Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

Me, not you.

So about two weeks ago, I returned my newly bought Airport Express and
purchased the new 802.11n model. I plugged it into an AC outlet near the
computer and set it up. I then unplugged it, and plugged it near the
DirecTV DVR.

After going back to the computer, I used Airport Utility to ensure that
it was connected.

Then two days ago, I tried to browse the On Demand listings on DirecTV,
and discovered that there was no internet connection. I did everything
I could think of at the time, but regardless of configuration changes
via Airport Utility, nothing worked.

Last night, I got a brainstorm; I actually looked at the Airport
Express. Sure enough, I had forgotten to plug the ethernet cable back
into the unit. I plugged it in and everything now works properly.
*sigh*

 

Oh, I know that I don't. I was the support person at an Apple
dealership many years ago.

 

This is why the help desk always asks that most infuriating of
questions, "Is it plugged in?"[/QUOTE]

"Yes, it's plugged in; the green light is on, and Airport Utility sees
it. Oh, you mean is the ethernet cable plugged in? Wait a sec, I'll
check.... Sorry to have bothered you and wasted your time. No, there's
nothing else I need right now. Thank you."

 

One of my favourites as an MSEE or electrician - worked many many times:

It works better if you plug it in

From Murphy's Laws, if I am not mistaken.

Welcome to the club ;-)

Marc

 

Just another sign of aging!

Stuff like that happens to me on a regular occurrence nowadays!

 

LOL.

 

I've done that. I set up the audio for a party once, got it all plugged
in, couldn't figure out why the amp wouldn't come on. I'd plugged it
into itself, "ooh, out of outlets, where shall I plug this one; ooh, I
know, the amp has one ..."

My other one was the old ADB mouse/keyboard set up. I'd move the
computer for some reason, not much, and the ADB plug would come loose,
and the keyboard and mouse would freeze, "shit, it's crashed." Reboot,
"shit, now what?" Eventually I figured it out, but [blush] it happened
more than once.

 

Hey! I've got a pending patent for a perpetual motion machine based on
that discovery!

Cheers,

-j

 

It's really infuriating when it isn't plugged in.

 

And then there's the ultimate. "Oh, I cannot see that, we are in a
blackout."

 

Better than plugging the speakers into the wall, as at least two of my
friends have told me they did. This disaster was even mentioned in
speaker instructions I got once. It appears some people just cannot
resist the temptation to use those connectors for speakers.

 

I liked "Insert new system disk". That one made me think, I did not
happen to have a hard disk with Windows on it at the time.

 

Back in the days when a 64 character X 16 line plasma panel cost about $1000,
one of our plasma panels failed. Years later, the first-level supervisor
told me that he had covered for one of the technicians, who had put 120 v AC
across the signal input to the panel. I didn't even ask how he had come to
do that.

 

How on earth ...?

 

Some people are dumb enough to use a regular AC plug on the end of a
speaker wire. You wire an AC jack to the speaker terminals and you now
have a quick disconnect/reconnect for your speaker.

One of those dumb people was me (it was in late 1954). I lent my system
to my girlfriend of the time, and later I brought it back to my dorm. I
took the amplifer one day, planning to fetch the speaker the next day.

There was no speaker the next day. The young lady, noticing the plug on
the speaker, plugged it into the obvious place - the AC wall socket.

It was a valuable lesson in interface design (to me; she didn't quite
get it). Ever since then, I have always tried to use plugs that can
only go into the right kind of jack or socket and sockets that can only
accept the right kind of plug.

 

I can't argue with that. I can proudly say that it has never occurred to
me to put an electrical plug on the end of a speaker wire.

In film school, lo many years back, an instructor plugged 220 volts into
the audio input of a Nagra III, just to prove it could be done. Lovely
old beast, the Nagra III.

 

This is one of the major advances in electronics. The old Macintosh SCSI
plug[1] was the same as the Centronics parallel printer port, much
hilarity ensued.

[1] SCSI was notorious for needing Voodo to make it work, sacrificing a
kid[1] was frequently the only way.

[1] young goat

 

I read this. Now tell me:

1) What is a foot-pedal?

2) What is a tea-kettle?

 

A chicken, not a kid.

 

It's the redundancy that is puzzling.

Pass. Here, the puzzle is to know how a tea-kettle differs from any
other kind of kettle.

Quite.