I friend pointed this site out to me. If you've ever worked as a technician or system administrator you've probably run across similar situations. Here's my favorite one so far: Support pilot fish gets a call from a user visiting this branch office. The user has a wireless laptop, but she can't get it working with the office's network. "Knowing that our local wireless segment requires encryption software to be installed, my partner grabbed a network patch cable and headed up to the office the visitor was using," fish reports. But when partner arrives at the user's office and starts connecting the laptop to the network jack in the wall, she stops him. "You don't need to do that!" she says. "It's wireless. It works fine at my house." Support tech explains that to use wireless in this building, special software has to be installed. Then he shows her that with the network cable attached, her laptop is communicating with the network just fine. "Oh, I guess that's OK then," user says, and tech returns to his office. He hasn't been back long when the phone rings again. "She called back, saying her computer crashed and could someone come fix it," says fish. "This time it was my turn to head up there. "When I arrived, I found the laptop shut off. I also noticed there wasn't any power cable plugged into the laptop, nor was there one in sight. "Figuring that the laptop had gone into sleep mode to conserve battery power, I asked the user if she had the power cable for the laptop." "Oh, it's wireless!" she tells fish. "I don't need to plug it in." Then she tells fish that she's had the laptop for more than a year and has never plugged anything into it, because it's wireless. Fish tries to explain that "wireless" just means the laptop can connect to networks without cables, but it still needs a power cord for recharging the battery. "The battery shouldn't be a problem," she says. "I just got a new one for it." "I scrounged up a spare power cable for her model laptop," grumbles fish. "Then I put in a purchase request to get her a new power cable, because apparently the laptop didn't come with one -- since it was wireless."