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I figured a post with this subject would be great for the people here to share their...somewhat strange anecdotes. The idea stems from an awkward moment I just had a few minutes ago, which I feel would be perfect to start us off.
First off, I still live with da 'rents, I know, sad. But, we're doing some major moving around of my apartment, and my Dad is helping me. The place is a mess right now...
Anyway, we were talking about how we would get the router an extension to run about 20-30 feet to what is now my bedroom, so I show him where all the wires connect to it and where they go. Just to confirm everything, he then said something that absolutely confused me at first: "[The wire going to the computer] connects to the hard drive, right?" "No, Dad". After I found out that he meant the whole tower, I started laughing my head off. For some reason he calls a computer tower a "hard drive" . Lets hear yours!
Main frame computer kept rebooting every Wednesday night, and only Wednesday night. Staff would come in and find the computer rebooted and screwing up overnight jobs. Program manager put lots of pressure on them to figure this out Week after week this kept happening. Finally someone decided to stay late on Wednesday and physically watch what happens. In the middle of the night a cleaning service came in, unplugged the mainframe and plugged in one of those machines with spinning cloth heads that rubs wax and polish into the floor. The staffer told the program manager that the problem was solved. Program manager asked what it was. Staffer replied "Buffer problem".
When we were first testing a change from mini computers to a PC in 1984 (IBM AT) we had to transfer the already created data files (CAD drawings) from each of two minis to the PC.
I wrote a batch file to copy then translate the files into AutoCAD format and tested it. Since it was going to be a long process I set it up to run overnight. I ran it and went in the next morning to find it had crashed and I could not figure out why. The only clue was corrupted files that transferred before it stopped.
This went on for a few days and I was pulling my hair out. Finally I just stopped and thought instead of looking through all the batch code for an error. While was sitting there I happened to look at the back of the desk and noticed there were a lot of cables back there. I took stock and realized the 15 foot parallel cable we were using to copy the files from the minis to the PC was running on top of three power cables in addition to the video keyboard, mouse, etc cables.
I picked up a large book, stood it up on end, and placed the parallel cable on it, raising it above the other cables.
Customer insists that XP's disk cleanup wizard keeps uninstalling her Microsoft Fax. I rarely use the cleanup wizard so I'm not totally familiar with it so I have her demonstrate it. 15 minutes later after it finishes analyzing the disk (yeah, that's why I don't use it), it brings up the summary screen. So what does she do? Of course she clicks the tab or button to the Windows component add/remove applet and unchecks MS Fax. Funny how that program just removed MS Fax all by itself.
Not unlike Charles's first one (only true). I managed a small data center in the early 80s when storage was on the large rotating platters. All was fine until, on a weekly basis, the backups were being damaged by something. After several weeks of analysis and technicians cleaning, and doing excessive maintenance, I decided that I needed to sit back and observe the full operation. For a few days nothing happened out of the ordinary. People came in with their paper files, printed out backup reports, removed/replaced the disks, etc. One evening the cleaning crew came in and, as always cleaned up the place. Lo and behold, the final cleaning step for one of the crew was to pick up all of the paper clips around the systems. You guessed it. This industrious young lady commenced to pull out a large magnet to run over all of the surfaces containing paperclips. Including the drives.
I went to a school auction one time and whoever set up the auction paired a bunch of Mac SEs (all-in-one Macs) with Apple IIe machines and called them "Apple IIe systems" because they thought the SEs were monitors. So, for $20 or $25 or whatever it was at the time, buyers were actually receiving two computers for the price of one.
Not really as funny as the other stories, but still.
I also enjoy when people refer to a tower as a 'hard drive' or ask where 'the CPU' (the tower) is when looking at an all-in-one machine like the iMac.
The funniest is how many people fell for the hysteria of the Y2K disaster ~ a true worldwide joke.
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. Lets hear yours! 
