This IT support pilot fish gets a trouble ticket for a users CD-ROM drive that isnt working correctly.

But its been a long week with too many dumb users, and fish is more than a little jaundiced. Heck, I dont even know exactly what the problem is, but my first thought is that the customer isnt able to listen to her audio CDs, he says.

I drift off in thought and begin making my assumptions, fish admits. There must be a real user out there whose PC is blue-screened … and then theres this flaky user whos whining that she cant listen to her Garth Brooks CDs. Hardly a priority! … These machines are business tools, not entertainment devices. … We never intended that people would be playing music CDs on our machines …

I realize Im causing my own pain with these thoughts, says fish. Besides, it might be a real problem, he figures – at one point, the company received a batch of PCs with defective CD drives that require a patch to work. Or the system BIOS might not auto-detect the drive. Or there could be a loose connection …

User is out when fish gets to her desk, and a quick troubleshooting routine turns up no problems with the CD-ROM drive – it seems to work fine.

But just as he is sticking a note to her CRT, in she walks, and frantically explains, I cant listen to my Garth Brooks CD!

You know, writes fish, you run these scenarios in your head, but you never think youre going to be so close to the truth.

I ask her for the Garth CD, he says. I plop it in, and it auto-starts and plays just fine.

So whats the problem? he asks.

User shakes her head with a distraught expression on her face, and blurts, But it wont play side B!