And they're off...

The race down the intelligence highway is going fast and furious this morning.

For some reason, our Technical Librarian decided to take down the signs on our printer stations asking patrons not to print PDF files. See, our printer computers are a bit dated (state school) and don't have a lot of memory in them, so printing a PDF file has the potential to clog the printer for ours. We had a sign on our two public printers for some time stating not to print PDFs and life was good. Then the Technical Librarian had success printing a one-page PDF and thought it was fine.

Well, yesterday, someone printed three PDFs back to back. Sure enough, it clogged the printer. So the Technical Librarian decides to see if she can make it work. She tests prints a PDF. Nope, still clogged. Then she asks me to transfer the clogged PDF print job to the only other working public printer. I obey in a grumble. Now both are down. We put notes on them stating that they're both out of order, meaning students will have to print elsewhere and public patrons are SOL.

This morning, we had a customer conversation that went something like this:

Computer patron: "There are notes on both printers saying they're out of order."

The Boss: "Yes, they both are."

Computer patron: "So, I can't print to either one of them?"

The Boss: (wishing I could say, "That's right. College is working for you. Money well spent, genius. Next stop, Mensa.") "You can't print to either one of the printers that are out of order. That is correct."

Computer patron: (standing, muttering, not looking for a response) "Well, what are we supposed to do? The library's printers are down."

I had many suggestions, but let it be. By now, he should know that there are at least two places to print in the school. Not to mention the public libraries that are close by...


- The Boss