Trying to log into an Apple ID, I was met with the request to answer a couple security questions. Of course, I document and encrypt not only my login information when I create accounts, but all the relevant information such as account numbers, email address on file, and... security questions. I had 5 security questions and answers written down for this account, but one of the questions that I was asked was not in my list. Okay. That's weird. I can't log in Apple. Thanks.

But, thinking about it perhaps I made a mistake in documenting or clicked the wrong dropdown. So, I try a couple of my other answers to different questions for my "First Pet". After two failed attempts I decided I didn't want to lock myself out. I clicked the button to reset security questions and they prompt me with an option to... answer security questions. I was intrigued at how this would work, so I clicked it. From there I was prompted with... a SINGLE security question. I answered that one and then it allowed me to choose three new security questions and answers for the account.

So, Apple ID people: Why do I need TWO security questions answered correctly to log in, but only ONE security question answered correctly to reset my security questions?

And so, I think either Apple or I were havening problems.

No horror stories lately, but here's a conversation I had with a user that I just had to share.

Her: My Mac in the apartment gets e-mail but I cannot surf the Internet.
Me: What does it do when you try to browse the Web?
Her: Well, I think the HTTP part works, but not the WWW part.
Me: OK. Well, bring it in and I can take a look at the configuration.

I just hate it when that WWW guy is not cooperating!

The logical is of course illogical. User's suppositions are truth. Common sense is for the herd and must be shunned. Part 2.

In continuation of the previous list of crazy things users do and believe, here are eleven more 'truths' proving that while we were all born intelligent, sometimes education gets in the way! Scroll down or click 'Read More' to find out what I learned from my users recently.

Now I have a wiring closet for you that was definitely havening problems! A recent posting over at TechRepublic reminded me of this cleanup job we did on a small IDF rack a while back. This closet was used as a sort of "hub" during contruction and often had "we need connectivity now" situations that arose that caused it to become the mess it was. We were planning a night to reconfigure some of the switches in a number of telecom rooms so we decided to clean this rack up while we were at it. It's amazing how much of a difference the cleanup made!

Before

After

Have any of your own wiring mess stories? Share them in the comments!

The logical is of course illogical. User's suppositions are truth. Common sense is for the herd and must be shunned. Part 1.

I am fortunate to be in the position where most of our users are a pleasure to work with and even if they aren't completely computer savvy, they tend do very well with what knowledge they have. Still, we all have our off days and sometimes I see actions or receive comments that illicit a "huh?" response. Most of the time when I respond with a "have you tried..." they realize what happened and we have a good laugh and go on our merry way. Other times... well, go ahead and read on.

The other day I was on the phone helping a teacher who wanted to insert a couple clip art items into a Microsoft Word document. She wasn't getting many results for her search on "dogs" and was wondering why. It turned out that she just needed to tell the clip art wizard to search in "all collections" so it goes out to the Web to get more results. The funny part happened right after that, though!

All of a sudden, I hear her say, "Why am all I getting are pictures of doctors?"

Confused, I loaded up Word on my machine to see if I could repeat her clip art query for dogs. In my search results I also was shown doctors as the first few results: ANIMAL DOCTORS. It turned out that the first couple pictures were of veterinarians!

This submission comes directly from an e-mail that was sent out to a number of technology and education professionals through a listserv posting. There are a number of mailing lists out there that I feel are great resources to have at the educational technology field members' disposal that help to feed on others' ideas and experience in using IT to benefit the quality of education in schools. These people often have many years experience and offer great insight, so when postings come around that are clearly missing basic sentence structure, punctuation, grammar, etc. and especially the ability to convey thoughts and ideas in a meaningful way, I am really taken aback. The following submission, as an example, was so poorly written it made my head hurt. And that's how I knew I had to file it away under 'Havening Problems.' Read on and let the hilarity ensue...