🚀 go-pugleaf

Andrew Grygus wrote,
>Actually, this whole thing was probably started by a help desk guy 

I agree.

When I first heard the story, it was just another of those "luser tales."
Boring, really, since they are all about the same.

But I happened to be shopping for a new PC. A cow orker had told me that his
son had managed to break the CD drawer on the first day. So I was at the 
store, looking at CD drawers, to see if they are all that flimsy. (My 
ancient Matsushita drive pops out entirely, and appears to be quite sturdy.)

I found, as I mentioned before on alt.folklore.urban, that all the drawers
I examined could only be mistaken for a cup holder by a dyslexic chimpanzee.
There is a hole, but it is usually slot shaped, and most of the time much too
small for the bottom of those 6oz cups. They are also quite flimsy, and 
likely to break when bumped from the side. Someone might use them to support
their cup, but not because they *thought* it was a cup holder; rather because
they are pigs and their desks are so cluttered that there's no room for the
cup.

There are so many luser tales around, as this thread shows. I suspect that
every one of them was started by help desk people. Made up of whole cloth.
And, no, I'm not convinced by anyone who claims that it happened to them.
So I'm calling them a liar. What do they care?

Consider some of the other stories.

* the photocopy of the disk - why would the service center want a *copy*
  of a disk? If the disk is defective, they have you send it in for an
  exchange.

* the misplaced label - when I tape the slide shut, the disk won't even 
  go into the drive!

* the mouse pedal - you push a mouse around with your foot, you will see
  a pointer move on the screen. Eventually you should twig to using your
  hand...

* the refrigerator magnet - most fridge magnets aren't strong enough for
  two pieces of paper, never mind a floppy disk. And fridge magnets aren't
  likely to damage the floppy, either, as weak as they are.

* the lost password - the story of the coup in a banana republic has been
  debunked on AFU.

Many luser tales include elements of sexism - it is a female secretary 
who is having difficulties: using staples through the floppy, using her
pretty fridge magnets, confusing the computer for a dictaphone, etc.

These legends are akin to the stories we have about automobile misadventures:
of the rich foreigner who mistakes "cruise control" for an automatic pilot,
of the woman who deals with a broken gas gauge by lighting up the fueling
tube with a match, or the gas thief who siphons from the septic tank of the
motor home.

Or the legends about the telephone.

In fact, I suspect that all technological innovations spawn legends. I 
wouldn't be the least surprised to find that there are cave paintings 
which include a story of the woman who thought fire was pretty, and 
tried to hang some of it from a string around her neck...
--
 Helge "Wait til they invent a time machine!" Moulding
 h...@slc.unisys.com                         Just another guy
 http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1401       with a weird name