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On Call To celebrate the most up-to-date 500th appearance of On-Call, the column that aspects your tales of tech toughen torture, The Register has trawled by the archives to search out the 20 columns that generated the most comments.
We have added a runt of commentary to illustrate how every fits into the On Call cinematic universe.
437 comments, October 2020: Did I or did I no longer ask you to double-test that the socket was on? Now I’ve pushed 15 miles, what cling we found?
A classic of the genre “I drove for hours to fix a PC only to find it wasn’t plugged in to a source of electricity.” Whenever On Call receives this form of contribution, we shock how on earth the complainant holds down a job.
368 comments, June 2023: Techie wasn’t being paid, till he taught HR a lesson
If On Call has taught us one thing else, it is miles that HR departments are the most implacable enemies of them all, as a reader learned when his very traditional establish puzzled a Bank’s payroll system.
320 comments, July 2019: I own no longer cling to connect my work, or no longer it is in The Cloud. But Microsoft basically must repair this information exclaim
Being asked to revive from non-existent backups is a normal incidence in On Call. On this chronicle, the magic of the cloud and a Microsoft mess made the job even more challenging.
Muppet broke the datacenter each day, in its own weighty manner
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317 comments, February 2018: Batteries are so heavy, talked about particular person. If I grasp it out, will this thing work?
A surprisingly expansive different of other folks are very puzzled by electricity.
315 comments, June 2023: Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris
On Call in most cases aspects tales of travelling to a long way-off locations. On this case, your fellow reader needed to suffer two trips to the City of Light to repair a downside that might perchance be sorted with a short keypress.
304 comments, January 2018: Particular person stepped on mouse, complained pedal wasn’t making PC crawl faster
Tech toughen for the elderly is a frequent topic of On Call contributions, but also one who’s very shut to home for some readers. We are trying to address such tales with sensitivity.
293 comments, March 2019: Definite, we’ve purchased a downside but we own no longer basically must spend any cash on the tech guy you’re sending to repair it
A classic as a consequence of it aspects both jog and a parsimonious boss. Cheapskates develop for aesthetic On Call tales as a consequence of they query all the pieces for nothing, and you lot obtained’t set aside up with that nonsense.
282 comments: That dreadful second when what you idea was a quantity one grew to turn out to be out to be a quantity 2
One of many On Calls that downside Microsoft Excel, the spreadsheet that runs the world but is every now and then wielded in ways that develop work for Reg readers. Tales about Excel messes continuously develop wisely, and we strive no longer to fetch too clickbaity when an absolute most realistic one comes along.
I will repair this PC, boss, but I’m going to hope to play video games for hours to develop it
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280 comments: Why is the printer spouting nonsense… and who on earth tried to wire this paddle? As Richard Tempo wrote on this one: “It’s continuously DNS unless, clearly, or no longer it is some ham-fisted wiring.”
280 comments, October 2019: Be conscious the 1980s? Outsized shoulder pads, Steel Mickey and… sticky keyboards?
A couple of On Calls downside customers who damaged their computer techniques – in most cases with liquids – and demanded a repair without revealing the very glaring root living off. On this chronicle, the proof flooded into watch!
278 comments, October 2022: To develop this computer work, customers needed to press a button. Why didn’t it work? Guess
Must you guessed that the particular person didn’t press the button, congratulations, you cling divined the snort material of a surprising different of On Call columns.
263 comments, Would possibly presumably perchance 2022: When administration went nuclear on an harmless application engineer
On Call is occasionally rather frightening, as a consequence of in tales admire this one we learn of fantastic stupidity in main or unhealthy places – on this case at a nuclear reactor.
260 comments, July 2023: Unique backup taught techie to uninteresting things down for the boss
Failed backups develop for expansive tales. This column has one, plus techies having to illustrate… themselves… fastidiously… to bosses who think they cling 1337 tech skillz but are surely clueless.
258 comments, December 2016: Sysadmin informed to spend 20+ hours altering particular person names, for no reason
Loads of On Calls downside IT execs being informed to develop one thing the manner the boss wants it done, even when that manner is uninteresting. Venting about that appears to be like most effective natural, and we’re satisfied to oblige.
Fortify contract required techie to lounge round in a $5,000/night hotel room
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257 comments, February 2024: Work for you? Another time? After you lied about the job and stole my stuff? No thanks
Revenge is a normal theme of On Call, in most cases in the form of maltreated techies refusing to provide further assistance to other folks who abused them. Rightly so, too!
252 comments, Would possibly presumably perchance 2022: Thinnet cables are no match for director’s morning workout
Plenty can crawl immoral in the physical layer, particularly when non-techies grasp it for granted and raze up unfavorable cables and wires. This On Call is one of many detailing the fallout from such tomfoolery.
250 comments, Would possibly presumably perchance 2022: Seriously, you develop no longer must develop that cable your earth
Every On Call ends with a call for contemporary contributions, in most cases regarding the topic covered in that week’s instalment. That plot capability we occasionally crawl on runt runs of identical tales, which is why Would possibly presumably perchance 2022 featured two cabling capers that caught readers’ attention.
250 comments: Sysadmin expert his offshore replacements, sat encourage, watched ex-employer’s world burn
Being fired is a sadly traditional topic of the column. Tales on the topic in most cases raze with redundancies backfiring badly.
CompSci tutorial idea tech toughen was unnecessary – till he main it
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245 comments, January 2020: So that you just locked your backups away for years, huh? Enable me to introduce my colleagues, Brute, Force, and Lack of information
On Call is lucky to cling some regulars who send loads of tales. Be admire Alessandro, one such frequent featured on this chronicle of backup borkage, and send more tales!
242 comments, Would possibly presumably perchance 2022: We can bend the authorized guidelines of physics for your comely-yacht, but we are able to no longer smash them
I’ve continuously hoped On Call will be cathartic for some readers and fancy the indisputable reality that this column entails the following:
On Call never forgets to filter itself by Snarky Author Face, which is why every column ends with an exhortation to click on right here to send us an electronic mail along with your tech toughen chronicle that can generate hundreds more comments and form its field on our 1,000th column social gathering some time in 2034. ®