• shenanigans (unregistered)

    This comment has been pinned to the far end of this bulletin board.

  • (cs)

    (Following the pattern)

    "The guy at the store says I need a computer for one of these things." "That's correct, sir. I'm sorry — I was under the impression you had one. May I ask, sir, how is it you were hoping to post your comment?" "I thought there would be some nice undergraduate student that would type it in for me."

  • Raymond Luxury-Yacht (unregistered)

    Going off on a tangent - why do people use the phrase "needless to say"? Do they enjoy redundancy in their writing?

    If it really is obvious, why say it?

    Needless to say, it isn't needed.

  • RandomDreamer (unregistered)

    There is always some guy at the corner of the computer lab with the monitor turned toward the wall. They really should disinfect that computer's keyboard/mouse on a regular basis.

  • Paul in Maine (unregistered)

    Okay, I have a modem and a computer. How come I can't see anything?

  • (cs) in reply to RandomDreamer
    RandomDreamer:
    There is always some guy at the corner of the computer lab with the monitor turned toward the wall.
    Now that I think about it, you're right. Damn, you'd think those people would get their own PC to enjoy their pornography in private.
  • Charles (unregistered)

    Give the student a break. He needed the images on his far wall to distract him in between phone calls from computerless graduate students asking for their e-mail to be read aloud.

  • (cs)

    Going off on another tangent. Wouldn't it be great if there was a website where people posted horrible pieces of source code they happened upon at work (or play)? And then viewers could post their ideas for fixing the code and be super jackasses to each other in the process?

  • dak (unregistered)

    There's no words on it!

  • Myrmidon (unregistered)

    D.T. North should have explained to the computerless caller that he'd reached the 'Tech support' number and that what he needed was 'Text support'.

  • (cs)

    Don't see how it could have used that much paper. In Southampton Uni (and Liverpool John Moores), the halls of residence you get are little bigger than an A4 sheet of paper anyway.

  • Michael Mrozek (unregistered)

    "Did you maybe download the 64 bit version of the driver instead of the Windows XP one?"

    Since when are these mutually exclusive?

  • Bob (unregistered)

    Wouldn't it be great if that website also published humorous support stories and then very carefully labelled the code related ones CodeSOD so intelligent people didn't have to read things they weren't interested in.

  • (cs) in reply to dak
    dak:
    There's no words on it!
    Then we'll do it live! Over the phone... while you read it to me.
  • (cs) in reply to Raymond Luxury-Yacht
    Raymond Luxury-Yacht:
    Going off on a tangent - why do people use the phrase "needless to say"? Do they enjoy redundancy in their writing?

    If it really is obvious, why say it?

    Because they hate you

  • (cs)

    I actually got in a minor bit of trouble at college (late 80s) for printing out ASCII nudes in the computer lab.

    Ahh, memories.

  • Ben (unregistered)

    All I Hear Is Static doesn't seem like a WTF to me, clueless user stories only count if there exceptionally stupid or rude. He was neither

  • (cs) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    Wouldn't it be great if that website also published humorous support stories and then very carefully labelled the code related ones CodeSOD so intelligent people didn't have to read things they weren't interested in.

    No, it wouldn't be great. As a resource for coding and design WTFs, this site is without peer. As a cleverizer of anecdotes and tall tales of IT, Support, and Management I could do better recyling usenet posts from the 90s. As a webcomic...well, uh...

    The closest we've come to programming or development this week is an HTTP GET string. I can understand not being able to find a nice piece of code every day, and the lure of filling that gap with content.

    But now the filler is the main content. Which creates a force-feedback loop. More people visit that aren't interested in programming WTFs, they see a support story, or funny screenshot, or story about a stupid manager and think "hey, I have hundreds of those stories." Meanwhile a programmer that stumbled upon the site this week, wouldn't even know about the code reviews. It happens all the time to niche sites, and it makes me kinda sad.

  • Blah (unregistered) in reply to Ben
    Ben:
    All I Hear Is Static doesn't seem like a WTF to me, clueless user stories only count if there exceptionally stupid or rude. He was neither
    I'd beg to differ.
  • Alfred (unregistered)

    Actually it would be awesome to have a dot-matrix nude poster on the wall of my dorm room. I'd even keep the feed holes on the side for effect. Granted, I'd enjoy it for different reasons than most normal people have nude posters, and that makes me a total geek, but a dot-matrix nude is too awesomely ironic to pass up.

  • Edss (unregistered) in reply to Raymond Luxury-Yacht

    Needless to say " ".

  • (cs)
    Back when I did tech support, one of my customers was a master of BSing. Well, more an apprentice — he has all the words down, but couldn't quite string them together into anything coherent. He's told me to "double delete the TCP stack" more than once. Also, he claims to program operating systems in his spare time and to be one of the inventors of the internet.
    Al Gore? Is that you?
  • (cs) in reply to Ben
    Ben:
    All I Hear Is Static doesn't seem like a WTF to me, clueless user stories only count if there exceptionally stupid or rude. He was neither
    Riiight.

    But expecting to read e-mail without having an actual computer doesn't look smart, does it?

  • (cs)

    Is it really that much a WTF that a college prof. in the mid 90's might not know jacksh*t about e-mail or teh internets? Frankly, I think its a little arrogant of us in IT to denigrate people for trying to use technology that is obviously way beyond their experience (and their comfort zone). If anything they should be commended for making themselves objects of our amusement.

    I think the poster in this case should have been much more circumspect about making purchase recommendations when the caller started out by trying to have a conversation with the modem pool.

    Come to think of it, that prof was way ahead of his time ... the first commercially available IVR text-to-speech e-mail system was years away!

  • (cs) in reply to obediah
    obediah:
    But now the filler is the main content.

    ...and all we see is static.

  • (cs) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    I actually got in a minor bit of trouble at college (late 80s) for printing out ASCII nudes in the computer lab.

    Ahh, memories.

    "Thanks for the sex, early 90's printer!" -Seth MacFarlane as Glen Quagmire as C-3PO

  • Ken B (unregistered) in reply to SQB
    SQB:
    obediah:
    But now the filler is the main content.
    ...and all we see is static.
    "You do know that you need a TV to watch your shows?"

    "Oh. I thought someone would watch for me and describe what they saw."

  • Ken B (unregistered) in reply to davidyorke
    davidyorke:
    Zylon:
    I actually got in a minor bit of trouble at college (late 80s) for printing out ASCII nudes in the computer lab.

    Ahh, memories.

    "Thanks for the sex, early 90's printer!" -Seth MacFarlane as Glen Quagmire as C-3PO
    "So long, and thanks for the sex."

    • The Cathouse at the end of the Universe
  • Edward Royce (unregistered) in reply to SQB
    SQB:
    (Following the pattern)

    "The guy at the store says I need a computer for one of these things." "That's correct, sir. I'm sorry — I was under the impression you had one. May I ask, sir, how is it you were hoping to post your comment?" "I thought there would be some nice undergraduate student that would type it in for me."

    Hmmm.

    You know you could make a viable business model out of young women reading blogs aloud to geeks on their cellphones.

    "Ok so what's new on slashdot?"

  • blah (unregistered) in reply to Edward Royce

    Geeks on slashdot with no girlfriends have no money. QED

  • (cs)

    Before I left my old job at an ISP in 2003 I had saved a few memorable excerpts from our issue ticketing system. These all came from the same user account:

    • Customer is not happy.. Customer thinks that we are sabotaging his connection on purpose for money...
    • He claims that there is a criminal organization running the Internet forcing him to move his domain back to us... I did not agree or disagree. The conversation ended.
    • Client is talking about Internet security and how it was compromised and that the CIA and Mafia are controlling us and we are not safe and he goes on and on and on about this...
    • He shared a few more of his conspiracy theories with me.
    • He is starting to tell me about a government conspiracy by which the government can turn off any part of your car by satellite...He's telling me that somehow his car broke down when he dropped the transmission after a garage did an oil change. How they're related, I do not know...No clue what he's talking about, and I'm not even going to start trying to correct his knowledge of how a car works...
    • He's got "a proposal" - keep in mind this guy is fighting fascism, as he told me many times in the last call.
    • He is very concerned about the security people in the world, and how they are all trying to mess with him.
    • "Customer called and he's the most ignorant son of a bitch I've ever spoken to. That's saying a lot."
    • "Talking stupid about people "cracking" his email and wanting to make it "secure"... whatever..."
    • "Wow, this is one long call........ I really don't want to be on this call... This is too long of a call about non-support issues. Argh! I can't get him off the phone, talking about The Matrix now and the programs they used in that movie..."
    • "Is there a file/setting which can be altered in order to prevent (sex) dialers from installing or running on the computer."
    • "Started out asking me about my personal life and women. Then told me he has spent a lot of time with men."
    • "Calling about nothing again."
    • "Long conversation on the generation of alpha brain waves - also offered opinions on proxy servers."
  • (cs) in reply to Raymond Luxury-Yacht
    Raymond Luxury-Yacht:
    Going off on a tangent - why do people use the phrase "needless to say"? Do they enjoy redundancy in their writing?

    If it really is obvious, why say it?

    Needless to say, it isn't needed.

    Usually when someone says "needless to say", he means "this is obvious to me, and if you have half a brain in your head it will be obvious to you too, but I'm going to say it anyway because I need to allow for the possibility that you do not have the aforementioned half a brain without directly insulting your intelligence."

  • Steve (unregistered)

    Back when I was a college student, in the middle 1960s, just about every computer science student had a line printer version of a Playboy "Playmate of the Month" hanging in their dorm room.

    The males, anyhow, and back then there weren't many females in the subject area, hence the need for a line printer version of a Playboy "Playmate of the Month".

    It looked awesome.

    Except we probably said something like "groovy" instead.

  • SNF (unregistered)
    Arthur: I-

    I'm not sure I understand exactly why or how, but that line was awesome.

  • (cs)

    "The guy at the store says I need a computer for one of these things." "That's correct, sir. I'm sorry — I was under the impression you had one. May I ask, sir, how is it you were hoping to view pornography?" "I thought there would be some nice undergraduate student to print it out on a dot matrix printer for me."

  • Robin (unregistered)

    What is an acceptable amount of line-printed pornography?

  • (cs) in reply to Myrmidon
    Myrmidon:
    D.T. North should have explained to the computerless caller that he'd reached the 'Tech support' number and that what he needed was 'Text support'.

    I had one of those once. We advertised our free sign-up CD (an IEAK package really) on local TV. People would call and we'd send them the CD and they could sign-up. A few weeks later one called back to say they got the CD and wanted to know when we were going to send them a computer so they could use it.

    And then there was the guy who called up, got our Internet-related slogan and followed the voicemail prompts to "Technical Support" and when he got me proceeded to order a pizza.

  • Rboy (unregistered)

    What a rasterbater...

    (Captcha's gone dirty, Jugis)

  • Steve (unregistered) in reply to davidyorke
    davidyorke:
    Is it really that much a WTF that a college prof. in the mid 90's might not know jacksh*t about e-mail or teh internets? Frankly, I think its a little arrogant of us in IT to denigrate people for trying to use technology that is obviously way beyond their experience (and their comfort zone). If anything they should be commended for making themselves objects of our amusement.
    Actually, I thought the story was kind of cute and not disparaging of the professor at all -- especially the part about "some nice undergraduate student".

    After all, that's what undergraduates are for.

    Graduate students are for doing your research and publications.

    (For the humor impaired, I'm just kidding -- I razz my bosses, who are all professors, like this all the time.)

  • Rboy (unregistered) in reply to SuperousOxide
    SuperousOxide:
    Raymond Luxury-Yacht:
    Going off on a tangent - why do people use the phrase "needless to say"? Do they enjoy redundancy in their writing?

    If it really is obvious, why say it?

    Needless to say, Because they hate you

    Fixed it for you, but I am very un-easy about it. According to Captcha, this whole thing is very suscipit...

  • SNF (unregistered) in reply to obediah
    obediah:
    But now the filler is the main content. Which creates a force-feedback loop.

    A loop comprised of game controllers with little rumble motors in them?

  • Edward Royce (unregistered) in reply to Steve
    Steve:
    Back when I was a college student, in the middle 1960s, just about every computer science student had a line printer version of a Playboy "Playmate of the Month" hanging in their dorm room.

    The males, anyhow, and back then there weren't many females in the subject area, hence the need for a line printer version of a Playboy "Playmate of the Month".

    It looked awesome.

    Except we probably said something like "groovy" instead.

    Isn't the centerfold picture rather a better option?

    Especially since it didn't involve trying to create an ASCII "image"?

  • BobB (unregistered)

    Reading their email for them, hmmmm....

    Prof: "Can you read my email for me?"

    Undergrad: "Ummm, sure Sir, shall I begin with the first one?"

    P: "If you would..."

    U: "Hey, am I on speak-"

    P: "Just read the email."

    U: "Greetings customer, your refill order of PenXtender has been shi-"

    P: click

  • reboot (unregistered) in reply to Alfred
    Alfred:
    Actually it would be awesome to have a dot-matrix nude poster on the wall of my dorm room. I'd even keep the feed holes on the side for effect. Granted, I'd enjoy it for different reasons than most normal people have nude posters, and that makes me a total geek, but a dot-matrix nude is too awesomely ironic to pass up.
    Bonus points if it is a Dot Matrix's image.
  • Brad (unregistered)

    I don't see a "WTF" in the "I didn't ask" story.

    Unless it's that our sexually repressed culture is so afraid of erotica we can't stand the thought of anyone admitting they appriciate it.

  • Tyler (unregistered) in reply to blah
    blah:
    Geeks on slashdot with no girlfriends have no money. QED

    I'm a 26 year old geek on slashdot with no girlfriend, and I make tons of money

  • Bobbo (unregistered) in reply to obediah
    obediah:
    Going off on another tangent. Wouldn't it be great if there was a website where people posted horrible pieces of source code they happened upon at work (or play)? And then viewers could post their ideas for fixing the code and be super jackasses to each other in the process?

    Yeah imagine that! Although I think you'll find the plural of jackass is jackii.

    Oh, and as is unfortunately required far too often - HEY THAT WAS A JOKE EVERYONE!

  • Phil (unregistered)

    I printed off various rasterbated images in the uni computer room. 5p a page meant I could get fill my entire room with posters for under a fiver. One of them was a softcore porn pic, and at the time, didn't even think twice about printing it out. Even if anyone saw it, they wouldn't have been able to make out what was on it.

  • (cs) in reply to Tyler
    Tyler:
    I'm a 26 year old geek on slashdot with no girlfriend, and I make tons of money
    Sure you do.
  • Benie (unregistered) in reply to SNF

    My uni didn't care if you browsed porn on their computers. It was actually specifically listed in the eula as 'ok' as long as it didn't offend anyone that was able to view it from where they were working.

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