Wait -- that works EVERY week?

Pilot fish gets an urgent call from a user complaining that she's working on a deadline and has had to reboot her computer four times in a single day because she can't print.

"I investigate and find that printing to a specific copier is crashing her spooler," says fish. "While troubleshooting the problem, I make a script that will restart her print spooler so she can get back to work. She tests the script and confirms that she can print.

"A week goes by as I work with printer support to resolve the driver issue, and then another panicked call comes into the help desk. The user has had to reboot her computer five times that day and she's working on another urgent deadline.

"Another tech looks at her computer and points out the spooler script, of which she disavows any knowledge. She thanks the tech for giving her an alternative to rebooting.

"Another week passes with no solution on the printing problem when the user passes me in the hall. She holds her hands up about an inch apart and says, 'I have about this much sanity left.' She says she has already rebooted three times that day to make her printer work.

"I email her a reminder about the spooler script. Then I change the severity of the printer support ticket from 'Medium' to 'Critical -- System Down.'"

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