Also, I'm sure the people who drop this ISP because of the SMTP problem is insignificant to the users that don't give a crap. The days of "The Customer is Always Right" are long gone. I'm constantly amazed that people still seem to think that a single irate letter is gonna change anything. It takes a loud cry from many people to get these lethargic corporation to see the error of their ways (or at least get off their buts and do something).
Ah, but it takes many single irate letters to create the loud cry you speak of.
..works perfectly fine for me. I've rolled out well over 50 machines using a combination of PQDI installed on a networked file server with client boot disks, and Microsofts SYSPREP utility. Never have any problems at all. It even creates (Caldera) DOS boot disks with network drivers (either supplied by Powerquest, or by.dos files provided by you), and you image right over the network.
I use this tool every day, and would recommend it in an instant, for both 2000 and XP clients.
I agree here. I've worked for a string of IT companies, and I can guarantee that this is my last. My next IT job will be in a non-IT field, that is for sure.....
Thanks for the great advice about the book, i'm putting an order in now.
One more thing. If you are supporting 100 people, then your days are unquestionably one series of interruptions crashing into each other.
Bingo, right on the nails head. Minimizing interruptions is the greatest challenge I have. Its tough, when the newest equipment we have is 3+ year old laptops, which are constantly breaking.
The real crux of the situation is, I don't feel secure in my job yet, having been here only two months. I'd love to just tell people I don't have the time, but that usually just results in the CFO (my boss) or the CTO coming down, and shifting priorities.
After reading through this entire thread a couple of times, I'm coming to the realization that I am in a no-win situation. Which really sucks, as I don't want to have to go through another job search process again this quickly....
You hit the nail right on the head here. With all the layoffs, I'm doing the work that used to be done by 5 people. Now, granted, there are less people working here now, but this job could keep 2 people very very busy, and 3 could comfortably get the work done.
I went to my boss last week (I work directly for the CFO, so IT isn't his top priority), and told him that this is crazy, and that one person cannot possible meet this companies IT demands. He said he realizes that, but I'm not getting another warm body until at least 'Next Spring'. I just wanted to walk out right there. Thats the conversation that prompted me to pose this question to Ask Slashdot - I figured a ton of people out there right now have to be in similar situations.
I just got this job exactly two months ago - I really don't want to have to go through the grueling job hunting process again, especially in this market.
I like your thoughts on the 'modus operandi' - we used to have a term for this when I was in the Army - that we were being 'set up for failure'. Its no way to run an IT dept., let alone a business.
I've thought about bailing out of IT - I have no other real skillset, though, and nothing else I can do will pay the mortgage. I feel trapped, and thats not a good thing...
Hell, you're new at this job - do you know if the last person quit because of insane expectations like this?
Thanks for the reply. The answer here is yes - he is still with the company, but in another capacity now. He got burnt out by the incessant requests, and the sheer volume of work. The department used to be 5 people (which I admit is wayyy too many), and it got whittled down to just him. Now, I'm in his position. I'm getting the hang of pushing off project work, but I don't have enough time in the day for the day-to-day stuff, so I'm just getting deeper and deeper under the muck.
This case (the Alien Front Online) sounds like a perfect case for Small Claims Court - you would more than likely get reimbursed for the cost of the game, plus filing fees, etc. Wonder if there is a statute of limitations on this?
Of course Im firewalled. What stops a laptop getting infected at home, and coming into the LAN?
Did you test this patch out, on all permutations of hardware/OS? With all production applications? Thoroughly? Doens't sound like it. Sounds like you saw the hotfix, patched all your machines, and hoped for the best. Now, imagine if the patch didn't work as advertised, and your Windows 2000 Server running SQL for the finance department suddenly wouldn't boot? Or SQL wouldn't start up? Not a risk I'm taking, thank you.
Or how about sysadmins who are too overworked to patch every single one of their 100+ field laptops, or 30+ servers, or 250+ desktop machines?
Or sysadmins who prefer to install the patch on a testbed, and test out the hundreds of different cobinations of applications/services/databases with it BEFORE rolling it out to production, as they don't want to take down a critical production machine.
I was talking to my boss about putting a linux file server in here, and was making decent headway recently. Now, somehow he heard of this SCO BS, and hes got cold(er) feet. My angle was the cost savings, but now thats gone, so no linux here for a while...
Im going to completely disagree with you here. I'll post to Usenet, and get several relevant answers, usually within hours. Of course, I have to weed through a few GET VIAGRA ~FREEE GNFDJS posts, but hey....
I guess it all depends on what information you are looking for. With well over 67671 groups (on my news server at least), are you sure you are asking in the right place?
I don't have an answer, but...
on
RAID for Zero-G?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
How do you plan on getting this equipment into a zero-g enviornment? That will problable determine if you need hardened/milspec type equipment. If its going up on the shuttle, with those G forces on it during launch, then yeah, you probably do need 'milspec'. If its going to reside in a plane, that does zero-g free-fall testing, you can probably get away with something less... YMMV.
My girlfriend (yeah, someone on Slashdot actually has one =) ) got me into brewing beer. Great hobby. Just this week, we went out and bought 4 Five gallon kegs and a CO2 system. I have a fridge coming this weekend, and BAM, I'm styling.
This 'game' (I use that term lightly - nothing has been seen of it since 2001, and even then it was just screenshots and a cheesy movie) is so over-hyped, over-due, and the expectations are so high, that 3DRealms cannot possible live up to the expectations. They'd do best to write it off, and start on thier next project. I, for one, am no longer looking forward to this game.
"WWII Online - Do they have a hard limit on the number of subscribers? It's like a straight line. Would be good if there were more than a handfull of subscribers"
I feel I may be able to shed a bit of light on this one. I've been playing WWIIOL since the day it was released, so I know a bit about this. WWIIOnline caters to a totally different type of subscriber than any other MMOG out there - the 'grognards'. Grognards are a very, um for lack of a better word, 'anal' type of player. They complain about everything, stating a plethora of facts, figures and anecdotes (sp?) when they smell something wrong. With the WWII 'universe', thats fairly easy to do. All the equipment modelled actually existed, and has documented performance. There are people on the message boards that whine because thier Spitfire Mk I is 3 mph slower at sea level in game, than it was in real life. Seriously. You don't get this in other games, there is no documented statistics on the 'Vorpal Sword of l33t slaying'. I think this turns off a portion of the interested crowd, if they happen to read the message boards before joining up.
Also, the barrier to entry is very, very high. Learing how the game is played, especially without a groups help, is very tough - the equipment reacts realistically. And realisticly is not necissarily what is 'expected' - ie. what peoples perceptions are, after watching the History Channel and Saving Private Ryan, as opposed to real-world performance. You tend to get killed ALOT for the first month or so. Most of the players are fairly hardcore, and killing a newbie is really easy. So the frustration level grows exponentially. I imagine that turns some people off in thier first month.
Add to that, that the game has a bad rep for it horrendous launch - incomplete features, missing equipment, constant crashes, 10 minute load times. Those problems are all long gone now, but its stained the reputation of the game. With every patch, the game gets much, much better, and much more advanced features are added. But they have a very small development staff, so patches are fairly infrequent. The boxes are now also off the shelves at the stores, so the exposure to new players isn't there, except for word of mouth.
Having said all that, I love this game, and plan on playing it until they take it off the net. Right now, you can go download the game, and just pay your monthly fees, so the cost to get in isn't that high.
just my.02$ There are lots and lots of improvements
I see your analogy, and up it. Imagine that you are... no, just kidding:)
I agree with you - Outlook (and all programs by default) - should ship in thier 'safest' state. However, at some point, accountability comes to play. If you make outlook save files to disk first, the user will simply do that, then go and open it arbitrarily. I know my mom opens that damn 'elf bowling' proggie every time she gets it, no matter how many times I tell her not to. And, if you make a user jump through too many hoops to 'get thier work done' (even if it is just opening some crap elf bowling game), they will get frustrated and give up computing.
Slashdot Mirror
Also, I'm sure the people who drop this ISP because of the SMTP problem is insignificant to the users that don't give a crap. The days of "The Customer is Always Right" are long gone. I'm constantly amazed that people still seem to think that a single irate letter is gonna change anything. It takes a loud cry from many people to get these lethargic corporation to see the error of their ways (or at least get off their buts and do something).
Ah, but it takes many single irate letters to create the loud cry you speak of.
Sysprep and its documentation can be found in \support\tools\deploy.cab on the Windows XP CD.
..works perfectly fine for me. I've rolled out well over 50 machines using a combination of PQDI installed on a networked file server with client boot disks, and Microsofts SYSPREP utility. Never have any problems at all. It even creates (Caldera) DOS boot disks with network drivers (either supplied by Powerquest, or by .dos files provided by you), and you image right over the network.
I use this tool every day, and would recommend it in an instant, for both 2000 and XP clients.
I for one, welcome our new Dark Sith overlords.
*rimshot*
I agree here. I've worked for a string of IT companies, and I can guarantee that this is my last. My next IT job will be in a non-IT field, that is for sure.....
One more thing. If you are supporting 100 people, then your days are unquestionably one series of interruptions crashing into each other.
Bingo, right on the nails head. Minimizing interruptions is the greatest challenge I have. Its tough, when the newest equipment we have is 3+ year old laptops, which are constantly breaking.
The real crux of the situation is, I don't feel secure in my job yet, having been here only two months. I'd love to just tell people I don't have the time, but that usually just results in the CFO (my boss) or the CTO coming down, and shifting priorities. After reading through this entire thread a couple of times, I'm coming to the realization that I am in a no-win situation. Which really sucks, as I don't want to have to go through another job search process again this quickly....
Someone mod this guy up :)
You hit the nail right on the head here. With all the layoffs, I'm doing the work that used to be done by 5 people. Now, granted, there are less people working here now, but this job could keep 2 people very very busy, and 3 could comfortably get the work done.
I went to my boss last week (I work directly for the CFO, so IT isn't his top priority), and told him that this is crazy, and that one person cannot possible meet this companies IT demands. He said he realizes that, but I'm not getting another warm body until at least 'Next Spring'. I just wanted to walk out right there. Thats the conversation that prompted me to pose this question to Ask Slashdot - I figured a ton of people out there right now have to be in similar situations.
I just got this job exactly two months ago - I really don't want to have to go through the grueling job hunting process again, especially in this market.
I like your thoughts on the 'modus operandi' - we used to have a term for this when I was in the Army - that we were being 'set up for failure'. Its no way to run an IT dept., let alone a business.
I've thought about bailing out of IT - I have no other real skillset, though, and nothing else I can do will pay the mortgage. I feel trapped, and thats not a good thing...
Hell, you're new at this job - do you know if the last person quit because of insane expectations like this?
Thanks for the reply. The answer here is yes - he is still with the company, but in another capacity now. He got burnt out by the incessant requests, and the sheer volume of work. The department used to be 5 people (which I admit is wayyy too many), and it got whittled down to just him. Now, I'm in his position. I'm getting the hang of pushing off project work, but I don't have enough time in the day for the day-to-day stuff, so I'm just getting deeper and deeper under the muck.
*sigh*
This case (the Alien Front Online) sounds like a perfect case for Small Claims Court - you would more than likely get reimbursed for the cost of the game, plus filing fees, etc. Wonder if there is a statute of limitations on this?
Of course Im firewalled. What stops a laptop getting infected at home, and coming into the LAN?
Did you test this patch out, on all permutations of hardware/OS? With all production applications? Thoroughly? Doens't sound like it. Sounds like you saw the hotfix, patched all your machines, and hoped for the best. Now, imagine if the patch didn't work as advertised, and your Windows 2000 Server running SQL for the finance department suddenly wouldn't boot? Or SQL wouldn't start up? Not a risk I'm taking, thank you.
Or how about sysadmins who are too overworked to patch every single one of their 100+ field laptops, or 30+ servers, or 250+ desktop machines?
Or sysadmins who prefer to install the patch on a testbed, and test out the hundreds of different cobinations of applications/services/databases with it BEFORE rolling it out to production, as they don't want to take down a critical production machine.
You've never worked in IT, have you?
That's what baseball bats are made for.
I was talking to my boss about putting a linux file server in here, and was making decent headway recently. Now, somehow he heard of this SCO BS, and hes got cold(er) feet. My angle was the cost savings, but now thats gone, so no linux here for a while...
It will make all of your linux friends laugh at you.
Linux users have friends? I mean, other than the little stuffed penguin I^H *ahem* they keep on the monitor?
Im going to completely disagree with you here. I'll post to Usenet, and get several relevant answers, usually within hours. Of course, I have to weed through a few GET VIAGRA ~FREEE GNFDJS posts, but hey....
I guess it all depends on what information you are looking for. With well over 67671 groups (on my news server at least), are you sure you are asking in the right place?
You would think, with all the qualified unemployed software engineers out there, they could at least hire a few...
What is the hard working but generous coder supposed to do?
Apparently, sell your software.
*rimshot*
I'll second that. Much better than ad-aware.
:) Can never be too careful...
I use both, however
How do you plan on getting this equipment into a zero-g enviornment? That will problable determine if you need hardened/milspec type equipment. If its going up on the shuttle, with those G forces on it during launch, then yeah, you probably do need 'milspec'. If its going to reside in a plane, that does zero-g free-fall testing, you can probably get away with something less... YMMV.
...or "Windows"...
I've just released the "Second Coming of Christ" FAQ - I'm sure this will happen before Duke Nukem Whatever is released....
My girlfriend (yeah, someone on Slashdot actually has one =) ) got me into brewing beer. Great hobby. Just this week, we went out and bought 4 Five gallon kegs and a CO2 system. I have a fridge coming this weekend, and BAM, I'm styling.
This 'game' (I use that term lightly - nothing has been seen of it since 2001, and even then it was just screenshots and a cheesy movie) is so over-hyped, over-due, and the expectations are so high, that 3DRealms cannot possible live up to the expectations. They'd do best to write it off, and start on thier next project. I, for one, am no longer looking forward to this game.
"WWII Online - Do they have a hard limit on the number of subscribers? It's like a straight line. Would be good if there were more than a handfull of subscribers"
.02$
I feel I may be able to shed a bit of light on this one. I've been playing WWIIOL since the day it was released, so I know a bit about this. WWIIOnline caters to a totally different type of subscriber than any other MMOG out there - the 'grognards'. Grognards are a very, um for lack of a better word, 'anal' type of player. They complain about everything, stating a plethora of facts, figures and anecdotes (sp?) when they smell something wrong. With the WWII 'universe', thats fairly easy to do. All the equipment modelled actually existed, and has documented performance. There are people on the message boards that whine because thier Spitfire Mk I is 3 mph slower at sea level in game, than it was in real life. Seriously. You don't get this in other games, there is no documented statistics on the 'Vorpal Sword of l33t slaying'. I think this turns off a portion of the interested crowd, if they happen to read the message boards before joining up.
Also, the barrier to entry is very, very high. Learing how the game is played, especially without a groups help, is very tough - the equipment reacts realistically. And realisticly is not necissarily what is 'expected' - ie. what peoples perceptions are, after watching the History Channel and Saving Private Ryan, as opposed to real-world performance. You tend to get killed ALOT for the first month or so. Most of the players are fairly hardcore, and killing a newbie is really easy. So the frustration level grows exponentially. I imagine that turns some people off in thier first month.
Add to that, that the game has a bad rep for it horrendous launch - incomplete features, missing equipment, constant crashes, 10 minute load times. Those problems are all long gone now, but its stained the reputation of the game. With every patch, the game gets much, much better, and much more advanced features are added. But they have a very small development staff, so patches are fairly infrequent. The boxes are now also off the shelves at the stores, so the exposure to new players isn't there, except for word of mouth.
Having said all that, I love this game, and plan on playing it until they take it off the net. Right now, you can go download the game, and just pay your monthly fees, so the cost to get in isn't that high.
just my
There are lots and lots of improvements
I see your analogy, and up it. Imagine that you are... no, just kidding :)
:-D
I agree with you - Outlook (and all programs by default) - should ship in thier 'safest' state. However, at some point, accountability comes to play. If you make outlook save files to disk first, the user will simply do that, then go and open it arbitrarily. I know my mom opens that damn 'elf bowling' proggie every time she gets it, no matter how many times I tell her not to. And, if you make a user jump through too many hoops to 'get thier work done' (even if it is just opening some crap elf bowling game), they will get frustrated and give up computing.
Oh wait. Maybe thats a good thing....