A *good* call

[network-nerd.livejournal.com]

The telephone rings, and I pick up. It's a manager from another department:

"I have a problem with the printer on my machine, and the tech is here looking at it. [Why is she calling me, then. This doesn't sound so far like a network issue.] It won't print more than the first page from Application Foo. [I don't generally do applications, either.] So I'm going to need to print to our depeartment network printer, and that has been having problems for the last two months. [It has actually been FOUR months; I'm extremely familiar with *this* issue....] Can we escalate the problem and try to get it resolved? [Hey, she's *asking*. Nicely. This is unusual.]"

Me: Have you been having this problem today?

Her: No, and I was out of town all last week.

Me: Well, we finally got a firmware update from our switch vendor which they claim will fix the problem. I installed it in your building on Friday, and I've been monitoring to see if the problem has come back since then. It doesn't look to me like it has been back.

Her: Let me check with our department admin assistant. Hey Carol, have we had that printing problem since Friday?

Faint voice: No, it has been working so far today.

Her: We haven't seen it here, either. Does this mean it's fixed?

Me: I hope so. I'll be keeping an eye on it for the next week or so to be sure, but It is supposed to be fixed now.

Her: Thank you!

Would that all calls were like this!

(no subject)

[toxico.livejournal.com]

How many of you (that have access to such things anyway) work for a company with a detailed network diagram? I mean, doesn't this usually consist of a purty-looking cloud representing the Intarw3b with things connected to it, all the way down to your workstations or groups thereof, and all points in-between?

Here are Google's results for the phrase network diagram. While we require IP information, the first example pictured will do quite nicely.

This, on the other hand, is a recreation of what we were sent by a customer. It's not exaggerated in any way - it's THAT bad. The writing is the customer's and it's just as illegible as the MS Paint jumble you see here. Any identifying info has been removed or otherwise altered. I'd show you the actual file we were sent, but for liability reasons I obviously can't.

City Councillor Ownage

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Classic stuff.

Are we having a Ferris Bueller moment here?

[rileydag.livejournal.com]

Why do I feel like I am in this scene:

Economics Teacher: Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
Simone: Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.

Why do I feel this way?  Read:

Redmond (WA) - A report in this morning's New York Times cites an anonymous source as having learned through another unnamed source that Hewlett-Packard, in meetings with Microsoft officials over the past few weeks, told them that if Windows Vista were not ready for manufacturing by August, HP would be in a poor position to be ready to ship Vista-ready computers for sale during the 2006 holiday season.

Here is the link for the whole article:   http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/03/27/hp_asked_for_vista_delay/

x-posted to my journal

(no subject)

[pantherchild.livejournal.com]

~Explain this to me.

~I work with a lady from India. She's the sweetest person in our office and so so smart. She takes a lot of calls, and is very articulate in her speaking. Sure, she's got an accent, but you can understand her and she doesn't mumble. (She does speak very very softly, though.)

~There's another Indian gentleman who's been working at the office...he came over from our office in India on kind of an exchange program. He's very smart as well, and he's the first person to go to with a lot of stuff. He has a great voice and a wonderful personality. Every time I've talked to him, he's been a dear and helped me out with whatever I needed.

~The people over in our India office mostly do web tickets and when we get someone calling in about their webticket and have to look them up, the tickets are well documented--well, as much as any turned out in the offices where English isn't a second language.

~In short, all of my Indian coworkers are great people! Smart, and easy to understand! I enjoy working with each and every one of them except the guy who was really mean to me.

~SO WHY OH WHY DO I ALWAYS GET IDIOTS FROM MICROSOFT OR DELL?!

~Seriously--this isn't just coorporate rivalry. I just called into to revalidate my Windows (I've borked the installation two or three times in the past month...go me!) and the guy on the end of the line mumbled, asked me the same question over and over, and couldn't repeat a string of six numbers if it would save his life. O.M.G.

~The mumbling is one thing...but getting numbers all switched up?! GRAH. I'm sure that's all he ever had to do--just read the damn numbers off. GRAH.

~I tried to be all good n' stuff and repeat the numbers back to him...he'd say them, I'd type them and repeat them. He'd then wait a good minute and a half before repeating the SAME SET OF NUMBERS. Boy, someone's call stats are going ot be IN THE DUMPS.

~Also--joyjoy, no phones for me for two days a week as I just got 'promoted' to project manager...which basically means I get the blame when the world crashes down around my team's ears. YAY.~

Am burned from User Stupidity and Cluelessness.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Dear Customer,

Your account has the ability to have up to 5 email addresses attached to it. The Primary email address is also your main username, and it MUST stay, as it's also linked to our accounting/auditing/main provisioning system. The other 4 are yours to do with as you wish - so long as the email address hasn't been used before in our system, you may create it, use it, then delete it to your little tiny heart's desire.

So.

Can you now guess why it might be a good idea to create a throw-away email address when you want to sign up for some Adult sites of unknown provenance and integrity?

And can you now see why, when you signed up for the *dubiousadultservice*, giving them your Primary email address as your contact might have been a bad idea? And when they asked you to pick a username and password on their site, can you see why it might be a really really bad idea to use your PRIMARY username and password on this site for your identification??????????

And can you now guess why your email account got hijacked and why your mailbox was filled with junk pornographic spam? And why, now, despite you having all these problems, to change your main email account we will have to disconnect your system entirely, a process which is by no means simple?

No love,

Me.