This reminds me of an incredible moment in my career. Circa 2010 or 2011 I was working at a small agency in LA where we could more or less all fit in one big office. My boss (the owner) and a UX contractor were whiteboarding some flows for a new project under tight deadline. It was the classic scene, scribbles all over the place, post-it note's everywhere, coffee-stained printouts stuck to the whiteboard with little magnets, etc.
Eventually the commotion of their whiteboarding session became very quiet and they returned to their computers to hunker down. Our UX contractor was twiddling some magnets in his hands, clicking them together and unclicking them, while starting at his screen and chewing through the design problem.
A few moments later, a pretty loud scratching noise started. Peter, the UX guy, started to start up at the white drop-panel ceiling with a concerned look, "I think there might be a rodent in the ceiling"
I knew this sound almost right away, and could also tell it was coming from directly in front of him, not the ceiling. PETER! GET THE MAGNETS OFF YOUR LAPTOP!
He had inadvertently stuck them to the palm rest, directly above the spinning rust drive that was still standard for this time period. The machine quickly became unstable and then stopped booting. Poor guy was in the Apple store for the rest of the day.
Hilarious in hindsight, but a lot of work was lost that day. I still remember seeing poor Pete staring up quizzically at the ceiling while the entire contents of his HDD got vaporized.
Eventually the commotion of their whiteboarding session became very quiet and they returned to their computers to hunker down. Our UX contractor was twiddling some magnets in his hands, clicking them together and unclicking them, while starting at his screen and chewing through the design problem.
A few moments later, a pretty loud scratching noise started. Peter, the UX guy, started to start up at the white drop-panel ceiling with a concerned look, "I think there might be a rodent in the ceiling"
I knew this sound almost right away, and could also tell it was coming from directly in front of him, not the ceiling. PETER! GET THE MAGNETS OFF YOUR LAPTOP!
He had inadvertently stuck them to the palm rest, directly above the spinning rust drive that was still standard for this time period. The machine quickly became unstable and then stopped booting. Poor guy was in the Apple store for the rest of the day.
Hilarious in hindsight, but a lot of work was lost that day. I still remember seeing poor Pete staring up quizzically at the ceiling while the entire contents of his HDD got vaporized.