OddThinking

When I was fresh out of uni, my new employer plonked me, and 11 other qualified software developers, in a 12-week training course, under the wing of two trainers, flown in from Europe especially to share their many years of experience of the programming language, software and the computer system we would be using. Between us, there was at least a hundred years of experience dealing with computers and their problems.

Mid-way through the course, some problems developed with the single printer that we all shared.

My personal recollection is that I ignored the problem – who really needs to print during a training course? – but the issue was a concern, and the trainers, plus several people on the course, put their heads together to solve the problem.

The printer was rebooted. The server was repeated rebooted. The queue was checked, and reset and checked again. The printer was switched off and on again. The printer drivers were re-installed.

Despite all the head-scratching and debate, this team of software professionals were unable to solve the problem. A call was put into our suppliers, who were providing support.

With our new branch office, we were already the supplier’s biggest customer in Australia, if not Asia Pacific. They were keen to treat us right. The support guy assigned to us was quickly dispatched to help us out. Unfortunately, he was in Singapore at the time, but he was told to cut his trip short, and return immediately to Adelaide to solve this minor problem, which I believe had been gradually escalated as it passed through the support channel to being rated as a critical infrastructure outage.

Fresh off the plane, he walked into our office, walked up to the printer, and pushed the printer tray in that extra half-centimetre until it went click! A backlog of pages started spewing from the printer.

Not many of us could look him straight in the eye that week.