Posts by m1kesy

Support chap put PC into 'drying mode' and users believed it was real

Re: Nipples and s(ard)onic screwdrivers

If it was a warm day, are you sure it wasn't bright sunlight interfering with an optomechanical mouse sensor? Compaq's beige mice were prone to that back in the day, as the plastic was too thin to use relably near a window in summer.

You've stolen the antiglare shield on that monitor you've fixed – they say the screen is completely unreadable now

Tobacco smoke and some things worse

In the late 80s, one of our senior managers who chain-smoked, moved from a pokey little office in our tired old building to a spacious top-floor corner office within our newly built building. When they retired after only a few years we threw out all their IT equipment, and the new occupant insisted that the office be repainted and re-carpeted before moving in. They stayed less than a year because of the smell and I think it ended up being re-plastered before the next manager moved in.

Other staff were even more feared by our team:

1. Someone had a habit of scratching their scalp while thinking what to type into the word-processor. Consequently, their full travel mechanical keyboard regularly ended up covered with a thick layer of hair, skin and dandruff.

2. Someone was known to unashamedly be what we referred to as a "walker" (as opposed to a "hand washer"), even when they were being observed doing it.

I have a much more recent and far worse story involving hygiene and colleagues refusing to hotdesk, but I won't detail it as a) you might be eating, b) they might read this and realise everyone in their office and in ours knew about her dirty habits.

PPE wasn't available for IT to use, so the latex glove you'd get with some HP printer maintenance kits was hoarded for such emergencies.