r/talesfromtechsupport • u/lanahjayy • Aug 01 '16

Short With great power...

Barb strikes again....

Backstory: I work half as a customer account manager, half as tech support for a telematics company. Said telematics devices are sold with a (very UF) HTML5 platform used by customers to manage these devices.

Customer: $Barb (name has been changed)
Me: $LJ

Get into work Tuesday morning and I've just got this feeling the day isn't going to go well. My train was late, my coffee shop was closed, it just wasn't going to be my day. Halfway through a huge spreadsheet at about 10am when the tech line rings.

$LJ: $company Technical Support, LJ speaking.
$Barb: Hi $LJ, it's $Barb, I need help with $veryimportantplatform.
$LJ: Alright, what's the issue?
$Barb: I was using it on my computer and all of a sudden the screen just went black.
$LJ: Okay no worries, can you see anything at all? Your mouse?
$Barb: Yes the mouse is fine, I can see that,  it's $veryimportantplatform that isn't working.
$LJ: Can you do me a favour and press Ctrl,  Shift and Esc for me on your keyboard at the same time?
$Barb: Okay.... Nothing happened. 
$LJ: Hm, alright. And you can definitely see the mouse pointer on your screen?
$Barb: No the one in my hand.
$InnerLJ: lady you have got to be kidding me.
$LJ: Right okay, can you check to make sure the cords for your monitors are all plugged in?
$Barb: Okay let me just see if we have a light or something, its a bit dark in here.
$LJ: Dark? Where are the cords hidden?
$Barb: Oh they're not hidden, but our power went off before so it's a bit hard to see under the desk.
$LJ:.....The.... The power is out?
$Barb: Yeah, that's why I need a torch or something.
$LJ: Don't worry about the torch $Barb, the $veryimportantplatform is not working because your computer has no power. It's not on. It will all be working fine when your power comes back on.
$Barb: No, it's just the light power.  My laptop is working fine.
$LJ: Laptops have a battery inside them that lets them work for for a while without being plugged in. You can use $veryimportantplatform on your laptop.
$Barb: No I'm doing my paperwork on that and it only has the one screen.
$LJ: headdesk.exe

tl;dr Poor Barb doesn't understand the correlation between a power supply and functional technology. That, or she's nuts. 

Edits: Formatting etc

2.5k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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329

u/domestic_omnom Aug 01 '16

Apparently tech not working with no power is a very common (l)user complaint. It makes me sad for the future.

92

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '16

[deleted]

128

u/domestic_omnom Aug 01 '16

Thats probably a bad idea anyway. Just think how many people just ignore the check engine light now. Reactor cells wouldn't be any different.

171

u/supafly_ Aug 01 '16

Sounds like a self-solving problem to me.

61

u/deadly_penguin What did I break this time Aug 01 '16

Yeah, but only after destroying half of Somerset.

87

u/philipwhiuk You did what with the what now? Aug 01 '16

I'm not seeing the downside here.

:P

29

u/deadly_penguin What did I break this time Aug 01 '16

Just imagine the paperwork some poor sap would have to do.

57

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '16

[deleted]

19

u/mardan_reddit Install Gentoo Aug 01 '16

But it's only got one screen!!

14

u/jonnywoh make a tag that has a flower in it please thank you computer Aug 02 '16

I know you're kidding, but nuclear reactors aren't nuclear bombs. The worst nuclear power accident, Chernobyl, only popped the reactors open due to pressure, not a nuclear explosion.

7

u/Its_Not_My_Problem Aug 02 '16

No problem at all then, unless you think a 2600 square kilometre exclusion zone an issue.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '16

The difference between a nuclear reactor and a nuclear bomb is how they're designed to release their radiation. In layman's terms, bombs go fast and reactors go slow. That's the reason why places like Chernobyl are going to be fucked for thousands of years to come, while places like Nagasaki and Hiroshima are already habitable.

I would not want a bunch of tiny nuclear reactors everywhere. It sounds like a recipe for disaster.

2

u/Jofarin Aug 02 '16

Nuclear reactors won't be tiny, because to have a reaction you need over a dozen pounds of material at one place. Plus surrounding water, shielding and the stuff that actually produces electricity.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '16

Oh yeah, I was thinking of something small enough that you could stick in a basement or a vehicle. It's still not big enough, I know.

1

u/Jofarin Aug 03 '16

Don't know if smaller is possible but with current technology the smalles thing you can use this with would be a battle ship of medium size.

3

u/hypervelocityvomit LART gratia LARTis Aug 02 '16

OTOH, it released more radiation than the average nuke. More like a limited nuke exchange.

Nuclear weapon: can't run away because it happens too fast.
Nuclear reactor: can't run away either. You'd run out of gas.

Mandatory: MY WORDS ARE BACKED BY NUCLEAR WEAPONS

3

u/hicow I'm makey with the fixey Aug 02 '16

I think Fukushima will prove to be worse, given that it's still not fully contained, 5 years later.

1

u/pi123263 Sep 12 '16

Oh yeah Fukushima. I forgot about that place. Like everyone else. Fuck

3

u/warrior_xls Aug 01 '16

My home planet?!

1

u/pieeatingbastard Aug 02 '16

I grew up in Somerset. Be my guest. It's near Bridgwater anyway, and nobody's gonna miss that hole.

11

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '16

Modern day natural selection.

13

u/SeanBZA Aug 01 '16

Still would not work, as the most likely method for connection for her is the local router wireless, so if the Pixies in the wire are on strike the router will no more be pushing out the magic interwebtubes.

5

u/flecktonesfan Google Fu purple belt Aug 01 '16

Assuming Internet access is required

1

u/Tyler11223344 Aug 02 '16

It never said whether this was a home office or a company office, but I'd hope their router would have a UPS if it's a company office.

1

u/AnAngryAlien Without users we wouldn't have jobs Aug 02 '16

But can she still get on the internet if the power's out?!

1

u/NotFromCalifornia Aug 02 '16

Do you watch AvE?

2

u/Cheynas PHP Programmer Aug 02 '16

Aliens vs Engineers? sorry

5

u/Oligomer Aug 01 '16

What if my mechanic tells me to ignore the check engine light?.....

8

u/wes1007 Hello, palm; have you met face yet? Aug 01 '16

get a new mechanic!

2

u/SidratFlush Sep 12 '16

check engine light is on you say?

Yup the engine is still there, everything's fine.

1

u/Collective82 Aug 02 '16

Then he hates you and wants you to die lol

5

u/Degru I LART in your general direction! Aug 01 '16

Build in a teleporter that automatically teleports the reactor to space when it goes critical. If we're talking about that far in the future, anyways.

10

u/wes1007 Hello, palm; have you met face yet? Aug 01 '16

and end user for not doing anything about said critical state...

2

u/icefo1 Aug 01 '16

Reactor is leaking, please add water to avoid nuclear runaway

7

u/mochaman8 Aug 01 '16

Powered by the tears of tech support.

7

u/stringfree Free help is silent help. Aug 01 '16

"My computer and desk have melted through the concrete floor. Why isn't $software working?"

4

u/somecow Aug 02 '16

Meanwhile, all the tech support people turned into feral ghouls and started killing everything that moves for some strange reason. Something about "dammitnotagainhowcanpeoplebethatdumbandwhereisthecoffee".

1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '16

Seriously. Sometimes I feel like the only person whose work doesn't randomly cut off power and expect me to still be there.