|
Tech Stories Archives - September 2011
|
2.
My CEO, Part I
So, my CEO could easily be diagnosed as bipolar, if this person were to ever seek out professional assistance. Instead of the gory details, I will simply share with you the amusing anecdotes - i.e., the things that will, if you are paying attention, illicit face-palms, gasps, whispers of "my boss has said that", etc., purely for your amusement. These items I share are not the worst of what she's done, for my loyalty lies with her majesty, and she obviously is ruling over us by the grace of god. God save the queen, here we go:
My CEO, Part I:
A meeting with myself, a telecom vendor, and her majesty, the CEO. Her majesty and I are seated, the telecom vendor enters from the right and sits opposite us at a small oval table.
Her Majesty: "Hello, thank you for joining us to answer a few questions. I am happy with what I have seen; I am just unclear on a couple things that I was hoping to get from our new phone system."
Monsieur Telecom: "I am so happy to be here. It is so nice to finally meet you in person."
Her Majesty: "Blurp has had nothing but great things to say about you."
Blurp: Shrinks back slightly, thinks to himself "Actually, what I said was, this is the only vendor we could afford. They seem capable enough, but I wasn't very happy when Monsieur Telecom said 'I look forward to this challenge.' I don't want this to be a challenge for anyone. I want it to go off without a hitch." Blurp grins sheepishly at Monsieur Telecom.
Monsieur Telecom: "And I have enjoyed working with Blurp. I feel very solid about this package we've put together for you. I think that we all will make a great team."
Blurp: Turns more pale than his usual pallor. Feels a bit of gall working its way up his digestive system.
Her Majesty: "Excellent. So, I want every call to show to the recipient of the call the actual phone number of the staff person calling. You know, so that if they want to call our staff directly back, they know what number to dial."
Monsieur Telecom: Pauses momentarily. "Oh, yes, caller ID, that will just happen automatically, we do not need to do anything special to make that work - it's built right in to the system."
Blurp: Cringing at what comes next.
Her Majesty: "Excellent. And we also want to only show our main number - we do not want the recipient of the call to know how to directly dial back to the person who called them - we feel that it will present a more professional image if they just see our main toll free number. Is that possible?"
Monsieur Telecom: Glances at Blurp, who is staring intently at the table in front of him. Glances back at Her Majesty. Back to Blurp who is still avoiding eye contact. A few painful moments later, "Yes... I believe we can accommodate your needs."
Her Majesty: "Excellent. I was so hoping you would say that. Blurp didn't thing you could make this work. But I knew that it was possible, no matter what Blurp said."
[By: blurp / 2011-09-02]
Comment on Story
Comments
Argh. So the the last line shoud read: "Blurp didn't think you could make this work..." Not "Blurp didn't thing..." -blurp
BTW, since this is a true story of something that actually happened, the names have been changed. Clearly, the telecom vendor's name was not Monsieur Telecom, but was actually Mister Telecom. I realize that you, as readers of this, are not end users and do not need the over explanation. But, I cannot help it. It is habit and I would not be able to sleep tonight without overexplaining the obvious. And, yes, this actually did happen. Pretty much verbatim. I hate my job. Please, someone save me.
-blurp
Ow, that bus went rtf over you... -Madrigorne
umm... caller ID and showing a single outgoing number... isn't that Standard? -Harm
I wouldn't worry about how Mister Telecom perceives you - the way she worded her questions makes it obvious who is really ignorant about telecom. (What she's asking for you can get without any PBX - you can get that direct from the LEC!) - Captain Trips
Harm, I think the issue is that the CEO asked for calls to show the employee's direct line on the Caller ID instead of the main company line, and at the same time, only show the the main line on the Caller ID and not the employee's direct line. -DukeOfURL
I got from this - Caller ID available on all internal phone.
extrenal Caller ID shows main line ( no individual direct line / extension) -Harm
Actually, I get from this that CEO wants caller ID to show individual agents numbers when they call out, and also wants caller ID to show front desk number when individual agents call out. I would suggest that the way around this, if Monsieur Telecom's brain hasn't exploded, is Harm's solution: anything that hits an external line shows main front desk number, anything in-house shows direct line. Her Majesty, if she quibbles, can be shown the instance that she's currently looking for... -chazz
So she'd like tea and not-tea at the same time? -McSmiley
|
|
4.
nt/ot: R.I.P. Tim
Sorry to bring anyone down, but I feel this group is sort of an extended family of mine.
R.I.P., Tim Petrovsky.
Today marks one full year since we lost him. And the emptiness doesn't go away.[By: Captain Trips / 2011-09-02]
Comment on Story
Comments
*hugs* -pixel
No, it doesn't. It just gets slightly less painful in time. Hugs. -wylfwt
I can't imagine what you're going through. My boys are only 6 and 3 - but they'll get a few extra hugs tonight! -Divinar
Thanks, guys. We got through it okay, with some tears and some sorrow, but also living life. (We went to "The World Famous Sandy Eggo Zoo") -Captain Trips
|
|
5.
Um, anybody home?
There's been no stories for two mornings now! Where is everyone? <peers in Lart shelter>[By: Enzedder / 2011-09-05]
Comment on Story
Comments
In North America, today is Labor Day, the last three-day weekend before school starts and the grind once again becomes daily. An awful lot of us techs, particularly the ones with techlings, take the chance to get the heck out of town, as we won't have another chance until March or so... -chazz
Want part of the USA do you live in that school does no start until after Labor Day? Where I am, school now starts like the second week in August... -Griffin2020
Griffin: Try all of Canada -- I did say North America. And in Florida it seems to start 1 Sep. -chazz
most school districts in the seattle area are starting school today (sept 6th). Oh $deity the morning commute just got worse. -areatech
chazz: Not around here. It started 2 or 3 weeks ago, depending on what county -DarkRookie
|
|
6.
Since there's no stories...
Thanks to Dante666 for reminding me of this little gem from the past. I'm not sure if I've told the story before, but if I have, it's way back in the archive.
A long time ago in a job far far away, there was a pointed-haired boss. I think he was slipped in sideways as software manager where he could do the least amount of damage. We more or less ran ourselves anyway, and he didn't have to be in sales where he might scare the customers.
The device we made was a SCADA system. It talked to all the stuff controlling big industrial plant and displayed pretty pictures on video screens with fluid levels in vats going up and down and valves turning on. One feature we added was an API that let customers interface to our product and read the values of the plant signals.
One day as a bit of fun I wrote a small application that waited for something to happen and then played a WAV file. It was fun and maybe even useful. The sales people liked it and thought it could be saleable. There was an exhibition coming up at which we had a stand, and they decided that they wanted to include my application in the show. I made a few demonstration WAV files, "Valve Open", "Valve Closed", "Warning" sort of stuff. It showed what could be done, but it was obvious we needed to record the files in a quiet environment with better microphone.
So on the eve of the show, a decent microphone was found, and the PHB ensconced himself in his corner office to record some files. All well and good. The sales team headed out to the exhibition with everything they needed.
The time of the show arrived, and I managed to arrange a day out on the last day to have a look around. It's research you understand, nothing like a jolly, or a chance to bag swag. Anyway I turned up at our stand to see how things were going, and asked about my pet application. It seemed there was a problem. The sales team played me the WAV files they had received from the PHB. They were all "Hello", "Can you hear me Mother?", "I'm a little teapot". Not one of them even referred to a valve or a warning, or anything industrial nor even professional. Every one was useless.
My fun little app was quietly shelved. [By: rurwin / 2011-09-05]
Comment on Story
Comments
Should be Dante668 of course, and there's an article missing. -rurwin
|
|
7.
Mr One Way
Client: "I have those files ready to send. How would you like me to send the files? Use YouSendIt?". Me: "FTP, like you used last time, would be preferable. Here's the login details again". Client: "Here's a YouSendIt link". Why ask? Argh![By: modeski / 2011-09-06]
Comment on Story
Comments
What's the link? Come on... publish it for the world to share... What? -spectreoflife
SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE -DarkRookie
|
|
8.
What's next ? NT/OT
We've had earthquakes (yes, plural) A hurricane Floods, (again, plural) it's not like the hurricane wasn't enough, it's going to be raining for the next 3 days And now, this weekend brought us another new thing, our very own tornado This can only leave one to wonder... And this is all within the last month, what's next ? Locusts ?[By: Spyder19 / 2011-09-06]
Comment on Story
Comments
pestilance, war, famine and .DEATH.. alonge with Ronnie Soak - but he left the gruop beore they were famous, and then we have : Treading in Dogshit (formerly All Foreigners Especially The French, formerly Things Not Working Properly Even When You’ve Given Them a Good Thumping, never actually No Alcohol Lager, briefly Embarrassing Personal Problems, formerly known as Skuzz), Grievous Bodily Harm, Cruelty to Animals and Really Cool People -Harm
someone has been reading good omens -DedSysOp
When are you Tea Partiers gonna take the Holy Hint? (I keed; I keed) *eg* -RiffRaff
Well according to this, a supernova... http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/09/how-to-spot-a-supernova/ -unrenowned
Just remember, "there's no such thing as climate change". -Stryker One
I guess we know the Zombie Apocalypse will start near Spyder19. -MisterCommon
"There's no such thing as climate change"... It's fucking supernovas. You wanna talk about climate change ? Try having a fucking supernova at your Block Party. That'll heat the place up. AND we really need to stop raising cows on foreign stars, or we need to figure to how to stop them from farting on them -Spyder19
SMOG!!!!! -hymie
North wind blow! South Wind blow! Typhoon! Hurricane...... SSSMMOOOGGG!! (Elmer Fudd as viking in that cartoon) -JoeLugian
"A second flood, a simple famine, plagues of locust everywhere/or a cataclysmic earthquake I'd accept with some despair/But no, sir, you sent us Congress/Good God, Sir, was that fair?" - John Adams, "1776" -VoiceOfSanity
Nobody is saying that there is no such thing as climate change. The argument is that Anthropomorphic Climate change is much less severe than the Al Gores of the world would have us believe. And neither Iceland nor Antarctica are going to fall off into the ocean. Yes, the planet is warming, but it has been warming (naturally) since approx 17-18000 years ago. There have been periods of slight cooling (little ice ages), with the last one ending in about 1850. -Griffin2020
But the IPCC and several other worldwide organizations are massaging the data to make it look much, much worse than it is. No clue as to why...except politics. Or maybe Racecar. -Griffin2020
Take your lies somewhere else, Griffin. -thx1138
thx1138: I'm very much afraid that Griffin is backed up by recent (past couple of weeks) science, not widely reported because it is politically incorrect to say it's not our fault, but... I'll find the reference and post here. In the meanwhile, perhaps we should not stoop to ad hominem attacks? -chazz
I so do love stirring the pot. -Stryker One
Must be the east coast...maybe someone's trying to get the politicians in Washington and missing. -Starfury
Griffin, it's a natural ebb and flow. I remember back in the 70's the scientists were talking about entering the next Ice Age. They can't predict the weather as far as 12 hours out, why would I believe that they can be anymore accurate when it comes to decades ? -Spyder19
My vote is for scantily clad dancing zombie air hostesses who'll attempt to eat your brain while singing songs from Ricky Horror or Shock Treament or Little Shop of Horrors... -ChildofCthulhu
do they Have to be Zombie? what about cannibles? -Harm
SMAUG!!!! -FuzzyElf
What hurricane? I saw the North East get hit with a big thunder storm. No hurricane. -DarkRookie
|
|
9.
G-Mail Compromised?
Just a heads up folks..........
Looks like G-mail may have been hacked.
I work for a small Canadian ISP and have had a half dozen calls this morning where people are unable to log into thier Gmail until they reset the password.
I appear to have been one of them myself.
Had to reset my own password to get into my main account.
My backup junk account for signing up for stuff online appears to have been unaffected.
Once I got into my account, it said I was logged in at another location from a spoofed IP.
[By: Eryke / 2011-09-08]
Comment on Story
Comments
huh. ill have t keep an eye on it - i havent had a password error as of yet. -Harm
I haven't had any problems yet, either, but I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks for the heads-up! -Seamyst
Looks like one of my friends got him too. I'm now getting spam from her account....... two messages so far -Eryke
Though it's possible, I find it unlikely that gmail itself has been hacked. If the compromised accounts are all owned by users of your ISP, I'd say it's possible someone has set up a successful MITM or is somehow sniffing the traffic on your tubes.
If you start hearing about this happening at other ISPs, though, all bets are off. -NightSteel
...or, possibly, some kind of phishing campaign is at work. -NightSteel
On a related note, here's a neat page with instructions for looking at your own gmail account activity for signs of anything bad: http://www.friedbeef.com/how-to-check-if-your-gmail-account-has-been-hacked/ -NightSteel
Haven't seen any issue so far..... Have you ruled out MITM? -Enzedder
One of my 7 accounts had activity from Poland, China and Russia all within minutes. Good thing it was a throw away account. But it wasn't an easy to guess password... -unrenowned
I've had a friend who had his account hacked. Mine? Good luck figuring out the password, and I do monitor activity on my accounts on a regular basis. -VoiceOfSanity
A couple weeks ago, I had activity from Egypt on my Gmail account. Changed my password, of course. >_> -Omega
|
|
10.
Alas poor C:\, I knew him well
I'm in the middle of brushing my teeth, yes us Brits do do that, when low and behold the Phone ringeth. I of course descend to answer and am greeted with silence, followed by the sound of a phone ringing... ..what the? [Thick Indian Accent] "Hello sir, we have detected a problem with your computer which you are using to browse the internet web pages. There is a problem on its C Drive, could you turn it on so that we can show you the problem?" [Incongruous Received Pronunciation Accent] "What OS do you think I'm running?" "I'm sorry?" "Which Operating System do you think I am running?" "Windows...?" "That's funny, I'm running Linux." "Your running Linux, ok sir sorry for disturbing you.." "Uh huh." And with that the phone handset was crassly combined with its cradle. Scammers, its annoying when you don't get a chance to rant (at some length about the differences in folder structure between a Windows and Unix-like environment) at them.[By: Vie / 2011-09-09]
Comment on Story
Comments
Hate these guys - got phoned by them the other night... not even sure who I can report them to. Non-tech members of my family have had the calls too, but have at least had the sense to contact me before doing anything they asked. -Shaede
m answer " Which one? no WHICH SYSTEM OF MANY have you theoretically detected a problem on?" -Harm
I'm Sorry MY TI-99/4a does not have a c:\ Drive! -deedadee
I only have 4 operating systems I run on my computer... which one are you calling about? Windows? Which version of Windows are you calling about? XP? I'm sorry, that sits on a removable drive and is not connected, thanks for playing today.
-VoiceOfSanity
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20071568-83/scammers-turning-to-phone-calls-to-gain-pc-access/ -ravensentinel
From the article RavenSentinal posted: "...the cost of fixing the subsequent damage to the PC was $1,730 on average and as high as $4,800." That's a fuckton of money for a nuke-n-pave. They must be getting the Geek Squad to fix 'em, then give up and buy a new computer. -SalParadise
you're doing this backwards, don't pretend to be knowledgeable, pretend to be stupid and waste as much time as you can. -Icelator
I love pretending to be an idiot when they phone, we kept getting calls from a phone company (rhymes with walkwalk) who seemed to try to want me to switch to them even though they seemed to be saying they were from a different company "BT". Kept them on the line for a while while they explained the concepts of internet and broadband which I had never heard of before:) Also used to enjoy having my 4 year old answer the phone and he'd keep asking to speak to Grampy:) -Thokas
One choice is, "Admit it! Admit it! You're the kidnappers! I want my child back! Give me my child back!", then spoken to the side, "I don't care if you're tracing the line- tell them to give me my child back!" I don't think they'll call back. -Voz
OR play hard core pornography at max level. "Can a speak to So and So" " Hold on - i'll see if they are available" * Blast hardcore pr0n at slightly higher than normal levels * turn down quikly " Umm they are tied up at the moment - can i take a message?" they NEVER call back. -Harm
I have a throwaway "snapshot" Windows VM I use for playing around with these stooges when they call my online "virtual" phone number (infrequently). It completely messes with them when I finally say: "Thanks for staying on the line with me for so long, it let some co-workers find you through your nifty drop-line. Oh, by the way, I guess I forgot to tell you I work for the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security." The cursing I've heard is legendary.... -Grue
Since when is social engineering a new thing? -Stryker One
They're doing WHAT? By phone?? But wait, how the hell can it cost $1730 *on average* to repair "damaged" computers??? "Yes, ma'am, with a hammer. No ma'am, as hard as you can. It's very important." WTF? -FuzzyElf
if they are paying for data recovery due to not having a back up of their stuff. -Harm
Last one that called me I told him I didn't have a computer. I think he was a bit taken aback. -aeddan
|
|
11.
All is Known
New Sales Girl has been calling a client trying to demonstrate our product, and he keeps blowing her off. Today she called in and got his subordinate, who said, "You should be able to talk to him today. Fridays he comes in late and plays Solitaire on the computer until noon, so don't believe him when he says he's busy."[By: ActingUpAgain / 2011-09-09]
Comment on Story
Comments
always keep your admin assistants happy - for they know all and essentially Run everything. -Harm
Ditto nurses. -LDFeral
Just like the school secretary when you're a kid. I was an AA for three years and had a fantastic bunch to work with... other than the woman who sat across from me, who dumped her passwords on my desk one Wednesday morning and ran out of the office never to be seen again... but that's another story. -AnneBWalsh
...and it sounds like a good one Anne - share! -TheCyberwolfe
Department I worked in had one big boss, five little bosses, and fifty-odd people under them. I was the AA for the five little bosses and the fifty-odd people. Other woman (call her Dee) was responsible only for big boss. Big boss was a demanding kind of lady, but not unreasonable or rude. Dee was... we'll say skittish. Over the six months we worked together, she got more and more unpredictable and emotional, until I was actually praying that she would call off. One day she snapped and literally ran out of the office after tossing her passwords on my desk. Left a semi-hysterical voicemail on big boss's phone at 4 AM the next day confirming she'd quit. I managed everything in the department for the next month until a temp could be hired. -AnneBWalsh
|
|
12.
Just what I needed.
Date: 12th September 2011.
Time: 09:33:00.
Location: Mission Control, Gromit's Retreat, UK (bottom right-hand corner).
Weather: Pissing down. Having finished last week by administering the Last Rites to yet another long-standing customer that has gone into administration and helping them hide...er....relocate as much of their IT gear as they think they can get away with before the administrators move in, I was sitting in Mission Control contemplating the forthcoming (largely workless) week with a somewhat jaundiced eye. Sooner than sit here idly waiting for the phone to ring I thought I'd catch up with TSC whilst waiting for something dynamic to happen. On calling up the TSC Main Page I was stunned to see the legend "Special Thanks to Gromit for becoming a Star Member Today!" plastered across the top. Y'know, I've said this many times before, but this site is really something special. VERY MANY THANKS to the anonymous donor of my star - it's really cheered me up at a time when there ain't a lot of chuckles around. I shall do my best to increase my input here and pass the karma on. Have a great week, people.
[By: Gromit
/ 2011-09-12 ]
Comment on Story
Comments
Ah, the old 486 server case filled with bricks? -smellystudent
Congrats on the planter-widening, and good luck to ya! -Grue
|
|
13.
In serious need of a visit from Otis
http://notalwaysright.com/losing-faith-in-humanity-bit-by-bit/13719
Now who's the useless one here? [By: Stryker One
/ 2011-09-12 ]
Comment on Story
Comments
Holy shit! They are getting dumber by the second! *looks longingly into outer space* *points finger at nearest known black hole* I want to go there!! -unrenowned
|
|
14.
When will then be now? Soon...
Seems like everyone in my department is having a Spaceballs the video tape moment today, and I was no exception.
I got thrown a ticket from one of the Helldesk people, who mistook the status inquiry I wrote on said ticket back in May for my in-depth involvement on it. And since Little Miss Cleanliness was originally assigned the ticket, we were all confused as to why it was closed 3 months ago, when the work was never done to begin with.
It also didn't help that she was on vacation last week and this week, which is convenient since tomorrow is when the contractor was sceduled to come and install the software Radiology paid $insaneAmount for. I got the stuff done, notated on the ticket that it had to be re-opened & done by someone else at the last minute.[By: skippytpodar
/ 2011-09-13 ]
Comment on Story
Comments
I knew it! You're surrounded by assholes. -flapjackboy
Prease meet my family: Ah So Long, Ah So Dong, Ah So Dum, Ah So.... -CyBear
|
|
16.
Sometimes you just gotta laugh...
Last week, we switched over from our own in-house help desk to a Regional help desk that supports 17 other sites. We knew there would be kinks and that there would be some things that slipped through the cracks.
Perfect example: Someone called the Help Desk this morning to complain that when they went to Yahoo Mail, it said their browser was not up to date, and wanted to have her browser updated. Yes, this was an actual ticket assigned to us. No, the Regional help desk does not consist of contractors, these are actual employees of ours who have read the same mandates we have. Those mandates state quite clearly we cannot under any circumstances help users with their private e-mail accounts, and under no circumstances are people to use third-party e-mail addresses whatsoever for business in our facilities, especially considering we have a national Exchange cluster that would be more than adequate for whatever business needs they desired...[By: skippytpodar
/ 2011-09-15 ]
Comment on Story
Comments
Kick that bullshit right back to them, and threaten dismemberment should it ever happen again. -AmazingKreskin
... and i have highlighted the reveant parts of the documentation , which explicitly states WHY i'm NOT helping you. -Harm
Way ahead of you. Already notified the head of the help desk about it, and just to cross my T's and dot my I's, I made sure that this lady really was talking about her personal e-mail. -skippytpodar
Hrmmm....AD Users and Computers...then navigate to user account....disable. "Why yes, it should be working for you now!" -ravensentinel
you can always block yahoo mail altogether at your firewall/ proxy server. -McSmiley
So, what's the site ma'am? Uhuh. Username? Password? Hmm, let me see...... <deletes everything>, nope, can't see anything here at all.... sorry. -Enzedder
Asking for a browser update does not necessarily equate to help with personal email. You shouldn't be running out of date browsers anyway. Also, it doesn't sound like she said she was using this account for business. It may have been omitted from the story, but it was probably a personal account. Unless your company has a policy against accessing personal email while at work, there's technically nothing wrong with the request for a browser update. -ThinkGuy
If it was yay-who mail, I would put dollars to donuts that it was personal. I have yet to find a company that uses that for corporate messaging...I'm just saying... -Griffin2020
If it was yay-who mail, I would put dollars to donuts that it was personal. I have yet to find a company that uses that for corporate messaging...I'm just saying... -Griffin2020
Griffin is correct. She freely admitted she was trying to access her Yahoo Mail for personal use. I flat out told her we don't support people's personal e-mail addresses in any way, shape, or form, and if she wanted to view her personal e-mail, to do so at home, since the browser version on the PC's is determined by us, not by one single person outide the IT department who wants to view her personal e-mail account on work time, at a work computer and using her work's internet connection. -skippytpodar
|
|
17.
Your doing it wrong!
So the company I work for has a few open positions. One of these positions is in inside sales. I was asked to take a look at an email one of our managers got from someone trying to email in their resume. The problem is the attachment has been Quarantined.
So instantly I'm thinking *prospective employee likely sent in an open office type attachment and our mail server is likely stripping it off the email.
Nope, it's even worse than that. Said prospective employee is sending her resume in via a .pages file. I'm like WTF? is .pages. Turns out it's an Apple word processor layout program.
So I advised the manager of the file issue, they shrugged there shoulders and went o well.
Please people send out your resume's in a common file format like .doc. And if you’re in IT and your sending stuff like this out. I think it may be time to try another profession. :P
[By: squirrelhunt / 2011-09-15]
Comment on Story
Comments
most job posters i see usualy state " Please send resume / cover letter / first born in .doc,.RTF or .PDF" just to avoid that problem. -Harm
I like the policy of "use a common format or you are an idiot and don't deserve the job" -gashach
Your email address can make a difference to the reception too. I'm not just talking about hotmail here. Addresses you created 5 years ago when overdosed on the hormones of adolescence - like "myjugs44d@..." and "loverboy@..." may not be helpful, even if they are that big and very nice. Someone who fancies themselves as a love machine will not help an office run smoothly! -Holdfast
Holdfast - We rejected a clerical applicant partially because of her poorly written resume - but the email address of TequillaGrl19xx@ didn't help any. -Divinar
I want to disagree here. .doc is not a format. .doc is a mess which is incompatible with itself. But if you insist on requiring a .doc file, I will go to my oldest PoS computer and use a Word for DOS and give you a .doc file with the required info. Of course, no one would be able to read it. (before you ask: I used PDF or RTF files in my applications) -Fortytwo
Ironically, my weird email actually got me a job 10 years ago. I did not realize that one of the job boards was sending out my personal email address and I applied for a helpdesk job with a return email of swedishchef@isp.com. The HR person saw the email name, verified the resume met their needs, and called me for an interview just to find out the story behind the email address. Granted, a very rare occurrence, but not *all* strange email names are bad. -SwedishChef
my email address is pretty inconspicuouse.. i've had to explain it a few times though. -Harm
I have an alias to my email address which I use for jobhunting... I would not want to explain the jumble of numbers and letters in my real one. That however was not clever as a recruiter (they actually landed me this job) searched in resumes on that site via what appears to be google translate and it translated parts of the email address... (however, the longer I think of this story the more I want to send a .tex resume at one point just to confuse people :) ) -Fortytwo
So sending out resumes from donkey.punch_buttplug@gmail.com address is bad? -VIPERsssss
I recently used Pages '09 to make a series of very professional reports. They were sent to the customer as PDFs. -Chromatix
My job-hunting email is firstname @ lastname.net - and there is a matching facebook profile with a few pics, 3 friends, and no posts. -Divinar
|
|
18.
That didn't take long
Since moving over to the Regional Help Desk, Mr. 33 Years has had the darnedest time logging into the new ticket system. That alone has provided some hilarity, seeing as he has been complaining endlessly about how much it sucks. He's been going around to everyone, insisting they log in for him, print out all the tickets (sound familiar) so he can work.
What's really hilarious is that he has been calling the managers of the Help Desk so much to complain, and is insisting they personally help him, that they've stopped taking his calls altogether. Bear in mind, this is only a week after we switched over. He has yet to get the hint, and I imagine their voicemail system is more than half full from him alone.[By: skippytpodar
/ 2011-09-15 ]
Comment on Story
Comments
Does this guy have some serious dirt on somebody in a high-up place or is it really that difficult to get rid of him?!
-BayouTech
Since it's (un)Civil Service (at least that's my estimate, given the hints Skippy's left here), yes... it's very hard to get rid of someone. Once you get past the probationary period, it takes a LOT of documentation in order to remove someone out of Civil Service, especially when they get up around the GS-12 and higher levels. I know, I worked for a while at a Navy facility, we had a GS-14 who was the source of a lot of virus outbreaks... but I couldn't do anything but document the incidents. I wanted to give him an Etch-A-Sketch, but they wouldn't let me...
-VoiceOfSanity
can take YEARS to fire someone. seriously YEARS!. everything has to be documented out the yin yang - and it has to be an unbroken chain - IE if the person goes on sick leave or does a temporary lateral move - you may have to start from scratch. People can play the system to their advantage if they know the rules - and there are a good number of problem people that do. I used to hear a saying from thoise i knew in the military "Failing UP". if they can't demote someone - they get promoted to a possition where they shouldn't be able to cause problems. -Harm
Mr 33 years sounds a lot like a co worker of mine...watching the wheels turn is a lot like watching grandpa try to program the VCR -Captn92
|
|
19.
I'm not your go between
So yesterday I get a call from one of our clients. They inform me that the extranet is not working so I check...and it's not. So I call to let the admin know what's wrong....and get the run around. Call B. She's in charge of apps. She says that R needs to fix. Call R. He says that H. takes care of this. Call H. He says that R. takes care of this... Call R again. He says that H needs to take care of this Call H. Back, he says he can't access the server and that R. needs to fix. Call R. and am told that it's H's issue...and I lose it a bit. I tell him that H says he fixes it and that I'm not going to be going back and forth between the 2 of them and that he needs to call H to get the issue resolved. Everyone at the helpdesk looks at me like I'm crazy since I talked to one of the admins that way...but it had been a very busy day and I wasn't in the mood to put up with their bullsh!t. Amazingly enough the site was fixed in less than 5 min. [By: Starfury / 2011-09-16]
Comment on Story
Comments
This sounds exactly like the life I used to have, back before July 29... my immediate coworkers were awesome people, the rest of the bank, notsamuch. -AnneBWalsh
Conference R and H together, then walk away from the phone. "For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier... I put them in the same room and let them fight it out." -- Steven Wright -AmazingKreskin
|
|
20.
6 for 7 now
Got a call on our EMEA line tonight. Eu hailing from Angola, Africa. I lost him 30 seconds into the call, so I really dont know what the issue was. So that make the sixth continent I have gotten a call from. Prolly the 30th country
All that is missing is Antarctica, but I doubt I will get a call from there. [By: DarkRookie / 2011-09-16]
Comment on Story
Comments
That should today. Would've been tonight for the Eu. -DarkRookie
There's always that Norwegian research station, but no one's heard from them for some time. -AmazingKreskin
Going for the cycle today, DR? -skippytpodar
Skippy: ??? -DarkRookie
Any call from Antarctica (at least the US facilities) will route to the Raytheon facility in Colorado. They have their own tech support folks in place, although it would be amusing to say the least.
-VoiceOfSanity
|
|
Read More Stories from September 2011 (42 for this month)Back to the Archives Section
|
