According to the BBC, these are the best of the worst.
1. Laptop shot in anger
2. PC thrown out the window to destroy evidence before police arrived
3. Laptop fell off a scooter and was run over by truck
4. Laptop dropped in bath while doing company accounts
5. Stolen PCs rescued after three weeks in a river
6. Red wine spilt on laptop over dinner
7. Server rescued after running unchecked 24/7 for years under layers of dust and dirt
8. Computer thrown against a wall
9. Latte-covered laptop rescued
10. Laptop left on car roof as owner drives off
From: Odd mishaps cause computer grief
Other than the obvious E-Rage in the shooting incident, all of these seem rather mild; seem, well, very "British," very Fawlty Towersesque.
Here in America, I've seen keyboards ripped from their CPUs and used as weapons in office cat-fights. I've witnessed grown men of IT departments weep when asked to rescue computers that have had a half a can of spray glue emptied onto their motherboards. Once I had to find my way into the bottom of a New York air shaft to reclaim a computer that had mysteriously leaped 12 stories to its death from an office ledge (The computer's owner had been requesting a new machine for two years.) And as for the laptops being maimed by lattes, well.... it is safe to say that the new proximity of WIFI, Starbucks, and laptops could be one of the prime factors in the IT turnaround in the manufacturing sector?
Posted by Vanderleun at October 17, 2003 8:14 AM