the saga of the end user

[Rodolfo J. Paiz]

On Sun, 2004-09-12 at 06:41, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> your point is well taken.  i just reproduced the piece as i received 
> it, i never took it seriously.  for debunking stuff like this, there's 
> always www.snopes.com:
> 
> http://www.snopes.com/humor/business/wordperf.htm
> 
> which discusses other too-stupid-to-be-true myths like not being able 
> to find the "any" key on the keyboard, using the CD-ROM drive as a 
> coffee cup holder and so on.
> 

Don't discount those urban legends too quickly... many of them have some
basis in fact, it's just that the fact is lost in time.

I can *personally* vouch for several "urban legend"-type stories from my
own customers, things that did happen:

  1. I did get cussed out by one handicapped and irrational customer in
Miami who took offense when the DOS prompt sarcastically referred to his
"Invalid command." He was an idiot, but he was also furious.

  2. I sold a PC to a woman in Boston who knew *nothing* about
computers, so I used my wife's nail polish to color-code all connectors
(mind you, this was 1994 and they didn't come that way out of the box).
She called back, all happy that she'd succeeded in setting up the
computer and turning it on, but asked what the foot pedal was for. Long
story short: she couldn't figure out what the mouse was, so she put in
on the floor like a sewing machine pedal.

  3. My classmates and I stayed up late one night in college to finish a
group report, and since I was the only one with a car we agreed that I
would get up early to deliver it to the teacher. In the morning, I found
that they had left me a 3.5" diskette labeled "Finance Project"...stuck
to the fridge with a magnet.

I actually could go on and on... I only mentioned these because those
three are pretty common urban legends, and those three specifically
happened to me.

Cheers,

-- 
Rodolfo J. Paiz <rpaiz at simpaticus.com>
Simpaticus.com