It wasn’t working,I swear!Credit:Istock
His real name is Ben,the show’s producer. Being 25,Ben has the i-Gen gift to decipher whatever glitch may thwart a digital migrant. Yet as soon as he moved from his cubicle,I saw the problem. Somehow my phone’s default address for the ABC omitted its au-ending. In two taps,the suffix fix was fixed.
Be it your car,your PC,your phone,your dishwasher,you know the scenario. It’s part of the human experience. Your apparatus is kaput. Baffled,you hail a guru,only for the fault to vanish. An expensive miracle,often,as gurus rightly charge for their services,despite the gadget behaving when they arrive.
We need a word for this,I tweeted – that knot that self-unravels the minute you get help. Brilliant suggestions poured in. High on the list was undetechtable – concocted by cookery queen and radio colleague,Alice Zaslavsky. Close behind were disapperror,evaporosis and probleft.
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Karl Quinn,a culture writer at this masthead,devised e-phemera,while neologist Terry Legg fancied POODATA – Problem Occurs Only During Absence of Technical Assistance. The acronym clicks with similar ideas,ranging from Schrodinger’s Engineering to vanical (a vanishing mechanical problem) to resolution by proximity.
“In software development,” explained one tweep,“we call this The Big Cardboard Ear. The moment you explain an unresolvable issue to anything/anyone – receptionist,waste bin,stray cat – the solution appears.” Crossword lovers,solving with friends,know all about the Big Cardboard Ear,a vocalised clue abruptly making sense.
Lexicographer Susie Dent,the umpire on UK’sCountdown,saved the day with a German word. “Vorführeffekt,” she shared,“or “demonstration effect” is the way your broken washing machine magically starts working when the technician appears,or your child’s hacking cough vanishes the moment you visit the doctor’s.”