One of the users at this manufacturing plant is a very large guy who likes to pick on almost everyone -- including, whenever he's nearby, the pilot fish who provides tech support.
"We added this new desktop remote-control software to make support easier, and one of the interesting features is that you can bring up a user's screen without their knowledge," fish says.
"One day, after working in this user's area all morning and being the recipient of a lot of ribbing, I sat down to eat a sandwich at my desk and decided to have some fun with him for a change."
Fish pulls up the user's PC screen and sees that he's typing a letter. He waits until the user has highlighted some text and the pointer is moving to the Bold icon -- and then remotely jiggles the cursor in a different direction.
He watches as the cursor pauses, then moves to Bold again -- and fish once again moves the cursor away from the icon.
Fish is slowly moving the cursor around the user's screen when the phone rings. It's the user, and fish can hear that he's on speakerphone.
Fish: Hello?
User: "Hey! My computer is acting up!"
Fish: What's it doing?
User: "The @#$%! cursor is moving around."
Fish begins moving the cursor remotely from left to right.
Fish: Is it moving left to right?
User (excitedly): "YES!"
Now fish moves the cursor in circles.
Fish (in his own excited voice): IS IT MOVING IN CIRCLES NOW?
User (very excited): "YES! YES IT IS! HOW DID YOU KNOW...OH @#$%! YOU!"
Reports fish, "He slammed down the phone as I heard people laughing in the background.
"We're still friends."
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