With Great Encyclopedic Knowledge, Comes Great Encyclopedic Power

(Back when they were common technology, we sent out a software update on four floppy disks.)

Customer: “The computer says it’s unable to read disk two.”

Me: “Can we start the installation again just to check it is the disk that is the problem, please? Put the disk in the drive and type ‘a:update’. Then, press enter.

Customer: “Okay. It says it’s unable to read disk one now.”

Me: “I’m sorry. Did you try that with disk one or two?”

Customer: “Both.”

Me: “No, sorry. Just then, not earlier. Was the disk in the drive disk one, or two?”

Customer: “Both. Both disks are in the drive. Why? Was I supposed to take the first one out before putting the second one in? It didn’t say to do so, just to insert disk 2.”

Me: “You’ve got two disks in the drive at the same time? That must’ve been difficult to manage.”

Customer: “Not when you hit the second one with an encyclopedia.”