Tetchy Trainee Turned The Lights Down Low To Teach Turgid Lecturer A Lesson

Who, Me? Welcome once again to Who, Me?, in which The Register celebrates the working week stretching out ahead of us all with readers' tales of messes they made, and escaped.

This week, meet "Ernie", who several years ago found himself in a training course during which large cathode ray tube monitors were used to display notes.

Ernie and his fellow students were compelled to take notes on each and every slide.

"Printing handouts was, apparently, too difficult or expensive or something," he told Who, Me?

The illogic of the decision not to provide handouts – and the tedium that set in as the course stretched into a second week – began to grate.

So did Ernie's handwriting, which is so – ahem – unique, he feels pharmacists and doctors are better placed to decipher it than others who spend less time pushing a pen.

As his frustration built, Ernie – like “Peter” from last week's Who, Me? – decided a spot of revenge was in order.

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"During a coffee break, I managed to be in the classroom alone, and turned down the monitor brightness," he confessed.

Once the coffee break ended, Ernie and the other students returned to the classroom and, because his skulduggery had completely dimmed the monitors, took no notes.

"Eventually, the instructor twigged to the problem, and we had another somewhat extended coffee break while the instructor and tech support resolved the issue," Ernie admitted.

The instructor understood what had happened, and the atmosphere in the room was rather frosty for the remainder of the day.

Ernie came to regret his revenge.

"I hadn't thought it through," he admitted. "Having to keep a straight face for the remainder of the second week of the course was a test of self-control."

Have your tech-fuelled revenge plots rebounded? If so let us know with an email to Who, Me? ®