Here's more of my electronic mail about living with the technology. This time from a Tech Support person who read what I had to say about users sometimes being clueless. (Thanks and a tip of the hat to Robyn E. for these great incidents.)

Robyn writes:

After 14 years in the computer support industry, and the previous 10 in telecommunications, I have come across many strange happenings and even stranger users. I am sure most support persons have experienced the below "issues" or ones similar.

A black cat at midnight in a coal mine.

A client complained that she could no longer read the text on her monitor. She believed the monitor was faulty. On arrival it didn't take long to reset her windows colours back to default and explain that: yes, it is hard to read black letters on a black background.

Not a bright co-worker.

Screen dead was the complaint. I arrived, turned up the brightness, and by magic, it was fixed. Laughter drifted across the room from the office practical joker. This stopped abruptly when he was informed the cost of the service call would be deducted from his salary.

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Going for a fall.

Mr Client brought a monitor into the workshop. "First thing in the morning it won't work. After half an hour it will go."

Ah! power supply would be the guess.

We plugged it in there and then and up it came.

"Oh well, must be warm."

"Leave it here over night and we will try it in the morning when it is cold," said I.

Next morning I switched it on and it started immediately. No amount of turning it off and on could make it fail. Mr Client was rung and informed as it wouldn't fail, he may as well pick it up.

The next morning he rang to inform us that it had failed again.

"Bring it back in," was my reply.

On receiving the monitor, I squeezed it into the refrigerator to get really cold. Again I could not get it to fail. I hit it, shook it, but it worked flawlessly. The client picked it up once more.

The next morning, he rang, it had failed again.

"OK" said I, " I will be at your office first thing tomorrow morning."

7:30 am I was there, waiting at the door of Mr Client's office. Mr Client arrived not long after and in we went.

"Here," he said "watch!"

He turned on the computer and monitor. The monitor started straight away! Mr Client was not amused.

10 a.m. the next morning, another phone call from Mr Client, "How much is a new monitor?" said he. "This one just fell of the Desk !!"

What's that?

"Our Internet connection wont work.."

" Have you turned the modem off and on again?" said I.

"Yes" was the reply, "I rebooted the system".

Thinking there was something sinister going on I went out to the client's office. One look at the modem: "On hook" but with no "Carrier Detect" light on, told me it had locked up.

I reset the modem and it started to dial.

"You did turn the modem off and on, didn't you"" said I to the office person in charge of the server, "this thing" said I pointing to the modem.

"What is that" said the office person.

Enough to say that the Modem now has a yellow post-it note stuck on it saying THIS IS THE MODEM.

Big Mice in Taiwan.

Spare parts for Genius mice arrived at Customs. These were held in quarantine and our office was called.

"Could you please explain what this shipment is about?" said the Customs officer, "It is described as , One Bag of 50 mouse balls"

Got the wobbles?

I was called out to a client's office as her monitor on her PC was wobbling.

On arrival I immediately diagnosed the problem and rectified same by picking up the monitor and moving it 30 cm away from the Wyse terminal sitting next to it.

I spent longer trying to explain how the magnetic fields interact. She couldn't comprehend.

So it does not surprise me that Tech Support people have now made me their hobby.

I *do* know there are clueless users and a multiplicity of horror stories to be told. Some of them leave me ROTFLMAO. (Feel better now?)