Question

[ihateemo.livejournal.com]

Hey, I think I've posted enough to warrant asking a question.

(Hah! We'll see about that.)

Why should I switch to Linux? What's your favourite distribution?

Flame on!

Up the date: thanks for your input, guys/girls. The point about not "switching" but amalgamating it into my current setup is well taken. FWIW, I don't really have a particular reason for wanting to use Linux apart from being sick to death of Windows - the bloat, the spyware, the vulnerabilities, et al - and too fucking poor to buy a Mac. :] My own personal uses for my home setup are mostly web design and basic audio recording for my band. I'm also thinking about running a web server, for no other reason than my own personal amusement. I don't think that I necessarily do anything on Windows I couldn't elsewhere, but my poor wife would probably have a meltdown if she had to relearn how to use the computer.

Idiots on Parade.....

[patgund.livejournal.com]

I'm a Sr. Support Tech for a medical school in the Middle East. (Ah, the joys of being a US expat!)

Now our school is mostly Unix based, with the majority of clients (95%) being Macintosh OS X. Most of our servers are G5's and XServes running OS X Server, with some Linux and AIX boxen for specialty apps. We have some Windows clients as well for specialty applications.

The clients are set up in user "Pods" inside and outside of the classrooms, allowing a user to log in at any Macintosh on the campus and immediately have all their applications, backgrounds, files, etc.

So with that in mind, I'm in my cubby debugging a problem with our backup scripts when a premed student comes in screamingly furious because he can't save anything and MS Word can't save it's files and why don't we use Windows like he wants us to.

So I bring up his desktop on my machine. We give each student 1 GB of storage space for files, (applications and the like don't count). We also give the students 2GB keychain drives to transfer files to their home machines, (which we also provide upon request) He had 14k left in storage. Not enough room for swap files, MS word save files, or, well, ANYTHING. And where was 75% of his files?? In the trash can. Which looked to have not been emptied since, oh, the start of the semester.

So I empty the trash can, save the document he was working on, and explain to him how storage works. His only reply that he "doesn't empty trash cans, that's for servants to do."

I also explain to him he would have had the exact same problem with a Windows box, for the exact same reasons. He said his Windows machine at home doesn't do this, and I said "do you empty the recycle bin?" He said yes, and I said the trash can is the same as the recycle bin, and must be emptied for the same reason.

His response? "I don't empty trash cans, that's for servants to do".

And this idiot is going to be a doctor some day..........sigh.........

It's sunk to a new low.

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

Does it seem that people are getting dumber?

Ok, here we go...

This guy comes on my line screaming mad. So I go through the process of verifying his info and he's still mad. He's had 2 techs, and an senior tech on site. He notes his connection keeps dropping out. So, I check on the modem, and the modem has been online for 20 days, 7 hours, and 50 seconds. The modem log is healthy and no problems are reported. The signals look better than mine at home.

He's still yelling in my ear by the way. This guy also didn't have a firewall as I was able to ping the PC. Didn't even have any wireless equipment. Just a straight modem to pc connection. So I ask the customer what he sees on his screen right. He gives me the response of "low power." Now clearly that makes no sense...

After prying with more questions, we come to the point that the monitor has no video yet his tower has power and his monitor just shows an orange light. I'm thinking ok it's in standby mode. The customer is still screaming his lungs out and I'm just being patient. So I have him try to get it out of standby. Using the keyboard, moving the mouse, and even having the man turn the computer off and on. No dice. I asked him if it did this everytime his "internet" went down. He said, yes it does this everytime and knew it was our problem.

Uh huh...

Apparently the last tech on site said it didn't have enough power going to the monitor and that's what the last tech fixed. The customer said it differently as if he rewired the whole damn machine.

After all of this the customer asked to setup a TC, which at our building if a customer requests a TC, we have to schedule one. I didn't really care at this point because all he did was bitch about how we suck and blah blah blah.

Is it me, or are the people just getting dumber at this crap? I mean today is especially bad, but come on!

Fun with retail

[katyism.livejournal.com]

I always have to hold my tongue when I encounter clueless techs in a non-work situation. Today I went shopping for wireless webcams and/or remote camera surveillance equipment. (Would have shopped online first, but have no privacy to do so at home today)

So I didn't get a chance to do much research before I hit Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and the various other crappy stores in this small town. I found a couple of promising items that use 802.11b which I'd prefer since it's already in my residence and totally open, but I decided to look into other options just in case it becomes not an option (yes, being vague, sorry)...

Anyway I found another almost-promising kit, but the reciever unit is meant for video input rather than a standard form of PC input, but would work with a capture card according to the package. Being the paranoid shopper I wasn't 100% sure that referred to a video capture card... who knows, maybe these cheap no-name brands include their own proprietary device that roughly translates to "capture card" in English. So I asked a salesperson about it.

( OK, so this isn't about tech support really, nor is it very entertaining... )

Driving. Me. Bugshit!

[taleya.livejournal.com]

Guh, I never wanted to be one of these wankers, but I've got a system problem that's driving me nuts...

( ARGH )