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Lysandus posted:Recently IT is changing the IP address on some of our test servers because they were running out on whatever subnet. One of the other engineers here didn't take it so well.  says the engineer reads this thread and wants to see how ridiculous he has to get before you post about him.
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Dec 6, 2011 21:26
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- IT
- Panicing engineer
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 01:23 |
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Fuming right now. Some know nothing manager insisted we remove a criteria on a query back at the beginning of November. After a lot of back and forth and talk with my boss, we couldn't quite figure out why the criteria was there, but we were certain it would have a purpose. My boss went ahead and changed it as he requested with the stipulation "Keep an eye on the results from here on out to make sure there is no issue". Yesterday, this manager discovers that dates have been updated where they shouldn't have been. A quick check and I verify that yes, this is due to the criteria change back at the beginning of November. He wants us to go back through this daily run report and fix everything that is wrong. I kicked it off to my boss. I can't wait to see the poo poo storm that ensues.
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Dec 6, 2011 21:31
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More "Everything is slow" reports came in. This time from our processing department. We have 3 machines that stamp the dewey and cataloging information on the side of library books. They're hooked up to Windows XP machines that are wirelessly connected to our network. They were complaining that the computer would freeze for 3-4 seconds between each book, and after trying to troubleshoot the issue for the past few weeks, we finally decided to see if we can forcibly replicate the issue when things were otherwise running fine. Cue me running "Everything is Slow!" on 6 computers all on the same 802.11b network. The stamping machines went from 3-4 second pauses to ~10 second pauses. We then plugged one machine directly into our server room switch by running a cable across the floor and did it again. Everything is slow because we have a lovely 802.11b network that's probably 10 years old. Looks like we finally have the evidence to spend the time/money to run drop lines to every computer.
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Dec 6, 2011 21:41
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Frozen-Solid posted:Looks like we finally have the evidence to spend the time/money to run drop lines to every computer. Good luck proving it to someone who probably thinks wireless is magic and should work the same. You're just trying to get them to spend money, all this other stuff just works, why not this!?!?!?
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Dec 6, 2011 21:48
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Frozen-Solid posted:Everything is slow because we have a lovely 802.11b network that's probably 10 years old. Why is anything production related running on wireless? People in our office would flip their poo poo if they had to run almost any of our apps on anything but a gbit connection.
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Dec 6, 2011 21:49
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couldcareless posted:Why is anything production related running on wireless? People in our office would flip their poo poo if they had to run almost any of our apps on anything but a gbit connection. I have no idea. That was all decided before my time. I think it has something to do with the fact that this is a giant manufacturing plant and they didn't want to drop network lines to the handful of computers that actually needed them. Also at the time our apps weren't sophisticated enough to require much bandwidth. We've kept adding computers and more sophisticated apps all the time though, so it's probably been slowly building to the point of overloading the access point. Anyways, my job is done. All I had to do was prove that there was a network issue, and that it would mean replacing the access points with wireless G/N (and new network cards, obviously)... or just dropping hardlines all over. Oh, and for the record, until October 2010 all of the computers in that section of the building were still running Windows 98. No, I'm not joking or exaggerating.
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Dec 6, 2011 22:25
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"We need six more systems installed in this room along with monitors, KVM switches and new printers. This must be accomplished today, I have new people coming in to work for me." The only thing not completely filled with a clusterfuck of UPS' and power strips daisy chained off of each other despite repeated emails about the exact situation is one outlet with four plugs on it. Only one of those plugs is available however because the other three are, again, UPS/power strip daisy chained into providing power to a total of fourteen systems/monitors/switches. First time I've ever dropped the diplomatic customer-service veneer of offering solutions or workarounds and just flat out said 'No, this is not happening. You have no options coming from my department. Fix your poo poo and unfuck the daisy chaining or I'm reporting you'
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Dec 6, 2011 23:18
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couldcareless posted:Sweet Jesus people are dumb/lazy.
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Dec 7, 2011 02:56
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I can't log into the intranet!
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So I had to attend this meeting with the VM team today over Live Meeting, however instead of using the Live code that was generated, they did it entirely over Live Meeting. No problem, I'll just join the meeting an...wait why am I not hearing anything *your audio has been disconnected* Calling the dial-in code just took me to the hold music. Apparently, and this is after 5mins of running around, we have a problem where Live Meeting works EVERYWHERE in the company, except the helpdesk. We can join the LM conference, but not hear audio at all due to some stupid network error. Microsoft is aware of this, and has been for at least 6 months from what I was told, but nothing has been done about it. I contact the meeting leader and tell her that the Helpdesk can't join the call as Live Meetings voice doesn't work for us. Hopefully this will prevent them from doing LMV only conferences. Not like there was any sort of presentation going on in the first place either  I decided not to worry about the things I have no control over.
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Dec 7, 2011 03:10
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If there's no audio you can just talk over it Mystery Science Theater style.
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Dec 7, 2011 03:16
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coyo7e posted:Tell them to "log in with their email address". Since I started at our my firm, we have had 3 primary email addresses. The oldest one is the one that matches our domain name.
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Dec 7, 2011 03:17
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Moey posted:Since I started at our my firm, we have had 3 primary email addresses. The oldest one is the one that matches our domain name. You can add Alternate UPN suffixes to your domain so they can login with any of their email addresses 
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Dec 7, 2011 03:45
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Frozen-Solid posted:Oh, and for the record, until October 2010 all of the computers in that section of the building were still running Windows 98. No, I'm not joking or exaggerating.
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Dec 7, 2011 03:49
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AlexDeGruven posted:We use sudo on our AIX boxes. Has saved us a lot of headaches, particularly with Oracle installs, etc. Yeah, locking down sudo is a must for any real-world deployment. This was a special case, the box was set up for one developer's exclusive use, but they wanted it to be ours to take care of (we install it for him, manage any updates that need to be applied, etc). His sudo access was to allow him to configure it as he needs to get his software running - we didn't think he'd nuke it in the process.
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Dec 7, 2011 03:49
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TenjouUtena posted:You can add Alternate UPN suffixes to your domain so they can login with any of their email addresses Science!
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Dec 7, 2011 03:55
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We worked a lab last week, replacing all the CRTs with LCDs. * Ticket comes in first thing this morning from a professor who teaches in that room: "Lab (bldg0100) will not work! Class at 12! Urgent fix now!" I wasn't there, but this is what I heard: Three of our student interns go out there. All the computers are off. The lead one (call him Robert) asks the professor what's wrong. The professor takes the box of leftover VGA cables (we used DVI, of course) and literally pours them on the floor at Robert's feet. "This is what's wrong! You guys forgot to hook up the display cables!" As Robert is standing there staring at him dumbfounded, he helpfully added, "These are the display cables! The computers won't work without display cables!" Robert and crew continue to stare. The professor took on the tones of a kindergarten teacher speaking to the retarded. "Just plug these into the back of the compuuuuuuters... then plug them into the back of the monitoooooooors! Then the computers will work!" And he left. Robert called me. I called my boss. They packed the VGA cables back in the box, turned on all the computers and monitors so he could see it working, and departed with the box. At 11:30 or so, I got a call from said professor. Apparently the student interns are nice kids, but we need to train them more. Don't worry, they'll learn eventually. And PS - they shouldn't have left all the monitors on. It wastes power, you know. This guy teaches computer science. And has tenure.  (*: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2834226&pagenumber=819#post398354467 ) EDIT: gently caress, how did I edit this three times and not notice the name slip?
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Dec 7, 2011 04:24
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poo poo, try working with Dell Optiplex 990s. They have one VGA port in them, and one DisplayLink(TM). Naturally, the DL cable is not included, and can be bought separately. My company is upgrading EVERYBODY in this nationwide organization to dual monitors. Did they order any of these cables? gently caress no. So now I get to replace desktops for people and try to explain to them why they will have a dead monitor on their desk for an indeterminate amount of time. And of course, it's IT's fault.
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Dec 7, 2011 04:40
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We have another ongoing problem with someone's credit card processing where where charges weren't going through for a while because no one was paying attention to the reports, then we fixed it and all the charges went through at once. The credit card reporting tool sucks, so I added a note about how to do a database export to excel if they need to prove that customers bought the same thing multiple times on different days instead of being charged several times for one purchase. As expected, people complained, but they were able to show it was multiple purchases without running that database export and added several more pages to the already-long notes. Customer called back today because more people complained and now they need the export. Terrible coworker took the ticket, did nothing for a while, then sent an IM to all the techs in the department. We can search the ticket system for things like "what has this person done in the past hour" and it was the only one he'd touched in an hour, so I knew what he was asking about.  copy/pasted to me later  There's a bunch of other stuff in that table including some really long field of encrypted garbage so the export of the full table is really big, but it zips down to <5 megs. I overheard him calling the customer later because the file was too big to email, so he had to remote into her PC and transfer it that way. I asked him "did you zip it" but he didn't respond.
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Dec 7, 2011 04:46
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juggalol posted:Yeah, locking down sudo is a must for any real-world deployment. This was a special case, the box was set up for one developer's exclusive use, but they wanted it to be ours to take care of (we install it for him, manage any updates that need to be applied, etc). His sudo access was to allow him to configure it as he needs to get his software running - we didn't think he'd nuke it in the process. All my customers were special snowflakes when I was in support. How I handled sudo for them was basically this: They had to call support, and tell support what they needed sudo for, how long they needed it, etc. Support would then turn it off. Some point later, we introduced a pricepoint that gave customers 100% root all of the time, they just had to pay extra. We didn't charge enough for it  This is why I love what I do now; I just build it. They can do whatever the gently caress they want after they accept ownership of what I build.
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Dec 7, 2011 06:41
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If you're using those Dell DVI expansion cards and upgrading to Windows 7, be prepared to rip them all out and put the VGA cables back on the monitors. I wasted far too many hours last month during our Windows 7 migration trying to figure out why computers were "locking up" even when sleep mode was disabled after people left their office for a little while.
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Dec 7, 2011 07:40
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sfwarlock posted:This guy teaches computer science. And has tenure. 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. Seems to me that in the time it takes for a professor in a technical field to get tenure all of their technical knowledge is so far out of date it's effectively worthless. I've seen a few exceptions, but when you stop embracing the rapid change that is the computer industry, your usefulness becomes increasingly limited. I guess I've seen too many people who started out on punch cards and never really seemed to get the hang of much beyond that.
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Dec 7, 2011 08:02
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A user wants to do something we don't support. I call and speak to her, and explain that I will have to do some research and get back to her. She gets huffy and hangs up on me. My boss says "Can we talk about her tomorrow?" "We can talk about her next week for all I care." The worst part is if we suggest she use software other than the one she wants to use that will not work, we will still own that suggestion and the problems that come with it. Sometimes it would be easier to just say no.
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Dec 7, 2011 10:12
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Griz posted:I'm really struggling to see how that guy still has a job. Surely there're only so many times you can pull the "lol just checking" excuse before everyone realises you're an idiot. Or is he just good at hiding it from your boss?
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Dec 7, 2011 11:33
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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. 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! 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. 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.
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Dec 7, 2011 13:38
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evil_bunnY posted:Yes enable USB storage there's a great idea. Every environment I've been seen, USB storage has been enabled. Is it really common practice to disable it? I can understand why you might want to, but at the same time, it's so common and expected, that unless it was some kind of super secure system, I can't see how you'd get away with doing it without the constant whining of users. If he had personal documents, he should have been storing them on something he owned.
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Dec 7, 2011 13:41
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HalloKitty posted:Every environment I've been seen, USB storage has been enabled. Is it really common practice to disable it? HalloKitty posted:If he had personal documents, he should have been storing them on something he owned. 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.
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Dec 7, 2011 13:44
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evil_bunnY posted: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. 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. I guess practices differ from place to place, but I didn't think it was common in a normal office environment. Anyone else got any input on this? vv I'm aware it has security advantages, I'm simply trying to gauge how commonplace it is, I'd be interested if everyone else has USB mass storage disabled too.
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Dec 7, 2011 13:45
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HalloKitty posted:Anyone else got any input on this? http://www.dsd.gov.au/infosec/top35mitigationstrategies.htm
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Dec 7, 2011 13:53
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We have USB storage enabled but it's read-only unless it's BitLocker-encrypted.
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Dec 7, 2011 14:09
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So it's Wednesday morning and an user comes in. : I did it again. Twice in the last five days, she's managed to spill coffee on her two month old laptop. At this point I'm not really sure if she's just tempting fate or actively trying to get rid of the machine for some reason. Surprisingly after letting the machine dry out again, it still works. I am now eagerly waiting to see whether or not she'll repeat this, pity for her our chosen warranty options do not include accidental damage protection.
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Dec 7, 2011 14:11
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kampy posted:So it's Wednesday morning and an user comes in. Or she needs to be tested for Parkinson's.
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Dec 7, 2011 14:16
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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. I currently do work for a pharmaceutical company and, while USB storage is not disabled, being caught with a personal device (even just for charging purposes) connected to USB is a disciplinary offence. IMO that's the correct way to do it, because there will be times when the network falls over or some other thing gets in the way and you don't then want to have to fight the technology to get urgently needed data from workstation x to workstation y. If some idiot connects their own drive with Conficker all over it and brings things down then the policy is crystal clear on what happens (they get their rear end handed to them).
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Dec 7, 2011 14:22
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HalloKitty posted:Or she needs to be tested for Parkinson's. At least she doesn't need to be tested for Alzheimers!
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Dec 7, 2011 14:26
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You could also disable USB mass storage for normal users and enable for admins.
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Dec 7, 2011 14:28
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First day back from paternity leave yesterday, and it ended up being the first day I have really been screamed at since I started here. One of the hospitals has a small room service style call center for patient meal ordering, and the lady who manages that portion is having some issues with her employees and has decided that this IT's problem. How can I help you today Hold on just a second, (shuffling of papers followed by talking like she's reading off a notecard) I need to have Client Services come and lock down the Internet on 5 of my workstations Hold on just a minute for me, I need to check our documentation to make sure we can do that<pull up email from June from the VP of IT and VP of HR saying that employees loving about on the internet are to be handled via managerial discipline, not IT> I'm sorry ma'am, but IT is not permitted to lock down the internet on workstations, per the VP of IT Well what the hell am I supposed to do about my call center employees having horrible call stats because they won't get off the drat internet? Well ma'am, per the VP of both HR and IT, it was decided that that needs to be handled through employee disciplinary action by their direct supervisor. DON'T YOU TELL ME HOW TO MANAGE MY EMPLOYEES! I WANT TO TALK TO THE VP OF IT RIGHT NOW. Okay ma'am, his name is <VP of IT>, you'll need to contact the operator to get his phone number since all I have is his pager number and I'm not permitted to give that out <click>For the record, the Internet is pretty locked down already. Social media is filtered, you can get to youtube but can't load videos, image hosting stuff like imgur is blocked. The network and systems guys have done a good enough job with Smartfilter that the HR and IT VPs decided a couple years back that total blocking of the internet on a department by department basis by managerial fiat was bad policy and lifted the in-place blocks for the departments that had it, along with giving the Helpdesk permission to politely tell them to go to hell when they requested it be put back in place, and put the onus directly on the managers to discipline their employees. The view being that anyone who has a continual problem with employees loving off instead of working is an ineffective supervisor.
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Dec 7, 2011 14:43
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Thanks for reminding me yet again that I never ever want to work IT for education, law, or medical!
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Dec 7, 2011 14:56
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devmd01 posted:Thanks for reminding me yet again that I never ever want to work IT for education, law, or medical! I quite liked working in education. Of course, the old head of IT had our backs on almost any problem, and when I took over the department I kept up that tradition. sounds like CommanderApaul has some decent people above him too. Of course, students are assholes and will actively try to vandalize computers and IT infrastructure to get out of class, but that just makes you pay attention to locking poo poo down and securing your network.
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Dec 7, 2011 15:19
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Ridge_Runner_5 posted:poo poo, try working with Dell Optiplex 990s. Every Optiplex 990 I've gotten has had the DisplayLink cable included; I don't know whether that's the selection on their configuration page, but either way, whoever is doing your purchasing is screwing you over.
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Dec 7, 2011 15:24
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rolleyes posted:I currently do work for a pharmaceutical company and, while USB storage is not disabled, being caught with a personal device (even just for charging purposes) connected to USB is a disciplinary offence. Well, no. Disciplinary measures are reactive, not proactive ways to deal with this. If a user plugs a USB stick in and fucks your network hardcore, yes, you can fire them, but the damage is still done. It will be a lesson to the others..... for about a year, before everyone gets lazy again. Then the problem repeats itself.
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Dec 7, 2011 15:28
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Moey posted:An email came in, from an old friend who I have not talked to in about two years. Obligatory 2 sentences asking how I was until the crunch came: "Look, the reason I'm calling is we got a new Mac and what our tech guy (obvs not me) told us to do was connect the old one to the new one with a Firewire cable and transfer everything over. Only that KILLED the old one! What should I do?" Tech support on Boxing Day anyone? edit: I told my dear friends that that is what I would have advised, felt lucky it wasn't me, and told them to go back to their 'tech guy'. By March I was pulling the HD out of their stupid desklamp iMac and backing it up... until number one son came up and asked his dad "Will it play DVDs now??". Turns out the DVD drive had died years ago. Thats all they wanted it for – a cheap/expensive DVD player. edit again: Seemed to be about data loss. Turned out they backed up regularly, but uh, forgot to tell me. They really did just want to save 59.99 on a portable DVD player.
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Dec 7, 2011 15:43
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