>Ok, are you ready for this? I am about to award the inaugural Vandalet Stupid User Award (VSUA). As it implies to win this you really gotta be about as dumb as a box of hammers...at least momentarily...
>
>The PC that I was having so much trouble with XP Professional Activation last week was in another state (not metaphysically, but literally) and so I was not able to physically work on it. The error my girlfriend was getting was "Cannot connect to Windows." I put much effort into determining that it was due to the Activation in combination with an invalid version of XP Professional. I spent much time complaining here, bashing MS customer support and then sending a newly purchased copy of the software next-day air to my girlfriend. All this is pretty much moot because when she by chance plugged the phone line into the PC it connected automatically to MS, activated XP Professional and loaded up no problem as if nothing had ever happened.
>
>I get the VSUA for not making the difficult mental correlation between an unplugged phone line and the "cannot connect" error! Good news is that she now has a valid copy of the OS...
>
>There are plenty of stories out there of idiot things done by "someone else" but anyone want to admit to any of their own? I really can't (better not) be the only one!
>
>Renoir

Renoir;

It does not seem fair to create an award and then the creator is also the winner! Something is wrong here and I demand action! We must have a board of inquiry to determine the implications of such an act. After all, this could give less value to such awards. :)

Here is one that bit me when I was in the Air Force. I had just purchased a new Iron to Iron my clothes – and it had all the features. Consider that my salary was not much (about $99 a month) and the price tag of a $40 Iron becomes important.

The first time I went to Iron something the Iron did not heat up. Well, being an electronics technician at the time (with previous civilian experience) I thought I would take the Iron apart and find out what the problem was. Well, I ruined the Iron in short order, and learned several long lasting lessons.

1. Use your warranty

2. Oh yes, and the lesson that has solved many problems in electronics during my career: Check to see if there is power to the voltage source. It seemed the circuit breaker was turned off and thus no power was available.

After that experience which was maddening at the time, I established a rule for troubleshooting any electronics apparatus:

1. Check the power supply voltages.
2. Check the available power source.

Many of the technicians I worked with thought I was a genius as I could isolate complex problems in minutes. About 70% of the problems were power related. It is amazing what you can do if you first sit down and think about the basics. Where do things begin and what is the desired end result?

Tom