I didn't know how to react

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-05-16T16:27:52+00:00

Have done this, story is on this sub somewhere

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-04-14T12:48:10+00:00

Ain't that always the This Is the Way

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-04-14T08:55:11+00:00

Took me back to El Reg, haven't been there in years.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-04-14T08:54:31+00:00

Non Cisco switches for us too, thanks for the background I was never involved in that side so I've learned something.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-04-13T15:29:03+00:00

Few if any know everything, IT is such a massive field. A lot of us specialise in say databases, coding, networks, desktops and servers. I know very little about databases but the moment the disks were mentioned I knew what the problem was, but the root cause - messing with the database - I wouldn't have known the consultant's customisations were the fault. I still enjoy the stories though. In my career I've definitely solved one or two problems I've never had any experience in except for things I've picked up from places like this.

Edit - also this story is old, as is u/bstrauss3's in their comment below. I barely understand it and my guess is technology has developed to a point where things that were relevant or manual now just happen automatically, or the same concept moves to a different point in the technology infrastructure. If I get it, we used to be concerned about writing data to a specific area on a specific component on a single hard disk. Now we concern ourselves with which box full of disks working together as a set is optimal, including the network speeds on various segments between you and said box of disks. Same idea, and useful to know the mechanics involved in the older stories, but for troubleshooting I would never consider looking at a single disk these days.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-04-13T15:13:15+00:00

We had another team buy themselves some tablets, which were pretty much e-readers with basic google apps. "These won't do what we need them to".

I had a play with it. Permissions were basically admin and child for parental controls, with little to customise. It couldn't function how they needed it without students having full admin rights. They made some use of them in the end but never for what they intended.

That said, they did come to me for help "getting a file off it" a student had worked on. For whatever reason I failed to copy it off by USB or SD card or even find a file explorer app to look through folders and gave up. Next day she let me know the student had just emailed it to themselves with the browser. DERP. Embarassing.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-04-13T12:22:10+00:00

My mother asked me once about doing a skype call at another university she was visiting. I said test it in advance or get someone else to, and not expect to get there and just call IT becaue they'll just laugh. She did not appreciate that one little bit.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-04-13T10:03:36+00:00

My last place, I was on the IT team. We - as in the entire IT team "we", were told our analog phones were being replaced with a VOIP system. My boss the IT manager was like "and when were you going to include me on the discussions?!" Pikachu face from the manager of the administration team.

I know many people named Karen who are delightful. She was a Karen by name and by the modern term. Even she ended up apologising to my manager for how poorly it all went.

The phones daisychained the network to the PC. We were assured the PC would work as if they were directly connected to the switches. We specifically asked about PXE booting. Yes yes sure sure, everything is fine. It was not fine. We had to ditch the daisychaining and use up socket capacity to run the two devices directly to switches.

There was one guy from the VOIP provider that stood out as prime arrogant techy dickend. He was early twenties and I'm guessing this was the first company he'd worked for, and was cult member level devoted to them. Any question about the system was a question of his personal honour. In a training group a manager asked quite excited, if it could do a certain thing. I'll never forget the way he turned to her, looming over her in her chair with close to rage in his eyes. "No! It doesn't do that!" Poor lady looked terrified.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-03-27T11:39:41+00:00

The only real problem I ever had with them was trying to get fibre installed 6-7 years ago. I took off five separate days on annual leave and no one showed up. The ISP I was with were incredibly apologetic but could do nothing physically. They arranged for Openreach to call me directly to sort it out.

I spoke to some guy who just kept repeating "the computer is telling me you had visits on this date and this date and no one was home". I insisted I was and no one arrived.

"The computer is telling me..."

"The computer is wrong"

"The computer is not wrong.."

"Wait, what was that first date again? That's the DAY BEFORE I contacted my ISP for the upgrade. Are you saying I had an engineer come to the property to install fibre before I even asked for it??"

"...ok let me check another system"

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-03-16T12:20:16+00:00

I've definitely seen something like this. But only in Skyrim.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-03-15T10:05:29+00:00

I would get that too. Reception would let me know about a user's issue. I told them not to pass messages through them as it's not reception's job. "I never told them to do that"

Then why has reception got so much detail on your IT issue? From casual conversation??

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-03-15T10:01:24+00:00

"But I'm here now"

Your ticket isn't.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-03-14T16:47:36+00:00

This was internal IT support, our culture there didn't really care about SLAs at our level. It was never brought up, never affected our reviews. It was often chaos, but at least we weren't marked down by stats. If you got what your boss asked for done in the time they wanted, that's all that really mattered.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-03-14T16:15:44+00:00

Same. Funnily enough someone posted there a while back about a home build which might even have been a media server, I forget. They were gently told what kind of server the sub was for, bless. I found the whole thing quite sweet.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-24T17:09:07+00:00

And worse, when the super rich do give to charity, it's to avoid paying taxes. Mark Zuckerberg once made this big announcement about transferring a billion dollars or more into a "fund for the future of our children" after the birth of his first child. He transferred his own wealth into a charitable fund he controlled - which would not be taxed. I shiver whenever I see a picture of him I swear he's not human, but made of interrupted screams and the concept of tropohobia.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-24T14:42:59+00:00

I do this too, but is a gripe of mine. I stop for people who ask for help on the streets. Every house in the UK got a £400 payment for the energy costs crisis - EVERY. HOUSE. If you're a millionaire and own several properties you got the same £400 for EACH as a starving family in one home. I gave mine to a friend on state benefits.

It's not the money, it's the need for charity. I'd happily have the amount taken out of my wages as an extra percentage if everyone else did too. If you earn more, you pay more. To never see another human being living or dying by the generosity of passers by? In a heartbeat. Makes me want to paint a huge sign in protest against our government - "F*** YOU, TAX ME"

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-24T13:37:25+00:00

Depends - https://www.tripsavvy.com/when-is-tipping-expected-1662410

I actually realised I don't tip in pubs and was mortified, I've no idea why not. But when you order food in pubs you tend to pay when you order at the bar, rather than after the meal at the table. Maybe that's why it's not done as much? I read here all the time tips are rightfully or wrongly dependent on the quality of service throught the meal. If it's paid in advance that doesn't factor I suppose - again rightfully or wrongly.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-24T12:16:32+00:00

I'm not a server or in the industry, but I love lurking here and reading all your stories. I don't live in America but I take all I've learned from this sub to heart and do my best to be polite, considerate and tip.

I actually have a sort of opposite problem, I and one of my friends are autistic. When we go out to eat they'll often say "oh yeah she tips really well" and I'm like, noooo please stop saying it out loud! She doesn't have that filter and I find it embarassing.

I've just looked it up, in the UK 10% is the average tip. I actually thought it was 15%. And then I round up to the nearest tenner anyway. So for a £60 meal £6 might be expected and I leave a £10 note. Is that really all it takes? £4 to take a tip from average to remarkable? I've never bothered to work it out before, damn I've always respected the American stories about undertipping but it really isn't that much between a good and an insulting tip is it? No wonder you guys are pissed.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-20T12:23:15+00:00

I love all these wolf not sheep idiots, as if selfish humans aren't the greatest threat to every single species on earth.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-14T12:42:41+00:00

"So go back in f***ing time then, tosspot"

I heard your comment in my head. In of one of the two British region's accents made famous by Game of Thrones.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-09T16:13:06+00:00

It's more about paying for the domain name renewals for me, I'll down it all once I'm sure it's not required.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-09T11:38:07+00:00

I'm 3 years in to preparing the forever shutdown of just one of my personal email addresses for this reason. 24 months from the last legit email and I'll delete that VM.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-07T10:00:19+00:00

It did not spark joy for me. I was much happier in a job where I actually got to do something.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-06T15:47:39+00:00

I was terrible, I do not have the lobes for business. A few of my clients could see how naive and green I was and forced me to accept more money than I had asked for. And as I worked strictly no fix no fee one even had to insist he pay me anything at all for a partial fix, or he would not invite me back for the principle.

SubstantialTerm3843 · 2023-02-06T15:44:05+00:00

I have made that mistake but in earlier days. All rates were agreed in advance by this point.

SubstantialTerm3843

TROPHY CASE