Users!

[andygates]

Which of these did I actually send tonight at 10pm after checking in on my server migration (after a great night-school session: vertical down outside corner welds, you are my bitches)?

1: "Dear users, the migration of your data to the new, spacious and high-performance server cluster will not go ahead tonight as planned due to technical issues which we'll investigate as soon as we can.  In the meantime, please continue to work on the current server as before."

2: "Dear users, the migration of your data from the creaky old fossil box to the preposterously over-spec server cluster will not go ahead tonight as planned because you've chosen to use such staggeringly long filenames that they crashed my migration routine.  I mean, come on, I'm all for lucid file structures but whole sentences as folder names?  You've saved every webpage you've ever found interesting with its full name, then given a "that huge name - comments" subfolder with more inside that, ad infinitum?  Easy, tiger.  We gave you a namespace but you eated it.  Your linguistic legerdemain did things that Windows, in its deep stupidity, permits but cannot handle, which I shall try to cheat my way around as soon as I can face it.  In the meantime, please continue to create novella-size file structures on the current server as before."

Comments

[skean.livejournal.com]

Hey, I feel you pain bro. I now run a mini helpdesk and have gnawed my arm in frustration at users. Only becase they are in London and I can't gnaw their arm off.

USER: Its wrong!
ME: Jolly good. Who are you, and what are you talking about?
USER: Its me. My report is wrong.
ME Excellent. Now, a user ID...?
USER: What's that?

Oh God, I can't go on, you know the rest of it...

[andygates.livejournal.com]

You can't ever gnaw their arms off. That's the tragedy of it.

[arabis.livejournal.com]

Actually, on a helpdesk, your first response should be
"Have you switched it off and on again?"