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

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JoeMorgue said:
A user just dropped of a phone (lot of phone issues this week, weird they are usually the plug and forget part of my job) off for me to look at and there's enough makeup caked to the receiver mouthpiece and earpiece for me to open a Sephora.
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My guess: The makeup is also all over the inside of the phone, gumming up all the contacts.
 
"We need you to cover a disaster recovery test"
"Well, it is my turn. What does it involve?"
"There is a guide on the intranet"
.... reading....
"This guide references technologies that were done away with in the last century"
"hold on, I'll find out"

Seriously, dumb terminals? Collecting tapes and driving them across the countryside?
 
Filippo Lippi said:
"We need you to cover a disaster recovery test"
"Well, it is my turn. What does it involve?"
"There is a guide on the intranet"
.... reading....
"This guide references technologies that were done away with in the last century"
"hold on, I'll find out"

Seriously, dumb terminals? Collecting tapes and driving them across the countryside?
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"Oh good our backup servers are located in West Germany, that's good to know."
 
Filippo Lippi said:
"We need you to cover a disaster recovery test"
"Well, it is my turn. What does it involve?"
"There is a guide on the intranet"
.... reading....
"This guide references technologies that were done away with in the last century"
"hold on, I'll find out"

Seriously, dumb terminals? Collecting tapes and driving them across the countryside?
Click to expand...

Congratulations! You get to write the new disaster recovery guide. Which some other poor chump will discover is absurdly out of date in about 2045.
 
Filippo Lippi said:
"We need you to cover a disaster recovery test"
"Well, it is my turn. What does it involve?"
"There is a guide on the intranet"
.... reading....
"This guide references technologies that were done away with in the last century"
"hold on, I'll find out"

Seriously, dumb terminals? Collecting tapes and driving them across the countryside?
Click to expand...

One of the first things I’d do when evaluating IT departments was the Dust Test - ask for the DRP documentation and see how thick a layer of dust was covering the folder. I saw some real shockers over the years: instructions for restoring mainframes that had long since been retired; contact lists full of phone numbers for people long since dead; references to support companies long out of business...

I’m very proud that just over a year before the Covid lockdown hit us I’d given my current employers some very negative feedback about the state of our BCP and DRP and that by the time the crisis struck we were well prepared. There is a lessons learned review going on at the moment but that report will be largely positive.
 
"This problem has been going on for months!"
"Okay and when did you first report it?"
"This morning"
"Then your clock starts this morning. I'll get to it."
 
Listen I know you're a middle aged woman going through menopause, but please don't sit little space heaters on top of your computer towers.
 
JoeMorgue said:
Listen I know you're a middle aged woman going through menopause, but please don't sit little space heaters on top of your computer towers.
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I can't be the only one who read this and thought: Why is Joe writing me personal messages in this thread?
 
JoeMorgue said:
Listen I know you're a middle aged woman going through menopause, but please don't sit little space heaters on top of your computer towers.
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I thought it was the opposite, menopause is when they're hot all the time even though it's forty degrees indoors. I worked in an office once that was 99% female and skewed agewise to the fifties. "Wear a sweater" they said. "I can't, it's frozen to the hanger" I said.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I thought it was the opposite, menopause is when they're hot all the time even though it's forty degrees indoors. I worked in an office once that was 99% female and skewed agewise to the fifties. "Wear a sweater" they said. "I can't, it's frozen to the hanger" I said.
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You are correct - if it's up there its a fan, not a heater.

A menopausal woman would throw a heater at your head if you tried to turn it on near her.
 
CORed said:
Congratulations! You get to write the new disaster recovery guide. Which some other poor chump will discover is absurdly out of date in about 2045.
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No, you're right. I am going to have to write the new guide. Damn principles
 
Filippo Lippi said:
No, you're right. I am going to have to write the new guide. Damn principles
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It would be prudent to write it to anticipate the future technology that will be in place by the time the disaster occurs. I suggest writing two versions, one for the optimistic case ("Computer, activate the replicator banks on deck seven, and reconfigure the forward sensor array to emit a chronoton pulse to retrieve all missing data from the pre-disaster memory matrix") and one for the pessimistic case ("Prepare 23,500,000 clay tablets using the following recipe: 1 part mud, 2 parts more mud...").
 
deleted, because this project has gotten so stupid there's eventually going to be a court case.
 
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- Not IT related directly, but it's "Every patients is deaf and you have to scream for them to hear you, and they scream everything back" day at the office it seems.

- I just had a user tell me her computer has been acting up "For the 30 years she's been working here" which I'm fairly certain is not correct.
 
JoeMorgue said:
- Not IT related directly, but it's "Every patients is deaf and you have to scream for them to hear you, and they scream everything back" day at the office it seems.
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Could it be the masks? I've noticed people tend to assume that masks require them to speak up to be heard. The same people no doubt talk louder when they're on the phone.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Could it be the masks? I've noticed people tend to assume that masks require them to speak up to be heard. The same people no doubt talk louder when they're on the phone.
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No this was a common occurance back in the before time as well, although I'll grant the masks (and plexiglass barriers installed in front of some of the desks) may not be helping.
 
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