Please do not misunderstand me. I do not condone rebooting as a means of problem resolution. I am pointing out that a reboot will make the problem go away for a while without actually addressing the problem.
Ultimately, this will depend on the type of service that your help desk provides.
There are different types of technical support available, and your company may employ some or all of those available. They include (but by no means are limited to) the following:
Tier 1: First level telephone support In general, this level of support will assist you with "I can't find the right mouse button" type questions. The people who work at this level are generally very comfortable with the desktop operating system that your company uses, and can help you find applications, sometimes even help you find departmental data. Some companies even grant Tier 1 support staff the ability to remotely control your PC and help you to launch applications in this manner.
Tier 2: Second level support In general, this level of support is called upon when the Tier 1 support personnel have exhausted their flow charts of canned information. This would include problems like, the computer won't reboot or we can no longer send e-mail.
Tier 3: Third level support In general, this level of support will never talk to the end user. This group of people are involved in building the infrastructure, maintaining servers and network gear, and resolving obscure technical problems that are beyond the scope of responsibility for the Tier 2 support personnel.
It is important to note that there are many Tier 1 support staff who work their way towards Tier 3. They attempt to learn as much as they can about an area - by resolving problems for people that are outside their sphere of responsibility. These people "go the extra mile" trying to resolve problems that you, as a user, should be able to look up and answer for yourself.
If you are using CAD applications, Geophysical applications, or an obscure 4GL to compile your custom application, you will not likely get the support that you are looking for from the standard 3 tier support infrastructure. In many cases, you will have a contract with the vendor to obtain support directly from them.
If you are using obscure functions of "off the shelf software", then you will likely end up being more knowledgeable about the product than your Tier 1, 2 AND 3 support staff, as they have no reason to use the software as intimately as you would.
Your help desk can only provide the service that your company is willing to support. I somehow doubt that refusing to learn an uncommon application feature for yourself on the basis of "it's too hard" will not make you look good to your manager.
With the growing complexity of computer systems and the growing number of issues inherent in the system (regardless of the Operating System in question), I've found that most "system administrators" just don't care to research problems thoroughly any longer. The oft stated "reboot" only serves to postpone the inevitable visit to resolve the problem in the future.
Back when I was a "Windows Guy(tm)", I visited the desk for almost every system crash that was encountered by the user community. I admit that I, too, chose the occasional reboot rebuff when I was swamped with server issues. But I made a concerted effort to visit the user, and I was usually able to isolate the problems - generally related to faulty hardware or driver configuration.
Rebooting the computer will, in fact, resolve many things. For a while. Ultimately, most problems will recur. If it is software related, it will continue until the software problem is addressed. This could be the OS, and application, a utility, a driver, etc. If the problem is hardware related, it will also continue until the problem is addressed. And, it may end up costing you more money to replace any components that the faulty unit may be attached to.
First, you categorically discard the parent's ability to find his/her material of choice by stating that the range of books available is minisucle. Next, you suggest that, based on their choice not including books that you cannot find, that their taste in literature is dull.
I find it highly unlikely that you've read all of the material that is available via electronic format. Would you say that you've sampled something from each author? If so, perhaps you are qualified to vilify the parent. If not, perhaps you should cut the him/her some slack.
Not everyone will find meaning in Sartre, nor will everyone find solace in Hickman & Weiss. Who's to say that your choices are more or less substantial than someone elses?
The reason you don't understand the problem is that you have no history, and you have too much space. I offer what seems to me to be a reasonable "outside the box" solution to your logistics problem, and you return a discourteous attack that was entirely unprovoked.
My British friend, the world is changing. There is precious little that you can do to prevent this fact. You stand there and claim that I have no history, you portray my recommendation as a threat to your history, yet you obviously have no knowledge of your own country's history. If so, you would likely not be casting aspersions about someone else making sweeping changes to the known world.
There is nothing that you can do to prevent the world from changing. Building and staffing a toll both that charges a premium rate for restricted passage is not unrealistic. It will likely, in fact, result in a decrease in traffic faster than any sign, law or edict.
They say that the definition of lunacy is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results each time. I am the last person to want to see my Father's homeland destroyed for "progress", yet I am not so blind as to assume that hiding my head in the sand will yield a different result.
You are correct. I have never been to an English village before.
I have spent some time in Montreal and Quebec city, so I am aware that some roads are simply not wide enough for *any* motor vehicle traffic. There is always a solution to the problems that we encounter in life. Ignoring solutions, or simply not looking for solutions, will not make the problems go away.
Change can be uncomfortable. Change can be inconvenient. But change will come whether we choose to embrace it or not.
One solution could be to petition the government to upgrade the highway through town or build a ring road.
Another, considerably less friendly option, is to install one helluva hairpin turn in the main road. Easy enough for a passenger vehicle to navigate at playground speed, but impossible for a transport truck.
Maybe the ideal solution is to install a toll booth system. If a vehicle exceeds a certain weight (or physical dimension), they'll need to pay at the initial toll booth. Then, install a series of toll booths along the route with a police radar of some fashion. If the vehicle exceeds the posted speed limit, they need to pay another toll in order to proceed to the next segment.
In short order, one of two things will happen. The traffic will find an alternate route around the town, or the town will have earned enough money to build their own ring road.
Commenting on the same poster as the parent:
You, sir, appear to be a card carrying member. You are using an open source forum to contribute your comments to the community. Does that not fully embrace the F/OSS model?
Glad to see that you've entered the fold, and look forward to seeing you "grow" some more!
I was once where you are, and I understand that it's very easy to become complacent. Hold on to the job that you have while you learn the skills for the next one. You may get many chances to practice your new skills when people go on vacation, and that is "real experience" when applying for the next level.
This may sound cold, but those aren't terribly specialized tasks.
Within a couple of weeks, a skilled technical writer could create effective documentation for each of the roles that you've listed, such that these tasks could easily be assigned to a person with very little IT experience.
As a side note, all of the items that you've listed as "Plus I do..." could easily be accomplished remotely [including the desktop support]. Maybe even by a former AT&T employee from the comfort of his/her own home?
You'd rather have nothing than settle for less? An admirable, if sometimes misguided, trait.
As for the player... Sure, it's a 1080i rather than 1080p. But let's be subjective here for a moment. If we compare NTSC's 525 lines of analog signal to 1080i or even 720p digital, we see an improvement in image quality. If 1080p products were not available, would you rather continue with your old NTSC television, or would you embrace 720p?
In your analogy, you indicate that you bought an Audi rather than a Ford. Well sir, why not an Aston Martin? I'm guessing that your salary wouldn't support the added expense, without forcing you to walk for an additional 20 years (remember, don't settle for less).
720p, 1080i, 1080p.... They are all upgrades. Choosing the level of upgrade is less important in the big picture, than finally putting a nail in the analog coffin.
After I posted I got to thinking about this very point. Ceramics and magnets aren't a good match -:P
However, I did get to thinking about this... What if we put a large vessel into space for the sole purpose of collecting all of the crap - complete with Canada arm and lots of o2 for course corrections. Eventually we get a large orbitting clump of material that we could potentially move somewhere else and re-use. I'm not saying that we could do this today, but one of the gripes that we constantly hear about is the high cost of getting things into space.
Futuristic Blither to follow... Once a suitable location has been determined (moon? Mars? Vulcan?), we add enable the thrusters on the collector vehicle, a couple of trips around ol' terra firma to pick up speed, and away it goes. Then, when we arrive to build our little colony on that hunk-o-rock, this material will be there waiting for us to recylce in some fashion or another.
I was adding the disclaimer so that the kids in the audience wouldn't rush home to disassembel mommies vaccum cleaner in the quest for a clutter-free space in, erm, space.
But, now that you mention it, it could be a precursor to a career in politics... Can I count on your vote?:)
Perhaps they should be encouraging someone to create a powerful electro-magnet satellite sweeper to surf the orbital zone and "pick up" the junk that is whistling around out there, rather than encouraging Joe Average to add his own litter to the fray.
DISCLAIMER: No, I have not thought this through.
But, it would be interesting to see -something- done about the problem before the garbage makes extra-terrestrial travel even more dangerous than it already is...
The article mentions NFS - available via most NAS offerings - and local disk. No mention of a fiber infrastructure. You'd think that would deserve it's own paragraph, at least...
Slashdot Mirror
Please do not misunderstand me. I do not condone rebooting as a means of problem resolution. I am pointing out that a reboot will make the problem go away for a while without actually addressing the problem.
Ultimately, this will depend on the type of service that your help desk provides.
There are different types of technical support available, and your company may employ some or all of those available. They include (but by no means are limited to) the following:
Tier 1: First level telephone support
In general, this level of support will assist you with "I can't find the right mouse button" type questions. The people who work at this level are generally very comfortable with the desktop operating system that your company uses, and can help you find applications, sometimes even help you find departmental data. Some companies even grant Tier 1 support staff the ability to remotely control your PC and help you to launch applications in this manner.
Tier 2: Second level support
In general, this level of support is called upon when the Tier 1 support personnel have exhausted their flow charts of canned information. This would include problems like, the computer won't reboot or we can no longer send e-mail.
Tier 3: Third level support
In general, this level of support will never talk to the end user. This group of people are involved in building the infrastructure, maintaining servers and network gear, and resolving obscure technical problems that are beyond the scope of responsibility for the Tier 2 support personnel.
It is important to note that there are many Tier 1 support staff who work their way towards Tier 3. They attempt to learn as much as they can about an area - by resolving problems for people that are outside their sphere of responsibility. These people "go the extra mile" trying to resolve problems that you, as a user, should be able to look up and answer for yourself.
If you are using CAD applications, Geophysical applications, or an obscure 4GL to compile your custom application, you will not likely get the support that you are looking for from the standard 3 tier support infrastructure. In many cases, you will have a contract with the vendor to obtain support directly from them.
If you are using obscure functions of "off the shelf software", then you will likely end up being more knowledgeable about the product than your Tier 1, 2 AND 3 support staff, as they have no reason to use the software as intimately as you would.
Your help desk can only provide the service that your company is willing to support. I somehow doubt that refusing to learn an uncommon application feature for yourself on the basis of "it's too hard" will not make you look good to your manager.
With the growing complexity of computer systems and the growing number of issues inherent in the system (regardless of the Operating System in question), I've found that most "system administrators" just don't care to research problems thoroughly any longer. The oft stated "reboot" only serves to postpone the inevitable visit to resolve the problem in the future.
Back when I was a "Windows Guy(tm)", I visited the desk for almost every system crash that was encountered by the user community. I admit that I, too, chose the occasional reboot rebuff when I was swamped with server issues. But I made a concerted effort to visit the user, and I was usually able to isolate the problems - generally related to faulty hardware or driver configuration.
Rebooting the computer will, in fact, resolve many things. For a while. Ultimately, most problems will recur. If it is software related, it will continue until the software problem is addressed. This could be the OS, and application, a utility, a driver, etc. If the problem is hardware related, it will also continue until the problem is addressed. And, it may end up costing you more money to replace any components that the faulty unit may be attached to.
Wow.
First, you categorically discard the parent's ability to find his/her material of choice by stating that the range of books available is minisucle. Next, you suggest that, based on their choice not including books that you cannot find, that their taste in literature is dull.
I find it highly unlikely that you've read all of the material that is available via electronic format. Would you say that you've sampled something from each author? If so, perhaps you are qualified to vilify the parent. If not, perhaps you should cut the him/her some slack.
Not everyone will find meaning in Sartre, nor will everyone find solace in Hickman & Weiss. Who's to say that your choices are more or less substantial than someone elses?
My British friend, the world is changing. There is precious little that you can do to prevent this fact. You stand there and claim that I have no history, you portray my recommendation as a threat to your history, yet you obviously have no knowledge of your own country's history. If so, you would likely not be casting aspersions about someone else making sweeping changes to the known world.
There is nothing that you can do to prevent the world from changing. Building and staffing a toll both that charges a premium rate for restricted passage is not unrealistic. It will likely, in fact, result in a decrease in traffic faster than any sign, law or edict.
They say that the definition of lunacy is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results each time. I am the last person to want to see my Father's homeland destroyed for "progress", yet I am not so blind as to assume that hiding my head in the sand will yield a different result.
You are correct. I have never been to an English village before.
I have spent some time in Montreal and Quebec city, so I am aware that some roads are simply not wide enough for *any* motor vehicle traffic. There is always a solution to the problems that we encounter in life. Ignoring solutions, or simply not looking for solutions, will not make the problems go away.
Change can be uncomfortable. Change can be inconvenient. But change will come whether we choose to embrace it or not.
...or they could just fix the map data. Have you ever asked a software vendor to add a feature or fix a minor bug?Interesting dilema.
One solution could be to petition the government to upgrade the highway through town or build a ring road.
Another, considerably less friendly option, is to install one helluva hairpin turn in the main road. Easy enough for a passenger vehicle to navigate at playground speed, but impossible for a transport truck.
Maybe the ideal solution is to install a toll booth system. If a vehicle exceeds a certain weight (or physical dimension), they'll need to pay at the initial toll booth. Then, install a series of toll booths along the route with a police radar of some fashion. If the vehicle exceeds the posted speed limit, they need to pay another toll in order to proceed to the next segment.
In short order, one of two things will happen. The traffic will find an alternate route around the town, or the town will have earned enough money to build their own ring road.
Commenting on the same poster as the parent: You, sir, appear to be a card carrying member. You are using an open source forum to contribute your comments to the community. Does that not fully embrace the F/OSS model?
Glad to see that you've entered the fold, and look forward to seeing you "grow" some more!
That spoils the joke then, doesn't it?
Why would someone choose this device over any other?
fanbouy...
I was once where you are, and I understand that it's very easy to become complacent. Hold on to the job that you have while you learn the skills for the next one. You may get many chances to practice your new skills when people go on vacation, and that is "real experience" when applying for the next level.
I truly wish you the best of luck!
This may sound cold, but those aren't terribly specialized tasks.
Within a couple of weeks, a skilled technical writer could create effective documentation for each of the roles that you've listed, such that these tasks could easily be assigned to a person with very little IT experience.
As a side note, all of the items that you've listed as "Plus I do..." could easily be accomplished remotely [including the desktop support]. Maybe even by a former AT&T employee from the comfort of his/her own home?
You honestly believe that 12,000 AT&T employees collect a wage without doing work?
While I don't know if YOU might steal from your employer in this fashion, it's foolish to assume that everyone else does.
I shudder to consider what other beliefs you hold true.
Really? I've been to the US (from Canada) dozens of times over the past few years, and have not been asked to step aside and provide finger prints.
Perhaps the parent is in a unique situation?
You'd rather have nothing than settle for less? An admirable, if sometimes misguided, trait.
As for the player...
Sure, it's a 1080i rather than 1080p. But let's be subjective here for a moment. If we compare NTSC's 525 lines of analog signal to 1080i or even 720p digital, we see an improvement in image quality. If 1080p products were not available, would you rather continue with your old NTSC television, or would you embrace 720p?
In your analogy, you indicate that you bought an Audi rather than a Ford. Well sir, why not an Aston Martin? I'm guessing that your salary wouldn't support the added expense, without forcing you to walk for an additional 20 years (remember, don't settle for less).
720p, 1080i, 1080p.... They are all upgrades. Choosing the level of upgrade is less important in the big picture, than finally putting a nail in the analog coffin.
After I posted I got to thinking about this very point. Ceramics and magnets aren't a good match - :P
However, I did get to thinking about this...
What if we put a large vessel into space for the sole purpose of collecting all of the crap - complete with Canada arm and lots of o2 for course corrections. Eventually we get a large orbitting clump of material that we could potentially move somewhere else and re-use. I'm not saying that we could do this today, but one of the gripes that we constantly hear about is the high cost of getting things into space.
Futuristic Blither to follow...
Once a suitable location has been determined (moon? Mars? Vulcan?), we add enable the thrusters on the collector vehicle, a couple of trips around ol' terra firma to pick up speed, and away it goes. Then, when we arrive to build our little colony on that hunk-o-rock, this material will be there waiting for us to recylce in some fashion or another.
or disassemble even.
I was adding the disclaimer so that the kids in the audience wouldn't rush home to disassembel mommies vaccum cleaner in the quest for a clutter-free space in, erm, space.
:)
But, now that you mention it, it could be a precursor to a career in politics... Can I count on your vote?
- Avron
YAY! I wasn't sure if tagging was working with my account - thanks :)
See, I was thinking that the "sweeper" would be heading in the same direction as the trash... It would need to "catch up" to the crap.
Perhaps it could change the orbit of each piece of crap - into a decaying orbit?
Perhaps they should be encouraging someone to create a powerful electro-magnet satellite sweeper to surf the orbital zone and "pick up" the junk that is whistling around out there, rather than encouraging Joe Average to add his own litter to the fray.
DISCLAIMER:
No, I have not thought this through.
But, it would be interesting to see -something- done about the problem before the garbage makes extra-terrestrial travel even more dangerous than it already is...
The article mentions NFS - available via most NAS offerings - and local disk. No mention of a fiber infrastructure. You'd think that would deserve it's own paragraph, at least...