• JD (unregistered)

    The irony is that in this day and age, holding a (camera) phone up to your screen is a perfectly valid way to capture and subsequently move the image data on your screen to a remote location. It may take longer to photograph the screen than it does to just PrintScreen but by taking an actual photograph you can <insert wooden table joke here>.

  • (cs)

    The Inevitable Next Comment

  • Benedict (unregistered)

    The real WTF is the photo. Quicksand is "Treibsand" in German and not "Quicksand".

  • (cs)

    I don't understand. Alex, can you put your ear up to the screen so I can hear the article, please?

  • Jo Bob (unregistered)

    Reminds me of a call for a connection issue I took once. While walking her through fighting with the TCP/IP error, she asked why I don't I just remote into her machine to fix the problem. I had to explain to her TWICE why it wasn't possible.

    Not sure how I managed to last six months there. Ah, well, like they say: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Maimed maybe, but stronger…

    CAPTCHA: damnum ... That's right!! Just Damnum ALL!!

  • (cs) in reply to Benedict
    Benedict:
    The real WTF is the photo. Quicksand is "Treibsand" in German and not "Quicksand".

    Apparently the sign designer wants Germans to experience unlikely and comical deaths while thrashing about in a water pit saturated with sand.

  • (cs)

    You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel!

  • Sam (unregistered)

    Yeah, those help desk calls would be so much easier if the user never called. I mean, the help desk is soooo much more valuable to a company than that stupid sales team who just generates revenue.

    "It's not that the sales team was stupid; it was just that they were now having to deal with a major change to the way they'd measure performance, record sales, and run reports."

    Can you believe that the sales force would actually be concerned when their pay is at stake? Don't they know that the help desk has valuable work to do besides answering tech support calls?

    This Daily WTF brought to you by an episode of the IT Crowd.

  • Mark (unregistered) in reply to Sam
    Sam:
    This Daily WTF brought to you by an episode of the IT Crowd.

    Speaking of which, IT Crowd S03 E01 is out now. Go download, kiddies!

  • Studley (unregistered)

    It's OK, if the Germans can't understand Quicksand then they should at least understand Kviksand, as long as they've seen either 'Allo 'Allo, or a German bad guy in a Hollywood action movie.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Mark
    Mark:
    Sam:
    This Daily WTF brought to you by an episode of the IT Crowd.

    Speaking of which, IT Crowd S03 E01 is out now. Go download, kiddies!

    This program looks utterly shit but I must admit that I've never actually seen it. So I'd quite like to derail the comments section and turn it into a critique of this program (it's better than derailing the comments for stupid troll shit, after all). So tell me friends, is this show worth 30 minutes of my time?

  • Loren Pechtel (unregistered) in reply to JD
    JD:
    The irony is that in this day and age, holding a (camera) phone up to your screen is a perfectly valid way to capture and subsequently move the image data on your screen to a remote location. It may take longer to photograph the screen than it does to just PrintScreen but by taking an actual photograph you can <insert wooden table joke here>.

    Once someone tried to send me a screen shot that way. It didn't work, the image was too blurry. The shot with a real camera showed what was really going on.

    I don't know why he didn't send a screenshot, perhaps because it was Linux and he was just getting into it.

  • Tyler (unregistered) in reply to Loren Pechtel

    Linux? 1984? Screenshot?

  • (cs)

    A 24-yr old WTF?

    Someones got a good memory. Or I've got a shit one.

  • Zach Bora (unregistered) in reply to valerion
    valerion:
    A 24-yr old WTF?

    Someones got a good memory. Or I've got a shit one.

    Hell I wasn`t even born back when it happened.

  • (cs) in reply to Jo Bob
    Jo Bob:
    What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Maimed maybe, but stronger…
    [image] (found at http://samandfuzzy.com/archive.php?comicID=290)
  • (cs) in reply to warrior
    warrior:
    You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel!
    I know a teacher who once said to a student, "I can't hear you; I'm not wearing my glasses." Well, it turned out that she listened by reading lips.
  • (cs)

    Remember the old acoustic coupler modems? You know, the ones with two holes, angled in such a way to snugly hold a telephone receiver? It's too bad the sales office didn't have one of those nearby. Ricky could have asked Jeff, "Please put the computer on? I would like to ask it a few questions."

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Mark:
    Sam:
    This Daily WTF brought to you by an episode of the IT Crowd.

    Speaking of which, IT Crowd S03 E01 is out now. Go download, kiddies!

    This program looks utterly shit but I must admit that I've never actually seen it. So I'd quite like to derail the comments section and turn it into a critique of this program (it's better than derailing the comments for stupid troll shit, after all). So tell me friends, is this show worth 30 minutes of my time?

    The IT crowd is really brilliant; yes it actually does look rather low budget... I've seen the whole first season and it took place in pretty much 3 sets. The writing and tech/geek/nerd humour however is top notch; my $0.02: download+watch. And the episode where 999 (emergency #) was replaced 991oh1oh1783982....2 with a catchy jingle was priceless.. made me pee, inhale then exhale my coffee through my nose all simultaneously.

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to Tyler
    Tyler:
    Linux? 1984? Screenshot?

    Linux in 1984 doubtful. Screenshot in 1984, certainly. The Print Screen key's been there since the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer back in 1981. Of course, there was only a 25 x 80 text mode back then, but it would take those 2,000 characters and send them to the printer, following each line with CR+LF and the final line with a FF.

  • RBoy (unregistered) in reply to Sam
    Sam:
    Yeah, those help desk calls would be so much easier if the user never called. I mean, the help desk is soooo much more valuable to a company than that stupid sales team who just generates revenue.

    "It's not that the sales team was stupid; it was just that they were now having to deal with a major change to the way they'd measure performance, record sales, and run reports."

    Can you believe that the sales force would actually be concerned when their pay is at stake? Don't they know that the help desk has valuable work to do besides answering tech support calls?

    This Daily WTF brought to you by an episode of the IT Crowd.

    The above comment was brought to you by the Sales Department "If it was good enough for the Fuller Brush Man, it's good for me." - C.T.Validus

  • (cs) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    Tyler:
    Linux? 1984? Screenshot?

    Linux in 1984 doubtful. Screenshot in 1984, certainly. The Print Screen key's been there since the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer back in 1981. Of course, there was only a 25 x 80 text mode back then, but it would take those 2,000 characters and send them to the printer, following each line with CR+LF and the final line with a FF.

    Didn't you have to hit FF yourself? I think I remember being able to get two screen shots on a page -- you could get 66 lines per page on the IBM Dot Matrix Printer. Shift-PrtSc, take printer offline, hit LF a few times, printer Online again, hit Shift-PrtSc a second time, Offline, FF.

  • SomeCoder (unregistered) in reply to tezoatlipoca
    tezoatlipoca:
    Anonymous:
    Mark:
    Sam:
    This Daily WTF brought to you by an episode of the IT Crowd.

    Speaking of which, IT Crowd S03 E01 is out now. Go download, kiddies!

    This program looks utterly shit but I must admit that I've never actually seen it. So I'd quite like to derail the comments section and turn it into a critique of this program (it's better than derailing the comments for stupid troll shit, after all). So tell me friends, is this show worth 30 minutes of my time?

    The IT crowd is really brilliant; yes it actually does look rather low budget... I've seen the whole first season and it took place in pretty much 3 sets. The writing and tech/geek/nerd humour however is top notch; my $0.02: download+watch. And the episode where 999 (emergency #) was replaced 991oh1oh1783982....2 with a catchy jingle was priceless.. made me pee, inhale then exhale my coffee through my nose all simultaneously.

    Oh hell, I had forgotten about the emergency number replacement episode... Good lord that was hilarious.

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered)

    I can't hear you, I have a banana in my ear.

  • methinks (unregistered) in reply to Studley
    Studley:
    It's OK, if the Germans can't understand Quicksand then they should at least understand Kviksand, as long as they've seen either 'Allo 'Allo, or a German bad guy in a Hollywood action movie.

    And why should they? The word still has nothing to do with the german "treibsand", no matter how you spell "qu/kw/vi(c)k" ;o)

  • (cs) in reply to SomeCoder
    SomeCoder:
    Oh hell, I had forgotten about the emergency number replacement episode... Good lord that was hilarious.

    My fav was the first episode from the second season where they went to see "Gay! The musical". Roy having to pretend to be in a wheelchair was priceless and had me laughing for days.

  • (cs)

    How do I make this comment smaller?

  • MRAB (unregistered) in reply to Andy Goth

    The comic actor Eric Sykes wears can't hear without his glasses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Sykes.

  • Greg (unregistered) in reply to tezoatlipoca

    The actual new number for emergency services is 0118999881999119725...3. Just don't want anyone in an emergency to dial the wrong number. That is all. (fire!)

  • Peter (unregistered) in reply to Tyler
    Tyler:
    Loren Pechtel:
    JD:
    The irony is that in this day and age, holding a (camera) phone up to your screen is a perfectly valid way to capture and subsequently move the image data on your screen to a remote location.
    Once someone tried to send me a screen shot that way. It didn't work, the image was too blurry. The shot with a real camera showed what was really going on.

    I don't know why he didn't send a screenshot, perhaps because it was Linux and he was just getting into it.

    Linux? 1984? Screenshot?
    Who mentioned 1984? That's the date of the original story, but there's no date in Loren's anecdote.

  • (cs) in reply to MRAB
    MRAB:
    The comic actor Eric Sykes wears can't hear without his glasses
    Never mind him, what about Eric Sykes?
  • Procedural (unregistered) in reply to Tyler
    Tyler:
    Linux? 1984? Screenshot?

    Thank you for taking this to our attention. We will have to update that screenshot. Eurasia is our ally now. Linux is the enemy. It has always been that way. Would you mind personally bringing it to the Ministry ?

  • (cs)

    WTF does "frustrated approaching angry" mean? Sounds like he was trying to get angry, but something was stopping him, and that's why he was frustrated.

  • IT Girl (unregistered) in reply to Sam

    "Re: I Can't See What You're Saying 2008-11-26 11:45 • by Sam Yeah, those help desk calls would be so much easier if the user never called. I mean, the help desk is soooo much more valuable to a company than that stupid sales team who just generates revenue.

    "It's not that the sales team was stupid; it was just that they were now having to deal with a major change to the way they'd measure performance, record sales, and run reports."

    Can you believe that the sales force would actually be concerned when their pay is at stake? Don't they know that the help desk has valuable work to do besides answering tech support calls?

    This Daily WTF brought to you by an episode of the IT Crowd."

    No one was insulting the sales team (until now).

    If the value is in the ability to generate money and that equates as "not stupid" than the sales team should be "not stupid" enough to at least be prepared to work with the helpdesk who are trying to aid them in their ability to produce their work and, therefore, generate their pay that is "at stake".

    At no point in this wtf did anyone suggest that the sales guy was incapable or stupid or ineffectual. Simply that he was frustrated (as many of us were in 1984 with new technology) and that the help desk guy's attempt at a joke failed miserably. He even implied that the sales guy would get the joke at 3am and kick his own self for being so "stupid"

    captcha - validus = validation for my little rant

  • (cs) in reply to SomeCoder
    Mark:
    Speaking of which, IT Crowd S03 E01 is out now. Go download, kiddies!

    You know, I've never looked in this top drawer. Wow, a gun!

    Anonymous:
    This program looks utterly shit but I must admit that I've never actually seen it. So I'd quite like to derail the comments section and turn it into a critique of this program (it's better than derailing the comments for stupid troll shit, after all). So tell me friends, is this show worth 30 minutes of my time?

    So, obviously written by an American who can't follow British humour.

    SomeCoder:
    tezoatlipoca::
    The IT crowd is really brilliant; yes it actually does look rather low budget... I've seen the whole first season and it took place in pretty much 3 sets. The writing and tech/geek/nerd humour however is top notch; my $0.02: download+watch. And the episode where 999 (emergency #) was replaced 991oh1oh1783982....2 with a catchy jingle was priceless.. made me pee, inhale then exhale my coffee through my nose all simultaneously.

    Oh hell, I had forgotten about the emergency number replacement episode... Good lord that was hilarious.

    Well, that's easy to remember: 0118 999 881 999 119 725... 3

  • Kasper (unregistered)

    I suppose the photograph of the sign is taken somewhere in Denmark (since the first line of text is in Danish), but could you tell us a little more precisely where it is?

  • Petey (unregistered) in reply to Sam
    Sam:
    Yeah, those help desk calls would be so much easier if the user never called. I mean, the help desk is soooo much more valuable to a company than that stupid sales team who just generates revenue.

    "It's not that the sales team was stupid; it was just that they were now having to deal with a major change to the way they'd measure performance, record sales, and run reports."

    Can you believe that the sales force would actually be concerned when their pay is at stake? Don't they know that the help desk has valuable work to do besides answering tech support calls?

    This Daily WTF brought to you by an episode of the IT Crowd.

    Don't look at ME in that tone of voice....

    Of course it would help if sales understood that for them to sell stuff they probably need to be competent in something other than just talking to people about how good something they've never seen is.... Sure there are problems when things change, but one would hope the sales team has the ability to adapt - selling is selling, the software they use to record sales or create invoices or whatever sales people actually do (they're right up their with managers in the usefullness stakes, methinks) is irrelevant, and any changes to software should minimally affect the ones that have half a brain. Clearly, "Jeff" falls into a category well below the "half-brain" of the ordinary salesman....(Perhaps Sam IS Jeff...)

    The story has quite CLEARLY aknowledged that it's not that the salesmen are stupid (though that would be a first), and the response (presumably by a salesman) does it's best to disprove that...

    Odd that the IT crowd would bring you something on TDWTF....

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to Procedural
    Procedural:
    Tyler:
    Linux? 1984? Screenshot?

    Thank you for taking this to our attention. We will have to update that screenshot. Eurasia is our ally now. Linux is the enemy. It has always been that way. Would you mind personally bringing it to the Ministry ?

    Linux is an operating system a kernel for an operating system and Eurasia is a region. What do they have to do with each other?

    Captcha: nulla (nothing)

  • free association fail (unregistered) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    Procedural:
    Tyler:
    Linux? 1984? Screenshot?

    Thank you for taking this to our attention. We will have to update that screenshot. Eurasia is our ally now. Linux is the enemy. It has always been that way. Would you mind personally bringing it to the Ministry ?

    Linux is an operating system a kernel for an operating system and Eurasia is a region. What do they have to do with each other?

    Captcha: nulla (nothing)

    ummm...u flunk a rorschach test or something?

  • Procedural (unregistered) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    Procedural:
    Tyler:
    Linux? 1984? Screenshot?

    Thank you for taking this to our attention. We will have to update that screenshot. Eurasia is our ally now. Linux is the enemy. It has always been that way. Would you mind personally bringing it to the Ministry ?

    Linux is an operating system a kernel for an operating system and Eurasia is a region. What do they have to do with each other?

    Captcha: nulla (nothing)

    Did you ever read the book 1984 ? That's a 1984 joke. The other system is the enemy. No bonus points for you.

  • Da' Man (unregistered) in reply to Benedict
    Benedict:
    The real WTF is the photo. Quicksand is "Treibsand" in German and not "Quicksand".
    Interestingly, if the base material is *sand*, it is indeed called "Treibsand" in German, but if it mainly consists of soil ("Erde" in German) it is called "Quickerde", and if it is clay ("Ton"), it is "Quickton".

    So I would say the average German postgraduate Geologist should understand what is meant with "Quicksand". For all the other - bad luck ;-)

    knowing some English can be a lifesaver .-)

  • the gubernator (unregistered) in reply to methinks
    methinks:
    Studley:
    It's OK, if the Germans can't understand Quicksand then they should at least understand Kviksand, as long as they've seen either 'Allo 'Allo, or a German bad guy in a Hollywood action movie.

    And why should they? The word still has nothing to do with the german "treibsand", no matter how you spell "qu/kw/vi(c)k" ;o)

    Itt's az zo juu ahr vilfullee eeknohrant uv zee Djairmahn lankvaj. Juu vill luehn. Suhn vill bee ze taim fohr zee luehning! Nau, gett tuu zee choppuh! Gett daon! Gett daon agehn!

  • Wingot (unregistered) in reply to tezoatlipoca

    0118 999 88 199 9119 725 3

    And yes, I've memorised it

  • Xenobiologista (unregistered) in reply to Da' Man

    You know, the great thing about that sign is, strangely, that it has a little PICTURE of a guy sinking into the ground so that unless passersby are actually blind, they should be able to figure it out. (I thought computer people should understand the point of icons.)

  • Dan (unregistered) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    Tyler:
    Linux? 1984? Screenshot?

    Linux in 1984 doubtful. Screenshot in 1984, certainly. The Print Screen key's been there since the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer back in 1981. Of course, there was only a 25 x 80 text mode back then, but it would take those 2,000 characters and send them to the printer, following each line with CR+LF and the final line with a FF.

    And you could load a special driver (TSR I think) that allowed printscreen in CGA graphics mode to an Epson compatible printer too. Ahhh those were the days

  • Shinobu (unregistered)

    A few years ago, for fun I hooked up an early dot-matrix printer to what was then my current computer, with Windows... 95 I believe. Now, when I originally used the dot-matrix I couldn't get anything more interesting than a typewriter font. But hooked up to the new computer it suddenly supported True Type fonts and everything. Made me smile, that brave little printer was far ahead of what computers could do at the time. Unfortunate that I never got to use its full potential until I already had a much better inkjet printer.

  • Wyrd (unregistered)

    I have heard, once or twice, the story of someone who, when instructed to point the mouse at something on the screen and click it, actually picked up the mouse, and aimed it at the screen as one would do with a remote.

    Furry cows moo and decompress.

  • Duke of New York (unregistered) in reply to Xenobiologista
    Xenobiologista:
    You know, the great thing about that sign is, strangely, that it has a little PICTURE of a guy sinking into the ground so that unless passersby are actually blind, they should be able to figure it out.
    Is he sinking, or is he rising out?
  • Jon H (unregistered)

    The Real WTF is thinking quicksand is dangerous. Just stay calm and you float higher than in water. It is only when you fight it you get "dragged" down. It is like computers to the clueless, ... wait...

  • (cs) in reply to Wyrd
    Wyrd:
    I have heard, once or twice, the story of someone who, when instructed to point the mouse at something on the screen and click it, actually *picked up* the mouse, and aimed it at the screen as one would do with a remote. -- Furry cows moo and decompress.

    People still feel the need to point bluetooth remote contols at the device they are trying to remote control...what's your point beyond "sometimes, when faced with a new technology, people get things wrong"?

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