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[Continuation] Dear Users… (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people) Part 11

Wudang said:
One of the best decisions someone made in the design of our system to merge medical records was every single field could be traced back to the field in the row of the csv it came from.
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Ooh, that's nice. I love it when I win games of "I Can Prove It's Not My Fault!"
 
Dr. Keith said:
My impression is that winning such games is the only thing you actually enjoy about your job.

I wish I had as much joy in my career. So jealous.
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Oh, not at all. I love my current job. Because it's data, not technical support or implementation. All I do is write and run fancy SQL queries. Most of my complaints in this thread are from earlier positions. But I do indeed love it when I successfully C my A when necessary. That's a vital skill in many professions, it just happens to be easier to do in most IT positions because we're used to keeping emails and spreadsheets and putting notes in the queries like "Brian F. req this change 11/6/19 see email from Karen A. saved in folder". Brian F has never met a bus he didn't try to throw someone under.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I encounter that a lot where it's not random, it's the order in which the elements were added to the page (which I assume is the default tab order).
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Yes, that's exactly right, but since we end users don't have access to the developer's design process, it seems random.
 
Gord_in_Toronto said:
No posts since March.

Have all the problems been solved?

Or have people just given up?

:covereyes
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I’m dealing with a support issue at the moment that is so frustrating that even trying to describe it here would make me bang my head repeatedly against the wall.
 
It's SysAdmin Day [System Administrator Appreciation Day] next Friday. One wonders if today's lunacy will influence corporate appreciation....
 
A week or two ago, I got a notice from Google that certain things needed to be done to bring my Android apps up to speed (latest OS). The reason I got out of iPhone development is that I had to recompile and reupload every few months because each iOS update was not backwards-compatible, even for these simple apps. So after several years I'd decided to give up on app development altogether.

Until I had a thought about making a certain new game. I searched and didn't find any equivalents. Ah, what the hell, I'm paid in the developer program through August, at least. Starting from scratch on the new app, I was able to get all the links in line, making it simpler to recompile my other, older apps. So I did that. They were online within a day. It used to take a week or two for them to review, and one time they were stuck In Review for months and I hadn't realized it.

I'm all caught up now, and the latest app development suite is actually a lot easier than what I learned on (fortunately I kept a lot of notes about the procedures.) I'm still not going to make any money for a free app, but it would be cool if I had something go viral, as unlikely as that is to happen.
 
Retired for 6 months now. Went back for a quick visit... Absolutely NOTHING had changed. Same ancient clockwork servers supporting a major hospital, no updates planned, no money from corporate, all the same expectations that "cloud" would make IT services free and unlimited.

Glad I left!
 
I've been retired for six years now, after eighteen years in support, following eighteen years in software development. I don't have anyone asking for help with computers any more, now my mum has gone, but I do get people asking about cameras.
 
At my great hesitation of using an AI for the first time, I found out the Android Studio has an AI helper. In the last couple days I needed to get out of a coding jam, and have used it several times. And it's worked most of the time! So much better than Googling and getting video links (for coding!) or dozens of "I have the same issue!" posts before I might be lucky enough to find a real answer.

What I do find amazing and kind of spooky is that it has anticipated what I wanted to do. Say, copy and paste and renaming a bunch of fields -- I did the first couple and it proposed how to do the rest. This new app is going so much easier than all that preceded it!
 
I used a laptop today for the first time since I mailed mine back to the company in April. I forgot I had it, but my wife remembered where it was when I mentioned maybe buying a new one.

It worked fine.
 
Saw this on mastodon with people riffing on Neitzche “gaze into the abyss “

The IT operations version: "Gaze not into the Abyss, lest someone decides you're now the Abyss domain expert and forces you to continue staring into the damned thing"
 
Wudang said:
Saw this on mastodon with people riffing on Neitzche “gaze into the abyss “

The IT operations version: "Gaze not into the Abyss, lest someone decides you're now the Abyss domain expert and forces you to continue staring into the damned thing"
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That's no kidding, more than once I've added a bit of code or even just expressed an opinion only to hear the dreaded words "Ok, you're in charge".
 
Wudang said:
It seems what I call RDP , what some refer to as mstsc is now called the "windows app". link
I don't know who picked the name or why they hate help desks but well played. I can picture it now:
"My windows app doesn't work!"
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Yeah. I'm pretty sure my response to that would be "Which one?".

Most likely replied to with a repetition of "My windows app" or a blank stare.
 
novaphile said:
My instinct is that this user may also have a visual or cognitive impairment (that she may or may not be aware of).
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My instinct is that a majority of humans just aren't good at computers, beyond a few rote tasks.

And by instinct I mean I've seen research to that effect. I might dig it up (again) when I'm not in the middle of day drinking.
 
Them: "This data is wrong! This isn't the right result for an Orange!"
Me: "That isn't an Orange, that's an Apple. You're looking at the Apple file of Apple results for the Apple query of Apple data."
Them: "So are you going to fix it?"
 
TragicMonkey said:
Them: "This data is wrong! This isn't the right result for an Orange!"
Me: "That isn't an Orange, that's an Apple. You're looking at the Apple file of Apple results for the Apple query of Apple data."
Them: "So are you going to fix it?"
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Tell them its fixed. And if they want different results then they are going to have to edit the report themselves.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Them: "This data is wrong! This isn't the right result for an Orange!"
Me: "That isn't an Orange, that's an Apple. You're looking at the Apple file of Apple results for the Apple query of Apple data."
Them: "So are you going to fix it?"
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Pretend you are explaining it to your mother when you talk to them.
 
TragicMonkey said:
My mother tends to take it on faith that I understand what I'm talking about even when she doesn't. Whether that's a touching tribute of trust or just age-induced apathy I don't care to examine.
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You need to similarly train your co-workers.
 
Wudang said:
From Fesshole (anonymous confessions) I work in IT and hate friends/family asking me to fix their home computers, now everytime I fix someones computer and hand it back I whisper "Dirty bastard!" and the look of pure horror on their face gets me everytime. Nobody asks now so it worked a treat.
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I am quite the opposite. I love helping out with a computer or technical issues. It was my job for most of my career and it's a good time to show off my MaDz SkIlZ.. But that only applies to in-person. I don't want to do it in texting, on the phone, or by god, e-mail. Since each question generates two more, the only way to handle it is to be there. But shut up and let me work. I'll ask the questions if I need to.
 
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