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

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gnome said:
I think they always figure their problem is an error in "the system" that the helpdesk knows all about, and they're just calling to get an ETA and flex their muscle about how unacceptable it is.
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Heh. I always screenshot errors the first time they occur so I have something, anything, to prove I'm not imagining it. Because you know if a problem happens five times when you're the only witness, and you get help out to fix it, it won't happen when they're there. "Okay, gramps," they imply, "sure you got a weird popup. You just call me if it happens again, I'll be chillaxing with the other hip youth and laughing about your wacky imaginings."
 
arthwollipot said:
I really wish the callers would have all of the details about their issue before calling
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I came in this morning to 5 trouble calls waiting in my queue. Okay that's not entirely accurate I came into one trouble call in my queue and 4 e-mails sent directly to my e-mail but never mind...

They are, in order.

"HELP!!!!!"
"Please come to my desk when you get a chance."
"I need your help."
"Printer Problem."
"Device [Redacted] is in an error state. Offline / no connectivity since [time]."

So take a daring guess at which came in through the actual ticketing system.
 
JoeMorgue said:
I came in this morning to 5 trouble calls waiting in my queue. Okay that's not entirely accurate I came into one trouble call in my queue and 4 e-mails sent directly to my e-mail but never mind...

They are, in order.

"HELP!!!!!"
"Please come to my desk when you get a chance."
"I need your help."
"Printer Problem."
"Device [Redacted] is in an error state. Offline / no connectivity since [time]."

So take a daring guess at which came in through the actual ticketing system.
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One of the first four. The last is obviously a system-generated email alert that includes useful information. The other 4 are typical of user-initiated ticket system requests :)


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On an unrelated note I recently used our company's business account to order a 25 foot long phone headset cord for a user and now Staples thinks I've decided to enter the exciting world of headset cord collecting because it's recommending I buy more 25 foot long headsets in different colors.

Over the last 2 years I've ordered dozens of toner and ink cartridges, dozens of PCs, and multiple other various items both routinely and as one-offs but their algorithm has decided that I have clearly declared my intent to become the 25 Foot Headset Cord Kingpin of the Eastern Seaboard.
 
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JoeMorgue said:
On an unrelated note I recently used our company's business account to order a 25 foot long phone headset cord for a user and now Staples thinks I've decided to enter the exciting world of headset cord collecting because it's recommending I buy more 25 foot long headsets in different colors.

Over the last 2 years I've ordered dozens of toner and ink cartridges, dozens of PCs, and multiple other various items both routinely and as one-offs but their algorithm has decided that I have clearly declared my intent to become the 25 Foot Headset Cord Kingpin of the Eastern Seaboard.
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Heh. There was a thing recently that went viral where a lady tweeted (or something) that no, thanks, Amazon, she bought that toilet seat because she just needed one, she wasn't collecting them and didn't need to know about exciting toilet seat offers. She wasn't going to say "oh go on, then, I'll treat myself" and buy more.
 
CORed said:
About 20 years ago, my Mom handed me some double density (360 kylobyte, IIRC) 5 1/4" floppies that contained some documents that she had produced in the '80's (IIRC) on a Wang Word Processor, and asked me if I could possibly retrieve those documents. At the time, I actually had a PC with a 5 1/4 " drive (which were already getting pretty scarce by then). The Wang Word Processer was a mini-computer based system with character terminals dedicated to word processing. The PC I had was dual booted with Windows and Linux. I was able to get binary garbage to output to the screen or a file from the floppy drive device files in Linux, but never was able to get anything I could make any kind of sense out of, nor was I able to find on the internet any information regarding the file system or data encoding that Wang Word Processors used on floppies, so I was unable to get anything remotely usable or understandable off of those floppies. I don't think I ever got them to mount so that I could see anything remotely resembling files on them. I have no idea what sort of file system those old Wangs used, but I suspect it was something that neither Linux nor Windows recognized.
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The Wang Office Assistant? There are service that will recover the files, but they are rather expensive.
 
So... I just got told that the company I contract out to, a Cancer Treatment provider, ... wants to start a podcast.

I have idea either.
 
JoeMorgue said:
So... I just got told that the company I contract out to, a Cancer Treatment provider, ... wants to start a podcast.

I have idea either.
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I work for a chemical company, and we have a blog for our customers to read.
In our case though, we make industrial cleaning and water treatment products, so the blog articles are about food plant sanitation programs, facility disinfection, boiler treatment procedures, etc.
 
gnome said:
I think they always figure their problem is an error in "the system" that the helpdesk knows all about, and they're just calling to get an ETA and flex their muscle about how unacceptable it is.
Click to expand...

JoeMorgue said:
So... I just got told that the company I contract out to, a Cancer Treatment provider, ... wants to start a podcast.

I have idea either.
Click to expand...
Starting a podcast isn't hard. Starting a good podcast is very difficult.
 
Dare I speculate that someone's trying to justify a social media manager position?
 
Wudang said:
I was going to call you a cheeky sod but they really are as rare as hens teeth. Well played.
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I have a working 8" drive (well I'm assuming it still works, it's been a decade or two) complete with set of SCSI adapters (68-to-50, 50-to-25, 25M-25F) and an old PC with a suitable PCI SCSI card. In theory it's good to go...

I think the last time I actually used 5.25" diskettes was '02; a Win2k deployment where the client had an old app they considered vital. They gave us the diskette and I still remember laughing at a kid who was mystified by the CGA, EGA, Hercules mono selection screen...
 
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Wudang said:
Random thought: I wonder if anyone still has a working IBM DPPX system with magnetic card reader. Played with one in 1985 and it was an unreliable sod then.
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Wikipedia says DPPX on the IBM 8100 was discontinued 1986. In 1988 a port was developed for the ES/9370 (a very low-end System/370 mainframe) which was discontinued a decade later in 1997. That was almost 25 years ago, so I rather doubt anyone's still running it.

Mind you, IBM discontinued the Series/1 system in 1988 (33 years ago) but the US military is still using them as part of the nuclear command and control systems!
 
Blue Mountain said:
Wikipedia says DPPX on the IBM 8100 was discontinued 1986. In 1988 a port was developed for the ES/9370 (a very low-end System/370 mainframe) which was discontinued a decade later in 1997. That was almost 25 years ago, so I rather doubt anyone's still running it.

Mind you, IBM discontinued the Series/1 system in 1988 (33 years ago) but the US military is still using them as part of the nuclear command and control systems!
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They may still be used in the Pickering Nuclear Power Station as I saw them being installed there while it was under construction at about that time and (if I'm reading Wikipedia correctly) the A1 unit is still in operation.
 
Big change went in yesterday. **** all communication with the rest of the project, especially the support staff. Really don't know how I can change this JFDI mindset that persists here
 
Filippo Lippi said:
Big change went in yesterday. **** all communication with the rest of the project, especially the support staff. Really don't know how I can change this JFDI mindset that persists here
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I was at a doctor's appointment yesterday. For context, this doctor worked for a large medical center which was part of a University medical complex involving dozens of smaller satellite clinics as well as a number of regional hospitals and other facilities. All using the same central system.

She was struggling with doing some data input on my records while I was sitting there. As I watched she explained that they had just revamped their data entry system.

After some further questioning I was able to determine that there had been no prep or training. They had just remodeled everything and left the people using the system to puzzle it out on their own.

I have seen this happen before. Every year or so. It seems to be the MO of their IT people.

Hella way to run a hospital network.
 
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