In honor of Friday the 13th, we decided to investigate some technological superstitions that have, on more than one occasion, made us fear that the machine revolt has just begun. The bad news is that many strange superstitions have a grain of truth in them. The good news is: that there is nothing to fear (usually). So let's gather around the glow of a computer screen and immerse ourselves in the world of technological folklore!
1. The printer senses our fear
We've all been in this situation at some point – the printer works perfectly until you need to print something urgently. Although there is no scientific evidence that printers can sense our emotions, the urgent task of printing documents very often reveals problems we hadn't noticed before - such as low ink levels or paper jams.
2. Saying "It's Working Fine" Jinxes It
The moment we complacently boast that our code or solution works as it should, completely unexpectedly something goes wrong! Unfortunately, it's not magic caused by ‘forbidden words’. The blame here lies primarily with our tendency to deceive ourselves and weaken our vigilance.
3. USB Plugs Always Take Three Tries
It’s uncanny how often it takes three attempts to plug in a USB and realise that it is the first attempt that should succeed. This ‘superstition’ is primarily due to the design of USB plugs, which can be very confusing at first glance
4. Blowing on Cartridges Fixes Them
Although a trick from the days of Nintendo cartridges would not work with modern developments and technology, the principle of clearing connections to improve performance is as valid as ever.
5. The IT Guy's Mere Presence Fixes Issues
Sometimes it seems that problems are solved as soon as IT support arrives. This ‘magic’ is most often due to the reassuring presence of an expert, which leads to obvious problems or mistakes being more easily spotted.
6. Restarting Solves Everything
In fact, this is no superstition or conjuring up reality – a reboot really does solve a lot of technical problems, clearing temporary files or resetting processes.
7. Phones Always Ring When You're in the Bathroom
This is not true, but it has certainly happened to everyone at some point. The frustration of being called at the wrong time makes the situation much more memorable than hundreds of phone calls under normal circumstances.
8. Autocorrect Has a Vendetta Against You
It may seem like autocorrect wants to shame us and this is the start of a machine revolt, but it's really just algorithms struggling with context and personal linguistic quirks.
9. Watching a Download Makes It Slower
In fact, this is not entirely a myth. Continuous refreshing and watching the progress bar can sometimes use up system resources, potentially slowing down the system and the download process.
10. Caps Lock is Always On When Typing Passwords
Anger at the function key can stem primarily from the fact that we cannot see the characters we are typing into the password field, which makes it harder for us to spot some obvious errors, and we shift our anger and the reason for the error to innocent keys that happen to be at hand.
11. Your Laptop's Battery Dies Faster Outside
This has nothing to do with the increasing distance from your favourite charging socket and the lack of a charger in your backpack. Battery life can indeed drop faster outdoors due to screen brightness adjustment and potential network connectivity issues.
12. The Blue Screen of Death Appears at the Worst Times
Can we identify the BEST time for such a message to appear? Critical errors can happen at any time, but they are most frustrating when we are most focused on our work - and this happens when we are performing a very important task.
13. Saying "Enhancing" Makes Images Clearer
Although the “enhance” command that appears in crime movies and TV series seems just a quaint cliché to push the plot, modern tools based on artificial intelligence mean that fiction may soon become reality.
It is worth remembering that although the above ‘superstitions’ may sometimes seem implausibly real, there is usually a perfectly logical explanation behind them. Therefore, it is advisable to be vigilant, calm and open to all possibilities and not lose your perspicacity! We sincerely hope that no technological curses ever get you down again.
