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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware / Software Crap > A ticket came in...

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

D13F00L posted:

Ok...can I set them up a remote desktop connection through citrix or give them an RSA SecureID fob?

How do you suggest they access those files? Mail them the gently caress out?

# ¿ Dec 1, 2008 19:00

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# ¿ May 22, 2013 06:52

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

People generally feel that way in small shops, or when their 1st/2nd line sucks.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2008 13:01

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

sanchez posted:

Even if they were great at their actual job? We only exist to allow them to work more effectively, if that includes loading paper, so be it.

Communication is part of your job, and that often involves using a computer. Would you tolerate an employee who can't work a phone?
We regularly send users on basic computer usage courses. An informal/playful day with someone who tolerates technologically retarded people often does wonders.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2008 08:05

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

ErIog posted:

So we've been hosing all our backups for the last 2 or 3 months if I'm correct in my understanding of backup exec and tape strategy. All the while this guy has been reassuring me that we're getting 11:1 compression(actually 1.1:1). And..we have no offsite backup strategy. This guy never set anything up to even carry a set of tapes to their house every 2 weeks. The tapes sit in the server room in a pretty thick safe, but there's no documentation to say that it's fireproof at all.

This is about the average customer when we take their IT over. It never gets old explaining to people just how incompetent they've been.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2009 14:51

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Pyroclastic posted:

I really hope we can run a technology levy soon. A measly 1-2 million dollars would let us replace every single computer in the district.

You'll simply have to do more with less, I'm afraid.
I get all depressed any time I read about the education system in the US, especially IT.

dergeist posted:

Goddammit, autocomplete is not a way to save your important contacts. I tried to explain that to one of the first callers and he laughed and said, "I don't even know what you're talking about. My VCR is still blinking 12:00, that's how good I am with technology."

This is a standard gotcha of mail/desktop migrations, and your team should have caught it.

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at May 5, 2011 around 13:42

# ¿ May 5, 2011 13:36

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Joe Don Baker posted:

It's definitely B. We get calls like this all the time. We've never had someone get this upset.

Gee I wonder why users would complain about auto-trashing mail.

The IT department at Girlfriend's work (research institute) is a loving disaster of epic proportions, and it's all the more aggravating to hear about when I work with people who actually give a poo poo.

I really cannot understand how keeping just 6 months worth of mail online is in any way acceptable. Not that any of that poo poo's your fault, mind.

Che Delilas posted:

A single copy of 5 years' worth of research on a 6 square-inch piece of plastic, and no backups? No insurance against precisely this type of event? I felt a bit sorry for the guy, but drat, how badly do you REALLY want that doctorate if you're that cavalier about your work?

This happened to a colleague of my mom. One of the smartest guys I know, research data for a 2+ years running project, single copy on a notebook that got stolen.

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at May 10, 2011 around 11:58

# ¿ May 10, 2011 11:51

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Moey posted:

We just ordered a new SAN, 24 300gb 10k disks, was in the 16 grand range. That's a lot less than 40tb. Plus the behind the hardware costs that Alex mentioned.

Do you know why they went for that config? 300GB/10K doesn't maximize capacity or IOPS, and drive slots aren't free.
Re: 6 months mail retention, regulatory retention schedules are one thing, so is users expecting mail features on par with any modern free webmail solution.
Exchange 2010 personal archive is loving amazing since you can put the the DAG on cheap storage.

Yaos posted:

I looked in the event log and found somebody had logged into the server the day after the last time McAfee was able to update. Thanks for turning it off you jerk!

Feed that person to hungry animals.

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at May 18, 2011 around 08:15

# ¿ May 18, 2011 08:01

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

I don't understand the rage, I really don't. People keep repeating the same mistakes, you just point it out along with the 3 times you memo'ed it before, then go home at 5.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2011 22:16

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

couldcareless posted:

It's not as simple as you explain. If you really think it is, you obviously don't work in our field/haven't worked long enough/probably one of the brain dead people we handle every day.

Well I went from private consulting to semi-public inhouse so I guess I've had it better than most.

Telex posted:

So yeah, that poo poo's great except when another person shows up and declares their boring rear end standard is The One True Way (tm) and since everything kinda depends on you not renaming servers left and right you end up with 3 non-corresponding standards combined with 3 more non-corresponding standards and you're basically as hosed as you would have been in the first place if you can't document your hostnames and you're using an extendable standard and you just

therefore, I have decided that whenever I am in charge of anything I will attempt to have a least a little bit of fun. If it makes the people with no sense of fun unhappy, cool. Don't wanna work with 'em anyway.

User machines can be renamed but that's a pain in the butt (AD accounts, etc). If you try to rename a backend machine of mine instead of cloning functionality with the new name, I will end you.

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at Dec 5, 2011 around 13:24

# ¿ Dec 5, 2011 13:19

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Telex posted:

it tends to cause problems unless you:

unbind the machine from the domain (reboot)
delete the unbound machine from AD
rename the machine (reboot)
re-bind the machine

And if you have our AD structure you don't leave machines in the default OU, you move them around to special places. And also you have hundreds of machines and plenty of people that are totally uninterested in this taking 5 minutes out of their day. Times a few hundred.

Thank you. Also on top of this you have everything that uses computer names instead of machine account guid (VPNs, asset management, you name it)

Poing posted:

Telex, why would you be renaming several hundred user machines anyway?

Discussion started when someone mentioned their predecessors changing the naming schemes without implementing the change retroactively.

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at Dec 5, 2011 around 22:53

# ¿ Dec 5, 2011 22:45

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Scikar posted:

To be fair, I feel kind of bad for people like that. There's a decent chance they're telling the truth and they did ask their manager and got told it was fine. It's not your fault so I wouldn't feel too guilty, but I do have sympathy for users who get hosed over by their incompetent management just the same as we do.

Any folder you don't grab along when syncing roaming profiles and offline doc directories, the users shouldn't be able to write to.

HalloKitty posted:

While this is true, it's also true that in 2011 they could have bought a USB stick -- that would have easily contained their personal documents -- for a vanishingly small price. Especially if it was that important!

I agree that management probably did tell them it was OK, just trying to get rid of them, not paying any attention. Of course, then IT gets in trouble. But that's a common scenario.

Yes enable USB storage there's a great idea.

Prosthetic_Mind posted:

That's nothing compared to the goddamn chair of our CS department. Not only is he the only professor I've seen who has flat out insulted people in class for asking valid questions and refuses to actually grade code (instead running scripts of input and grading how far the scripts make it), but the motherfucker can barely even code.

I got hired before graduation because of people like that. There was no way I was going to pay tuition to deal with this type of rear end in a top hat instead of the money flowing the other way around.
If I'm explaining poo poo to you, you're paying me; not the other way around.

Arguably, I've got a pretty short fuse.

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at Dec 7, 2011 around 12:42

# ¿ Dec 7, 2011 12:38

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

HalloKitty posted:

Every environment I've been seen, USB storage has been enabled. Is it really common practice to disable it?

Can't really speak for the US but at our customers in the Netherlands it was, and we'd disable if it wasn't when we took over.

HalloKitty posted:

If he had personal documents, he should have been storing them on something he owned.

That's not even relevant, TBH. If it was personal it shouldn't be on his work machine in the first place. But this definitely varies per organization. I work in academia now and we don't give a poo poo what people put on their machines (they often have just one they use for both work and private stuff), we just charge them for usage of common resources.
The only thing I care about is deltas. I don't care what you put on our CIFS shares as long as it's not growing 1TB a day.

HalloKitty posted:

The most "secure" environment I worked in was a pharmaceutical company, and although I can't remember with 100% certainty, I don't think there were any steps taken to disable USB.

Yeah they're insane. But then again we tended to cultivate a culture of security and cooperation (find a hole we haven't patched, or rights aren't set right and you tell us? Free patisserie next morning!)

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at Dec 7, 2011 around 12:50

# ¿ Dec 7, 2011 12:44

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# ¿ May 22, 2013 06:52

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

HalloKitty posted:

Anyone else got any input on this?

Here's a starting point:

http://www.dsd.gov.au/infosec/top35...nstrategies.htm

# ¿ Dec 7, 2011 12:53

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