The...Foot Pedal?

Posted by Remarkable_Degree252@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 49 comments

I used to be a tech support representative long ago, right around the time when Y2K was a major concern for a lot of people. (You would have thought it was the end of the world, honestly.) Anyway, I was supporting the customers of a particular computer company when I got this call.

Me: Thank you for calling Computer Company Tech Support. My name is...
and so the intro goes. I get the customer's name, and his computer's information and ask how I can be of service. This, this-! was his response.

Customer: Hello? I got the television, the typewriter and the box it all plugs into. But, what's this here foot pedal for?

I was stumped? Foot pedal?

Me: Sir, could you please hold a moment. I'd like to look this up if I could.

Customer (really nice guy, honestly): Well, sure. I don't mind.

I put him on hold, began thinking. What was going on there? Television? Typewriter? Box? Foot ped- Oh, Lord, forgive me. It was at that moment when I threw my hand over my mouth and started giggling uncontrollably. I realized what he was talking about.

After taking a moment to calm down, I composed myself, took a deep breath and brought the customer back from hold.

Me: Sir, that isn't a foot pedal. That is your mouse. It moves the arrow around on the screen so you can click the little buttons on top of it to open programs.

Then, I referred him to a community college course in his area so he could take a basic, computer literacy course. Sometimes, all people need is a nudge in the right direction.

[-]

Loading_M_@reddit

Honestly, my first thought was the pair of foot pedals under my desk at home. I picked up a pair of cheap USB foot switches on Amazon a while back, and they're actually pretty useful.

[-]

Nition@reddit

You can get full mouse button functionality foot pedals as well: https://xkeys.com/xkfootmouse.html

Can't move the pointer with it though so I guess putting your normal mouse on the floor is still technically superior.

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

Thats what the steering wheel is for!

[-]

Nition@reddit

That's only one axis. Gotta get a flight yoke wheel so you can push and pull as well, for the vertical movement.

[-]

Loading_M_@reddit

Also, how are they selling foot pedals for $150? The cheap amazon ones are like $40, and do pretty much all the same things (iirc, my current foot pedals could be bound to click...)

[-]

Nition@reddit

X-Keys has been around forever and makes very solid stuff, so I assume they're trading no brand loyalty + build quality.

[-]

sethbr@reddit

One of the better ergonomic keyboards (Kinesis) comes with a foot pedal for control and shift.

[-]

AInterestingUser@reddit

just put a lil joystick to control the mouse next to your big toe!

[-]

Hurricane_32@reddit

Not with that attitude, and as long as you have a roll of tape

Mikotos@reddit

Was thinking this was going to be a u/ditch_lily story about a sewing machine lol

Rev-Damar@reddit

Did it come with a cup holder?

RandomJoke@reddit

I have a floppy with a program on it that you send to somebody and when they open it you get a message that Microsoft sent you a prize cup holder and then the tray would open. Unfortunately an update to W98 killed that.

did they change how the CDROM opened? I remmebered some win 95 software i had that would open the ports just fine for up to XP but Vista killed all the old software. Original intention was to burn CDs but could be used for anything including mounting virtual drives which was still a rare thing in 95 era.

I don't know what they changed or fixed. I was disappointed but told myself "Oh well so much for that" and moved on.

Eichmil@reddit

Awesome ones that come out and go back in when you’re done.

TechGundam@reddit

One of my friends had a legit cup holder in his, with built in heater. Took up 2 5 1/4 slots.

Back then youd have to custom order i think but now there are these drink heaters designed to be powered by a cars USB port. They work in computers USB port just fine.

That one was powered from a molex plug.

I love molexes. will power anything and everything you throw at it. GPU? no problem. Table fan? no problem. LED light? no problem. No fancy power negotiations.

I would add to our SOE a foam cluebat that comes out and hits the user in the face when remotely triggered.

fatimus_prime@reddit

“Cluebat.”

Instantly thought of clue by four and BOFH. Thanks for the chuckle.

gadget850@reddit

LART

Counterpoint-RD@reddit

...and automatically goes back in every time you restart your machine, thereby spilling your drink over (and into) it 😄? (I remember reading about something like this - would have fit here like a glove 😁...)

JNSapakoh@reddit

Aah yes, the foot mouse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqgbl6JoYoQ

asmcint@reddit

"You would have thought it was the end of the world, honestly." Many people believed it was exactly that, somehow.

It may not be end of the world, but it would had been VERY panful if a lot of people hadnt done a lot of work to prevent it.

LupercaniusAB@reddit

If it hadn’t been remedied, it might not have been the end of the world, but it would have severely fucked up the global economy, and probably power grids as well.

sporkmanhands@reddit

Haven’t heard the foot pedal story in a long time

frymaster@reddit

also, back in the days when people recorded dictation onto tapes for PAs and secretaries to transcribe, the playback machines used to be controlled with a foot pedal (because you might want to playback faster, slower, or even reverse, depending on what the person was saying), so it even makes sense in an office setting

ToothlessFeline@reddit

Transcriptionists still use a foot pedal to control playback. There are still some types of transcription that AI isn't sufficiently accurate for (primarily medical and legal), so most of the work is done by actual people. There are USB foot controls available specifically for this.

do_IT_withme@reddit

This story has been around as long as mice have 3xisted. I first heard it in the 90s.

Impossible_IT@reddit

This particular computer manufacturer have a cow box?

ShadowCVL@reddit

Definitely did, funnily enough I stumbled on my receipt/shipping documents recently where I ordered my 486 so many years ago from them. Gateway 2000 really was a great brand til about 97/98

I started my IT career fall of 98. Mostly had Gateway 2000 computers and then moved over to Dell computers.

Hah, same summer of 98 here

NotYetReadyToRetire@reddit

Summer of 76 for me, as an IBM System/3 computer operator/programmer. I got my first real PC - an original IBM 5150 PC with dual 360K floppies and CGA graphics - from ComputerLand in late 1981, followed by a Packard Bell 286, a Gateway 386, 2 Gateway 486's and then switched to Dell.

I grew up in poverty, my parents’ first home PC was a gifted 8088 in like 1995, followed a couple of years later in about 1998 with a PC running Win 3.15. I got so used to hotkeys to navigate windows that by the time I was exposed to an actual Win98 machine in high school, I was much more comfortable with keyboard usage than mouse. To this day, despite 25+ years of PC gaming (Half Life, Counter Strike, Quake 2, Quake 3 Arena, Unreal Tournament, WarCraft II, StarCraft I and II are how I started), if I’m not gaming I default to keyboard navigation.

Sorry for the rambly comment and thanks for coming to my TED talk.

GuestStarr@reddit

The original Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament '99 are free now. And patched to work on modern PC's, the last time I checked the newest patch was from March 2025. See oldunreal.com. Just in case you'd like to do some fragging again. The original servers are down, of course, but there are community servers. Or just kick some bot ass like I do.

Z4-Driver@reddit

Worked as 1st level IT support at a law firm in the early 2000. Back then, they had also Gateway PCs. One particular model had a bad design. The front panel had some distance to the actual case, so the power button was a plastic thing which repeatedly broke, so we had a lot of those front panels replaced.

Those were the ones where they and emachines started competing in a race to the bottom, pretty much what killed the company as we knew it.

My first computer I bought was a Packard-Bell in 96 or 97 from Sears lol

honeyfixit@reddit

2003-ish I had a Gateway laptop. The family had had 2 gateway desktops l of which worked fine. The laptop was a different story. Oh the problems I had. It kept shutting off unexpectedly on me even when fully charged. I sent it out three times before they fixed it. The first two times it a.eback saying cannot reproduce the problem. Finally, on the third try, they fixed it.turns out it was a bad heat sensor.

My cd burner died. I went through all the troubleshooting steps before I contacted them. I told them I tried different brands, different speeds +r +rw, etc. I finally emailed them and told them what o had done and said this is covered under my parts plan. They wrote back, "We can see by your email, that you are very knowledgeable in troubleshooting your computer. Did you try..." and then they listed all the same steps i had told them I'd already tried.

So i wrote back ,"I can see by your email that you aren't. Very knowledgeable in reading for comprehension. I already told you I did all that already "

I got a new drive in the mail about 5 days later

Remarkable_Degree252@reddit (OP)

Possibly. ;)