Lightning

Funny stories from my past. I’ve sent a few of them out to others via email, I figure I can copy/paste them here to share the funny.

My best friend used to work for a school district IT department, and the neighboring school district had triple the staff with a significant number of certifications (MCSE). My friend had no certifications at the time. One day, one of the IT people from the neighboring school district called my friend and asked if there was any way to recover a computer from a failed BIOS update. (BIOS is Basic Input Output System, and controls the communication between the hardware before the operating system loads… in essence, it tells the computer how to find and load the OS. And a *SPOILER* to the story to make it make sense: You cannot recover a computer from a failed BIOS update.)

My friend replied: “Get a pen and paper and write this down.

“First, go down to the supermarket and get a box of reynolds wrap aluminum foil. You can use any aluminum foil, but reynolds wrap is the best.

“Second, take the aluminum foil and wrap your computer in it. Make sure to tuck it in tightly around the frame, leave nothing exposed. Especially around the power supply and floppy disk drive.”

He was standing up and pacing in his office, surrounded by the non-technical staff at his location, who started busting up laughing as they realized what he was doing.

The other IT guy asked, “Are you serious?”

He continued: “Look, do you want my help or not?”

“Yes, sorry,” replied the IT guy.

“Ok then, have you got all this written down so far?” He asked.

“Yes,” the IT guy responded.

He then concluded, “After you’ve wrapped the computer tightly in aluminum foil, I want you to take that thing outside and hold it above your head… and

PRAY TO GOD THAT LIGHTNING STRIKES THE THING AND BRINGS IT BACK TO LIFE!”

After a short pause, the IT guy said, “really?”