Your best "what does this button do" story?

[FAST6191]

"What does this button do?" is surely a staple question among many here (one tends not to get into all this without at least a minor tendency towards curiosity) and many times that leads to odd outcomes. Share some of yours.

Might as well go first.
So it is many years ago and I am in a swimming pool with my dad and siblings. Weekend during school holidays and reasonably hot day so it is packed and I am waiting in line for... something (probably going to dive in). Anyway there is this slide button (from the bottom a vertical slide with large area to do it in) that I poke a little bit, move on, poke a little bit more, move on, poke a little bit more.
All of a sudden mass alarm. Everybody is getting out of the pools/being told to get out of the pool (and it was truly packed, we are talking hundreds of people now waiting around the side shivering and wondering what is going on) while lifeguards are peering into the bottom of the pool trying to figure out who is in trouble and none of them know (I guess normally one would send their own signal saying help me here).

Turns out nobody was. I had hit the person in trouble alarm and as this was at best the early 2000s then concepts like zone alarms were apparently not a thing, especially not in random small town leisure centre swimming pool.

They figured out which was the offending alarm but not who had done the deed. We were all still lined up (was not in the pool when it happened) so got a "we know it was one of you, don't do it again". I would like to say I was the true burgeoning scientist and "observe, test, repeat" was at the heart of my being but no. Went back to swimming and then went home. My dad somehow knew it was me (I suppose you don't inherit from strangers) and at some level found it amusing but was reminded of the incident for many years after that.

 

[JuanMena]

They figured out which was the offending alarm but not who had done the deed.

This part reminds me of this:


I don't think I've had a "What does this button does?" moment.
Except something like this with my niece:


Thinking about it, I've never encountered random buttons to press in the wild, and I'm guessing even if I did they wouldn't do something as amusing as turning on an alarm.
PS: I was expecting something like: "I pressed that button that brought a loud noise and couple firemen ready to turn off fire off the swimming pool", as usually buttons are to call Firemen.

 

[Alexander1970]

Your best "what does this button do" story?​

Funny....looking on todays Situation in Russia / Ukraine.....

So,actual,a really funny "Button" Story is the Book from Bruce Dickinson.
First Chapter - circling for 2 Hours over Murmansk.....

 

[Veho]

Went to a shipyard with my grampa when I was around 6-ish? While he was chatting with his pals there I was messing around with what turned out to be the lock on a chain that held a boat on the slipway. It's a multi-step lock with what industry assumed were plenty safety features, but I was bored and had plenty of time. By the time anyone noticed I had come to the final step before a (slightly premature) boat launch. Nothing spectacular, 5 tons or thereabouts, but it would have made a splash.
According to the foreman, there were employees there who couldn't figure it out, so everyone just assumed the lock was safe from my meddling hands. But as a wise man once said, “A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”

I wonder if they upped security since then.

 

[Creamu]

"What does this button do?" is surely a staple question among many here (one tends not to get into all this without at least a minor tendency towards curiosity) and many times that leads to odd outcomes. Share some of yours.

Might as well go first.
So it is many years ago and I am in a swimming pool with my dad and siblings. Weekend during school holidays and reasonably hot day so it is packed and I am waiting in line for... something (probably going to dive in). Anyway there is this slide button (from the bottom a vertical slide with large area to do it in) that I poke a little bit, move on, poke a little bit more, move on, poke a little bit more.
All of a sudden mass alarm. Everybody is getting out of the pools/being told to get out of the pool (and it was truly packed, we are talking hundreds of people now waiting around the side shivering and wondering what is going on) while lifeguards are peering into the bottom of the pool trying to figure out who is in trouble and none of them know (I guess normally one would send their own signal saying help me here).

Turns out nobody was. I had hit the person in trouble alarm and as this was at best the early 2000s then concepts like zone alarms were apparently not a thing, especially not in random small town leisure centre swimming pool.

They figured out which was the offending alarm but not who had done the deed. We were all still lined up (was not in the pool when it happened) so got a "we know it was one of you, don't do it again". I would like to say I was the true burgeoning scientist and "observe, test, repeat" was at the heart of my being but no. Went back to swimming and then went home. My dad somehow knew it was me (I suppose you don't inherit from strangers) and at some level found it amusing but was reminded of the incident for many years after that.

How did you feel with what happened, and what did you learn from this experience?

 

[FAST6191]

How did you feel with what happened, and what did you learn from this experience?

Like I had got away with murder and to always have a patsy.

 

[Creamu]

I have a story like this, but I dont want to share

 

[slaphappygamer]

I’m not that great at telling stories, but here it goes.

Me and my buddy were trying to open the trunk on a Porsche 911 (with permission, of course). We were about 17 and this was the teachers car. I got in the driver seat and started pulling levers that looked like they might open the trunk.

My buddy was at the ready, near the trunk. Here we are, carefully watching the trunk and listening for the latch to click.

If I remember right, the first lever was the brake. My buddy laughed as he continued to watch the trunk. We were pretty goofy together. The next lever was the tiny little door that covered the gas cap. I see my buddy peer over the front of the car and side-eye-stare down the side of the car. Looking at this tiny ass door that we never even noticed. We laughed so hard that we started to cry. We are expecting this big trunk to reveal itself, but didn’t get that.

Wow, this was almost 30 years ago now. Wonder where my buddy is now.

 

[Veho]

Wow, this was almost 30 years ago now. Wonder where my buddy is now.

He's still trying to get that trunk open.

 

[Deleted member 546149]

I wish I had a story

 

[Noctosphere]

Well iwas young, i saw that button on the wall
I fell an urge to press on it
So... I did...
Then, a light turned off
All of a sudden, everyone in the room yelled at me to press on the button again.
So... I did... Many times...
Then, a light started flashing
All of a sudden, everyone in the room yelled at me to stop pressing the button.
So... I did...
Then, the light stopped flashing... But stayed off...
All of a sudden, everyone yelled at me to press the button again ONCE...
I told them to do it themselves, that i was done with buttons...
Then, i saw another button.....

 

[Stealphie]

Not exactly a button, but close enough.
Some time ago I had gotten a PC, and the video wasn't displaying for some reason. I saw the voltage selector on the power supply and thought "maybe it's that?". I changed it. While the PC was still on. Yeah.

 

[slaphappygamer]

Not exactly a button, but close enough.
Some time ago I had gotten a PC, and the video wasn't displaying for some reason. I saw the voltage selector on the power supply and thought "maybe it's that?". I changed it. While the PC was still on. Yeah.

Making mistakes is how we learn and grow.

 

[Vila_]

When I was young me and my mom went to a jewellery shop, being an annoying kid I decided to go behind the counter while the grown ups where talking, and there it was...

Underneath the desk near the side was a small shiny rectangular box with a button in the middle, turns out it was one of those anti robbery buttons that sent a signal to the police station, the shop keeper had to quickly call them to tell them it was an error.

My mom wasn't amused in the slightest.

Moral of the story: if there is a shiny button in front of you, press it, it'll make for a good story in the future to tell to random internet users on a gaming forum at 1:24am

 

[chrisrlink]

When I was young me and my mom went to a jewellery shop, being an annoying kid I decided to go behind the counter while the grown ups where talking, and there it was...

Underneath the desk near the side was a small shiny rectangular box with a button in the middle, turns out it was one of those anti robbery buttons that sent a signal to the police station, the shop keeper had to quickly call them to tell them it was an error.

My mom wasn't amused in the slightest.

Moral of the story: if there is a shiny button in front of you, press it, it'll make for a good story in the future to tell to random internet users on a gaming forum at 1:24am

that reminds me of the rugrats bank episode imagine if you got a bad guy casing the store the police reconized even funnier

 

[impeeza]

Some day on my early 20s got to my office and we found what was a big job of the entry wall, and put a new fire alarm switch, those what have a acrylic window you supposed to break and then pull a lever to trigger.

but the constructors leave the panel open and at first sight it appears a machine switch on the wall surrounded by a box. I see the switch and could not contain myself then flip the little switch, milliseconds later all the building alarms go off, the "siren" was so loud what some of us start to get dizzy. I don't know how I do react (took me a while) and flip the switch back, then the sirens, alarms and lights stopped. but the civil defense and fire department evacuated all the building. while we wait outside on the encounter zone my office mates keeps looking at me with accuser eyes. The building managers and the boss of my bosses was so mad.

at the end the "official story" was a fire drill and until now no body beside the 4 of us on that office knows who was, but obviously on each reunion I have to buy a drink to all of them for "keeping silence"

That damn button has cost me a lot.

 

[x65943]

I once had a patient hit the code blue button, which is the "oh shit someone is dying" button and every doctor in the hospital ran to their room to try to save their life

It turned out it was an accident and he wasn't dying at all, but by God did that scare the hell out of me, and we all ran as fast as we could to get there

We had a good laugh after the fact of course

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

I was installing ubuntu 2 years ago as my first experience with linux. I did not know what "format" meant.

RIP 3 years worth of data

 

[FAST6191]

I was installing ubuntu 2 years ago as my first experience with linux. I did not know what "format" meant.

RIP 3 years worth of data

Worse is 2 years ago I can't imagine Ubuntu did not have all the warnings on such things (I know Mint of 2 years ago did and that is a derivative so yeah).

Though perhaps worse than that is most formatting will not have been overwriting sectors (did it take many hours?) so while some things might have been lost it could just as easily have been recoverable with simple free software.