Helpdesk Call

As most of you know my work is IT related and as such you sometimes get into or see funny situations.

My colleague got a call where there was a complaint that within Excel (spreadsheet application) the left mouse button behaved like a the right mouse button and the user had no idea how to get rid of this issue. Well as such he went over to the user thinking it was a mouse driver issue.

After arriving he went over the configuration finding nothing. He called me (as such I’m aware of this happening) to see if I had a solution. Going over the office help system, options in Excel and finally some abuse in Google also I came up empty handed. Already busy for more then 15 minutes we gave up on finding any clues and he went on.

I heard later he first repaired office, then reinstalled the Excel application and finally asked the user if he could take the system (laptop) with him. He setup a nearby system so the user could continue working. The user in question asked him what could have caused this kind of behaviour and my colleague responded with some options and one of the things he  mentioned was a wrong keyboard combination, to which the user replied : Yes, my husband was busy with my system last evening and he pressed this button which is now stuck…….

The mentioned button was the Menu key which is used by windows to do what normally was done by the secondary mouse button. This only had an effect in Excel as all other application responded normally. But in excel suddenly both mouse buttons appeared to do the same thing. After the button was released Excel worked normally again and the call was resolved after one hour……… Gee, I miss the days I was working on a helpdesk………

Not!

Dirk Pitt

Picked up a book again after a while, still had the latest Dirk Pitt novel lying around. If you like adventure novels you can’t go wrong with Clive Cussler. So I will enjoy ‘Treasure of Khan’ for the time being. It might win over the Wii the coming days. This time an old Fokker (former Dutch manufacturer) aircraft and most likely a remote island and the mysterious burial site of Genghis Khan will make one thrill ride in reading.

If it comes to reading I mostly read Science Fiction novels where my favourites are Greg Bear and the combination of Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle. The above mentioned author is actually the only non SF I read. Well except any work related materials that is ofcourse…….

Wii time

My parents are very pleased with their Wii. Now they can play tennis, bowling etc. with each other as it came with two complete sets of controllers. When I left they where still playing tennis in Wii Sports. I’ll lend them a game or two on occasion from my own collection so they have something else to play as well. Although I do not see them play SplinterCell: Double Agent or Medal of Honour, but Wii Play or Kororinpa might work out just well. Krystelle, this beats the Sims which you’ve been playing when you where here. I read today it rains badly in the New South Wales coastal areas. But not enough to remove the water restrictions which are in effect these days. So whenever you will feel fit to come to Holland again, you can play the Wii at my parents place.

Passed the 280000

Today, my old car passed the 280000km. I know that an avarage taxi in Beijing does it in a year and a half or so, it took mine 14 years and 3 months to get this far.

Currently it has a few minor issues but nothing that cannot be fixed as far as I know so I will continue driving it until it really falls apart. Got the spares for the issues at hand and after the weekend has passed it should be running as usual again.

MX5 in Parking GarageAs this is the first time mentioning the car I’ll tell you a little bit about the history. When I was younger and just got my driving license I always wanted a sporty looking car. In those days there where two cars that I would consider nice but both I couldn’t afford so I stuck with an old Toyota Corolla Liftback from 1980. The two cars where the newly released MX-5 (we are talking 1990 here) and the MR-2 from Toyota. Six years later I bought an MX-5 as my 25th birthday present. Yup, it was bought on my birthday in 1996 (you figure out how old I’m now). It is  the eighth car I own and has broken all records in ownership so far. It was the newest car (1993, so three years old when purchased) I ever owned, and by now it’s the oldest car I have ever owned. It came with the least mileage and now has the most. And so on and so on (that includes things like accidents and consumables like tires, exhaust pipes, shock absorbers etc. etc.). For the rest it’s very reliable, in all it’s years of service it never ever let me down once. Let’s hope it will stay that way for the coming period as well, but I don’t think I’ll stick with it until it’s 28 years old. Somehow I do doubt that.

Pics from the previous site

vismarkt demolish
  • Fishmarket of Gouda, taken during Queensday 2006.
  • ‘Demolish’ is what it says. So you can be sure this building is gone the next time you visit China. Taken near the Summer Palace in 2005.
beachbridge
  • Beach at Fraser Island of the coast of Queensland, Australia. Taken in 1994 during a Contiki Tour together with a friend of mine.
  • Sydney’s Harbour Bridge at night, taken in 1994.

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