We've got it all wrong, why use a printer when MAGIC will do instead?
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So this morning my colleage tells me he got another phone call from one of our clients with the same issue as last time. Now this occasionally happens, you fix a bug badly (or completely neglect the bug fixing part) and the end user will eventually make that call to say it's STILL not working.
However, this was one of those days where the 'bug' in question was simply a users failure to understand the fundamentals of common sense, physics and nature
The person in question had called several days earlier and whilst on the line frantically explained how their LoB systems didn't reconcile for a certain sales invoice or some such document. My colleague, having written most of said system looked into the database and found a small issue with the data, probably caused by an obscure bug. He tweaked the data and sent an email saying everything should be fixed. There was no reply so he assumed that everything was ok.
Of course the next day he received another frantic phone call
"The figures for yesterday are still wrong!" claimed the user
He apologised and double checked his changes - the data looked ok in the database, he opened a copy of the application to view the transaction on screen - it all looked ok there too. He even printed off the reports to check it wasn't some obscure error in the calculated results...still everything looked fine.
Eventually he phoned the client back
"Where abouts are you looking at the data?" he asked
"On a report - I printed it off" the user replied
"I've just checked them right now, they are fine in the system as far as I can see... are you sure you are looking in the right place"
"Yes I printed this off yesterday and it's still wrong"
He went quiet for a minute
"You printed them off yesterday and they are still wrong?"
"Yes"
"Ok, leave it with me, I'll see what I can do"
I'm not sure what's worse, the failure of someone to grasp even the most basic concepts of paper/ink or their magic 'data enabled ink' which would automatically update on the fly when someone changed the source document.
Imagine that - your sensitive government documents fall into the wrong hands? Just delete the documents from your drive and all is well!
Your wife sent you shopping but forget to put an item on the list? No more hard to track text messages asking you to add 6 Mars bars to the list, just get her to update the spreadsheet!
Unbelievable!
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Your application doesn't support printing to e-ink? Get with the times, man.
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Personally I'm still waiting for a language that supports PEBKACException.
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Wow, great story and well written too.
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@Zecc said:
Wow, great story and well written too.
Are you fucking kidding me? There are tons of punctuation errors. It's like the Holocaust, only this is much, much worse.
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@Charleh said:
Your wife sent you shopping but forget to put an item on the list? No more hard to track text messages asking you to add 6 Mars bars to the list, just get her to update the spreadsheet!
This happens to me more than I care to think of.... Someone invent this magic voodoo wotsit ink system now... pleeeeease!
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I have actually heard a person ask how to print out an animated .gif image.
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@Abdiel said:
I hope you provided them with a stack of paper and a stapler.I have actually heard a person ask how to print out an animated .gif image.
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@bstorer said:
@Zecc said:
Wow, great story and well written too.
Are you fucking kidding me? There are tons of punctuation errors. It's like the Holocaust, only this is much, much worse.In his defense, you reeeeeeeaaaallllllly like the Holocaust.
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@Abdiel said:
I have actually heard a person ask how to print out an animated .gif image.
OH! Just like Harry Potter!
Heard that in a meeting the other day. Was refering to a Digital Pen. Not that off base but pretty funny.
MArk B.
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Amazing post! Calls to mind something that happened to me:
Ring ring.
"Hello, Matt here, how can I help you?" I answer.
"Bill here. I got a problem with this program."
"Which program's that, Bill?"
"THIS ONE ON MY SCREEN RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME OF COURSE!"
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Just print it out on your end, then close the bug as "could not reproduce".
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@Abdiel said:
I have actually heard a person ask how to print out an animated .gif image.
Almost as good as when I was asked why Word's animated headings didn't work on paper.
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Place a friend of mine works at, the MD had his Windows password set to the registration of his car. He phoned support one day, furious since he couldn't log in.
After a while it transpired he had just bought a new car and his new registration number wasn't being accepted.
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@robbak said:
@MiffTheFox said:
Just print it out on your end, then close the bug as "unable to reproduce".
ftfy
ftfy
...because surely, that's the desired outcome?
