Comment On 1285E8 & More Highly Specialized Support

I'll quickly make a second one so no-one will complain about single plurals.

12h851 is not 128451 upside down. It's 158421 upside down.

1285E8? That sounds like the combination an idiot would have on his luggage

I think the real wtf about the user/password bit is that the guy used 'password' as a password. Isn't that in IT 101? Spare PC, temp user or not, even if I'm re-assigning a password to someone, I'll use something with some sense like 'changeMe*&1' or something.

Captcha: uxor - Isn't that some kind of greek god or something?

Anon:

1285E8? That sounds like the combination an idiot would have on his luggage

Weird, that's the same combination I have on MY luggage.

Well I use it to lock the atmosphere inside my planet.

Huh, no way - that's the combination I have on your luggage too.

All IT departments know:

1285E8 = ID10T

TRWTF in the first one is the IT staffer who took as much as 60 seconds to realize "this idiot is holding the token upside-down".

trwtf is the VIP using the st. louis ghetto slang 'her' instead of here.

Back when I was doing support I had the CD in the floppy drive call. Except the woman I was talking to didn't try to be clever, she just tried to blame it on us... wanted us to pay for getting the CD out of her machine.

Gotta wonder about people sometimes.

I used to tech support for a company that sold braille displays and "screen reader" software for the visually impaired.

I don't read Braille well at all so I usually passed that off to another guy who did. But the screen reading software actually made phone support easier than it would be otherwise: every new window, menu or pop-up text was read aloud. I'd tell the user to click on "File, then Settings." I'd hear "Dialog... Settings," followed by a host of info that'd almost certainly be read wrong by a human.

Or if they were about to do something silly I could usually stop it in time.

Definitely the best way to do phone support ever.

Is it bad that I read that line as:

"oh no, my kid has a gun." ?

The last one reminded me of an occasion when I was a student, working as a programmer during the summer at a now-defunct project management software company. It was 1987, and IBM's PS/2 machines had just introduced the world to 3.5 inch floppies.

Anyway, I was occasionally asked to provide floppy disks containing my software, and one day, a saleswoman gave me a disk. OK, you know that 3.5 inchers have two kinds of label: the small ones that stick on the front, and the large ones that wrap around into that space in the back.

Well, not quite. The disk not go in the drive. It went in about 2.5 inches, then stopped dead. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting this, and it took me five goes in three machines to work out what had happened. It was this long because I had worked out immediately that you don't stick the label on the shutter, so it never occurred to me that anyone would do so. It is, however, perfectly possible to do what the saleswoman did, and stick a large label wholly on the front of the disk. Of course, it then overlaps the shutter, and the disk won't go further in than most-of-the-way, as I found out.

Kensey:

TRWTF in the first one is the IT staffer who took as much as 60 seconds to realize "this idiot is holding the token upside-down".

Actually, TRWTF in the first one is that the IT staffer DIDN'T realize "this idiot is holding the token upside-down", and the VIP had to figure that out first... Although, i can't quite judge by me getting it in about 10 seconds of reading "1285E8", since anyone who'd similarly realize the same thing wouldn't end up with that job in the first place. B-)

I can't figure out what purpose gum would serve...

zebano:

I can't figure out what purpose gum would serve...

Auto-stick-to-CD tweezers. ;-)

Good thing his security token wasn't 5318008.

Of course, it then overlaps the shutter, and the disk won't go further in than most-of-the-way, as I found out.

Yep, I've had that one.

Also had a similar instance where I finally figured out that the label was slowly peeling off of the back of the disk -- just enough that it would catch and stick on the edge of the drive and prevent the disk from going in all the way without forcing it. That one would have been a lot easier to figure out if it hadn't been a phone support call. :-)

John M:

I think the real wtf about the user/password bit is that the guy used 'password' as a password. Isn't that in IT 101? Spare PC, temp user or not, even if I'm re-assigning a password to someone, I'll use something with some sense like 'changeMe*&1' or something.

Maybe the real password in the story was "changeMe#&1" but the Special High-Intensity Technician still capitalized it and used it in the "User" field? Alex has been known to be less than... absolutely literal... in the retellings of these stories.

IOW, there's a difference between real WTF and pseudo-WTF caused by editorial license.

Captcha: uxor - Isn't that some kind of greek god or something?

Actually, Latin for "wife". So, more like "goddess".

The Mad Pedant:

John M:

I think the real wtf about the user/password bit is that the guy used 'password' as a password. Isn't that in IT 101? Spare PC, temp user or not, even if I'm re-assigning a password to someone, I'll use something with some sense like 'changeMe*&1' or something.

Maybe the real password in the story was "changeMe#&1" but the Special High-Intensity Technician still capitalized it and used it in the "User" field? Alex has been known to be less than... absolutely literal... in the retellings of these stories.

IOW, there's a difference between real WTF and pseudo-WTF caused by editorial license.

Good point, but you're not establishing your pedant cred well by botching your quotes. Tard.

"It went in pretty easy," she casually said, "but it won't come out now. I have been going at it like an hour with a pair of tweezers."

That's what she said.

Wait...

John M:

I think the real wtf about the user/password bit is that the guy used 'password' as a password. Isn't that in IT 101? Spare PC, temp user or not, even if I'm re-assigning a password to someone, I'll use something with some sense like 'changeMe*&1' or something.

I actually like using "user/password"; I feel that should make it obvious that the "user" account is going to have absolutely no remarkable privileges. If they complain "I can't do X", you can instantly reply "what did you expect with that username and password? Idiot."

zebano:

I can't figure out what purpose gum would serve...

You never watched MacGyver did you?

C:

zebano:

I can't figure out what purpose gum would serve...

Auto-stick-to-CD tweezers. ;-)

Yeah, I guess the gum would stick to the tweezers pretty well. And if the gum doesn't work to get the tweezers out, a little peanut butter should loosen up any residual gum left in the drive.

That is why my bank shows a picture of the token when it asks for the number. I dare say it sure helps me when I am paying some bills early in the morning (before my first cup of coffee) or late in the night (after a really long day).

3rd try <- TRWTF

Highly Specialized Techinician = Hi, I'm The Best PET Soda Bottle Cap placer... IN THE WORLD! Bwhaha... Oh... what is that? Is that a PET Soda Bottle ALUMINUM Cap? Oh no, I dont DO those... sorry.

DCRoss:

Good thing his security token wasn't 5318008.

8008135 are always a good thing!

JL:

C:

zebano:

I can't figure out what purpose gum would serve...

Auto-stick-to-CD tweezers. ;-)

Yeah, I guess the gum would stick to the tweezers pretty well. And if the gum doesn't work to get the tweezers out, a little peanut butter should loosen up any residual gum left in the drive.

Then you put a mouse in there to eat the peanut butter?

amischiefr:

zebano:

I can't figure out what purpose gum would serve...

You never watched MacGyver did you?

Isn't he the guy that led the Stargate teams? Used gum to fix the stargate whenever it slipped. The gum made the lock just sticky enough.

Not so much "highly specialized" technician as simply "special".

Zapp Brannigan:

JL:

C:

zebano:

I can't figure out what purpose gum would serve...

Auto-stick-to-CD tweezers. ;-)

Yeah, I guess the gum would stick to the tweezers pretty well. And if the gum doesn't work to get the tweezers out, a little peanut butter should loosen up any residual gum left in the drive.

Then you put a mouse in there to eat the peanut butter?

But my friend, that is the beauty behind the plan. The mouse-in-a-wheel who magically powers each PC will take care of any residual peanut butter while he's taking his tea at 5-o'clock.

DCRoss:

Good thing his security token wasn't 5318008.

What if you got two of the token and put them together?

Kensey:

TRWTF in the first one is the IT staffer who took as much as 60 seconds to realize "this idiot is holding the token upside-down".

Usually those things have some printed text on the front in addition to the LCD screen. So, anyone who doesn't get the hint needs to be exceptionally stupid.

amischiefr:

zebano:

I can't figure out what purpose gum would serve...

You never watched MacGyver did you?

She wanted to make a Jeep out of her computer?

Process for removing CD from floppy drive:

Stick gum to string and CD needing to be removed.
Tie string to CD tray
Write a script to eject the CD tray to yank it out

enim lla enim:

Kensey:

TRWTF in the first one is the IT staffer who took as much as 60 seconds to realize "this idiot is holding the token upside-down".

Usually those things have some printed text on the front in addition to the LCD screen. So, anyone who doesn't get the hint needs to be exceptionally stupid.

alex:

Very Important User: a member of the Board of Directors

Um, yeah - that seems about right...

enim lla enim:

Kensey:

TRWTF in the first one is the IT staffer who took as much as 60 seconds to realize "this idiot is holding the token upside-down".

Usually those things have some printed text on the front in addition to the LCD screen. So, anyone who doesn't get the hint needs to be exceptionally stupid.

Yeah, but who looks at that?

I've made the mistake before, just coincidentally when all the numbers that were on the token looked the same upside-down as right-side up

John M:

I think the real wtf about the user/password bit is that the guy used 'password' as a password. Isn't that in IT 101? Spare PC, temp user or not, even if I'm re-assigning a password to someone, I'll use something with some sense like 'changeMe*&1' or something.

Captcha: uxor - Isn't that some kind of greek god or something?

you've obviously been fortunate enough never to work with the general public, i actually had a guy recently going ballistic because he forgot his password, reset it, and got assigned one made of random characters. despite the fact that it was in an email he could copy and paste it from, and the fact he was forced to change it as soon as he logged in, he still thought it was too hard to remember. fuckin jackass

Just this monday (sept 14), I walked in the door to have my boss tell me our highly specialized technician wasted a ton of time over the weekend in a foreign country with an Ethernet communication problem.

Turns out the jack to jack connection was correct, but he somehow managed to plug the connector in upside-down on one of them. As to how this is possible, I haven't even the courage to duplicate the effort. Seriously, how can you do that??

It's always dumb stuff like this. The only way these people keep their job is because they're "willing to travel", meaning, get called at 4AM, rush out somewhere on behest of upper management omitting the necessary equipment or any planning, and then wait around a day for UPS-red to deliver something the next day.

I'm guilty of holding my RSA Key upside down. I was curious as to why I never seen hex digits before on the screen, oddly enough at the same time my login wasn't working.

Daniel:

3rd try <- TRWTF

Obvious: Alex has been successfull in implementing Greylisting!

Had the one with CD in floppy - I think for a moment I had a quite strange expression on my face!

Zapp Brannigan:

JL:

C:

zebano:

I can't figure out what purpose gum would serve...

Auto-stick-to-CD tweezers. ;-)

Yeah, I guess the gum would stick to the tweezers pretty well. And if the gum doesn't work to get the tweezers out, a little peanut butter should loosen up any residual gum left in the drive.

Then you put a mouse in there to eat the peanut butter?

Then you put in a cat to get the mouse.

I don't know why.

MArk B.

TRWTF was that the VP was doing work.

captcha: Venio (a venetian gang member)

RSA token upside down? It obviously has a label. So, that's shockingly incompetent.

I don't know about the RSA tokens used here, but the ones that Paypal uses have a label that wears off really quickly. After a few months, there are no obvious indications as to their orientation.

B B:

Process for removing CD from floppy drive:

Stick gum to string and CD needing to be removed.
Tie string to CD tray
Write a script to eject the CD tray to yank it out

You, on the other hand, apparently have watched MacGyver.

Testify. A while back, I was doing tech support at an ISP. User calls for a password reset. I say new password is eaTm3. User types, then says it isn't working.

Me - "Are you sure the T is uppercase?"
User - "What's uppercase?"
Me - "Capital. Big Letter. Hold down shift."

Doesn't work. Then a go through the necessary keystrokes for each letter.

Me - "small e"
Me - "small a"
Me - "BIG T, hold shift while you push it"
Me - "small m"
Me - "three"
User - "Is the 3 upper or lower?"
Me - "Just shoot me in the face."

amischiefr:

Anon:

1285E8? That sounds like the combination an idiot would have on his luggage

Weird, that's the same combination I have on MY luggage.

Prepare Spaceball 1 for immediate departure!... And change the combination on my luggage!

Gum solves everything!

My grandparents used to carry gum always: They used it to plug holes in the gas tank on their Rambler station wagon (after kicked-up gravel punched holes in it).