The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Complexity + technical debt = oh god everything is always on fire
The place I interviewed at last week was 1:50, with multiple different backup and AV solutions in place, logon drive mappings handled by something called KickScript, support for lab equipment running on a variety of OSs including XP*, and a "ticketing system" that was "Yeah, we have a Support email that forwards to me and the other IT guy, but people usually just text me and I have to forward it on, or they come into the IT room and ask for help"
*when I asked if it was off the network, I was told 'yes, absolutely - well, it can reach the backup server but that's no big deal, right?
0
That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
Complexity + technical debt = oh god everything is always on fire
You need to get those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers.
One of my clients has about 100 users, 1 has about 40, another is about 25 and the last is about 12. 90% of the time I can handle everything they throw my way. It's absolutely invaluable having escalation support for the last 10% of the time though.
Complexity + technical debt = oh god everything is always on fire
You need to get those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers.
One of my clients has about 100 users, 1 has about 40, another is about 25 and the last is about 12. 90% of the time I can handle everything they throw my way. It's absolutely invaluable having escalation support for the last 10% of the time though.
Awesome, can you come over and upgrade our CRM? FYI we had a development firm build a bespoke integration with two other industry-specific applications, if those integrations break nobody can log in, they break frequently, and all of our staff is required to record all interactions with the public in the CRM so if it's down for more than a few minutes it's a complete work stoppage.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
While you're working on that, can you also take a look at our printing middleware?
See, management wants to filter all print jobs through a middleware that automatically adds some form fields to the tops and bottoms of key documents, and if that middleware breaks, as it often does, then users can't print those forms at all. That middleware has a dependency that isn't supported in 64-bit environments or on Windows 10, and the only reason it works at all is because yours truly watched the installer on a 32-bit machine through Sysinternals Process Monitor to see exactly what it was doing in the registry and filesystem during install, and I built a Powershell script that replicates those installation steps with modifications to support 64-bit Windows (eg, putting DLLs in C:\Windows\SYSWow64 instead of C:\Windows\System32).
But on a couple of computers for some reason we haven't yet identified, that script isn't 100% working, and a few files end up in the wrong places and the software doesn't work. Can you help with that?
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
+2
ThegreatcowLord of All BaconsWashington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered Userregular
Me: I can't control everything. I have to let some projects go.
Me: *lets a project for a new helpdesk ticketing system go*
Coworker: *spends thousands of dollars on a new helpdesk ticketing system where you can't use 'open in new tab' or 'open in new window' because nothing is an HTML anchor tag, literally all the basic navigation is done with JavaScript mouseclick events, and big parts of the UI don't work in Chrome*
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
+7
That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
It sounds like someone around there (probably not you) needs to learn how to say no to people. No you don't need this stupid middleware. Windows Print Services work just fine. Headers and footers should be handled through the word processor. And No you shouldn't use custom software to make your CRM do something it's not designed to do. Find a CRM that does that already.
See problem solved with liberal application of the word no.
It sounds like someone around there (probably not you) needs to learn how to say no to people. No you don't need this stupid middleware. Windows Print Services work just fine. Headers and footers should be handled through the word processor. And No you shouldn't use custom software to make your CRM do something it's not designed to do. Find a CRM that does that already.
See problem solved with liberal application of the word no.
I've had exactly this discussion with exactly the people who approve this shit and
well
there's a philosophical disagreement there
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
+1
RandomHajileNot actually a SnatcherThe New KremlinRegistered Userregular
The problem is that they always have teeth because of some HR compliance issue, or some environmental compliance issue, or some cost “savings” reason (look, you’re only saving YOUR time by coming up with this idea that will make us more efficient as a company but whoops it’s a huge burden on IT but who cares let’s just throw more technology at the problem so we don’t have to think about it man don’t get me started on this one...).
We do internal customer service surveys, where each department rates each other department on service. IT gets consistently low scores.
The upper management believes that the pathway to high scores is to innovate, to build out systems that make things "easier" on users, like hiring a software developer to build out a bespoke integration between CRM and other software so users don't have to dual-enter data between systems.
I think we need to choose our battles wisely, and to put scarce IT resources into core competencies, make sure our foundation works smoothly before rolling out anything innovative, and prune the systems that require a lot of toil but don't generate much value.
When you have to duplicate your data entry between CRM and the invoicing software, yeah that kinda sucks. But when you can't log in to CRM at all because the integration package hard crashes and takes down the CRM software with it, that's far worse.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
+4
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I think your management suggesting that you synergize your core competencies for a paradigm shift in your CRM software.
It sounds like someone around there (probably not you) needs to learn how to say no to people. No you don't need this stupid middleware. Windows Print Services work just fine. Headers and footers should be handled through the word processor. And No you shouldn't use custom software to make your CRM do something it's not designed to do. Find a CRM that does that already.
See problem solved with liberal application of the word no.
I've had exactly this discussion with exactly the people who approve this shit and
well
there's a philosophical disagreement there
JFC. Make the relevant forms fillable PDFs and be done with it. Turn them into web-forms if they want.
Also if it's a "key document," then it should be on relevant letterhead with spots for no-shit signatures and should probably be a form letter. Otherwise it's actually not a key document.
We do internal customer service surveys, where each department rates each other department on service. IT gets consistently low scores.
The upper management believes that the pathway to high scores is to innovate, to build out systems that make things "easier" on users, like hiring a software developer to build out a bespoke integration between CRM and other software so users don't have to dual-enter data between systems.
I think we need to choose our battles wisely, and to put scarce IT resources into core competencies, make sure our foundation works smoothly before rolling out anything innovative, and prune the systems that require a lot of toil but don't generate much value.
When you have to duplicate your data entry between CRM and the invoicing software, yeah that kinda sucks. But when you can't log in to CRM at all because the integration package hard crashes and takes down the CRM software with it, that's far worse.
I mean seamless integration stuff definitely will improve how people view IT in general.
Entering things in 2+ systems grates on people quickly. So much so people throw money at people like me to integrate shit and make SSO services when companies refuse to work together to integrate well.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
It sounds like someone around there (probably not you) needs to learn how to say no to people. No you don't need this stupid middleware. Windows Print Services work just fine. Headers and footers should be handled through the word processor. And No you shouldn't use custom software to make your CRM do something it's not designed to do. Find a CRM that does that already.
See problem solved with liberal application of the word no.
I've had exactly this discussion with exactly the people who approve this shit and
well
there's a philosophical disagreement there
JFC. Make the relevant forms fillable PDFs and be done with it. Turn them into web-forms if they want.
Also if it's a "key document," then it should be on relevant letterhead with spots for no-shit signatures and should probably be a form letter. Otherwise it's actually not a key document.
To be 100% honest, at this point our current management knows that middleware is a piece of shit, and is on board with getting rid of it
but getting rid of it isn't one of the high-profile executive vanity projects, so it gets backburnered
That's pretty much how this shit goes. We implement some big bright idea, on insufficient resources, we're pushed very hard to just make it work, and quickly. We'll say that it isn't terribly reliable, and management will come back and say "well, just get it up and running and we'll iron out the bugs later." But the bugs never get ironed out, it just says in production like that, and then two years later everybody realizes that it was a bad idea, but now there's no impetus to go back and remove it because we've moved on to the next big bright idea.
Rinse and repeat ad infinitum
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
If I could just run a script to uninstall the middleware automatically and be done with it, I would.
But it's high enough visibility that we'd need to retrain users on the new procedures and it would be a pretty significant change to production that would alter some other workflows
all this stuff is pretty deeply entangled with each other because nobody ever stops and asks "do we really want to integrate this system with six others?"
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
0
TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Also 2 years later, people have left or just haven't looked at the guts of the thing in 2 years, so there's a huge disincentive to re-open the can of worms at all.
Also 2 years later, people have left or just haven't looked at the guts of the thing in 2 years, so there's a huge disincentive to re-open the can of worms at all.
Yep, we inherited this middleware. When I started at this company, there were only two people who were around when it was initially implemented, and only one of them understood it at all. That person quit shortly thereafter. This specific bespoke middleware is one of those systems that nobody wants to touch because if you touch it, it's yours forever.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
I was also pushing our applications team to take ownership of the middleware but our applications team obstinately believes that "applications" means "the two or three applications I, personally, understand. What, you mean I need to learn other applications too? That's not my job."
I've been able to break them out of this habit with new implementations, finally, but there's still a lot of legacy stuff that nobody wants to take ownership of, even though there are a few people here who clearly should own them.
The funny thing about having a boss who is afraid to say "no" to the business... is that he's also afraid to tell intractable employees "you have to your job even if you don't like it."
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
When moving to another office at a remote location, you might want to check if the jacks are all live.
A long time ago, we had a client call in demanding a rush job - order 5 new PCs and schedule a tech to get them set up at the new office. He was an orthodontist running an entirely new build-out without using a general contractor.
We rushed everything through, at great cost to him, and when I arrived there was no electricity.
Another thing you should look out for when buying buildings, is people using RJ45 jacks when they should have used RJ11, and not labeling which jacks are running on only 2 pairs of wires.
lwt1973King of ThievesSyndicationRegistered Userregular
edited April 2019
Software vendor: X amount of space should be fine for the software to run.
Me: <Adds Y to X just in case.>
< 3 months later>
Me: <Checking on the space and seeing it is almost full> Oh come on.
lwt1973 on
"He's sulking in his tent like Achilles! It's the Iliad?...from Homer?! READ A BOOK!!" -Handy
+1
ThegreatcowLord of All BaconsWashington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered Userregular
If anything has stuck with me trying to maintain file share architecture for a company without proper data usage controls is that people will use the space.
ALL THE SPACE
WE NEED MORE SPACE!
GIBBME DA GIGABYTES!
What's that? You decided to back up your entire 75 gigabyte itunes library to the main file share? Why that's no problem!
Haha! Oh you silly executive assistant you! Editing the office Christmas party raw video files directly on the file server. Sure we can spare 300 additional gigs of space for your shenanigans you cheeky bugger!
Why yes I can totally understand why you insist on keeping hold of a former developer's redirected folders on the profile share because you're convinced they're planning to conduct some corporate espionage...you keep shining on you crazy diamond you.
...now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a Gin & Tonic or 3.
Just discovered that if you fatfinger "gmail.com" to "gmail.co" for a recipient's address, google will happily gobble that email up, not deliver it to that person's mailbox, and not deliver a bounce of any kind.
Just discovered that if you fatfinger "gmail.com" to "gmail.co" for a recipient's address, google will happily gobble that email up, not deliver it to that person's mailbox, and not deliver a bounce of any kind.
Posts
The place I interviewed at last week was 1:50, with multiple different backup and AV solutions in place, logon drive mappings handled by something called KickScript, support for lab equipment running on a variety of OSs including XP*, and a "ticketing system" that was "Yeah, we have a Support email that forwards to me and the other IT guy, but people usually just text me and I have to forward it on, or they come into the IT room and ask for help"
*when I asked if it was off the network, I was told 'yes, absolutely - well, it can reach the backup server but that's no big deal, right?
You need to get those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers.
One of my clients has about 100 users, 1 has about 40, another is about 25 and the last is about 12. 90% of the time I can handle everything they throw my way. It's absolutely invaluable having escalation support for the last 10% of the time though.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Awesome, can you come over and upgrade our CRM? FYI we had a development firm build a bespoke integration with two other industry-specific applications, if those integrations break nobody can log in, they break frequently, and all of our staff is required to record all interactions with the public in the CRM so if it's down for more than a few minutes it's a complete work stoppage.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
See, management wants to filter all print jobs through a middleware that automatically adds some form fields to the tops and bottoms of key documents, and if that middleware breaks, as it often does, then users can't print those forms at all. That middleware has a dependency that isn't supported in 64-bit environments or on Windows 10, and the only reason it works at all is because yours truly watched the installer on a 32-bit machine through Sysinternals Process Monitor to see exactly what it was doing in the registry and filesystem during install, and I built a Powershell script that replicates those installation steps with modifications to support 64-bit Windows (eg, putting DLLs in C:\Windows\SYSWow64 instead of C:\Windows\System32).
But on a couple of computers for some reason we haven't yet identified, that script isn't 100% working, and a few files end up in the wrong places and the software doesn't work. Can you help with that?
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
The tasty beverage is eternal and delicious and fuels my dreams.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
See problem solved with liberal application of the word no.
I've had exactly this discussion with exactly the people who approve this shit and
well
there's a philosophical disagreement there
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
This is a clickable link to my Steam Profile.
The upper management believes that the pathway to high scores is to innovate, to build out systems that make things "easier" on users, like hiring a software developer to build out a bespoke integration between CRM and other software so users don't have to dual-enter data between systems.
I think we need to choose our battles wisely, and to put scarce IT resources into core competencies, make sure our foundation works smoothly before rolling out anything innovative, and prune the systems that require a lot of toil but don't generate much value.
When you have to duplicate your data entry between CRM and the invoicing software, yeah that kinda sucks. But when you can't log in to CRM at all because the integration package hard crashes and takes down the CRM software with it, that's far worse.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Mooooooooonetiiiiize our aaaaaaseeeeeeets...
This is a clickable link to my Steam Profile.
JFC. Make the relevant forms fillable PDFs and be done with it. Turn them into web-forms if they want.
Also if it's a "key document," then it should be on relevant letterhead with spots for no-shit signatures and should probably be a form letter. Otherwise it's actually not a key document.
That sounds so familiar.....
Entering things in 2+ systems grates on people quickly. So much so people throw money at people like me to integrate shit and make SSO services when companies refuse to work together to integrate well.
He made an off the cuff change. On-call was up most of the morning trying to figure it out to fix it.
I have done all I can do here. Can't build a reputation if your boss is destroying it behind you.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
To be 100% honest, at this point our current management knows that middleware is a piece of shit, and is on board with getting rid of it
but getting rid of it isn't one of the high-profile executive vanity projects, so it gets backburnered
That's pretty much how this shit goes. We implement some big bright idea, on insufficient resources, we're pushed very hard to just make it work, and quickly. We'll say that it isn't terribly reliable, and management will come back and say "well, just get it up and running and we'll iron out the bugs later." But the bugs never get ironed out, it just says in production like that, and then two years later everybody realizes that it was a bad idea, but now there's no impetus to go back and remove it because we've moved on to the next big bright idea.
Rinse and repeat ad infinitum
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
But it's high enough visibility that we'd need to retrain users on the new procedures and it would be a pretty significant change to production that would alter some other workflows
all this stuff is pretty deeply entangled with each other because nobody ever stops and asks "do we really want to integrate this system with six others?"
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Yep, we inherited this middleware. When I started at this company, there were only two people who were around when it was initially implemented, and only one of them understood it at all. That person quit shortly thereafter. This specific bespoke middleware is one of those systems that nobody wants to touch because if you touch it, it's yours forever.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I've been able to break them out of this habit with new implementations, finally, but there's still a lot of legacy stuff that nobody wants to take ownership of, even though there are a few people here who clearly should own them.
The funny thing about having a boss who is afraid to say "no" to the business... is that he's also afraid to tell intractable employees "you have to your job even if you don't like it."
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Damn it. I need a new deck.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
That's always terrible because outside of chargen it's damn near impossible to come up with the nuyen for another one.
I'm going back to school to retrain as a Street Samurai. No more tech for me.
Pfft, that's what they all say, and then "Hey guys I'm gonna be gone for a month because I need surgery. On everything."
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
What fun would that be?
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
A long time ago, we had a client call in demanding a rush job - order 5 new PCs and schedule a tech to get them set up at the new office. He was an orthodontist running an entirely new build-out without using a general contractor.
We rushed everything through, at great cost to him, and when I arrived there was no electricity.
Me: <Adds Y to X just in case.>
< 3 months later>
Me: <Checking on the space and seeing it is almost full> Oh come on.
ALL THE SPACE
WE NEED MORE SPACE!
GIBBME DA GIGABYTES!
What's that? You decided to back up your entire 75 gigabyte itunes library to the main file share? Why that's no problem!
Haha! Oh you silly executive assistant you! Editing the office Christmas party raw video files directly on the file server. Sure we can spare 300 additional gigs of space for your shenanigans you cheeky bugger!
Why yes I can totally understand why you insist on keeping hold of a former developer's redirected folders on the profile share because you're convinced they're planning to conduct some corporate espionage...you keep shining on you crazy diamond you.
...now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a Gin & Tonic or 3.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
Just discovered that if you fatfinger "gmail.com" to "gmail.co" for a recipient's address, google will happily gobble that email up, not deliver it to that person's mailbox, and not deliver a bounce of any kind.
Pretty sure that violates an RFC somewhere.
so someone probably owns gmail.co for the express purpose of eating that
I'd be really iffy on gmail going "did you mean gmail.com?" on things like this because that could be predatory itself.
I found this:
https://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/archives/2016/03/the_problem_with_gmail_co/
Google owns that domain as well.
And it's the same IP block.
But there's no MX record for that domain.
Which means it's still on my mail server's queue, and I'm a dummy dumbs!