Ah, but this is another gripe of mine – not that there is ever an end to them. If I ask for, and genuinely understand, a For Taurus solution, don’t try to sell me a Ferrari.
One person, one blackberry. Sounds like a job for Outlook. When you’ve got 50 blackberrys, that’s when you spend 10k on a server and software. What is with this need for ultra complex, expensive (albeit nifty) solutions? I don’t doubt that you can make this a 100 man hour project – what I doubt is that it is necessary. Why obfuscate in this way?
I have no problem with SOX or change control in general. Indeed, it is giving my words more weight in that changes to improve security and accountability that I have been wanting to make suddenly make sense to others who previously found changing their password too burdensome.
We had another process before for change control. It was similar, but the new lead time and the extent of the documentation in the new system, partly because they are grafting new requirements on old processes and software, make it unwieldy. The template is poorly implemented and the electronic system crashes if you enter the fields in the wrong order. It really can increase the time spent on implementing a change. Given some of the changes I see in my future, I can imagine hundreds of extra hours for change control.
Were it only that simple. The problem is as follows: IT-savvy VP gets a Blackberry, is completely self-supporting, everybody’s happy. At least for a week or so, until Not-so-IT-savvy VP - you know the guy, he couldn’t setup a rule in Outlook if his year-end bonus depended on it - sees the Blackberry and gets a bad case of Gadget Envy. Because the second you approved the first Blackberry, it became Supported Technology in everybody’s eyes. How many resources will be tied down supporting Blackberry #2, 3 and 4 ? Probably enough to make it worthwhile to just bite the bullet and roll out a proper project.
Oh, and to name one thing that pisses me off: Bringing inferior home network hardware to the office and bloody plugging it into the corporate network. Particularly - and let me stress this - particularly if said piece of crap is a DAMN DHCP SERVER! I don’t care that it worked fine at home and that you didn’t know it would be a problem here - you just handed out incorrect IP addresses to an entire building, and your cute little SOHO router gets disconnected NOW. Don’t try to argue the point, either, your actions demonstrate your cluelessness.
Even better - I did both! Well, I dooubt anything ever changed, but because I left, the company I used to work for has since had to merge with Nextel just to survive! :rolleyes:
Norman! Don’t get all slippery slope with me. Maybe a band of mechanized sex-weasels do invade the office at blackberry #3, but let’s stick with what we know for now, hmm?
Network Admin/Systems Engineer, here, with resposibility for the phone system, as well. I really see my job as more like a plumber…stuff breaks, I fix it. I’m a generalist. But…
It’s NOT your computer, it’s the COMPANY’S computer, and they pay me to manage the systems according to their policies. You WILL get my approval before loading anything on the box, or I will rip it out by the roots. If you get approval to load personally-owned software, you WILL surrender the appropriate license to the company.
If you send a print job and it doesn’t print, by all means, send it a couple dozen more times before you let me know there’s a problem. You could also check to see that you’re sending it to the printer you think you’re sending it to…instead of the one at the other end of the building, which now has 12 copies of your document sitting in the bin.
I’m a hardware and systems guy. I do not know the ins and outs of every cockamamie piece of badly written, overly complex software you’ve bought for the last 10 years. I am not trained in the nuances of your 3-D CAD packages. Does it open? Then my job is done; call the VAR. YOU talk to them, because I don’t have the slightest idea what the fuck you’re talking about.
Stop buying packages and then expecting to be able to customize everything to your current workflow. Consider modifying your processes to fit the capabilities of the package you selected.
My primary function is to keep this network operating at peak efficiency. Unfortunately, my time is taken up with bullshit issues…get off your dead ass and put some paper in the printer; I have higher priorities. The CEO just deleted another file by mistake.
The Exchange system is not a file-transfer system. You know we’re behind a corporate firewall and the mail system has content filters, spam filters, and attachment blocking. Stop bitching to me that the executable attachment you were sent never got through. You know it’s gonna happen, so just stop it.
When you ask me for a solution to a particular problem, and I supply one, fucking use it. Any solution is better than no solution, so stop telling me that the current system is “unnacceptable”. This is the third and final FTP solution you’re getting, assholes.
Sales staff…DO NOT come to me with a major problem 20 minutes before you have to catch a plane. You’ve known about the problem for weeks.
I am not at your beck and call. 50% percent of my day is taken up with regular daily tasks…do not expect me to drop what I’m doing to address your pissant crisis du jour. I’ll get to it…just not right now.
Stop treating my office like a supply cabinet. If you need something, ask.
No, you may not have a set of speakers or a speakerphone in an open cubicle. You want music, bring in a fuckin’ Walkman.
If you decide to buy a non-company approved PDA, do not expect me to train you to use it, unless you’re going to buy me one, too. RTFM, pal…you’re on your own.
And you’re not getting a Blackberry, either.
Do not refer our external customers to me for questions about the systems you’ve sold them. We have a Customer Service department for that. My responsibility is the internal system.
Feel free to ask me for advice about your home system, just don’t bring it in for me to fix. I’ll be glad to address it off-hours; my usual fee is $150 and hour, plus beer.
How do I get mails from the server to the handheld, given these criteria;
[ol]
[li] You may not use Outlook, for security reasons.[/li][li] The mail server is Cyrus IMAP.[/li][li] RIM does not offer a solution for generic IMAP. Exchange/Domino/Groupwise, sure. But not vanilla IMAP.[/li][li] The IMAP box is not externally adressable. It’s NATed, and behind a firewall.[/li][li] All incoming connections to the internal network must be encrypted, through either a VPN or SSL.[/li][li] All incoming connections to the internal network from third parties must be from a /28 subnet.[/li][/ol]
That’s just off the top of my head. You think RIM or one of their resellers is gonna jump through all those hoops for a client with, at most, a half dozen users?
In other words, we’re not going to buy Windows Server 2003 just so we can buy Exchange just so we can buy Blackberry Enterprise Server just so we can buy some guy a Blackberry.
And before you pretend to know what you’re talking about again, I’m not going to water down a single one of our security policies to make it easier for me to give this guy what he wants. Hence, the minimum 100 man hours.
Especially since there has been, as yet, absolutely no demonstrated need for this guy to get his toy, other than the fact that he wants one.
I sacrifice a couple of pigeons every morning in that were not public, so I don’t have to deal with SOX. That would completely suck.
How do I get mails from the server to the handheld, given these criteria;
[ol]
[li] You may not use Outlook, for security reasons.[/li][li] The mail server is Cyrus IMAP.[/li][li] RIM does not offer a solution for generic IMAP. Exchange/Domino/Groupwise, sure. But not vanilla IMAP.[/li][li] The IMAP box is not externally adressable. It’s NATed, and behind a firewall.[/li][li] All incoming connections to the internal network must be encrypted, through either a VPN or SSL.[/li][li] All incoming connections to the internal network from third parties must be from a /28 subnet.[/li][/ol]
That’s just off the top of my head. You think RIM or one of their resellers is gonna jump through all those hoops for a client with, at most, a half dozen users?
In other words, we’re not going to buy Windows Server 2003 just so we can buy Exchange just so we can buy Blackberry Enterprise Server just so we can buy some guy a Blackberry.
And before you pretend to know what you’re talking about again, I’m not going to water down a single one of our security policies to make it easier for me to give this guy what he wants. Hence, the minimum 100 man hours.
Especially since there has been, as yet, absolutely no demonstrated need for this guy to get his toy, other than the fact that he wants one.
I sacrifice a couple of pigeons every morning in that were not public, so I don’t have to deal with SOX. That would completely suck.
Idiot execs who think they should get admin rights to everything. None so far at this company, but at my last one, I just wanted to strangle the CFO.
He got access denied because he fat fingered an address. He insisted that I change it so that he had access to everything in email. This was a publicly traded company but pre SOX. What a moron. There are controls for a reason. Him not being able to access that folder saved him from looking like an ass; he should be grateful.
I am no tech weenie, but sure, I’ll pretend to know what I’m talking about for a few minutes. Authentic tech weenies are welcome to comment.
[ol]
[li] You may not use Outlook, for security reasons. OK. Sounds like a good move.[/li][li] The mail server is Cyrus IMAP. Still with you. RIM claims Blackberry is IMAP and POP compatible.[/li][li] *RIM does not offer a solution for generic IMAP. Exchange/Domino/Groupwise, sure. But not vanilla IMAP.*This is only true if you qualify your statement with ‘I am only interested in Blackberry Web Client or Enterprise Server.’ You still can still use other means to push mail out.[/li][li] *The IMAP box is not externally adressable. It’s NATed, and behind a firewall.*Does this prevent email from going out?[/li][li] *All incoming connections to the internal network must be encrypted, through either a VPN or SSL.*Once again, this affects outgoing mail how?[/li][li] *All incoming connections to the internal network from third parties must be from a /28 subnet.*ibid.[/li][/ol]This guy managed to figure it out: http://www.mobilewhack.com/pda/blackberry/manage_your_email_when_using_the_bwc.html - as did a couple people down the hall from me who got their personal Blackberrys running without any IT help. Maybe that is the secret - don’t ask IT for help.
When you have a computer problem, do not describe the symptoms as “It’s broken” or “It doesn’t work.” That will automatically prompt me to say “Try it again” or “Try it later.”
Here is what you say:
When I try to [action A], I expect it to [response A] but instead it [response B].
[Optionally] It acts all [sluggish/flickery/balky/twitchy/sensitive/recalcitrant/furry/whatever].
After having said that, THEN you can say “It’s broken” or “It doesn’t work.”
idiots who don’t understand DNS and “think”:
[ul]
[li]On the client the top of the list for DNS servers will be used first and then if the item is not found in that it will go on to look at the second servers.[/li][li]On the registered DNS servers the top one will be used first so they can muck with the second or third servers’s entries without consequence.[/li][li]If you want to add one name to dns for testing just put up a zone on some dns server that only has your one name and then tell people to use that server, and are surpized when they can only get to that one name and not say the website or mail server[/li][li]Secondarying zones locally without informing the dns admin is a good idea, and bitch loudly when she moves the server and things stop working.[/li][li]On the client, the more dns servers the better! Whoopee!! I will be able to get to stage and production at the same time![/li][/ul]
Idiots in operations that are not concerned that the restore procedures failed completely when needed because this time we were able to recover from another source. You are wasting time and money when you spend it backing up when there is no restore process that will work.
Agreed. I’m governed by not only SOX, but GLBA, (Gramm-Leach-Bliley - financial institutions), HIPAA (in the HR department) and the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency - federal banking auditors). SOX has made it so much easier for me to say “no” to ill-thought-out projects and requests and to have bad ideas go away. Just yesterday, some contract programmers asked me to bless their plan of shipping a database containing customer information overseas for SQL tuning. Didn’t even ask their department manager or the database owner. That was an easy request to deny.
If you weren’t in Niles, I’d swear you were in this company. How many problem tickets and change requests does it take to change a lightbulb in a production data center? And how many people will be on the bridge line saying “that’s legacy hardware. We only support software”?
<Shrug> In my somewhat bitterly won experience, a really high percentage of what I OK, I end up supporting. And so I insist that the cost of me and my group supporting it be taken into account when the cost/benefit analysis is performed.
I guess I’m an ‘almost-techie’, and I do half-agree with you. But the one time I shouted down the phone was midway through a rest-everything-type solution, and I had to reboot, and while waiting for this the guy on the line says “It should have rebooted by now”, in an accusing tone. Fuck you!! - do you have a Microsoft-issue reboot stopwatch, or something?!
When I was in college, I worked at the help desk for the engineering computer labs. You’d think that engineers would have some sort of technical savvy, but sadly, this was not always the case.
We usually worked in a shift with another person or two. I had one case where a user called up, heard my voice, and asked if they could talk to a man.
Holy buckets of dead carp, Batman! This thread has turned into a bit of a flame-fest! Fire extinguisher, anyone?
Meanwhile, back in the Bat Cave…
… from my dim memories of retail computer hardware support comes this gem:
Woman on phone: Have you fixed the multi-I/O card I sent you? Me: To be honest, I’ve been testing it all day, and have had no problems with it. Could you perhaps give me a fault description, something a little more detailed than “faulty”? WOP: You should give it to a technician to test! A technician would know. Me: I am a technician (and the service manager, not that it matters), and I can’t find any problem. WOP: If you were a technician, you’d KNOW what the problem is! Get me a technician on the phone! Me: (getting the royal shits by now) Well how about you just humour me, and tell me what the problem is? WOP: If you put a 5.25" floppy drive on the second connector on the floppy drive cable, it doesn’t work, but only if I attach a 3.5" floppy drive to the first connector. Me: OK, first of all, what second connector? The cables we supply only have one on them… WOP: I used the cable from my old computer. It has two connectors. One for a 3.5" floppy and one for a 5.25" floppy. Me: OK… and there’s a twist between those two connectors, right? WOP: No, why would there be? Me: Well, the twist “tells” the floppy drive whether it is drive A or drive B. So what you’re doing is putting both drives on a cable that doesn’t have a twist, is that right? WOP: Yes. Me: So in effect you’re trying to get both drives to operate as drive A. That’s not going to work. WOP: Oh. Me: How about I just give you a cable that will do what you’re trying to do? WOP: Ok.
Far out. She was just so reluctant to give me the information! It was as if being a techo meant that I had some sort of mind-reading power, and since I couldn’t read her mind, I couldn’t possibly be a techo!
People, for the love of all that’s holy, give us decent fault descriptions!