And if you ask someone to stop doing something and they don't, what then? If you keep it up, you'll just be told to fuck off, or get into a shouting match and/or physical confrontation.
It's really a sad comment on society that a lot of people won't tell someone they're being annoying because they're afraid of retaliatory violence. Personally, I don't seriously confront anyone who I don't think I could kick the ass of if they go mental on me. Of course, that assumes they're unarmed and not part of a group. This is basically a reversion to the most primitive behavior standards, and it annoys the shit out of me that in 21st century city "civilization" that's what's become most prudent.
No one has any manners any more. I don't even like to go to theater movies because of all the idiocy, but it does help to find a theater in a cool neighborhood where people don't act like asses.
People abuse the hell out of cell phones. I am old enough to remember before they existed (except maybe as 30-pound units in CEO's limos) and it was a LOT quieter in public. I can stand in just about any enclosed public space in Manhattan (where I work and go out) and hear at least 3 cell conversations.
People that have to SHOUT into their phones or that don't answer or turn it off when it RINGS AND RINGS AND RINGS in FUCKING AWFUL FM synth square-wave 1980 Casio ringtones are the worst. The idiots that don't know how to not answer are almost as bad. It's a fucking leash if you can't not answer it.
My personal favorite: people in my gym who talk on the cell phone while working out. Yeah, some intense workout with a phone stuck in one of your hands...
As someone who is not a sysadmin, just a user who is on the IT advisory committee of a 65-person nonprofit company (Windows NT/2000 server-based, Windows 2000 and Mac workstations), I have noticed that:
a. The goal of our two IT sysadmin consultants is to do nothing and get paid $70K+/year. Users require work to support and are therefore to be ignored as much as possible. When things break, they are to be fixed in the quickest and easiest way. Upgrades are done grudgingly at the demand of senior management only.
b. The goal of our one in-house employee IT person is to create a situation where nothing ever goes wrong, i.e. bring about "do nothing, get paid $50,000/year". Somewhat more interventionist, with the attitude that end users are basically pains in the ass.
c. The goal of end users is to do whatever they want with their computers (which does include work). This creates the attitude of (a) and (b).
Frankly, it's a no-win situation. As the resident alpha Mac geek, I wind up doing:
1. Covert repair/upgrade ops on my department's machines which I don't dare report due to politics.
2. Convincing senior management to force IT to do things (like upgrades) in a logical, efficient manner.
This is what may keep me a specialist end user instead of any kind of admin anywhere else.
As someone who uses an ATI Radeon 8500 All-in-Wonder with WinME, I can personally attest that using ATI's software under ME flakes out or crashes a good 5% of the time. I wonder how much of this is ME and how much is ATI's fault... Won't find out until I upgrade to XP, maybe in 3 months. It's REALLY obvious that using a PC-based PVR has nowhere NEAR the reliability of a consumer electronics product like a VCR or even a TiVo. Wonder how this would work on my Mac under OS X...
So, anyone using a Radeon All-in-Wonder with WinXP?
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And if you ask someone to stop doing something and they don't, what then? If you keep it up, you'll just be told to fuck off, or get into a shouting match and/or physical confrontation.
It's really a sad comment on society that a lot of people won't tell someone they're being annoying because they're afraid of retaliatory violence. Personally, I don't seriously confront anyone who I don't think I could kick the ass of if they go mental on me. Of course, that assumes they're unarmed and not part of a group. This is basically a reversion to the most primitive behavior standards, and it annoys the shit out of me that in 21st century city "civilization" that's what's become most prudent.
No one has any manners any more. I don't even like to go to theater movies because of all the idiocy, but it does help to find a theater in a cool neighborhood where people don't act like asses.
People abuse the hell out of cell phones. I am old enough to remember before they existed (except maybe as 30-pound units in CEO's limos) and it was a LOT quieter in public. I can stand in just about any enclosed public space in Manhattan (where I work and go out) and hear at least 3 cell conversations.
People that have to SHOUT into their phones or that don't answer or turn it off when it RINGS AND RINGS AND RINGS in FUCKING AWFUL FM synth square-wave 1980 Casio ringtones are the worst. The idiots that don't know how to not answer are almost as bad. It's a fucking leash if you can't not answer it.
My personal favorite: people in my gym who talk on the cell phone while working out. Yeah, some intense workout with a phone stuck in one of your hands...
As someone who is not a sysadmin, just a user who is on the IT advisory committee of a 65-person nonprofit company (Windows NT/2000 server-based, Windows 2000 and Mac workstations), I have noticed that:
a. The goal of our two IT sysadmin consultants is to do nothing and get paid $70K+/year. Users require work to support and are therefore to be ignored as much as possible. When things break, they are to be fixed in the quickest and easiest way. Upgrades are done grudgingly at the demand of senior management only.
b. The goal of our one in-house employee IT person is to create a situation where nothing ever goes wrong, i.e. bring about "do nothing, get paid $50,000/year". Somewhat more interventionist, with the attitude that end users are basically pains in the ass.
c. The goal of end users is to do whatever they want with their computers (which does include work). This creates the attitude of (a) and (b).
Frankly, it's a no-win situation. As the resident alpha Mac geek, I wind up doing:
1. Covert repair/upgrade ops on my department's machines which I don't dare report due to politics.
2. Convincing senior management to force IT to do things (like upgrades) in a logical, efficient manner.
This is what may keep me a specialist end user instead of any kind of admin anywhere else.
As someone who uses an ATI Radeon 8500 All-in-Wonder with WinME, I can personally attest that using ATI's software under ME flakes out or crashes a good 5% of the time. I wonder how much of this is ME and how much is ATI's fault... Won't find out until I upgrade to XP, maybe in 3 months. It's REALLY obvious that using a PC-based PVR has nowhere NEAR the reliability of a consumer electronics product like a VCR or even a TiVo. Wonder how this would work on my Mac under OS X...
So, anyone using a Radeon All-in-Wonder with WinXP?