Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)

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arthwollipot said:
She didn't have a home computer.

Blink.

She didn't have a home computer. She did all of her personal and study work either on her work computer or at the library. I didn't even know there were still people like that.
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I mentioned this upthread but yeah I hit that brick wall when COVID hit and we started sending people to work from home.

A lot of them don't have computers. One didn't have a home internet connection of any kind.
 
arthwollipot said:
I spoke to someone a couple of weeks ago, who was complaining that she could no longer use her personal USB drive on government systems. I explained that yes, that is correct, government systems operate under a government-mandated security protocol that prevents unknown devices from being connected, and we had updated to this protocol at least a year and a half ago (link to Knowledge Base article). But she was using this device just last week. Technically, I said, that is a security breach that should be reported to the Forensic Security area to find out how it was possible. But how can I get to all my documents? she asked. I replied that we provided several methods, including email and a secure FTP service that she can apply for. Am I supposed to email my gigabytes of data? I wondered why she was carrying around gigabytes of data on a USB drive. Was she transferring the documents between her home computer and her work computer? I do that from time to time, but not for that much data. No, she replied. She didn't have a home computer.

Blink.

She didn't have a home computer. She did all of her personal and study work either on her work computer or at the library. I didn't even know there were still people like that.
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Ì know someone, in his '60s, who doesn't have a "PC", just a tablet and smartphone, oh and smart TV.
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
Uh, no. Normal external drive form factors are up to 10 TB now, even higher in fact.
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In the "desktop" format, i.e. using a 3.5" hard drive , the limit is 20TB for a single drive, more for RAID boxes. These use mains power as theu run on 12V, though I believe USB-C PD models are in the pipeline.
The largest external drive using a 2.5" drive is actually 5TB. Of course there are 30TB SSDs in that format but I don't believe anyone is putting them in external caddies.
 
arthwollipot said:
I haven't used my laptop at home for some time as I haven't had a need, but I've still got one.
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He had an old Dell, running Vista, but it gave up the ghost last year despite my efforts. Battery dead, PSU has a frayed cable, insufficient memory for a newer OS, flaky DVD, screen droop, the lot.
 
No, I can't run two different queries with two different sets of values in the parameters and "make" the answers match. Even if I could what would be the point of that? If you want "the same data, only different" than what the other people are getting, fight with them about changing what they're asking for.

More and more frequently I wind up on conference calls with executives having to resort to analogy: "If Amber orders one thing off the menu in the restaurant, and Chad orders a different thing off the menu in the same restaurant, they won't get identical meals. If Chad wants what Amber ordered, he should order the same thing, not order something different and then ask the chef to substitute every ingredient to match Amber's meal."

How the eff do these people rise to the top of companies?!
 
TragicMonkey said:
No, I can't run two different queries with two different sets of values in the parameters and "make" the answers match. Even if I could what would be the point of that? If you want "the same data, only different" than what the other people are getting, fight with them about changing what they're asking for.

More and more frequently I wind up on conference calls with executives having to resort to analogy: "If Amber orders one thing off the menu in the restaurant, and Chad orders a different thing off the menu in the same restaurant, they won't get identical meals. If Chad wants what Amber ordered, he should order the same thing, not order something different and then ask the chef to substitute every ingredient to match Amber's meal."

How the eff do these people rise to the top of companies?!
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The Peter Principle.
 
catsmate said:
The Peter Principle.
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The number of times I’ve hit brick walls because people just can’t understand that!

Harry is your best programmer - no you do not want him to be the lead programmer, you want him to do what he does best, so pay him the same as a lead programmer. But we have a pay scale and he is at the top for a programmer, he needs to be a lead programmer to earn more….. Brick wall and my head connect.
 
It's the stupid "Treadmill" principle, the idea that for something to be a... *pause for dramatic effect* CAREER and not a mere... ahem job you have to always being moving up some stupid imaginary ladder.

There's no shame in just getting better and better AT THE JOB YOU'RE DOING and there should be no shame in compensating people more for getting better at their job instead of only when they move up to a different job.
 
Darat said:
The number of times I’ve hit brick walls because people just can’t understand that!

Harry is your best programmer - no you do not want him to be the lead programmer, you want him to do what he does best, so pay him the same as a lead programmer. But we have a pay scale and he is at the top for a programmer, he needs to be a lead programmer to earn more….. Brick wall and my head connect.
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My rather large company is just now trying to implement pay bands and it is a huge ******* headache. (I typed more and then got pissed and deleted it. It was cathartic, though.)
 
At one place I worked, "pay bands" were mostly a way to "promote" people without giving them a raise.

"Well, you see, you're on the high end of the band for an associate. Now that you're a senior associate you're in the low end of the band for that level. But if you'd stayed you'd hit a salary cap in yearly raises that is now higher for you."

A cap that was in no danger of being reached with the typical raises they gave. A second promotion would result in a slight pay boost as they move you from your current salary to the low end of the next position up.

It mainly led to an "up or out" culture. Kind of a brain drain. Also a bit of resentment because people they brought in from outside would start out in the middle of their pay range instead of the lowest end if they were promoted from within.
 
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Seconding the number of people who didn't have computers at home, and hence had problems gearing up to work from home...

I was stunned to hear of the number of IT personnel who didn't have computers at home that could be used to connect to work.

Many had a laptop computer (or more than one) in the house, but they were used for the children's schooling, and schooling from home.

I was the other side of that fence, I have a Windows 10 laptop, and a linux desktop system.

(Both of which I was able to setup for work-from-home)

The powers that be were stunned to find that linux worked, but as far as I know, there were only two of us doing that.
 
Oh my. I don't expect perfect English on tickets that are escalated, but this one is just hilarious.

Problem:
PDFs attempt to download but dont actually download
missing applications like outlook and excel and cannot open an excel documents

Troubleshooting Performed:
remotted into device and all office applications are not there and when you try to search for them no results found
looked at software centre and office 365 is installed
attempted an office repair however unable to do so as office is missing
this is also effecting another user (job attached to work items)
Final Results: escillating for assistance
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novaphile said:
Seconding the number of people who didn't have computers at home, and hence had problems gearing up to work from home...

I was stunned to hear of the number of IT personnel who didn't have computers at home that could be used to connect to work.
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Heh. At a former job I caused great upset by derisively stating that I wouldn't dream of connecting my immaculate and suberb personal computer to our corporate rat-infested craphole of a network teeming with security flaws. (They insisted that we download their various programs if we used our own computers remotely.) I said if they wanted me to work from home they would have to provide the computer.

Luckily my current employer not only provides the computer, they insist upon it. Only their laptops can connect to their network, they don't want people's rat-infested craphole private PCs teeming with security flaws connecting to their immaculate and superb network. It's nice to work for a company that gets it right.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Luckily my current employer not only provides the computer, they insist upon it. Only their laptops can connect to their network, they don't want people's rat-infested craphole private PCs teeming with security flaws connecting to their immaculate and superb network. It's nice to work for a company that gets it right.
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Same. We sent desktops home with some people even though the managers wanted them to just log in from their personal machines. I had a lot of respect for our IT guys for not publicly calling the managers idiots.
 
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