[vghaisas]

I've collected a list of fun stories of this form and post them when this comes up:

- Car allergic to vanilla ice cream: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wkw/humour/carproblems.txt

- Can't log in when standing up: https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/3v52p...

- OpenOffice won't print on Tuesdays: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cupsys/+bug/255161...

[thedufer]

> Can't log in when standing up

This reminds me of a recent issue I had. I had just gotten a new laptop from IT. While picking it up from them, I had generated myself a password, put it in my password manager on my phone, and then entered it twice to set it on the laptop. Everything worked great. But when I got back to my desk, the password didn't work! I tried a bunch of times, watched myself hit each key to eliminate typos, etc.

I went back to IT and they asked me to demonstrate. But this time it worked! I walked back to my desk, thoroughly embarrassed. But a couple hours later I had to log in again and once again could not.

After thinking about it for awhile, I realized that I was typing at IT while standing over a sitting-height desk. Sure enough, typing in that position fixed my issue. I carefully watched what I was doing this time - something about the exact layout of the keyboard and the weird angle I was typing at ensured that I was making a particular typo I typed in that position - just a single letter switched to another, every time. Sure enough, making that one substitution to my intended password got me in.

[joncrocks]

It's worth noting that sometimes (incorrect) keyboard maps can get in the way.

If it's a key that you may not often type and one that is often transposed between regions, the fact that the entered char is not shown can lead to frustration.

e.g. " and @ are in different positions in UK vs. US keyboards. So user thinks they are typing @, but " goes into the box.

[nkrisc]

I’ve done this before as well. It truly baffled me because of how much in undermined me sense of being totally aware of my body. I truly believed I was hitting the right keys (I know how to type after all) and I never noticed any issue when writing normally, but only when typing my password. But of course I couldn’t see my password as I typed, while in other cases I would subconsciously correct any resulting typos because I could see them. I had no reason to classify typos due to standing as any different than the regular errors I might make while typing.

Almost felt like a bug in error correction loop in my brain, or maybe more like an unconsidered edge case.

[type0]

This always frustrates the heck out of me when it is the same mechanical keyboards but different switches

[jimbob45]

- We can’t send an email more than 500 miles

https://web.mit.edu/jemorris/humor/500-miles

[dnmc]

Here's another for your collection.

- Putting the car in reverse sets off the neighbor's home security system. https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/7k12fs/neighbors_hous...

[kshacker]

Did this get solved? I think I read all the comments from OP but saw no confirmation as to what happened.

[iLoveOncall]

You can add this one to the list: https://old.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/7p09ay/i_shit...

Office chairs are turning monitors on and off.

This is actually officially documented on the DisplayLink website as well: https://support.displaylink.com/knowledgebase/articles/73861...

[nkrisc]

This has been happening to me and I had no idea it was this. Every time I sit down at my chair the monitor goes black for a second. Never would I have guessed this.

[jasomill]

Can't send email more than 500 miles away: https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html

And my personal favorite, "more magic": https://web.archive.org/web/20260103114654/http://www.catb.o...

[taolson]

Also this one, which originally came from Usenet days:

https://old.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/cp48t...

[olivia-banks]

This one about a singly-wired switch is in the same vein:

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html

[erremerre]

Here you have another one, although is not named like that: https://web.archive.org/web/20241112052925/https://cohost.or...

[lkbm]

In addition to the others people have mentioned, I'd add "Debugging Behind the Iron Curtain"[0]

[0] https://www.jakepoz.com/debugging-behind-the-iron-curtain/

[Graziano_M]

In a very strange coincidence, I happened to read that first story in a book[1] I'm reading, just last night! What are the chances?

[1] https://debuggingrules.com/

[g947o]

Obligatory mention of David J. Agans's "Debugging: The 9 Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems" where you can find dozens of such stories, including why their computer crashes when you wear a certain green T-shirt.

[foobarbecue]

Ok I swear I had a printer that would do some kind of internal cleaning noise thing every time I plugged something else in to a 120v outlet anywhere in the same apartment. I never really tried to figure it out.

[hronecviktor]

Listening to Janet Jackson crashes hard drives https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-38392

[mlmonkey]

What about the dog who barked before the (landline) phone started ringing?

[whatever1]

The vanilla story is insane!

[zerocrates]

It's not real, but it's still a fine story.