(no subject)

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

In regards to my before-last post, I've been fired by the boss-that-doesn't-use-TP.
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Note to Acer

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Dear Acer -

Okay, maybe I should have expected this. After all, how dare I ask for assistance regarding one of your products. And I even had the part number and everything for what I wanted. So it should have been a case of letting me know much such said part (a part intended to be replaced in the field) is.

But that got you thrown for a loop as it seems I'm the only person that ever got one of your systems in the Middle East and brought it back to the US with me. Certainly the only one who ever asked about getting an NTSC TV Tuner to replace the PAL one that came with it. But I guess that actually looking into the matter rather than being a script monkey is just a bit too much to ask for.

So it looks like my Acer RC950 desktop is an orphan in the United States. I'll keep that in mind should I ever decide to replace it.

No love
- Me

More fruit-based fun.

[tuba-man.livejournal.com]

*10 minutes of hold music*
"Apple Support, how may I help you?"
"I've got an Xserve that becomes inaccessible for 30 minutes every night."
"Let me forward you to enterprise support"
*sigh, 15 minutes of hold*
"How may I help you?"
"My Xserve turns into a pumpkin every night at 11:30"
"We cannot open a ticket until you run the troubleshooter.  Please reboot and run the troubleshooter CD.  If you lost it, it's $15 to replace it."

ugh.  Let me get this straight.  I've got a production server that you want me to take offline entirely for the duration of this "thorough" testing.  You also won't allow customers to download a new copy.  Thanks for treating your sysadmin customers like you treat your grandmothers.

I run your damn system updater, because it's either update or remain vulnerable to your latest pile of bugs.  I reboot, and the NICs start resetting themselves if they don't receive data.    Literally.  If there was no communication for approx. 80 seconds, the system would down the NICs, unload the drivers, reset the hardware, and reload the drivers.  The NOC was kind enough to set one of their monitoring boxes to ping us every 30 seconds.

How do you people test your software?  I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere.  Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room.  If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete.  Someone else must remove the cats.  All have iPods.

I give up.  I'm going into the data center tonight, ripping out the xserve and replacing it with a toaster running linux.  At least when that one messes up, It's either my fault or something I can fix.

Edit:  New Replacement Hardware