Making coffee...

AgentB
AgentB
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Topic 198263

I keep looking at my crunchers and wondering perhaps ... https://youtu.be/ddgvNNw-MbA

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Making coffee...

LOL ! Why do I never get invited to those sort of breakfasts ? :-)

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Mind you it is not like we could all turn up at the Hanford LIGO for instance, and tap the received gravitational wave power likewise. It wouldn't bother the virus within the bacterium on a flea.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

noderaser
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You've got me thinking of the

You've got me thinking of the old "Caffeine Machine" case mod from back in the early 2000s... I don't think you'd want to run your crunchers hot enough to brew coffee though, pretty sure you'd be risking damage.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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RE: You've got me thinking

Quote:
You've got me thinking of the old "Caffeine Machine" case mod from back in the early 2000s... I don't think you'd want to run your crunchers hot enough to brew coffee though, pretty sure you'd be risking damage.


It's a good thing they are still supplying the retractable cup holders as standard though .....

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Chris S
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Ah yes the legend of the

Ah yes the legend of the retractable coffee cup holder, which apparently was dead true!

Another one was where the PC tech stripped down a PC because the floppy drive didn't work and found the drive stuffed full of dollar bills. It transpired that the owner had been trying to buy something on-line via the internet!!

And the one where the lady user complained that the foot pedal was difficult to use. Turned out that she had the mouse on the floor upside down like a roller ball !!

The above was also true, but the classic about the powercut was partly an urban myth. For those that have forgotten it is reproduced here.

Quote:
"Word Perfect Technical support; may I help you?"
"Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect."
"What sort of trouble?"
"Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away."
"Went away?"
"They disappeared."
"Hmm. So what does your screen look like now?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type."
"Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out?"
"How do I tell?"
"Can you see the C:\ prompt on the screen?"
"What's a sea-prompt?"
"Never mind. Can you move the cursor around on the screen?"
"There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I type."
"Does your monitor have a power indicator?"
"What's a monitor?"
"It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on?"
"I don't know."
"Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that?"
....."Yes, I think so."
"Great! Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged into the wall."
....."Yes, it is."
"When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one?"
"No."
"Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable."
....."Okay, here it is."
"Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the back of your computer."
"I can't reach it."
"Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is?"
"No."
"Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over?"
"Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle-it's because it's dark."
"Dark?"
"Yes-the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window."
"Well, turn on the office light then."
"I can't."
"No? Why not?"
"Because there's a power outage."
"A power... A power outage? Aha! Okay, we've got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in?"
"Well, yes. I keep them in the closet."
"Good! Go get them and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from."
"Really! Is it that bad?"
"Yes, I'm afraid it is."
"Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them?"
"Tell them you're too stupid to own a computer."


Up until the power outage it was true apparently, but the rest was embellished over the years as what the tech would have liked to say!

Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)

Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now

mikey
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RE: And the one where the

Quote:

And the one where the lady user complained that the foot pedal was difficult to use. Turned out that she had the mouse on the floor upside down like a roller ball !!

When I first started at my part-time IT guy job I was the first contact person that they would call, my job was to go out and make sure the problem wasn't 'user error' ie stuff not plugged in, etc, etc. While making the visit to each and every one of the 1600 pc's I was in charge of I went to see this 60+ year old female supervisor who had her mouse on the floor and she was using her foot to operate it. Turns out she was a seamstress by trade and only became a supervisor because they begged her to come in and work for a couple of years. She had little interest in pc's, or how to really use one, and the only thing she did was log in the case numbers that her workers were working on. I asked her if I could show her a 'better way', she actually jumped up and hugged me saying 'I though that was the worst invention ever until just now!!!' She had an exit door right next to her office and never went to anyone elses office or desk the whole time she worked there, nor did she have a pc at home, so never knew another way. All the other IT guys had seen it and just laughed at her!! She was a really nice lady, but was really out of her depth with pc's. She retired within 3 months and was REALLY happy about it!!

anniet
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Oh yes well, I do remember

Oh yes well, I do remember having a teensy problem with a text issue on my very first computer. Lotus word pro I think was the pre-loaded software it happened to. One minute everything was fine, and the next it was far from it. It was still well within 28 days of purchase so had come with this freephone number you could ring for all software and hardware issues. So I did. Everything I told him should have pinpointed exactly what had "gone wrong" immediately. Yes - I was too stupid to own a computer in those days. He should have known that and said so. Instead he made me do all sorts of things, then declared himself somewhat stumped, so talked me through doing dark magic with stuff in the land of safe mode, then dos and BIOS settings and then HUNG UP! Did he pick up the phone again? NO! I learnt a lot that night, the hard way...

What WAS the problem? Well if I tell you what I told him: that the blinking line thingy moved across the screen as I typed but no text showed like an IBM golfball typewriter that has run out of ribbon (which was as far as my experience of typing had ever got at that stage) as if the screen has "run out of carbon or ink or something" is, I believe, a direct quote of myself :) but that "some black strips are there with nothing in them when I "drag the mouse about a bit" - what would you say was "wrong" ?

:)

edit: if you could give me the approximate time it took you to reach your dignosis would be good too, if no one minds that is :)

Please wait here. Further instructions could pile up at any time. Thank you.

archae86
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I thought about this for

I thought about this for about 30 seconds and had one idea, which I'll post without thinking harder.

Early word processor though it was, possibly it allowed you to set text color. Possibly you had the text color set to the same as the background.

anniet
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RE: I thought about this

Quote:

I thought about this for about 30 seconds and had one idea, which I'll post without thinking harder.

Early word processor though it was, possibly it allowed you to set text color. Possibly you had the text color set to the same as the background.

May I bow at your feet, archae? For - you are a genius :) Yes. White text on a white background. He had me on the phone for over an hour before he hung up on me and then never answered the phone again. I think it's because it suddenly dawned on him what had happened and he was too embarrassed to admit it. He was either the kind of genius who should be kept away from the stupid, or he was an eerily different kind of the same stupid to my stupid, which should also not be allowed to mix :)

Thank you for your thirty second diagnosis :)

Please wait here. Further instructions could pile up at any time. Thank you.

Chris S
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The other goodie in the early

The other goodie in the early days was where word processors used the insert key (INS). If you didn't have that turned on and off at the appropriate times it over wrote what you had just typed, or put stuff in the wrong place. I had that with the BBC B Wordwise program!

Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)

Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now

David S
David S
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RE: The other goodie in the

Quote:

The other goodie in the early days was where word processors used the insert key (INS). If you didn't have that turned on and off at the appropriate times it over wrote what you had just typed, or put stuff in the wrong place. I had that with the BBC B Wordwise program!


That forty twoks that way with certain programs.

I just proved it above by typing "That still works that way..." then hitting Insert, placing my cursor at the start of "still" and typing "forty two".

Sometimes I wish I could do that on my phone.

David

Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.

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