Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)

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arthwollipot said:
I definitely have some specific language tricks that I use with people who seem to have less knowledge of computers. For example, I don't refer to the "Start Button". Because it doesn't say "Start" any more. It used to in earlier versions of Windows, so that's how we all commonly refer to it, but with the callers I'll call it the "Windows Button" because they may not have that historical knowledge. I call it a "computer" rather than a "workstation" or a "PC". I ask for their computer's "asset number" rather than the "workstation ID" or "machine name". Stuff like that. It just makes things smoother.
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Do you refer to the big box on their desk as "The Hard Drive" ?
 
I always refer to storage, but that doesn't come up much. Everything's moving into the cloud now. We're finally in the era of the Thin Client, twenty years after it was predicted.
 
Blue Mountain said:
Err ... they used to be called "mainframes."
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Yes, that was what we observed 20 years ago.

But seriously. In my workplace, all of our storage is in the cloud. All of our applications (except for a few) are virtualised. Everyone's being issued with DTA laptops and tablets. It's pretty much exactly what I was reading about in 1999 editions of Computer World.
 
Blue Mountain said:
Err ... they used to be called "mainframes."
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Or IBM x-stations which were small boxes just enough to run an x-windows client talking to a unix server running an appropriate bootd daemon. I still miss some things I could do with aixterm. Still to find the ideal linux shell window. Ah nostalgia. I still occasionally see shop tills with 3270 screens almost certainly backed by an iSeries and I remember debugging 3270 data streams.
 
alfaniner said:
Mice and trackballs. Does anyone here use the trackpad?

I don't. I hate those.
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When I have to. I actually have a large USB one somewhere. But then I have a lot of crap 'somewhere'.

Anyway on the subject of pointing devices: BRING BACK THE SCROLLPOINT MOUSE!!!
 
Blue Mountain said:
Err ... they used to be called "mainframes."
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zooterkin said:
Yes, one of those things that goes in cycles.
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:D:D:D
I was at a cloud computing event a couple of weeks ago (hosted by <IT SERVICES COMPANY>) and pointed this out to the man from <CLOUD COMPUTING ORGANISATION>. I told him his slides (showing the "progress" in computing terms really described a circle. He was...not impressed.

However a good time was had (4 hours of presentations followed by food and a four hour open bar and an excellent swag bag[1]).
We mainly bitched about our clients....



[1] Or in my case a box of excellent swag bags...
 
arthwollipot said:
Yes, that was what we observed 20 years ago.

But seriously. In my workplace, all of our storage is in the cloud. All of our applications (except for a few) are virtualised. Everyone's being issued with DTA laptops and tablets. It's pretty much exactly what I was reading about in 1999 editions of Computer World.
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That's an huge difference from mainframes. With the mainframe you were limited to an available terminal connected to the system you wanted to interact with. Now that we have the internet one can use almost any device (personal computer, laptop, tablet, cell phone) to connect to almost any service from any place you can get WiFi, provided you have the credentials and the back end has a connection to the net.
 
Blue Mountain said:
That's an huge difference from mainframes. With the mainframe you were limited to an available terminal connected to the system you wanted to interact with. Now that we have the internet one can use almost any device (personal computer, laptop, tablet, cell phone) to connect to almost any service from any place you can get WiFi, provided you have the credentials and the back end has a connection to the net.
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Yes, I was about to make a similar qualification. Mainframes are also limited by the way you can interface with them - you have to use their command line. Application virtualisation is a lot more flexible in that it's a basic Windows environment but your applications are run from the server rather than being directly installed on the computer's hard drive.
 
arthwollipot said:
Yes, I was about to make a similar qualification. Mainframes are also limited by the way you can interface with them - you have to use their command line. Application virtualisation is a lot more flexible in that it's a basic Windows environment but your applications are run from the server rather than being directly installed on the computer's hard drive.
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You've not ever worked with X.11 terminals? A graphical precursor to Windows by many years.
 
Norman Alexander said:
You probably have, actually. :) Most Linux systems today have X-Windows interfaces - GNOME, KDE, Cygwin/X, etc. Most mainframes OS's will support X-Windows as well. X.11 technology preceded Microsoft Windows by about a decade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System
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Yes, I've briefly flirted with Ubuntu but something went wrong and I had no clue how to recover it. So I changed back to Mac. Never used it in any enterprise environment. And I worked with OS/2. Not OS/2 Warp mind you, OS/2.
 
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