Having Fun with the Mechanics

[Cooper]

Our mechanics aren't very computer-savvy. One of them owned the business before, and did inventory exclusively on cards, and was very suspicious of the computers when we brought them in. He now knows how to type in his own work orders, and ring something up, with a lot of coaching from me.

It isn't just him either. Only one of the mechanics can ring something up, and that's the youngest one.

I once freaked them out by scanning something. They sat on the computer that was getting the pictures from the scans sent to it, and I hadn't noticed. Finally, our mechanic S looked at me and exclaimed: "It's you! You're the one doing that!" When the picture was successfully sent, the scan utility would pop up. I bet he was a bit confused about that.

Our cashier software has a quirk that the programmers insist cannot be replicated, even though we have it consistently happen. Every 50 transactions, it crashes. Transactions also include printing. (It also can't count, and insists 2 open windows is 6, but that's tangential.) Well, two of the guys were trying to use it to write up a work order, and it crashed. They immediately backed away from the computer, hands up, and asked me to fix it. They didn't seem relieved when I told them it wasn't them; the program broke consistently in this way all on its own.

Yesterday, I was asked to keep an eye on the store via camera while everyone else was out. I saw Mechanic M come into the main camera view. He leaned over to look at the computer. I pressed the 'talk' button on the intercom and went: "What are you doing?"

I saw him stop. Walk over to the intercom. Stare at it. Then leave. A few seconds later, he comes into the upstairs door.

MM: Did you hear that?
Me: Yes I did.

We joke we don't have to worry about an internal hacking job, at least.

[bhskittykatt]

I once freaked them out by scanning something. They sat on the computer that was getting the pictures from the scans sent to it, and I hadn't noticed. Finally, our mechanic S looked at me and exclaimed: "It's you! You're the one doing that!" When the picture was successfully sent, the scan utility would pop up. I bet he was a bit confused about that.

Our system is set up so that I can access the front office prop mgmt program from the back office computer. If I print something from back there on that program, though, it still goes to the front office printer. Shortly after they set the system up like this, I freaked out CWs by printing something and have the printer suddenly come to life on them when they weren't on the computer. I can still freak a few of them out sometimes.

[ADeMartino]

I freaked out CWs by printing something and have the printer suddenly come to life on them when they weren't on the computer. I can still freak a few of them out sometimes.

With some of the older dot-matrix and daisy wheel printers, that wasn't much of a feat, even if you knew about the 'remote printing' thing. A person would be sitting quietly and doing whatever they were doing on the computer, and suddenly this big mass of electronic machinery would just whirl noisily to life.

[bhskittykatt]

With some of the older dot-matrix and daisy wheel printers, that wasn't much of a feat, even if you knew about the 'remote printing' thing. A person would be sitting quietly and doing whatever they were doing on the computer, and suddenly this big mass of electronic machinery would just whirl noisily to life.

Alas, we got rid of our dot-matrix printer merely about a month and a half ago. I must admit, it's not nearly as much fun now with the quiet laser printer.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

With some of the older dot-matrix and daisy wheel printers, that wasn't much of a feat, even if you knew about the 'remote printing' thing. A person would be sitting quietly and doing whatever they were doing on the computer, and suddenly this big mass of electronic machinery would just whirl noisily to life.

You wouldn't freak out some younger, musically challenged people. They'd probably start dancing, thinking it was dub-step.

[BeeMused]

Your mechanics must be second cousins twice removed of some of our wharehouse workers. They still consider computers evil. EVIL, I tell you!!! Only very reluctantly they have learned to check for their schedules on the computer. Getting them via emails? We don't need this newfangled stuff...
And it's not the older guys, it's the middle aged ones!

[Gizmo]

I freaked out CWs by printing something and have the printer suddenly come to life on them when they weren't on the computer.

Our scanner at work randomly 'ghost scans' sometimes. Yes, it sits at the end of my desk so I DO jump when no one is sitting there and it scans something.

Our cashier software has a quirk that the programmers insist cannot be replicated, even though we have it consistently happen. Every 50 transactions, it crashes.

My guess would be that their test rig 1) has more memory and 2) actually tidies up after itself where as the real system doesn't.

[PepperElf]

We joke we don't have to worry about an internal hacking job, at least.

On my second ship we had problems with people plugging their own personal wifi routers into the network. One of the work centers got caught by the dept head so we had to do a command-wide sweep for them.

Divo told us what happened when he poked his head into an office where our chief Boats was working.

Divo: Do you have any wireless routers in here?
Boats: I'll bite... what's a router?



Boats also flinched when I was yanking the cover off of a drop box in his office. The plastic makes a snap sound when you get it off and he thought I was taking an electric shock. funny, tho I do compliment him on being concerned of course

[dalesys]

Boats: I'll bite... what's a router?

A woodworking tool.

(Cues up Avenue Q "The Internet Is For...")

[TheCheerfulTreeRat]

A woodworking tool.

[sniggers] Some time ago the UK company I worked for was taken over by a US one. Cue cultural misunderstandings etc.

One argument revolved around the pronunciation of "router" - in England it's rOOter, whereas our colonial cousins pronounced it rOWter. In exasperation, I asked them what they would call the tool for making channels in wood.

"A chisel."

[TheSHAD0W]

Wireless router.

[mhkohne]

Our scanner at work randomly 'ghost scans' sometimes. Yes, it sits at the end of my desk so I DO jump when no one is sitting there and it scans something.



My guess would be that their test rig 1) has more memory and 2) actually tidies up after itself where as the real system doesn't.

They probably aren't even properly duplicating the failing setup at all. Or they know it's broken, and have no idea how to fix it, and are playing dumb while they try for a clue.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in software development who can't get it through their heads that just because it doesn't show up immediately, doesn't mean it isn't there. Of course, sometimes the corp IT also get in the way of debugging. At my last job, the customer would get around to telling us of something days after it happened, and refused to get their IT staff to stop deleting the older logs from our system. Meaning that by the time something went wrong we had NO relevant data to work from.

[wolfie]

[sniggers] Some time ago the UK company I worked for was taken over by a US one. Cue cultural misunderstandings etc.

One argument revolved around the pronunciation of "router" - in England it's rOOter, whereas our colonial cousins pronounced it rOWter. In exasperation, I asked them what they would call the tool for making channels in wood.

"A chisel."

Actually, while the networking device (should be) pronounced "rOOter", the woodworking tool is pronounced "rOWter". It has to do with where the names came from. The networking device finds a path from one computer to another (a route, pronounced "rOOt"), while the woodworking tool makes the chips "get the hell out of Dodge" like an army in panicked retreat (narrator's description on Dukes of Hazzard "Like the Yanks at Manassas - that's Bull Run for you Northerners", or in "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton "They ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles, they ran through places a rabbit wouldn't go. They ran so fast the hounds couldn't catch them, all down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico"), which is a rout (pronounced "rOWt").

[Geek King]

(a route, pronounced "rOOt"),

Unfortunately, that is regionally incorrect. Where I am, a road referred to as "State route 124" is phonetically pronounced like 'Rowt', so even by your explination of the origin of the word, it would be pronounced like 'Rowter' in my area.

To be fair, the 'root' and 'rowt' pronunciations are used interchangably where I am. I've never heard the networking equipment pronounced 'rooter', though. If you said that to me, I'd think you were talking about the wire & claw gizmo used to unclog stuck drains.

[PepperElf]

Unfortunately, that is regionally incorrect. Where I am, a road referred to as "State route 124" is phonetically pronounced like 'Rowt', so even by your explination of the origin of the word, it would be pronounced like 'Rowter' in my area.

I'm somewhat weird perhaps.

I pronounce "route" as in street or pathway as "root"
"router" as in hardware as "row-ter"

"Rooter" though... gets me thinking of the "roto-rooter" company that cleans up septic tanks etc
or of a pig that's looking for truffles