The Programmer's Nightmare
by Dennis J. Darland
April 3, 2009
Last revised 03.04.2010 13.12 time
Copyright © 2010 Dennis J. Darland


There was this system, that no one knew how it worked. I was very old. It was also handy, but would just be let go, if I could not get it to work - the vendor that had provided it had gone out of business. After a bit of fiddling, I figured out that the book that marked the end, just had to be spatially oriented correctly. (There was a new person using the system - evidently the old person had explained this - but the new person had forgot - as it didn't make sense to her.)
Then I had a meeting I would be a little late for - things had just run late today - at a large computer company with a large office building locally. I went down; got in my car; and went there.
I went in, but it seemed the meeting was over. I saw Mark however; who was one of our reps. I asked him what it had been about - he said it wasn't very important. I told him there was something else that had been bothering me - did he have a few minutes. He said he had just a short time.
I went on to explain that another time, I had been late going there to get some tapes I needed urgently - but everyone was gone even though it was just a few minutes past 5:00pm. The security recording had given an option to press such and such to gain partial entry under such and such circumstances. It had not really been such and such circumstances, but I had decided to try it and had gained partial entry.
At this point Mark said he would be right back, but had to take care of something.
Then another man came and was showing me pictures of some other men I didn't recognize (he didn't even let me finish my story.)
Then a woman was leading me through a local mall; she said "how would you like to be spending your winters somewhere warmer?". Then I woke up.


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