Anyone in an IT department has received “that phone call” from someone at work with a computer emergency. These range anywhere from “pretty sure I just deleted my hard drive on my computer” to “my computer screen is black and no lights are on, what do I do?!” These phone calls are all too common, here’s mine:

It was a nice sunny afternoon in Salt Lake City when a phone call interrupted the music blaring in my corner of the office, it was Dave. His voice was a little shake when he said, “Do you wanna come back here and see the funniest thing you’ve seen today?” I was confused, but agreed to our meeting in his office. As I walked back to his office many thoughts went through my head about hilarious YouTube videos or Dilbert cartoons…boy was I wrong. As I approach Dave’s office surrounded by glass walls I get a glimpse of his desk which is lacking the usual lit 24″ iMac screen….then I get concerned. Upon entering his office I see his large iMac being held vertically in his hands and the dreaded words, “I accidentally put the SD Card in the DVD slot, and now I can’t get it out.” As he said these words I was taken back and fell to my…. OK enough of the drama…

This was not your typical IT Phone Call so I quickly had to think of some ideas. My first thought was to use a trick that I learned while trying to get 2 (yes, 2) discs out of my MacBook Pro that my son had forced in there. The trick is to wrap packing tape around a credit card (sticky side out) and try to grab it that way. Well, that didn’t work so it was time for the iMac to get back into the vertical position so we could get this thing out. After a little tipping back and forth and some great work by Dave and his little screw driver it came out.

That’s my story. Here’s Dave’s visual representation: