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One of my first jobs at Microsoft was in Product Support. Back then, support requests not only came in on the phone, but through regular mail too. I didn’t say “e-mail”, I said “regular mail”. The mail that
was delivered with a stamp! No lie! That was a long time ago.
When a customer called, they weren’t prompted with choices like “IE”, “Office Products”, “Xbox”, “Operating Systems”, or “Developer Tools”, the staff was so small and our product offerings at the time was somewhat limited that the customer would be prompted with three queues: “DOS”, “Windows”, or “Mac”. That meant as someone on the support staff, you had to support every product that ran on that platform or operating system.
My platform was the Mac, and off the top of my head I had to know Multiplan, Excel, Word, some visual db application, a few other apps and Flight Simulator.
One day, one of the support staff got a call from a guy that said he found a huge bug in Flight Sim. Apparently, he had this aviation chart that pin pointed Boston Logan International Airport, but when he tried to get there with Flight Simulator, it wasn’t just wasn’t there.
Now Flight Sim in those days was black and white vector graphics and there was virtually nothing to look at when flying between airports. No terrain and very few land marks because of the lack of the computing power of a Macintosh in those days, so all you really got to see was the airport when you got close to it and then try to land the craft. The data sets of the coordinates were sound though, I was sure of that.
The tech that took the call was getting frustrated because the guy that called in with the bug was getting pissed that we couldn’t help him.
So, the tech put him on hold and asked me to double check the route. Sure enough, Logan was not there according to his chart. Hmmm.
I got back on the phone with him and asked him what aeronautical chart he was using.
He simply said 3 words, “My shower curtain.”
Apparently, he had a shower curtain with a print of an aviation chart and he was convinced it was a real chart!
Needless to say the tech and I starting laughing our asses off and told the guy it wasn’t a real chart at all. It was just artwork. He didn’t buy it and we had to hang up on him because he wanted to argue about it.
I doubt he ever bought another Microsoft product again.
I'm hooked on etymology, folklore, writing, live music, and making movies. I jam the axe and I'm currently learning how to beat the skins. I write cool software and meaningful screenplays.
I like to drive fast with the top down in the rain with the music cranked.
My tastes in TV, music, film, and literature are broad but obscure. I keep a journal, write screenplays, compose music, take many pictures, and create software.
When camping at night, you can find me staring into the campfire either playing the guitar or telling a spooky story under the moonlight. I love thunder storms, Friday is my favorite day and my favorite number is 9. 
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