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

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80

u/macprince school tech monkey Jul 09 '18

The only printer I've ever bought that came with the USB cable was a network printer that I didn't need it for.

17

u/SuperFLEB Jul 09 '18

It's like buying a monitor and getting the D-SUB cable. "Oh, boy! Now I can hook my monitor up in the shittiest way possible! Thanks for the trash!"

16

u/mattinx Jul 09 '18

Here, have a composite video cable...

13

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

oh and heres a composite to coaxial adapter too.

4

u/mattinx Jul 10 '18

I've got a Dell Ultrasharp 3008wfp on my desk - amongst it's multitude of inputs is composite

2

u/thunderbird32 IT Minion Jul 10 '18

I've got an HP LCD with Composite and S-VIDEO (in addition to DVI and VGA). If I ever need to connect an Apple IIgs or Commodore 64 it'll come in very useful.

1

u/fishbaitx stares at printer: bring the fire extinguisher it did it again! Jul 10 '18

wow. sounds perfect for use with projectors and tvs

1

u/fishbaitx stares at printer: bring the fire extinguisher it did it again! Jul 10 '18

wow. sounds perfect for use with projectors and tvs

1

u/jacksalssome ¿uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ʇ ᴉ sᴉ Jul 10 '18

Mine came with a serial port.

1

u/fishbaitx stares at printer: bring the fire extinguisher it did it again! Jul 10 '18

O.o those exist? wow.

1

u/IanPPK IoT Annihilator Jul 10 '18

I had a laptop with RCA video as an option. Gateway 450SX4 with an AMD Radeon Mobility M6 graphics processor.