Just checking in
Topic: Life
I haven't posted anything in a few weeks...but I'm still here. I just haven't felt like spewing about some of the crap that I've been dealing with. That might change though soon...we'll see.

Oh how I love my job...
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Work
Today I got a call from Liz. She calls at least once every single day!

Today she was having a file permission issue...no one could delete a file on the server. She called in to seek some help. In comparison...this is a real issue to her normal calls which consist of us telling her the same thing we've told numerous times...and sent documented instructions for.

I logged in as Admin...sure enough I couldn't delete the file either. I also notice while logged in that some updates had been run, but the server had never been bounced (Rebooted...it goes down and comes back up...bounced. Us IT people are full of genius stuff like that!).

I told Liz that it needed to be rebooted...I actually used the server name. I then logged out of that server and into another on the network...to monitor the process. Liz called back afterward and said it had been done. I told her I don't think so...I'd been pinging the server the whole time and it never lost contact, hence it never shut down.

She went back to the server room to bounce it again...again, I never lost contact with it. Then she tells me she can't connect to the Exchange server. I quickly test that server...it is down. I told her that she bounced the wrong box...she denied it three times. I told her how I knew she had bounced the wrong box...and then she shut up and went to bounce the correct box.

I don't understand why people can't admit that they messed up. Even when confronted by absolute evidence, they deny it. It's not like it was big deal or anything either...all she had to say was "Oops!" Makes no difference to me...but what makes her look like a fool is denying it to someone that knows the facts!

Another call for the books.
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Work
This call came in from a customer, one of our larger customers:

I answered the phone and was greeted by a pleasant voice on the other end saying that she was having some problems with her system. (Really...I figured that she called the help desk to talk about the weather or something!)

Anyway I asked her what exactly the issue was.

Caller: "I can't play my music CD's."

Me: "Excuse me?" (Let me point out here that our rates for this customer are over $120/hour.)

Caller: "When I put in my CD's nothing happens."

Me: "Ok, have you tried any other CD's?"

Caller: "Oh yes, I have lots of store bought CD's...none of them work."

Me: "Have you tried any CD-ROM's?"

Caller: "What are those?...I'm not very...Wait."

Me: "Oh boy...have you tried opening Windows Explorer to see if the drive is even recognized by the system?"

Caller: "Ha ha...I don't know what that is."

This is about how the call went...this was apparently her first day or so on a computer! She didn't even know what a right-click meant!! That's far below novice. I mean is it that hard to figure out...just using common sense and logic? Let's see, there is a device that I click buttons on...one on the left, and...wow...one on the right. Perhaps that would be the button I should hit?!

ARGH! Some times I wonder how these people have survived this long. I mean, in this day and age...how can you not know ANYTHING about a computer if you are in an office environment? And she sounded fairly young too!

Holy Crap
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Work
Ok, I had a guy today that was unbelievable.

First off, his company just changed their ISP this weekend...and I had nothing to do with that...and had no clue it even happened. But he starts asking me all kinds of questions as though I was intimately involved in the whole thing. I told him I needed to look up some information real quick before I could help him (I needed the new IP address), and he told me that he had it. So he pulled up the address and read it to me...I then verified it back. I tried to ping it, nothing went through...so I verified the number with him again.

Then I got an email forwarded to me with some more information on the switch-over...with the new IP address. I asked the guy which set was the correct one, because the address he gave me was different. When I read the right IP to him, he told me "that's what I told you!"

I don't think so ace. Especially when I verified it more than once, and he never corrected it. So I told him that he had given it to me incorrectly...he responded with "no I didn't"...real grown up huh? So I said "Ok" and moved on.

The best part is, after I sent an email to my coordinator to let her know that he might call back to bitch...he calls in to give us "the correct IP address...245.72.45.173.163". Now, if you know anything about computing, then you know that an IP address only has 4 octets...not 5. Luckily, this email was sent to me, the help desk guy and my coordinator...so there are more witnesses to this guy's knowledge...or lack thereof...on the subject.

Another dumb call
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Work
This week I had a real idiot on the phone. I got a request to setup a new user...fairly normal request...so I setup the user and emailed the login info to the company contact. A few hours later I get a call with "Joe" (from the company)...he has "Jack" (new user) on conference call with me. Joe asks me to help him walk Jack through signing into the network and setting up his Outlook.

This is all pretty normal...Jack is actually going to be connecting from home...or at least out of the office. So I first had to explain to him how to make a terminal server connection (you run a simple program, nothing to it)...here's where it apparently got difficult for Jack. I told him his user name...and then said your initial password is "password one with a capital p in password."

Jack says "What?"

Joe & I together: "password one with a capital p in password."

Jack: "password1p?"

Joe: "No Jack, password1...where the p is capitalized."

Jack: "001?"

Me: "No...capital P...lower case assword...1"

Jack: "Is the 1 capitalized?"

Joe & I: " "

Me: "You can't capitalize a 1."

Joe: Laughing

At this point I figured that I'd be better off logging in as Jack first, and setting up his Outlook in a basic way (Joe can help him customize it!) and all for him...or I'd have been on the call all day! So in a few minutes I was done, I logged in as the Admin and set his account to force a password change when he logged in. I figure this way, he knows the first password...then he can change it to something he might actually remember.

Well, if you've ever been prompted by Windows to change your password, you know it has 4 fields (user name, old password, new password & confirm new password)...and the user name will already be populated...and Jack finally knows the old password (or so I thought!). All he had to do was think of a password and then type it in twice. I tried to explain that he needed to type Password1 into the old password field...

Jack says "it already says Password."

Me: "Yes, that is the field where you need to type it in."

Jack: "I don't understand."

...

10 minutes later, Joe & I finally got him logged in! I'm thinking that Joe isn't too impressed with his new hire. I'm almost willing to place money on the fact that Jack won't be around long.

The next day Jack calls back because he forgot how to login. Guess who got to talk to him...if you said "you big guy!"...you win. You don't get a prize or anything, just pat yourself on the back.

And some people wonder why I drink...

Muslims are violent.
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Politics
Let's see, the Pope recites a quote from an Emperor about Mohamed being violent...so the idiot terrorists (Muslim extremists) respond by burning churches & the Pope in effigy and killing a nun. Ok, I think they proved the Pope's point. Can the American left not see this crap? Can't they figure out what we are up against? We are fighting psychopaths that think that killing people and burning things is a proper response to some one saying they are violent.

Why do we have to try to understand them...they have no plans to understand us? They will do whatever they think they need to do to kill us all. That leaves us with two choices, kill or be killed. If the left doesn't want us to kill the terrorists...

Yesterday was a tough night to watch tv
Mood:  not sure
Topic: TV
I'm putting this under TV although it could go under Life or Politics. Unfortunately, I missed the beginning of "The path to 9/11" Sunday night, but did watch it all last night. Isn't it funny how the left in this country has no problem with a docu-crap movie like Fahrenheit 9-11...which was mostly Michael Moore's day dreams, and only a little bit of reality (and even that was edited to completely change its meaning)...but they freak out over a movie that is based mostly on reality with only a little bit of added material to make it flow smoothly?

Anyway, watching the video of the second plane hitting the south tower still gets to me. The video of the towers falling and the wall of debris flowing through the New York City streets is the same way...it's hard to watch, but even harder to look away. I think a part of me feels like watching it is the least I can do for all the people that were murdered that day by terrorists. Every time I see it, the same feelings I felt watching it live creep up on me. It's overwhelming. Then I get angry that the left tries to pretend like it never happened...that they try to block everything we do to stop the terrorists (like the New York Times telling our enemies about every tactic we try to employ)...and then they complain that we either aren't doing enough, or are doing too much. They think some how that if we just leave the terrorists alone, they'll leave us alone. But you have to either be brain dead or Anti-"the American way of life" to think that way for real. Personally, I think they are both.

I think 20/20 has lost it.
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: TV
The other night they showed some disaster type countdown. To be honest, I missed the first hour...but when the winner of the countdown was Global Climate Change (Global Warming - GW - for those that haven't been keeping up) over Nuclear War, Black Holes, Asteroid Collision, AI (Artificial Intelligence), Super Volcanoes & Plagues...I fell out of my chair laughing. I actually bumped my elbow on the desk as I flopped onto the floor.

They had Stephen Hawking "talking" on nearly every one it seemed...except for GW. Imagine that, the only real scientist...and he didn't want to be associated with GW. What does that tell you? Oh, but they did have that scientist Al Gore on talking about GW.

It was a decent show and countdown until they got to GW. They actually said that the majority of the scientific community now has no doubt that GCC is happening. Can I please point out the OBVIOUS? It is a natural cycle that the Earth goes through...temperatures rise and fall...regardless of what the occupants are doing. Don't believe me...how then is it that the scientific community also now believes that the poles of this same planet were once a tropical paradise...and not a frozen wasteland? Or how about this one...ever hear of the Ice Age...and how it isn't the Ice Age anymore...oh, wait that must prove that GW exists!!

This idiotic show actually had the gall to assert that it is humans that are causing the problem...this same "problem" has been happening without us even being in the equation. Around 30 years ago, all of the scientific community was ranting and raving about the coming ice age and then just recently only a small part of the scientific community, that the media played up to be much bigger, said we were headed for GW. And only very recently...after how many coldest winters on record...they have changed GW to GCC (this way they can be right whether the temperature goes up or down.)

If the global temperature is changing, I am not arrogant enough to believe that humans play that large of role in it. How can I possibly think that? Well, let's see...a single volcanic eruption spews more pollution into the atmosphere than ALL of the pollution that man has ever created. I think that pretty much proves that Mother Nature is much more powerful than we are. What else does this mean? It also means that we are not to blame for GCC. It is natural...humans that lived through any previous GCC's would not have been intelligent enough to even think that they had anything to do with it...given that they used sticks and rocks. But I'd be willing to bet that if Liberals existed back then, they would have been blaming the changing temperatures on man's over use of fire...or something stupid like that.

If laughter is the best medicine, I'm not getting sick for awhile!
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Work
I love my job...well actually I love my co-workers! But my job isn't bad either.

We had a few engineers in-office today...we laughed like crazy. I thought I'd share some of it with everyone.

We were rolling while watching this.

We also had talked about this site. This one was funny...heck of an idea...the guy made money from some idiots.

This is one of the funniest things I've seen. It's from PETA...no not, People Eating Tasty Animals...that other group. Still, I think I started to cry after about the third time...check it out here.

Beach bum'n it
Mood:  lazy
Topic: Life
We got back from a mini-vacation today. We went to the beach for 2 1/2 days...and got up early this morning and came back to go to work.

I love the beach...the sand, the sun, the water, the music, the birds...the bikinis. And for some reason, the beer always tastes better too.

We forgot to take any sunscreen or tanning oil, so we had to buy some out there. We got some generic spray gel...stuff works pretty well, I'm quite a bit darker after only a handful of hours in the sun...with no burning!

Not much going on otherwise though, so...

Josh Blue wins!
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: TV
Last Comic Standing ended last night with Josh Blue winning. I liked him, as I've stated a few times on here as I've chronicled the show. He has such a great attitude!

Although I have to say that Ty was very funny too. He also has a great delivery. I wouldn't be surprised to see him more...or anyone in the top 5 to be honest!

What is DOS?
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Work
I had a guy today at work, while explaining why he could not boot up his computer, tell me that when he tried to do a system repair, the computer went to a DOS prompt. He then proceeded to explain to me what DOS is.

I pulled the phone away from my ear...looked at it (you know, like "what a freaking idiot!"), and then put it back to my ear and said, "Yes sir, I'm familiar with DOS."

Hello!!! We are an IT company!!! I think we MIGHT have heard of DOS before!

Some days are better than others...

Myspace
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Life
I fought off the Myspace thing for a while...but I finally gave in a few weeks ago. That is partly why I haven't been posting as much. The other main reason is that not a lot has been happening right now. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not...but right now my days are generally uneventful... ...aside from the computer newbs that bother me with questions at work.

UFC 62
Mood:  energetic
Topic: TV
Just added to the card for the upcoming fight night is Griffin Vs. Bonnar 2. I doubt it can live up to the first one, but it should still be a damn good fight.

I'll be testing for my red belt decided the morning of the fights...that should put completely in the mood for a good fight night!!

Moving on up.
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Work
I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while, I've been busy getting into my new job. I've been learning a lot and am already moving off of the help desk. I was out and about all last week shadowing an engineer doing our preventative maintenance program.

I'm hoping that it isn't long before I'm doing it by myself full time, I'll be taking over some accounts one by one...so I'll still be on the help desk some, but hopefully that won't be for long!