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Midelne posted:If he's dragging down the family business then she needs to be talking to him seriously about going to some couples counseling, because the only way he's going to stop is if he's the one who decides to -- anything else can be gotten around. I don't know much about boutique hotels, but I support a really big locally owned property. They can't live without internet access. It's the only way to put specials up on the various booking sites. This really is not an IT problem, this is an inter-personal problem. Normally, it would be a managerial problem, but since their married... Just don't get in the middle of that poo poo.
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| # ¿ Mar 11, 2010 23:06 |
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| # ¿ May 19, 2013 05:27 |
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delpheye posted:I have 3 boxes on my desk right now. Sometimes 2-3 walk away and never come back and I go through about a box a year but obviously someone is using them for something. We have Win95 machines still running on equipment that I don't really manage so I'm guessing ancient drivers. We had an old project manager(construction, not IT) that used them to back up/archive his job sheets and junk on. He lost a bunch of needed records when one bit the dust(wasn't storing them on the server, or anywhere else). We finally talked him into using the server and a flash drive if he wanted a portable copy. He was removing them from the server and putting them on his flash drive. The maid managed to destroy the thumb drive plugged into his tower while vacuuming(Front panel usb, mounted low on the case) snapping the USB connector clean off the PCB. Poor old man couldn't get a break.  We couldn't solder it back on, either.
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| # ¿ Mar 16, 2010 22:06 |
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Phuzion posted:Hence the reason I always tell people "Anything you need to save, put it in your My Documents (home folder). That is automatically backed up on the server instantly, and is backed up onsite and offsite every night. If you lose something that's NOT in your home folder, I will write up the requisition to get your drive sent to Drive Savers, but it's your job to get it signed. By the way, it costs about $10,000 to get a hard drive recovered." (numbers are intentionally exaggerated. It helps reinforce the fact that getting a drive recovered actually costs A LOT of money.) I preach and preach and preach about this, too. This guy didn't listen. Hell, it's a goddamn construction company. They have a loving share specifically for these files and he has access, and a short cut placed in the middle of his desktop. Dude was just old, and stuck in his ways. Still feel bad I wasn't able to help him.
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| # ¿ Mar 17, 2010 00:00 |
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Doc Faustus posted:Don't hate on people who haven't used 5.25" floppies. I'm 26 and have never actually used a 5.25" disk, but I've used computers with them. Speaking of old rear end tech, I've got this bad boy on my bookshelf.  512MB, used to be in one of Peterbuilt's mainframes around the time the Pharaohs started work on the pyramids.
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| # ¿ Mar 17, 2010 05:45 |
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Farking Bastage posted:I do too. Until Tuesday. MD's can kiss my goddamned rear end. Demanding assholes. As a company, we've decided to stop working for Doctor's offices for that loving reason. I asked my dad(an MD) about it and he said that they drill it into you in med school. Except for one, we've got a doc that runs a home health care clinic. He's pretty chill. And he loves Skyline chili so much he has it tattooed on the underside of his wrist. Can't hate a guy, even an MD, who loves Skyline that much. Note: We are ~900 miles from Cincinnati.
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| # ¿ Mar 19, 2010 04:18 |
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Negromancer posted:today I get the fun task of locking out someones access to all of our systems. I hate knowing people are getting fired before they do, especially when its someone that I dont hate. But the ones you hate make up for it.
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| # ¿ Mar 19, 2010 17:28 |
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sanchez posted:You get to close out any tickets they have open as freebies though. I find a lot of people in the last few weeks before they're fired log tickets for all kinds of inane crap, I guess panic sets in. Getting to lock out a c-level executive is the best. We shut down a C-level executive's account while she was at home, but running on the VPN thus locking out her domain account, and no one is giving up the local admin password. She got to keep the laptop as part of her separation package. We charged her to delete her corporate account and set up a local account. 
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| # ¿ Mar 19, 2010 17:37 |
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ab0z posted:Cash, I hope. Used to purchase alcohol preferably. I think it was a check, but yeah. I don't think we bought booze with it, I think it got an office copy of Dante's Inferno, though. Midelne posted:Now that's cold. High fives all around. We were the smuggest motherfuckers in the world for like a week. The CEO(A family member, even!) even commented that he was impressed by our godlike powers.
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| # ¿ Mar 19, 2010 18:05 |
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ErIog posted:1) They are unnecessary. You forgot: 3) The brutal, bare-knuckled politics that can go on at the VP or C-Level heights of power in a company.
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| # ¿ Mar 19, 2010 19:28 |
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Hav posted:My preferred option, because the work computer is not 'mine'. Before ipods it was a portable USB drive. After walking out of one job with 'Tell xxxx he can stick his job up his arse', I prefer to keep everything available to got at the drop of a hat. Considering that I can fit around 20Gb of storage in my pocket, it's not that hard to do and I don't lose timesheet records or invoices... While I am no danger of losing my job or walking out, I do keep my personal crap on an external hard drive and very little on my work PC(I think I have a couple of scanned documents on the work machine). We have a dedicated 2TB drive for movies, music and other crap stuck onto our DVR server(Why the DVR server? It was easiest to get to!) though.
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| # ¿ Mar 20, 2010 17:11 |
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Yaos posted:Why is it always "NOTHING WORKS" when anything happens? "Nobody can log in" turns into "I forgot my password". "Nobody can get email" turns into "nobody has been sending me email". "Nobody can get in" turns into "no there was no problem". Users are conditioned to believe that the more serious the problem sounds, the faster they'll get a response. Either that, or some of them are just loving drama queens.
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| # ¿ Mar 21, 2010 17:32 |
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ab0z posted:Customers always want to know "where did all these viruses come from? All I ever do is check my yahoo mail?!" Yahoo mail is a synonym for porn.
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| # ¿ Mar 23, 2010 15:48 |
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Cavepimp posted:Amateur hour in here. No screenshot (guy isn't a customer anymore, thank god), but I had a guy with a 27gb mailbox/ost. The use of email as a file transfer utility makes me rage so hard. I've got guys throwing big rear end CAD and BIM files around back and forth over email and people that never, ever, ever get rid of messages. There was so much goddamn wailing and gnashing of teeth when we were forced to institute mailbox size restrictions(Exchange was over limit and dismounting the store every 48 hours). That was six months ago, I had a user bitch me out about it again today. He has a 1GB limit.
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| # ¿ Mar 26, 2010 04:13 |
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mllaneza posted:Google Apps occasionally infuriates me, but we have a 25 GB mail store. In a year and a half I'm up to 6% of quota. My 5 heaviest users are between 31-37%. By the time anybody hits 50% Google will have raised the quota again. I have people running Firefox extensions to use their mail for file storage. I've played with both, and frankly, exchange is still way better than Google apps for the clients that need exchange. Those that don't, Google's fine. If 64 gigs isn't enough, 25 sure as gently caress isn't going to be. Also, gently caress having to install and configure the sync tool on 45 loving machines spread across two offices and 10 job sites. I can just loving script exchange setup in outlook.
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| # ¿ Mar 26, 2010 06:12 |
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coyo7e posted:This is becoming more and more common, we've currently got a couple different groups who are trying to correspond with universities (always fun, since I constantly get blamed for some random college getting blacklisted,) and send back and forth, large WMV and other movie clips - along the lines of 700M to 2G+ size! They even send the same identical video file multiple times, of course. We've been trying to get people to set up an FTP if their cheap, or spend a bit of money for a basic PHP uploader for this. The resistance is huge("But I can just click attach!") I just checked my OST size, just short of a gig for 2009 and this year. I should clean out my reports folder.
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| # ¿ Mar 26, 2010 16:35 |
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enotnert posted:The secret to ours is, I don't tell the students that there is a PDF printer installed on each computer (I can't remember if we used CutePDF or whatever that other popular one is) and each printer has a usb port that you can print pdfs from I'm too lazy to disable. . . I would like to say that I am so loving glad that I do not have to micromanage poo poo like how many pages people can print in X amount of time. I will take lying, pissy, self-righteous business users who use "AFFECTING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION" like it was some sort of magic loving key over that poo poo, any day. Actually, almost none of my users do poo poo like that. And the ones that do are so far down the totem pole at their companies that no one cares. "Oh. Your desktop printer isn't working and you have to walk one hundred feet to the multifunction? You don't have time to run a remote support session? Your regularly scheduled day was yesterday, so we'll see you next tuesday!"
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| # ¿ Apr 1, 2010 01:25 |
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Griz posted:poo poo about faxes The petroleum industry is horrible about it, too. Companies don't tend to just outright own a oil or gas well, they have investors in the well(Or just part of the well. Mineral rights are weird). Those investors are, by contract and by law, entitled to get a daily report on the well, and how their share of it is doing. A large percentage of the investors in wells are either trusts, handled by a law firm, or other oil companies. Those guys get an emailed report via a custom app that my client paid a bunch of money for(Ops people import the data in for each well from the LOB package, one lady in ops clicks the 'send reports' button. They go out to predetermined people). Except for about 10% of the investors. These are curmudgeonly old oil guys that hate change, and don't own computers. These guys, demand faxes. And must get them by contract and by law. So, oil company has to spend $800-ish dollars on a Dialogic Brooktrout to go sit in the exchange server, and some other amount of cash(2-3 grand, I think) for fax integration into exchange. Just so 10 or 20 old fucks can get their legally promised investment reports without some poor office worker having to manually fax a poo poo ton of reports. On the plus side, its gotten better. Two years ago, abut 35% of the reports were sent via fax. Fake edit: I found out today that our smart host provider set up my boss and I with a fax to email number when he created our account, no extra charge. So now I don't have to ask our receptionist to scan the settlement letters for all my creditors and email them to me! (Hardly ever in the office).
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| # ¿ May 6, 2010 02:56 |
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Mr. Clark2 posted:Thanks for the input guys. I've pretty much already decided to take the position if offered, but I'm going to see if I cant get him to up the compensation a little bit, just because this is a pretty risky venture. I work for a guy that started out like that. It's a pretty good job, albeit one with long hours and a lot of windshield time. I do enjoy not being in the office much. The school contract sounds like hell, though.
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| # ¿ May 26, 2010 03:06 |
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This one came into the general mailbox today:A User posted:I'm having problems with <accounting software>. Now, this user is the HR person. She's also pretty highly hated in the company, but is kept around because she knows the unions and all the crazy reporting stuff this company does. After the email comes in, there's a bit of scheduling back and forth with our point of contact at the company(A woman in accounting) since we're doing some server upgrades this evening. A bit later, we get this from the VP of accounting(Who has control over the access settings within the program). VP posted:I did this on purpose because I got disgusted with her. VP Lady is like 65, and on the verge of retiring. Also a very non-technical, if bright, user. Who just BOFH'ed another user. 
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| # ¿ Jun 23, 2010 00:14 |
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FISHMANPET posted:Today I taught an accounting lady how to do something in our year old accounting system. I had literally never seen it until I sat down to help her. The problem was that it wasn't printing, and one of my attempts at fixing it involved her restarting the browser. So she she starts putting in all the information again, clicks "save" at the bottom, then clicks the print button. And another restart means she has to do it again. And each time she's copying the info from a printout. Then I get the brilliant idea to search for the previous saved deposit. She had no idea you could do that. Training for accounting packages is usually pretty lackluster. Also, the mook level accounting people can be handled about like a bad Indian call center rep. "Here's your computer, here's your task check list. Do that. If you don't gently caress anything up in the next 18 months, we'll give you another checklist."
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| # ¿ Jun 23, 2010 00:56 |
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dolphins are gay posted:I explained, calmly, to someone that we can't support PayPal problems, even though the site we built for this gentleman linked to it. His response? While not practical, this isn't entirely unreasonable from an end user point of view. "I paid for a site that sells X, now I can't sell X." People love a single point of contact. That's why my company makes so much money. Unless it's a "Paypal has decided you're laundering money and frozen your account" kind of situation.
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| # ¿ Jul 21, 2010 13:02 |
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I got a good one today.The Ticketing System posted:Subject: New printer installation Okay, no big. New multifunctions and probably a new laser printer to run checks on. Then I open the list of equipment being installed. 7 Officejet Pro 8500 1 Laserjet 2430 2 Laserjet 2727nf 1 Canon iRC5045 1 Canon iR5030 There are 10 people in this office and 11 multifunctions+ a check printer.  Then I remembered the email we got from their newish office manager/receptionist(Who hates us, and hates the fact that she doesn't have the authority to stop using us as their outside IT guys). It basically boiled down to: "We're going to go with XYZ Copier Company and not even talk to either of the companies you recommended, or ask your advice on anything. Deal with it."  So, off I go to install 50 times the print capacity needed for a small office. One of those image runners, a check printer and maybe a little desktop printer for the nice old guy that has a hard time walking is all they need.
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| # ¿ Jul 29, 2010 23:12 |
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Farking Bastage posted:A certain VP who like to move poo poo around every 2 weeks wants a cable run on a friday to move a printer so a chick with big tits doesn't have to walk more than ten paces to use said printer. I hate users that feel the need to constantly move poo poo. We had a doctor's office that rearranged everyone but the office manager and the doc himself every 3 weeks, like clockwork.
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| # ¿ Aug 6, 2010 17:38 |
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Lum posted:I used to have that issue. What I ended up doing was keeping the clothes I wore out, even the shoes that were starting to come apart at the stitches, and wearing them on days when I had jobs like that. Technically they still complied with the dress code and I just told my boss that I wasn't prepared to ruin any more good clothes crawling about in ceilings or under floors unless he was prepared to pay to replace them. I get a clothing budget, which is pretty nice. All shirts are ordered through the company, so I have a collection of long sleeve button ups, polos and t-shirts. I just get reimbursed for a few pairs of pants a year. No health insurance yet, but maybe soon.
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| # ¿ Aug 21, 2010 14:47 |
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Matilda.
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| # ¿ Sep 5, 2010 01:30 |
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Subject: Sales office reorganization We're moving people around in sales. Sue's moving to accounting so we need to move Barb to Sue's desk and forward emails and get everything set up. So I get there, start doing the move. Copying files and PSTs around, getting user credentials for poo poo, the usual for a network where the domain may as well not exist and there's no exchange. About halfway in, one of the users I'm moving comes in, informs me she's just been fired, asks me to burn her pictures to a disc and starts packing up her poo poo. Department head comes in, completely changes the reorganization plan and makes everything I've done for the last 30 minutes pointless. 
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| # ¿ Sep 10, 2010 01:09 |
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Dick Trauma posted:I reveal the Great Secret of I.T. to you, and you alone, Citizen Z... Nah, this place is a hotel. If I show up after hours for something important, they send me to the bar comped. There's always a point.
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| # ¿ Sep 10, 2010 02:26 |
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AcridWhistle posted:Only 30 minutes? How long have you been working a computer job? I have sometimes lost critical days do to random desires for changes. Long enough to know that 30 minutes is only vaguely annoying, in the grand scheme of things. But enough to be annoying. I was running a tight schedule yesterday, and ended up having to reschedule another client because of the randomness, which always pisses me off.
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| # ¿ Sep 10, 2010 11:46 |
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sfwarlock posted:I.... do not know. I got an email this morning at 7 am, on the dot. Rephrased to make it unGooglable. Wow, I think you've stepped in some poo poo. They may just have you out for 'cooling off' or they're dealing with the issue without you present to not enrage BDCE. One would think they'd have already killed your access if they were going to fire you. Unless your boss is trying to stop someone from firing you.
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| # ¿ Sep 27, 2010 18:31 |
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Midelne posted:Cooling off seems unlikely, given that it's Monday and the incident was Friday. I've been out of more traditional business for too long, my political tea-leaf reading is bad. You've got the right of it, I think. Regardless, poo poo was stepped in. This is why I've taken to doing breathing exercises in my car after bad service calls. Help keep me controlled.
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| # ¿ Sep 27, 2010 18:54 |
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couldcareless posted:I jump around. My library of tools grows by about 1 every week or so. Combofix is my go to at the moment but it tends to find the tougher problems and ignore some others. For general malware, I tend to go with Malwarebytes. Combofix if it gets nasty. Hijack this is good for diagnostics.
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| # ¿ Sep 27, 2010 19:01 |
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:I know better than that We just enforce archiving amongst users. We can usually get the owner to sign off on it and then conduct training for how to use outlook's archives, and where to put them so they get backed up. People are paranoid about losing important poo poo in email.
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| # ¿ Oct 16, 2010 04:23 |
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I fully understand the stress of being a phone jockey. I did three years with Gateway business support and three years with T-Mobile data device/retention support. That being said, I've never, ever had a problem with AHT. Then again, both of those companies looked at averages and didn't care if you had a call go long as long as your average was good. On the other hand, cell phone retention is about 1000x worse than technical support with required upsells. Even with Gateway's horrible upsell catalog.
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| # ¿ Oct 17, 2010 00:55 |
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Telex posted:I've been told by my boss to start doing this but I feel moderately retarded making tickets against myself and instantly closing them. It feels like I'm trying to show off or something. We set up a policy that we make a note of who made the request and when, and just put a ticket in under their name when we're back in the office. We don't use tickets as a performance counter, but as reporting for billing and to provide to the clients. It works pretty well.
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| # ¿ Oct 19, 2010 04:01 |
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:oh gently caress a drop ceiling. yea that poo poo sucks. Christ. There's a reason we subcontract all of our cable work.
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| # ¿ Nov 5, 2010 03:24 |
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:The problem started when the CEO agreed to send me over to help them fix their printer. Then, next thing you know I'm scouring the building (and my home) for every piece of equipment I can get my hands on. Stop, right now. It seriously isn't OK for you to be giving this much to these people. I have non profit clients and they pay for labor, equipment and services like everyone else. We're sometimes nice and give them little freebies(We donated some equipment we didn't need any more for a computer lab) but it's always done as a donation and we get the appropriate receipts for writing it off. Also, get them to set up a tech soup account for super cheap software. They'll have to pay, but not much(Last time we ordered something, I think it was Adobe CS5 master edition for like, $200).
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| # ¿ Nov 5, 2010 14:56 |
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couldcareless posted:Done. loving done. Time to go drink. Cheers! I had a job interview today. I've never interviewed for a job while currently employed at a job that I'm ok with. It's a strange feeling to not be hungry for a job, just interested in the opportunity. On the plus side, if I get it, good bye 60 hour work weeks!
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| # ¿ Nov 13, 2010 00:28 |
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ozmunkeh posted:Receptionist just forwarded me a phone call from her friend who quit working here about 18 months ago. She was asking me to fix some issue with a piece of fairly specialized software they need for wherever she's working now. The usual awesome quality of problem descriptions like "it just didn't work but the computer is networked on the download" (huh?) and "their support just say blah blah blah and nothing works they don't help". gently caress that. Also, $60 is cheap. Our bill rate is $110, and that's about on par with our competition.
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| # ¿ Nov 15, 2010 21:47 |
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afflictionwisp posted:Working with a new client lately, moving into a new office in a new building. New servers, new desktops, everything new. Ah, a chance to have everything set up right from the get-go. I really hate regional monopolies. Thankfully, ours isn't too bad. We did have to go and find a new sales rep since our old one didn't bother to return our calls. Apparently 10+ new accounts sent her way two years ago, then none for a year, then a couple of fiber installs just wasn't good enough. New guy is more than happy to take the work whenever it comes up.
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| # ¿ Nov 18, 2010 16:58 |
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| # ¿ May 19, 2013 05:27 |
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Midelne posted:If you want to hate them a little more, read up on what happens every time a municipality votes to provide their own Internet service to residents as a public utility. The argument in court back East - last time I could stomach reading the updates, anyway, which was a while ago - was that the municipalities were offering such good deals and such reliable service that it was cutting into Comcast et al's profits to try to compete with them. Yeah, I've read about it some. It makes me froth. I just count myself lucky that I've never lived anywhere that I have to put up with Comcast.
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| # ¿ Nov 18, 2010 17:15 |
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