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back to article Tech support chap given no training or briefing before jobs, which is why he was arrested

Welcome once more to On-Call, the column The Register squeezes in before the weekend so you can revel in a fellow reader’s tales of tech support terror. This week meet “Zac” who told us the story of how “When I started as a computer engineer for a now defunct manufacturer everything was learned on the job (in the 'field …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One time I DIDN'T get stopped....

    Once, many moons ago, I was working in Belfast, during the late seventies. So, quite an, er, interesting place to work at the time...

    I was standing in the queue at Heathrow, waiting for the daily shuttle to Belfast, when this sharply dressed man flashed some sort of ID at me and asked me whether I was going to Belfast for business or pleasure. I told him "Business", and he said "What sort of business?" I said "I'm installing a computer system for the RUC". That was the end of the conversation, and I was allowed back into the queue.

    (RUC - Royal Ulster Constabulary)

    5 0 Reply
    1. Primus Secundus Tertius
      Reply Icon

      Re: One time I DIDN'T get stopped....

      I was in a queue at Heathrow in the 1970s when a Germanic voice behind asked, "Vy do zey haff separate queue for Belfast?"

      An American voice further back remarked, "Gee, you haven't been here looong".

      4 0 Reply
  2. Primus Secundus Tertius

    Golden Disk

    One of my colleagues had finished a project at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. (Yes, it was that long ago.) The staff there presented him with a golden disk: a DEC RK05 disk the size of a large dinner plate holding some 2.5 megabytes, the outside having been painted gold.

    Then he was stopped by security as he left the site. But they did let him go after phone calls and explanations.

    2 0 Reply
  3. Unicornpiss

    Where I work..

    ..you could carry a grand piano out of the building and the guards would hold the door for you.

    6 0 Reply
  4. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    My "issue" was much smaller ...

    After starting my first tech job I was sent to visit a government lab in the UK to repair a chart recorder in the early 70's - it was an easy fix, just clean the rails and sliders that the pens rode on and lubricate everything ... the staff in the lab took off for lunch when I fixed it.

    I got the job done, went over to the lunch room to tell them it was fixed and they came back an looked at it ... and started getting very upset. Apparently they were monitoring Chlorofluorocarbons and I'd cleaned and lubed the chart recorder with the standard set of aerosol sprays from my kit. All the other chart recorders were oscillating wildly - I'd completely trashed their data for that day.

    6 0 Reply
  5. KBeee
    Happy

    I was vetted once before a job we were planning to do at Buck House. Turns out that once you've got your ID pass, you get 20% in the gift shop!

    6 0 Reply
  6. JEDIDIAH
    Facepalm

    Training Schmaining.

    What kind of DOPE thinks that they can take ANY THING away from a secure facility? Even if you are dealing with a "normal" client, it seems like what he did would be just wrongful. I would expect that there would be an expectation to communicate with the client about everything you are doing including the replacement of faulty hardware and including taking the customer's property off site. I am not sure ANY ONE would be comfortable with the idea that their proprietary data might sprout legs and leave the building.This seems like a Sheldon-esque sort of gaffe.

    0 1 Reply
  7. pixelgeek

    Ooh eh?

    Training!? I'll give you training!... In mah day, we used to clean it with a toothbrush and dance around on the motherboard singing hallelujah!

    2 0 Reply

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