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Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day
alphadogg writes "It's the last Friday in July. Have you hugged your system administrators today? Bought a cake? Picked up the tab for lunch? There's still time to show your thanks for the unsung heroes who keep corporate desktops, servers and networks running. Today is System Administrator Appreciation Day, an annual event thought up by IT pro Ted Kekatos. A company picnic and an old HP advertisement sparked the idea for the first SysAdmin Day, now in its 12th year."
The servers are down.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Not a single fuck was given.
Speak for yourself!
We have several people in our department who are much more competent than our sysadmins. It seems like a constant battle. We often have to explain to them how the best way to do things is and why they are not doing it correctly. They probably need to pay the position more money so that competent people will choose that career path and not the more lucrative one that is our primary business and what butters our bread.
Not a single fuck was given.
Or had.
My wife always comes to me when the computers act up. I think I can leverage this into a blowjob.
Like a solider, you are appreciated once you are no longer around to do the job. It sucks, but that's often the only way any of us gets appreciated.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Anyone have a pdf of a poster I can place on my office door? I need to remind the cretins in the accounting office outside.
it isnt a real day until it has a hallmark card.
I don't think it's a coincidence. System Admins deserve some free chicken wing love today.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Happy SAD to you too.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
No, I haven't hugged my sysadmin, and I probably won't do so - something about not wanting to get multicolored greasy stains on my shirt.
I am officially gone from
I would do both the cake and the lunch for this guy. And then change your password just to be safe. http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Fuck system admin day. I'm going back to school.
For what? Nursing? Things suck really bad for them too and if you take in consideration all the nurses that have been pumped out lately, there will be a glut soon - because of the cuts currently happening, jobs are hard to come buy (my wife is a nurse who was just let go: all these people out of work have no insurance and therefore medical is suffering too).
Dental school? I know a dentist who was laid off and he had a HUGE problem getting a job.
Law school or Med school? Good luck with that.
MBA?! NFW. I got one and it was the most worthless waste of time and money in my life.
Yeah, I know it sucks and there's a lot of bullshit and nighttime shit, but the grass only looks greener on the other side. You got a job and sys admins are still enjoying some job security. Take it from me: suck it up and take it because I don't know of any profession that's doing well now - other than CEO of a multinational corporation.
Did you really just brag that you drove an old Nissan SUV? Set your sights a bit higher and you might crest 60k IT drone.
I think my SA is the BOFH... a hug may get me killed... or committed. I'll stick to the Code Hack zone, where it is safe I think.
I'll get fair pay,
and an 8 hour day?
Rick B.
A small bonus can't help to show some appreciation.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
As much friction as there can be between sysadmins and developers (devs not giving proper instructions, sysadmins not notifying us about "scheduled" server maintenance, the hassle of trying to get production logs...) I can still appreciate it that it's not my ass on the line when servers go down in the middle of the night. Thanks, and I hope you have time tonight to enjoy a beer!
Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
You always have to kiss their butts to do anything. 1/2 the time they are in the server room playing WOW.
Do you realize that the concept of "swear" words is completely ridiculous, arbitrary, and vary greatly from culture to culture?
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It was a fun adventure and an excuse to get away from my computer. Also a much nicer car than my ratty old 97 Honda Accord.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
oh and YOU'RE WELCOME!!
Another 'special' day, oh joy. I like how every day is special anymore. Mom assures me I'm special, too
Tomorrow is 'Cat Walkers' Day! Grab a leash it's gonna be special!
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
but not for stinky ones!
I'm Not Antisocial, I'm Just Not User Friendly
...to hug myself...
My blog
If sysadmins were more consistently good, we wouldn't need to manufacture a day to "appreciate" them. One of the reasons sysadmins are under appreciated is because a non-trivial percentage of them aren't worth spit. Sure, I've worked with some incredible admins and appreciated every second of their time. But I've worked with some pretty clueless idiots who had no business whatsoever coming anywhere near a computer. Nobody remembers the good admins because everything just works and no one needs to call them. Unfortunately, that means that the only admins you really do remember are the ones who couldn't figure out how to pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel. And that is what is really not fair for the good admins and why they are under appreciated.
So, for all the good admins out there, kudos to you. You should be appreciated on more than just one day arbitrarily chosen out of the year. For the rest, well, mother always said if you didn't have anything nice to say don't say anything. I don't have anything to say to you.
Sort of. The sysop usually would have people who used the BBS they OPerated be sysadmins of certain parts of the BBS. That didn't mean that the sysop didn't do any administration though, as most times it was the sysop that created or ok'ed new accounts and gave permissions. Maintain the BBS for the most part came down to the sysop also. Sysadmins were really akin to moderators on forums now.
not a single fuck about us was given that day. But god forbid you forget "Secretary Appreciation Week" or whatever it is. :/
Back to the basement, cube trolls!
We are down to one part-time sysadmin, and she does a terrific job. I've seen lousy sysadmins, and know well to appreciate a good one. Now if only management appreciated her as well!
The DoD has a $19 billion space budget too.
This includes the GPS system, weather satellites and communications.
http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Happy+Systems+Administrator+Appreciation+Day
by going out for pizza!!
after this resilvering finishes and someone figures out why the sql replication for the dedicated masters is latent but sometime a little later than the cron jobs for the reporting run and hopefully before anybody finds out we're not going to be in the skip-level meeting for the transition team that will probably prevent us from fixing that mailqueue inode issue brent reported yesterday but mira hasnt bugged yet because dev pushed new changes to the production environment ticketing system yesterday that we need to roll back sometime this evening.....
after the pizza i guess...or before?
argh, hang on someone just hit me up on jabber about that mysql lag thing again.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Getting my admin on this list.
Yup, that'll do.
=================
Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
He stops laughing and just tells me where the "any" key is.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
...they are worthless dolts that take 6 fucking weeks to run 1 god damned phone line and then they just twist two wires together covered with masking tape keeping me out of a real position
Ex sys admin. here.
I got out of the field because of this attitude. You might want to look at the bigger picture. Maybe you'd realize that sys admins rarely dictate the schedule of anything. When I was a sys admin,, the obscene amount of paperwork that traveled from department to department requiring signatures from everybody was usually the reason for holdups. Oh, and meeting upon meeting to discuss it all, too.
Do you know how to interact with people without lecturing them?
In this context, some coarse language is socially appropriate.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
you are appreciated once you are no longer around to do the job
...Six Months Later...
Reminds me of "Emperor's Syndrom"...
Emperor: "Ah, that coup went better than expected. Let's look at the budget...1,000 Ninjas?? Fire half of them!"
Underling: "Yessir! But please keep in mind, the previous Emperor had 2,000 Ninjas...they were the only force warding off the assassins."
New Emperor: "Well, that coup went well. Let's look at the budget...Ahhh!! 500 Ninjas?! Fire half of them!"
Underling: *sigh*
"When I am king, you will be first against the wall..."
But seriously guys ... it's been seven years now ... can I finally have root access now?
attitudes like mine? sorry if MY JOB depends on my phone working and the "IT" guy is too busy avoiding it cause he doesn't want to string a wire through a pipe
I only got my phone line cause I bitched to the CEO which in return the "IT" guy dumped a box of cable on my desk and told me to call him when it was done (with no working phone) it took less than an hour and then another 3 days for him to punch it in the wall right where the old line was.
you can blame meetings and paperwork all you want and that MAY be true, in my experience its a shallow excuse for laziness apathy and ignorance (well we had a meeting to discuss how to solve your problem cause fuck if we know, we hired someone like you to install the phones in the first place, but we did decide we dont care that much and we will get to it sometime just muddle by)
Why the fuck would I want to?
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Counselor for people with Tourette syndrome.
Do you know how to speak without swearing?
Have you *met* a SysAdmin?
I've found that nurturing one's Zen nature is vital to dealing with technology. Violence is pretty damn useful too.
I'm right there with you. For the past three weeks I've been getting in at 6:00 AM and working until midnight (or until I fall asleep at my computer), in a futile attempt to try to avoid having to log on to the computer on weekends.
I completely agree: Fuck Sys Admin Day!! I mean, after all, they think they're the only ones busting their asses and still getting shit on. Why should they deserve any special recognition?
You don't hear me screaming for an Accountant's Day, do you?
Do you realize that the concept of "swear" words is completely ridiculous, arbitrary, and vary greatly from culture to culture?
Who gives a flying cholaflazwhyng about that? Plymble off and get back to work - juznuxer!
The fact that parent was downmodded implies that swear words are from context, not the mere words themselves. Bravo, Anonymous Coward.
attitudes like mine? sorry if MY JOB depends ...
I only got my phone line cause I bitched to the CEO ...
you can blame meetings and paperwork all you want and that MAY be true, in my experience its a shallow excuse for laziness apathy and ignorance (well we had a meeting to discuss how to solve your problem cause fuck if we know, we hired someone like you to install the phones in the first place, but we did decide we dont care that much and we will get to it sometime just muddle by)
Ah. The picture is a lot clearer. Nobody wants to deal with you personally. Can't say I blame them.
Have a day of YouTube, on us! Make sure to send funny links you find out to everybody!
Sincerly,
Management.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
"Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day"
I don't think I know any Happy System Admins, can't we have a Disgruntled System Administrator Appreciation Day? Nobody ever does anything for us!
HA there we go, there is a classic IT attitude, yes sir YOU ARE ALWAYS RIGHT and there is never any point in trying to hold a discussion with you cause your fucking Jesus Christ the IT Admin!
Thank you for backing me up
Can I call it SysOp day? Is that OK with everyone? It's inaccurate, but so is SysAdmin day. (for NetAdmins, anyway.)
HA there we go, there is a classic IT attitude, yes sir YOU ARE ALWAYS RIGHT and there is never any point in trying to hold a discussion with you cause your fucking Jesus Christ the IT Admin!
Thank you for backing me up
Actually, no. In my original reply, I gave a couple different reasons why there would be a huge delay. You at least acknowledged they could have been reasons, but then proceeded to say it was because of laziness, apathy and ignorance because it fit better with your somewhat offensive rant.
Not trying to be "ALWAYS RIGHT", just looking at your wording and attitude. That's why I say nobody wants to deal with you personally.
I haven't been a sys admin for quite a few years now, BTW :-)
yea yea blah blah blah never your fault, quick with the excuses and the old its not my problem, and no one wants to deal with you cause how dare you suggest someone get off their worthless ass for a couple hours and run a phone line
listen chief, we all have mountains of paper work and pointless meetings to attend, why is it the IT crew gets to use that as an excuse to not do their job but yet it does not work with any other department? Its cause the IT guys are usually useless ass hats with excuses and attitude.
Osgeld, everything you type here makes it appear that the IT guy takes forever to do stuff for you because, in between his meetings and paperwork, he's busy helping other people in the company who aren't gigantic suppurating assholes.
I'm not saying that's the case, I'm just saying that's the case you're doing everything you can to hard-sell to the reader.
I am celebrating today because I put in my notice. Current Chief Idiot Officer doesn't understand WTF I do, doesn't care to try and understand, and is quite content with paying peanuts for it.. So I found some place that's actually willing to pay a decent rate. I'm essentially getting a 65% raise. Bummer is I'm going to have to wait a month to start seeing that extra money.
or he could be playing angry birds on his mac laptop all day as I was not the only one, here is is 6 months later and my phone is the only one working in the second building, we have no fax and our T1 is still dead running a cooperation on a 768k dsl line cause of 1 rain storm and his shitty wiring
after I pulled my own fucking phone line and punched it in myself I was rewarded with a write up from him and backed by management
clap/clap/clap....{ bows down respectfully to the master....}
You're just one of the legions of jackasses that think your problem is the priority of the sys admin. In just the last 24 hours that admin has probably heard 20 reasons why the problem of personX is the one that takes precedent. But in IT one of the very small saving graces is that you have the ability to put the biggest jackass at the bottom of the list. It sounds as though you've perfected securing your place in line.
The impact of the way you treat your sys admin is much like the impact of the way your treat your waiter or bartender. Piss them off, and there's just no telling what they put in your food....
"But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
im so sorry one guy cant keep less than 2 dozen computer working at a full time job, goes back to lazy apathetic and attitude
cry me a river a sysadmin has to do something during his busy days
>I am a huge fan of open source, but it rarely comes with enterprise level support, most cases the best you can do is a a forum or IRC Channel
I second that. Most cases, that is actually the best you can do : very competent, often instantaneous support. No charge
>So Yes you will save 1000's on licensing costs (THANKS BSA!), but you will spend 40K a year on an IT guy to provide support.
Hahaha! Right... that, my friend sounds like pure FUD to me, because in my experience (software for government organizations) quite the opposite is true.
Proprietary software actually very rarely sells at the official listed price, discounts of 80% being common. But the maintenance contracts are for a percentage of the *official price*. Those contracts can run for much for than what you quote. I do not see that the service provided by the very expensive executives that promote them is better than the forum you mentionned above. Quite the opposite, in fact.
I'm still wondering why we have a 'System administrator day', we don't have a janitor day or a mechanic day.. what's so special about a system administrator compared to anyone else who is doing their part in the working place.. And don't say 'he/she keeps everything running', because without all the other people there wouldn't be anything to keep running, so you should thank them for getting you work. ;)
Admin Magazine is giving away free downloads of their newest issue today at http://www.admin-magazine.com/News/Happy-Sys-Admin-Day. Kind of a cool way to thank SysAdmins, eh?
Depending on the level of stupidity, one person is fully capable of consuming 100% of an admin's time. It's actually relatively common for there to be "that guy" that is constantly fucking something up that the admin has to constantly fix. We actually have a new verb in our office in honor of "that guy". When you have to fix John Jackson's fuckups, you have been Jacksoned. (Name changed to protect the stupid.)
It's also pretty common for company's to buy absolutely shitty hardware, or incompatible hardware, and then blame the IT guy because it doesnt do what it was never designed to do in the first place, let alone do it well. The same can be said for applications and services. The ideal admin could spend every waking moment on 10 shitty servers running 1 piece of incompatible software utilized by 1 complete dipshit, and never make any headway.
Are you your site's John Jackson?
"But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
I parsed this incorrectly as a day to appreciate Happy Sysadmins, but I'm not sure I believe in them. I'll appreciate the regular ones though.
Just let me remind you that in honor of System Administrator’s Day, we present our special holiday contest, “Try your luck with Radmin”. Every tenth participant will be seent a free Radmin license, and the winner will get the first prize - external hard drive for 1 Tb. The contest will be held up to the 12th of August. Good luck! www.radmin.com/sysadminday