(F)STAB (F)STAB (F)STAB

[brutalentropy.livejournal.com]

I work for a small ISP in Lancaster, Ohio. I hate this place more than anything else in the world.

I come in today, and our phones are ringing off the hook because the mail server is down. We can't ping or telnet in to the machine, none of us have a key to the office where all our servers are, and we can't get ahold of the boss either at home, at the other office, or on his cell phone.

We could just call the mail server administrator, but OH WAIT, he fucking quit 3 months ago and they haven't hired anyone to replace him!

/murder

Foolish humans and their random amusements.

[toxico.livejournal.com]

Friday I had two gems worth mention, and found out about another that bears documenting.

One of our products is the software for a gateway appliance. Decently complex stuff that runs on a Linux platform. A guy calls and is interested in installing a myriad of patches and service packs and wants to know what he needs to download. No big deal, as there are many. Now, this guy's assistant had called regarding the same thing a month prior. Evidently his assistant informed him that the previous tech told him not to upgrade to the latest version, as it would "deliver a large amount of pop-up ads and attempt to get [them] to purchase additional products."

...I have no words for this. A several-thousand-dollar gateway SMTP/HTTP/FTP and etcetera-filtering device that will deliver pop-up ads. We have no one stupid enough to say such rubbish, even if being held at gunpoint. I know the person that the assistant spoke with previously; there is literally NO way. At least make up something believable.

Then, there was 70-year-old guy (who was rather nice, just a little loose in the brainpan) trying to install some backend RADIUS authentication software we provide, so that he could SECURE THE WIRELESS CONNECTION BETWEEN THE ACCESS POINT AND HIS TIVO. No other wireless devices, just the AP (not even the Tivo as of yet - he hadn't ordered the adapter!). It took me an hour to figure out that's what he was trying to do. I finally managed to convince him that the software goes on the COMPUTER he wants to secure, and since he's not connecting any COMPUTERS wirelessly, he does not need nor can he even use the software or the service.

Also, I was informed of a call (that someone on another team received) from a guy who threatened to sue us because the anti-spyware module we provide didn't detect the keylogger his wife installed, and she filed for divorce after logging various IM sessions.  Yeah.

priorities

[ebtb.livejournal.com]

What a fabulous Friday I had yesterday.  Thanks to MicroSoft and their Cloudmark engine updates, every single customer with our corporate spam filter called us yesterday freaking out because their users were being flooded with spam.  So, phones ringing off the hook, calls dropping off left and right, sys admins yelling at me 'cause their CEO is getting tons of pornographic spam... and every so often  I would get people calling with something like "Um. Your anti-spyware software isn't catching this *insert minor threat here*".  What I wanted to say to these people was "Can you roast marshmellows on your Exchange servers? No? Call us back on Monday!" 

Good times! I am very afraid to see what our inbox will look like on Monday.  I think I'm coming down the a mild case of death and I won't be able to go in. *cough, cough*

I've got a stumper of one here.

[jecook]

And I'll cut it just for you.

( This one has me completely and utterly stumped )

Quote of the day

[ihateemo.livejournal.com]

Actually, from a few weeks ago, but too good to NOT share.

This is paraphrased from what a co-worker of mine actually wrote in an e-mail to a customer asking for their public IP range. The moronic text is only slightly edited from the original (the glaring technical error is verbatim):

Thank you for contacting $COMPANY,

Your subnet is X.X.X.X/30.

This means your first usable IP is X.X.X.X

Your second usable IP is X.X.X.X

Your third usable IP is X.X.X.X

Blah blah blah,

Idiot