Comment On NPR Is Reading My Email, Just Fix It!, & More Support Stories

Just comment on whatever the hell needs commenting!

I can't describe in English how much I HATE those numpad-only !@%#@$. Also, most of them haven't heard of numlock... strange things happen when it "accidentally" gets turned off...

Btw, could anybody enlighten me HOW that numpad-mania happened in first place? It's not a matter of old habit - typewriters had only the top row.

I just love the "without telling me your password" and what ensues...

Paraphrase of an email that was sent out to our customers (since I don't remember the exact wording)

Dear Customer,
We are implenting new security procedures. With our new system you will be assigned a picture that will be displayed above the password box after you put in your username. This is to help you be sure that you are not on a phishing site. If you put in your username and don't see your picture, please do not enter your password.


Call from on customer:

Customer:I got this email about how I'm supposed to see my picture and not to log in if I don't see it?

CSR: Yes, sir.

Customer: How the HELL did you get a picture of me?

Those sneaky NPR broadcasters can also read content off my Kindle. Grrr...

Is the real WTF that they were working on May 1?

TRWTF is NPR. Their newscasters' delivery is so bland that it is indistinguishable from a synthesized voice.

How cool would it be to have Carl Kasell read your email?

bannedfromcoding:

I can't describe in English how much I HATE those numpad-only !@%#@$. Also, most of them haven't heard of numlock... strange things happen when it "accidentally" gets turned off...

Btw, could anybody enlighten me HOW that numpad-mania happened in first place? It's not a matter of old habit - typewriters had only the top row.

It's much faster to type long strings of numbers on the numpad. Also, it mimics calculator layout, which if you're in accounting or something like that, it more familiar than the top row.
It comes down to a matter of preference really. Personally, I use it unless I'm mixing in a lot of letters with the numbers (eg. formulas), or it's just a couple numbers that need to be tossed into what is otherwise all text. The numlock key though, is useless and needs to die.

You'd have thought that Heather would have figured out something was amiss when the NPR newsreader turned into Stephen Hawking.

I can't log into my Daily WTF account to post a comment because I can't find any numbers on my keyboard. My password is sunshine1911, so if one of you can log in and post my comment for me, it would be much appreciated.

The second isn't really a wtf... it's just a lazy over-paid schmuck. When I worked tech support back in University, I can't tell you how many times I 'set up' equipment for the president or the dean which consisted of nothing more than taking it out of the box.

Apparently, they're too important for that sort of thing.

Anonymous:

You'd have thought that Heather would have figured out something was amiss when the NPR newsreader turned into Stephen Hawking.

I think it could be hard to tell the difference between the computer and the NPR dull monotone hosts.

Heather: ha ha fantastic story. Are the NPR newsreaders really that robotic, or has text to speech software come on so far since I last heard it?

Just fix it: I hope John sent a nice thanks & explanation email the next day to H-Sphere.

Senior engineer & Gel pad: made me LOL. Some people think they're above anything...

Dell number keys: In fairness to the user, some laptop keyboards are pretty wacky with blue printed characters everywhere and tiny F-keys that may be ignored by a quick glance, and if the user normally goes to the number pad which is missing they're going to be thrown off balance. Still, she should have been able to work it out herself over the weekend.

~:

It's much faster to type long strings of numbers on the numpad. Also, it mimics calculator layout, which if you're in accounting or something like that, it more familiar than the top row.
It comes down to a matter of preference really. Personally, I use it unless I'm mixing in a lot of letters with the numbers (eg. formulas), or it's just a couple numbers that need to be tossed into what is otherwise all text. The numlock key though, is useless and needs to die.

Well, "faster"... I was thinking of those two-fingered hunt-and-peck typers.
Numlock is yet another element on lightyears-long "PC legacy crap" list - the original PC keyboard lacked separate arrows and edit keys.
Anyway, best use of the pad is remaping it into additional function block. The only problem is the fact that VT420 had one more key in there...

the real wtf fool:

Dell number keys: In fairness to the user, some laptop keyboards are pretty wacky with blue printed characters everywhere and tiny F-keys that may be ignored by a quick glance, and if the user normally goes to the number pad which is missing they're going to be thrown off balance. Still, she should have been able to work it out herself over the weekend.

My Dell Laptop actually has a numpad on the blue keys using m<>?, jkl;, uiop, and 7890. So the blue label on the key for 7 is actually... another number 7. Double fail.

Another WTF is that it took Sally over 90 minutes to take the gel pad out of the packaging and install it on the desk of the Sr. Engineer.

~:

bannedfromcoding:

I can't describe in English how much I HATE those numpad-only !@%#@$. Also, most of them haven't heard of numlock... strange things happen when it "accidentally" gets turned off...

Btw, could anybody enlighten me HOW that numpad-mania happened in first place? It's not a matter of old habit - typewriters had only the top row.

It's much faster to type long strings of numbers on the numpad. Also, it mimics calculator layout, which if you're in accounting or something like that, it more familiar than the top row.
It comes down to a matter of preference really. Personally, I use it unless I'm mixing in a lot of letters with the numbers (eg. formulas), or it's just a couple numbers that need to be tossed into what is otherwise all text. The numlock key though, is useless and needs to die.

The other reason is French keyboards. I'm English, well-and-truly used to QWERTY, now working in France - on AZERTY keyboards, the top-row numbers are typed with Shift down, but the numpad ones are not. I often type &é"'(-è_çà) instead of 1234567890.

Anonymous Coward:

...captcha: appellatio. Is that some variation of fellatio?

see this previous explanation.

"Without telling me your password, what is your password"

"Well my password is -- well, uh... HOW CAN I TELL YOU MY PASSWORD IS sunshine1911 IF YOU WON'T LET ME TELL YOU MY oops"

bannedfromcoding:

I can't describe in English how much I HATE those numpad-only !@%#@$. Also, most of them haven't heard of numlock... strange things happen when it "accidentally" gets turned off...

Btw, could anybody enlighten me HOW that numpad-mania happened in first place? It's not a matter of old habit - typewriters had only the top row.

Many laptops map the numpad to like 'uiojklm,.' when the numlock is set. My friend once called me in tears when her keyboard started spitting out weird characters, telling me she can't afford a new laptop right now.

Steve the Cynic:

~:

bannedfromcoding:

I can't describe in English how much I HATE those numpad-only !@%#@$. Also, most of them haven't heard of numlock... strange things happen when it "accidentally" gets turned off...

Btw, could anybody enlighten me HOW that numpad-mania happened in first place? It's not a matter of old habit - typewriters had only the top row.

It's much faster to type long strings of numbers on the numpad. Also, it mimics calculator layout, which if you're in accounting or something like that, it more familiar than the top row.
It comes down to a matter of preference really. Personally, I use it unless I'm mixing in a lot of letters with the numbers (eg. formulas), or it's just a couple numbers that need to be tossed into what is otherwise all text. The numlock key though, is useless and needs to die.

The other reason is French keyboards. I'm English, well-and-truly used to QWERTY, now working in France - on AZERTY keyboards, the top-row numbers are typed with Shift down, but the numpad ones are not. I often type &é"'(-è_çà) instead of 1234567890.

Then the real QLM (Quand-le-merde) c'est french keyboard layouts!

Justice:

How cool would it be to have Carl Kasell read your email?

That would be a lifetime membership donation from me in a heartbeat.

Odd that I was listening to the Wait Wait podcast as I read your comment.

I know this site is read by a lot of programmers, but if you're not one of them, ignore the following line.

FIX WHATEVER THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR BUGGY SOFTWARE! DO IT NOW!


There! If this works I will have single-handedly improved worldwide software quality.

re Sr Engineer + mouse pad

Yes Sir, I will have to requisition the special tool required to safely open the hermetically sealed package in order to not damage your new equipment. I'll put in a request to purchasing immediately; we should have the tool in 3-4 weeks.

3-4 weeks later: Dear Sr Engineer, we have received the special tool required to open your new equipment, but it is hermetically sealed, so we had to order a special tool to open that package, and it should be here in 3-4 weeks...

"Just Fix It!" reminds me of something that happened at a company I used to work at.

The senior support manager sent an email to the support department of another company we dealt with. He didn't get a reply until several hours later. Because he was about to go out he forwarded the reply to the rest of our support, expressing his displeasure at the other company's support (calling them something rude) and requesting that someone else in our support handle it. One of them did handle it, sending an email with further details to the other company. Unfortunately, that person didn't trim the email first, so it went out with the derogatory comments intact. Ouch...

bonjai:

Another WTF is that it took Sally over 90 minutes to take the gel pad out of the packaging and install it on the desk of the Sr. Engineer.

That's not a WTF. When doing desktop support, I will typically put off inane requests like this for as long as I can, in hopes that the person will understand that it simply would take far less time if they just did it themselves.

Sadly it doesn't work.

The Sr. Engineer must've been a union worker.

I love reading these refreshing tales of in-duh-viduals. They remind me of one of my favorite sayings: "Fool-proof implies a finite number of fools" (I don't know who originated that).

y0da:

Steve the Cynic:

The other reason is French keyboards. I'm English, well-and-truly used to QWERTY, now working in France - on AZERTY keyboards, the top-row numbers are typed with Shift down, but the numpad ones are not. I often type &é"'(-è_çà) instead of 1234567890.

Then the real QLM (Quand-le-merde) c'est french keyboard layouts!

QLM (When-The-Shit)
What's that supposed to mean?

Oh come on, NPR doesn't spy on it's listeners.

Everybody knows that's PBS.

Anonymous:

I can't log into my Daily WTF account to post a comment because I can't find any numbers on my keyboard. My password is sunshine1911, so if one of you can log in and post my comment for me, it would be much appreciated.

I'd like to call henanigan, but unfortunately my keyboard doen't have an '' key o I can't.

Anonymous:

I can't log into my Daily WTF account to post a comment because I can't find any numbers on my keyboard. My password is sunshine1911, so if one of you can log in and post my comment for me, it would be much appreciated.

There. You should be able to post now. Just don't try to put numbers in until your new keypad comes in.

bonjai:

Another WTF is that it took Sally over 90 minutes to take the gel pad out of the packaging and install it on the desk of the Sr. Engineer.

Naw. She had to stop by the maintenance building to get the boltcutters to get the gelpad out of its packaging.

Try this: Move your mouse to the left side of your keyboard (and swap the mouse buttons, of course). Now you can use the numeric keypad as intended without having to take your hand off the mouse. It works great for large spreadsheet projects.

MRAB:

"Just Fix It!" reminds me of something that happened at a company I used to work at.

The senior support manager sent an email to the support department of another company we dealt with. He didn't get a reply until several hours later. Because he was about to go out he forwarded the reply to the rest of our support, expressing his displeasure at the other company's support (calling them something rude) and requesting that someone else in our support handle it. One of them did handle it, sending an email with further details to the other company. Unfortunately, that person didn't trim the email first, so it went out with the derogatory comments intact. Ouch...

This happens a lot - which is why you sould never be the one to write these emails, stick to the phone for slagging matches.

holy crap! She has the same password as on my luggage.

But even after he pointed out the row of numbers, she still couldn't enter the password "sunshine1911", because there was only a single "1" on the keyboard and her password has three "1"s.

Médinoc:

I just love the "without telling me your password" and what ensues...

I just love how often people answer to mails that warned about phishing attempts (which included the phishing message, and sometimes even without) with all their data, after it told them again and again not to send them to anyone.

hatterson:

holy crap! She has the same password as on my luggage.

And as on my gym locker...

MikeR:

bonjai:

Another WTF is that it took Sally over 90 minutes to take the gel pad out of the packaging and install it on the desk of the Sr. Engineer.

That's not a WTF. When doing desktop support, I will typically put off inane requests like this for as long as I can, in hopes that the person will understand that it simply would take far less time if they just did it themselves.

Sadly it doesn't work.

"I have to take this in for configuration. You can pick it up at our department first thing tomorrow."
Let them walk for nothing.

AndyL:

I know this site is read by a lot of programmers, but if you're not one of them, ignore the following line.

FIX WHATEVER THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR BUGGY SOFTWARE! DO IT NOW!


There! If this works I will have single-handedly improved worldwide software quality.

THANKS!! Now if someone could just forward that comment to Microsoft...

The second isn't really a wtf... it's just a lazy over-paid schmuck. When I worked tech support back in University, I can't tell you how many times I 'set up' equipment for the president or the dean which consisted of nothing more than taking it out of the box.

Apparently, they're too important for that sort of thing.

At my last job we couldn't 'set up' equipment because the union would file a grievance. I once waited 3 days for a monitor to be moved from next to my desk to on top of it and hooked up. Could i have done it? Yup. Would I have put the techs out of a job?
Nope. Did Union lunacy and lack of common sense prevail? Yup.

captcha = ullamcorper (say that 3 times fast)

Yaamboo:

Is the real WTF that they were working on May 1?

May 1 isn't labor day, or any other official holiday, in the US.

bannedfromcoding:

Btw, could anybody enlighten me HOW that numpad-mania happened in first place? It's not a matter of old habit - typewriters had only the top row.

In business, it was common to have a separate numeric/special operations keypad for data entry and "calculator"-like functions. Many hardwired terminals of the era (1970's) also included a separate keypad, so that the terminal could be easily used for data entry.

I believe that IBM, in seeing a large business market for their IBM PC, decided to retain the right-side numeric keypad, for just this reason (and because they already had the keyboard templates from their existing hardware terminal business).

Justice:

How cool would it be to have Carl Kasell read your email?

I'm sorry but you only answered 1 out of 3 recent emails, you needed at least 2 to win.

To induce problem calls, find an unattended laptop and press Fn + ScrLk. Sit back and enjoy!

CAPTCHA: iusto (iusto be a good boy, but you have corrupted me)

campkev:

Paraphrase of an email that was sent out to our customers (since I don't remember the exact wording)

Dear Customer,
We are implenting new security procedures. With our new system you will be assigned a picture that will be displayed above the password box after you put in your username. This is to help you be sure that you are not on a phishing site. If you put in your username and don't see your picture, please do not enter your password.

Here is how this is bypassed:

The phishing site sends a request with the name entered to the legit site and fetches the picture. Then it displays the picture on the client. MITM. You should have known better.

> Dell number keys: In fairness to the user, some laptop
> keyboards are pretty wacky with blue printed characters
> everywhere and tiny F-keys that may be ignored by a quick glance,
> and if the user normally goes to the number pad which is missing
> they're going to be thrown off balance. Still, she should have
> been able to work it out herself over the weekend.

The real WTF with this one is that it hasn't been solved on the phone. The mistake is really obvious and if you didn't get it until reading the end you should really avoid doing support. There is still the problem of making the user realize the mistake but if s/he is not too uncooperative it shouldn't be too hard.

"See that F5 key? Can you tell me what is written on the one just under it?"

Users are stupid but if you can't help them with obvious things you may want to consider another job than support.

Disclaimer: I work in support and I love it (although my users are mostly sysadmins and I don't do hardware; lot of them still sound clueless).

bjolling:

y0da:

Steve the Cynic:

The other reason is French keyboards. I'm English, well-and-truly used to QWERTY, now working in France - on AZERTY keyboards, the top-row numbers are typed with Shift down, but the numpad ones are not. I often type &é"'(-è_çà) instead of 1234567890.

Then the real QLM (Quand-le-merde) c'est french keyboard layouts!

QLM (When-The-Shit)
What's that supposed to mean?

I believe that he was trying (not very successfully) to translate "WTF" into French.