Blowing on the Keyboard
A year or so ago, I gave my dad my old PC for his birthday having purchased a new one myself.

He had absolutely no idea how to work it, so I spent about three hours showing him the basics of email and internet browsing.

I told him that occassionally the PC may freeze up, and that a CTRL/ALT/DELETE was the best way to restart.

As he questioned me about why it "froze" up, it was obvious that having been a mechanic he was trying to comprehend which of the pistons, cogs or other moving parts inside were causing the seize ups (??).

At this point, I remembered an old ZX Spectrum trick which was to blow on the keyboard when games were loading (this was genuinely included on the instructions of a Specky game). For a bit of a laugh, I told him that blowing on the keyboard during boot up seemed to reduce the number of freeze ups. He nodded sagely and informed that this probably cleared dust from the air intakes, allowing the PC's carburettor to function better.

A year later...I visit Dad again and he is dying to show me a "funny" email my Uncle sent me. Cue PC boot up and Dad blowing furiously on the keyboard for about a minute...

I did not have the heart to tell him it had been a joke, and to this day he continues to "clear the pipes" with hard blowing every time he turns it on.

I may confuse him further by getting him a cordless keyboard for Christmas.
(Mandrill, Mon 25 Sep 2006, 23:01, Reply)