It’s a hot day, and the building where this IT pilot fish works has no air conditioning, although it’s quite cool and pleasant in his basement office-cum-workshop.
On the upper floors, however, the heat is starting to get to everyone. As fish finds out when he gets a call from a young guy in the marketing department: His screen’s just gone dead, and he’s on deadline.
Arriving in the open-plan office that this user shares with half a dozen others, he finds that there is some air movement from a floor fan.
It only takes fish a few seconds to diagnose the problem. But he figures he should lead the user to it gently.
Nice fan, fish says. Is it new?
“Scrounged,” user says. “Got it for the afternoon from HR.”
Where is it plugged in? fish asks.
“The six-outlet power strip under my desk.”
And did you have to unplug anything to make room for it?
Short pause, and then: “I’ve unplugged my monitor, haven’t I?”
