Great example of how to totally screw yourself!

[Geek King]

I just had this one today. One of the engineers in the company I do IT work for calls me over while I’m in his area to add some printers to his coworker’s computer.

Me: The Ever-Lovin’ Geek King
E: Technologically ignorant Engineer
A: Another IT person, not appearing in this post

Me: Hey E, what’s up?
E: Well, I’m having trouble viewing things send me in Microsoft Project. I get an error opening them.
Me: What version of Project do you have.
E: <beaming> Microsoft!
Me: <mental > I mean what year? 2003 or 2007? Did you request the new version?
E: No, A did something with my printers yesterday though.
Me: Erm, I don’t think that has anything to do wi--
E: But we’ve been putting in our specifications that people should be sending their project files to us using the latest and greatest version of Project.
Me: Oh. Well, if they’re using 2007, you won’t be able to open them in the older version. Mayb—
E: Well why would someone go out and buy and older version of Project after we told them to use the newest version?
Me: <> 2007 is the newest version.
E: So why can’t I read them on my computer?
Me: You have an older version. They use different file types.
E: Oh.

Worse, I'm pretty sure we're out of licenses for Project 2007 right now, which means he'll have to fill out a budget request and get it approved. That will take a week or two, depending on the budget and aquisitions people. They're busy with an audit right now, you see.

[SilverOrb]

E: Well why would someone go out and buy and older version of Project after we told them to use the newest version?
Me: <> 2007 is the newest version.
E: So why can’t I read them on my computer?
Me: You have an older version. They use different file types.

I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to fob my telemarketers off on you. Or maybe they are just related?

[otakuneko]

What sort of engineer is this guy?

...Kinda reminds me of the engineer up at my dad's work that didn't know how to unzip a file.

[SteeleDragon78]

What sort of engineer is this guy?

...Kinda reminds me of the engineer up at my dad's work that didn't know how to unzip a file.

perhaps he is a mechanical engineer, or maybe a chemical engineer. i cant imagine an electrical engineer being that dense, but then some are still of the ilk that learned on slide rules.

[Bootlegger]

Nothing wrong with slide rules. Unfortunately, different versions of programs don't always talk the same same language. Slide rules on the other hand do :P And if more people had to learn how to use the old methods of doing things then they might have a greater appreciation for the modern (read automated) techniques and the people, software and hardware that enable it.

[Geek King]

What sort of engineer is this guy?

Structural with some architect-type stuff thrown in. Specifically, designing apartment buildings and urban developments. Our guys tend to work on whole neigborhoods of similar structures. They look over the contractor's drawings, and work with them to tweak things until they work.