Doom averted by magical gnome powers.

[featherynscale]

kittenpants' laptop was temporarily unable to communicate with the network today. Luckily, I was able to fix it with my patented Computer Fixing Process:

1. Open everything that looks relevant.
2. Push shiny red candy-like buttons!
3. Close everything.
4. Reboot some things.
5. Get a screwdriver.
6. Wave it menacingly at the machine.
7. Push some more buttons.
8. Grin maniacally.
9. All fixed!

Seriously, I'm not sure if it's worse when something should work, but doesn't, or when it shouldn't work, but does.

Comments

Tee-hee...

[wildnsquirrelly.livejournal.com]

I can't help but be reminded of your Mom in a similar situation saying "I can't make it do!"

[infintysquared.livejournal.com]

It's kind of like the opposite of Technician Syndrome.

Y'know, the moment someone who knows how to fix the problem appears, IT STARTS WORKING!

damn, you patented it

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

Does that mean I owe you royalties?

Often (not this week) I can skip to step 6, or even just watch while someone shows me the problem, and it's magically fixed. Even the new guy at work is occasionally spooked by this power.

'Puters and Possession

[crookedface.livejournal.com]

I find it more vexing when something works when it shouldn't. Many moons ago, I was helping a friend program a high-powered computer--a Radio Shack TRS80, a pimpin' ride for the truly geeky at the time. We had a couple of loops in the program, coded properly with one inside the other so they didn't cross.

The program wouldn't work; it wouldn't finish a loop.

We switched the loops 'round, putting the outer in and the inner out. It still wouldn't work.

We pulled the inner loop out and placed it ahead of the other. Still nothing.

We switched the positions again, placing the first to last and last to first. Nothing.

We crossed the loops--the major thing to avoid when using loops. The damn program ran without a hitch.

I still think about that damned thing on occasion, and I still can't figure out why it worked. At no other time did that machine (or any other running a dialect of BASIC) run a program with the loops crossed. Just that one program.

If a machine doesn't run when it's all set up properly, I figure the problem is just something that can't be seen with the naked eye, like static buildup or something. No big deal. When it shouldn't be running and it does, I figure it's possessed and I'm not certain I want to be around it.

Re: damn, you patented it

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Nah, there's actually prior art on this one -- the Mongoose Publishing Complete Book of Gnomes or whatnot includes a prestige class for gnomish mechanics, and at the highest level of this class, the gnome can brandish an implement at a broken machine and curse it arcanely, and the thing will begin to work again out of fear. This is the first experience I've had in which I was looking at something in a gaming book and gone, "Hey! That's a feat I can do in Real Life!". :)

And I also am apparently advanced enough to take part in the ability to make things work simply by stepping into the room in which things are malfunctioning and asking to be shown the problem. It's fun.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Heh. I fixed our Crystal Reports Writer at the office in exactly that manner on Tuesday.

Re: Tee-hee...

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I know, she drives me crazy with that. "You can't make it do *what*?" Give us a specific verb!

Re: 'Puters and Possession

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Heh. I always figure a computer's a complex enough system to count as chaos, and is therefore going to be extremely respondent to small changes in conditions. That's the only reason I can think of that, say, closing all the windows and restarting the program will fix *anything*