> The other thing I learned is that rebooting machines is for whimps who don't want to know what is really wrong... we couldn't reboot certain machines, it'd take 20 minutes to get the store back up if we did... so we'd troubleshoot the actual software configuration and restart processes that were hung instead of taking the entire system down for one failed service... Of course that is an ideology that doesn't permeate the world of support.... and quality support is rare because most people in support seem to think that IT Crowd is 100% real and they should be disillusioned into thinking their job is so easy they shouldn't bother to try to actually do anything other than give users what they want, not what they really need.
Man, I hear ya. I have a nephew who works in support for a company's products who's initials are Microsoft... His response to troubleshooting is (a) have the user reboot (no matter what kind of system or what task(s) it's doing), if that doesn't work, (b) uninstall the software, and then reinstall, (c) if that doesn't work, reinstall the operating system. "What? It's no trouble. I do it all the time." If that doesn't work, or the user declines to reinstall the entire frakking machine, (d) say "well, it works on my machine. It has 36 processors and eighty-twelve gigabytes of ram and an ATI 36000000 video card. You should upgrade your machine."
At this point, I'll enter the conversation, maybe ask the user to open the task manager and resource monitor, look for processes that are hung, pinning the CPU, taking an inordinate amount of memory, camping on a disk, or all of the above. Trace the offending process to the offending application, and start there.
Or at very least, google the error message, for Fudd's sake.
When I take him (nephew) to task for passing out idiot troubleshooting steps suitable for someone getting paid in paises, he gets huffy. Go figure.
What a useless and whinging article! You find remote support frustrating? Some of us recall the days before remote support was an option, having to hop in a car and drive somewhere every time a problem occurred. Remote support is a f*cking godsend. Don't work in support if you can't handle a bit of frustration.
I remember those days. We had to strip RG58 cable with our teeth and punch down wires with our foreheads while holding a 50 pound roll of Cat 3 in each hand. Kids today, they don't know how good they got it.
Now get off my BBS.
I think the author's point was, in today's world remote support has a few new wrinkles, like distances you couldn't drive in a reasonable amount of time, different cultures, language and technology barriers. Some of us got an early start in this area (I worked for a Japanese-based company in the 1980's) but for many people, having to support users outside the country is a new thing.
For me it's important to keep in mind, I get paid the same regardless, so it's not worth getting twisted up about it. Communicate slowly and clearly, use simple instructions, ask politely for feedback (what do you see on your screen now?) and you'll eventually get there. Unless your remote user is trying to defuse a bomb, how long this takes probably doesn't matter much in the long run. So relax.
Once, at 3AM or so, modem out of commission, no way to log in, I talked an operator through editing a backup script that another admin had broken. (Made a change, didn't test it.) It took a long time, but we got it done and I didn't have to drive in. In his favor, the operator was excellent at following instructions and telling me what exactly he was seeing on the screen.
Indeed. Moreover, email and/or texting helps surmount miscommunication due to heavy accents and bad phone connections. Often I've ended a puzzling scratchy phone call with "can you send me that request through email?" And then I get the email, oh yeah, that's what he meant.
Who could even trust a company that has no bad reviews? I find it impossible for any establishment to be universally liked, even if the sample group is only people who would both go to that business and post on Yelp.
Personally, the bad reviews are where I look to find out the worst parts of a product or business, and if their worst parts aren't really so bad then I'm more likely to buy.
Not only true for companies. I do a lot of shopping on Amazon. (It beats having to drive around looking for what I need.) I judge whether to buy based partly on the reviews. Of a wide range of manufacturers for a particular product, I will drop from consideration the products where many people have thoughtful, factual reviews about why the product is trash, but I will also reject the products with three or four overly glowing reviews and nothing else. You get a feeling for what astroturf sounds like.
You could probably drop the top 10% and bottom 10% of reviews for a product or service and get a fairly realistic picture from the rest.
Reviews for green monkey shoulder bag:
Five stars. I love it. This is absolutely the best bag I've ever owned -- reject.
Three stars. Very good construction and stitching, real leather, nice brass clasp. I knocked off two stars because it's not green, it's orange. And the animal is not a monkey, it's an ocelot. -- probably an accurate review.
One star because it won't allow me to give zero stars. Product smells of cat urine and exploded when I set it down. -- either a competitor or someone who's really unlucky...
In the SF bay area, back when trendy upscale (expensive) gyms were happening, salescreatures would use such tactics. Usually an overmuscled "coach" blocking the door. It could get tense if the rube wanted out.
I presume that tends to occur only in states with strict laws on who can carry a concealed weapon.
It's also the most poorly coded piece of crap I've ever had to use, and fails at consistency between courts. Someone here should get a contract to fix it so I don't have to look at that steaming pile of shit any more.
In the SF bay area, back when trendy upscale (expensive) gyms were happening, salescreatures would use such tactics. Usually an overmuscled "coach" blocking the door. It could get tense if the rube wanted out.
Yes, I still actually participate in discussions on Usenet. I still maintain an nntp server at home, 32 years after my first stint as a news administrator for my first tech job.
...because there's something tactile and convenient and immediately gratifying about flipping through a box of CDs, selecting one and slotting it in the player. With most audio gear supporting thumb drives, this doesn't make a lick 'o' sense, I suppose, but there it is.
I could justify this, maybe as it being faster to find a physical CD than it is to navigate the rather clumsy interfaces in some gear, but it's really that it's nice to have something I can physically handle.
I also make it a point to go through supermarket lines with a real cashier rather than a do-it-yourself scanner. Not because I am a technophobe (quite the opposite) but because I like dealing with a real human.
I have actually found my memory has been getting better with age, but I had a horrible memory as a child. I've been finding that the more I learn, the more ways I have to associate knowledge, allowing me to better recall or learn new knowledge.
I'm pretty sure our ancestors didn't evolve to eat corn that was licensed by Monsanto. Just a thought.
But I understand GMO foods are going to totally fix world hunger, which is why they're primarily sold in the US, where judging from the girth of people I see on the street, everybody's hungry as hell.
We are guinea pigs for the rest of the world. Looks like it's working.
Re:Correlation Does Not Imply Causation
on
The Evolution of Diet
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
So you're saying, eat less, exercise more, and do it for the rest of your life?
You'll never sell that. People want to know what magic food you can eat that will make the bulge from all the cheetos go away. Telling them to eat fewer cheetos only makes people hate you.
"Creating two slices of toa--ARE YOU TROUBLED WITH INCONTINENCE?--st at li--TRY NEW MOD STYLE DEPENDS! DELIVERED DISCRETELY TO YOUR HOUSE!--ght brown."
> Cyber is easy - simply no direct connect to the internet. Anything less is effectively nothing. Anything more is not needed.
From a purely electronic standpoint, true. But you also have to maintain a fairly high degree of physical security. Just one example: If you work in an office building, note that janitors have keys to everywhere, even the CEOs office. I know, many companies require a background check for janitors, but many don't.
Nobody needs to get murdered. You merely must create an environment where it's more profitable to research fusion energy than it is to commercialize fusion energy.
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> The other thing I learned is that rebooting machines is for whimps who don't want to know what is really wrong... we couldn't reboot certain machines, it'd take 20 minutes to get the store back up if we did... so we'd troubleshoot the actual software configuration and restart processes that were hung instead of taking the entire system down for one failed service... Of course that is an ideology that doesn't permeate the world of support.... and quality support is rare because most people in support seem to think that IT Crowd is 100% real and they should be disillusioned into thinking their job is so easy they shouldn't bother to try to actually do anything other than give users what they want, not what they really need.
Man, I hear ya. I have a nephew who works in support for a company's products who's initials are Microsoft... His response to troubleshooting is (a) have the user reboot (no matter what kind of system or what task(s) it's doing), if that doesn't work, (b) uninstall the software, and then reinstall, (c) if that doesn't work, reinstall the operating system. "What? It's no trouble. I do it all the time." If that doesn't work, or the user declines to reinstall the entire frakking machine, (d) say "well, it works on my machine. It has 36 processors and eighty-twelve gigabytes of ram and an ATI 36000000 video card. You should upgrade your machine."
At this point, I'll enter the conversation, maybe ask the user to open the task manager and resource monitor, look for processes that are hung, pinning the CPU, taking an inordinate amount of memory, camping on a disk, or all of the above. Trace the offending process to the offending application, and start there.
Or at very least, google the error message, for Fudd's sake.
When I take him (nephew) to task for passing out idiot troubleshooting steps suitable for someone getting paid in paises, he gets huffy. Go figure.
What a useless and whinging article! You find remote support frustrating? Some of us recall the days before remote support was an option, having to hop in a car and drive somewhere every time a problem occurred. Remote support is a f*cking godsend. Don't work in support if you can't handle a bit of frustration.
I remember those days. We had to strip RG58 cable with our teeth and punch down wires with our foreheads while holding a 50 pound roll of Cat 3 in each hand. Kids today, they don't know how good they got it.
Now get off my BBS.
I think the author's point was, in today's world remote support has a few new wrinkles, like distances you couldn't drive in a reasonable amount of time, different cultures, language and technology barriers. Some of us got an early start in this area (I worked for a Japanese-based company in the 1980's) but for many people, having to support users outside the country is a new thing.
For me it's important to keep in mind, I get paid the same regardless, so it's not worth getting twisted up about it. Communicate slowly and clearly, use simple instructions, ask politely for feedback (what do you see on your screen now?) and you'll eventually get there. Unless your remote user is trying to defuse a bomb, how long this takes probably doesn't matter much in the long run. So relax.
Once, at 3AM or so, modem out of commission, no way to log in, I talked an operator through editing a backup script that another admin had broken. (Made a change, didn't test it.) It took a long time, but we got it done and I didn't have to drive in. In his favor, the operator was excellent at following instructions and telling me what exactly he was seeing on the screen.
Indeed. Moreover, email and/or texting helps surmount miscommunication due to heavy accents and bad phone connections. Often I've ended a puzzling scratchy phone call with "can you send me that request through email?" And then I get the email, oh yeah, that's what he meant.
Who could even trust a company that has no bad reviews? I find it impossible for any establishment to be universally liked, even if the sample group is only people who would both go to that business and post on Yelp.
Personally, the bad reviews are where I look to find out the worst parts of a product or business, and if their worst parts aren't really so bad then I'm more likely to buy.
Not only true for companies. I do a lot of shopping on Amazon. (It beats having to drive around looking for what I need.) I judge whether to buy based partly on the reviews. Of a wide range of manufacturers for a particular product, I will drop from consideration the products where many people have thoughtful, factual reviews about why the product is trash, but I will also reject the products with three or four overly glowing reviews and nothing else. You get a feeling for what astroturf sounds like.
You could probably drop the top 10% and bottom 10% of reviews for a product or service and get a fairly realistic picture from the rest.
Reviews for green monkey shoulder bag:
Five stars. I love it. This is absolutely the best bag I've ever owned -- reject.
Three stars. Very good construction and stitching, real leather, nice brass clasp. I knocked off two stars because it's not green, it's orange. And the animal is not a monkey, it's an ocelot. -- probably an accurate review.
One star because it won't allow me to give zero stars. Product smells of cat urine and exploded when I set it down. -- either a competitor or someone who's really unlucky...
In the SF bay area, back when trendy upscale (expensive) gyms were happening, salescreatures would use such tactics. Usually an overmuscled "coach" blocking the door. It could get tense if the rube wanted out.
I presume that tends to occur only in states with strict laws on who can carry a concealed weapon.
Yes. California, specifically.
It's also the most poorly coded piece of crap I've ever had to use, and fails at consistency between courts. Someone here should get a contract to fix it so I don't have to look at that steaming pile of shit any more.
But it'll cost in nine digits and never go live.
In the SF bay area, back when trendy upscale (expensive) gyms were happening, salescreatures would use such tactics. Usually an overmuscled "coach" blocking the door. It could get tense if the rube wanted out.
Since when do people serve court orders by email...?
In the same world where an Nigerian official needs your help to spirit US $10M out of the country...
> I think it's probably going to end in UN finger-wagging and "peacekeepers" on the ground for 50 years, but what do I know...
History, I'd say.
I was using RN for years, switched to Forte Agent in the late nineties, have been using it ever since for mail and news.
Yes, I still actually participate in discussions on Usenet. I still maintain an nntp server at home, 32 years after my first stint as a news administrator for my first tech job.
I could justify this, maybe as it being faster to find a physical CD than it is to navigate the rather clumsy interfaces in some gear, but it's really that it's nice to have something I can physically handle.
I also make it a point to go through supermarket lines with a real cashier rather than a do-it-yourself scanner. Not because I am a technophobe (quite the opposite) but because I like dealing with a real human.
I have actually found my memory has been getting better with age, but I had a horrible memory as a child. I've been finding that the more I learn, the more ways I have to associate knowledge, allowing me to better recall or learn new knowledge.
I'm guessing you don't watch a lot of TV.
It's the rate of change of magnetic flux that does the trick.
So, in theory, standing near a nuclear explosion to get a direct cranial hit from the EMP it generates should do wonders for your mental capacity....
For some definition of "wonders", yes.
These are magnetic pulses. No, strapping magnets to your wrist/ankle/belly/tinfoil-hat still won't accomplish anything.
That means they can sell you a battery pack for the halo.
> The search for 'Pandora' has begun.
Well done. As long as I don't have to sit through the movie again...
I'm pretty sure our ancestors didn't evolve to eat corn that was licensed by Monsanto. Just a thought.
But I understand GMO foods are going to totally fix world hunger, which is why they're primarily sold in the US, where judging from the girth of people I see on the street, everybody's hungry as hell.
We are guinea pigs for the rest of the world. Looks like it's working.
So you're saying, eat less, exercise more, and do it for the rest of your life?
You'll never sell that. People want to know what magic food you can eat that will make the bulge from all the cheetos go away. Telling them to eat fewer cheetos only makes people hate you.
"Creating two slices of toa--ARE YOU TROUBLED WITH INCONTINENCE?--st at li--TRY NEW MOD STYLE DEPENDS! DELIVERED DISCRETELY TO YOUR HOUSE!--ght brown."
"Never mind, I'm not hungry anymore."
> Cyber is easy - simply no direct connect to the internet. Anything less is effectively nothing. Anything more is not needed.
From a purely electronic standpoint, true. But you also have to maintain a fairly high degree of physical security. Just one example: If you work in an office building, note that janitors have keys to everywhere, even the CEOs office. I know, many companies require a background check for janitors, but many don't.
Seconded on Anker batteries. I didn't like the funky wall charger with the movable contacts, ended up not using that. But the battery was fine.
The city's actually in more trouble if people keep suing it and it has to settle with six-digit amounts. That does put pressure on the government.
Sort-of true, except, it's easier to settle lawsuits if you're doing it with other people's money.
It's a way for mass bricking of phones should the need arise. And people will just accept it, believing it's for their own good.
Nobody needs to get murdered. You merely must create an environment where it's more profitable to research fusion energy than it is to commercialize fusion energy.