OT: Word (was Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs)

[Steve Rickaby]

I do not think I have posted this story to this group before, so, as Word is being discussed... 

This really happened: I was there, I watched.

Long time ago, I worked as a contractor for a small but upwardly mobile company. At that time the staff occupied a single floor of an office block in West London, a couple of directors, a secretary and a bunch of very bright and highly-paid engineers.

One of the senior staff came in with the words 'This memo is urgent: can you get it out quickly.' (Probably a strategic error, triggering a local perturbance in the Universal Murphy Field). The secretary set to work typing up the one-page memo in Word. Something went wrong, she struggled with it, and got nowhere. So she called over one of the very bright and highly-paid engineers to help. He struggled with it and got nowhere, so he called over another very bright and highly-paid engineer. I don't know what they were struggling with, but the words 'I've never seen it do that before' occurred more than once.

After a while most of the company's technical staff were helping the poor girl to lash Word into producing this one-page memo. Finally they succeeded, and the print command was issued. The printer jammed. One of the highly-paid engineers unjammed the printer. The print command was issued again... and again the printer jammed. I cannot remember how many times this happened, but I do distinctly remember that at the very point when the printer was finally coaxed into life, just as I thought 'Surely, nothing else can go wrong'... the toner cartridge exploded.

I am not making this up.

-- 
Steve