• (cs) in reply to Julian Calaby
    Julian Calaby:
    nik0las:
    CAPTCHA: aptent (I know apt-get, but apt-ent ?)
    It installs trees.
    Tree-herds surely ? </obscure pedantry>
  • bob (unregistered) in reply to campkev

    Again (and last for me. it is not a place to argue...) Blah, blah. People don't know where to stop, do they ?

  • Erik (unregistered) in reply to Anon Ymous
    Anon Ymous:
    Haha, Anna was incontinent.

    But seriously, she was probably a psychopath. I think they were better off just giving her the new equipment instead of refusing.

    She might have done something like the guy they sent to the basement in Office Space (he burned the place down...)

  • JayDee (unregistered) in reply to Tapcon

    And how does "...anyone around you" find out.

  • Misha (unregistered)

    The screensaver story might not be as dum as it sounds; if memory serves Win95/98/Me(?) didn't have any way to lock the computer other than a passwd protected screensaver. That said, the "Preview" button is on the same screen as the one to set the timeout.

    Simple fix, add a shortcut to the .scr file on the desktop.

  • (cs) in reply to Smash King
    Smash King:
    It's amazing that one would create a new XLS file after every 23 rows. It would be so much easier to just switch to another tab inside the same document.

    If she was not educated enough to know you could scroll down, why would you expect her to know about multiple worksheets?

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to DaveK
    DaveK:
    John Muller:
    DaveK:
    Anon:
    It's really hard to get anything done on a computer without some way of seeing the screen output!
    ORLY? There are a few million blind internet users out there who would like to take you up on that!

    It's really harder for blind users than it should be though...

    I'm currently working on touch screen stuff... with no tactile/audio feedback, blind users are basically out of luck with it, which is disappointing to me.

    Yep, accessibility = important. Computers have become an important part of people's engagement with society, nobody should be needlessly excluded. I was just drawing attention to Anon's underlying assumption... we all have to try and remember to think bigger picture.

    Hey, leave my underlying assumptions alone!

  • (cs) in reply to becoming zealous
    becoming zealous:
    I use Windows Vista for browsing and graphics because it is too much hassle for me to set up Linux for less important stuff like that. But Vista sucks so bad that it has convinced me that it is time to bite the bullet and learn so I can migrate entirely to Linux as soon as possible.

    Hmmm... I'm sorry, but if you find Vista too complicated to use, you have no business around Linux (or computers at all, for that matter). Vista is extremely easy to use, even as a non-administrative user with UAC on. I've found most of the changes they made to the UI very intuitive; there were a couple of times where I had trouble the first time doing something figuring out how because of the changes, but that's it.

    becoming zealous:
    PS - I didn't used to agree with Microsoft bashers, I used Windows 98 for years without any more than minor troubles, I only "upgraded" because my 5 year old EMachines's hard drive controller died. Vista is worse in many ways than Windows 3.1 was. (Macrosh*t Vista - a view brown and smelly)

    Let's see... You could use Win98 fine, but couldn't adapt to modern changes in the OS. Perhaps you're going the wrong way, and Win 3.x is more your speed. Certainly you're not smart enough for a more complex OS like Vista or Linux.

    zealots of any kind - the worst kind of brown and smelly.

  • jub (unregistered) in reply to Capt. Obvious

    Or maybe the water was poured out of a glass, which was made of one of the best insulators known to exist- you know, glass.

  • (cs) in reply to becoming zealous
    becoming zealous:
    Since I upgraded to Vista, (copy of a comment I left on Bruce Schneier's blog last week) //Snip moronic whining

    Also when I googled for Vista haters I got a lot of stories, some of which I also have, like the interface freezing up when the hard drive decides to run in the middle of whatever I'm doing, and others that I have never seen, at least partly because many are game related and I'm not a gamer.

    Great. You found a lot of posts from other 4chan lusers like you who aren't smart enough to use Vista, or who heard the other kool kidz bashing Vista and M$ and, since you wanted to be kool2 you jumped right in. Yay for you.

    We call those people who just blindly follow everyone else because they're not smart enough to think for themselves "sheep". Congrats - you've found your flock.

  • (cs)
    ...management decided that she was better off as the receptionist, after all
    Great, so now she can pull an Anna and covet a bigger monitor. In all that time wouldn't someone have noticed her lack of knowledge of GUIs in general and Excel in particular?
  • (cs) in reply to el_oscuro
    el_oscuro:
    Does anyone know of a way I can get multiple desktop workspaces in XP the way I can in Ubuntu?

    Search the Microsoft website for "XP PowerToys". One of them supports multiple desktops (4, IIRC) with keyboard selection, different backgrounds, etc.

  • SCB (unregistered) in reply to ContraCorners
    ContraCorners:
    If someone had given the woman with the 23-row spreadsheets a smaller monitor, would she have complained that "this damn new monitor deleted last 5 rows of all my spreadsheets?"

    Actually, I'd be surprised if she really didn't know how to use a scroll-bar. More likely she did know how to freeze the top row and couldn't bear to enter data in row 24 without knowing what the column headers were.

    Either way...wtf?

    IIRC from a very long time ago, when using Excel on a Mac the default configuration is for the horizontal and vertical scroll bars to be switched off. So it could well appear to someone that all you get is just the one page of data.

  • DiverKas (unregistered) in reply to becoming zealous
    becoming zealous:
    Your response is bogus. NO ONE has EVER claimed that Linux is intuitive.

    I use Windows Vista for browsing and graphics because it is too much hassle for me to set up Linux for less important stuff like that. But Vista sucks so bad that it has convinced me that it is time to bite the bullet and learn so I can migrate entirely to Linux as soon as possible. PS - I didn't used to agree with Microsoft bashers, I used Windows 98 for years without any more than minor troubles, I only "upgraded" because my 5 year old EMachines's hard drive controller died. Vista is worse in many ways than Windows 3.1 was. (Macrosh*t Vista - a view brown and smelly)

    And there ladies and gentlemen, is TRWTF. emachine

  • (cs) in reply to DaveK
    DaveK:
    Yeh, I was thinking that to anyone who was trained on the 9x series of windows,

    You mean the 3.x series. On 9x it opened the task manager.

  • (cs) in reply to DaveK
    DaveK:
    Sparr:
    Jessica using the screen saver to lock the computer isn't entirely WTF... That functionality predates the other methods of locking (win+L, ctrl+alt+del then Lock Computer), maybe she learned back then.
    Yeh, I was thinking that to anyone who was trained on the 9x series of windows, pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del is something you only ever do in utter desparation and if the system is so horribly munged that crashing it totally could hardly make things worse.

    It's quite understandable that they don't realise it's a useful feature when the first get on an NT-series windows, it's as if buying yourself a newer car somehow made punching yourself in the balls not hurt any more: you wouldn't expect people to think of trying that by themselves.

    Great analogy. Takes me back to the first time on NT that I discovered Ctrl-Alt-Del brought up a dialog with useful options - WTF is the first thought...

  • Paula (unregistered)

    I waited a minute, but I'm not the frist comment.

    WTF???

  • (cs) in reply to Random832
    Random832:
    DaveK:
    Yeh, I was thinking that to anyone who was trained on the 9x series of windows,

    You mean the 3.x series. On 9x it opened the task manager.

    I know exactly what I mean. That was not any "task manager" as we know it today. It gives you no information about the tasks and has no options other than "kill one" or "shutdown entire system". No, that was a last-chance-kill-a-task-and-pray-the-system-starts-pumping-messages-again dialog box, for use only when things were so bad that nothing, not even the implosion of the entire universe, could make them worse.

    When the system was unstable owing to a badly-behaved process, hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring that dialog up was as likely to crash the machine hard as to do so, and then actually using the dialog to kill a process was also likely to be the straw that brought the system crashing down rather than recovering for you, and basically the only real purpose it served was self-euthanasia when you were already doomed.

  • Some Linux Geek (unregistered) in reply to Alan
    Alan:
    Windows key + L is a lot quicker...

    In GNOME: Alt + Ctrl + L

  • ultrapedant (unregistered) in reply to Bappi
    Bappi:
    the real wtf fool:
    Broken/Deliberately Destroyed - obvious result from having such a process in place. People are very good at gaming processes to achieve what they want rather than what management intended. Why such penny pinching over a £200 monitor anyway? It's a really cheap way of making employees feel happier/more motivated if that's what bothers them.
    It never ceases to amaze me how many people here assume that every story is about last week. As late as the nineties, a 19" monitor cost a good deal more than £200.

    Not only that, but in an organization with 50000+ employees, a couple hundred dollars (or pounds, or whatever) to satisfy hardware envy is not so cheap - $200 extra spend on 90% of such a population is $9,000,000 or more. Not to mention the costs of disposing of the old equipment.

  • VS63 (unregistered) in reply to Compulsive Proofreader
    Compulsive Proofreader:
    You say this, but I used to correct typos in copy sent over by clients before pasting it into their site and adding HTML tags. I stopped doing this because my boss chewed me out one day, saying I'm a web dev and not a secretary.

    For the rest of my time at that place he was up my ass every time I did something that he felt should be billable or wasn't our business.

    Certainly puts you off trying to add value to what you do! I wouldn't be surprised if X's conversation was already being recorded at his end with an equally anal boss waiting to pounce on him for giving out freebies.

    Yeah, but I wouldn't then come in here bragging about it. Because people would then think you're a douche.

  • (cs)
    Freshly minted out of college, I had the good fortune of getting an entry level help-desk position at a large company.

    In which decade was it good fortune for a college-educated individual to work at a help desk?

    I would kill myself if I got stuck doing that.

  • anonymous (unregistered) in reply to savar

    In which decade was it good fortune for a college-educated individual to work at a help desk?

    Looked at any unemployment figures lately? I just took a 30% pay cut to keep my job.

  • (cs)

    God, I really want to play Tristan pinball again now.

  • (cs) in reply to Markp
    Markp:
    God, I really want to play Tristan pinball again now.
    Yes, Cinderella! You *shall* go to the Pinball!

    http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/1044/Tristan+Pinball.html

  • ExDir1 (unregistered) in reply to Tapcon

    Perhaps there was no one around who had confidential information to protect, and thus they had no reason to lock their computers. Or maybe the user did ask and nobody had a better idea.

    I don't think this one's a WTF at all. The user not only did they best they could to work around the problem but also did realize there was probably a better way and asked for help.

  • ExDir1 (unregistered) in reply to ExDir1
    Tapcon:
    the real wtf fool:
    How to Lock a Computer - That's surely what the support desk is for: to support users? Neither Winkey+L or Ctrl-Alt-Del are intuitive.

    The WTF is that the user went to great lengths to lock the computer and it didn't immediately become obvious there must be a better way.

    And no, that's not what support is for. That's what "ask anyone around you" is for.

    Perhaps there was no one around who had confidential information to protect, and thus they had no reason to lock their computers. Or maybe the user did ask and nobody had a better idea.

    I don't think this one's a WTF at all. The user not only did they best they could to work around the problem but also did realize there was probably a better way and asked for help.

  • Utsa (unregistered) in reply to DaveK
    DaveK:
    Anon:
    It's really hard to get anything done on a computer without some way of seeing the screen output!
    ORLY? There are a few million blind internet users out there who would like to take you up on that!
    I doubt they just had a screen reader lying around, so you'd still have to purchase equipment. Plus, you'd have to spend the time training Anna on its use.
  • Anomalous (unregistered) in reply to RBoy
    RBoy:
    Code Dependent:
    Anonymoose:
    It's amazing how people get "equipment envy"

    "How come THEY have that.."

    [image]

    Hey, make one (or both) a wide screen and it's boner time.

    Nope. Make them both 1200x1600 monitors running in portrait mode like I've got, then it's boner time. Assuming you work with spreadsheets, webpages, email, printed pages (pdf) and other portrait-sized material. For bonus points get 24" monitors (1920x1200) or 30" monitors (Haven't met one with a stand that pivots yet) which would give you 1600 (Wide enough to eliminate horizontal scrolling completely) x 2560 (Vertical scrollbars are confined to VERY long documents). Downside would be neck strain looking up at the top of your monitors.

  • (cs) in reply to Utsa
    Anon:
    It's really hard to get anything done on a computer without some way of seeing the screen output!

    That's why good old DOS had a nice key combination, Ctrl-P, which enabled text output to a dot matrix/daisywheel LPT printer (yeah, I had to use that once or twice....asking for a directory listing was like working with a teletype!).

    Let's see how Anna would like that ;-)

  • David (unregistered) in reply to jimheem
    jimheem:
    He had a similar problem back when the optical mouse first came out. Anyone within a 4 desk circumference of a new optical mouse recipient would mysteriously break their mouse within days.

    Mice were cheap though so it wasnt a big deal. If someone had poured water in her monitor I would have marched them right into the bosses office with the evidence.

    On the bright side you can give these people meanlingless "rewards" like new mouse pads, certificates and job titles, instead of money and power.

  • (cs)

    Let's just clear something right away: I'm a member, too, and know what I'm doing.

    That said, how do I submit a comment?

  • GrandMasterC (unregistered) in reply to GrandmasterB
    GrandmasterB:
    PS - I didn't used to agree with Microsoft bashers, I used Windows 98 for years without any more than minor troubles, I only "upgraded" because my 5 year old EMachines's hard drive controller died. Vista is worse in many ways than Windows 3.1 was. (Macrosh*t Vista - a view brown and smelly)

    So you were stuck so far in the past with Windows 98 that when you were forced to switch to Vista you became scared and confused. Got it.

    So true. I get occasional customers like that, who'll get all up in arms because our newer versions wont run on Windows 98. Why, you cant expect them to upgrade from their super-stable Windows 98 to the buggy XP or Vista!

    I've been using Vista for a while now, and have had no particular problems with it. Not any more than when I switched to XP. Its been my experience, dealing with customers who run varieties of versions of windows, that the large majority of so-called 'Vista' problems are really problems with pre-installed crapware and shoddy drivers. MS certainly could have been more aggressive in making sure drivers from third parties were up to snuff, but otherwise these arent really Vista problems. But techno-idiots cant tell the difference between an OS problem and a non-OS problems, so it all just gets labeled as 'Vista Sucks'. Especially when thats the trendy thing to say. If you do a bare install of Vista (no crapware from HP, Dell, etc) with proper video drivers, its a very solid OS. On the other hand, if you run it on a $300 PC from walmart, well, you get what you pay for.

    Vista sucks.

  • Manuka (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent

    I have this very cartoon on my extra monitors. And I have several. How evil does that make me?

  • (cs) in reply to zbone
    zbone:
    First?

    First? I wasn't aware we were voting on which story's the best. I guess, first for me too.

  • (cs) in reply to Manuka
    Manuka:
    I have this very cartoon on my extra monitors. And I have several. How evil does that make me?
    Pretty darn.
  • My Name (unregistered) in reply to Whoevar
    Whoevar:
    Anna should have gotten her old (guessed) 15 inch up the ass.

    I could only give her 12 inches up the ass

  • My Name (unregistered) in reply to Smash King
    Smash King:
    It's amazing that one would create a new XLS file after every 23 rows. It would be so much easier to just switch to another tab inside the same document.

    This is the same woman who couldn't find the scroll bar. I doubt she even knows what tabs are

  • (cs) in reply to My Name
    My Name:
    Whoevar:
    Anna should have gotten her old (guessed) 15 inch up the ass.

    I could only give her 12 inches up the ass

    That is the LAST time you are borrowing my ruler EVER!
  • Ilikes Boody (unregistered) in reply to Alan

    Thanks mate for that nifty shortcut. ;-)

  • Sean (unregistered)

    Anna knows how to get it done. :D

  • Simon (unregistered)

    Poor Anna, but a friend of mine worked in a place with similar rules.

    Accounts department would not let them get new hardware until the old hardware no longer worked. Oddly enough around the time of the new year budget the number of coffee spills, laptops dropped, or accidentally running a screwdriver along the motherboard while switched on that happened around that time.

    In one of my old jobs they had a similar rule (although not as evil in getting the hardware). One of the guys got a brand new top of the range laptop when his broke. The co-worker thinking he could do the same broke his laptop. Because that was the last new laptop on the current budget he was given an even older laptop (6 years old vs 2 years old).

  • Simon (unregistered) in reply to GrandMasterC
    GrandMasterC:
    Vista sucks.

    It really depends on the version of Vista you own. Most of them are ok. The 64bit professional version is great. "Vista Home" on the other hand is a pile of steaming doggy doo.

  • Job (unregistered) in reply to Spotted Kuh

    Also, on non-netowrk versions of XP, Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't allow you the lock option.

  • jjjinxed (unregistered) in reply to jordanwb
    jordanwb:
    I'm a web devoloper and a client of mine said his email address wasn't valid even though it was added to the database. I told him to clear his cache and it said "Added successfully"

    You're not using GET for things that POST should be used, right? Or not using expire-headers?

  • Technical Debtor (unregistered) in reply to VS63
    VS63:
    Compulsive Proofreader:
    You say this, but I used to correct typos in copy sent over by clients before pasting it into their site and adding HTML tags. I stopped doing this because my boss chewed me out one day, saying I'm a web dev and not a secretary.

    For the rest of my time at that place he was up my ass every time I did something that he felt should be billable or wasn't our business.

    Certainly puts you off trying to add value to what you do! I wouldn't be surprised if X's conversation was already being recorded at his end with an equally anal boss waiting to pounce on him for giving out freebies.

    Yeah, but I wouldn't then come in here bragging about it. Because people would then think you're a douche.

    My company's name was at the bottom of every page that contained the client's horrible, juvenile mangling of my language. I thought I was preventing our image being harmed or something. It was my first job. I honestly thought I was being helpful to everyone involved.

  • ChiefCrazyTalk (unregistered) in reply to Ben4jammin
    Ben4jammin:
    Oddly enough, her scanner, keyboard, and printer magically started springing leaks, too.

    yea, that which gets rewarded gets repeated. In our IT dept (with certain people...myself included) if you put in a ticket that has a 10-day SLA and you start bitching (including emails to higher-ups) on day 3, guess what...see you on day 10, and not a day before. Otherwise, you will probably get it around day 4-5.

    I once worked at a place that was the exact oppposite - if you followed the rules and filed a support ticket, you would never hear from anyone ever again. If you filed a ticket then marched to the support offices and showed them your ticket, they would fix your problem right away.

  • anomyonous (unregistered)

    Anna needs to be invited down to the conference room along with her manager for donuts and coffee. During which the security video of her pouring water into her monitor is played. Then, she is handed a bill for the equipment she destroyed, along with her pink slip. And, as she leaves the conference room, she is presented with a new pair of silver braclets by her escorts, who then, on the way out of the building escort her past her former work station, where a temporary employee is already taking her place. Word will get around soon enough that destroying company equipment is NOT the thing to do...

  • anomonyous (unregistered)

    Maybe being arrested and escorted out in handcuffs is a bit harsh... Company needs to decide if they need/can tolerate Anna and her bad example at any price... If they do, then maybe there's other alternatives. one- A written reprimand in which she signs and acknoledges her responsibility for her bad behavoir and damaged equipment. The old, damaged equipment becomes hers, in return for which she pays the full price for the new replacement equipment, which then becomes company property. The payments will be deducted from her paycheck. The amount needs to be large enough and last long enough to make an impression that disinciventizes her bad behavior. two- she wants a big tube? Then Give her one - even bigger than she asked for. go on to e-bay and fing a big old hulking 24 inch or bigger crt that weighs at least 150 lb and is at least two foot deep. make sure it takes up at least half her desk. Screen burns and fuzzy images would be nice. Then make sure she knows that she's special; Give her several extra onerous tasks to to do besides her normal job to help pay for the "investment".

  • anomonyous (unregistered) in reply to anomonyous

    remember - what to us is merely a tool to get things done, is to them a status symbol. But sometimes you might be careful what you wish for.

    A few years ago(well more than several, now, before the pc's) I was supporting and writing software for a minicomputer. The green screens cost more than 2k each, and there were not enough of them to go around. And of course the tubes were being fought over and treated like status sympols - having one on your desk said that you were connected, showed that you mattered - whether you even used it or not, or even knew how. But once installed you couldn't take it away. (or didn't dare even try) The politics and costs were such that I was not even allocated a screen for myself, yet I still had to get a ton of the programming done - so - I had to go and make use of one of the underutilized tubes sitting on someone else's desk. So.. along with that shinny new status symbol tube, sitting on their desk... they got -me- sitting in their chair, using up their office, pounding away on the keyboard and actually getting something done. It soon got old and they got real tired of me being there using up what was supposed to be their space after a about a week or so of it. Be careful what you wish for.

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