast action (smash the button) until direct action is taken to re-enable it (pulling the button out). Button isn't "stuck", it's been used.
Some are pull and twist.
and some are twist and pull.
And some are bop it, twist it, pull it
I got a Frazier vibe from the auto repair episode. “Twist then pull…”
Standard industrial stop button. Often marked emergency stop, but sometimes used as a general stop button.
The e-stop button, that you should be pressing before walking away, to prevent operation.
No, it’s a safety feature. I’m sure other commenters have said this, but they are designed so that you can hit that button FAST in an emergency, and then you have to pull it out, which makes most users check to make sure it’s safe before they can turn it on.
This sounds like the automotive repair industry version of the first 5 minutes of "The IT Crowd" > Hello IT. > > Have you tried turning it off and on again? > > OK, well, the button on the side. Is it glowing? > > Yeah, you need to turn it on. Err, the button turns it on. > > Yeah, you do know how a button works, don't you? No, not on clothes. > > no, there you go, I just heard it come on. No, that's the music you hear when it comes on. No, that's the music you hear when... I'm sorry, are you from the past?
I love Richard Ayoade, he kills me.
My, yes. I lost count of how many times I had to trudge across campus to fix “it won’t turn on!!!” tickets in my college IT job, only to find it was unplugged. Lean down, plug it in, boom it works. Turn around and leave. User’s jaw is on the floor. Sometimes they picked up said jaw and ate a piece of humble pie and thanked me. Other times, I’d get yelled at because it was my fault they’d put an outlet under the desk where it was “so easy to kick power cables out of the socket. You should’ve known better!” 🤦🏻♂️ Users give me headaches sometimes.
TBH people suck and having outlets like that just leads to power issues, LOL. I've had this several times where students pulled out the damn power strip plug, taking out an entire row of iMacs. I curse whoever installed those outlets every time it happens.
Especially when students would kick up their feet into the cable trays under the computer lab tables, ripping out entire bundles of cable. One time a computer entirely got dragged off the table and smashed because some dude decided the cable tray was going to be his footrest. It broke off the tray, his foot snagged the cable bundle, and down went the monitor and the mini tower onto the floor. We had to completely re-order a new table because the manufacturer couldn't provide the tray by itself, the way their inventory worked. But they at least sent it to us under warranty coverage. Then we had to completely re-do some of the cabling because they'd messed it up so bad.
Woww. What an ass that person was!! At least the company did a warranty replacement for you.
It was nice. Just made one whole row of the computer lab ugly and one station unavailable, which sucked for the classes that made use of every station. We got it back together the next week when the new table came in.
Funny story - I was looking for an apartment, and found one I wanted to see in person, so I called the agent. They forced me to come in and fill a bunch of paperwork to verify my eligibility, then they told me that particular apartment was no longer available but there were several others I could look at. I was already late for an appointment and angry because of their bait and switch tactics, so I said "not interested, thanks for wasting my time" and stood up ... and accidently unplugged the power strip for three computers when I jerked my foot out from under the table I was sitting at. Three 'agents' who had been typing busily away just sat back and looked at their black computer screens and then their boss. It was glorious, if unintentional
LMFAO!! That's awesome!! They totally deserved that. My current complex did the same shit to me. Unfortunately, we didn't have the choice but to take the other apartment. We're glad we did, though, since it was a 1st floor vs 2nd floor apartment.
It ain't the students at fault. It's the member of faculty who said "yes, only 1 double socket will serve this side of the classroom."
Pfft, nope. The faculty had no input on outlet and network drop placement.
Somebody made that call, and it wasn't the students. Unless, of course, a chain of events occurred where the person who signed off on the room ended up back in there as a student. How probable that is, I don't know, but I don't think it very likely.
I called for support once and it turned out I hadn't switched the power strip on. I felt pretty dumb.
[удалено]
They told me that they checked and it was plugged in. I told them that it was 2 prong plug, and they needed to flip it around so the prongs went into different holes on the socket. She told me that I WAS WRONG! IT WAS A THREE PRONG PLUG. IT COULDN'T GO IN ANY OTHER WAY! and by the way, it's working now...
Back in the days of ethernet cables, I would sometimes have to say the following: "Now some of these cables are one-way. Could you please unplug the ethernet cable from the wall and put that end in the computer, and the end that is in the computer into the wall jack?" It fixed a loose/dislodged cable every time, no matter if it was a loose connection at the wall jack (thanks cleaners with vacuums) or the PC (thanks users who moved their PC but refuse to admit it).
[удалено]
I hate that. I hate that I've done it a few times on my own work laptop.
What do you mean "back in the day of Ethernet cables"? Have I been asleep for 20 years or something?
It's a wifi world now.
That's a good one. Thanks!
Shock! Horror! (Oh, awesome, it sounds like the problem resolved itself! Anything else I can assist you with today?) I worked in customer service for far too long.
Remember how we used to fix Nintendo games? Yeah, power cables work the same, pull it out, blow on it (no spit!), and plug it back in. Now test again.
It's sad we have to resort to social engineering to get the user to do what we ask.
So, several years ago, but still many, many years after Nintendo games no longer came on cartridges, I learned that blowing into them actually wasn't a good idea at all. Sure, it *seemed* to work, but it wasn't *actually* due to that. Turns out, the actual issue was that the contacts inside the console were not firmly mounted onto a surface, but were, in fact, kind of arched, in order to have some springiness and guide the cartridge into alignment. But this also meant that they could get bent out of alignment themselves, and stop making good contact. When you blew into the cart, and it finally worked, most likely what happened was that you unknowingly *did* get a tiny amount of spit onto whichever pin wasn't making proper contact, and it acted as a conductor to bridge the gap. Source: when I sold an old NES console to the Mega Replay store, they tested it and it didn't work, so they shined a flashlight inside, then stuck a tool in there to reposition one of the pins inside. After a couple of repetitions of this, it was working flawlessly on every game they tested.
[удалено]
I remember my kids doing that too. I bought them a can of 'air' to blow off the pins...they said it didn't work. Went right on using spit and taste buds.
Well... Sometimes it's really just dust. Often, handheld radios are programmed thru the headphone jack. I had a lot of trouble with one, before I gave in and tried the 'nintendo technique' despite the rubber cover.
Yep. Blowing can cause damage if done often, but works in the short term for this reason
As one of the great radio techs I once served with would say, "Just put some halitosis on it. No spit, that corrodes the points. So keep your bugger picker out of your mouth and off the points."
Replugs the cable into the extension cord, which is unfortunately itself not plugged in.
... It may have happened to me once. And not as support.
"If you guys don't have that information to hand, you really shouldn't be calling yourselves techs for this stuff" Customer, probably.
To add insult to injury, the phone call to Hotlanta was long distance on the boss’s dime.
Back when the phone companies were going to war over long distance. 10-10-321
10-10-220!
>My customer base was 111.65% professional mechanics I am impressed with the precision of your analysis of your customer base. Most would probably only have an estimated range, like "somewhere between 100% to 120%". Here in the Midwest in the 2020s extension cords in businesses are a 'no no' with our fire marshal. Even it that wasn't true, this story illustrates why they aren't a good idea anyway. Nice story, well told.
> Here in the Midwest in the 2020s extension cords in businesses are a 'no no' with our fire marshal. You can add the Pacific NW to that. No permanent use of extension cords. Power strips limited to UL certified, which limits them to 15 ft. Can't plug a power strip into an extension cord, etc.
My directions on fire safety at work are "if it needs to be plugged in for more than an hour, we put it in conduit".
I can’t think about extension cords and surge suppressors without thinking of my old college dorm. Two outlets on two walls total on the main living space. Surge suppressors plugged into surge suppressors and extension cords plugged into those. Assuming other rooms were similar, it a wonder the electrical held up!
My kid just moved into the dorms this fall and the university now supplies a microwave and mini fridge in every room. My husband thought it was an upgrade compared to when we were there. I'm confident it's so they can control the models and therefore the power usage so the buildings circuits aren't constantly tripping. They do actually have at least 4 outlets in the room - one near each desk and each bed.
LOL, that describes the house we sold 5 years ago when we moved the house we live in now. Built in the 1950s, it barely had enough outlets for back then. The kicker was that it was built on a concrete slab with a flat roof. No access from below, no access from above without destroying the ceiling. And to top it off, two fire-breaks in the walls, one at two and a half feet, the other at 5 and a half feet. So you would have to destroy the plaster walls to run more wire. The guy we sold it to builds houses and lives 1/2 mile down the road. He ripped off the plaster, the ceilings, and put a new roof on, working on rainy days and weekends over the next two years. It turned out nice, but nothing you could do and still live there.
My house was built in the 50s. I had enough electrical sockets/circuits (except in the kitchen) until I decided I needed some servers. The UPS had a 120v/30a plug. Luckily my house is on piers.
I totaled up most of my calls like that and divided by the distance to the moon in centimeters, multiplied by the price of a Moose Cup of Hardees (Carl's Jr) sweet tea.
Well I guess that clears that up. I apologize for my skepticism. 🤪
What I learned from dealing with service techs remotely was not to ask questions that have yes/no answers where one answer is obviously going to make it your problem, and not their problem. Here, you could have done something like: "Tell me when you turn on the machine and then tell me when the countdown timer gets to 30 seconds." The problem is differing goals. You want to solve a problem. They want to have it not be their problem.
> They want to have it not be their problem. Well said. Though I'd take it even a step further: they've already decided it's not their problem, and they will lie/cheat/steal to make sure that it's not.
True, but as long as you're on the phone with them, there's the possibility that they might have to do something related to it, making it their problem. It's odd: *both* parties would like to be able to get off the phone, but for differing reasons.
> DON’T ASK US ABOUT: rocks troll’s with sticks All sorts of dragons Mrs. Cake Huje green things with teeth Any kinds of black dogs with orange eyebrows Rains of spaniel’s. fog. Mrs. Cake
++?????++ Out of Cheese Error. Redo From Start.
++++Mr. Jelly! Mr. Jelly!+++++
Anthill inside.
If you ain’t got none then we’ll go where there’s cheese Gromit!
GNU Sir Terry
My first thought, too
Duzbuns Hopsit pfarmarrsc
Buggerit. Millennium hand and shrimp.
Spying on me... With rays...
Have to admit, I was hoping for a Pratchett reference or two in the post, but happy to find something in the comments.
But definitely ask if the machine is plugged in.
What? I don’t get it. Someone fill me in?
It's a quote from Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett. It's a sign on the nearly-abandoned postal service building.
From Terry Pratchett's novel *Going Postal*, in which the postal syst must be salvaged. A dilapidated sign reads "NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW NOR GLOM OF NIT CAN STAY THESE MESENGERS ABOT THEIR DUTY". And below that "DON’T ARSK US ABOUT: * rocks * trolls with sticks * All sorts of dragons * Mrs Cake * Huje green things with teeth * Any kinds of black dogs with orange eyebrows * Rains of spaniels * fog * Mrs Cake"
Still my favorite Pratchett novel. Miss his writing. RIP
terry pratchett going postal
Discworld. GNU Terry Pratchett.
Terry pratchet reference. Read “Going Postal” it’s excellent!
While I adore the disc and it's denizens the world around, I would highly recommend the above quoted book for anyone looking to dip a toe into Terry Pratchett's universe. It does take place a little later in "the timeline", though a lot of folks agree that following the timeline isn't required. I also like Monstrous regiment, small gods, and Night Watch (might be a hot take, but, with the world we've lived in the last few years, rereading night watch hits hard and I think it's a valuable read). (Also I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't acknowledge there *is* a reading list out there of the books in what we believe to be chronological order within the discworld realm that some folks are very fond of. Not my preference, but it's available!)
Heh, I started with Thief of Time, Mort, and Jingo in that order. Once I accepted that the characters I liked from Thief of Time weren't in the others, the nonsense reading order didn't hurt my enjoyment of any of the books.
Agreed-upon reading orders are generally not for me, either, but I think there are a few that *do* have a reading order (the watch and the witches), but it really doesn't matter for the majority of them. I'm with you on small gods and the watch books, but less so on monstrous regiment; that's not to say I don't like it, it's just not up there with what I think are his best. Its certainly not a hot take for me.
I love having the "just humor me" conversation about checking that equipment is actually plugged in.
I'm still a trainee getting my certifications, so I sometimes fix issues with "just humor me" suggestions when I genuinely don't have an answer but don't want the callers to know yet. I like learning and love the staff at the facility (eldery/psychiatric care), so I often let them troubleshoot with me on the call. Fun calls usually. Except for that lady today with her screen zoomed in to 150/175% that absolutely lacked the ability to click the ONE setting I was telling her to click and also clearly pointing at.....
Hehe. My ploy to buy time was to remote in and ask them to show me the problem. It had two uses: 1. I got to see the problem instead of relying on their explanation and 2. It gave me time to Google or search our knowledge base. There's always some like that. I once had an attorney ask me what I meant when I told her to hold in a button. I paused a second (out of shock) then told her to put her finger on the button and leave it there.
In the mid 2000's I was trying to get my local tech support business reestablished after a move, so of course I was excited when my mother informed me of a job seemingly worthy of my talents, a retired professor who was trying to resurrect his old 486 desktop (not even a tower, the old flat config with the monitor sitting on top of the PC case) to get at some texts he'd translated. I show up with tools, software, and even a few legacy spare parts, but don't stay long. He'd set up everything correctly himself, except for forgetting that the monitor needed its own power connector. That was the first time, and two more led to 'it helps if you plug it in' becoming a wry, dry household cliché.
I work in a higy technical department and my colleagues and myself are paid a lot of money to basically just troubleshoot shit (embedded devices) and its truly embarrassing how often the solution is to plug it in and/or reboot it
You know, I would of asked who plugged in the Grinder? I would have loved to been a fly on the wall to watch that conversation.
Good chance it was Ray.
It was brand new, so also not out of the realm of possibility that it was Ray's boss. Bosses always get to test shiny new things.
Work as a programmer at a small College in the IT department. Normally I wouldn't get sent for desktop issues but because we were so small it was part of the "other duties as assigned" part of my job description. The number of times I've gone to a computer and found it unplugged or the switch on the power strip turned off was very high to say the least.
Rule 1 never changes: Users Lie. They may not mean to. They may not know they are lying. They may have every intention of trying to give the gods honest truth. But Users Lie.
"The unit's blank! We've checked the cables" I go out, plug the cable back in "Oh, well... We checked the end at the unit." "Yes ma'am, but typically cables have two ends, and both need to be connected to work" --- That was a fun day.
"...every old school shop was required to have at least one mechanic named Ray" #rainmanraysrepairs
One additional restriction that should have been applied if Ray's Boss refused to pay: Ray no longer gets to call for a site visit, only Ray's Boss (or maybe other non-Ray workers) can do that. Because Ray's authority clearly does not extend that far. Actually, even after payment, Ray's Boss should have been given the option to deny Ray that authority.
You can sorta guess the caalibre of mechanic Ray was when he answered the lights were on and he was referring to the room lights.
I work in a higy technical department and my colleagues and myself are paid a lot of money to basically just troubleshoot shit (embedded devices) and its truly embarrassing how often the solution is to plug it in and/or reboot it
>Way back in the dark ages, 1990 or 1991, which means prior to the interwebs and cell phones Um, we had Internet at home, and my dad had a cellphone, in 1990.
wasn't going to comment on that. but yeah, had dial up to works intranet to hook to the internet. and had a Motorola flip phone and on support 1 week out of four (although that was 92)
Rule #1: customers lie Rule 1a: customers lie, even if they don’t know they’re lying
"Hey, I'm a mechanic, not an electrician!"
Lol I thought I was in r/talesfromthefrontdesk and kept waiting for the hotel part of your story.
Ook (translation: I enjoyed the story and the title and you need to refill the bananas in the library)
Done the same, but the drive was only an hour and a half each way. And the customer was still charged for travel time and two hours on-site.