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When users assume every developer can magically troubleshoot their malfunctioning office printer
DevCommunities Post #4105, on Jan 26, 2022 in TG

When users assume every developer can magically troubleshoot their malfunctioning office printer

Description

The image is a dark-theme screenshot of a Reddit r/AskReddit thread. The post shows an orange up-arrow with “33.4k” and the question text: “What’s something very rare that people think is very common?”. Underneath, the action bar displays “24.3k Comments”, “Award”, “Share”, “Save”, “Hide”, and “Report”. A highlighted top comment from user “CopperyMarrow15” reads: “A programmer who knows how to fix your printer.” with a single up-vote and standard reply/share controls. The meme pokes fun at the widespread misconception that software engineers double as on-call printer technicians, illustrating the communication gap between programming expertise and everyday IT support expectations

Categories

DevCommunities DeveloperExperience DX Communication Hardware

Common Tags

DeveloperHumor MisalignedExpectations MisconceptionsInTech Miscommunication TechHumor DeveloperStereotypes RelatableHumor NerdHumor

Comments

23
Anonymous ★ Top Pick “Sure I’ll fix the printer - let’s refactor its firmware into microservices, put CUPS behind an API gateway, and add Prometheus metrics so we can finally observe which Schrödinger paper-jam you’re blaming me for.”
  1. Anonymous ★ Top Pick

    “Sure I’ll fix the printer - let’s refactor its firmware into microservices, put CUPS behind an API gateway, and add Prometheus metrics so we can finally observe which Schrödinger paper-jam you’re blaming me for.”

  2. Anonymous

    After 20 years of distributed systems architecture, I can orchestrate microservices across continents with five-nines uptime, but when the office printer shows 'PC LOAD LETTER', I quietly update my LinkedIn status to 'exploring new opportunities' and slip out the back door

  3. Anonymous

    Twenty years of distributed systems experience and the printer still wins - it's offline, except it isn't, except it is

  4. Anonymous

    The eternal struggle: you can architect distributed systems handling millions of transactions per second, implement complex algorithms, and debug race conditions in concurrent code - but the moment someone discovers you're a programmer, you're suddenly expected to be the printer whisperer, router reset specialist, and family IT helpdesk. Bonus points if they're shocked when you admit you just Google 'PC LOAD LETTER' like everyone else

  5. Anonymous

    I can make Kafka exactly-once; your inkjet does at-least-twice, sometimes-never over SMBv1 with a 32‑bit TWAIN driver - fixing it is less software engineering and more archaeology

  6. Anonymous

    Rarer than a leak-free custom allocator: the C dev who debugs printers without percussive maintenance

  7. Anonymous

    I can debug race conditions; your printer runs a three‑party consensus of driver, spooler, and gremlin - no public API, no SLA

  8. @QutePoet 4y

    Which kind of fixing?

    1. @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 4y

      The one that can enter the hidden menu on it, see that even the diagnostics screen crashes when trying to make a scan, notices that not even the power button is responding anymore. Solution: The oil was hardened so much, the scanner's "sensor array" was frozen in place. What caused a bug, normally the printer moves these kind of sensors until they count the proper amount of the laser that lights trough a transparent plastic that has a bunch of very small lines on it. This is what the printer can count where the head/scan-sensor is. As physics is not instant the printer just adds power to the motor and cuts it when the amount of light interrupts happen. So basically this is a bug that will cause the printer to be in an infinite loop.

      1. @QutePoet 4y

        Sounds really rare and crazy. I have fixed several printers in 2016 and 2017 when I had another job. Now I'm DevOps but I still can repeat these operations. Does DevOps count as a programmer?

        1. @alexandr_guluta 4y

          My 20 y.o printer that just work: *Insert monsters inc pic here*

  9. Deleted Account 4y

    Funny. Before switching to coding i was working for several years as copier technician. And was a good one. So, yeah, im a programmer, who can fix printer, copier or even engineering system (A0 copier).

    1. @BlaiddCrow 4y

      I'm a programmer and I don't even know how to program.

      1. @feskow 4y

        then how are your a programmer?

        1. @feskow 4y

          understanding programming memes != programming

  10. dev_meme 4y

    We must report them!

    1. @feskow 4y

      Not sleeping well?

      1. dev_meme 4y

        Just finished with work for today

        1. @feskow 4y

          Sounds great

  11. @dsmagikswsa 4y

    Programmer: Restart the printer

    1. @freeapp2014 4y

      The printer errors actually usually go like “Error XXX: YYY. Please restart the printer. Contact support if the error occurs again”

      1. @dsmagikswsa 4y

        I see. However, the users usually didn’t read the prompt message. Sounds silly, but…

  12. @misesOnWheels 4y

    have you tried restarting them ? yes ? well than, i can't help you, call support

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