GOOD
User complains that his PC keeps locking up, but IT can’t find anything wrong with it. I can show you, user says. “He opened a dozen Word documents, then quick as lightning used Ctrl-P to print each document and closed it,” says IT. “I told him he was overloading the print queue and not to print so many documents at once. He thought it was the greatest thing ever that he was too fast for his computer, and he put in a request for a faster one.” Good news for those slinking off to the Indy motor racing event on the Gold Coast. Sponsors Acer, Intel and Lexmark, who plan to use their corporate boxes to schmooze customers and potential buyers, are making wireless Internet coverage available, which is a first for an Australian sporting event. Vendors want visitors to have a guilt-free good time without worrying about those e-mails multiplying in inboxes.
BAD
The Priory, detox clinic to the rich and famous in Britain, is treating patients addicted to sending SMS text messages on their mobile phones. Unit chief Dr Mark Collins said the problem was part of a wider obsession with modern technology, with some patients spending up to seven hours a day texting.
UGLY
This is not a good sign. Seems the new minister for communications, information technology and the arts has a little way to go in embracing the digital age. In reply to an e-mail from a Tasmanian man complaining about Telstra, Daryl Williams’ secretary told him the minister just doesn’t go in for those new-fangled means of communication. “The minister does not respond by e-mail. Therefore it would be appreciated if you will provide a postal address to which a reply may be sent,” she wrote. The new IT minister is also still coming to terms with embedding links into electronic press releases. Issuing one of the first batch of press announcements to media, the links included in the press release didn’t work!
E-mails to Sandra_Rossi@idg.com.au