Pronounced peb-kack, this charming acronym stands for Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about this occupational hazard for tech writers, tech support staff, and users of technical documentation:
User Error and related phrases such as PEBKAC (“Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair”), PICNIC (“Problem In Chair Not In Computer”), PIBCAK (“Problem Is Between Chair And Keyboard”) or ID-10T error (“Idiot error”) are also used as slang in technical circles with a derogatory meaning.[1][2] This usage implies a lack of computer savvy, asserting that problems arisen when using a device are the fault of the user. Critics of the term argue that the problems are caused instead by a device designed in such a way that it induces errors.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_error
It’s one of the joys of our job to poke fun at our end users, but who among us hasn’t had a PEBKAC moment of our own? I invite you to share a story from either end of the PEBKAC spectrum. To start things off, here’s one of my less stellar moments:
I had just purchased a great new wireless keyboard and mouse, plugged the thingie into the USB port, and was ready to go. Everything seemed to be working fine as I typed some exploratory text. So I dialed in to my client’s site using my regular remote access log-in. So far, so good. Then I started running the client’s software on my remote desktop. The software requires a username and password in ALLCAPS, and both the username and password are masked with asterisks. I tried logging in, and it didn’t work. I tried again, and got the same error message. Since software under development is often buggy, and sometimes the system goes down, I sent out an email to the whole team to find out if anyone else was having trouble logging in. I got back a bunch of messages, and guess what? PEBKAC! It turned out that during the remote log-in, my keyboard was set from ALLCAPS back to non-ALLCAPS, but the Caps Lock indicator was backwards. So I was logging in using lowercase letters. Was my face red! Especially when I had to send an email to the whole group explaining my error. At least a few people got to laugh at my expense that day.
This story kicks off the 2011 program year for STC CWC. Join in the forum fun and share a PEBKAC story of your own! :-)
