• rogue (unregistered)

    Ha! Obnoxious Orangutan! HA HA!! That one had me rolling.

    Seriously though, I use Ubuntu almost exclusively, and it is great, except it doesn't support my Lexmark printer. Grr. Also, a lot of Linux users I know are pretty obnoxious.

    Still laughing...

  • eth0 (unregistered)

    I've almost sprayed coffee all over my computer when I read the Obnoxious Orangutan part. I would have called it, as Linus Torvalds said about Digg users, Wanking Walrus.

    And I'm a Ubuntu user. ;-)

  • (cs) in reply to Anon
    To be fair, the keyboard language thing is a bit tricky. It's not something you expect to see suddenly change by itself. If the receptionist's keyboard was happily typing in English the day before, why would it suddenly be set to French?
    That kind of logical thinking won't get you far in support. Every user will claim that "it only broke five minutes ago" and "No, I haven't made any changes, I've just been doing what I normally do". Even under waterboarding, they won't crack.

    Inevitably when you find the problem, they'll "remember" the useful and descriptive message that popped up 30 seconds before they called you.

  • SysKoll (unregistered) in reply to K&T
    K&T:
    snoofle:
    Well, you know us Americans; if someone/thing doesn't understand us, we just speak slower and louder!

    Yes, and the French method would be to write the computer off as worthless and wax on about how Computers should know french.

    IBM uses the term "IPL" (Initial Program Load) as a synonym for reboot, especially for mainframes.

    At IBM, the term "French IPL" used to mean "yank the plug and reconnect". The French themselves were using it too!

  • (cs) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    To be fair, the keyboard language thing is a bit tricky. It's not something you expect to see suddenly change by itself. If the receptionist's keyboard was happily typing in English the day before, why would it suddenly be set to French?

    Exactly what I was thinking. I don't think there's a button in Windows you can accidentally press to change keyboard layout.

    The rest were simple mistakes, but the keyboard layout thing is a WTF by itself. How did the keyboard layout get screwed up? Since I don't work here, I assume you have it set that way on purpose as it's not really something you can do by accident.

    Making a palette of quotation marks isn't the right thing to do, but it depends on how the question was presented. Also, since it's not my job (yet) I wouldn't touch the PC's settings (while turning on a printer is no big deal). After asking a couple questions, I might actually make a palette of quotation marks temporarily until I go tell the boss what really happened and explain what I think might be the real solution.

    But yeah, the rest are just silly.

  • (cs) in reply to DaveyDaveDave

    [quote user="DaveyDaveDave"][quote user="SomeCoder"][quote user="Osno"]It's very true that you can tell an awful lot about a person from how he/she talks to the receptionist (or waiter, porter, other service staff).[/quote]

    It's also very true that "grass, gas, or ass, nobody rides for free".

    A response of "I'm sorry, since I'm not an employee I don't think I should get involved wtih that; have you tried contacting your Tech Support team?" would be entirely appropriate, and yet I suspect it would get the applicant dinged at this place.

  • (cs) in reply to Zecc
    Zecc:
    Well, I guess it depends on whether they care if your insulting their language or not.

    "Your" insulting the English language here.

  • (cs) in reply to Kermos
    Kermos:
    Finally, there was Bob. Bob's task was another easy one. The receptionist had a file that lacked an extension. She even offered some help, saying that she had opened it before in Word. Bob took over the keyboard, right-clicked on the file, and quietly said to himself "Type of file: file? Wha...?" Whatever the problem she was experiencing, he had the skills to identify the meta-problem. "Yeah, this is pretty frustrating for you, isn't it?" She nodded in agreement. "Windows sucks and Microsoft sucks. You'd never have this problem if you were on Ubuntu. In fact..." he continued on a six-minute spiel about how much better Ubuntu is. When he finished his lecture, he had her go to the Ubuntu site. "Go to the downloads section and get Obnoxious Orangutan." This is when the interviewer stepped into the room, so he helpfully added, "It should take a while to download, but I'll come back after my interview to walk you through the installation!"
    While I agree that he couldn't have picked a worse solution to a very simple problem, the guy wasn't completely without a valid point.

    Windows' dependency on arbitrary file extensions to decide what to do with a file and by default hide known extensions is a major WTF. That's after all where spammers success with postcard.gif.exe comes from.

    Which makes you wonder why an alleged Linux user would have been confused by a file extension in the first place. I call bullshit.

    Zero:
    snoofle:
    Having been to both Montreal and Paris, I'd have to say that in Canada, I got more politeness by attempting (and failing) to speak French than trying to get by with English, whereas in Paris, I got far more politeness by just sticking with English than trying to speak French (I only know a few words).

    I guess it depends on the day and the place...

    The difference is that the Canadians are proud they speak French whereas the Parisians are proud they speak French.
    No, the French Canadians are proud they speak French. The rest of us hate it. >:(
  • (cs) in reply to Zecc
    Zecc:
    snoofle:
    I guess it depends on the day and the place...
    Well, I guess it depends on whether they care if your insulting their language or not.

    Seems like you're the one insulting my language.

  • (cs) in reply to jonnyq
    jonnyq:
    Exactly what I was thinking. I don't think there's a button in Windows you can accidentally press to change keyboard layout.

    The rest were simple mistakes, but the keyboard layout thing is a WTF by itself. How did the keyboard layout get screwed up? Since I don't work here, I assume you have it set that way on purpose as it's not really something you can do by accident.

    I totally agree with what you are saying, but I do think that the prospect should be able to recognize that the locale settings are set incorrectly and explain to the receptionist that this is the case, even if she doesn't know how to properly configure them. Besides, in this case, that might be sufficient, as the settings will probably be locked out on a school computer anyway.

  • Befuddled (unregistered) in reply to jonnyq
    jonnyq:
    Anon:
    To be fair, the keyboard language thing is a bit tricky. It's not something you expect to see suddenly change by itself. If the receptionist's keyboard was happily typing in English the day before, why would it suddenly be set to French?

    Exactly what I was thinking. I don't think there's a button in Windows you can accidentally press to change keyboard layout.

    alt+shift if you've got multiple keyboard languages set up.

    Quite an annoyance if your desktop has to be setup multi-lingual and you alt+shift by accident when trying to unlock the screen and then get locked out because your password is wrong.

  • (cs) in reply to jonnyq
    jonnyq:
    Anon:
    To be fair, the keyboard language thing is a bit tricky. It's not something you expect to see suddenly change by itself. If the receptionist's keyboard was happily typing in English the day before, why would it suddenly be set to French?

    Exactly what I was thinking. I don't think there's a button in Windows you can accidentally press to change keyboard layout.

    ALT+Shift does the trick. Handy if you are used to both US and UK keyboards (the # is in the right place, just like the £ key is). I use this often.

    It's a bit of a pain when the university insists on installing Japanese, Chinese, Korean etc. (good reasons for doing it, I understand), but accidentally pushing that key combination is not an obvious one for most people

    EDIT: Beaten to it

  • (cs) in reply to Nick
    Nick:
    I'm having some trouble reading this WTF.

    Wait... <switch monitor on> that's better!

    Hire this guy!

  • (cs) in reply to jonnyq
    jonnyq:
    Anon:
    To be fair, the keyboard language thing is a bit tricky. It's not something you expect to see suddenly change by itself. If the receptionist's keyboard was happily typing in English the day before, why would it suddenly be set to French?

    Exactly what I was thinking. I don't think there's a button in Windows you can accidentally press to change keyboard layout.

    The rest were simple mistakes, but the keyboard layout thing is a WTF by itself. How did the keyboard layout get screwed up? Since I don't work here, I assume you have it set that way on purpose as it's not really something you can do by accident.

    Actually no, they keyboard thing isn't a WTF.

    I use Japanese keyboards myself and Windows absolutely half the time will NOT get them right. It'll randomly all of a sudden add a Chinese layout to the keyboard layout list and then go use that. Or, the layout will revert to standard US which I may not even immediately notice as the roman alphabet layout is identical to the US keyboards. However the moment I go hit my key to switch to direct input Kana mode you'll hear me cursing. This happens several times a week.

    I then have to go into regional settings, and simply look at my keyboard layout settings and hit OK. The settings will still be set to Japanese, but windows just somehow uses US layout.

    So no, seeing how I personally suffer with windows not being able to get my keyboard layout straight on multiple completely different computers, both Vista and XP included, I don't see it as a WTF.

    Oh and before someone mentions possible driver issues, manufacturer incompatibility, etc. these are Microsoft keyboards.

  • (cs) in reply to derula
    derula:
    Okay just that you're happy, the German method would be to concentrate the ones we don't understand in camps telling everyone else they were evil while secretly killing them.

    Yeah, that's what Germans do all the time.

  • Boolean (unregistered) in reply to jonnyq
    jonnyq:
    Exactly what I was thinking. I don't think there's a button in Windows you can accidentally press to change keyboard layout.

    There is, actually.

    Check out the Regional and Language section of the Control Panel. There's an option in there to specify a key sequence for switching between several keyboard layouts, and IIRC, it was pre-set on my company craptop when they gave it to me. Something as simple as pressing Ctrl+Shift in order to hit a shortcut, then letting it go because you've changed your mind, would switch the keyboard setting.

    For maximal confusion, Windows maintains a different language setting for each window you open.

  • (cs)

    I've never ever played with locale settings because I'm a Canadian (a sane one; I speak only English and programming languages, TYVM) so I would be very hesitant to claim to know what I was doing them with the keyboard configuration.

    More so, I agree with the "contact IT" suggestions. The printer could be off for a very good reason, IT might have very strict rules about configuring workstations, etc. Basically, if I've not been instructed to help I'll probably try to be polite and helpful without getting my hands dirty. IT is there for a reason.

    If the boss or whatever came over and gave me permission to help then I'd do what I could and be honest about not liking printers (they're evil, ffs) and not having any experience with locale settings.

  • (cs) in reply to iToad
    iToad:
    Some of the smarter companies take management candidates out to dinner, and then arrange for the restaurant to make a small error in the candidate's order. If he flies into a screaming rage, he doesn't get the job.

    What happens when they "accidentally" bring something he's deathly allergic to?

  • cellocgw (unregistered) in reply to iToad

    Yeah, well at MY company, if they don't fly into a rage, they don't get hired. Or at least, considering our management, that's what seems to happen.

  • (cs) in reply to Zero
    Zero:
    The difference is that the Canadians are proud they speak French whereas the Parisians are proud they speak French.
    Since that makes no sense whatsoever, I'm going to guess you meant to say this:

    The difference is that the Canadians are proud they speak French whereas the Parisians are proud they are French.

  • Strum Rincewind (unregistered)

    Doesn't anyone think it strange that the receptionist lets someone unknown to them have access to a company computer? The last thing I would want is someone with a techie background having access to a company computer until I had a chance to check them out.

  • Ken (unregistered) in reply to Kermos
    Kermos:
    jonnyq:
    Anon:
    To be fair, the keyboard language thing is a bit tricky. It's not something you expect to see suddenly change by itself. If the receptionist's keyboard was happily typing in English the day before, why would it suddenly be set to French?

    Exactly what I was thinking. I don't think there's a button in Windows you can accidentally press to change keyboard layout.

    The rest were simple mistakes, but the keyboard layout thing is a WTF by itself. How did the keyboard layout get screwed up? Since I don't work here, I assume you have it set that way on purpose as it's not really something you can do by accident.

    Actually no, they keyboard thing isn't a WTF.

    I use Japanese keyboards myself and Windows absolutely half the time will NOT get them right. It'll randomly all of a sudden add a Chinese layout to the keyboard layout list and then go use that. Or, the layout will revert to standard US which I may not even immediately notice as the roman alphabet layout is identical to the US keyboards. However the moment I go hit my key to switch to direct input Kana mode you'll hear me cursing. This happens several times a week.

    I then have to go into regional settings, and simply look at my keyboard layout settings and hit OK. The settings will still be set to Japanese, but windows just somehow uses US layout.

    So no, seeing how I personally suffer with windows not being able to get my keyboard layout straight on multiple completely different computers, both Vista and XP included, I don't see it as a WTF.

    Oh and before someone mentions possible driver issues, manufacturer incompatibility, etc. these are Microsoft keyboards.

    When I was using a mac for a while, I had all sorts of comedy auto-switching between US and UK. It was a right royal pain. However, I can't say it was any worse an OS than Windows or Linux - I hate them all..

  • Tapcon (unregistered) in reply to Ren
    Ren:
    iToad:
    Some of the smarter companies take management candidates out to dinner, and then arrange for the restaurant to make a small error in the candidate's order. If he flies into a screaming rage, he doesn't get the job.

    What happens when they "accidentally" bring something he's deathly allergic to?

    ... then he doesn't eat it and politely informs the waitstaff? I'm not deathly allergic to anything but I can only assume that's how that situation should be handled.

  • (cs) in reply to rogue
    rogue:
    Ha! Obnoxious Orangutan! HA HA!! That one had me rolling.

    Seriously though, I use Ubuntu almost exclusively, and it is great, except it doesn't support my Lexmark printer. Grr. Also, a lot of Linux users I know are pretty obnoxious.

    Still laughing...

    Are you sure? I use Ubuntu with a Lexmark printer and while Lexmark doesn't provide drivers for Ubuntu, it does provide Red Hat drivers which can be converted with alien. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=49714 gives instructions for how to do this. Then again, they don't say that it works for all Lexmark printers so maybe yours isn't on that list.

  • Jeff L. (unregistered)

    Floppy WHAT? Write protect wha...?

    Oh, right, this must be one of those modern universities. By gum, you should give 'em a real test. You know, have an Altair 8800, and flip the A0 switch down instead of up and see if anyone notices that it doesn't apply when the machine is in unprotect mode! Har! (Whatever.) Dad-blammit, that'll show 'em up!

  • (cs) in reply to justin
    justin:
    I think it would have been great had you assembled it, put a bios password on it, and walked out with a note saying, break this, ill be back in 20 minutes
    I'd hire you in a second!
  • Squitz (unregistered)

    I work tech support/sysadmin and close to half of the workstations at here have floppy drives, albiet combination floppy/flash card reader drives. However, since the office supply of floppy disks is right by my desk I know that no one uses floppy disks except for me.

    I only need a floppy disk when I need to add RAID drivers to a server installation, and I was momentarily stumped by the lack of a write protect tab* because the floppy I was using was formerly a driver disk for a Microsoft mouse of some sort. I fixed it with a bit of scotch tape after checking which hole to tape over against another floppy.

    *for those of you unfamiliar with floppy disks: the sliding tab can be removed to permanently protect the disk from being overwritten. There is a similar system on VHS tapes so that you don't accidentally tape over your Original Trilogy Star Wars tapes, and then have to get the special edition DVD's.

  • (cs) in reply to Strum Rincewind
    Strum Rincewind:
    Doesn't anyone think it strange that the receptionist lets someone unknown to them have access to a company computer? The last thing I would want is someone with a techie background having access to a company computer until I had a chance to check them out.

    The receptionist logs out and logs back in as guest (or some limited access account) when she sees the applicant coming.

  • Ken B (unregistered) in reply to Osno
    Osno:
    Did anyone at all pass the test? I mean, when I am at a job interview, I try to make as little eye contact as possible with anyone not interviewing me. If you go solve the problems that people are actually being payed to solve (and with no context at all), you may end up looking like a showoff.
    You may have missed this part of the post:
    During this time, the receptionist stages a minor tech support problem and asks for the applicant's help.
    I suppose one could simply say something like "sorry, I'm just waiting for an interview", but you certainly couldn't simply "not make eye contact" and ignore her.
  • (cs) in reply to Leo
    Leo:
    Was there anything wrong with it, or was it just assembling the parts together? Doesn't speak well of the A+ cert, either way.

    Nope, nothing wrong with anything, just assembling the parts.

  • (cs) in reply to shepd
    shepd:
    Why is it these applicants even make it there?

    Oh, I forgot. Like most places, I'm guessing the hiring (okay, resume review) process is based on how many degrees the person has, how many languages/operating systems/insert-unrelated-thing-here they've worked on, and how long they were in their last job, rather than the basic items the job actually requires; such as, in this case "Can work with a computer running windows properly".

    It's sad, but I rarely get to the interview stage from a resume application. It's because my resume doesn't look like a million bucks (It's not bad per se, it's just I didn't complete post-secondary, I owned my own store and I tried a new career; it seems HR considers these "risks", or so I'm guessing--colleagues and managers consider them perks, though, once they realize how valuable outside experience is). However, every single interview I've ever had has resulted in a job offer. Although, I usually need to apply to a few dozen jobs to get an interview. Oh well, at least I'm in a job that keeps my happy now! But it was rough getting here!

    (And yes, I've had lots of people review my resume. Even people "trained" to check resumes over. They think it's okay, although they'd wish I'd embellish to the point I'm actually just out and out lying. It's my unwillingness to flat out lie [unlike the candidates you got] that's the issue.)

    I'd be curious to see your resume

  • SarcasmFTW (unregistered) in reply to jonnyq
    jonnyq:
    Anon:
    To be fair, the keyboard language thing is a bit tricky. It's not something you expect to see suddenly change by itself. If the receptionist's keyboard was happily typing in English the day before, why would it suddenly be set to French?

    Exactly what I was thinking. I don't think there's a button in Windows you can accidentally press to change keyboard layout.

    The rest were simple mistakes, but the keyboard layout thing is a WTF by itself. How did the keyboard layout get screwed up? Since I don't work here, I assume you have it set that way on purpose as it's not really something you can do by accident.

    Making a palette of quotation marks isn't the right thing to do, but it depends on how the question was presented. Also, since it's not my job (yet) I wouldn't touch the PC's settings (while turning on a printer is no big deal). After asking a couple questions, I might actually make a palette of quotation marks temporarily until I go tell the boss what really happened and explain what I think might be the real solution.

    But yeah, the rest are just silly.

    Microsoft Language bar.

    I forget the default shortcut, but its pretty simple, which changes the keyboard layout. I have seen it a number of times.

  • (cs) in reply to mp
    mp:
    The real WTF is that they interviewed the candidates after those receptionist tests.

    I'd interview them, but solely for the entertainment value.

  • (cs) in reply to Tapcon
    Tapcon:
    Ren:
    iToad:
    Some of the smarter companies take management candidates out to dinner, and then arrange for the restaurant to make a small error in the candidate's order. If he flies into a screaming rage, he doesn't get the job.

    What happens when they "accidentally" bring something he's deathly allergic to?

    ... then he doesn't eat it and politely informs the waitstaff? I'm not deathly allergic to anything but I can only assume that's how that situation should be handled.

    Doesn't work. I had a project at the Seattle school district, and someone in the office was mortally allergic to seafood. You couldn't even bring seafood in the building or his allergies would be triggered.

    You can imagine what would've happened if you'd put a plate of fish in front of him.

  • (cs)

    How about "I'm sorry, this is really something you should call your IT department about. I don't work for this company and I don't want to violate any of your policies"

  • (cs) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Zero:
    The difference is that the Canadians are proud they speak French whereas the Parisians are proud they speak French.
    Since that makes no sense whatsoever, I'm going to guess you meant to say this:

    The difference is that the Canadians are proud they speak French whereas the Parisians are proud they are French.

    The problem is that Canadians don't speak French. We speak 'Quebecois'. They're almost two totally different languages. And don't even get started on 'Acadian'...

  • Dirk Diggler (unregistered) in reply to Squitz
    Squitz:
    *for those of you unfamiliar with floppy disks: the sliding tab can be removed to permanently protect the disk from being overwritten. There is a similar system on VHS tapes so that you don't accidentally tape over your Original Trilogy Star Wars tapes, and then have to get the special edition DVD's.
    The tab on vhs tapes can also protect your porn. In the 90's we had some Gateway2000s that had programmable key boards. It was kind of a pain because people would record macros on regular keys.
  • bucket (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    To be fair, the keyboard language thing is a bit tricky. It's not something you expect to see suddenly change by itself. If the receptionist's keyboard was happily typing in English the day before, why would it suddenly be set to French?
    Well I know that in the Netherlands, most computers get configured with a Dutch and a US-Intl layout by default. If you press some combination of keys, it magically changes. So if this were, say, Canada you could want to press CTRL+S to save a document, accidently press CTRL+SHIFT+S, and you changed your keyboard layout. So yes, it's quite possible. And also: I'm no tech support guy, but when I press a key and it unexpectedly turns into a squiggly kind of character, the first thing I do is check the keyboard layouts.
  • Procedural (unregistered) in reply to snoofle
    snoofle:
    Endo808:
    K&T:
    snoofle:
    Well, you know us Americans; if someone/thing doesn't understand us, we just speak slower and louder!

    Yes, and the French method would be to write the computer off as worthless and wax on about how Computers should know french.

    To be fair I'd write off some slow speaking, loud shouting american as worthless too. You'll find the french perfectly helpful if you talk to them like people instead of retards.

    Having been to both Montreal and Paris, I'd have to say that in Canada, I got more politeness by attempting (and failing) to speak French than trying to get by with English, whereas in Paris, I got far more politeness by just sticking with English than trying to speak French (I only know a few words).

    I guess it depends on the day and the place...

    Wow, strange, me too; I had a totally different experience speaking with someone from Spain than I did with someone from Cuba. How come ? (The mind boggles)

  • tbrown (unregistered) in reply to Zero
    Zero:
    snoofle:
    Having been to both Montreal and Paris, I'd have to say that in Canada, I got more politeness by attempting (and failing) to speak French than trying to get by with English, whereas in Paris, I got far more politeness by just sticking with English than trying to speak French (I only know a few words).

    I guess it depends on the day and the place...

    The difference is that the Canadians are proud they speak French whereas the Parisians are proud they speak French.

    Ummm... you mean "the Parisians are proud they are French." don't you?

  • bucket (unregistered) in reply to SomeCoder
    SomeCoder:
    DaveyDaveDave:
    SomeCoder:
    Osno:
    Did anyone at all pass the test? I mean, when I am at a job interview, I try to make as little eye contact as possible with anyone not interviewing me. If you go solve the problems that people are actually being payed to solve (and with no context at all), you may end up looking like a showoff.

    I once had an interviewee who stormed in the middle of a discussion and made a very obvious suggestion not because he wasn't smart, but because he didn't know what was being discussed. I showed him the door mainly because of that.

    I would gently suggest that she call IT, but nothing more.

    Yeah, while I like this idea for an interview test, I don't think I would really even take it. I could probably pass it, but, as this poster said, I'd probably just suggest she call IT and let them look at her computer.

    It's a good test, for sure, and these people in the story are obviously morons but what would you do if a candidate just said "oh well, better check with IT?" rather than offer to help?

    Personally - I'd think, 'what an unfriendly, unhelpful person, I wouldn't want to work with him/her'.

    It's very true that you can tell an awful lot about a person from how he/she talks to the receptionist (or waiter, porter, other service staff).

    That's a pretty terrible assumption to make. You would assume that the guy, nervous as hell, coming in for an interview would immediately jump to his feet to fix a receptionists computer while not being paid for it and having no prior knowledge to how their network, IT, etc. works?

    Again, I like this test, but it has some flaws. I really liked the test that someone posted about having the computer lying in pieces on the ground and said "fix this" though.

    It's not like you need major network knowledge to fix a keyboard layout or whatever. Even if someone at a random place would know I could handle computer stuff well, and would ask me, I would at least try and help to think of a solution or the cause of the problem, and then try to solve it or suggest a solution. And I don't really care I don't get paid for those 5 minutes of work. It's called kindness.

  • bucket (unregistered) in reply to rogue
    rogue:
    Ha! Obnoxious Orangutan! HA HA!! That one had me rolling.

    Seriously though, I use Ubuntu almost exclusively, and it is great, except it doesn't support my Lexmark printer. Grr. Also, a lot of Linux users I know are pretty obnoxious.

    Still laughing...

    If your printer on?

  • (cs) in reply to DaveyDaveDave
    DaveyDaveDave:
    SomeCoder:
    Yeah, while I like this idea for an interview test, I don't think I would really even take it. I could probably pass it, but, as this poster said, I'd probably just suggest she call IT and let them look at her computer. It's a good test, for sure, and these people in the story are obviously morons but what would you do if a candidate just said "oh well, better check with IT?" rather than offer to help?
    Personally - I'd think, 'what an unfriendly, unhelpful person, I wouldn't want to work with him/her'. It's very true that you can tell an awful lot about a person from how he/she talks to the receptionist (or waiter, porter, other service staff).
    That is a serious leap to make just from someone not offering to help. This guy has no knowledge of what OS they are running, what privs/rights are available, if/how actions are logged, how secret their data is (not wanting to be accused of trying to get access to something confidential, etc)., if the receptionist would freak out if he accidently bumps his hand into her thigh, etc. In today's world, a lot of things can go wrong.

    Just my $.02...

    Peace!

  • Gorfblot (unregistered) in reply to snoofle
    snoofle:
    justin:
    I think it would have been great had you assembled it, put a bios password on it, and walked out with a note saying, break this, ill be back in 20 minutes
    I'd hire you in a second!

    Don't you mean in 20 minutes?

  • SomeCoder (unregistered) in reply to bucket
    bucket:
    It's not like you need major network knowledge to fix a keyboard layout or whatever. Even if someone at a random place would know I could handle computer stuff well, and would ask me, I would at least try and help to think of a solution or the cause of the problem, and then try to solve it or suggest a solution. And I don't really care I don't get paid for those 5 minutes of work. It's called kindness.

    What I meant was not technical knowledge of networks, but rather, policies.

    Every company I've worked for has some really insanely paranoid people running IT. For someone to come in and jump on a receptionists computer to fix something... they would probably call the FBI immediately ;)

    Seriously though, I would be afraid of breaking some policy, unknowingly, and then being automatically disqualified from working there.

    This is an interesting idea to screen candidates and it seems to have worked but they need a back up plan just in case someone politely tells the secretary "Maybe you should call your IT department?"

  • blunder (unregistered) in reply to incognito
    incognito:
    Wait...I'm having trouble placing the time period - what with the talk of Ubuntu and Wikipedia. The PC still had a floppy drive???? Honestly - do you think an 18 year old kid has grown up with a floppy drive at all?

    Businesses don't upgrade their computers every year.

    I have a couple guys that still use the floppy drives. I've suggested that they back up to the file server, but the files in question aren't anything critical so I don't care enough to harp on them.

    I had a recent hire gawk at our tape drives (LTO...not that old), he hadn't expected to ever see one, like it was a relic from the past. I had to give him the whole "well, it's not glamorous but it works and I'm not replacing it until it stops working, and you'll find most businesses have the same approach" speech.

    But secretly I was embarrassed since I wish we had a cool NAS box or something.

  • bucket (unregistered) in reply to bucket
    bucket:
    rogue:
    Ha! Obnoxious Orangutan! HA HA!! That one had me rolling.

    Seriously though, I use Ubuntu almost exclusively, and it is great, except it doesn't support my Lexmark printer. Grr. Also, a lot of Linux users I know are pretty obnoxious.

    Still laughing...

    If your printer on?

    I'm pretty sure the forum software inserts typo's into my posts... I always check them before I press Submit and two of my posts suddenly had a typo in them when I read them back. :( And no edit button that I can find as well.

    Captcha: uxor... don't you mean suxor?

  • Ken B (unregistered) in reply to Bappi
    Bappi:
    Tapcon:
    Ren:
    iToad:
    Some of the smarter companies take management candidates out to dinner, and then arrange for the restaurant to make a small error in the candidate's order. If he flies into a screaming rage, he doesn't get the job.
    What happens when they "accidentally" bring something he's deathly allergic to?
    ... then he doesn't eat it and politely informs the waitstaff? I'm not deathly allergic to anything but I can only assume that's how that situation should be handled.
    Doesn't work. I had a project at the Seattle school district, and someone in the office was mortally allergic to seafood. You couldn't even bring seafood in the building or his allergies would be triggered.

    You can imagine what would've happened if you'd put a plate of fish in front of him.

    I would hope that someone who is that allergic would, prior to going out to eat, mention something like "by the way, I'm deathly allergic to X". (What would happen if the pan next to the one cooking their food was cooking the other food?)

  • Thunder (unregistered) in reply to Mr B
    Mr B:
    I stormed in the middle of a discussion once.

    In another one I winded, and then drizzled everywhere, much to everyone's consternation.

    Holy crap dude - I've often heard the phrase "you owe me a new keyboard" but never actually had cause to say it until I was drinking my soda while I read this beaut.
  • Procedural (unregistered) in reply to Procedural
    Procedural:
    snoofle:
    Endo808:
    K&T:
    snoofle:
    Well, you know us Americans; if someone/thing doesn't understand us, we just speak slower and louder!

    Yes, and the French method would be to write the computer off as worthless and wax on about how Computers should know french.

    To be fair I'd write off some slow speaking, loud shouting american as worthless too. You'll find the french perfectly helpful if you talk to them like people instead of retards.

    Having been to both Montreal and Paris, I'd have to say that in Canada, I got more politeness by attempting (and failing) to speak French than trying to get by with English, whereas in Paris, I got far more politeness by just sticking with English than trying to speak French (I only know a few words).

    I guess it depends on the day and the place...

    Wow, strange, me too; I had a totally different experience speaking with someone from Spain than I did with someone from Cuba. How come ? (The mind boggles)

    You'd be surprised but I hear they also speak French in the Congo... and that totally different people live there ! There's something screwy with this world, but we are two brillant people. Maybe we can figure it out.

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