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

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TragicMonkey said:
I don't think that's what I have. I am, if anything, lexical to a staggeringly high degree.
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Storytelling and creating vivid, elaborate images

Children with dyslexia prefer to translate facts into experiences or stories, rather than keeping them as abstract concepts. They also tend to use stories to remember the past, describe the present, and imagine the future. This tendency to think in stories is called ‘episodic’ memory (in contrast to ‘rote’ memory which many school tasks rely on).
Your child might love creating vivid and elaborate imagery. And this could translate into great art. For example, celebrated filmmaker Tim Burton used his childhood drawings as the inspiration for his iconic character ‘Edward Scissorhands’. And then there’s Pablo Picasso, who used canvas to masterfully capture the workings of his mind. He would paint subjects as he saw them — sometimes out of order, backwards or upside down.
Storytelling skills are valued in artists, salespeople, counsellors, lawyers, and teachers.
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https://www.theedpsych.com/blog/4-remarkable-strengths-of-dyslexic-children-and-how-to-nurture-them

I am in awe of your imagination. Sound familiar? ;)
 
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I was at the DMV today (Department of Motor Vehicles) and had to make an appointment entry on the screen. The on-screen keyboard was missing some letters (ex: QWERTYUIP). The I and the P were next to each other, no spaces. I realized it was probably to keep people from confusing an O with a 0 but it was just another minor irritant to add on to the many you get when you go to the DMV.

Last week I was working with a friend on a single laptop at a very narrow coffee shop table. We both had to look at it from the corners rather than head-on. I found it almost impossible to type in my password from that angle.
 
And there's always the classic tell for PC gamers: the WASD keys are worn more than the others. And a worn C and V key reveal the copy-paste junkies.
 
Do people really think we can make their mobile number ring on their desk phones?

No, I can't add your mobile number as a second line on your phone. The universe just doesn't work like that.
 
Do they need directions on call forwarding?

I don't have a desk phone at work any more, but at a past job I was able to forward my mobile to my desk phone on a day I left it at home.
 
Norman Alexander said:
I think they are asking that if their desk phone is unanswered, pass the call to their mobile. As BoR said, call forwarding.
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It's possible, but the method that they used is one of the most arcane and awkward request methods that we've got. It involves downloading an Excel spreadsheet and filling it out, then emailing it to us. Call Forwarding on the other hand is right at their fingertips every time they look at the intranet. Or, I notice now, their phones. And especially since people have been working remotely for the past two years, most people have been forwarding their phones to their mobiles so in general they're pretty familiar with the process.

If call forwarding is what they want, what they actually submitted was about as far away as it is possible to be from that. Especially since the page they download the Excel file from has very, very clear instructions including what it is and what it is for, and it very much does not give any indication that you can set call forwarding this way.
 
arthwollipot said:
It's possible, but the method that they used is one of the most arcane and awkward request methods that we've got. It involves downloading an Excel spreadsheet and filling it out, then emailing it to us. Call Forwarding on the other hand is right at their fingertips every time they look at the intranet. Or, I notice now, their phones. And especially since people have been working remotely for the past two years, most people have been forwarding their phones to their mobiles so in general they're pretty familiar with the process.

If call forwarding is what they want, what they actually submitted was about as far away as it is possible to be from that. Especially since the page they download the Excel file from has very, very clear instructions including what it is and what it is for, and it very much does not give any indication that you can set call forwarding this way.
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What? There were instructions?? Where!
 
Here's another funny thing. We have this form called an EAN - Exit Advice Notification. This is the form that you complete when you're leaving. It sends notifications to Service Desk, VoIP, Smartcard, Payroll, etc so that all of your accounts and accesses can be closed. Most people do the right thing and fill this out when they are about to leave. Some don't, and the EAN has to be submitted by a colleague after they're gone. The oldest EAN I've seen was for someone who departed in 2018. We have one sitting in the system now that I saw when we received it in August, with a departure date in January 2023. I'm pretty sure that one was for someone who was on a fixed contract, and they submitted both the New Starter pack and the EAN at the same time. Now that's planning ahead!
 
So I just got some training on a new system we're rolling out called CyberArk, and it looks really, really good.

Up until now, if I wanted to use Active Directory Users and Computers, I had to RDP to server A (the "jump" server), then in that server I would RDP to server B, on which I would be able to run AD. Using CyberArk I will be able to run AD natively on my desktop without having to go through two servers.

It has other functions (like managing my privileged admin accounts, yes plural), but that alone makes it worthwhile in my view.
 
arthwollipot said:
I have long since realised that people don't read instructions. We have them anyway, so that people can't complain that there were no instructions.
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Our trainers have this as part of their spiel for orientation:

"We have spent a lot of money getting instructions prepared for all your basic phone and computer functions. These have been printed out, and are also available on our internal website. We will go over them again shortly. So in future if anyone calls in to Helpdesk with a problem that could have been fixed by reading and following these instructions, we will personally staple another copy to your forehead and you will have to wear it round your office until you can recite it word-perfect. So are we paying attention? Good! Let's begin..."


And despite this warning, we do still get people calling in with dumb-and-dumber problems...:rolleyes:
 
Norman Alexander said:
Our trainers have this as part of their spiel for orientation:

"We have spent a lot of money getting instructions prepared for all your basic phone and computer functions. These have been printed out, and are also available on our internal website. We will go over them again shortly. So in future if anyone calls in to Helpdesk with a problem that could have been fixed by reading and following these instructions, we will personally staple another copy to your forehead and you will have to wear it round your office until you can recite it word-perfect. So are we paying attention? Good! Let's begin..."


And despite this warning, we do still get people calling in with dumb-and-dumber problems...:rolleyes:
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Your helldesk needs to start charging BUs for trivial calls. I've found this works wonders.
 
Wudang said:
Oh hell, yes. This came up a few times on ITIL course.
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I've included this in projects.

arthwollipot said:
We sometimes get people asking us how much certain services will cost. Our standard response is that this is well above our pay grade.
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When I've implemented managed solutions everything not specifically included is billed for. BU heads get software deployment approvals that list the cost to their BU.
 
*facepalm*

I just had a consult with one of our T1s - reasonably new but not that new. He said that his caller was having problems with his internet connection - Teams meetings kept dropping out.

So I asked, is this a problem with Teams then?

No, I don't think it's Teams, I think it's their internet connection.

Their internet connection, like, going to external internet sites in the browser?

No, their teams meeting.

That's not their internet connection, that's just their local LAN connection. We can't do Teams with external people over the internet.

I'm still not sure he understood. I've heard this from callers too. It's like "internet" starts at their ethernet port.
 
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