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Phone support and remote admin are two different things. They should both be done, adapted to each situation.

For example, when the help desk sees my workstation, they go "whoah!" - I've got a bunch of db admin tools and mucho obscure stuff. Every so often, management decrees changes to everyones work station, and mine inevitably gets screwed up. SMS is the worst.

Now we are getting a big contract for EDS to replace all help desk and PC support. Many of us are hunkering down and expecting to avoid calling them as much as possible. Pretty counter-productive.

And imagine if a bunch of us get desktop Linux!

• The EDS site comments that

  cats aren't exactly herding creatures

• They validly comment that cats are not particularly "uniform."

  Much like the mythical "geek" group, as well as, as you observe, "Christians."

The big problem (as opposed to other, "small" problems), is that cats aren't herding creatures. And while I may not be "cat people," it's fair to say that "geek people" are similarly resistant to "herding."

The EDS commercial makes the mistake of suggesting that it is vaguely sensible to try to herd cats. The problem is that it's not even faintly sensible. Neither cats nor geeks "herd" well. Trying to do so is going to lead to managerial disaster.

And fielding a "geek candidate" is not going to be good for other than the small subset of "geeks" that go along with the particular geek's position.

And some ( David McCusker, of OpenDoc/Bento/IronDoc "fame" comes particularly to mind...) seem so independently-minded that the "lobbies" are not likely to represent them at all.

And actually, the commonly-recognized minorities of women and whatever is the politically-correct way today of referencing people that are definitely not melatonin-deficient that likely have roots in Africa, but which may not have any connection to America are not perfectly uniform in their needs and attitudes either...

You can get a copy of the "Cat Herder" commercial in mpeg format from http://www.eds.com/about_eds/ homepage/superbowl.shtml

And yes, I AM a "Professional Cat Herder"

Anyone with an mpeg viewer can download it from their site if they are so inclined. www.eds.com

That commerical by EDS has to be one of my all-time favorites.

As anyone in network management will tell you, it truely is like "herding cats".

You can view the commerical online, in MPEG format.