tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58298244546345157762024-03-13T16:21:38.142-04:00IT is HELL!!Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-18524228061538731222013-08-19T10:30:00.000-04:002013-08-19T10:30:53.854-04:00It's time to goI just got back to work after a full week off for a summer stay-cation with the family. It turns out I was very relaxed. I didn't miss my job what...so.....ever. In fact, I've been very seriously a drastic career change the past few months.<br />
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Anyway, my first support call comes in this morning at 9:10 from one of my favorite employees. She's a super sexy Asian woman. And I like her. Fun to banter with and she's overly flirty with me, which I need in order to feel better about myself. However, her call confirmed for me that it's time to get the fuck out of this profession. On top of that, she went from a 9 to a 4 with her call. Here's a transcript from my shady memory:<br />
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*phone rings*<br />
Me: "Hey, baby."<br />
Hottie: "Hi! How are you? Um, is there something wrong with the Internet this morning?"<br />
Me: "Not that I know of. Why?"<br />
Hottie: "Because it's, like, acting, like, all retarded."<br />
Me: "So, the Internet is retarded?"<br />
Not-So-Hot Anymore: "Yeah. Well, you know what I mean? Can you, like, look into it?"<br />
Me: "Of course I will. Bye."<br />
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My company was recently sold. The CEO walked away with over $200M (hey, he did earn it. He started the company over 20 years ago.) What's my purpose here again? <br />
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BTW, no, I'm not going to look into it. My boss still thinks a 10 Mb line is OK for 100+ users. Nothing I can do here. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-53941303208444877212011-05-05T11:01:00.001-04:002011-05-05T11:13:10.892-04:00To Cool Or Not Cool...I don't know about you guys, but I'm super happy that spring has finally arrived. This winter was just cold, snowy and not a lot of fun. Luckily it looks like nothing but sunshine and butterflies from here on out. It'll be time to start busting out the bathing suits before you know it. With the spring comes the rain, it's a necessary evil that brings with it trees and shade which we'll need in the summer. Much to my surprise though, it's been raining indoors. How is that possible, you ask? It's a very easy explanation.<br />
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For as long as I can remember, one of the two air conditioning units in my server closet (I can't even call it a datacenter) has been malfunctioning. The room is not very big, but unfortunately the architects didn't take into consideration what was going into the room and didn't plan it out too well. There isn't a lot of space and there are at least a dozen servers and a dozen network switches in there pumping out heat. The AC units we have are barely enough to get by as it is. If one of them goes down, we're in trouble. Since my boss has only been in his new position for a year, he's still in the "SAVE MONEY, LOOK GOOD FOR THE SUITS, KISS AS MUCH ASS AS POSSIBLE" phase of his employment. It's completely understandable. He's thinking about his career and anyone else would do the same thing. The issue I have is where he's trying to save said money.<br />
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I have been bringing up the issue of this faulty AC unit almost since the start of my employment. I've worked at companies that had similar AC issues and it never ends well. In fact this particular issue was the reason that I worked 14 straight weekends last summer. Being that I am the only support guy here, 14 straight weekends can really take its toll on you. Both physically and mentally. Especially when it happens during the summer. Instead of being in the car heading to the beach, I'm on a hot subway heading to work.<br />
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Fast forward to this week...<br />
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The AC has failed for 72 straight days. When I say fail, I mean it starts blowing hot air instead of cold. Or in this case it starts dripping water, which is blown throughout the room. Normally, turning it on and off will resolve the issue. The problem occurs when it happens overnight. The room can get pretty hot. I lost count of how many times I've come in and the server closet has been 90 degrees plus (which is a great operating environment for servers). Now that my new boss is here and he's looking to make an impact I figure he'll want to nip this issue in the bud. <Charlie Murphy voice> Wrong, WRONG! I even went so far as to get a quote from our AC service company on how much it would cost to replace the unit. Their answer, $10k. $10k? That's it? Really? With labor included? WTF?!??! LET'S DO THIS!! Alas, the head honcho said that price is a little too steep. I went on to explain to him that we easily have $750k-1M worth of equipment in that room. Spending $10k to prevent failures is definitely worth it. I also went on to explain that a server outage will cost us money on missed orders, user downtime, etc. Guess what? It all comes down to the money.<br />
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So what's your opinion? Do you think it's worth the incurred cost to insure that your network can function properly? I sure as hell do. Unfortunately for me, I'm not the guy who makes the call on this. I'm just the one who has to come in on the weekend to get everything back up and running.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-55539213634443256912011-05-04T18:20:00.004-04:002011-05-04T21:41:41.697-04:00Thanks For Trying<div style="background-color: transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I had to leave the office early the other day. I took off around 2pm. I didn't know it at the time but there was a major issue being addressed. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I come in the next morning and there is a brand new Windows 7 tablet on my desk. (See <a href="http://www.itishell.com/2011/02/staying-current.html">THIS POST</a> for the reason we have a Windows tablet in the first place.) There is a note on it from my boss. He needed me to get it connected to the wireless network and that if I have any questions I should call him. My first question would be: How do you still have a job? You can't do this? Really, my girlfriend who is not technical at all could handle this in about 5 minutes, easily. My boss, his rock star comrade and the new desktop guy spent "the whole afternoon" (his words) trying to get it connected to no avail. Wait. What? The three of you spent a whole afternoon on this? Who was curing cancer or searching for intelligent life in the stars then? I wouldn't normally be so surprised but i built a wiki just for things like this that is only available to the people in IT. There is literally a document with step by step instructions on how to connect to our wireless network. Did I mention it has pictures too? Yep, I even took screenshots. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">It's really quite disturbing. The levels of ineptitude that I'm surrounded by is enough to break most people's spirits. I don't know what bothers me more. The fact that they were too dumb to figure it out, the fact that my boss and his comrade each make at least 40k more than me, or the fact that they were all too lazy to spend two minutes reading the instructions. Either way I had to waste a full three minutes of my day fixing this major issue for them. Glad i was there to save the day. It's just too bad there were no 4th graders around to do it instead.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-85556345271190284992011-03-16T12:29:00.000-04:002011-03-16T12:29:51.223-04:00Thanks For CallingAs we all know, the economy is not in good shape right now. There are a lot of people that are out of work. There are a large number of Americans collecting unemployment. The people who have jobs are not doing well either. Many employers are cutting their workforce and asking employees to handle the load of 2 or 3 positions while not getting any extra salary or benefits in return. This is causing a lot of people to look for new jobs. From what I have seen and heard from many of my friends, and colleagues, it's happening all over the IT world.<br />
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I've been looking for a job for a few months myself. I actually have a job at the moment but I am severely underpaid (by about 25k) and have a work load that causes most people to stutter and repeat, "You have how many users?". During my job search I have found one undeniable truth. Recruiters suck. It seems they want to call you in for that initial interview since they like to put a face and a personality to a resume. Then like a date gone wrong you never hear from them again. Or in other cases, you hear from them regarding positions they have no business calling you for. I'll give you a couple of examples. <br />
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I'm very picky about the position I am looking for. I'm looking for a full time, non-contract, in-house Admin role dealing with Windows networks and VMware. I have a minimum salary that I want to achieve and I want to work in midtown NYC. That's pretty much my requirements. <br />
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I don't think that's too complicated. I just don't want to leave my current position and a steady paycheck for something that's not going to make me happy. Luckily I have that luxury unlike most people. Since I've discussed this with every recruiter I've met and put this in detail on every job board, such as Monster, HotJobs, Dice, etc. why is it that recruiters feel the need to send me almost exclusively contract positions? On top of that, it seems most of the positions I get emailed to me are for Linux Support, or Cisco Engineer positions in the middle of New Jersey. Just because I have experience with Cisco or Linux doesn't mean I want to commute 3 hours for a job dealing with it. Do recruiters even read cover letters or resumes in detail anymore? It seems that after the initial call, you're supposed to do all of the leg work. They have hundreds of candidates, how can they be expected to do their job and find the best ones? That's so much work. I had another recruiter contact me yesterday for a "Windows Administrator contract in NYC" position. He didn't give me any details though. I don't want a contract job but I figured I'd get some more detail before I completely disregard the email. I shoot the recruiter an email asking for a description of the job, salary, location, etc. and was floored by his repsonse. <br />
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"Unfortunately the company does not have a job description, they just asked us to find some consultants."<br />
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Are you kidding me?<br />
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Seriously.<br />
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Dude, really?<br />
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How can you fill a position properly if you don't know what the position is for? I just can't believe the stupidity in some companies. I just don't think it's possible to find the right candidate for a job when you can't figure out what skills the person needs to have. I'm starting to understand why there are so many unemployed folks out there. If these are the people trying to get them hired, we could be in for a rough future. Yet another reason why IT is HELL!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-69299929931964808782011-03-09T11:09:00.001-05:002011-03-09T12:03:07.911-05:00Importance Of IT Certifications<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a long standing argument in the IT World about the importance of IT certifications. Some people swear by them and won’t hire someone without them. Others think they are great when you run out of toilet paper. I’m one of those people who is in the middle. Personally, I hold a number of certifications, ranging from Microsoft to Cisco to A+ to my newly acquired VMware certification. I think they are important as a learning tool, yet, I do not think they should be required. Nor, do I think that they are an accurate gauge of someone’s technical skills. The clip below highlights my point exactly.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/DhrfhjLd9e4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> When I first started in this industry it was the late 90’s when Windows 98 and NT were revolutionizing the way we did things. Plug & Play (or Pray, like I called it) was everywhere. Microsoft was taking over the world. IT certifications were new at this point and not a lot of people had them. That was until Microsoft unveiled their new MCSE certification for Windows NT. Overnight, it seemed like, people were adding initials to their business cards and signatures and walking with a little more pep in their step. They were official, Microsoft said so. Bill Gates personally signed a document that said these people are awesome. The problem was (and still is) that not everyone was. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I said earlier, I think certs are a good learning tool. I also think that they are somewhat watered down as an achievement. There are many ways to pass a certification exam. A lot of people put in the hard work and build a lab at home or in their office and actually learn the material. That’s the group that I fall into. I always thought that learning about what I was working on was more important that the signed paper from Mr. Gates. Not everyone thinks that way though. A lot of people study what the book says or what questions will be on the test without actually understanding what the book or question is saying. They just know that the answer to Chapter 3 Lesson 2 Question 7 is B. Some people go even further by purchasing brain dumps or “Real Tests” and they just memorize questions and answers. That’s where they go wrong. When the time comes and they are on the job and are faced with setting up a server, they don’t know what to do. They didn’t put the work in, they just passed a test.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ll give you a case in point. The guy that was just hired to work with me is in school. He’s taking an MCSE course and looking to get his certification. He already passed his A+ Certification (Kudos to him on that by the way). He’s done with one of his courses and in the middle of test prep for a Microsoft exam on Windows Server 2008 networking. He’ll be dealing DNS, DHCP, Active Directory, etc. I’ve actually been studying for the same test. So every day I throw a few questions at him. Nothing crazy, just questions to keep him on his toes. I asked him the other day, “What is an A record?” He proceeded to try and regurgitate what he remembered from the book. The only issue was, he didn’t understand what he was saying. Nor did he get what an A record actually is. That’s what troubles me. DNS is a requirement for Active Directory which almost all other Microsoft services are built on. If he can’t get that down, how can I expect him to get the more advanced topics? For those of you who don’t know, an A record is a mapping of a domain name to an IP Address. It’s what allows you to type in </span><a href="http://www.google.com/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">www.google.com</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> instead of 74.125.226.179. That’s all I was looking for. The answer is as simple as "it maps a name to an IP". </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The scary thing is he’ll be an MCSE before I will. Yet when it comes down to configuring a server network, he’s going to be lost in the sauce. The moral of the story is when you’re evaluating someone’s skills. Don’t just go off what you read on their resume. Make sure that they can back up what they say they know. Give them a quick exam if you have to. The hands-on type, because they probably have your questions memorized.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I still think that IT professionals should try to acquire certifications. Just make sure that you do it for the right reason. Do it to better yourself as a professional instead of just trying to get that "piece of paper". In the end, if you know what you're doing you'll have more paper than before. It'll be the green kind in your wallet.</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-45338603837143284682011-03-07T12:33:00.000-05:002011-03-07T12:33:01.218-05:00We've moved!!After some urging on from some of our followers, we've decided to move to our domain name. Please update your shortcuts and bookmarks. We can now be found at <a href="http://www.itishell.com/">www.itishell.com</a>. We hope that you make the move with us. Stay tuned for some more posts, coming shortly.Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-16674271460362356672011-02-07T17:22:00.000-05:002011-02-07T17:22:43.928-05:00Hot Enough For You?This is a quick one. I actually had a user complain that her heater wasn't working anymore. She had it on top of her computer. I think her computer was more pissed off than I was. It just couldn't tell me anymore...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_WzYspPLubL4/TVBwSDawb_I/AAAAAAAAAAY/63Zwo2VtJIU/s1600/2011-02-07+17.11.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_WzYspPLubL4/TVBwSDawb_I/AAAAAAAAAAY/63Zwo2VtJIU/s320/2011-02-07+17.11.54.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WzYspPLubL4/TVBwWIhRICI/AAAAAAAAAAc/ruFTeiFg7jA/s1600/2011-02-07+17.12.07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WzYspPLubL4/TVBwWIhRICI/AAAAAAAAAAc/ruFTeiFg7jA/s320/2011-02-07+17.12.07.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I'm going to have to borrow a line from Bill Simmons.<br />
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Yep, these are my users. SMH.Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-11408835020427239382011-02-07T16:55:00.000-05:002011-02-07T16:55:35.878-05:00Staying CurrentAs an IT guy, one of the most important skills is the ability to stay current. Technology changes every day. Something that was hot one year could be replaced but something better, cheaper and faster the following year. Sometimes the turnaround is even quicker than that. It's hard to keep up with these swings but if you love gadgets and gizmos as much as I do, it's not THAT hard. I personally am a warranty voider. I like to mess with devices to the point that I can't return them anymore. It's fun for me. Apparently my love for technology isn't shared by everyone.<br />
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My boss is currently in the "Make a name for himself" phase of his job. He just took over last year and he's trying to wow the owners into another huge raise. We run a lot of our business on the AS400 platform. It was here before me it'll be here after I'm gone. That's just the way it is. Some of you may be familiar with the AS400 or Series i as they call it now. Some of you may use it and not even know that you do. It's basically a telnet session with a black screen and green and red lettering that runs simple text based apps. These apps are created by my boss and his minions. My former boss came up with the idea for an integrated website that connects to the AS400 to bring up data for salespeople so they can have up to the minute numbers and show buyers our product in real time. This was a great idea in my opinion. It would help increase productivity and help the company make some more money. Hopefully the department would get some good pub and all would be good. Of course, being the efficiency machine that we are here, my boss was let go with no notice given to anyone. Owner called up and said he was asked to leave without a transition period or anything. Smart move. New guy takes over and decides to change everything. Sometimes that's a good thing. Keyword being "Sometimes". My new boss decided to revamp my old boss' web interface project. We had a meeting with one of the owners and he described how he wanted to to make everything accessible from iPads and Tablets and bring us into the future. Sounds good to me. That translates to I get a free iPad to start testing this crap out. Where do I sign? The owner is on board at this point and all seems to be going well. So my boss asks me what I think of the whole project. My only suggestions were to make sure the web interface can be accessed by any browser, such as FireFox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, etc. and to use standard protocols so we wouldn't get locked into one vendor. Simple enough.<br />
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So my boss proceeds to spend the next 5-6 months developing said interface. Every once in a while, he'd mention that he was making progress. It was his baby, his project so I let him run with it. I figured he'd show me a beta, I could tear it apart, laugh a little at his expense (he's put me through enough mental torture, I deserve some laughs, don't judge me), and put him back to work. Little did I realize how much I'd be laughing. Apparently this morning, he had a presentation with the big boys in the corner offices and showed them the new interface. From what he told me, they ate it up. Loved it, raved about it, from what he made it out to sound like they stopped short of throwing roses at him and yelling BRAVO! I was intrigued. Could I have been giving this poor guy a bad rap? Maybe I've just been an inconsiderate prick. It's happened before, we're only human. I asked him to show it to me and he happily obliged. The interface was pretty bare bones, plain background, text only, with a couple of thumbnails but it got the job done. I asked him to send me the link so I could mess with it. I recently purchased a tablet myself and figured I could give it a whirl. He sends me the link and I'm immediately prompted to install an ActiveX control. UH OH! Wait, maybe that's for something else.....Nope. So I call him up and try to get some more scoop. It turns out he built the site using some IBM app that came with the AS400. He never actually tested it with any other browsers and didn't know why I was making a fuss. I'm not a web design guru by any means as you can see by my blog. I know enough to be dangerous. That's why I have friends to help me out. There are a few critical things that I do know. One of those things is that ActiveX equals IE Only which equals bad news. We already had a bunch of people with iPads, iPhones and Android devices. This is not good. I had to explain to him the shortcomings of ActiveX and how it doesn't run on Android or Apple devices and how he just wasted 6 months by not listening to my only suggestion. I then asked him why he decided to use that program. I also asked him why he didn't just call IBM or hire a consultant to make it work. He responded with the answer that sums up most of my frustrations. He said, "That's all I know, I don't know any other languages, this is the only one I've ever used.". There it is. He never learned any new tricks because he didn't have to. Now, we either have to redevelop his already unveiled app, or bite the big one for all of the devices and go with the 3rd best tablet solution. As those of you who follow my blog know, there is only one possible route we could take...<br />
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He asked me to start researching Windows tablets and phones.<br />
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Excuse me a moment while I go bang my head on my desk.<br />
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Are you kidding me? That's the best solution you've got? Buy new tablets? Really?<br />
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I guess the lesson to be learned here is that when you decide to work on something new to make yourself look like a superstar, make sure your finished product works before you unveil it to the powers that be. If he would have tried to act like a CIO and read an article or two about technology he could have avoided this situation. One of my non-IT friends summed it up perfectly when I told him the story. "Even I know that, and I am a tech idiot.". How did he know? He kept up with the times and bought an iPad. I wish that my head of Information Technology would have done the same.Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-91821669588018080722011-01-27T15:09:00.001-05:002011-01-28T14:52:36.669-05:00Help & SupportSo there is something on my mind and I was looking to get some input from others in my field. I'm currently working alone in IT. I have 200+ users and 40+ servers to support. Some might say that this is a good thing for job security but it is A LOT to handle. There is so much pressure on you that sometimes the easy tasks become difficult. You have to turn into <a href="http://bit.ly/g80wia">Ralph Dibny</a> sometimes and stretch yourself thin. I feel like I'm always running around and every time I think I'm making a little headway, I get 10 more requests that need to be done ASAP. You get where I'm going with this. I've had discussions with my boss and his boss (one of the owners of the company) about hiring an additional body. They finally agreed with me that we should get someone else but that is where things get fuzzy.<br />
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As I said earlier, they believe we should hire someone as well but they want to go as green as possible. They want to hire someone for 30k or less and have them be my right hand man. I on the other hand feel we should go a little hire up the food chain. I'm not saying that my company should go out and hire another person at my level (although that would be nice), I was thinking more of a Senior Desktop Support/Jr. Admin role. If I had to estimate, I'd say I'd be looking in the 50-65k range. The advantages are certainly warranted in my opinion. You would get someone who can hit the ground running. All they would need to know would be the environment specific data, such as IP Addresses, Hostnames and Passwords (if needed) and they can do their job. You don't get that with a lower level person. In most cases you would have to hold their hands and look over their shoulder. I experienced it at this company where I wasted so much time redoing the work that the desktop guy supposedly took care of that I actually became less productive even with another body. I'm not saying that every entry level person is going to be a liability but the good majority of them will be, at least at first. Here is the other disadvantage of hiring a low level tech. It would take at least 6 months to a year to get them up to speed on the various technologies (assuming they put in the effort to learn them). Now that they have these additional skills, why would they want to stay in a low level position? 99 times out of 100 they would try to leave and probably get an additional 20k just for walking in the door somewhere else. That is, unless the company ponies up the extra cash which is not something they have done in the past here and why we're in the situation of looking for a newbie to begin with. I'm well aware of the fact that even a Jr. Admin level person would probably leave for the same reasons I just listed, it just makes more sense to me to hire someone that could be productive during their time here than to just hire, train and wave goodbye to someone else. <br />
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Maybe I'm being selfish in wanting someone who already knows what they're doing but I think that I am also looking out for the company's best interests. This new guy is going to have to step in when I am not around. Do you want to put someone in charge of your multi-million dollar investment in IT who has never worked on half of the technologies? Or do you want someone who has some familiarity with them? What is your take on this? Am I crazy for thinking we should hire someone with a clue? Or am I just being a big ol' Weineken. Please comment below.Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-76316945448821254992011-01-24T13:49:00.000-05:002011-01-24T13:49:45.650-05:00School DazeI know it's been a while since my last post, but I've been really busy studying lately. I recently obtained another certification. I'm officially a VCP (VMware Certified Professional). For those of you in the induustry, I'm sure you know it's kind of a big deal. I worked my butt off for a few months and all of that hard work paid off in another great accolade.<br />
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I've been in the field for about 13 years now. I did not finish college. I decided to go the military route instead. I became one of The Few & The Proud. I became a United States Marine. When I was done with my military obligation I transitioned into civilian life very easily. I started off as a network technician. I was doing basic server installs, along with switch and router setups. Nothing too crazy, but I wanted more. I decided to get some certifications so I could move up in the world. Like many IT guys, I started with my A+ Certification. I then moved on to Microsoft, and followed that up with Cisco certifications. I passed at least a dozen tests in a little over a year. For each one, I did some reading. Mostly those 2-3 inch study guides you find it the Computer section at Barnes & Noble. I complimented this with some good old fashioned hands on experience. I wanted to make sure that when I passed a test, I knew my stuff inside and out. I didn't want to just be a paper certified guy.<br />
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Fast Forward a few years. I'm still passing certifications because in this field, you need to keep pace and learn new technologies. I feel that studying for each test helps me learn critical technologies as well as have my work validated by some initials after my name and some fancy logos on my resume.<br />
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As most of you who follow my blog know, I hate my job. I have very valid reasons for this but rather than bitch about it some more, I'm just trying to move on. I recently was contacted by someone who found my resume online. We talked for a while and found out that we had a lot in common both professionally and personally. We both were in the Marine Corps. In fact we were in the same unit. We also were both IT guys with a few years experience behind us. This fellow Marine was a Systems Admin at a hedge fund. He was looking for another guy to help him out and my resume was the first one that popped up. I aced the phone interview and was invited to come in for a face to face. I aced that one too and was one of the final three candidates for the job. I met with the CFO, COO and Head Software developer. Everything seemed to go well and my fellow Marine was ready to hire one of his own. Then, things changed.<br />
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It turns out that this hedge fund requires a college degree for all of it's employees. It one of their main requirements. Unfortunately I was passed over for the position even though in the words of their Systems Admin, "I was the most qualified candidate, hands down.". It really got me thinking, what good would a computer science degree even be at this point? I would have graduated almost 10 years ago. The current technology at the time would have been Windows NT/2000. It's all obsolete now.<br />
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My question to you is, what separates someone with a college degree? Does a degree mean you are smarter than I am? It may, but I do not think so. I should not be penalized for knowing what I wanted to do in life very early on. I always knew I wanted to work in IT. Ever since the day I fixed my first Nintendo. I really enjoyed analyzing the problem and coming up with a solution. Since I knew this, I became an IT guy as soon as I could by joining the Marines and I haven't looked back. That doesn't mean I stopped learning. In fact, I would say I've learned more than the average college grad. It's just been much more specific to what I love.To this day, I can honestly say I've learned something new every single week that I have been in the field. I strive to make myself a better Admin/Engineer every day, by trying to learn new technologies. I want to be the best at what I do. For much of my career, I can say that I have been the best and I continue to show why now by learning new things even though it's not a job requirement (Although I think it should be).<br />
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In the end, I think I'm more upset that I was the best choice for this position but because of a piece of paper, I was passed over.Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-62147164351794152782010-11-15T12:26:00.004-05:002010-11-15T12:41:15.974-05:00I'm Apparently A Racist TechnicianLast week was one of those weeks I literally wanted to get up and just walk out of my office and never return. Well, every week is like that, but I digress.<br /><br />We use Canon color copier/printers here like there's no tomorrow. They get hammered day after day. And they break. All the fucking time. We got a new printer about 5 months ago. It's a Canon Color ImageRunner 5051 (should be 5150, if you know what I mean). It's brown. Not gray or white like most of Canon's equipment. We had a naming contest and the name we came up with was Brown Sugar. Harmless, right? I sent out an email "introducing" the new printer to the entire office and got no complaints other than several saying they wouldn't be able to get the Rolling Stones song out of their head when printing to it. Oh, how cute. Wrong.<br /><br />Oh, and btw, HR is a part of this distribution list.<br /><br />Fast forward to three weeks ago. Brown Sugar is acting up again and I have to take it offline while I await the Canon tech to show up. I send out an email telling people to print to one of our other color printers. The HR Director emails me asking if I can please change the name. I had a gut feeling where she was going so I just ignored the request.<br /><br />Jump to last week and same situation plays out. She again emails me if we can have a re-naming contest. I knew where she was going with this. I emailed back asking if she didn't like the Rolling Stones. Her reply was that she was, but she was also a "diversity HR Director." BAM. There it is. For a guy who is about as liberal as they come, this finally told me the days of political correctness had gone too far.<br /><br />I asked several of my black friends if they found the name "Brown Sugar" offensive. Each one of them looked like I had two heads and said, "Are you crazy?" One put it perfectly: "I'm black, not brown, so why should I care?"<br /><br />I'm letting my boss and the HR Director fight this battle. I'm so dumbfounded that I may have to not only re-name the RIP server, but go through the fucking effort of removing the printer from the 75+ workstations in our office and re-installing it for everyone. Of all the things I have on my list, this is not something I care to waste my time on....especially when someone is being beyond hyper-sensitive about a non-racial name for a goddamn printer. Does this also mean that Domino Sugar should rename their brown sugar products? Are the Rolling Stones secret members of the KKK?<br /><br />As people like to say, FML.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-88065505112554612302010-10-11T08:59:00.003-04:002011-08-01T23:52:06.310-04:00Job Security vs My Sanity<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_WzYspPLubL4/TLMaadNG82I/AAAAAAAAAAM/nNCXahsWGms/s1600/straitasylum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_WzYspPLubL4/TLMaadNG82I/AAAAAAAAAAM/nNCXahsWGms/s200/straitasylum.jpg" width="155" /></a>It’s been a while since I have written anything here. I made the MISTAKE of going to a training class. Why was it a mistake? I learned a lot. I should have a new certification that I’ve wanted for a while. I also was out of the office for a week. THAT’S why it was a mistake. Even though I had a consultant covering for me while I was out, leaving the office is a double-edged sword for me. <br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m a firm believer in keeping your personal life and professional life separate as much as possible. I think it’s nice to just get away sometimes. Unfortunately, since I run all of IT at my company, I’m the only one who understands the way it’s all setup. I’m not saying the other guys in IT aren’t helpful. They just have much different skill sets. For example, my new boss who is also the CIO in training asked me this the other day: “Does the Operating System gets installed on the Hard Drive?” How do I respond to that? It boggles my mind that someone with a self-professed, 15 years of experience working in many different, fast-paced environments could not understand how an OS is installed. They just don't get the infrastructure, support sides of IT. When I leave for a day or two or even a week like I did for training my return is usually a nightmare. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When I arrived back at the office, the first thing I noticed was that there were 6 boxes of backup tapes from our off-site vendor sitting on my desk. Did the consultant not understand the directions I left for sending tapes off-site? I wish. He never bothered changing the tapes. So I was “lucky” enough to have 6 days of failed backups waiting for me. I immediately ran into the server closet and began rotating the tapes and getting the backups straightened out. Once that was complete, I headed back to my desk and got ready to start going through my open Help Desk tickets. Then I made yet another observation, my keyboard and mouse were different. How could I tell? Well my fancy keyboard with all the media keys and volume controls was on my chair and replaced by a regular no frills USB keyboard. I asked my boss if someone had been sleeping in my bed. He replied that they had received a last minute new hire and they needed to give them a computer, so they gave her mine. Wait…..WHAT?!??!?! YOU GAVE A USER MY COMPUTER?!?!?!?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKIN’ MIND?!?!?!?!? Why would you do that? Did you ever think that maybe I have sensitive information on my computer that a newbie shouldn’t see? Calm down Stranga. Let it go. It’s not worth losing your job.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s great that I have that luxury, especially in rough times like this. I actually control my job security. They can’t fire me, because as seen by my 6 days out of the office, they CAN’T do my job since I have 74 new Help Desk tickets waiting for me.Where should I draw the line though? I can't take a day off without getting blasted with a million phone calls, emails, smoke signals, faxes, whatever when someone can't figure out how to check if a power cord is plugged in when a user's computer won't turn on. By the way, that was an actual "Major Issue" while I was out. 3 guys, 2 days of troubleshooting, no one thought to check the power cord. Seriously? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What should I do? Do I stay here and deal with levels of stupidity that are rarely seen? Or do I take my newly minted VCP and get out of Dodge? I'm leaning towards the second option. What are your thoughts? </div>Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-71038531282914351992010-09-22T15:50:00.000-04:002010-09-22T15:50:10.385-04:00ASAPThe four letters that seem to accompany every single help desk request, ASAP. ASAP is an acronym for "as soon as possible". More often than not, however, it means as of yesterday. Most users in my company think they are the only people who actually work here. It's unfathomable to them that I could possibly be working on an issue for another person. When I'm lucky enough to actually get someone to use the help desk, those four letters always seem to appear somewhere on the request.<br />
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Well, that brings me to today. It's my 2nd day back from an extended stay in common sense land (aka: ANYWHERE BUT HERE). I have a certain VP who I don't really care for much call me up at around 9:10. I proceed to ignore the call. I then receive calls from him every 5 minutes until around 1:30 this afternoon. I do not receive any voicemails or help desks from him. Just hang ups. Finally I get a call from my boss at around 1:45 saying that I need to go see said VP ASAP (there's that word). "What's the issue?", I ask. "Oh, I don't know, but he said it was urgent. I get there and the problem is that the moron VP doesn't know how to transfer a call. Normally I would give him the benefit of the doubt since we just changed phone systems. Unfortunately for him, I included a cheat sheet with every phone. Each phone came equipped with a little 3x5 laminated card with instructions on how to perform day to day tasks (Transfer calls, check voicemail, conference call, etc) in hope that it would reduce my help desk volume related to phones. To my chagrin though, his lack of common sense would prove to be too strong for the power of reason.....<br />
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When I spoke to him regarding this urgent issue, I asked him, "Why didn't you look at the card?". He said he didn't have time to read instructions. He needed to learn this ASAP. So, you didn't have time to read 3 sentences on how to transfer a call, which even if you read at a 1st grade level would have taken 2 minutes at the most. Instead, you decided to call me for the next 4 and a half hours??? That seems like a much better use of your time as well as mine. Thanks for that. Yet another reason why, IT is HELL!!Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-80632961423291034482010-09-21T13:01:00.000-04:002012-08-09T15:14:29.149-04:00Welcome Back<div><p>Taking time off as an IT Admin really is a double edged sword. On the one side, you need to get away from the office before you start snapping necks. The constant complaining and getting shit on is enough to get to any man. Even one with a long fuse like myself. On the other side though, you know when you come back there is going to be a shit ton of work waiting for you.</p>
<p>Last week I was in training. I missed 5 days (+1 Personal Day yesterday, Mental Health Day). During that time the IIC claimed that there would be coverage while I was out. Of course, this coverage was probably a $15/hr tech right out of school that knows nothing. During my time off, I must have received 50 emails a day asking for shit. Why do I bother documenting things? I went so far that I created a folder on our shared drive called Help & How-To with step by step tutorials for users and admins alike. All you have to do is read them and you can figure things out. If you have the desire or the common sense. The kicker is that during the time I was gone one task above all else was left for me to handle. Instead of actually CHANGING the backups tapes, they decided to stack them on my desk and leave them there. So basically, I haven't had a backup at my main location for 10 calendar days. NO BACKUPS?!?!?!??! Of all the things to let slip, I mean come on. That's IT 101. Data protection. Data is the lifeblood of ALL IT organizations.</p>
<p>People may think I'm being mean when I call people names like the IIC (Idiot in Charge) and maybe I am. When you make mistakes like this though on a recurring basis one of two things needs to happen. You need to be replaced by a small shell script or I should be allowed to nunchuck your ass. It's sad that the people that make the decisions in most cases do not understand what they are deciding on, nor what the consequences of their actions will be. Yet another reason why there should be a personnel manager and a technical manager at my firm. I hate working with monkeys.</p>
</div>Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-62609414724777641052010-09-16T11:00:00.001-04:002010-09-16T11:01:47.301-04:00Can you show me...?Here's something that never seems to stop: people who have used computers their entire career and can't do basic, basic things. Case in point is one user who really should have all of her technological devices removed from her possessions, even though she's sweet as pie. Today, she emails me this: "Can you show me how to save this link as a favorite? Or, any link for that matter?"<br /><br />Now, the internet, with browsers, has been in existence since roughly 1994. That's a good 16 years or so. This woman is 42. And she still doesn't know how to save a fucking bookmark in Internet Explorer.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-18924093600030261042010-09-14T11:42:00.000-04:002010-09-14T11:42:26.803-04:00Reading Is FundamentalI'm lucky enough to be out of the office for a week. Just being away from the building helps my mental health. Not only am I away, I'm training in something that really interests me. Of course even while I'm away the stupidity of my users follows me around.<br />
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I was dumb enough to check my email and I noticed that a particular user (a VP, of course), is not happy with me or my response to an issue she's having with her phone. Here's the kicker, she REPLIED TO MY OUT OF OFFICE EMAIL!!! The out of office email clearly states that I'm gone until the 21st. She emailed me this morning!! I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, I really did. I went so far that I even checked my email server to make sure the queues aren't backed up. Guess what? They're not. She's really just an idiot making a quarter million a year.<br />
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Is it that difficult to read the email and digest its meaning? I actually wrote it in English, not Klingon or Kryptonian. I hate stupid people. More so, I hate that I WORK WITH MONKEYS!! <<Bangs Head On Desk>>Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-69028743665007159702010-09-11T16:13:00.000-04:002010-09-11T16:13:47.102-04:00Lovely ViewThis is another one from the archives.....When I was working at a major shoe company, I was a small part of our datacenter upgrade project. A small part not for lack of technical skill or know how but my manager and CIO decided to do it themselves thinking they knew best. I happened to be on vacation when most of the work took place and since I had no access to the plans, I had no idea what to expect. So I finally came back to the office and my co-worker says I need to check out the new space. I was asking questions on the way over. Did they put in a raised floor, how is the HVAC situation? Is there a drop ceiling? Did they run ladders between the racks? All pretty much standard stuff. It's the non-standard stuff I wasn't prepared for.....<br />
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This job was done during the summer and it was pretty hot outside. Sunny nearly every day. I walk into the room and there is a glare that temporarily blinded me. Mostly, because I wasn't expecting what I saw. They decided to pass on the drop ceiling and left 3 gigantic diagonal sky lights in place. With all the sunlight coming in, the room temperature raised about 15 degrees. Shouldn't be a problem with the high end AC's though. Except in all their wisdom they decided to pass on those as well. They put in 7000BTU units because they were on sale. $3 million dollars worth or equipment in the room and they wanted to pinch some pennies. Gotta love it. Then came my favorite part of the entire fiasco.....<br />
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As I said, it was summer time. It was dry for the most part, but it began to get very humid over the next couple of days. Followed by a huge storm. One day we noticed a pool of water on the floor of our new datacenter. Turns out the sky lights were leaking. No one took this into account. Then again, if we would have discussed this as a team, I'm sure the issue would have been addressed before we moved any equipment in there. Needless to say after it was all said and done, the Wonder Twins wound up spending a lot more fixing the issues that they caused by pinching those pennies. Funny how that kind of thing always comes back to bite you in the ass.Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-22993287332300081652010-09-10T15:47:00.002-04:002010-09-10T15:54:19.327-04:00Shit Rises to the TopStranga and I worked at the same company in New York for a couple of years together. We had a VP of IT (who, somehow, still holds that position) who pissed us off to no end for a number of reasons - one of them being she had/has virtually NO IT experience. She was annoying to talk to, offered nothing of value to our department whatsoever and, we figured, she must have blown someone to get such a high-level and well-paid position in a large company.<br /><br />Anyway, this frustration was driven home to our entire team one day when we were discussing the move of one of the departments on another floor. The answer to one of her questions was, "Well, we'd just need to get a USB hub and hook it up." Her response: "What's that?"<br /><br />Case closed. Yet she was (and is) making 6 figures a year....Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-65719957583287670282010-09-10T15:37:00.002-04:002010-09-10T15:46:57.218-04:00User ErrorOne of the nightmares of being a desktop support dweeb is that 95% of all problems are human error. That means, the longer you do it, the more you begin to hate humanity. Case in point: I get a frantic message from a girl here yesterday saying the printer next to her cubicle won't print anything. When I go to her desk, she's not there. I do some test prints from her computer, no problem. This morning, she asks me if I fixed it. I said the printer was working fine. I ask, "Did you try to print something before you called me yesterday?" Her answer: "Um, well, no." Just fucking shoot me. (Or at least bake me something tasty to make up for it....)<br /><br />The fun isn't relegated only to PC users. Mac users are just as much fun. A few weeks ago, I have one of our newbies come up to me and says, "There is something MAJOR wrong with my computer and I NEED you to fix it." OK, what's the problem? "Yesterday, I worked all day on two different files. But now, when I open them, they have the same artwork! My computer lost all the changes I made to the one file! You have to get it back!" Sweet little girl, that's what we call 'User Error.' Computers cannot go and make wholesale changes to your files and just randomly replace your artwork. You saved both files with the same artwork yourself because you weren't paying attention. Your Mac didn't decide to screw you and do it on its own. There's nothing wrong with your computer at all. Looks like you will have to re-do your work.... Ugh....Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-83578737067685147322010-09-10T14:58:00.000-04:002010-09-10T14:58:16.891-04:00Rock StarSo the IIC decided to hire one of his friends. Apparently he worked with this guy at another shithole and his description of the guy was as follows: "He knows his shit cold. He's a great programmer. He knows Desktops and Networking and even knows some things about servers. He's a Rock Star.". Hmmm. So what you're telling me is, I could learn a thing or two. Great. It'll be nice to have some help around here. <br />
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For those of you who don't know. I currently work as a Network Admin at a fashion company. I have 3 locations and about 225 users. I also manage 45 servers (both physical & virtual), a phone system and provide desktop support as well. Oh wait, it gets better. I'm the only support person. Ok, go ahead, read that again. Yep, the ONLY support guy. So EVERYONE in the company comes looking for me at the first sign of an issue. <br />
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When I heard that we were getting a Rock Star I think I was more excited than anyone. I figured I would have someone to help out with someone of the support calls and I could have a chance to make some changes around here infrastructure wise. It'll be great!! I get a call from the IIC this morning that Rock Star needs some help with configuring a console on our AS400. His primary function here is AS400 support so I wasn't sure what he needed help with since that's not my area of expertise. Basically, Rock Star needs a static IP. He has to connect via a crossover cable and wants to make sure he can communicate with the AS400. No problem. I'm actually glad he asked me instead of just taking one and causing a conflict. We're off to a good start. We have multiple VLANs here since we like to keep server traffic separate from user traffic so he's going to need a server IP. I find an open one and email him the info that he'll need. I also explain to him that the address will only work when he's connected directly to the AS400. When he is ready to connect back to the user network just set his IP back to DHCP and he'll be good. <br />
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An hour later.....<br />
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My phone rings and it's the IIC. "Stranga.....this is unacceptable. Rock Star has been sitting here for an hour unable to work. I asked you to help him out and he can't get any work done. What is the problem?" My first thought is, WTF are you talking about? He was working fine. I gave him the info he needed, explained to him to change his machine back to DHCP and he can rock and roll. What's the issue? "He knows what you said and he understands that he needs to set his machine back to DHCP, he just doesn't know how." <br />
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Wait a second.....<br />
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Did he just say.....<br />
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No.....<br />
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He couldn't have.....<br />
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I'm speechless.<br />
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Rock Star can't turn DHCP on? I thought he knew his shit cold? YOU SAID HE WAS A FUCKING ROCK STAR!! Come on man!! That's ri-god-damn-diculous. So after I walked him through the techincalilty of the task at hand Rock Star asked if I can make him a document with screenshots so he can make the change in the future. Just another reason why.....<br />
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IT is HELL!!Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-91157861983485798212010-09-10T14:25:00.004-04:002010-09-10T14:27:24.225-04:00Shortcuts? What the hell are those?Unless I'm mistaken, it's now 2010. As far back as I can possibly remember, both Windows and Mac OS have had the ability to create shortcuts (so, what, almost 30 years now?). So how the fuck is it possible people STILL call me because they deleted a shortcut on their desktop and don't know what to do? This is grounds for revoking someone's computer permanently.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-64183598489837108132010-09-09T22:37:00.000-04:002010-09-09T22:37:47.216-04:00From The ArchivesThis one happened a couple of years back.....<br />
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<span class="il">I had just started a new job as a LAN Administrator at a pretty well known shoe company. I started at a pretty busy time since there were a number of migrations in progress and a few more coming down the road. I</span> come into <span class="il">work</span> 15 minutes early and notice our Exchange cluster is on the secondary server. My comrades are all discussing how the consultants fucked something up but didn't bother to do any troubleshooting. Good thing I didn't bang out sick. While <span class="il">I</span>'m going through the Event logs (you think anyone else would have tried that?). I come to find out the information store crapped out around 3am. That could be for a number of reasons though as we have another group of consultants migrating all of our PST's to a product called Unlimited Mail. Unfortunately to do this you need to migrate them to the users' mailboxes first. So our exchange database is half a Terabyte right now. So <span class="il">I</span> keep going through the event logs and find out that BOTH servers rebooted at 5am. At EXACTLY 5am. Guess why? Can you guess? Did you figure it out? These numb nuts that <span class="il">I</span> <span class="il">work</span> with turned Microsoft's Automatic Updates on.....on ALL of our servers. Not only did the turn it on, they set it to install all the updates and reboot automatically. That's not the best part though. You would think that if you have a cluster setup you may want to stagger the updates if you decide that you have to do them automatically, so that, <span class="il">I</span> don't know.......YOUR ENTIRE EXCHANGE CLUSTER ISN'T REBOOTING AT THE SAME FREAKIN' TIME!!!!!!!!!!! And for THIS reason.........."<span class="il">IT is HELL</span>!!" Please shoot me. Maybe <span class="il">I</span> should become a Cracker Jack vendor at Yankee Stadium or something.<br />
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Side Note: I made sure to set up a WSUS server and create a GPO forcing Automatic Updates to Download and Notify. If only the very well paid consultants would have paid attention to detail. All of this could have been avoided.Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-51076215514837970512010-09-09T22:17:00.000-04:002010-09-09T22:17:58.323-04:00Advanced NoticeI don't know about you but I like being prepared for things. I never want to be the guy who forgets something or delays a project because I wasn't paying attention. I feel like it makes you look bad both professionally and personally. I've been complaining about the New Hire procedures at my company for longer than I'd care to remember. I understand that every once in a while you're going to have a last minute new hire to fill an unexpected vacancy, for a busy season, whatever. Unfortunately for me however, it seems that 98.3% of the New Hires around here fall under the category of last minute. Take yesterday for instance.....<br />
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A finance guy walks into my office with a woman in tow. He introduces her as.....I forgot her name. Sue me. Anyway he says this is Finance chick and she started today. Of course, she would like a laptop because she takes her work home with her (Translation: I don't own a computer and I need something my 8 year old can play Farmville on). Thanks to the stinginess of upper management I do not have any spare equipment on hand. I'm forced to order equipment as soon as a New Hire Form is submitted. This is why the NHF clearly states "PLEASE ALLOW US TWO WEEKS TO HAVE YOUR NEW HIRE SETUP". Once in a while, items are back ordered and we're not going to get them in time for the new hire's start date. You get the point. So I don't have any equipment onsite, luckily for them someone just quit in another department. I'll just re-image the machine and get Finance Girl setup temporarily. Then, I can order her a laptop and she's in business. I explain to Finance Guy and Girl that I'll get her setup by tomorrow morning. Finance Guy is OK with that, everybody wins. Or so I thought.....<br />
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A little background info. In comes my new IIC (Idiot in charge). My old boss was recently let go, so rather than split myself and the programmers up and let me continue to run everything like I currently am, the Powers That Be decided they were going to promote one of the programmers and make me report to him. It helps that he's the owner's best friend. The guy is great to have a beer with. I like him a lot personally. By his own admission though, he's as technical as my dog. That tends to pose a problem as you could imagine. On top of that, since he just got the new gig, he wants to make everyone happy, which tends to pose a problem.....for me. When he wants to make people happy that means, he tells them it'll get done then I actually have to do the work. <br />
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So IIC tells Finance Guy that he'll setup the PC for Finance Girl himself. That's great I'll let IIC setup the computer, I'll create her accounts as soon as I get a second and she'll be home free. AWESOME! First thing this morning, (Side note: I'm not a morning person. I like angry music and no interruptions in the morning. I don't turn on the lights in my office until 4pm. I just want to be left alone.) Finance Girl waddles into my office before I can even sit down and enjoy the hell that is about to begin. Where's my PC? Do you have an ETA on when it will be setup? Ummm.....wasn't IIC going to do that for you? Yeah, he forgot. Lovely. So guess who it falls on to take care of it. So of course, 5 minutes later my phone rings and it's IIC and he wants me to take care of the issue for her. I tell him I'm changing the backup tapes and sending them offsite. Then I play dumb and say "I thought you already set her up?". He tells me that he just forgot and asked if I could take care of it. He then proceeds to say the words that set me off.<br />
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I know how frustrating this is for you.....<br />
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What part? The part where I have to cover your ass because you're making empty promises? The part where I have to bend over backwards to miracle a PC and phone onto someone's desk because their fucking boss couldn't spend 5 minutes to fill out a NHF? Or the part where you're trying to bond with me and tell me that you feel my pain when really you're just trying to calm me down so you can come through and look like a White Knight?<br />
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Some of you may think I'm just whining and complaining. My biggest flaw may be that I care too much. Even though I'm not appreciated by my company, other people get the accolades that I deserve, and I'm severely underpaid. I still bust my ass to get the job done. In case you were wondering, Finance Girl was setup within 15 minutes. Finance Guy was super happy that the turnaround was so quick even though he submitted the NHF two hours AFTER Finance Girl has started. I just wish my boss would get my back and try to enforce the procedure in place instead of trying to make me bend over backwards when users "forget" to inform me of a new hire that's joining the company.Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829824454634515776.post-4464009788996961792010-09-08T12:48:00.001-04:002011-03-07T12:55:29.290-05:00Who We AreIT is Hell is a blog by a couple of Information Technology Network Administrators.<br />
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We use this space for a couple of reasons:<br />
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First, to keep our own sanity. What do I mean by that? I'll tell you. Basically, the IT world sucks. Especially for people in support. All we hear day after day, is "This is broken", "It won't let me in.", "I need this ASAP." We hear all of your whining and complaining non-stop every day we come to work and sometimes the stupidity levels are off the charts. Unfortunately, I don't have anyone here at work to vent to so I'm just going to throw my frustrations out into cyberspace before I explode. This is my way of screaming SERENITY NOW!! SERENITY NOW!!<br />
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Second, people are fucking stupid. You know it, I know it, I wish they knew it. The sheer levels of ineptitude out there are astonishing. I think these people deserve to be mocked. Relentlessly. So I'm going to do it. I could care less about offending people. If you don't like what I write, don't read it. That's all it takes.<br />
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Finally, I'd really like to help other suffering IT guys deal with their own pain. I want to give them an outlet to share their frustrations with the morons of the world. Most of the time these individuals are in cushy upper management positions, taking all the credit for the work that we, the datacenter dwellers actually do. As my buddy D-Rock always says, "Shit rises to the top"<br />
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I hope you enjoy what we have to offer here, feel free to follow us, email us, talk shit about us. It's all good. We can take it. Let the journey begin.....Strangahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02757665518946909694noreply@blogger.com