Dear Users… (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people) Part 10

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No kidding: I'm now having to explain to a consultant, via email, how time itself works. They're not getting that two separate sets of data don't match. The first set is all items within X years from this date. The second set is all items from January 2021-now, then FROM EACH ITEM look back X years to make a status determination. Consultant thinks that because both X are the same the two separate data sets should be exactly equal. I'm having to explain how things inside a date range are not the same as a date range relative to the things. He asked me "can you make them match?" Um, no. Neither time, nor math, works like that. Only if all items occurred on precisely the same date would that work.
 
I hate iPads.

I may have mentioned my abhorrence of Apple and all their empty promises previously but today my detestation was reinforced.
I was persuaded (by means of SO induced guilt tripping) to purchase a replacement case for the iPad of a neighbour (lovely septuagenarian lady, shame about the Apple aberration, but it was a gift). The current case having done its duty (too well IMO) and saved the accursed thing from shattering when dropped.

So I drop into my usual small IT place and chat with Gerry when he was free from anxious computer people. I'd picked him up a four-shot coffee and a pastry because he's a nice guy whom I've known for years (and in whose direction I sent quite a bit of business). I asked him for a suitable case: one that holds the accursed thing in place, can take a mild impact and isn't pink or garish. For a 6GEN iPad. I hadn't brought the damned thing because it's owner would be using it at lunchtime.

In the box of dozens of iPad and generic cases could we find one? No. Apple changes the design so often that none were definitely compatible with 6GEN iPad, as opposed to the plethora of other generations and variants (Air, Mini, Pro).

On the plus side when I dropped in to explain this, and pick up the case for the return trip tomorrow, I fixed her SkyQ remote's refusal to go left. :)
 
catsmate said:
I may have mentioned my abhorrence of Apple and all their empty promises previously but today my detestation was reinforced.
I was persuaded (by means of SO induced guilt tripping) to purchase a replacement case for the iPad of a neighbour (lovely septuagenarian lady, shame about the Apple aberration, but it was a gift). The current case having done its duty (too well IMO) and saved the accursed thing from shattering when dropped.

So I drop into my usual small IT place and chat with Gerry when he was free from anxious computer people. I'd picked him up a four-shot coffee and a pastry because he's a nice guy whom I've known for years (and in whose direction I sent quite a bit of business). I asked him for a suitable case: one that holds the accursed thing in place, can take a mild impact and isn't pink or garish. For a 6GEN iPad. I hadn't brought the damned thing because it's owner would be using it at lunchtime.

In the box of dozens of iPad and generic cases could we find one? No. Apple changes the design so often that none were definitely compatible with 6GEN iPad, as opposed to the plethora of other generations and variants (Air, Mini, Pro).
On the plus side when I dropped in to explain this, and pick up the case for the return trip tomorrow, I fixed her SkyQ remote's refusal to go left. :)
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I had a hell of a time as a solo Apple Developer because by the time I got an app ready, there was a new version of the iPhone out that had different screen dimensions. It wasn't as simple as programming a "fit to screen" module if you wanted an app to look right. So glad I got out of that.
 
I'm on New Starter Requests again this week. And in my care, we're a full week ahead of the queue. In other words, all new starters who are starting up to a week from now have already been done.

I like being this far ahead of the queue.
 
catsmate said:
I may have mentioned my abhorrence of Apple and all their empty promises previously but today my detestation was reinforced.
I was persuaded (by means of SO induced guilt tripping) to purchase a replacement case for the iPad of a neighbour (lovely septuagenarian lady, shame about the Apple aberration, but it was a gift). The current case having done its duty (too well IMO) and saved the accursed thing from shattering when dropped.

So I drop into my usual small IT place and chat with Gerry when he was free from anxious computer people. I'd picked him up a four-shot coffee and a pastry because he's a nice guy whom I've known for years (and in whose direction I sent quite a bit of business). I asked him for a suitable case: one that holds the accursed thing in place, can take a mild impact and isn't pink or garish. For a 6GEN iPad. I hadn't brought the damned thing because it's owner would be using it at lunchtime.

In the box of dozens of iPad and generic cases could we find one? No. Apple changes the design so often that none were definitely compatible with 6GEN iPad, as opposed to the plethora of other generations and variants (Air, Mini, Pro).

On the plus side when I dropped in to explain this, and pick up the case for the return trip tomorrow, I fixed her SkyQ remote's refusal to go left. :)
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Helpful?

https://www.casebuddy.com.au/collec..._campaign=storeya10&utm_term=dsa-454196828062
 
I thought I was getting somewhere with standards and "quality" at work, but it seems not. Now feeling quite foolish. A bit like being British and believing that those who govern us should have a sense of probity.
 
catsmate said:
Mmmmm, no, not really as I've obtained a rather nice case here (for €10.80) and wouldn't purchase from Australia anyway, given the delivery time and cost. Oh and they don't ship here.
They also appear to be grossly over-priced, a case similar to the one I got is AUS$50.

Thanks anyway.
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I thought they were vastly overpriced too. We use a LOT of iPads at work. Most of them have covers. So we get lots of dropped units replaced, not to mention doctors wanting the latest model upgrades all the time. So I'm sure I could have scrabbled through our cracked and upgraded old units to find a potential fit.
 
Norman Alexander said:
I thought they were vastly overpriced too. We use a LOT of iPads at work. Most of them have covers. So we get lots of dropped units replaced, not to mention doctors wanting the latest model upgrades all the time. So I'm sure I could have scrabbled through our cracked and upgraded old units to find a potential fit.
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Thank you. After forty minutes of searching through boxes we (the two staff and I) found a rather nice blue, fake-leather, case with built-in stand and pen holder which proved ideal.
But the variations, and the seemingly pointless changes to design......aaargh.
 
Grrr. Last year: "We'll have TM report on this data, but it cannot be used for Purpose X. Under NO circumstances should anybody try to use these numbers for Purpose X."

Today: "WHY IS YOUR DATA WRONG?!!?!? I'm using it for Purpose X and it's not working!! WHAT DID YOU DO, THIS IS YOUR FAULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
 
I've just come from a major training session for our new ServiceNow environment and... (I don't want to jinx this) it looks good. Functional, efficient, lots of useful features. Right now my biggest concern is getting the users to understand how much it can help them - how much functionality it puts into their hands rather than ours. We'll never be able to turn everybody into a power user, obviously, but the more people understand this new system, the easier my job is going to be.

I reckon we're going to change over to this new system and we'll all realise exactly how limited the old one is. We're not migrating any of the legacy data into ServiceNow so we'll need to run both for quite a while, and the contrasts will be stark.
 
arthwollipot said:
I've just come from a major training session for our new ServiceNow environment and... (I don't want to jinx this) it looks good. Functional, efficient, lots of useful features. Right now my biggest concern is getting the users to understand how much it can help them - how much functionality it puts into their hands rather than ours. We'll never be able to turn everybody into a power user, obviously, but the more people understand this new system, the easier my job is going to be.

I reckon we're going to change over to this new system and we'll all realise exactly how limited the old one is. We're not migrating any of the legacy data into ServiceNow so we'll need to run both for quite a while, and the contrasts will be stark.
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As an SN user, it certainly has good features. But the web interface design could REALLY do with a thorough review for better screen ergonomics and consistency. Clunky barely covers it. I've seen a LOT better interfaces on web-based products years ago.
 
Norman Alexander said:
As an SN user, it certainly has good features. But the web interface design could REALLY do with a thorough review for better screen ergonomics and consistency. Clunky barely covers it. I've seen a LOT better interfaces on web-based products years ago.
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Learning the UI is certainly going to be the biggest part of the learning curve but I have no doubt that once I start using it on a regular basis I'll get used to it. It's definitely better than SCSM's UI, that's for sure.
 
"Our transfer process is failing, it worked yesterday before you did X?"
"Is this a particularly big file?"
"No, but you did X yesterday, is it because of that?"
"Can you try it again?"
"OK. It failed. Is it because of X?"
"I just don't understand"

FFS. First rule of support is "what has changed?"

I guess the second rule of support is "don't admit liability"
 
Ha! All roads lead to TragicMonkey's data! Somebody requested something from my coworker, who asked me about it because it involves the increasingly niche set of data I mess with. Turns out somebody was trying to do a run around my chain of command to get at my precious data they're not entitled to have. What they didn't know is that it would of course circle back to me because I am the ultimate source of this particular kind of data. (It's not that I'm particularly skilled or special, I just happened to be the one who got the assignment a year ago that snowballed into this weird madness.) Ever'body wants to get their sticky hands on the hot sweet fruit of my glistening, musky SQL!
 
At this point TM just write a small Python random number generator to create databases of pure numerical gibberish. It seems it would hardly making any difference seeing as how much they want the numbers cooked at this point.

Your users it seems don't want data, but some sort of "Give me the numbers I want before I even know what they are" device.
 
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JoeMorgue said:
At this point TM just write a small Python random number generator to create databases of pure numerical gibberish. It seems it would hardly making any difference seeing as how much they want the numbers cooked at this point.

Your users it seems don't want data, but some sort of "Give me the numbers I want before I even know what they are" device.
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Actually in this case they do want real data, but they're not supposed to have it. They're supposed to make certain financial decisions without knowing the things this data would reveal; otherwise it opens up potential for shady misconduct. I really don't think they're trying to do anything evil, though--I think what's driving this is that one team used to provide two pieces of information and last year I was made to take over one of them. I think that team is trying to fix it so I do the other thing for them, send them the results, then they can get paid to do nothing. I don't think they realized the sensitivity of the data would trigger attention to their requests.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Actually in this case they do want real data, but they're not supposed to have it. They're supposed to make certain financial decisions without knowing the things this data would reveal; otherwise it opens up potential for shady misconduct. I really don't think they're trying to do anything evil, though--I think what's driving this is that one team used to provide two pieces of information and last year I was made to take over one of them. I think that team is trying to fix it so I do the other thing for them, send them the results, then they can get paid to do nothing. I don't think they realized the sensitivity of the data would trigger attention to their requests.
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Time for a pay rise! :cool:

How much would it cost to be a member of both those other teams? Can you aggregate the pay for both of those other positions into your current pay?

There's got to be an angle to this...
 
Trouble ticket that just hit my queue:

"I have a website that sends a code to my cell phone before I can login, but my supervisor has a policy where I we cannot have our phones out at our desks."
 
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