* Posts by Patry

4 publicly visible posts • joined 11 May 2012

There's an epidemic of idiots who can't find power switches

Patry

Re: Screen flashing

It was clearly an honest and reasonnablke mistake. That's part of the reason I did not make any joke. People we interacted daily had some sort of verbal, non-official, "checklist" before calling for help, and checking plug was on it. The doctor did not think to check to connection bertween PC and screen (he did check the power cord).

The reason I'm still thinking of it as funny is because of his face when I looked at the back of the screen, checked the plug, put it back and said "done". While I was happy to get this problem quickly finished, he was the one feeling stupid.

On a side note, if I had not found a problem with the plugs/cord/connexion, my second option would have been to get him a spare screen and tell him to call hotline in the morning. I had zero knowledge in cathodic screen inner wortking, except that this was dangerous, I knew just enough to known I was out of my field.

Patry

Screen flashing

When I was still a student, i had to work on a small project in an hospital (analysis of electrocardiogram during effort test). We were a bit late on this project and were putting some extra hour. At 2am, the phone in our little room rang, and a doctor (none of us knew) asked one of us to come at once to help him with his computer. I went in, after remembering him that we were not the hospital hotline.

His screen was flashing, changing colors... so he was afraid it would explode (this was in 1993, those were still big cathodic screens). It turns out that while adjusting his screen, he knocked a little bit the connection between the screen & PC, just enough that some pin where not touching firmly, and that mlerely touching the TV could result in small contacts (thus the changing colors).Pluggin it back in place did the trick.

First result : a very red-faced doctor, even if i did not made any remarks (as young as i was, i knew better than that)

Final result : We did get a box of chocolate with a thank-you note the next day, and later a small letter in our report to the school, indicating a "good attitude and willingness to help". Definitively a nice doctor.

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Inside the mind of a Bond supervillain: Psychotic, autistic - or neither?

Patry

Vilain categories

Just for the records, the generic terms for your categories of vilains are "Mook" (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mooks), "Dragon" (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDragon) and "Big Bad" (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BigBad).

Health warning : TvTrope may cause serious perturbation in your time perception. You begin to look at it, and then 3 hours disapear. Its also addictive.

Ten... freeware gems for new PCs

Patry

another suggestion, once all the security and basic utilities (pdf, openoffice..) have been installed : Fence (http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/screenshots.asp).

This is an application that allow to regroup icons on the desktop in movable pseudo-windows. Allows for a organised desktop.