Posts by Dave.C

How is this problem mine, techie asked, while cleaning underground computer

Dickensian

The worst environment I encountered computer equipment was a tyre factory. Absolutely everything in a layer a black dust. Miracle anything functioned at all.

How to get a computer get stuck in a lift? Ask an 'illegal engineer'

Not quite pig iron, but a rather bulky SAN but only a decade or so back. Someone had consulted the plaque in the lift and found that if the discs where removed it should just make the magic number. Lift was loaded, buttons pushed and instead of hopping out and ascending the stairway, the lift driver/device shifter chose to ride up with the hardware and thus overload the lift. Cue calls to lift maintenance, building management and those lovely lads in their red lorries.

Amazon has repackaged surveillance capitalism as reality TV

I see what you did there

Ring-fence - used it twice.

Buying a USB adapter: Pennies. Knowing where to stick it: Priceless

Same concept, different field

Family friend is/was a locksmith. Gets a call out over a weekend, called away from a family gathering to some muppet who had locked his keys in his car. Gets to scene (a local beuty spot away from anything remotely residential), spends longer getting tools out and put away that actually opening the car. Hands over standard callout bill. Guy objects to cost vs time taken. Keys deposited back in car, car locked and locksmith left the scene. As above, you are not paying for the time taken, but the interruption to someone's time, the travel, but more importantly the tools and acquired knowhow.