2009-08-01

In Honour of SysAdmin day

So yesterday was SysAdmin day - various stories circulated about amazingly naive users doing things like using their mouse as a footpedal and wondering why the computer didn't go faster and other things like that.

Not all "SysAdmin" stories need to be about computer usage :)

I was busy working away at the University when my wife finished work and called to see if I was ready to go. Answering in the affirmative, she told me she would pick me up in about 20 minutes.

Well, about 5 minutes later, she phones: "Brett, the car won't go - the brake is stuck!"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Marie: "Stuck! - The foot pedal won't come up and the car won't go."
"Can you pull it up?"
"No - how do I fix this?!?"
"Don't know - never happened to me. Try jiggling it and call me back". (Jiggling is a highly technical term used by SysAdmins when working on hardware issues)

Three minutes later - Marie: "Still stuck!"
"OK - call AMA and tow it to the dealership - no car for the long weekend." (SysAdmin last resort - threaten to take the toy away)
"OK, I'm going to try one more time first."

Two minutes later - Marie: "OK - it's going now. See you soon."
"Wait, wait - what happened?"
"If I tell you, you have to promise not to blog this!"
Me ----.
Marie: "Well, I had turned the car on to open the windows, but I hadn't started it."
Me: (Trying reaallly hard not to burst out laughing) "Ok - love you."