De-FIB-ulator Lie Detector
April 28, 2009 by Scott Wharton
Filed under Electronics
Ever wanted your own lie detector? I think we all would some times, if not to just be able to call “BS” on your buddy when you know he’s telling a lie at a party. Before I introduce this nifty little gadget, let tell a joke. This is an old one I posted at Healthandmen.com while ago.
image: Spygadgets.com
One day Kyle’s dad brought home a robot. The robot was special in that it could detect a lie and would slap the person who lied in the face.
Kyle returned late from school that day and his dad asked him, “Son why are you late from school?” Kyle answered, “Dad, we had extra classes today”. Much to his astonishment the robot jumped up and slapped Kyle on his face. His dad told him, “Son this robot is special in that it can detect a Lie and will then slap the person who lied. Now come on tell me the truth. “Why are you late?” “Dad, I went to a movie”, replied Kyle. “Which movie?”, his father asks. “The Ten Commandments”, says Kyle. Immediately, Kyle got a slap on the face from the robot. “Sorry Dad, I went to see the movie Sex Queen”. “Shame on you son, when I was your age I never watched obscene movies or misbehaved” Immediately, the dad gets a tight slap on the face from the robot.
Hearing the last sentence, Kyle’s mother comes walking out of the kitchen and sarcastically says to her husband, “After all he is your son!!!”
To which the robot steps up and gives Kyle’s mother a resounding slap on her face! Read more
For the love of all that is helpful, write it down
I love hearing great stories from IT people and nonits (what I’ve decided to call non-IT folk) and below is part of an email that a lovely IT reader sent in:
If something does break and there are error messages that come up, WRITE THEM DOWN. I can’t stress this enough, those error messages appear for a reason and usually indicate the problem. If you can’t duplicate the issue then it’s not an issue anymore.
To explain this a little clearer, lets break this apart into easier to digest chunks.
- When an error message pops up on the screen, it means there is a problem. No, the computer does not spit them out for no apparent reason and no they are not there to amuse and excite (although many of them are quite amusing.
- Write them down should be a no brainer but so many people click OK without even thinking or reading what the message said. As in the first step above, these messages pop up for a reason. Make sure you keep a copy of them (a screen shot would be best) in a form that someone else will be able to understand. Read: Write out the full error, not just “Microsoft Word said error.”
- Finally, if you can’t reproduce it, it’s not an issue anymore is not always true. Many times issues that can’t be reproduced are not gone, they are just sleeping. Think of it like when your dog finally takes a break from chewing up your couch. It’s not that he won’t chew anymore, it’s that he’s too tired to eat another cushion. But take heed, follow steps one and two so that you will save your cushions and your couch.
To many people ignore the warnings that are staring them in the face. If your computer starts to act up, spits out funny messages or down right BSODs, stop and open a ticket, call your nearest nerd-tech guy or simply go out for a smoke break. You’ll thank me later, I can guarantee it.
