The Daily Funny - 6th May 2010

Coffee is the fuel!

I was network manager at large (and prestigious) scientific establishment when I got what is probably my funniest call.

The background was that one group were experiencing ‘wobble’ on their monitors, due to a bandly installed 3-phase supply nearby. While waiting for the electricians to come back and fix the fault, we provided them with some surge/RF protected power strips which appeared to reduce the effect.

Me: Hello, ( ---- ) group; how can I help?

User: This is Professor Somebody. Look, one of your people has installed a coffee-pot on my computer and I want it removed!

Me: (bemused) Did you say ‘coffee-pot’?

Prof: Yes, and it’s interrupting my work. I want it uninstalled!

Me: (very bemused) Is this a screen-saver or something?

Prof: What!? No, it’s a ‘COFFEE’ ‘POT’! A POT you make COFFEE in, and my computer won’t boot unless the damn thing’s plugged in!

Me: (astoundingly bemused) Um... (pause) Um... (pause) I’ll be right up, okay?

Suprisingly the user was quite right, his computer would absolutely not boot unless the coffee-pot was plugged in and turned on. Of course it was nothing we had done. Apparently this professor had noticed the shiny new power-strips of the other group, found out that they ‘reduce screen wobble’ and had promptly ordered the biggest and most expensive model from the same manufacturer for no reason other than greed. This particular model had one bright red ‘master’ socket and four white ‘slave’ sockets; when whatever was plugged into the master was switched on, all the slaves were switched on, and vice versa. Of course the big red socket was just perfect for this professor to plug his personal little coffee-maker into, hence the only way for his computer to receive power was to make lots of coffee (I work in a similar manner).

One quick swap of the mains leads and the problem is solved. Not only was the professor not embarrassed by the incident, he was overjoyed to have a ‘computer operated coffee-pot’ (ie. he now has to turn the computer on to make coffee) and took every opportunity to show it to everyone who visited!

Oxygen is just wasted on some people!

Thanks to: Syn O'Nym

 

From www.TechTales.com December 1998