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That's ergonomics!

32 comments

TAGS:mouse, scroll
IT TOPICS:Desktops & Servers, Management

Receptionist in this doctor's office has been working there for three or four years and using a PC the whole time, reports a pilot fish who works there too.

One day, fish is looking on as the receptionist reviews a patient's file. But some of the information she needs is below the bottom of the screen.

Scroll down, fish suggests.

"Scroll down?" receptionist asks. "How do I do that?"

Just use the wheel on the mouse, says fish.

"The wheel on the mouse?" she says. "You mean the finger exerciser? I thought that was for exercising my fingers when my hand got tired!"

Exercise your fingers by sending Sharky your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll get a stylish Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

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i spam like no other

Submitted by Spammy McSpammerson on October 20, 2009 - 7:17 A.M.

http://ikilldeer.mybrute.com

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fingers-of-steel

Submitted by bluto on October 19, 2009 - 2:57 P.M.

I can accept not knowing what the scroll actually does but I'm having trouble making the leap to thinking it is some kind of exerfinger apparatus.

CAPTCHA = friend Estelle -- I'm getting up there in years but I ain't that old yet.

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Waterline

Submitted by Jim but not THE Jim on October 19, 2009 - 5:00 P.M.

I'm guessing someone told her that. It's like telling the nobs in the Navy to go back aft and get me 20' of waterline.

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Prop Wash

Submitted by Anonymous on October 26, 2009 - 10:12 A.M.

Or at the Canadian Forces air base where the noob was instructed to go over to the base hospital for a bucket of prop wash.

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Not Uncommon

Submitted by Amongus on October 19, 2009 - 2:10 P.M.

I have been in IT for 40-odd years, and started dating my wife almost that long ago. We've had a PC in the house since the 8088 days. She's an ICU nurse, with work and personal email and uses a computer occasionally at work.
I'd set up a user account on my laptop for her to use, but she never used it. Only when I'd brought up a site and logged in would she check email. After buying our daughter a NetBook last month, my wife wanted one. In the last few weeks, I've had to explain to her what a "window" is, how to scroll, and where to type to change web sites. Don't use the power button to shut the NetBook down, and don't just close the cover.
A lot of what we old pros take for granted is not obvious to everyone, and many older people have been too afraid to even try to use a computer.

Across Omission - Nothing here from JTB

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Haiku

Submitted by Unkk on October 19, 2009 - 1:14 P.M.

An id10t reduces
your new ergonomic mouse
to a simple stone.

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Truth Is More Stupid Than Fiction

Submitted by Saul on October 19, 2009 - 10:21 A.M.

Flashback to 1991: I was showing the customer rep of a government TLA the "new" mouse interface on the editing software we'd developed. She sat with her hands in her lap until it was time to move the cursor - then she would poke the mouse with her index finger in little half-inch jabs until the cursor was where she wanted it, make a correction, then put her hands back in her lap. I couldn't convince her to grasp the mouse and continuously move it.

Unfortunately, she was indicative of the rest of the group...

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Gotta believe it. I worked

Submitted by Anonymous on October 19, 2009 - 11:45 A.M.

Gotta believe it.

I worked with a user that complained for months that vital information had not been turned over from the previouse staffer out of spite. While working on an unrelated problem I found that information. The user had never bothered to scroll right in the all important spreadsheet.

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Sorry....

Submitted by JimboR on October 19, 2009 - 9:22 A.M.

Sorry. I'm calling bogus on this one. This is just TOO stupid to be true....

Next we're going to be hearing about some user that is taken by paramedics because the help desk told them "don't breathe until I get there"..

Recaptcha: Bavarians dabblers - the donut decorators @ Dunkin Donuts????

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Infinite stupidity...

Submitted by KirkW on October 19, 2009 - 10:39 A.M.

Unfortunately, we have yet to plumb the full depth of human stupidity. As Albert Einstein himself once said, "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
.
I can easily believe this call after having once tried to teach a user over the phone on how to use a mouse. She was on a DOS system and needed to access data on a PC recently upgraded to Windows/386. I carefully explained how to hold the mouse, the buttons, and then asked her to move the mouse around to move the cursor.
.
The cursor didn't move. It turned out she was moving the mouse around in mid-air. After explaining how to roll the mouse on the table she was off and running.

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