Comment by vghaisas

10 days ago

I've collected a list of fun stories of this form and post them when this comes up:

- Car allergic to vanilla ice cream: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wkw/humour/carproblems.txt

- Can't log in when standing up: https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/3v52p...

- OpenOffice won't print on Tuesdays: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cupsys/+bug/255161...

35 comments

vghaisas

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thedufer  10 days ago

> Can't log in when standing up

This reminds me of a recent issue I had. I had just gotten a new laptop from IT. While picking it up from them, I had generated myself a password, put it in my password manager on my phone, and then entered it twice to set it on the laptop. Everything worked great. But when I got back to my desk, the password didn't work! I tried a bunch of times, watched myself hit each key to eliminate typos, etc.

I went back to IT and they asked me to demonstrate. But this time it worked! I walked back to my desk, thoroughly embarrassed. But a couple hours later I had to log in again and once again could not.

After thinking about it for awhile, I realized that I was typing at IT while standing over a sitting-height desk. Sure enough, typing in that position fixed my issue. I carefully watched what I was doing this time - something about the exact layout of the keyboard and the weird angle I was typing at ensured that I was making a particular typo I typed in that position - just a single letter switched to another, every time. Sure enough, making that one substitution to my intended password got me in.

  • joncrocks  10 days ago

    It's worth noting that sometimes (incorrect) keyboard maps can get in the way.

    If it's a key that you may not often type and one that is often transposed between regions, the fact that the entered char is not shown can lead to frustration.

    e.g. " and @ are in different positions in UK vs. US keyboards. So user thinks they are typing @, but " goes into the box.

    • mnahkies  10 days ago

      One of the more annoying things I've found moving country is the unavailability of keyboards / laptops with the layout I grew up with. I find it especially annoying as the country I'm from uses a US layout which I naively assumed would be easily available everywhere (and it is available but not without a long delivery and a premium price)

      Side note: helping my French housemate with his uni assignments was an experience, none of the symbols were where I expected them to be

      1 reply →

  • nkrisc  10 days ago

    I’ve done this before as well. It truly baffled me because of how much in undermined me sense of being totally aware of my body. I truly believed I was hitting the right keys (I know how to type after all) and I never noticed any issue when writing normally, but only when typing my password. But of course I couldn’t see my password as I typed, while in other cases I would subconsciously correct any resulting typos because I could see them. I had no reason to classify typos due to standing as any different than the regular errors I might make while typing.

    Almost felt like a bug in error correction loop in my brain, or maybe more like an unconsidered edge case.

    • jasomill  10 days ago

      I somes subconsciously correct typos even when not looking at them. It drives me crazy when UI design breaks this, like fixed-length security code / PIN entry UIs that automatically submit when you enter the last character of the code.

      I also tend to memorize long (8+ digit) PINs based on the physical layout of the keys, so if I need to enter a PIN set up on a phone-style keypad on a normal keyboard or numeric keypad, or vice versa, I need to visualize entering the PIN on the original input device to remember it.

  • type0  10 days ago

    This always frustrates the heck out of me when it is the same mechanical keyboards but different switches

dnmc  10 days ago

Here's another for your collection.

- Putting the car in reverse sets off the neighbor's home security system. https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/7k12fs/neighbors_hous...

  • kshacker  10 days ago

    Did this get solved? I think I read all the comments from OP but saw no confirmation as to what happened.

    • dnmc  10 days ago

      I don't think the OP ever returned with a conclusive answer, but I'm somewhat convinced by the commenters that it was either a low-frequency engine sound rattling the neighbor's windows or something to do with the car's rear-cross sensor.

g947o  10 days ago

Obligatory mention of David J. Agans's "Debugging: The 9 Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems" where you can find dozens of such stories, including why their computer crashes when you wear a certain green T-shirt.

foobarbecue  10 days ago

Ok I swear I had a printer that would do some kind of internal cleaning noise thing every time I plugged something else in to a 120v outlet anywhere in the same apartment. I never really tried to figure it out.