Just so everyone here is aware:

[jecook]

My style of moderation is the same method that I use in my personal journal, which has three four rules.

1) 1st amendment is loosely enforced here. (See explaination about this here.)

2) Don't be a dick.

3) This community is for talking about the "behind the scenes" at tech support. don't ask for help here, you will be mocked mercilessly. Also, try to keep the language R rated. Read the Info page for a better description of what I mean.

4) Don't be a dick.


That having been said, I'm pretty easy going, but if I have to wield the Ban Hammer, look out, 'cause I gets uggly fast.


Edit:: I'm speaking as one of the new mods, not the original moderators or the original creator.

Ya'll had to push me. ::sigh:: As if my life didn't suck enough already.

*headdesk*

[ladynisa.livejournal.com]

Wow. I don't so much as do techs upport anymore, but I do financial aid for online students for a certain school. Usually these's students have excuses of computer issues for why they haven't logged their lazy asses into class. Most of them decide to ramble so they tell me whats wrong eith their computer. So inevitably I tell them hoe to fix it because i have no call time or other stats to worry about other than getting back from breaks and lunch on time. But yesterday I had a student who was so stupid, that I seriously to this point do not understand how he even got into high school, much less college. Student is from the New Orleans area. Now before you go off on how i shouldn't pick on those poor people, just read.

Stu: I can't log into classes.
Me: did you try going to blah website and logging in from there?
Stu: no.
Me: Well thats probably why. Go ahead and try it right now and lets see if it works.
Stu: I can't.
Me: *braces for the I'm in my car speech*
Stu: My computer won't turn on.
Me: *goes into tech mode* Is you're computer plugged in?
Stu: I think so.
Me: Well let's double check.
Stu: I can't
Me: Why?
Stu: Its downstairs.
Me: *headdesk* Then go downstairs. If you can't take the phone with you, I can wait.
Stu: I can't go downstairs.
Me: . . . Why not?
Stu: It's still flooded.
Me: . . . Flooded? You're in Louisiana, aren't you?
Stu: Yup.
Me: Why didn't you say so in the first place?
Stu: I thought you could fix it. *pause* I'm calling from a cell phone!
Me: Well thats great. Hold please while I transfer you to the disaster department.

On the up side, we really do have a make-shift disaster department to handle everything from the students affected by Hurricane Katrina. The down side, this particular student will probably still attend our school, which means there's a chance that in the future, I may have to speak with him again.

Saw that coming

[harry-whodunnit.livejournal.com]

Management, a month ago:

"There are too many log-out exceptions coming through for processing. From now on, any log-out shorter than ten minutes will come out of your personal time."

Management, today:

"Why the hell has our logout time tripled in the last month?! Our stats look terrible!"

There's a moral in this story, if you look for it hard enough.

Utterly Speechless

[gythiawulfie.livejournal.com]

I do both Tech and Facilities coordinating where I work. I have 3 supervisors and 1 boss/director. Generally I answer to one person, unless its something I have to deal with the University for. They only thing I have to get approval for is to spend money over a certain ammount. (200 dollars). No biggie.

Today.... I sent out a series of email, politely reminding people of policies and proceedures in reporting work requests and errors etc.

Sooooo, I get an email back from my Supervisor (whom I am scheduled to have a meeting about with our Director, there are some SERIOUS issues). First off thanking me for the emails but then she wanted me to send out an additional email requesting staff to:

COPY HER ON EVERY REQUEST MADE TO ME FOR ANY AND ALL BUILDING, TECH, FACILITIES ISSUES?

WTF????????

All of a sudden she wants to know every singe request made of me?

Including..... "L, I'm flustered, Outlook refuses to send this file, its under the file limit, and its giving me a wierd error, can you come take a look?"

This would include

"L.... we are out of soap in the b-room and there's none in the closet I can find... where is it?"

(Yeah.... I know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING here... my job is all encompasing.)

I am a) shocked that she feels the need to know my EVERY phukk-n move and
b) wants to even know about ALL that petty stuff.

(I found out later its so she can track all of it, for her benefit... FUMES)

whats that phrase?

HEAD DESK!

hello!

[trayce.livejournal.com]

Hello all. This is more an introductory post than a rant, I'm new here but sadly not new to these kinds of communities. Used to hang out on atsr and I suspect there's a few readers here who'd recognise me ;) Anyway, here's the sad part: I got out of helldesk a looong time ago - used to work for AAPT (when it was Connect, as some AU people may know) and I ran screaming from there to provisioning about 4 yrs ago vowing never to return...

But needs must when the devil farts at you, or whatever it was Blackadder once said, and for want of a job I've somehow ended up on a sort-of helpdesk AGAIN, GAH. I was hired as a customer service/provisioning rep for a satellite ISP to support one of their very large clients - a national supermarket chain we multicast ads and music to (yes! Blame me for the shitty muzak you hear, haha). Somehow though, the company laid off too many people, and I got roped into being a network engineer when I've neither the proper skills nor the inclination to want to do 24/7 effing on call network support I didnt sign on for (thats a rant for elsewhere though!). It blows. But, it pays well, so....

Anyway. I suppose I should add a rant. 2-way broadband satellite is an unusual beast - its relatively new in Aus, and suffers from problems one doesn't encounter in terrestrial services. Things like susceptibility to weather, ridiculous contention loads, etc. Thankfully, most of the time the service "just works", and the best bit - we support the link and one hop past it, so any routers/servers/ etc I dont give jack shit care about and dont have to.

However we DO have to rely on skilled antenna techs to install the damn dish right to start with. If they dont, the problems are ongoing. Dropouts, slowness, the whole nine yards. We have a scheme called Hibis that gives rural people broadband for affordable rates, but they expect it to behave like DSL - WHICH IT IS NOT. If I hear one more client whine about latency, sluggishness and outages I will scream. YOU ARE ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN IN THE SNOW. THE FACT YOU HAVE BROADBAND AT ALL IS A MODERN MIRACLE. IT IS SUBSIDISED BY THE GOVT. GET ONE LIFE.

We also have clients in the middle east. Try dealing with a reseller in Baghdad some time who's setup you're not even privvy to, so all you can ever suggest is "restart the Linkstar, check the dish alignment it looks out, the BUC may be faulty". No, we do not turn your service off on purpose. NO! We dont have network problems. If yr link is offline, the problem is 90% likely YOUR end, not ours, and when you're in fucking BADGHDAD theres little I can do is there?

ARRRRGH.

I feel much better now. Hello everyone!

Stupid question of the day award

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Ok, it's really really trivial, but that's why it irks me even more.

Desktop support guy comes up to me and asks if I know about adding additional mailboxes to Outlook.
Well, yeeesss, since I am the Exchange admin.
So he goes, "User_twitfeatures wants to know why one of the additional mailboxes just shows up as 'User1' and the other shows up as 'Mailbox - User2' in the folder list."

Er, I don't know. (I was simultaneously trying to urgently send out some logs to a supplier's support desk due to backups failing). So, can she access the mailboxes?
Yes.
Can she carry out the functions she needs to do?
Yes.
THEN WHY ARE YOU BOTHERING ME?

I mean, really. It'd gone through Helpdesk, Desktop Support and now the Exchange Admin. I'm happy to help out with wee queries, but for chissakes, one extra word in the folder list that doesn't impact on the functionality?

Found out from the Helpdesk that User_twitfeatures is a "difficult" user. Fine. All the more reason not to waste everyone's time with STUPID questions.

Um. Does anyone actually know why that happens? Because now the question is bugging me, which makes it even more irksome