Monitor in the Box
Posted by xTheatreTechie@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 31 comments
About a week ago a user was retiring, this user and I were friendly with each other so I was kinda bummed they were leaving. They brought back everything in the boxes we gave them for remote work.
I go to open the damned monitor box and the entire fucking thing explodes open scaring the shit out of me and nearly launches the monitor off the table just for me to barely catch it from sliding off my table.
The user didn't know how to take off the monitor from the stand/base, so they just pushed the monitor to the lowest height compressing the shit out of the spring base and threw it into the monitor box it originally came in creating a makeshift "Jack in the Box".
After figuring out what the fuck had happened i went to tell the user so we could share a laugh one last time.
blind_ninja_guy@reddit
It's unfair that the monitor doesn't sing some stupid little song as it pops out of the box.
Eichmil@reddit
Aren’t you glad it wasn’t a CRT!
Id10t_techsupport@reddit
What's a crt?
PepperAnn1inaMillion@reddit
Me: 👵 💀🪦
xTheatreTechie@reddit (OP)
You and me both brother.
These kids have had it to good for too long with their flat screen everything.
They don't know the pain of watching an infinite maze screen saver.
T_T
PepperAnn1inaMillion@reddit
I was reminiscing about the Windows 3.11 “rainy window” screen saver the other day. Remember that one? It would gradually distort the image as drops ran down it.
Nihelus@reddit
I completely forgot about that one. I barely used 3.1 though. For the most part I went straight from DOS to Win95 then into the best OS of all time, 98.
PepperAnn1inaMillion@reddit
Ha! I loved 98. Skipped XP entirely because that PC lasted so long - my next was Vista. Fortunately, powerful enough to cope and then upgrade to 7 ASAP.
Nihelus@reddit
How did you like Vista? I didn’t mind XP but I missed it when I went to Vista. It was terrible for gaming. 7 was pretty legit though. Probably my third favorite behind 98 and 95, though it objectively should probably rank above 95.
PepperAnn1inaMillion@reddit
I didn’t think Vista was all that different from previous versions. But I only had it for a couple of months, at most. I got it very soon before the rollout of 7. I would have been happy to keep 7 going forever, really. I’ve always preferred consoles for gaming anyway (I’m not a serious gamer), but I have to admit the amount I need from an OS has only shrunk over the years, especially since there are so many web-based applets for things you used to need the OS to support.
RogueThneed@reddit
Remember degaussing? Fun times.
DedBirdGonnaPutItOnU@reddit
Remember the guy on the island? I spent so much time watching him I'd forget why I put my Windows into screen saver in the first place...
RogueThneed@reddit
Cathode Ray Tube. A way of putting a picture on a screen.
It was the thing that made flat screen tv's and monitors such an improvement, because with CRTs you could not get a bigger screen without getting a deeper model (think about scaling up a cube), and they got HELLA heavy as well as bulky.
HTired5678@reddit
tell me I'm old without telling me that I'm old
Kharmastream@reddit
At least he did not specify it as green (or orange) screen crt :)
My parents had one of each at work mid 1985 :)
domoincarn8@reddit
We missed the Orange CRT era and only had Green CRTs at school. At home we had a (for the time) magnificient 14" Grey/Black CRT.
The text clarity on that thing was amazing.
WhenSummerIsGone@reddit
When I was a kid, my home computer plugged into the TV...
MCPhssthpok@reddit
Cathode Ray Tube. It's the old style of monitor or TV that had a large vacuum tube behind the screen. They could be very dangerous if the tube got damaged as the vacuum could make it implode, potentially spraying shards of glass all over the place.
Head_Razzmatazz7174@reddit
It's shaped like a box TV. Have you see pictures of when video games first came out, and were connected to the television in order to play? The TVs in those photos are pretty close the same shape of a CRT monitor.
Phyrion01@reddit
It’s not your fault, but the fact that this post is legit and not in fact taking the piss really makes me hate you right now.
Old man out!
Jboyes@reddit
r/FuckImOld
ratsta@reddit
One of my first computing jobs was field service for a manufacturer that sold retail, back when 386s were the mainstream. I was about 20 or 21. One day, I had to do a monitor swap-out.
I took the replacement screen to site, up-ended it on the customer's desk, removed the box, tilt to one side, removed the polystyrene, tilted to the other, removed the polystyrene, pulled the plastic bag down, then lifted the monitor and turned it over to sit it on its base. I'd done it a hundred times but that day, I fumbled it and the monitor thumped into the desk, corner-first.
I noticed with curiosity the interesting pattern in the finish where the monitor had hit. I apologised and assured that repair would be covered by the company. When I told the boss, he winced, nodded and sent me back to work. Folks, that was the day that I learned what French Polishing is.
As it was explained to me, French Polishing is a wood finishing technique where the craftsman sands the surface super-finely then applies dozens or more coats of shellac by hand, carefully buffing each coat before applying the next. It cannot be patch repaired. The only way to fix that desk would be to strip it back and do the whole surface again. On top of that, wood fibres were crushed. You can partially restore them with certain techniques, but it'll never be the same. Shiiiiiiit...
SparkleKittyMeowMeow@reddit
If it were a CRT, OP would be dead from blunt force trauma.
goldhelmet@reddit
Ouch.
LunaSauce777@reddit
Haha, that's one way to send off a coworker—you basially got a surprise retirement gift from the tech gods! 🎁
OinkyConfidence@reddit
Would have been funnier if it was a CRT instead! :D
syntaxerror53@reddit
Seen monitors like this. There was a HP TFT (think, maybe L1750 or similar, can't remember) that had a folding springy stand and could never fold it down once unpacked (unless packaging kept). And then there's the ones where the monitor is on a small pole on a flat base and pole used for height adjustment.
Equivalent-Salary357@reddit
I was almost done reading your post when 'all on my own' 'without any help' thought of this phrase. In fact, I was about to open a comment and share my great idea.
You have no idea how glad I was that I looked back at your title before I did that. It would have been embarrassing if I hadn't looked and written 'that' comment. This is still a bit embarrassing, but too funny not to share.
Anyway, you are a true genius to have though of your title. Only a great mind would have thought of that.
xTheatreTechie@reddit (OP)
Great Minds think alike.
Equivalent-Salary357@reddit
LOL!
goldhelmet@reddit
I hate those stands. Oh sure, they're great to use and all but every now and then they might surprise you while being carried and if you're really unlucky can jump out of your hands and to the ground. Lol. So be careful how you carry them.