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Tech Stories Archives - December 2011
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1.
The Dial-Up Gimme-Gimme Crowd
In addition to broadband, CableISP also offered plain-vanilla dial-up. If you had both services, the dial-up was only about $9 a month. It was a selling point for a lot of customers to have high-speed access at home, and at least SOMETHING when they were on the road. To encourage customers to try it out, we even gave them a money-back guarantee on their first month of dial-up.
There would be times, of course, when a customer's cable modem would go out, and it would be a few days until a truck could be sent out. Also, of course, there were times when the customer would have "absolutely urgent" matters that needed to be taken care of online. This, OF COURSE, led to a perpetual neep:
"CAN'T YOU AT LEAST GIVE ME SOME DIAL-UP IN THE MEANTIME??!?!?"
Now, yours truly will generally help someone rather than not, and I actually enjoy showing customers areas in which the company policies can be bent in their favor. So my response to the whining was "Let me tell you what I can do... we do offer a 'Companion Dial-Up' service for broadband customers. With it, you get a one month trial. Your trouble call is scheduled for five days from now. I could put that service on your account, and then when your problem is fixed, you could drop it and it won't have cost you anything."
"Hey, NO! I don't want to PAY for anything!"
"No, sir, you don't pay anything for it if you don't keep it past the five days you need it."
"Well, I don't want to have to call back in to cancel. Just take it off after five days."
"I'm sorry, sir, that I can't do. I can put the service on your account, but if I do, I can't take it off again without your calling to request it. We can't just remove services for no reason. I'm saying if you want dial-up, for free, you can have it... just the only catch is that you have to call us and tell us when you don't need it anymore."
"Well, if I forget to call, you're gonna charge me!!!!!"
"Well, yes. If you decide to keep the service, it's $9 a month."
"I shouldn't have to call you back! This is YOUR mistake, and YOU owe ME internet! All I'm asking is something to tide me over until it's fixed."
"Yes, this IS our problem and we will fix it. If you want free dial-up, you can have it. Again, you would just need to cancel it when you no longer need it."
"Nahhh... I'm not gonna do that. See you in five days. *click*"
How often did I have this conversation? Once? Ha. Twice? Pshaw. Several times a week, for months on end. Amazing how you can give someone exactly what they want and they'll still find a way to piss and moan. [By: linkv / 2011-12-01]
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For fark's sake, how hard is it to put a reminder on your calendar, or in Outlook, or on your phone?? -NightSteel
Or shit when the tech is there think to yourself "Hey guess what? I won't need me no dial up no more. Maybe I should call that in....." -0gr3
Unfortunately, given my circumstances, it's easy for me to see both sides of this story. With two active kids and a heavy workload, taking time to call and cancel service is not always something I have ready access to. -virtualchoirboy
On the flip side, I wonder if companies would consider, for an extra fee, a reminder call. In other words, in response to the "I don't want to have to remember", reply with "Well, for a one-time fee of $3, we'll call you after the month is up and ask if you want to continue the service. Worst case, you're getting a month of Internet for $3 instead of $9 - that's a 66% savings!!" -virtualchoirboy
VCB- Great idea! You can get it at the low, low price of just $9.95 for this month only! - Voz
We have a similar problem with replacing modems. We offer a backup rental so you have have two modems, for times when reality interferes with desired shipping times heh, can't remember anyone ever getting it. -desseb
In my experience, most companies make withdrawing from this sort of 'free' trial before you have to pay extremely awkward - can lead to being put on hold for ages, being passed from department to department, being given the hard sell to keep the service etc, etc. Not saying that's what happens at your place, but I can understand their reluctance to accept a 'free' offer lie that -Shaede
"Now - where's my taco?!" -Trillian
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2.
Linkage [OT]
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-jobs-everyone-in-world-should-have-at-some-point/
SFW
Number 3
[By: DarkRookie
/ 2011-12-02 ]
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I have done 3 and 1. I work at a fast Food place, don't know if that will count towards 5. -DarkRookie
I have done 3 and 1. I work at a fast Food place, don't know if that will count towards 5. -DarkRookie
I don't know how many of us have done # 5 (either as a teen or adult), but I'd be willing to bet most of us have done #1 sometime in our early lives, 3 goes w/o saying, & 4, if you've got any kind of family, there you go. High school, I went to an SDA boarding academy where you were in class half the day & worked half, #1 for me was doing dishes & mopping floors in the school cafeteria & working in the nearby patio furniture factory after I became 16. #3, we all know. # 4, I'm not a parent, but I am an uncle. #2, I had some of that in uniform, and found I was none too fond of it. I'm not fond of supervising people who won't be supervised, to say nothing of my performance being measured by theirs. -MadJack
I've done 1 through 4, and 5 should be "work in retail/service industry", not just "wait tables". Anyone who has worked for any retail store, restaurant, fast food joint, etc can share horror stories about how poorly they were treated by customers who felt "they were always right". -SwedishChef
I have worked #1 (distributing newspapers) and #3. I do agree on the language issue here. -Fortytwo
I've done everything but #3. Mostly because even I realize that putting me in charge of children is the stupidest thing anyone could ever do. EVER. 21 Kids on the tire swing? I'd be the adult stacking them like Jenga blocks to make 22 fit. -LazyLemming
I've done everything except #1. I have, however, too many friends who have been servers/hostesses who have relayed so many horror stories. I will always treat my server well, unless I get truly sucktacular service. -Grayhawk
I like the quote on #3: "Tech Support employee trains his mind for pleasantly and efficiently communicating with people who are much, much dumber." I might make that my tagline. -MisterCommon
sort of did 5/1 - worked as a behind the counter at a butchery server and midless of help select, weigh, wrap, put price sticker on next! - done 3.. done 2 (during 3 at some points) 4 - yea no... my mom worked in a pre school for years i GUESS i could be considered for 4 but that was usually only once in a while Kids are okay, i'm told i'm good with them - but not as a job. -Harm
#4...drove school bus (300 kids a day on the bus. Have 9 kids myself #3...taught computers to seniors citizens and have done TS. #2... managed a movie theater and owned 2 different businesses. #1...Farm work, enough said. -srteach
Done all of those jobs except the kids one. -Olorin
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3.
Spooking out the support staff
Greets all, looooooooong time no post, I am now on support desk after years of I.T. sup but I digress, tonight I pranked the "late" staff by sending a "ghost in the machine" email to them all.../... then I made all the CD drives in the office ( I am working remotely) eject *Evil-Grin*, got email back saying you F*cking made me sh*t myself! Job done.[By: Jax / 2011-12-02]
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<deep bow to you>I needed that laff today. -ChildofCthulhu
Score...and welcome back! -Grue
Lolz! Well done! -MadJack
@Jax - now remember, you started it first... -unrenowned
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4.
Back on the horse for now
Hello, old friends... just wanted to say that I was hired as a seasonal sales floor guy at a craft store. It's the ONLY callback I've received ALL YEAR (lost my phone support gig for cellular service on January 6) and it's 17 hours next week, but it's obviously something. I'll work on butt-widening later. /// Today's coworker phrase of the day is "We don't carry that." Now, you can pretty much expect that phrase when it falls outside the support parameter, such as somebody that wants socket wrenches in a fabric store, or outside the chosen service area, like embroidery patterns when the entire embroidery department is five feet wide because management has opted not to stock for that fetish. But then there are the things you totally assocate with your location... like if Radio Shack told you that they didn't have walkie-talkies or a store that has three rows of paper bins doesn't carry matching or size-appropriate envelopes. I would guestimate 75% of the stuff that people asked me for wasn't outrageous yet wasn't available there. What a way to run a choo-choo![By: Mushroom / 2011-12-03]
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Welcome back, dude - and it looks from the front page like your ass got bigger already! -Grue
Good gawd, bitch and ye shall receive! I swear I don't have kneepads on. *gargling with Scope* -Mushroom
Your fabric stores don't stock socket wrenches? What sort of cheap-ass fabric stores do you HAVE in your town? ;) -Diptera
I dunno. My phone provider had to turn away iFans. [three guesses what they didnt have!] -TaliPhoenix
Goodtaseeya! No matter where one goes, it's always the same, eh? What next, the local grocery store doesn't have frozen pizza, pastrami, margarine, or mayo? 0_0 -MadJack
that's an odd coincidence - I was just at a Michael's, trying to buy earring posts because I had already purchased earring backs, and they told me they don't carry them. This is like selling epoxy without the hardener. -figglywig
Monty Python. Cheese shop skit. Need I say more? -Captain Trips
Say no mo', say no mo'... -Mushroom
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5.
The idiots have taken over!
So these instances are not necessarily IT related, but they still count because it all relates to the same concept we see in IT: PEOPLE ARE STUPID. Instance #1 - Many years ago, I took a vacation with my family down to see my Uncle Dave and his family in Austin, TX. My cousins, Blake and Luke (yes, Luke as in Skywalker) were still little and needed to have a babysitter, even during our visit. One day, I was upstairs watching TV. Their babysitter wanders up and says hello. Decent looking gal around the same age as me or so, but I digress. She asks me where I am from. Naturally, I tell her I am from Iowa. And with a moment of silence, while standing in front of the HUGE map of the US hanging on the wall no doubt, she asks me..."Where's Iowa?" Are you kidding me?! Instance #2 - Within the last few weeks, I have been taking calls for my current job. One lady asks me if I can verify the address she can send her returned product to. She begins to read off the address (based out of Des Moines), and then pauses for a moment and asks "What is 'I-A?' Is that Iowa?" ...NO! It's Planet Vulcan. This goes to show: IT job or not, stupidity is all around us. Now, off to the nearest LART shelter! [By: KrazerKap / 2011-12-04]
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I-OW-A...Oh, I know! It's in America, isn't it? Er....where's America? :-) -Gromit
Taken over? They never relinquished command. -srteach
We have a lot smaller than you and some people have difficulty in working out where in the UK they actually are. It goes very deep. I am 100 miles from the south coast and 600 miles from the north coast and most of the people round here tell me they are in the "Midlands". -Holdfast
For a while I lived very close to 54°N. Great Britain extends from roughly 50°N to 60°N. So naturally I would say I lived in the "North West" - and people would actually understand this, because I meant the North West of England, not of Great Britain. -Chromatix
@Gromit: That question doesnt surprise me. -DarkRookie
#1 makes a kind of sense - she's a Texan, to them there's Texas and there's everything else. To Holdfast - #1 is in "The West" - even though half of our country is west of Texas. (Iowa is "Mid-west" even though it's further east than Texas!) -Captain Trips
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6.
Back in the old IT rolling chair!
So I know this is 2 posts for me today, but I wanted to also let you guys know that despite my rough year, I am happy to report that my hard work in looking for an IT job has paid off. I have been offered (and have accepted) an 18 month contract job through Technisource doing help desk for a company in the area. I start Dec. 20th. Guess it's time to push myself further in the IT career. [By: KrazerKap / 2011-12-04]
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Congrats on the job! Two posts in a day isn't something that's frowned on at all, don't worry. -Grue
Woo! -Seamus
my condololences welcome back to the hell desk. -deedadee
They offered me a position....don't remember why I didn't take it though. -ravensentinel
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7.
Time for a wrong answer
Me: "Ok. We're going to connect to the network now. Are you using Windows or Mac?"
Cust: "Windows... 7 I think..."
Me: "Ok. Do you see the wireless icon in the corner of the screen? It should look like signal bars, like the kind you would see on a cell phone."
Cust: "Um... I don't know where to look."
Me: "It's probably going to be the lower-right corner." *pause* "It should be next to the time."
Cust: "6:35PM"
Well, now I know what time zone you're in, and that out clocks are synchronized.
[By: linuxmatt / 2011-12-05]
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Must be a relative of this idiot: http://notalwaysright.com/my-head-megahertz/15147
-unrenowned
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8.
Well, you could just get...
Talking with a customer about replacing a damaged screen on a Macbook, eventually get to the point of asking how it was damaged and get told that the daughter put a cell phone down on it and then the lid got closed. One shattered screen. The conversation moves on and they browse around the department a bit and the topic comes up between the mother/daughter of buying a new one. At one point the mother asks the daughter if she has $1500 laying around, to which the daughter responds, "Well, you could just get a new boyfriend." I swear, my jaw should have left a crater on the floor right then.[By: spectreoflife / 2011-12-05]
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niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice -virusjtg
I'm trying to think of a way that at least someone could get out of this alive, but I'm failing. And people wonder why I don't go outside and interact with them more often. -Lusus
I have gotten in trouble for referring to users who abuse their hardware as, "Those people". As in, "Oh, you're one of 'Those people'". -VIPERsssss
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9.
THIS. IS. WIIIIIIN!
I wish that I could do this JUST ONCE!!!!
http://notalwaysright.com/paging-leonidas-to-the-front-desk/1218[By: KrazerKap / 2011-12-06]
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Unfortunately, it's really doubtful that it's a true story, as cool as that would be. You just know the customer would have come back with cops in minutes. AND been in the right. -Omega
i call shenanigans!~
-Harm
Why would the customer be right? Bouncers physically remove people from bars all the time... Same concept. Customer was told to leave and did not. Customer was removed, end of story.
-VWFtech
Well, not that far off- I could see it happening. The customer was being "disorderly" with the shouting and public obscenities, and might very nearly qualify to be arrested himself. (As a Security Manager who has done hundreds of evictions, I never got to do it quite that way, but I could see someone who didn't know the "right way" of doing it getting away with it!) -Voz
I can see getting physically removed - dragged out. However, I can't see someone getting literally kicked out of a store like that, and not at least trying to have someone arrested - and I also agree that such behavior would constitute assault on the part of the person doing the kicking. -DukeOfURL
Actually as this took place in new york city I would not be suprised if the cops were calle. The cops of course would proceed to laugh at the customer. Private stores have more leniency in rules than large coprorate stores so I could see this happening. -deedadee
Knowing people as we all do, I'd believe it if it wasn't for Sparta! We all know what 'gomers are like. Hell, just Tuesday morning (early, like 3AM), I went to the downtown Ralph's store to buy my heavy liquid groceries (milk, juice, laundry soap, etc) during my lunch break, and while I'm in the soaps aisle, I hear "Security to UCheck" over the loudspeaker. Great, and I was just ready to go check out myself. I grab the l/s and head for the checkstand, and there's a really filthy looking guy in a wheelchair cursing at the cashier, saying somebody'd swiped his flashlight & he wanted it back. He keeps spouting obscenities, security's telling him to leave, the cashier's telling hiim to leave, and he's cursing up a storm. Finally, after warning him they'll call the cops & him ignoring her, security escorts him away from the checkout area and towards the door as she's telling security to call the cops to get rid of him. I finish checking out and leave, he's still going on at the security guards about the flashlight, when nobody even knew if he'd had one to begin with, let alone what he'd done with it. Only reason security didn't eject him themselves was a) he was dirty as hell, and neither of the two security guards wanted to touch him, and b) the wheelchair. -MadJack
just because the post says that he kicked him out of the store does not mean that he actually pulled a Sparta and planted a foot in the center of his chest. -Griffin2020
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10.
Taking heat for someone elses stupidity
A frantic user comes to my desk advising of a problem in one of our training rooms.
I follow her to the room and walk into a room full of clients when she advises the projector system shut off.
As she mentions this to me I had already noticed all the lights in the room were off so I already suspected what was wrong. Open the cupboards which house the projector system and audio equipment and the whole rack is dead, no power.
I advise the user that the power to the room is off which she replies fairly rudely "so fix it"
A number of thoughts are running through my head as I attempted to remain calm:
1.) Do I look like a fucking electrician?
2) Surely the lights switching off and the projector system switching off caused something in your brain to stir to think "hey maybe the powers off!", But I know that I am asking way to much of you to think.
4) When you are watching TV at home and the power to your house goes out, do you call Foxtel to fix it?
3) If there are any building maintenance issues like no power then you have to speak to the Corporate Services manager who handles these issues, and you know this.
We wander over to see the manager and he advises that there are some electricians currently doing some maintenance on the floor.
We wander over to the electricians who check and advise "Whoops sorry about that"
Power comes back on and I check and the room has power again.
What supprised me is that some of the clients said thankyou to me for attending to so quickly which I appreciated since I got fuck all graditude from the user. No thankyou no acknowledgement.
I just felt satisfaction with confirmation in the fact that users are morons.
[By: jp / 2011-12-07]
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"When you are watching TV at home and the power to your house goes out, do you call Foxtel to fix it?" Some of them do, yes. -thx1138
Yep, and when my car runs out of gas, I call Toyota... -Griffin2020
Naw, when your car runs out of gas you call Michelin to complain that their tires stopped spinning. -Treker
Time to beat that rotten bag of fucks into submission. -vacuumtubes
When my microwave goes out I call ISP support. When my car won't start I call Microsoft Support. -p3bk4c
Hey p3b, if you drive a Ferd, it is possible (nay, probable) that M$'s Stynk system has BSODed the car...
-Griffin2020
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11.
Stupidest Thing On The Internet Today
On this solemn day of remembrance, it's good to know that the party of American Exceptionalism has their sights firmly set on...Sidwell Friends lunch menu? http://capitolhill.wusa9.com/news/news/83976-presidents-kids-school-serves-japanese-food-pearl-harbor-day [By: PTSTech / 2011-12-07]
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Not to mention, "Szechuan" is Chinese, not Japanese. If they want to say that it's all "Oriental", I think that a number of Chinese people in WWII would beg to differ over their treatment by the Japanese military at the time... -Voz
Except for the teriyaki, ain't any Japanese food on that menu. And besides, what if the POTUS actually DID decide to have a say in what's served at his kids' school? "Look at Obama, he's a bully and a micromanager!" -MeanDean
Isn't edamame Japanese? -Mer
Eat a Mommy? Oh, that's a Milf-Dud... -vacuumtubes
Edamame may be a Japanese word, but soybeans are soybeans. (Tasty as they are.) -Captain Trips
Hummm...could be worse - could be giving the nazi salute at a Xmas tree lighting... (video link) http://nation.foxnews.com/war-christmas/2011/12/05/libs-rock-nazi-salute-during-christmas-tree-lighting -redevil34
I'm a little hazy on the details, but I understand "Szechuan" refers to the urban style and "Cantonese" refers to the rural style of making Chinese food. Both of these are different from typical Japanese food styles. -Chromatix
This is as bad as the RI state rep who pitched a fit over the governor referring to the "holiday tree" instead of "christmas tree" and made a media stink. The whole brouhaha stemmed from one teabagger getting butthurt over this assumed slight. I suppose they have to do something to distract the Faux News viewers from reality. -SalParadise
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12.
Do pharmacies have a stupid pill?
Me:Thank you for calling $Major-Computer-Manufacturer Enterprise Support, how may I help you?
Caller: Uhm,,,wait a minute....you mean you don't have anything to do with Save-Rite Pharmacy?
Me: No, this is Technical Support.
Caller: Aww, sh**, I dialed the wrong number. *click*
Yes, he made this Earth-shattering conclusion after several phone trees and automated messages prominently bearing our company's name. [By: tech4alltrades / 2011-12-07]
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Look on the bright side: at least he didn't blame you for having the wrong number or demanded that you fix it anyway. Seems a step up from some users. -reveriel
It's awful easy to miss those trees when you just pound 1111111111 -LDFeral
You can also be thankful that he didn't demand to be transferred to the correct extension. -Stryker One
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13.
"My laptop screen is broken."
1. It didn't just break itself. You broke it. 2. It's not your laptop. You borrowed it off a colleague. 3. It's not our laptop. It belongs to another hospital. 4. We can't get it fixed under warranty as that expired long ago. 5. Even if it was in warranty, dropping it isn't.[By: Holdfast / 2011-12-07]
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14.
drumroll please.....
To the TSC members who haven't found out, I'm tying the knot two days after christmas. I flew out here to Utah to see my boyfriend and things are going incredibly well, so we decided to tie the knot Anyone in the area, Ogden, Salt Lake, etc, are welcome to come. Please whiteboard or otherwise contact me for details. Thanks![By: AdmiralLaurie / 2011-12-07]
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Congratulations! -Grue
Good to hear you're having your nuptials done - congratulations! -Gromit
Congrats! -Diptera
Good luck and best wishes from far far away -Bloke
I would gladly come to the nuptials, but, alas, work intercedes. Congratulations on the new life. -srteach
Yay, congrats! And good luck! -Seamyst
Congratulations!! -My Cat Athena
Congrats! Just celebrated the 30th with Mrs. ecoli so IT CAN WORK!! -ecoli
Congratulations! -thx1138
Congratulations! -Fortytwo
Grats! -DarkRookie
Congratulations! You've shared many of the downs in your life with us, and so it's fantastic to know you've got great things happening too. -SalParadise
Congratulations! -VIPERsssss
Congrats! -MadJack
Congrats! -geeklady
Try the Reverse Cowgirl on your wedding day. -burrkiss
Can we Say Sucker. Congratz AL wish you both the best. -deedadee
Congratulations, dearheart! -Seamus
Maximum congratulations. -Omega
Congratulations, and post a picture or a link in the Break Room after the happy event!
-BayouTech
Congratulations!!! :) hope all goes well for you -CrystalMare
congratulations! -slowANDeasy
Well, better almost late than never, Hooray for both of you! -LDFeral
This is brilliant news! Wishing you both a long, happy life together. -32KofRAM
Congratulations and Best Wishes! Very happy for you!! -EMTGeekGirl
Woo Hoo - cogratulations AL! -lineswine
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15.
Not quite goodbye...
But a definite lack of stories potentially coming from me for a while. I know I don't post a lot, and I'm working on getting a larger behind, but I'm enjoying my last day as sysadmin at my job in NZ prior to moving to Australia (hello, NSW!) in January. Nothing specific to move to yet, but hopefully something comes up when I'm ready. It's been a helluva year with our devastating earthquakes, and losing our house broke our spirit.
So, we're making it into an opportunity, and making a new start. I'll be dropping off the grid shortly, but hope to return for some TSC goodness next year. Until then, take care everyone, thank you for brightening each day, and have a very Merry Christmas (or holiday, etc).[By: Enzedder / 2011-12-08]
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Churl bro! -PoglaTheGrate
Good luck to you and yours! -Grue
@PoglaTheGrate - that'd be chur bro rather than churl ;) Maybe run into you for a few XXXX's! -Enzedder
Another one lost to the 'brain drain' - Hope it all goes smoothly for you man. Take it easy and merry christmas. -ApolloSZ
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16.
(NT/OT) The Colonel has gone home
Fare thee well, Harry Morgan. Thanks for the memories. I will remember you both as Joe Friday's right-hand man on Dragnet, but especially as Colonel Sherman T. Potter. *hangs his flag at half staff, snaps to Attention, assumes Present Arms and hears Taps* http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/arts/television/harry-morgan-mash-and-dragnet-actor-dies-at-96.html[By: tech4alltrades / 2011-12-08]
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I always loved him in M*A*S*H. But apart from his role as Colonel Potter, do you remember his early guest-starring role as an absolutely round-the-bend general who was trying to court-martial Hawkeye? Especially after seeing him play an episode as the kindly Colonel Potter, the insane General Steele was such a contrast, it was hilarious! Rest in peace, Mr. Morgan. -Voz
That, and Captain Gannon in Dragnet (the movie, 1987). Vaya Con Dios, Colonel. (Salutes) -MadJack
Voz - yes, I do remember that role, and it was hilarious. IIRC it was his performance in that guest spot that got him the job as Sherman T. Potter. -thx1138
Absolutely, even though it was a complete opposite. Great performer! -Voz
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17.
google news link nt/ot
You can use this link https://www.google.com/#q=workplace+violence&hl=en&prmd=imvnsub&source=univ&tbm=nws&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=9prhTrmIIOLj0gGXxeCJBg&sqi=2&ved=0CG0QqAI&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=3fe416d8012ce8a4&biw=1920&bih=1007 or you can go to google news, and type "workplace violence", the result will blow your minds[By: Spyder19 / 2011-12-09]
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Wow, it's weird that it didn't see that as a link -Spyder19
actually, no it's not. That's an https link, and hawk's algorithm only looks for the sequence "h t t p : / /" as far as I know. That one s throws his logic off. -chazz
That is ridiculous. Someone should be shot in the face for coming up with this. -ravensentinel
I had to go down a bit until I found a link that wasn't from obviouslybiased.com/org/net/whatevers -LDFeral
I'd lean towards the opposite way. This is a single guy acting on his own, perhaps idolizing the jihadist mentality but not actually working with them. The "terrorism" word gets thrown around way too often these days, you can't classify every tragic event as an act of terrorism. Furthermore, I think it takes their power away when we brush it off as workplace violence. This isn't the best analogy, but you feed the schoolyard bully by reacting to him and take away his power by ignoring him. -Blankman
welll - technically it would be correct. it was his place of work, and his violence was upon those whom would have shared his work place. -Harm
Why should the term "terrorist activity" preclude any other labels? Yes, it was terrorist. But it DID happen in the workplace, and was committed by an employee of that workplace. Perhaps the term "hate crime" also can apply. (This is how you can get multiple convictions for one criminal act - it violates several definitions. Heck, we can probably find cause to convict him of jaywalking at the same time, no doubt he had to run across a road at some time.) -Captain Trips
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18.
There are 4 lights!
The last 48 hours, I've been asked to head to $frontOffice no less than 5 times to fix a problem involving the chief of nursing losing network connectivity.
The first time, surely enough, she did indeed have her PC get kicked off the network. I disabled/re-enabled the NIC, and shazam, her PC was back on. I showed her it was working, then left to go on my merry way, closing out the ticket.
The next 3 times she called to complain, her PC was on the network, working fine, and she was logged in. Our network tech logged in and showed that there were no problems with her port whatsoever. So this morning, when she called yet again, I was asked to check it out...again.
This time, when I pinged her PC, all were timeouts, and by extension, remoting in to her machine was impossible. I went down there, and this time, her PC was in power save mode. On a hunch, I revived the PC, logged in, and sure enough, her NIC settings for power save were all screwed up. It basically forced the NIC to shut off when the PC went to power save mode. And take a wild guess when everyone's favorite Uncle "told" us (read: forcibly implemented then informed us) to put in a policy on all PC's to have them go into power save after an hour of no use. Yup, the morning she started calling.. Thus far, she's been the only person to complain about this problem, and I'm hoping she's the last.[By: skippytpodar
/ 2011-12-09 ]
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*nod* There was briefly a GPO pushed out silently that did the same after two hours on our systems, with the ability to change that locked out. Once the relevant parties at the HQ side of things realized that this would prevent overnight patch pushes, it was just as silently reverted by GPO push. *grin* -Grue
Devil's advocate: If the Wake-On-Lan function were properly implemented before the push-out of the patches, this wouldn't (shouldn't) be a problem (from a patch standpoint). I suspect that even now, more than 10 years after it has been available, most enterprise organizations have a standing rule/directory/whatever to leave the computers on 24 hours for this very reason.
-BayouTech
WOL has been requested for implementation, and Security Ops has denied it without explanation. *shrug* -Grue
The folks in charge of such things in both Grue's and my departments for the Uncle tend to be cagy and arbitrary in equal measue. They are also notorious for making decisions based on the principle of "Oooh, shiny!" -skippytpodar
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19.
Engage Clue by 4 (part 1)
A few days ago, I got a work request to install 2 PC's in a particular room with the standard stuff. Seemed easy enough, but that lady who put it in seemed unusually persistent, calling me twice a day to see when I will have them done and brought down for installation.
So finally, I got them finished and brought them down. Only, when I arrived at the room she specified, there were no desks... and for that matter, no furniture in the room at all. She explained to me that she wanted the computers mounted on the wall with a wall mount for the monitors as well. I attempted to explain two things to her:
*since that would require drilling into the walls, she would first have to get Engineering involved.
*we have no wall mounts whatsoever to even put up against a wall, and only Engineering (seeing a pattern yet?) has authority to purchase those items.
She whined and neeped that she's been waiting for "months" for these PC's and wants them done before she retires at the end of the month. She also insisted that the computers stay with her until I personally installed the mounts. I just told her that would be impossible, and I'd have to take them back with me to my office, as she wasn't an employee of our department, and she insisted that I get all of it done by the end of the day.[By: skippytpodar
/ 2011-12-09 ]
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20.
Engage Clue by 4 (part 2)
I got back up to my office and let my boss know the situation. He backed me up & shot off an e-mail to the lady, again explaining that Engineering would have to install the wall mounts before we could even do a thing with these computers, and closed out the ticket, saying just that in the closeout statement.
So this afternoon, she submitted in yet another ticket, this time saying she wanted two PC's, but this time including that she wanted them mounted on the wall. The help desk tech read the previous ticket, and yet again, explained to her she needed to contact Engineering to install the wall mounts before we could install the PC's, but she was insistent that the ticket get submitted in anyway. She said she had talked to Engineering, and got nowhere with them. Gee, I wonder why...[By: skippytpodar
/ 2011-12-09 ]
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"I want two PCs on wall-mounts!" "That's adorable. I want a flying purple unicorn that eats lusers and shits money, and my idea is a Hell of a lot more likely, sweetie." -Seamus
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