PEBCAK and frustrated stupidity still exists -- be warned!

[Bill Case]

This note is just to get some frustration off my chest and to remind the
Fedora community that stupidity can reign no matter how smart you might
think you are.

Just did a virgin Fedora 14 reinstall after completely screwing up my
operating system because I thought I had a failing disk drive.  The one
that has all my backups.  Compounding my problems by losing grub and my
WindowsXP partition.

After spending more than a day working on it, and a couple of calls to
my vendor, my solutions got more and more inventive until I managed to
just about blow the whole machine up.

Only then, in my frustration, did I think to take the side panel off my
computer, jiggle the cables to the harddrive, remove the cable and
reattach it.  Fixed everything.  Now I am busy trying to get everything
back to the way I like.

No reply necessary.  Just thought someone else might be in the throws of
some frustrated, non-thinking stupidity and might need a warning to
stop, take a breath, indulge in the sin of your choice and think before
doing any more damage.  Particularly, try to keep screwdrivers out of
your hands at times like these.

I know you might say, I have been there, done that.  Even bought the
T-shirt.  But PEBAK continues exist in the best of families.


-- 
Regards Bill
Fedora 14, Gnome 2.32
Evo.2.32, Emacs 23.2.1

[William Stock]

On Tue, 2011-01-04 at 12:06 -0500, William Case wrote:

>  This note is just to get some frustration off my chest and to remind
> the
>  Fedora community that stupidity can reign no matter how smart you might
>  think you are.
>  ...
>  I know you might say, I have been there, done that.  Even bought the
>  T-shirt.  But PEBAK continues exist in the best of families.
>   
Amen, brother!
Don't worry, your secret is safe with us.

[Tom Horsley]

On Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:06:22 -0500
William Case wrote:

>  Only then, in my frustration, did I think to take the side panel off
> my
>  computer, jiggle the cables to the harddrive, remove the cable and
>  reattach it.  Fixed everything. 
Check the dumb stuff first - that's my philosophy! (Had the same
problem with a sata drive cable, but at least I wound up with
a spare disk for my efforts :-).

[Howard Howell]

On Tue, 2011-01-04 at 12:27 -0500, Tom Horsley wrote:
>  On Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:06:22 -0500
>  William Case wrote:
>  
>  > Only then, in my frustration, did I think to take the side panel off my
>  > computer, jiggle the cables to the harddrive, remove the cable and
>  > reattach it.  Fixed everything.
>  
>  Check the dumb stuff first - that's my philosophy! (Had the same
>  problem with a sata drive cable, but at least I wound up with
>  a spare disk for my efforts :-). 
I wanted to, but the coat check kept trying to put my brain on a hook!
It hurt!  ;)

Personally I replaced the whole computer only to find out that the error
was a driver error that was fixed later.... DUHHH!!!

Regards,
Les H

[g]

On 01/04/2011 05:06 PM, William Case wrote:
<snip>

>  I know you might say, I have been there, done that.  Even bought the
>  T-shirt.  But PEBAK continues exist in the best of families. 
sure does continue. that should be *PEBKAC*.

  *Problem Exist Between Keyboard And Chair*


(gbwg).


-- 

peace out.

tc.hago,

g
.

****
in a free world without fences, who needs gates.
**
help microsoft stamp out piracy - give linux to a friend today.
**
to mess up a linux box, you need to work at it.
to mess up an ms windows box, you just need to *look* at it.
**
learn linux:
'Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition' http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html
'The Linux Documentation Project' http://www.tldp.org/
'LDP HOWTO-index' http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/index.html
'HowtoForge' http://howtoforge.com/
****

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Tue, 2011-01-04 at 17:41 +0000, g wrote: 
>  On 01/04/2011 05:06 PM, William Case wrote:
>  <snip>
>  
>  > I know you might say, I have been there, done that.  Even bought the
>  > T-shirt.  But PEBAK continues exist in the best of families.
>  
>  sure does continue. that should be *PEBKAC*.
>  
>    *Problem Exist Between Keyboard And Chair* 
All these years, and I never realized that PEBKAC had an orientation.
In fact, PEBKAC is generally a matter of disorientation.  AFAIK, all the
things that appear between the keyboard and the chair also exist between
the chair and the keyboard.

BTW, Googling PEBKAC yields about 70,700 hits; PEBCAK about 18,700.
Wikipedia's entry also lists PICNIC ("Problem In Chair, Not In Computer)
and ID10T as alternative designations for the same issue.

Sorry, back to work...

>  (gbwg).
>  
>   
-- 
                Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs

[Joe Zeff]

On 01/04/2011 10:02 AM, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
>  BTW, Googling PEBKAC yields about 70,700 hits; PEBCAK about 18,700.
>  Wikipedia's entry also lists PICNIC ("Problem In Chair, Not In Computer)
>  and ID10T as alternative designations for the same issue. 
Does it mention either Luser or LART?

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Tue, 2011-01-04 at 10:56 -0800, Joe Zeff wrote: 
>  On 01/04/2011 10:02 AM, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
>  > BTW, Googling PEBKAC yields about 70,700 hits; PEBCAK about 18,700.
>  > Wikipedia's entry also lists PICNIC ("Problem In Chair, Not In Computer)
>  > and ID10T as alternative designations for the same issue.
>  
>  Does it mention either Luser or LART? 
Luser gets a page of its own.  LART (AKA "clue-by-four") gets a mention
there.

For hours of entertainment at the expense of those poor saps we're
supposed to be helping (if you're feeling in a sour mood about it), see
the BOFH page and the stories linked from there.

>   
-- 
                Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs