Why managers should be kept away from technology.



  •  Manager comes in: "Why isn't this laptop starting?" he asks. He's looking for some old file he thinks is on there.

    (note: the laptop in question is ancient, and the battery is long dead, so it only runs on AC power and is only really used for presentations)

    I go over and have a quick look. I turn the power on at the power point and boots.
    "Oh", He says, and I leave.

    He comes back a minute later. "Why won't the mouse work?" he asks.
    I go over again and have another quick look, its a USB optical mouse, seems connected, but the diode isn't lit, so I check the connection.
    It takes me a few tries but I get it removed from the ethernet port (he somehow got it jammed into) and plug it into a USB port.

    I leave him with a question, "Not your day is it?"



  • Oh yes, I once noticed too that USB plugs do fit in the Ethernet socket. I situation just waiting for misunderstandings like this to happen.

    The missing power *is* something even a manger should be able to solve, though. Alas...



  • @Spikeles said:

    I get it removed from the ethernet port (he somehow got it jammed into)
     

    Trivia time!

    (and formerly discussed here at some point in the past)

    Ethernet ports on laptops are roughly the same size as USB ports. The difference between laptop ethernet and desktop ethernet is like half a mm or less, but it's just eough to make the difference between "no fit" and "snug fit".

    I do not know why.

    But it's a fact.



  •  I think worse is the PS/2 slot being almost identical to s-video connection on graphics cards. I found this out one time when a university friend borrowed my mouse and then jammed it back in to the graphics card once he'd finished with it, despite that being harder to get to because of the position of the case.



  • @ASheridan said:

     I think worse is the PS/2 slot being almost identical to s-video connection on graphics cards. I found this out one time when a university friend borrowed my mouse and then jammed it back in to the graphics card once he'd finished with it, despite that being harder to get to because of the position of the case.

    Maybe he took the Cisco IT Essentials course... until I said to the teacher "why the fuck does the GPU have a mouse port it's a fucking S-Video port go and complain to them and tell them to fix their shit", they had an image of a graphics card with the ports labelled VGA, DVI and Mouse.

    And that was just one mistake. I forget the rest.



  • @Spikeles said:

    It takes me a few tries but I get it removed from the ethernet port (he somehow got it jammed into) and plug it into a USB port.
    I've done that one more that once myself. When I reach blindly around behind my laptop and try and plug the mouse in sight unseen, but not paying attention, it is easy to get it in the Ethernet port. But at least I have the sense to realize that an optical mouse without a glowing light is having a bad day.

    [waiting for the obvious jokes]



  • I've always wondered what happens if you plug the mouse into the ethernet port, and the metal USB plug jacket shorts all the ethernet pins. I don't think I want to find out by experimentation, though.



  • @db2 said:

    I've always wondered what happens if you plug the mouse into the ethernet port, and the metal USB plug jacket shorts all the ethernet pins. I don't think I want to find out by experimentation, though.

    The mouse escapes onto the network and starts nibbling on the data packets



  • @pkmnfrk said:

    @db2 said:
    I've always wondered what happens if you plug the mouse into the ethernet port, and the metal USB plug jacket shorts all the ethernet pins. I don't think I want to find out by experimentation, though.

    The mouse escapes onto the network and starts nibbling on the data packets

    Brian Jacques' Tron.



  • @db2 said:

    I've always wondered what happens if you plug the mouse into the ethernet port, and the metal USB plug jacket shorts all the ethernet pins. I don't think I want to find out by experimentation, though.
    I would think nothing. Ethernet 10 Mb voltage range is -2.5 to +2.5. 100 and 1000 Mb are lower. The worst you'll get in terms of signaling are the link detection pulses. PoE is not activated unless the switch sees a specific signal sequence requesting PoE and the amount of power it needs. I just don't think it'll be anywhere near as fun as you might want it to be.

    Now if you decide to use one of those Ethernet killers on my network, I will fucking kill you, beat you like a dead horse, throw you into the incinerator, grate you into a fine powder and sell you as a new table seasoning in Washington. (They'll never know.) If the police come and ask questions, as a representative of the network I will say that I was Standing My Ground on behalf of the network and be known from then on as the BNEFH.



  • @OzPeter said:

    I've done that one more that once myself. When I reach blindly around behind my laptop and try and plug the mouse in sight unseen, but not paying attention, it is easy to get it in the Ethernet port. But at least I have the sense to realize that an optical mouse without a glowing light is having a bad day.
    Same thing has happened to me, blindly trying to plug in a USB into the back of a PC and accidentally went into the ethernet port.  I quickly realized the issue when I tried to plug in the ethernet cable next.



  • I'd rather not say how I know that an RJ-11 plug will fit nicely (and snap in) in an RJ-25 jack.



  • @nonpartisan said:

    Now if you decide to use one of those Ethernet killers on my network, I will fucking kill you, beat you like a dead horse, throw you into the incinerator, grate you into a fine powder and sell you as a new table seasoning in Washington. (They'll never know.) If the police come and ask questions, as a representative of the network I will say that I was Standing My Ground on behalf of the network and be known from then on as the BNEFH.

    +1000

    I need to start a list of quotes somewhere with stuff like this in it. This is good trash-talking material for the next time I die playing Halo online.



  • @taustin said:

    I'd rather not say how I know that an RJ-11 plug will fit nicely (and snap in) in an RJ-25 jack.

    I'll bet the story involves ring voltage.



  • @db2 said:

    @taustin said:
    I'd rather not say how I know that an RJ-11 plug will fit nicely (and snap in) in an RJ-25 jack.
    I'll bet the story involves ring voltage.

    And his/her nipples.



  • @nonpartisan said:

    Now if you decide to use one of those Ethernet killers on my network, I will fucking kill you, beat you like a dead horse, throw you into the incinerator, grate you into a fine powder and sell you as a new table seasoning in Washington. (They'll never know.) If the police come and ask questions, as a representative of the network I will say that I was Standing My Ground on behalf of the network and be known from then on as the BNEFH.
     

    I may have that powered hub lying around somewhere.



  • @taustin said:

    I'd rather not say how I know that an RJ-11 plug will fit nicely (and snap in) in an RJ-25 jack.
    That's intentional. The pins are backwards compatible. We have RJ11 plugs at work plugged into RJ45 sockets at the wall. If I decide to go with a VOIP solution in the future, I just change stuff in the network patch panel and plug the new phones into the same wall socket. It's a feature, not a bug.

    [Edit : Just went back and saw that you said "25", not "45". I'll still leave this post though.]



  • @TheRider said:

    The missing power is something even a manger should be able to solve, though. Alas...

    One particular manager here a few years ago was given a new LCD monitor to replace her CRT one. At the end of every day, she used to turn off her CRT monitor as well as the PC, a practice she continued with the LCD.



    Every morning for the first week with the new screen, she called up the helpdesk (at the time, that was just me) wondering why the monitor was blank when she turned the PC on. On the second attempt onwards, my first question was always "Have you turned the monitor back on?". The reply was always "Yes, of course", so I always had to go and check - and then press the power button for her.



    Her brain cells seemed to return from holiday in time for the second week...



  • When I was working at Circuit City back in the day, I had one lady come in and throw a wireless mouse at me because it was defective and I was the one who sold it to her. I asked her to show me what was happening, and watched as she pulled out the USB receiver and casually inserted it into the Ethernet port on her laptop.



  • @MeesterTurner said:

    @TheRider said:
    The missing power is something even a manger should be able to solve, though. Alas...

    One particular manager here a few years ago was given a new LCD monitor to replace her CRT one. At the end of every day, she used to turn off her CRT monitor as well as the PC, a practice she continued with the LCD.



    Every morning for the first week with the new screen, she called up the helpdesk (at the time, that was just me) wondering why the monitor was blank when she turned the PC on. On the second attempt onwards, my first question was always "Have you turned the monitor back on?". The reply was always "Yes, of course", so I always had to go and check - and then press the power button for her.



    Her brain cells seemed to return from holiday in time for the second week...

    I'm confused. Why did her behavior change between the CRT and the LCD?



  • @OzPeter said:

    But at least I have the sense to realize that an optical mouse without a glowing light is having a bad day.

    [waiting for the obvious jokes]
     

    Oh, what the heck....

     Not as bad a day as a pre-optical mouse is having without balls.



  • @taustin said:

    I'd rather not say how I know that an RJ-11 plug will fit nicely (and snap in) in an RJ-25 jack.

    If your RJ-11 plug doesn't fit in an RJ-25 jack, there's something seriously wrong with your hardware. RJ-11, RJ-14, and RJ-25 use the exact same electrical and mechanical hardware; the only difference is the number of connected wire pairs. Further, RJ-11 and RJ-14 are electrically and mechanically compatible with RJ-45 (aka. Ethernet), while RJ-25 is mechanically but not electrically compatible.



  • @russ0519 said:

    I'm confused. Why did her behavior change between the CRT and the LCD?

    Her behaviour didn't change, she always turned it off at night. My guess is that (a) she expected it to auto switch on after turning the PC back on or (b - most likely) couldn't find the power button and wouldn't admit it...



  • @MeesterTurner said:

    @russ0519 said:
    I'm confused. Why did her behavior change between the CRT and the LCD?

    Her behaviour didn't change, she always turned it off at night. My guess is that (a) she expected it to auto switch on after turning the PC back on or (b - most likely) couldn't find the power button and wouldn't admit it...

    But... surely if she could find the button to turn it off, she would be able to find it to turn it back on?

    I know I'm trying to apply reason to irrational behaviour, but... I just... bluh...



  • @barrabus said:

    @MeesterTurner said:
    @russ0519 said:
    I'm confused. Why did her behavior change between the CRT and the LCD?

    Her behaviour didn't change, she always turned it off at night. My guess is that (a) she expected it to auto switch on after turning the PC back on or (b - most likely) couldn't find the power button and wouldn't admit it...

    But... surely if she could find the button to turn it off, she would be able to find it to turn it back on?

    I know I'm trying to apply reason to irrational behaviour, but... I just... bluh...

    Guys she was FLIRTING with him, and he didn't pick up on it.

    Duh.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @barrabus said:
    @MeesterTurner said:
    @russ0519 said:
    I'm confused. Why did her behavior change between the CRT and the LCD?

    Her behaviour didn't change, she always turned it off at night. My guess is that (a) she expected it to auto switch on after turning the PC back on or (b - most likely) couldn't find the power button and wouldn't admit it...

    But... surely if she could find the button to turn it off, she would be able to find it to turn it back on?

    I know I'm trying to apply reason to irrational behaviour, but... I just... bluh...

    Guys she was FLIRTING with him, and he didn't pick up on it.

    Duh.

    She clearly didn't do much research on her target audience.



  • @Douglasac said:

    they had an image of a graphics card with the ports labelled VGA, DVI and Mouse.And that was just one mistake. I forget the rest.

    That would be terrifying, except for the fact I've witnessed a diagram in some A+ course notes that had the 9-pin serial port labelled "Mouse Port", 25-pin serial as "Printer Port" and 25-pin parallel as "Modem Port".

    The diagram itself was the back of an AT PC, a monochrome photograph that had been badly duplicated, but further down you could see an unlabelled PCI modem card. I identified this as the modem to the course author, but he corrected me to "it's the NIC. You can see the connections there", pointing to two RJ11 ports that bad replication had transformed into an over-wide and curvy RJ45.

    Granted, the kid writing this stuff was only 21 - but there's not knowing your stuff and there's stubbornly believing you do to the point of actively disseminating misinformation to those that don't know and wish to learn.



  • @Cassidy said:

    9-pin serial port labelled "Mouse Port", 25-pin serial as "Printer Port" and 25-pin parallel as "Modem Port".

    What. How do you get this so backwards? The 25-pin parallel port is the printer port and the 9-pin serial is the mouse port! I can't recall ever seeing a 25-pin serial, so that's right out.



  • @pkmnfrk said:

    I can't recall ever seeing a 25-pin serial, so that's right out.

    You might not have recalled one... but that does not mean they don't exist.



  •  @Cassidy said:

    You might not have recalled one... but that does not mean they don't exist.

     I wish they didn't exist. Most of the lunkheads I know tried to gender-change it for a printer or SCSI peripherial at some point, and they were always pissed off when you told them it would cost actual money to make it work. 



  • The problems I encountered with 25-pin male/female confusion (and serial "extension" cables usd backwards as parallel extenders for a printer) in the Unix world were simply replaced by people confusing the 9-port serial with the 15-port VGA.

    Looking at the ports on the back of older AT-PCs and newer PC, the leaps in technology are more apparent: white DVI, blue VGA, purple/green PS2 - it's much easier and quicker to identify what goes where. Doesn't stop people being deliberate fuckwits, but has reduced mistakes.



  • @pkmnfrk said:

    I can't recall ever seeing a 25-pin serial, so that's right out.
    My 286 had one, and the mouse had a matching connector. However, I don't remember seeing one on newer computers (but my external modem did have a 25-pin port, and needed a 9->25 adaptor).



  • @Cassidy said:

    The problems I encountered with 25-pin male/female confusion (and serial "extension" cables usd backwards as parallel extenders for a printer) in the Unix world were simply replaced by people confusing the 9-port serial with the 15-port VGA.

    Looking at the ports on the back of older AT-PCs and newer PC, the leaps in technology are more apparent: white DVI, blue VGA, purple/green PS2 - it's much easier and quicker to identify what goes where. Doesn't stop people being deliberate fuckwits, but has reduced mistakes.

    Last week I found out the our warehouse received new USB scales, but our software only supports serial scales. Somebody decided to connect them with a backwards USB-to-serial cable, a female-female USB A adapter and a standard USB A-B cable. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work.


  • @ender said:

    @pkmnfrk said:
    I can't recall ever seeing a 25-pin serial, so that's right out.
    My 286 had one, and the mouse had a matching connector. However, I don't remember seeing one on newer computers (but my external modem did have a 25-pin port, and needed a 9->25 adaptor).
    I have an 8088 laptop from 1986 with a 25-pin serial and 25-pin parallel port on it.


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