Buzz Out Loud Lounge: Grrrrrr.....Vista......Grrrrrrrr.....
Grrrrrr.....Vista......Grrrrrrrr.....
by ktreb - 4/23/07 6:35 AMI just got a new hp laptop running Vista. It's pretty and shiny and fingerprint prone -- just like an iPod. It boots up and shuts down faster than my old laptop. And it doesn't get very hot, unlike my old Toshiba. But, I'll have to keep old laptop because I can run any of my web-based work apps on the new machine. I tried and tried all weekend but no go. And my company's IT department isn't supporting Vista yet and since it's a personal machine, they can't help me until they officially support it.
I'm not asking for advice....just venting. I may return shiny, pretty laptop and order a dell laptop with xp. I got it from Costco, so I can still do that.
Company Morons
by Renegade Knight - 4/23/07 7:10 AM In reply to: Grrrrrr.....Vista......Grrrrrrrr..... by ktrebIf your companies IT won't help you, and you use your personal laptop for work...That either says a lot about how useless your IT department is or about your company as a whole.
As a rule I've never found IT departmetns to be nearly as helpful as they should be. IT is support for folks who get the real work done. They are not a power department though they quite often act like it.
Excuse me?
by Dirty Pirate - 4/23/07 12:23 PM In reply to: Company Morons by Renegade KnightDo you know ANYTHING about providing I.T Support? Not their fault that he went and got a personal computer with Vista. If he wants support, then he has to use a supported OS and I am pretty sure they will be able to support it. hmmm... how long has Vista been out? not sure if I can count that high as I guess I am a moron... Secondly, I am surprised that he is using his own personal laptop. There are incredible liabilities. The kind that lawyers would go nuts for.
1. Company and Personal Data being mixed.
2. Company paid for data being backed up and/or being replicated up to the company server.
3. Email belonging to the company that is protected... ask anyone who has gone through SOX about that one.
As a general rule, I find people who slag IT Support don't even know what they are talking about... but then again, I am to stupid as I do IT Support. Being a moron and all... 'scuse me, have to wipe the drool off my keyboard and find another bottle of white out to fix the spelling mistakes in this post.
Support is keeping the worker bee's working.
by Renegade Knight - 4/24/07 7:22 AM In reply to: Excuse me? by Dirty PirateLike most folks I use computers every day.
Half my support needs come from the IT Department itself. If they didn't exsit to stop me from actually using my computer I'd need less support.
The other half is like pulling teeth as I try and go about my job and where what I'd like to do doesn't line up with what IT thinks I should be doing. It's not fun to fight for two months over the ability to sync your PDA.
The IT department in every company large enough to have one is a service industry. Most of you folks don't understand that concept. Every now and then someone does and man that's a breath of fresh air.
Just for your education.
Accountants
Lawyers
IT:
Most don't contribute to the bottom line of a company. Thus they exist to serve the folks who do.
As a general rule I find IT support guys unwilling to listen. Even when people do know what they are talking about.
Take my hard drive. "Hey guys, I've got a problem, my hard drive isn't booting every time and I don't wan't to lose my data, something is up when can you check it out..." A week goes by and I manage to limp it along. Finally it does go out. They check it out. "Your hard drive is toast". "Ok, fair enough, can you recover the data?" "Um...no...I can't get it to boot to try..." Imagine that.
I dropped the conversation at that point.
You may be an exception to the moron rule, and I have no doubt you do support even more morons than you are surrounded by (or nobody would need an IT department). But do look around you at your brothers in trade and turn up the ratchet on the people skills. LISTEN and solve the problem people are having and not the one that your IT guys think they have.
My observations
by rtemp - 4/24/07 10:33 AM In reply to: Support is keeping the worker bee's working. by Renegade KnightI never really call myself IT, but I guess I fit the category. For about the past five years (I'm only 22) I've been employed a few different places for my apparent ability to work with and fix Macs.
Anyways, looking at the people I've worked with and around, I think I've devised a few rules about tech support people.
1) The more people they have to take care of, the less attention you will get as an individual. This should be fairly obvious.
2) from what I've seen, it seems that people trained to take care of Windows aren't as nice to have around as guys who deal with Macs.
3) They will often have their own tasks to do and not everyone has their priorities straight.
4) if they have a preferred method of communication, use it.
5) good tech people will work around you (and your schedule) and only interrupt you when necessary.
6) Don't assume or pretend that you can do their job.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure I could think of more.
Some of these sound a little condescending, but I think they get the point across better, but sorry if they seem a little offensive.
With a good tech staff, they should always be approachable, responsive, and responsible. Of course, this is a less-than-perfect world, so try to roll with the punches.
-Ryan
Fair points
by Renegade Knight - 4/25/07 7:41 AM In reply to: My observations by rtemp#6 can be hard.
I used to work on the computer biz. That was a long time ago and I've forgotten a lot. But still know quite a bit. When my hard drive was failing I bit my lip, and followed "The book".
Anticipating some of the issues, I also saved a lot of data. But not all.
I understand
by rtemp - 4/25/07 11:04 AM In reply to: Fair points by Renegade KnightI was just pointing out that it is generally pretty annoying to the tech guys.
Kudos on diagnosing the problem and saving your data.
-Ryan
So typical
by creativecaptions - 4/24/07 2:18 PM In reply to: Support is keeping the worker bee's working. by Renegade KnightSounds like you should have kept yourself from using the computer. Hard Drive failing? STOP USING IT, and tell your Boss if IT doesn't show. And you kept turning it off and on?? Data loss is on you!
Unfortunately, IT\IS is usually so busy helping those that aren't qualified to be doing the job their doing or fixing the "IS Wannabbee's" screw ups to help those that really need them. Squeeky Wheel syndrome!
Working in IT\IS reminds me of a T-Shirt I had as a kid:
I'm not the driver of the train, can't even ring the bell. But let the damn thing jump the track and see who catches hell...
Too Funny
by Renegade Knight - 4/25/07 7:31 AM In reply to: So typical by creativecaptionsBzzzzt!
WRONG.
We have computers laying around. Laptop's that can be checked out etc. Once I told our IT folks, they should have immediatly got me a loaner even if it was a fossil of a computer. Then recovered the data, got me a new machine or repaired the old one.
Since all that goes through IT and I notified them I did exactly what I was supposed to do. Apparently since IT thinks they work with morons they don't LISTEN to users. Had they listened I'd have my data. Had I just tossed my hard drive on their desk I'd of had my hands slapped three ways from sunday.
Lastly they are supposed to be the pro's. Not me. I've never had a hard drive fail before. While I know more than the average Joe, I am not an expert. When I tell them "I think my hard drive is failing" they need to check it out. Maybe it's the hard drive. Maybe it was a frayed cable, maybe it was the motherboard.
Like I said, support is IT's business. They need to spend more time doing that.
PS. Even with a bad drive you can send the drive in to certain companies who can recover the data. Unless the drive platters were destroyed this option existed. IT didn't suggest it. Apparently they didn't feel that the several gigs of data were worth much. Oddly enough this really isn't their decision, but they are given domain over it just the same. For me to do it myself I'd have to have my request approved by IT.
Common Sense
by creativecaptions - 4/25/07 11:09 AM In reply to: Too Funny by Renegade KnightIf your drive has information that would be worth paying $500-$2500, information can be recovered. It ain't cheap. Most companies see it (most times incorrectly) cheaper to have the work redone than pay a fee to recover.
I know nothing about the size etc of your company, here's how we do things:
We have 3 people in IS supporting 100 + users and 7 key servers. We also cover 3 States and support that VPN. A hard drive suspected of being bad would have a loaner sent out same day or swapped out the next day if local. We WOULD tell someone to turn off or quit using a machine if we wanted no further damage to it.
In our spare time, we do all the marketing material for our Loan Officers, create flyers and e-mails to send to customers and Realtors through an internal web site, which we also maintain. So we're not treated like we're simply an "Expense", which is nice. We also build all of our company's pc's and servers so we're very knowledgeable about what's in all of our systems and most systems are interchangeable. Our home built pc's also last about twice as long as the old Gateways and Dells we used to buy and cost less, most the time being taken out of service due to speed issues, not as dead equipment.
no one suggested it
by Dirty Pirate - 4/28/07 6:42 AM In reply to: Too Funny by Renegade Knightbecause it is expensive. so unless the data is work more then a million, I wouldn't even suggest it.
From reading your comments through out this tread, you sure demand a lot.
Maybe so.
by Renegade Knight - 4/30/07 7:44 AM In reply to: no one suggested it by Dirty Pirate"From reading your comments through out this tread, you sure demand a lot."
Maybe so. I do expect a lot. I expect Human Resources to be able to help me with HR issues and they do. Anything I can ask they have an answer. Legal. I expect them to anser my legal questions when they come up. They can and do. Amazing. If it's not a quick answer they do want me to get higher managment involved, fair enough larger issues are at stake. Our EEO office. I ask them a question on ADA access, Employee Hiring, Advertising and they help right quick. Public Relations; When they are needed, BAM instant service. Everone wants to help, everone is part of the team.
IT Should be no different. But they really are.
Personal computers at work
by jchastn - 4/29/07 12:57 PM In reply to: Support is keeping the worker bee's working. by Renegade KnightAccountants
Lawyers
IT:
These departments of professionals are NOT there to serve other departments. They are there to STOP other professional departments from doing something stupid that would bring the company unnessesary cost or damage. At its worst, IT makes all things possible, at its best, it limits what is possible to a effecient and safe set of productive activities that ACTUALLY help the bottom line. While I feel for the guy who bought the Vista machine, If Vista is not one of the operating systems that the company he works for has chosen to use, he is out of luck getting IT support for what is a PERSONAL COMPUTER. Most of the professionals that I work with know better than to waste my time requesting my help with PERSONAL COMPUTERS. I am here to help them use the tools that our company provides to do the jobs that they are contractually obligated to do. I am not here to be their PERSONAL computer guru.
VISTA to Complaining about the IT department
by Diversewares - 4/29/07 5:58 PM In reply to: Personal computers at work by jchastnThe first post was about Vista and then turned into the IT department is worthless. Lets stick to Vista and leave the IT guys alone.
You Lack a Basic Understanding of Business.
by Renegade Knight - 4/30/07 7:32 AM In reply to: Personal computers at work by jchastnBusiness makes money. Hopefully they love what they do. It helps. Anything that isn't making them money is an evil they live with when needed.
But answer this and prove me wrong about your unerstanding of your departments role in the busuines.
If your department is not there to serve other departments, then why does your department exist? Are you billable? Do you sell your services? Do you design products that the company sells? If so then other departments exist to serve you. If not please explain to me why the heck the company is paying your paycheck?
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
