Kernel 32, in the library, with a computer

I don't know if you'll find this funny, but, to me, it's simply hysterical.

I do a lot of what I call pro bono computer consulting for ladies and gentlemen of a certain age. Most of them are my mother's friends, and they're all on fixed income.

Mom volunteers me for everything from: "sure, she'll be glad to design a 5 page web site for you for free" to "sure, she can fix your 20 year old hard drive." I even change light bulbs.

Anyway, there's one of my "clients" who has a corrupted kernel 32 file. The last time I visited my mom, I made the rounds. I tried to fix this problem by downloading one from the MS website, but the old corrupted file would not let the new one overwrite it. Very frustrating.

This is an abandoned, unsupported Windows version so basically, the dear lady is screwed. With no money to purchase a new computer, I managed to get it working, for the most part. She can still use it for email and Internet, but other applications lock it up.

I explained the problems to her and told her about kernel 32.

Yesterday, I got this phone call. Excitedly, the lady with the kernel 32 problem told me a message had appeared on her computer, and she wanted to read it to me so I could tell her what it meant. She starts reading the kernel 32 general protection fault message.

I gently interrupted and told her that this was what I was talking about when I explained to her why her computer would not work properly. I asked, "Do you remember my telling you about that?"

In a confused voice, she said, "Oh, yes. I remember you talking about Colonel 32, and I remember wondering what branch of the service he was in."