Good

Bill Gates is donating $19.7 million to help the Computer History Museum in California preserve computing artifacts. The museum includes such rare objects as the Cray-1 supercomputer, the Apple I, the WWII Enigma, the Palm Pilot prototype, and the 1969 Honeywell "Kitchen Computer". PC support is filling in for a netadmin at a remote site and wants to confirm the backup procedures. "After talking to a half-dozen people, I obtain the key to the administrator's office, the combination to the fireproof safe and the key to the lockbox inside the safe," says PC support. "There I find the backup plan. I brush the dust off a faded folder titled 'IBM Mainframe and Punchcard Storage Procedure'."

Bad

Examples of being totally clueless: IT creates an image of his signature to be added automatically to his outgoing e-mails. Other users see it and ask for his help creating their own. "One day, I get a message from a notoriously clueless user, asking to have a signature created for her e-mail," says IT. "I replied back with mine showing, and asked her if she would like one similar to mine. Her reply? 'No, I want one with my name on it'." New user calls IT support early one morning, complaining that his computer won't power up even though everything is plugged in just as it was the night before. IT walks down to check it out -- and finds the user pressing the power button on his empty laptop docking station. IT: Where's the laptop? User: "I left that at home. Do I need that to get on my computer here?"

Ugly

This branch office manager has a nasty habit of hitting the speakerphone's mute button when he gets angry during meetings. "He'd then hop up and down, cursing a blue streak," says IT who's seen it. "Then one meeting, the videoconference room was the only room available. Once again he got angry, hit the mute button and hopped up and down cursing a blue streak. It took almost a full minute before one of his employees got his attention and pointed to the monitor. The headquarters attendees were all staring open-mouthed at him. He recovered very quickly -- and he never booked the videoconference room again."