The Lemon Fool

To err is human. To make a complete, huge cock-up, you need a computer.

Bminusrob wrote:To err is human. To make a complete, huge cock-up, you need a computer.

The computer was the cause of the mistake the input was by a human

GIGO

I still struggle to understand how such a mistake could have occurred.

Bouleversee wrote:I still struggle to understand how such a mistake could have occurred.

Hey Steve!
:: Yeah
I need you to message 22 everyone?
:: No worries
<Steve Selects all>
<Steve Sends message 22>
:: Right that's that done! I'm off for the holidays.
Great so everyone got message 20?
:: What?
Yeah "message 20 to everyone" all good?!
:: Erm.. yup!
<Steve quietly leaves for Xmas>

Way back - probably 50 years ago, I attended a presentation by a representative of a major International computer manufacturer, concerning the use of (mainframe) computers in the Electricity supply industry. At the Q&A s which followed the talk, a (traditional) representative of the supply industry said that he had heard lots of stories about computer errors, and he wasn't convinced that they would be suitable in his industry. The reply from the presenter was that there was no such thing as a computer error, it was always a human error - but a great advantage of having a computer was that the human who made the mistake could always blame it on the computer, and this excuse was usually accepted with resignation at all levels.

Bouleversee wrote:I still struggle to understand how such a mistake could have occurred.

Oh, easily!

I remember the days when I DID get email Spam. This followed an email ad from an investment company I received regular mail from (so not Spam), it was supposed to be sent out to all their subscribers. It was. Unfortunately, instead of the ad, the body of the email contained a very long list of the email addresses of all their subscribers... This email was shortly followed by an emailed apology from their MD.

I still treasure a hard copy of some email exchanges from when I worked. We had an institutional wide Listserver. One woman who was a subscriber to one group received an email via the Listserver and recognised the name of a friend and colleague on the email. She immediately responded to her email friend, except it wasn't to her email friend, it was to the institutional wide Listserver - for onward distribution.

She had some quite personal gossip to exchange, including about other people, with her friend - which all we subscribers received!

So did she. That's when she realised... The next email she sent to the Listserver was: "Oops! Please ignore"

At one place I worked, a colleague used their work email address for their personal stuff.

I know this, because, after they left, they were sent a 'Dear John' email. No-one would have known about it had their email address not been redirected to the departmental email address after they left!

That's standard practice, BTW.

Watis

And then there's the bank who wanted to send a promotional letter to their wealthiest customers. The programmer tasked with identifying those customers tested his code using a made up customer he called 'Rich Bastard'.

Unfortunately, a number of letters went out addressed 'Dear Rich Bastard'.

Full details here: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dear-rich-bastard/

Watis