How hard, I ask you, could it possibly be, to make some copies? (If you aren't yet familiar with my writing style, this would be the moment where I alert you to my oft-used literary technique known as "foreshadowing".)
Part of my job at my office--some techs would maintain it is the only job that matters--is printing out labels for the new admissions.
Easy enough, right? Put the label sheet on the scanner part, shut the lid, type in number of copies needed, open the feeder shelf, put in the stickers, press start and viola! Nice and neat and ready to turn in to the unit!
Uh, huh.
Unless the copier is feeling feisty.
And I got to tell you, it was hostile territory over by that bastard the other night.
I got all of the afore mentioned steps completed and fed the stickers into the copier, only to have the feeding mechanism rotate the sticker sheet by about 7 degrees. And that was all it needed for maelstrom to ensue.
Because the copier, being a Type A pain-in-the-arse, was in no mood. It abruptly protested this 7-degree anomaly by stalling operations and giving the inevitable blinking error message. You know the one: the message that instructs the user to dismantle the entire machine and climb into the bowels before finding the offending label sheet hiding out in the adjoining county. And then you pull out the label sheet and discover that not only did the copier protest by shutting down, the copier felt the need to vomit ink all over the paper (and, by proxy, you) before shutting down.
Because shutting down obviously doesn't put too fine a point on the matter.
I felt a bit victorious that it only took me 10 minutes to locate the label sheet. I pulled it out, reassembled, shut the machine....
And I'm still confronted with the blinking error message.
What. The. Hell.
Open....Disassemble.....Look in every nook and cranny....Wait a second....What is that? OH! It's another sheet of paper. Of course. Why eat just one when you can eat two, right? My motto for chocolate.
So I pull that sucker out, assemble, shut the lid and it whirls to life again! Whoo hoo! But it starts to make copies without my permission and, naturally, sputters to a grinding halt a few moments later.
Damn.
Forgot to clear the memory and it's still churning those original four copies.
I once again disassemble, climb into bowels, remove ALL vomitous accordion paper, and, without thinking this next maneuver through, slam the lid shut.
And the copier whirls to life! And starts making copies.
I'm stuck in an infinite loop.
I turned the copier OFF before dismantling the machine a forth time....
The copier has a really long memory. Like an elephant, it is.
I got quite good at dismantling that machine.
And I'm not lying here, it ate not one, not two, not three, but NINE sheets of sticker and regular paper.
The labels? Well, I finally managed to get them printed.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tXCM/~3/VdeXOEBrNss/ever-feel-like-technology-is-winning-or.html
Posted
26 Feb 2009 11:00 AM
by
Trench Warfare
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