Wireless Mice
Stop me if you've heard this one...
We had a small sister company, that didn't have an IT department, who's MD tended to do things without asking*. On one occasion he decided he and the FD needed wireless mice and went out and bought them from his usual supplier (Dixons - it was a while ago!)
As usual he then wasn't happy and expected us to sort the problem for him so I rocked up there on my next trip up to the area. Apparently his mouse pointer kept moving randomly, and the FD was having the same issue. Now this was many years ago before wireless mice used encoded signals and effectively their two desks were back-to-back with just a flimsy stud partition wall between. Can you see where this is going?
Two mice running on the same channel (and no option to change it) a few inches apart was always going to be a recipe for disaster. The MD kept his, the FD went back to his cable mouse and normal service resumed.
*Another one was to buy a Sony Vaio laptop from Dixons, against company standards. Just over a year later a windows update overwrote a driver and effectively bricked it (IIRC the display reverted to EGA 16 Colours). Did he have the original install disk(s)? No. Was the driver available from Sony? No. Did Dixons want to help? No. It turned out the laptop was a DSG parts bin special directly from Sony Japan. Sony UK weren't responsible, Sony Japan referred it back to DSG, Dixons said it was out of warranty so not their problem. His "I've saved money over the corporate deal" ended up costing another new laptop.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
