New hire fixed a problem so fast, their boss left to become a yoga instructor

Change is a constant – and so is On Call, the reader-contributed column The Register runs every Friday to share your tech support tales. This week, meet a reader we will Regomize as "Carl" who in the late 1990s worked at a university and made the move from the desktop support team to the network management group. "Just before …

[Pickle Rick]

The lead admin may have become a yoga instructor, but Carl was in a Happy Baby position!

[Korev]

It's the kind of thing that would Downward Dog you career for years

[Doctor Syntax]

So it wasn't Carl who ended up on the mat.

[K555]

I've often wondered if some Yoga positions could be named after moves specific to IT personnel.

"Leaning over desk"

"Reaching back of cab"

"Fitting AP to ceiling"

I'm reality, I think we're more likely to get types of lower back pain named after us.

[Little Mouse]

Desktop support in the late nineties meant sitting on all sorts of fad health devices whilst working at users' desks: Gym balls, kneeling chairs, etc.

Staying perched on top of those things was a nightmare and caused a few aches & pains.

[Doctor Syntax]

I had a confusing interview a long time ago. My chair was OK but the interviewer had one of those devices, on castors, and kept scooting about the room on it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Grind a flat end to one or more of the castors and that would end soon..

[that one in the corner]

Bit awkward during an interview, getting out the power tools and advancing on the interviewer.

Although...

(Voice is heard coming from behind the suspiciously large mirror on the side wall: "Good choice of cordless and it didn't show up on the scanner in the doorframe; gentlemen, we have found our new sysop. Now, if someone would just pop in and help Nigel out of the gaffer tape")

[S C]

The movie is called 'Operators'...

...the voice behind the mirror is Colin Firth, the prospective PFY in the interview room is Taron Edgerton, and the script was written by Charles Stross, in his Hollywood debut.

[C R Mudgeon]

I've told the story of having to do essentially that to my own desk chair, as a workaround for a not-quite-level floor. I used duct tape, not a grinder, but same basic idea.

[blu3b3rry]

Someone at my current workplace bought a scattering of stools with curved rather than flat bases. Apparently the idea is it forces you to brace your legs against the floor, as otherwise it topples over and throws you off. Presumably something to do with improving posture.

People that didn't realise how wobbly they were would sit on one assuming it was a normal stool, and place their feet on the base.

Cue inevitable panic as the stool toppled over...most of them were quietly removed from the office spaces and shoved in the back of a cupboard before someone fell off and hit their head on something.

[Pickle Rick]

Pretty much my first job out of college was as an operator, IBM CICS/JCL. 12 hour night shifts. We had various things to keep us awake while tapes were happily spinning and line printers clickety-clacked. When we ran out of things for eye spy, we relied on the "stay awake chair". This was a pedestal chair with a really powerful spring at the top of the pedestal, so you could kick back with your feet on the desk, watching the jobs run. But you needed to keep a reasonable amount of tension in your legs, drift off and the bugger would catapult you clear across the consoles (only slightly hyperbolic!) Always funny when that happened, whether it was me or that night's partner in crime. Happy days :)

[C R Mudgeon]

The story is told (I don't know whether it's true) that Thomas Edison [1] found that often insights came to him in the reverie between sleeping and full wakefulness. So he'd allow himself to start to nod off while holding a ball in each hand. When he fell too far asleep, the balls would drop and the noise would wake him up again, at which point he'd write down any interesting thoughts he'd had in that twilight state.

A number of songwriters -- I think Paul McCartney is one, but not sure -- have talked about keeping a notepad or tape recorder by the bed, so they can capture ideas that come to them in dreams or half-sleep. Often the results prove to be junk in the light of day, but sometimes there are gems.

[1] Edison has a reputation for having stolen others' ideas, but I guess he invented *some* of his inventions...

[Doctor Syntax]

"Edison has a reputation for having stolen others' ideas"

No, quite the opposite. Others stole them before he invented them.

[Eclectic Man]

The Rolling Stones' hit song '(I can't get no) Satisfaction' was literally dreamt up and recorded:

"Keith Richards wrote the music and the song’s most important lyric. He has long claimed that the song’s signature riff came to him in his sleep and that he got up, played it into a tape recorder (onto a Philips cassette, to be exact) and then returned to bed."

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/Satisfaction.pdf

And modesty does not prevent me from claiming that I have had some the best ideas in maths and cryptography that I have ever had, lying awake in bed at night in the dark (on my own in case you were wondering).

[Already?]

When I was a proper developer doing proper maintenance and support on our system some of my most lucid and clear realisations of how to resolve current issues would often arrive in the small hours, sitting up in bed being able to work a problem through in minutely fine detail. By morning I’d forget that important detail so it soon evolved to getting up and writing thoughts down whilst still fresh. Hindsight allows me to believe that the lack of distractions and sensory input to the brain at 3 in the morning frees the necessary mental capacity to join the many interconnected dots and arrive at a solution.

These days I’m semi retired and do cycle training in schools, where the most challenging thoughts are why a nine year old cannot grasp the simple idea that turning in front of an oncoming builder’s van is just not a good idea. It keeps us on our toes.

[Yes Me]

The Porlock Connection

"capture ideas that come to them in dreams or half-sleep"

I think Samuel Taylor Coleridge might have relied on that particular method of composition.

[Francis Boyle]

My best ideas often come to me

in the toilet. There's just something about the all sphincters loose position. I do prefer my toilet bowls don't rock though.

[tiggity]

Dream inspiration was a big thing in the Surrealist art movement.

Andre Breton (not well known compared to Dali etc. , but was founder of Surrealism) recommended a notepad by the bedside to record dreams as soon as you woke

[Robert Carnegie]

The thing about dropping balls or some other object onto a noisy surface as you fall asleep is also told about Salvador Dali.

That sort of story may be not true of Dali or of Edison or others, or may have been made up by either or both of them to deceive their critics into trying it and suffering thereby.

However, I think it was credited to Dali and then tried for a recent BBC World Service radio and podcast by contributor Anand Jagatia, or someone else in the show, which considered planning your dreams, and which may have been mentioned already further down the comments.

The use in this case is that usually you forget your dreams before you wake up, or soon after (and usually just as well), and this trick has a good chance to wake you up during a dream, so that you can write it down, etc.

I don't remember mention of pop musicians or other composers using it, or of comparison of the sound of clattering cutlery or ball-bearings to the more adventurous compositions thus produced. Or whether they sound like that anyway on a peaceful uninterrupted eight hours.

Anyway, "The Documentary: The dream makers: The experimental new field of dream engineering", running at 50 minutes, apparently can be played or downloaded "for over a year" minus the week or two since it was on, at:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct8ywm

However, some BBC audio things are now available in UK only - please report. This one is "World Service", though.

[K555]

A friend of mine who works in motorsport used to have a position that involved being sat on a stool in the pit watching the telemetry coming in from the car. As exciting as F1 is supposed to be, that required wrapping his leg around the stool in a certain way to prevent him falling off if he nodded off mid race.

[jake]

F1 is about as exciting as watching kindergartners play follow-the-leader.

The kid's tantrums are more amusing, too.

[nemo omnibus]

Seems a a tad extreme to do to your co-workers, but if the solution works...

[Robert Carnegie]

Likewise for the thing about holding the balls. :-)

[Kimo]

Dynamite factories used to use one legged stools for workers. It allowed them to work linger shifts but you couldn't fall asleep without landing on the dloor.

[Eclectic Man]

re: multitasking

This is like the suggestion that people should stand on one leg while brushing their teeth. If you need to concentrate on some task, do not do something else at the same time that will divert your attention. You really should take care when brushing your teeth. Difficulties flossing, inflamed gums etc should be noted and if they persist maybe a visit to the dentist is in order. If you concentrate on standing on one leg you are unlikely to brush your teeth properly. Similarly if you sit on a chair or stool that requires your attention to balance then you are not going to do a good job for your owners, sorry managers .

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: re: multitasking

However, the stand on one leg thing, with your eyes closed even, is said to - well, the sadly late Michael Mosley recently made one of a series of short BBC radio programmes that declared "Stand on one leg for a longer life".

This series of "Just One Thing" to do for your health actually appears to run to more than 100 Things, but I think that's roping in some other productions. Your tooth-brushing time evidently is an opportunity to remember to do this, and to try not to wonder why it didn't save Michael Mosley, and I expect you get the hang of it quite quickly.

Read more at:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/35QytBYmkXJ4JnDYl9zYngb/why-you-should-stand-on-one-leg

[Tim99]

In the early days of explosives manufacturing, nitroglycerine plants provided operators with one legged stools to keep them awake. Mixing glycerol with concentrated acid gives an exothermic reaction that can go out of control, and cause a devastating explosion, unless the addition of reagents and cooling is carefully controlled. The work was boring, hence the need for the operator to stay awake. I have seen some of these stools made around the First World War - With "health and safety", I assume that they are no longer required...

[jake]

The "early days" of explosives manufacturing (mid-1100s, by most accounts) happened centuries before nitroglycerin was invented (1846).

[Tim99]

Gunpowder was very probably made the mid to late 900s (Tang Dynasty, China). Whist the invention of nitroglycerine (Propane-1,2,3-triyl trinitrate) is attributed to Sobrero, its transportation, storage and use were extremely hazardous. It was sometimes mixed 1:10 with gunpowder in an effort to stabilise it and increase explosive brisance, but was still extremely hazardous. It was not until the mid-late 1860s that "safer" formulations, like Nobels' Kieselguhr adsorbent dynamite were used.

I saw the stools at my first "proper" job in the early 1970s. The site was a relative latecomer, only having started making explosives in 1665. It was "nationalised" in 1787 to gain access to a better supply of (superior?) product after the government purchased the Faversham mills in 1759; and decommissioned in the 1990s. It's now a scheduled monument, an SSSI, and part of European Route of Industrial Heritage: Royal Gunpowder Mills. Well worth a day trip, particularly with children.

These days, much of the products that used nitroglycerine have safer alternatives - e.g. replacement of nitroglycerine with generic organic plasticisers added to nitrocellulose in ammunition propellant (single-base vs. double-base propellant).

One-legged stools were also used by milkmaids, often strapped to them; and there are indications that they were also used in general work, particularly manufacturing (including gunpowder).

[Francis Boyle]

Given

the reputation of milkmaids I suspect one-legged stools might have referred to something else.

[Timo]

two-legged

I believe milking stools had two legs, that allowed the milker to swing closer or farther away without having to shift the stool itself.

[WanderingHaggis]

Sounds like the student stool

In olden days universities had three legged stools for students -- they had to use their legs to balence so that if they feel asleep the student would fall on the floor and hopefully wake up.

[mirachu]

Re: Sounds like the student stool

Somewhat depending on positioning, three legged stools are inherently stable because three points describe one plane and one plane only. Any more and you might not be lucky.

[Anonymous Coward]

Casters, Shirley?

[GlenP]

Just before COVID hit the sales office decided they wanted very expensive rising desks so they could alternate between sitting and standing to work; the sensible view was it was a fad and a few weeks later the things would never move. The desks they'd chosen had little provision for actually cabling anything, it was a nightmare office in that respect anyway and they'd simply have ended up with a lot of dangling wires everywhere. I also pointed out that the proposed fancy chairs would fail any DSE assessment (due to lack of adjustment) and were uncomfortable to sit on.

Fortunately when senior management saw the quote it was quietly filed away in the office shredder!

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

just after covid hit , and i set up home office and never went back , I decided the same thing , bought proper up n down desk - not the bogus desk-top type , out of my own funds , and then never used it

[M.V. Lipvig]

I just had a kitchen table made. I set a larger and larger stack of crap on a kitchen table until it was comfortable, then measured it and had my furniture maker make the table. It has provisions for cabling routered into the back. I absolutely love using this thing. The top is about 34 inches from the floor, and my office chair is adjusted to the top of its range which makes both a perfect fit for me. I think a standard cube desk is 28 or 30 inches, and I always had to stack stuff to be comfortable while my legs were right up against the bottom of the desk.

[Pen-y-gors]

Past employment had the standard office desk. I'm tall and was having back problems. Maintenance bods made a couple of 3x3 inch blocks to raise the desk up (they drilled small recesses for the legs so it didn't slide off). Worked a treat.

[Nifty]

To save money my company took in a consignment of used office furniture from a defunct Dutch branch. The computer desks all had adjustable height.

[J.G.Harston]

When I still had the body for such tasks, I refitted my kitchen and bathroom and raised everything three inches. Puts everything at a sane height, "standard" kitchen furniture and hand basins are cripplingly too low down, and I'm only 5ft10.

And if ever I'm in a "strange" office I seek out a chair without arm-rests, as otherwise the damn things prevent me from getting the chair under the desk.

[logicalextreme]

The sink thing has really started to get to me some days, when I'm doing the washing up. Makes me feel a part of my lower back that I'm usually completely unaware of. Something I'll address in the hilariously unlikely event that I can ever purchase my own home!

Absolutely with you on the chairs with armrests too…can't imagine anyone of any height using them comfortably in conjunction with a desk.

[pirxhh]

I bought mine, with my own money, some 15 years ago after experiencing one at a client site. Still like it a lot (we also have them in the office, coincidentally).

[pirxhh]

When one of my previous employers moved offices, I somehow became the go-to person for the move.

For chairs, we got about 5 different models of varying price, and had each tested by 6 users of different stature for a week each. It was well-spent effort as the most popular chair, by quite a margin, was the second-cheapest one - and very little arguing happened as enough bums had voted.

[Doctor Syntax]

Bernard: "there were two kinds of chairs to go with two kinds of Ministers: one sort that folds up instantly, the other sort goes round and round in circles."

[Eclectic Man]

Aside - Politics

We will soon see which one Keir Starmer has ...

I'll get my coat, it's the one with a letter of resignation in the pocket.

[Ace2]

Those are great for when you want 3 people to stand and look at a grid-out or something on a large monitor. I do seem them being used fairly frequently.

[C R Mudgeon]

My doctor has two exam rooms which she shuttles between. One has a standing desk and the other a regular sit-down desk. So she gets the benefits without having to constantly adjust the furniture, or even really think about it.

Of course, most of us don't have the luxury of two desks, two computers, etc., but in professions like hers, it's more efficient.

[Doctor Syntax]

And she gets exercise walking between them.

[C R Mudgeon]

Indeed.

[An_Old_Dog]

Kneeling Chairs

I had a kneeling chair at home and loved it.

An overweight friend ignorantly sat on the knee rest as if it were the seat of an ordinary chair -- and broke it.

[Pussifer]

Re: Kneeling Chairs

Best chairs ever. I'm sitting on one now and have had one either at work or home (or both) since the mid-80s.

I'm sure it helps with my Crohn's as my gut is more open (not bent 90 or more deg.) plus the benefits to my back health are probably good too.

[PB90210]

Re: Kneeling Chairs

I bought a kneeling chair to help stave off an aching back... only to discover I suffer from 'housemaid's knee'

It's now used to support the TV at the bottom of the bed!

[Sam not the Viking]

Re: Kneeling Chairs

I returned to work after suffering a bad lower-back (poor posture mostly to blame) and our secretary suggested one of those kneeling chairs (Balans Chair). She had one and brought it in for me to try. I found it brilliant so I bought my own. I don't use it all the time but keep it for those times when I relapse my stance. The knee-supports are only supposed to stop you sliding off the seat, not to take weight.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Kneeling Chairs

I have a slat-back Windsor chair like this one: https://www.theoldcinema.co.uk/victorian-country-slat-back-windsor-armchair-in-elm-and-beech.html

The curved slats provide excellent lumbar support. When I had back problems it was the only thing that was comfortable. It makes an excellent desk chair provided the desk is at a height to suit it.

[Yes Me]

Re: Kneeling Chairs

I never succeeded in sitting on one.

[Wikster]

Re: Kneeling Chairs

If you can't comfortably lift one knee off the pad, you're putting too much pressure on your knees. If the seat height is adjustable, it be too high. Also, try "widening your stance" a bit. The latter may require a bit of mental retraining if you've gotten "comfortable" in a bad position (I've used tape to remind me where my knees shouldn't be).

[l8gravely]

kneeling chair knearly knocked my knees

I tried that fad too in the 90s, got a kneeling chair and tried it. Gave it up after a few days because my knees were not happy with me. And here I am happily skiing 35+ years later without knee problems!

[JavaJester]

Sometimes good for a laugh

Occasionally, one of those oversized balls would unceremoniously dump the person on it on the floor. The cries and commotion when it happened were good for a few laughs.

[Philo T Farnsworth]

I once, admittedly stupidly, bought one of those "kneeling chairs"¹ in a misguided effort to improve my posture or some such futile effort.

Within two days my posture might've been better but my knees were nearly shot.

I promptly took it back to the store and got a refund but it probably accelerated my need for total knee replacement surgeries by at least five years.

______________

¹ Wikipedia: Kneeling chair

[David Newall]

back pains called

"Leaning over desk"

"Reaching back of cab"

"Fitting AP to ceiling"

[Pickle Rick]

Not IT, but many lifetimes ago I did a spot of Artexing - that really is a pain in the neck. Am I trying to be funny? I certainly wasn't laughing at the time.

[Bebu sa Ware]

"I did a spot of Artexing"

I was a little puzzled as Artex in AU is/was a brand of womens handbags and purses. If you had written back pain I might have drawn lurid conclusions as to what the practice of Artexing involved.

Doing my own research,^® I concluded it is UK perversion —Artex is a trademarked, now generic, a type of textured plaster previously (<1984) containing white (powdered) asbestos normally applied to ceilings. Uncommon today as textured ceilings are apparently now out of fashion.

Australia has enough of its own problems with asbestos without adding this. Renos in the UK obviously can be just as dangerous in the UK as in AU.

[Pickle Rick]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

Yeah, I didn't really know what else to call it (Artex) - it wasn't career move, just getting some funds for a jaunt in the summer.

> Uncommon today as... no one wants to do that bloody job! Oh yeah, and it's shite :D

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

Glamatex here.

Asbestos with sparkles.

[J. Cook]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

Similar thing in the US, I think - "popcorn" ceilings, which were supposed to reduce the amount of echo in a room, but in reality just ended up drinking SO. MUCH. PAINT. and it was extremely messy to paint on, or just to remove. I think one of the better ideas was to put plastic sheets on all the walls and the floor, tape all the plastic joints to make a sort of bag, then remove the stuff and then just wad up the plastic leaving the walls and floor reasonably clean..

[Francis Boyle]

I had a fruit-fly infestion

and those things can literally shit on the ceiling. Cleaning a popcorn and flyshit ceiling isn't fun.

[Ace2]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

Removing that stuff is big business around here.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

Managed to accidentally set fire to my flat about 16 months ago. The insurance had to get in a specialist asbestos company to clear the bedroom because they found asbestos in the Artex on the ceiling. Strangely they didn't find asbestos in the identical Artex in the hall, living room or kitchen.

[CountCadaver]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

Apparently one of the old school routes was using a wall paper steamer to soften and remove it

[collinsl]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

We moved into a house when I was a kid in the 2000s which had textured walls - they'd done it by embedding wood chips in the back of the wallpaper so it was a right pain to get off, since the wallpaper had by that time been painted over. The wood meant we couldn't easily steam the wallpaper off as it prevented a good seal for the steamer and absorbed the steam, plus they'd had to use super-strength glue to keep the wood in place, meaning we had to go at it with scrapers and it took ages

[PB90210]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

I think it's probably less fashionable because of the asbestos. The popularity was more to do with the fact that it could make a Victorian ceiling look half decent with little effort

[CountCadaver]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

somehow my maternal grandfather has made it through growing up in poverty, working 60 years with plaster, asbestos, ripping down ceilings and being covered with bird shit, rat droppings and worse, much of this being before ppe and masks were a thing and is only slightly out of breath with no signs of asbestosis or mesothelioma. He's now 90 years old and *hopefully* will be 91 in late spring.

[midgepad]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

Yes, nobody has suggested that those things kill more than half.

But we look at a survivor and conclude there is no need or use to protecting current and future generations.

And there you have MAGA and Reform and Wetherspoons.

[I could be a dog really]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

I concluded it is UK perversion —Artex is a trademarked, now generic, a type of textured plaster ...

A wise choice of words - perversion is indeed a decent description. Our house has textured ceilings in almost all the rooms - but not the really heavily "swirls and whirls" typical of Artex, just a rough surface I assume was done by dabbing the plaster rather than spreading with a notched tool. It's a pain (literally, it hurts when you catch your hand on the sharp points while decorating), and I keep wondering what techniques might remove it - the most extreme being to rip down the ceilings and re-board them.

[midgepad]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

The least being to fix another layer of plasterboard over them, leaving a more fire resistant ceiling.

[herman]

Re: "I did a spot of Artexing"

It is easy but messy to remove popcorn with a steamer and a large palette knife. Put a plastic drop sheet on the floor. Soften it and scrape it off. Roll op the drop sheet and chuck it away. If you were careful then you can directly repaint the ceiling with a modern textured paint using a sponge roller and it will all look much better.

[Robert Carnegie]

Ah, the agony and the ecstasy. ;-)

[I ain't Spartacus]

My favourite IT-related yoga position / back pain from back in the day would be called, "moving the 19" CRT monitor".

A fearsome task, to be approached with great care. Although, it's not so much a yoga position, as a whole dance. First you have to unscrew the horrible VGA cable from the back of the monitor or computer, which requires either crawling under the desk or leaning all the way to the back of it. This is a skill you need to learn to do by touch only. Then you have to move a horrible, heavy, unbalanced lump - that has 90% of its weight in the screen at the front - without dropping it.

I can still remember the relief with which I replaced one of these in my office, with a 23" LCD panel. And the way I could hold the panel in one hand, while making the connections with the other - something only the Hulk could do when removing the old one. Life is certainly easier organising desks nowadays.

[Anonymous Coward]

Progress

Somehow I'd forgotten the joy of having to unscrew VGA (and serial and parallel) cables in awkward locations - what an unwelcome reminder :-(

Nothing marks you out more as a greybeard by comparing monitors of old with today. From having to lug a single 14" RGB CRT to carrying multiple boxed 27" monitors nowadays. And yet when you tell the kids in the office, they just swivel their eyes...

[Alan Brown]

Re: Progress

And there was always some Nimrod who'd tighten up the retaining screws so much they'd gall. (Hint, they only need to be tight enough to stop the plug falling out)

[J. Cook]

Re: Progress

... or worse, the plastic part of the screw would strip out, which is one reason why I have a very small pair of locking pliers in my tool kit. ("Vise grips" is a brand name for those)

Then there were the ones that would unscrew the standoffs on the card side- those were a pain to deal with as well, and why I also have a screwdriver with a 5mm (1/4") socket head expressly to reinstall those.

They are called thumbscrews, not "dig out the screwdriver and torque them down like they were car tires" screws, people...

[An_Old_Dog]

Re: Progress

Compaq used to make a nice, small, lightweight monochrome VGA CRT monitor. The phosphor glowed white, not blue, green, yellow, or orange.

[Roopee]

Posher

My 19" was posh - it had a row of BNC bayonet connectors which were easier and more reliable, though they had to be in the correct order. It also had a flat Trinitron screen, which used significantly thicker, heavier glass. It still had curvature distortion but the curve was on the inside surface. I'm quite strong but I could barely lift it!

I remember it costing £500, but that was a bargain compared to my first "good" screen: a 17" Iiyama FST in 1993 which cost me over £900 inc VAT. You tell the kids of today that, and they'll not believe you... :)

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Posher

My mate had one of the similar Sony Trinitron TVs, with the flat glass at the front and thick, but slightly less curved than normal glass of the monitor inside it. it was a 40-something inch widescreen. When he replaced that with a flat screen telly, he had to call me in to move it - because he was unable to lift it off the TV stand. It were a chunky beast. Getting it down the stairs was definitely a two-man job.

[CountCadaver]

Re: Posher

My current (and not top of the range) 27" 4K Coolermaster IPS with MiniLED HDR1200 backlighting (576 dimming zones vs 1100+ on the higher end ones) was £750 and that was an ouch purchase but it has a fantastic image quality with minimal blooming. Shame the firmware onboard still has quite a few bugs around switching sources where coming out of a fullscreen game can at times result in a black screen (something I believe to do with HDR particularly in windows)

[K555]

And when you unscrew the VGA lead, you've got a 50/50 chance it'll take the screw from the graphics card with it.

Did you ever try to lift one of those NEC ones with the BNC inputs? They're were like twice the weight of a normal CRT for the same size. IIRC, in the earlier series of Stargate SG1 they were the monitors in use around the SGC - including some hung from the ceiling. I think Walter should've been more worried about one of those coming down on his head than what might come through the IRIS.

[Pickle Rick]

> ...a 50/50 chance it'll take the screw from the graphics card with it.

Even worse, when some genius has bent the screw in the backplate _and_ it's threaded so it just spins around when trying to disconnect the VGA. And, as I ain't Spartacus said, that's by touch, so it takes a while to suss "it's one of them!" Then you have to get into the case to sort it. I mean, no jury that understood that would return a guilty verdict, Shirley!

[Dr Dan Holdsworth]

VGA monitors were featherweights compared to old Sun Microsystems monitors. I swear those things were lead-lined or something; a 21" CRT was right at the limit of my safe lifting ability twenty years ago; I'd struggle even more now if I could even shift the thing, I reckon.

[C R Mudgeon]

Some CRT monitors were literally lead-lined. I don't now recall whether anything they produced was in fact dangerous, but that was the theory at the time.

[herman]

CRT glass was indeed lead crystal - necessary since the user was staring directly into an X-ray gun.

[Robert Carnegie]

There was that Stargate episode where they accidentally connected to a black hole so everything was pulled towards the Stargate, also time slowed down... I think something heavy did get "dropped" in the scene while they were trying to end the episode but I don't remember if it was a monitor.

[CountCadaver]

I know someone who had a 21" or worse 23" Trinitron monitor, which weighed some ridiculous amount, not to mention the sheer depth of a CRT monitor of those dimensions

[Slow Joe Crow]

Back in the late 90s the site I worked at had a lot of Iiyama 21" CRT monitors. These were a 2 person lift because they weighed more than 40lbs. I just had a 20" Trinitron that my co-worker claimed gave him sunburn. I also had some units with VGA, some with BNC and some NEC monitors with a VGA and an Apple specific connector ne of which was my bench monitor to run the one Mac and whatever PC needed attention

[H in The Hague]

"I just had a 20" Trinitron that my co-worker claimed gave him sunburn. "

That's just taken me back the best part of half a century. At secondary school we had Apple IIs with monochrome monitors which brought my face out in a rash. A few years later I got myself an Apple IIc with the Apple monitor and never had any problems with that, or with the IBM 5110s running APL at uni.

So, I wonder what the problem was - static electricity?

That time of the week again --> (Though I've opted for a nice red from Newberg, Oregon)

[M.V. Lipvig]

As I recall they used X-rays to excite the phosphor. If the leaded glass wasn't right, leakage got all over you. It wasn't a rash, you were lightly toasted.

[PRR]

> used X-rays to excite the phosphor.

No. Electrons excited the phosphor. Fast electrons hitting metal will make 'hard' X-rays. Slower (low voltage) electrons make 'soft' X-rays which hardly penetrate air. But the 3-way split in colored TV CRTs means we usually have to shoot the electrons pretty fast, fast enough to make hard X-rays.

I had thought the big problem in days of old was the HV Rectifier tube/valve. Internally it is a lot like an X-ray tube. It and the H-deflection tube often lived inside a metal cage.

One specific H-defection tube had such high X-ray output in the field that the maker put a bounty on every original version returned (enough to cover wholesale cost of the new-type). TV repair men (they were all male) were urged to replace all found.

Solid state reduced this hazard but you still had electrons hitting the CRT screen pretty darn hard. The HV was regulated not so much for raster stability but to stay out of the major X-ray range.

[M.V. Lipvig]

Whoops, I forgot the electron gun. I knew it was something along those lines but was thinking it was X-rays directly. My bad, guess the 'ol memory is starting to leak.

[Slow Joe Crow]

Which winery in Newberg? I live in Oregon and have occasionally made the rounds of Willamette Valley wineries, plus the occasional visit to the Columbia Gorge

[H in The Hague]

"Which winery in Newberg?"

https://www.alexanawinery.com/

[Tim99]

Lazy?

Being naturally indolent, we developed a technique of moving PCs without unscrewing the monitor connectors. We were buying "proper" IBM XTs and ATs with metal cases, and their (heavy) monitors. To take a configured machine to its new user we simply put the keyboard on top of the monitor, removed the power cords and coiled them around a forearm, lifted the whole system up, and "secured" the keyboard by pressing down with the chin. We weren't complete idiots, if the new user was on a different floor a second person carried the cables so that could open doors, and operate the lift.

Yes, I have a bad back.

[Francis Boyle]

Try

21" Trinitrons. Beautiful displays but moving one was some sort of labour of Hercules.

[mirachu]

I remember hauling a 21" up stairs. Also bigger TVs, not up stairs, but heavier. Granted, I was at my peak back then so they were manageable. Yeah, panels are much easier.

[Kuang]

The obvious starter move is 'Three-finger salute to the sun'.

Anyone who climbs to the position where they have to argue with the finance director for resources may be lucky enough to witness a legendary move known only to masters. It involves bending over and contorting into a circle to allow the head access to the place where troublesome requests go away.

[skelly28]

This is very temping to do as I've been in IT since before Netware 2 and am indeed a yoga teacher (also not the admin mentioned above).

[C R Mudgeon]

"Present posterior to superior"

It's a yoga position common in any dysfunctional hierarchy.

See also: U S. Executive Branch and Congressional Republicans, ca 2026.

[Blofeld's Cat]

A screwdriver I was using rolled off the back of a desk and into a rats' nest of cables. Leaning over the desk I could just touch the handle but not get hold of it.

So I leaned a bit further and ... >CRACK< ... broke a rib.

[mirachu]

Done that, twice.

[TekGuruNull]

Nothing ruins the lower back like moving 23 inch CRTs that weigh 90 pounds each. Yes, the ones with the three BNC connectors on the back. I used to stack boxed AutoCAD manuals on a chair to level up and slide the monitors on and off of that. Still a two man job though. You needed one guy just to keep the stack from keeling over, especially if the lift was involved. Still saved many days of post-move agony.

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Quite a rare sight

It is rare for a lead admin and IT director to show their gratitude this way. Far too many would claim the successes of their underlings as their own. Hats off (leather Nebraska for me today) to the director and admin, and of course to Carl for finding the fault in the first place.

[Pascal Monett]

Re: Quite a rare sight

Yeah but, reading logs. It's like reading the instructions.

Who does that these days ?

[jake]

Re: Quite a rare sight

Reading anything at all is so pre-iphone.

Like penmanship, they don't bother teaching kids that anymore. That's what the computer is for.

And now, with the likes of chat-gpt, the kids don't even have to parse it when the computer reads it to them.

_{It's quite surreal reading a book report that's not only based on an AI summary of King Lear, but is also written by the AI.}

_{Even more surreal is when the kid's parental unit calls and bitches about the D that the kid got for skiving off ... Be afraid, very afraid.}

[disgruntled yank]

Re: Quite a rare sight

As somebody who reliably got a U for "unsatisfactory" on my penmanship throughout the primary grades, I am not so sure about inflicting cursive, or better yet cursive with fountain pens on today's young.

[l8gravely]

Re: Quite a rare sight

My cursive is so bad (and I'm a lefty too!) that I switched back to block printing in HS (left side ponder here...) just to keep up with the teachers when taking notes. Once I had my C-64 and I could write papers and print them on my Okidata 24pin dot matrix printer, hand writing anything more than notes to myself was done and gone. Good riddence!

[C R Mudgeon]

Re: Quite a rare sight

Somewhat similar here. I submitted a couple of essays late in highschool that I'd done on my local university's mainframe, with punch-card input, using a text formatter called, improbably, XREF/Jones (I might have the capitalisation wrong).

I don't know what my teachers thought when they got my work typed on lined, tractor-feed computer paper, in all upper case and with constructions like DON,T or DON"T (I forget which I used) because Burroughs's 6-bit character set didn't include ' or lower-case letters. But I'm pretty sure I wasn't marked down for it. Maybe they just thought, "Thank God I don't have to read this kid's handwriting!")

ISTR worrying that they'd think I'd used the computer to write the text, not just format it, but the question was never raised. (Nowadays a handwritten essay would be the oddity, but concern that it was AI-generated would be legit.)

(The Burroughs character set *did* include a left-arrow character, because their mainframes were Algol-based, and that uses left-arrow as its assignment operator. (The more familiar ":=" is an alternate-spelling kludge for systems without left-arrow.))

[CountCadaver]

Re: Quite a rare sight

write english right to left ala several other languages?

Not sure if bonus points for writing it in a mirror form to normal english or writing right to left but still producing "normal" english characters....hmmm

[Sherrie Ludwig]

Re: Quite a rare sight

My cursive is so bad (and I'm a lefty too!) that I switched back to block printing in HS (left side ponder here...) just to keep up with the teachers when taking notes.

Also a left-pond lefty. In high school I read that Leonardo da Vinci wrote right-to-left in reverse (mirror) script, so as a pastime I taught myself to do the same. After a week or so, I found it was rather quicker for note-taking. I could read even my scratchy handwriting easily without needing a mirror, but it stopped tiresome slackers from wanting to borrow my notes. Don't remember why I discontinued this, it was sort of fun.

[J.G.Harston]

Re: Quite a rare sight

The best thing for my writing was being given a typewriter when I was 8. I quickly learned how to almost touch type, and from that point onwards I could produce legible output and be able to concentrate on the content and not on forcing my wrists into contorted pain. I wrote up all my early 'O' level essays on my later International, before graduating to EDWORD with the huge benefit of type-once tweek and reuse indefinitely.

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: Quite a rare sight

Interesting. Later "received wisdom" is that it's keyboard use that tortures your wrists - to this day and second, I'm working with a touchscreen and the "FITALY" efficient screen keyboard software since my wrists blew up. Bicycling may have contributed in my case - I've since used various cycling arrangements and eventually an "Electra" non-electric but sitting-back and "cruiser" cycle, so I don't put any weight on my arms any more.

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: Quite a rare sight

"reading logs. Who does that these days ?"

The likes of Splunk or SolarWinds (if you are game); where it goes after their ingestion is anyone's guess; the end product is probably shat in some uninterested manager's inbox.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Quite a rare sight

reading logs. It's like reading the instructions.

Who does that these days ?

But reading the instructions is cheating!

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: Quite a rare sight

"reading logs. Who does that these days ?"

Well in my case , like in the story , it was the poor bastard taking the flak from the users .

I managed to work out that my superiors and betters had managed to set a password policy that was literally impossible to fulfill.

I got my coat shortly after that.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Quite a rare sight

The most secure password is the password that cannot be entered correctly. The system remains safe from both hackers, and most importantly of all, users. Guaranteeing 100% uptime, and maximum gaming + beer & onion bhaji time for the operators.

Was your boss, by any chance, called Simon?

[l8gravely]

Re: Quite a rare sight

On a side note, I just spent an hour the other night trying to figure out why my mother-in-law's Chromebook (64bit, replaced the old 32bit one that replaced the WinXP she regularly blew up) wouldn't let her see any web sites any more. It was baffling! Finally I ended up doing the soft reset where all her settings went back to defaults, but didn't wipe her bookmarks. And viola it all started working again.

She has a positive genius for breaking computers, but she's so timid about asking for help, and so timid that she's going to break things that she doesn't even try herself.

But boy, she'd be an awesome person to have in your testing team, she just pokes at stuff and somehow, god knows how, breaks them.

Love her (and her daughter!) dearly, but she's the load stone around my family IT support neck.

[NetMage]

Re: Quite a rare sight

But knowing what you did to break them is a very important part of being a tester.

[Anonymous Custard]

Re: Quite a rare sight

But knowing what you did to break them is a very important part of being a tester.

And seemingly for being a user, so they know exactly what not to tell the poor helldesk person assigned to fix it (at least until afterwards).

Or is it just the ones I have to deal with occasionally (when the helldesk dumps it on me as it's non-standard tool specific software).?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Quite a rare sight

sounds like my grandfather and televisions (though *somehow* the sky satellite box has proven thus far unbreakable) where for the longest time it would be every other week my late grandmother would be on the phone "your grandad's done something to the telly again and we cant get a picture", with him LOUDLY protesting he hadn't touched or done anything....however as my dad noted...he gets frustrated and starts jabbing at buttons

[KittenHuffer]

Re: Quite a rare sight

We recently had our lock screens changed to say "All your passwords must be strong".

But when I tried to change my password to 'Strong' it wouldn't let me!

[Erythrite]

Re: Quite a rare sight

This message is intentionally blank...

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Quite a rare sight

KittenHuffer,

Try setting your password to Geoff Capes...

Otherwise I suggest Overproof Rum...

[CountCadaver]

Re: Quite a rare sight

Or perhaps "MariuszZbigniewPudzianowski"?

[A.P. Veening]

Re: Quite a rare sight

We recently had our lock screens changed to say "All your passwords must be strong".

But when I tried to change my password to 'Strong' it wouldn't let me!

That is because you capitalized it.

[An_Old_Dog]

Re: Quite a rare sight

"TL;DR"

[Terry 6]

Re: Quite a rare sight

Especially since in my experience the log files are usually set up to list everything except the nature of the problem.

[TheMaskedMan]

"Who does that these days ?"

ChatGPT and friends? I mean, why not, they read everything else. Then, rather like an electric monk, they tell you everything's ok.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

I'd forgotten about the Electric Monk.

I feel the technology is now finally advanced enough for his return

[Bebu sa Ware]

Oh Dear !

I suspect I could put names to the cast of this comedy of errors.

To be honest I have worked in more than few places where most of the senior technical management might have contributed to the greater good by making the same career change; not that (m)any of them would be a pleasant sight clad in leotards; the circus would be a more appropriate employer, or rodeos - both need clowns.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Oh Dear !

Don't the rodeos need cowboys? Plenty of suitable recruits in manglement.

[wolfetone]

Fair play to the lead. Obviously had a few things in her head and this was the moment she realised what she needed to do for the best for herself.

We could all learn from her really. We don't need to stay on the treadmill if we're not feeling it.

[steviebuk]

Many moons ago now

We had an issue that was only affecting laptops, back in the XP days. You'd sign in then go to explorer and it would freeze for 10mins. No one knew what the issue was and we were told "Don't waste time on it just re-image the machine". I argued "That's not fixing the issue though is it?"...."I don't care just re-image the machines" was the reply.

Fucking annoying. Re-imaging took an hour, and we couldn't have some set by because they'd be out of date. Users also wouldn't give me enough time to work out what the issue was.

Eventually, thankfully, our manager got "infected" just as she was to go on leave for 2 weeks. I said "Now will you let me just fix it. Just let me spend time looking at the issue so I can find a proper fix. Re-imaging machines isn't fixing the issue". She agreed.

So I sat there watching. Task Manager showed explorer at 50% but nothing more, was only affecting laptops. So I grabbed Process Monitor and Process Explorer from Sysinternals. Watching with Process Monitor showed nothing obvious so as they say "Try Process Monitor AND Process Explorer".

So saw Explorer running at 50% in Process Explorer, but you could then go deeper into that and see what it is loading as it does. It loaded a few .dlls, only one of them was running at 50%. A PGP dll that was a filesharing shell extension for PGP that we used to encrypt the hard drives only on laptops.

Looking this up on their website to see what it did I discovered all it did was scan the network for encrypted PGP files. If it found them it would change the icon to show it was encrypted. We didn't use any of that so wasn't needed. It has been just scanning the network drives for 10 mins until it either finished or timed out. PGP said the dll could just be disabled because it had this issue. So I did and all unfroze. Something that was taking us over an hour to resolve was now fixed in less than 5mins.

I got a small thanks and that was it. Just lucky I like fixing stuff in IT. Its annoying when you sit back and watch grifters get all the praise all these years but was still a personal good feeling when you fix something like this.

[KittenHuffer]

Re: Many moons ago now

I got tired of coming up with last-minute desperate solutions to impossible problems created by other fscking people.

Extra points for remembering the film and/or actors without practicing your Google-fu!

[tip pc]

Re: Many moons ago now

I got tired of coming up with last-minute desperate solutions to impossible problems created by other fscking people.

google ai says

I understand your frustration. Dealing with the stress of constantly solving crises caused by others is exhausting, and it is completely normal to feel this way when carrying that mental and emotional burden.

When these feelings arise, it might be helpful to:

Set boundaries: Clearly communicate your limits to others to manage expectations and avoid taking on more than you can handle [1].

Prioritize self-care: Engage in activities that help you relax and recharge, even if it's just for a few minutes a day.

Seek support: Talk about your feelings with a trusted friend, family member, or mental health professional. You don't have to manage this all by yourself.

If you find this feeling is persistent and significantly impacting your well-being, reaching out for professional guidance can provide additional coping strategies and support. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) offers resources and information, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline is a free, confidential resource available 24/7.

movie is under siege said by Tommy

https://youtu.be/3Zad8u7Tzi0?si=QTIs5XRL7DKlZcY_&t=80

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: Many moons ago now

"I got tired of coming up with last-minute desperate solutions to impossible problems created by other fscking people."

I had to rewrite the logon.bat back in the pre windows days , to try try try and try again to get the NIC setup because the connection was so shit , due to incompetent cisco switch configuration which I was not allowed to look at , that the machine would fail to connect otherwise

4th comment I've posted with the "very angry" icon , I think I'd better take 5 ....

[Boris the Cockroach]

Re: Many moons ago now

Quote

"I got tired of coming up with last-minute desperate solutions to impossible problems created by other fscking people."

Sums up any technical job really, but when the urge to go postal becomes overwelming, just do I what I do

Imagine yourself beside a quiet lake in the mountains somewhere, with the snow capped mountians and blue sky reflected in the still waters of the lake, and cast your gaze down so you can see the fish peacefully floating by and the stones on the lake bed through the crystal clear water, and gaze further down at the utterly annoying bastard you're holding under until the bubbles stop.

Failing that , saving up a number of insults can be worthwhle eg "If your parents got divorced, would they still be brother and sister?" or my favourite "You have 100 million brain cells in your head, none of which knows the others exist"

My first appointment at the job center is Monday at 9.20am

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: Many moons ago now

100 million brain cells is a nice touch, Wikipedia says a typical human has around 85 BILLION. By carefully telling the former, you can get them to show off their heard knowledge and exceptional cranial development where it'll embarrass them.

[GlenP]

Re: Many moons ago now

I recall there was a similar problem at one time with MS Office. Everything worked fine in the workplace but when the user went home or travelled it would take ages to open a document.

We eventually tracked it down to network shared printers, Office was trying to interrogate every shared printer set up on the laptop (and some of our users had several spread across three physical sites). In the office with the S2S VPNs was OK but we didn't have an external client VPN running at the time (external access was via Citrix) so it was taking about a minute per printer to time out before it would actually open a document.

MS eventually fixed the problem fortunately.

[wolfetone]

Re: Many moons ago now

Where I work we have an employee who's go-to fix for everything is reinstall Windows. He's adamant it's a fix all for everything. But, of course, everyone here knows different.

Problem was we had new guys start with us and one of them came to me asking for a USB installer of Windows. I got up to find one but I stopped and asked why, and he told me he needed to do a reinstall on Windows because it couldn't see the network. I walked with him and noticed the network card wasn't being listed in Device Manager. I asked him who told him this was the fix for such a thing, and it was our friend I mentioned above. I double checked that he was aware it was a network issue and he said he did, and this was the fix.

So I provided my own training to him, we had a spare network card lying around so we tried it and you know what? It worked. Took 10 minutes.

[steviebuk]

Re: Many moons ago now

Can't stand issues like that. No longer at the place but I hear they keep hiring apprentices but then never teach them anything. I did a full guide for a departments software as the department was important. I had a senior engineer who was staying test it and I made adjustments where I'd assumed things. All worked fine.

I still keep in contact with people in that department who said "The engineer came the other day to fix that odd thing with our software and the printers. He's taking ages to fix it. Then got the other new engineer and still neither could fix it. We told him have you looked at John's guide he left before he left? They said Oh that was the last engineer, we don't look at his guides".

Fucking idiots. The fix to the fucking issue is right there in my document. Its a 5min fix when you know how.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Many moons ago now

"They said Oh that was the last engineer, we don't look at his guides"

The only answer to that is "Is that why you don't know how to fix it?"

[J. Cook]

Re: Many moons ago now

Heh. that was the first of the 9 month long battles with our internal support team because they were installing the RTM release of Office 2010... in 2017. without applying the requires service packs and updates for it to talk to Exchange. Even after I wrote up a document about how to troubleshoot and diagnose the issue, because all they were doing for 'troubleshooting' was blowing away the user's profile or reinstalling Office (without any of the aforementioned updates) OR re-imaging the machine.

The last of those battles was entirely a "are they running the O365 client installed from the central repo? No? If there's no reason for it, remove the old version and install that one" thing.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: Many moons ago now

"we were told "Don't waste time on it just re-image the machine".

omg been there , There comes a point VERY quickly where the time wasted by desktop techs reimaging machines massively outweighs the time a quick fix in config policy would have avoided it all , and MORE IMPORTANTLY thats not even counting the huge (cumulatively) inconvenience to the customers losing their machine for that time , and then have to "settle in" to their freshly rebuilt machine .

[LJFox]

The admin that swapped careers gets some flak on the post (implying it was better for the business she left), forgetting there was another admin and a vendor escalation, none of whom found the log

[Anonymous Coward]

But think of the untenable situation we'd be in if Netware vendors took a similar look at their lives and all went off to become yoga instructors. Why, the effects would be unthinkable, the IT world would have been unrecognisable compared to how it is seen today. We'd all be fitter, more relaxed individuals; even if we didn't take up the introductory offers ("mats half price") we'd have less LAN-induced PTSD.

[Anonymous Coward]

"there was another admin and a vendor escalation, none of whom found the log"

Presumably they were too busy reading the manual to go looking for log files.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

got there in the end

worked at a university and made the move from the desktop support team to the network management group.

Same ( even down to the Novell NetWare), except that move never happened . I thought the informal environment of a uk educational establishment would be the perfect place to learn skills and climb the ladder . Also no , there was no interest in helping the desktop monkeys graduate to server work , no matter how much they knew about the setup and effort and good will they put in . It took me 7 years to realise that and bail .

FUCK them and their "Investors in people badge"

The next place was better (big private contrator) , and the current place (NHS) was where my career finally got off the ground

The moral of that off topic story? Dont be afraid to resign and move on .

[Simon Robinson]

Not an IT related job change, but when working in a school we had two Heads of Science leave - one to become a yogic flying instructor, the next to become a priest. Not sure what that said about their scientific credentials...

Then again, a male TA left to become a funeral director, then while running that business also bought an ice cream van!

[Sam not the Viking]

I do hope they selected the correct vehicle for the occasion.

Made me smile ---->

[Fred Daggy]

Why? Don't they both keep things cold?

[Marty McFly]

>a male TA left to become a funeral director

That is a business which takes a special type of person. But is is recession proof. People keep dying at the same rate and business is predictable. Having been through a few tech industry cycles, I can see the value in paycheck stability.

[collinsl]

Depends on your definition of "same number of people" - 100% of people die, I'm not going to argue with that, but you do get larger and smaller cohorts of people - right now for example we have more retirees than ever as the "baby boomer" generation gets older, meaning there's more business now for funeral directors than there will be in 20-30 years, say, as a lot of those baby boomers had on average fewer children than the population replacement rate.

[dmesg]

Brings to mind a local technical-careers college. Their Mortuary Science labs are right next to those of the Nursing department.

[Sid Sinister]

In defence of the lead admin

When the issue was escalated to Novell and server maker it seems no one from them thought check the logs themselves or at least ask if they have been checked.

[ricardian]

35 years ago, working for a large Government department we had problems with latency whenever we used drive "F". After a bit of digging I discovered that Microsoft used drive F for analysis and had all sorts of tags attached to it which made it slow down. I have no idea whether this is still true.

[CA_Diver]

Printer Alarm

Back in the days when replacing a failed disk meant over night and overtime I used to swing a computer room printer cable over to the system console. When the controller finally finished it print a status message and list of bad blocks. The printer chattering signaled that nap time was over.

[Unicornpiss]

The reason I find this funny is..

..the woman I used to work with in a job about 22 years ago also quit IT to become a yoga instructor. She wasn't incompetent though. She'd just had enough of this vocation I guess.

[Gavsky]

"Fresh eyes, can win the prize" - as nobody has ever said, not 2000BC years ago...