It was around 1999. We were developing large-scale computer based training on CD ROMs. They were basically page-flippers with the odd interactive quiz and in many cases were thousands of 'pages' long.

On each page of the training there was a picture, a paragraph of black text, and between 6-10 pieces of blue flyout text with arrows pointing to different parts of the picture.

Just before we reached project gold, our client came to us with a very bizarre request : "Delete all the blue text".

I composed an email to her, asking her very carefully if that is what she really wanted. "Are you SURE you want all the blue text deleted?"

She was adamant. "Yes, all the blue text must be deleted."

I could not let this change go without giving her one last chance. "I just want to make 100% sure that you want all of the blue flyout text to be deleted. I am sorry to keep asking, but this is going to take up to 2 weeks and I just want to double-double check on a change of such magnitude."

"Yes, we have all discussed it and agreed that the blue text must be deleted. I understand that it will take 2 weeks. Please make the change."

Well, away we went, and it did take 2 weeks. We had to go into each page one-by-one, select each piece of blue text and delete it. It was non stop selecting and deleting for 10 work days. We triumphantly presented the final gold version of the CD ROM to the client, satisfied that there would be no more changes.

She absolutely freaked when she saw the blue text gone : "WHERE IS ALL THE FLYOUT TEXT?! WHY IS ALL THE TEXT MISSING?!?! WE CANNOT BEGIN THE CD DUPLICATION PROCESS WITH ALL THE FLYOUT TEXT MISSING! PHONE ME RIGHT AWAY!"

Hesitantly, I called her to ask what the problem was. I started the conversation by pointing out that I carefully gave her 2 extra chances to ensure that she wanted the blue text deleted.

She paused, drew the longest breath that I've heard, and shouted into the phone "NO YOU IDIOT! I JUST WANTED YOU TO DELETE THE BLUE OFF THE TEXT! YOU KNOW, MAKE THE TEXT BLACK!"