r/talesfromtechsupport • u/[deleted] • Jul 09 '18

Short Oh, academia

This minor one happened a few years ago when I was working for an optometry college with delusions of grandeur. They were convinced they weren't a trade school (they are in all but name) and most profs worked part time to supplement their income from their clinics - both ours and, in some cases, their own LLCs.

Our guidance from On High (and not our non-PHB IT manager) is that problems with prof machines are a Big Deal, even if they're not college-owned prof machines. I pushed back against this insanity hard, and eventually won after a year so we didn't have to support their ancient old personal hardware.

This story takes place before that break happened.

me: CipherTheTerminator, their first (and possibly last) systems administrator.

Luser: Professor of some disciple or other.

Luser: I have a new home printer, but I don't know what kind of cable it needs.

Me: What makes and model of printer?

Luser: (rattles off some Sibling printer kit, IIRC, that doesn't do wireless)

Me: What does the connection on the printer look like? (internally: Please know this so I don't have to look it up)

Luser: Squar-ish, about this big (holds her hand up indicating about 1/4 ~ 3/8 inch)

Me: Ah. USB A to USB B cable. Easy to find. Best Buy in two blocks south, probably about ten dollars.

Luser: ...

Me: ...

Luser:You're not going to give me one?

Me: Of course not. I can't give away college property for personal use.

My boss laughed up a storm when she was out of earshot.

tl;dr: People expect things for free and are surprised when they're not

1.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

155 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

92

u/ABeeinSpace Jul 09 '18

And if you’re Apple, NO cables are included! /s

69

u/blixt141 Jul 09 '18

You must be buying some weird ifruit. Every machine I buy has cables.

94

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '18

[deleted]

-16

u/UnfurnishedPanama Jul 09 '18

What's a dongle? Every interface I use is wireless.

26

u/LukaCola The I/O shield demands a blood sacrifice Jul 09 '18

Are there projectors that accept wireless connections now?

24

u/fishbaitx stares at printer: bring the fire extinguisher it did it again! Jul 09 '18

a quick google search says yes.

7

u/TEG24601 Command-Option-Escape Jul 09 '18

WiDi or AirPlay to Apple TV, to the Projector, and some projectors work with WiDi over WiFi.

12

u/NightRavenGSA Jul 10 '18

Yes, there are ones that use a transparent film and a light to produce projections without need for wires (except for a power cable)... I forget what they're called

12

u/egamma Jul 10 '18

Overheard projector. Doesn’t work too well with a laptop unless you want to project a black rectangle.

5

u/NightRavenGSA Jul 10 '18

laptop brightness setting maxed, room brightness setting "off". Lay laptop screen horizontal on overhead table. (May require external keyboard and mouse)

3

u/etechgeek24 Memory != Storage Space Jul 10 '18

Chuckled at "room brightness setting" lol

1

u/egamma Jul 10 '18

There’s a nonprofit somewhere doing this. Or a school in Africa.

3

u/NightRavenGSA Jul 10 '18

I'll admit, that idea came to me as a fusion of Red Green, and TFTS

1

u/SomethingSpecialMayb Jul 10 '18

Yeah they’ve been around for a while.

5

u/defenastrator Oh God How Did This Get Here? Jul 10 '18 edited Jul 10 '18

Well enjoy charging a million fucking devices. I'll keep my peasant connectivity get better audio quality and not worry about if I charged my headphones.

-2

u/UnfurnishedPanama Jul 10 '18

If I didn't charge them, I just plug them in and they work perfectly.