Tech Fails

LP

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I think many of us here have to deal with people on a constant basis that fail at all things tech.

So post your stories past or present of the smallest to biggest tech fails you have witnessed.

Just to start things off: my dad had a firefox window open where he was looking at something about biochemistry. I was just asking him about laminin and telling him about that joke in the meme thread. Instead of creating a new tab, he goes to start, all applications, firefox (even though it was available at the start menu as "Internet"), and then googles laminin.
 
My dad figured out how to rip and burn dvds before I did.

So I suppose that's a fail on my part, lol.
 
Nothing too spectacular, but I think one of my uni lecturers referring to her Blackberry as a 'Blueberry' several times - until she finally twigged as to why my entire Sunday intensive class were giggling, probably counts.
 
For a second, I thought the thread title said "Tech Falls." I was then confused as to why there was a thread about wrestling that wasn't in the Sports section.

TL;DR - Carry on, nothing to see here. :)
 
I guess technically this should be in the techonology section, but I felt it was more at home in off topic.

If it isn't, then I guess I made a tech fail :p
 
Watching someone, with a calculator, add a column of 300+ figures. They were reading the figures from excel.

They had done this 4 times with a different result each time. :wall:
 
Thank you for reminding me my mother wants me download a song for her to put on her "thing that is not an ipod". :lol:
 
I know the basics of C-programming, yet never use null
I know how to IRC, I couldn't write a script for dear life
I study Computer sciences, the concept of setting a network eludes me.

amidoinrite?
 
I don't know where to start. Maybe with the user that ripped a VGA extension board out of a floor panel.

In one of our conference rooms we have a cable that goes from the projector, across the ceiling, down the wall and under the floor to a box. The box houses power sockets, video and audio. The video socket in there is a circuit board a big chocolate block for the wires. It was pulled out of its panel and hard enough for one of the wires to be pulled out of its insulation. That was fun to rewire

Also it's incredible that despite doing it every day, some people still don't know the difference between 'log off' and 'shut down'.

I have a lot more, I just need to remember them.
 
I asked a co-worker (a senior software developer) to look-up something on google.

Instead of typing google.com in the address bar in Firefox, he googled "google" in the Google search bar.

I burst out laughing in his face :lol: In his defense, he was tired.
 
I used to work as a tech support agent in a call center for stores that owned Kodak digital Kiosks... big stores like Wal-mart, CVS, K-mart, etc etc.
The people using the machines were supposedly trained on how to, but there were sooo many tech fail stories from calls we got, way more than I can remember anyway.

A lady called saying her cupholder wasn't working anymore. After a few inquiries, we sent out a technician to replace the god damned CD drive.
Sent out a replacement scanner cos someone thought it was a good idea to sit their kids on top of the glass while they were doing their photos.
Dispatched a technician to replace a couple of camera card reader slots cos someone mistook them for slots where you insert coins to pay for your photos.
Cancelled an order for a replacement keyboard that a colleague of mine was about to send, because the people at the store couldn't input their password anymore. After short inquiry, discovered their password was numerical and they used the "right side of the keyboard" to type it... numlock was off.

There was also a time when the stupid developers launched a whole new system (think of it like going from windows XP to Vista) and a ton of machines all over the states had failed installations which required us to walk the people through the windows install and program installs, normally 2 or 3 hour long calls. The call center was flooded with calls and we had to set up a voice mail option so the stores would leave their name and number and we'd call back... this isn't exactly a Tech fail, but it was still hilarious to listen to:
[video=youtube;G-1_ATpwKAA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-1_ATpwKAA[/video]
 
Nothing too spectacular, but I think one of my uni lecturers referring to her Blackberry as a 'Blueberry' several times - until she finally twigged as to why my entire Sunday intensive class were giggling, probably counts.
In fairness, "blueberry" is a valid nickname for the old blue ones.
 
Someone is trying to email pictures, emails aren't going through because pictures are being sent in full resolution, straight from the camera.

I install Microsoft ImageResizer (sidebar: when you right-click a files to use Send To > Mail Recipient with ImageResizer installed, it will automatically resize the selected images before attaching them to an email).

I instruct on how to attach resized images. Client proceeds to create a new email, click "Attach", locate the images in the "Open File" dialogue, right-click > send to > mail > resize > send. Then she wonders why she still has a blank email composition window open at the end of the process and whether the email actually send.

*facepalm*

Just to start things off: my dad had a firefox window open where he was looking at something about biochemistry. I was just asking him about laminin and telling him about that joke in the meme thread. Instead of creating a new tab, he goes to start, all applications, firefox (even though it was available at the start menu as "Internet"), and then googles laminin.
Don't get me started.

Most people are dumb, stubborn animals, unwilling to learn anything new, so they fumble along doing jobs that should have been replaced by software a decade ago.

/rant
 
This happened at work a few days ago. Manager brings down some device, I don't remember what the device was. Points to a random port.

Manager 1: "What cable goes in this port? FireWire?"
Manager 2: "Yeah, I think so."
Me: "No, that's a USB port."
Manager 2: "No, this is a USB port."
Me: "It's for the opposite end of a USB cable."
Manager 1: "I think it's FireWire."
Me: *grumbles*

I pull my phone out and do a quick Google image search for a USB cable, so I can find what the opposite end of one looks like, and show them. I show them and try to stupidify what I'm saying by wording it, "It's like a printer cable. This is what you would plug into the printer, the other would plug into your computer." Manager 2 finally understood. Manager 1 said "I still think it's a FireWire port."

USB-cable.jpg


It was a port for the right-hand plug, for visual reference.
 
My mom and anything involving a password. The woman has a million of them that she never remembers.
 
My aunt does the same thing.
 
My mom and anything involving a password. The woman has a million of them that she never remembers.

Had a similar problem with my mom as well. Ended up screenshotting the Firefox saved passwords screen and printing it out... apparently, looking it up in there is way too complicated.
 
Me trying to get into the work database last week with my fg logon and password. :wall: Locked myself out!

But on the whole, I spend vast amounts of my day dealing with users who are idiots.

"Yeah, it didn't work when I did it that way the first time, so I just did it again. It still didn't work" - Translation: I fucked it up because I was too lasy to look up the procedure or ask for assistance, so I tried again to do it from memory and of course fucked it up a second time.

"The system doesn't let me do it" - no, you're trying to do it wrong and it's stopping you from making stupid mistakes

"No one can authorise anything" - no, you cannot authorise it because you do not have legal delegation to authorise payment

"It's broken" - no, you forgot your password or cannot type

"Oh, I just thought I'd try doing it a different way" - we have user manuals 2-3 pages long that are designed around tasks (ie user needs to create a client account - a two page document (mainly screen shots) shows them exactly how to do it. Designed and written at a target audience of level 'dumbshit'. Why they then decide to do it differently I have no idea. The resulting week of rectification because we have to do any data fixes through or Dev/Test environments before we go near Production means that each fix costs us thousands of dollars. And they wonder why I occasionally get terse.

People with their passwords stuck to their computers with sticky notes. But on the other side of that, one area manager asked for the logon/password details from all his staff. And they gave it to him.
 
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