Welcome to the BOFH Excuse 
    board - your way into a support standard for the future. Please follow the 
    steps below 
  
  
  Step Zero. 
  Don't send me a scripted 
  version of this. I have one, and one day I'll install it. Meantime, 
  make do.
  
  Step One. Compose 
  the Excuse. Choose one word from the First, Second and Third Columns 
  in the table below, concatenating them to describe the error, situation or problem 
  you're saying has occurred. For particularly unintelligent users, adding the 
  optional fourth parameter may help to clarify that this isn't a situation that 
  should be celebrated... 
  
  Example: Inherent 
  Software Corruption
  Dumb Example: 
  Inherent Software Corruption 
  Error
  
  Step Two. Compose 
  a story to backup this Excuse. Remember, the more outrageous the 
  story, the more likely the user is to NOT 
  understand it - and therefore believe 
  it. 
  
  Unbelievable Explanation 
  (for above excuse) "Well it appears that part of our software 
  is corrupted - possibly because of some hardware error" 
  Believable Explanation: 
  "It seems that the Inherency of the Software is corrupt - not the actual software 
  itself. We're looking at getting some artificial Inherency in to solve the problem..." 
  
  Step Three 
  Get the user to become 
  part of the problem. 
  
  Example "..But 
  the Artificial Inherency costs about 50 bucks a user. If you could just send 
  us the money, we'll get you sorted out"
  Another Example 
  "..But the Artificial Inherency isn't Right Hand User Compatible - I dunno, 
  it's Welsh or something - so you're going to have to type with your left hand 
  for the next 2 hours.." 
  
  
  
    Figure 1 - Bastard D.I.Y. 
    Excuse Table 
  
  
   
    | First | 
    Second | 
    Third | 
    Optional Fourth | 
  
   
    Temporary 
    Intermittant 
    Partial 
    Redundant 
    Total 
    Multiplexed 
    Inherent 
    Duplicated 
    Dual-Homed 
    Synchronous 
    Bidirectional 
    Serial 
    Asynchronous 
    Multiple 
    Replicated 
    Non-Replicated 
    Unregistered 
    Non-Specific 
    Generic 
    Migrated 
    Localised 
    Resignalled 
    Dereferenced 
    Nullified 
    Aborted 
    Serious 
    Minor 
    Major 
    Extraneous 
    Illegal 
    Insufficient 
    Viral 
    Unsupported 
    Outmoded 
    Legacy 
    Permanent 
    Invalid 
    Deprecated 
    Virtual 
    Unreportable 
    Undetermined 
    Undiagnosable 
    Unfiltered 
    Static 
    Dynamic 
    Delayed 
    Immediate 
    Nonfatal 
    Fatal 
    Non-Valid 
    Unvalidated 
    Non-Static 
    Unreplicatable 
    Non-Serious 
     | 
   
    Array 
    Systems 
    Hardware 
    Software 
    Firmware 
    Backplane 
    Logic-Subsystem 
    Integrity 
    Subsystem 
    Memory 
    Comms 
    Integrity 
    Checksum 
    Protocol 
    Parity 
    Bus 
    Timing 
    Synchronisation 
    Topology 
    Transmission 
    Reception 
    Stack 
    Framing 
    Code 
    Programming 
    Peripheral 
    Environmental 
    Loading 
    Operation 
    Parameter 
    Syntax 
    Initialisation 
    Execution 
    Resource 
    Encryption 
    Decryption 
    File 
    Precondition 
    Authentication 
    Paging 
    Swapfile 
    Service 
    Gateway 
    Request 
    Proxy 
    Media 
    Registry 
    Configuration 
    Metadata 
    Streaming 
    Retrieval 
    Installation 
    Library 
    Handler 
     | 
   
    Interruption 
    Destabilisation 
    Destruction 
    Desynchronisation 
    Failure 
    Dereferencing 
    Overflow 
    Underflow 
    NMI 
    Interrupt 
    Corruption 
    Anomoly 
    Seizure 
    Override 
    Reclock 
    Rejection 
    Invalidation 
    Halt 
    Exhaustion 
    Infection 
    Incompatibility 
    Timeout 
    Expiry 
    Unavailability 
    Bug 
    Condition 
    Crash 
    Dump 
    Crashdump 
    Stackdump 
    Problem 
    Lockout 
     | 
   
    Error 
    Problem 
    Warning 
    Signal 
    Flag 
     |