This actually happened to me today (tech. support story) . . .

[AppleTalking]

At the company I work for, I do a combination of technical support and purchasing. Today I got an email message from a woman that I found absolutely hysterical.

In her email, she said that she was looking to purchase an anti-static floor mat for work. She had seen another secretary in the office with one and thought it would help her computer work better. When I asked her what she meant, she said that she had naturally had a lot of static electricity in her body. She said that because of all her static electricity, her computer often "looses files and crashes." She thought that if she had this mat, she could get rid of her static electricity, and her computer would stop crashing so much and stop deleting her files!!

This had me laughing for a good 5 minutes. Definitely brightened up my day!!

Nick

 

[Locutus of Board]

That's what you get for liking macs.

 

[Viperoni]

He has to like mac's, jeez, he's using a TBird for gods sakes!

 

[AppleTalking]

I don't really like Macs. The name is left over from a less-enlightened time. If you don't believe me, just check out some of the posts I've made in the Mac vs. PC threads in the GH forum.

My company is 99% Windows. I support nothing but Windows at work. This woman was definitely a Windows user.

Cheers!
Nick

 

[Sundog]

Anti-static floor mat!!!!! That would be a good joke to play on someone!

 

[Cyberian]

Not quite as wierd as it seems at first glance.

MATS

 

[AppleTalking]

The weird part is not that she wanted a floor mat in the first place, but that she thought that her body's static electricity was affecting the functioning of the computer!!

Nick

 

[Emulex]

well if you do have static, (drag your feet) and touch your computer you will damage the unit or cause it to reboot..

 

[MrChicken]

Static electricty can run in the 10's of thousands of volts. No amperage to speak of, or you'd blow the end of your finger off.

What you wear and what you carry both effect static charges. It is possible what she was true, her clothing or personal items (purse, coffee cup, etc) could be the cause.

 

[Neos]

My better half just informed me that in one of her previous places of employ they did just this thing. She said before the mats ...she at times saw sparks jump from her fingers to the keyboard.

I was laughing too ...until she told me this.

Neos

 

[brxndxn]

The people that know the least about computers always are sure of the most absurd fix.