About two years ago, I was asked to run a virus scan on one company’s network of computers. I did and I found a simple harmless virus on each computer in the network. After I reported that to the company’s officials, they gasped (literally), then thanked me, then asked me to leave despite my offers to remove the virus with the anti-virus program. The next day, I found out that they formatted every single hard drive of every computer, backing up only the most important data.
For a computer programming class, I sat directly across from someone, and our computers were facing away from each other. A few minutes into the class, she got up to leave the room. I reached between our computers and switched the inputs for the keyboards. She came back and started typing and immediately got a distressed look on her face. She called the teacher over and explained that no matter what she typed, nothing would happen. The teacher tried everything. By this time I was hiding behind my monitor and quaking red-faced. I started to type, “Leave me alone!”
They both jumped back, silenced. “What the…” the teacher said. I typed, “I said leave me alone!” The kid got real upset. “I didn’t do anything to it, I swear!” It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. The conversation between them and HAL 2000 went on for an amazing five minutes.
Me: “Don’t touch me!”
Her: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hit your keys that hard.”
Me: “Who do you think you are anyway?!”
Etc. Finally, I couldn’t contain myself any longer and fell out of my chair laughing. After they had realized what I had done, they both turned beet red. Funny, I never got more than a C- in that class.
Customer: “My computer won’t work. You guys must have broken it when you installed the modem.”
Tech Support: “What happens when you turn it on?”
Customer: “It won’t turn on anymore!!!!!”
Tech Support: “So you don’t see any lights or hear any noise?”
Customer: “I’m telling you it WON’T TURN ON.”
Tech Support: “Is it plugged in?
Customer: “OF COURSE it’s plugged in, you MORON!”
Tech Support: “When you push the power button it–”
Customer: “Power button? This computer doesn’t have a power button.”
Tech Support: “Sir, all computers have power buttons. Look at the front of the case, find the word ‘power,’ and push the button.”
Customer: “YOU FIXED IT!! Thanks!!!!”
Student: “Hey, how do I lodge in to Hotmail?”
Me: “You’ve got to type in your username and password in those fields that say ‘username’ and ‘password’.”
Student: “I don’t have one of those.”
Me: “You need one to log in to Hotmail.”
Student: “It’s ‘LODGE’ in.”
Me: “The term is ‘log in,’ and you can’t log in without a username and password. I can help you create one if you’d like.”
Student: “Um, excuse me, but I THINK I know what I’m talking about. It’s LODGE in, and I don’t want a username and password, I just want to get some email!”
I just went back to working after that, and he left complaining about how “crappy” the computers in the lab were, after trying to “lodge in” for ten more minutes.