• (cs)

    Uh, that glob shouldn't match those files. Unless it's a regex search?

  • slipstream (unregistered)

    Sounds about like the time I trolled a fake support guy.

    He tried to run some kind of .NET-based registry scanning thing. I had no .NET framework installed in that VM. He was utterly stumped :D

  • (cs)

    Bah - who needs templates and temperatures anyway?

  • (cs) in reply to Zemm
    Zemm:
    Uh, that glob shouldn't match those files. Unless it's a regex search?
    With Windows search on Win 7 it does.
  • (cs) in reply to Zemm
    Zemm:
    Uh, that glob shouldn't match those files. Unless it's a regex search?

    I just tried searching C:\Windows on a Win7 machine with (.temp.) and the results looked like what I would expect with a Unix/Linux regex search: folders named "Temp", files with temp anywhere in the filename (e.g. template.inf, translation.template). None of the Windows Help pages I could find suggested it would actually work like that though - just the usual MS-DOS/Windows ? and * wildcards.

    In other news, I am pleased to see a complete absence of first/frist/etc. comments so far.

  • faoileag (unregistered) in reply to Trondster
    Trondster:
    Bah - who needs templates and temperatures anyway?
    You can have my templates, but not my temperature! No temperature no movement, and that's not a good state for a universe to be in.
  • faoileag (unregistered) in reply to Paddles
    Paddles:
    In other news, I am pleased to see a complete absence of first/frist/etc. comments so far.
    Probably the frist poster expressed his contempt for the help desk and subsequently had his post deleted on the next (.*temp.*) run.
  • (cs) in reply to Paddles
    Paddles:
    just the usual MS-DOS/Windows ? and * wildcards.
    I'm not certain when it changed, but nowadays the dot is a single character wildcard, much like the question mark.

    .temp. and temp are therefor mostly the same.

  • (cs)

    What helpdesk could employ people so incredibly stupid?

  • (cs) in reply to faoileag
    faoileag:
    Paddles:
    In other news, I am pleased to see a complete absence of first/frist/etc. comments so far.
    Probably the frist poster expressed his contempt for the help desk and subsequently had his post deleted on the next (.*temp.*) run.

    Why can we not +1 comments? This needs to be highlighted.

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Pastebreath
    Pastebreath:
    What helpdesk could employ people so incredibly stupid?

    You sound like you've never called a helpdesk before

  • faoileag (unregistered) in reply to Paddles
    Paddles:
    I just tried searching C:\Windows on a Win7 machine with (.*temp.*) and the results looked like what I would expect with a Unix/Linux regex search
    Not here - that search ist the weirdest search I've ever seen... I created "20140127_Temp_Foobar89.txt"

    .*2 does match that file, .*0 or .*8 do not .*Foo matches, .*oo not. .Temp matches, ._Temp not

    That someone might use that search to find files to delete is a pretty frightening thought.

  • (cs) in reply to Pastebreath
    Pastebreath:
    What helpdesk could employ people so incredibly stupid?

    It's an over-reliance on knowledge procedures without having staff with the requisite know-how to interpret them. Or, in other words, too much cheapness.

  • faoileag (unregistered) in reply to Pastebreath
    Pastebreath:
    What helpdesk could employ people so incredibly stupid?
    The same helpdesk that got the contract because it could offer helpdesk services so much cheaper than its competitors?
  • Pippo (unregistered)

    Now, this is killing me, what happened on the next level!

  • Old enough to have been there (unregistered) in reply to Pippo
    Pippo:
    Now, this is killing me, what happened on the next level!
    my guess is that someone typed: attrib +h *temp* and they all disappeared. Problem solved.
  • GAO (unregistered)

    Dudes! You cant leave us hanging in the middle of the story! how did "the next level" continued?

  • (cs) in reply to Pippo
    Pippo:
    Now, this is killing me, what happened on the next level!

    The position had been filled by a temp, who vanished all of a sudden when trying to help.

  • EvilSnack (unregistered) in reply to Pastebreath
    Pastebreath:
    What helpdesk could employ people so incredibly stupid?
    Help desk, in organizations that have them, is often used as a dumping ground for unwanted people who cannot be fired altogether. This is especially common in US Air Force communications squadrons.

    But he's not necessarily stupid. He may have been misinformed (either his superiors gave him bad info, or poor training left a void that nature filled with misinformation).

  • (cs) in reply to EvilSnack
    EvilSnack:
    Pastebreath:
    What helpdesk could employ people so incredibly stupid?
    Help desk, in organizations that have them, is often used as a dumping ground for unwanted people who cannot be fired altogether. This is especially common in US Air Force communications squadrons.

    But he's not necessarily stupid. He may have been misinformed (either his superiors gave him bad info, or poor training left a void that nature filled with misinformation).

    He also doesn't read what was written. Andy was quite clear - those files there (stuff about templates and temperatures) were NOT temp files, and deleting them wasn't OK. More likely, it was the epitome of anti-OK.

    Of course, one might ask questions about Andy's source control repository, but I'd consider "that file has been edited and not committed yet" to be a valid condition...

  • Racemaniac (unregistered) in reply to Pippo
    Pippo:
    Now, this is killing me, what happened on the next level!
    He got the presidents daughter on the line, and she helped him out :)
  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to faoileag
    faoileag:
    Paddles:
    In other news, I am pleased to see a complete absence of first/frist/etc. comments so far.
    Probably the frist poster expressed his contempt for the help desk and subsequently had his post deleted on the next (.*temp.*) run.

    I must admit, that does look tempting.

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to EvilSnack
    EvilSnack:
    Pastebreath:
    What helpdesk could employ people so incredibly stupid?
    Help desk, in organizations that have them, is often used as a dumping ground for unwanted people who cannot be fired altogether. This is especially common in US Air Force communications squadrons.

    But he's not necessarily stupid. He may have been misinformed (either his superiors gave him bad info, or poor training left a void that nature filled with misinformation).

    TRWTF of course is this helpdesk operative's inability to pay attention to what he is being told. It's part of the mindset: the user is a luser and we helpdesk experts are just that, experts. Now shut up and do what we tell you to.
  • (cs) in reply to GAO
    GAO:
    Dudes! You cant leave us hanging in the middle of the story! how did "the next level" continued?
    We have to check out tomorrow entry for part 2. Or maybe not. The level 2 guy may have actually known what he was doing.
  • belzebub (unregistered)

    In a battle against stupidity you can't win. That's why we can't have nice things.

  • ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL (unregistered) in reply to ochrist
    ochrist:
    The position had been filled by a temp, who vanished all of a sudden when attempting to help.
    FTFY. Sorry, it was just too tempting to contemplate, so please don't hold me in contempt.
  • Sam (unregistered) in reply to faoileag
    faoileag:
    Paddles:
    I just tried searching C:\Windows on a Win7 machine with (.*temp.*) and the results looked like what I would expect with a Unix/Linux regex search
    Not here - that search ist the weirdest search I've ever seen... I created "20140127_Temp_Foobar89.txt"

    .*2 does match that file, .*0 or .*8 do not .*Foo matches, .*oo not. .Temp matches, ._Temp not

    But does (.*temp.*) match a filename with a .tmp extension?
  • (cs) in reply to ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL
    ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL:
    ochrist:
    The position had been filled by a temp, who vanished all of a sudden when attempting to help.
    FTFY. Sorry, it was just too tempting to contemplate, so please don't hold me in contempt.

    Don't tempt me...

  • faoileag (unregistered) in reply to Sam
    Sam:
    But does (.*temp.*) match a filename with a .tmp extension?
    Of course not. How could it?

    Actually, the search pattern from the article is a bit strange: if applied on C:\ it will find the folder "temp" but not the files in it; applied on C:\temp\ it will not match all files in the folder, only those that feature "temp" in their filesnames (but those case-insensitive).

    Might be due to obfuscation, but the helpdesk search definitely does look broken.

  • (cs) in reply to Sam
    Sam:
    faoileag:
    Paddles:
    I just tried searching C:\Windows on a Win7 machine with (.*temp.*) and the results looked like what I would expect with a Unix/Linux regex search
    Not here - that search ist the weirdest search I've ever seen... I created "20140127_Temp_Foobar89.txt"

    .*2 does match that file, .*0 or .*8 do not .*Foo matches, .*oo not. .Temp matches, ._Temp not

    But does (.*temp.*) match a filename with a .tmp extension?
    Well, it will (should?) match temp9898.tmp ...
  • Anon (unregistered)

    Don't be too hard on the helpdesk guy (gal?). He (She?) was just trying to help Andy achieve Nirvana by getting rid of all material possessions (and files).

  • Correct Politician (unregistered) in reply to Pippo
    Pippo:
    Now, this is killing me, what happened on the next level!

    Andy did a hardcore run, got the key, defeated the boss and got all collectibles, plus he managed to unlock the two rarest achievements.

    Then he names his save file "successful_attempt.sav"

  • Name (unregistered) in reply to Pastebreath
    Pastebreath:
    What helpdesk could employ people so incredibly stupid?

    If the employees were smart, they wouldn't be working the first-level helldesk.

  • Val (unregistered) in reply to Pastebreath
    Pastebreath:
    What helpdesk could employ people so incredibly stupid?

    It was just the lowest level of the helpdesk. They use it because there are also stupid users around, so most requests can be fulfilled by those trained drones, so they don't have to bother the highly qualified and highly trained experts with problems like forgetting to turn on the screen, trying to restore a file from the recycling bin, or not knowing where to insert a CD, etc.

  • Balu (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    Don't be too hard on the helpdesk guy (gal?). He (She?) was just trying to help Andy achieve Nirvana by getting rid of all material possessions (and files).
    Very strange - the first thing that came to my mind when I read your comment was "Irish Girl" - and I'd surely give my files if she got rid of her material possessions (and shirts)...
  • (cs)

    Recently my employer replaced my development machine with a new one. On their schedule, not mine, so this was in the middle of the week. It was a standard windows buildout. Here are the WTFs:

    1. Only company-standard software was installed. All my development tools (visual studio, resharper, mvc4, sql management studio, webstorm, git, perforce, on and on) I had to reinstall myself.
    2. The guy they sent to replace my machine backed up, then restored, my NETWORK SHARED FOLDER contents.
    3. He failed to backup/restore my project folders (source code,etc. I had to basically hold him hostage until he agreed to do so.

    All told, about 12 hours of my time in the middle of a tight schedule just to get my new machine back to the point it was at.

  • Joe (unregistered) in reply to Pastebreath

    an overseas one an one that is all about call times and following the script

  • (cs) in reply to DrPepper
    DrPepper:
    All my development tools [..] git

    [..]

    1. He failed to backup/restore my project folders (source code,etc. I had to basically hold him hostage until he agreed to do so.
    git pull??
  • Joe (unregistered) in reply to DrPepper

    Blame the outside place running IT there not the tech.

    The Tech likely did not build the image.

    The Tech may not have all of the software installers

    The Toll that the tech is useing may only backup stuff in document folders and not stuff in other places like C:\ and so on.

    The tech may be on there own schedule and they can't wait for you / wait days for you to free up.

  • Anon cow (unregistered)

    I would like to play against this guy in a round of regex golf.

    http://xkcd.com/1313/

  • NonLocal (unregistered) in reply to Paddles

    regarding your frist comment issue

    give me control

    do delete all temporary comment

    i am unable to do it form here

  • Rudolf (unregistered) in reply to Val
    Val:
    It was just the lowest level of the helpdesk. They use it because there are also stupid users around, so most requests can be fulfilled by those trained drones,

    And, to be honest, there is nothing wrong with that.

    The problem is that these people don't realise they can't solve all problems themselves. For the users who do the basic problem solving before calling for help, all that the first level helpdesk people achieve is to waste hours of their users' time, and really, really, annoy their users.

    There should be a much quicker pass up the chain especially for repeat callers who have not been helped by the first level support on previous calls.

  • Jeremy (unregistered) in reply to Correct Politician
    Correct Politician:
    Pippo:
    Now, this is killing me, what happened on the next level!

    Andy did a hardcore run, got the key, defeated the boss and got all collectibles, plus he managed to unlock the two rarest achievements.

    Then he names his save file "successful_attempt.sav"

    But if he named it that it would be del.....oh, you!

  • Rick (unregistered)

    The real WTF to me was that helpdesk wanted to permanently delete those files (using shift+delete.) Unless he expected GBs worth of temp files, why wouldn't he just send them to the Recycle Bin?

  • Tux "Tuxedo" Penguin (unregistered) in reply to pnieuwkamp
    pnieuwkamp:
    DrPepper:
    All my development tools [..] git

    [..]

    1. He failed to backup/restore my project folders (source code,etc. I had to basically hold him hostage until he agreed to do so.
    git pull??

    Unless he forgot/didn't have time to git push ;).

    Captcha: cogo - African cog

  • (cs)

    Sounds like my place -- IT silently sent out a multi-thousand line vbs file and ran it to "help clean up all users' computers" . It busted a couple running apps on my machine by killing off /temp directories. I took a look at the script, and it's full of comments like "whatever you do, don't mess with this part!!!!" . Also featured: lots of sections marked as applicable only to certain locations or business units, long lists of hard-coded whitelist filetypes or names, and other stuff to horrible to remember. One thing I do recall, and scares me a LOT, is a line that decides how much free HD space must exists before the script goes off and (Windows7) does that compression thing. It also uses a hard-coded value of Megabytes w/o regard for the HD capacity.

  • (cs)

    How long has the "delete OS/Internet temp files to restore speed" fix been obsolete?

    Nowadays, with everything being so network enabled, the most-likely cause of slowdowns is bad cabling, or perhaps buggy NIC drivers, or general network saturation.*

    Though if you're saturating gigabit switches with 10 gigabit uplinks, something else is definitely going on.

    • I guess I'll add general Anti-virus craziness in there as well.
  • DWalker (unregistered) in reply to ochrist
    ochrist:
    Pippo:
    Now, this is killing me, what happened on the next level!

    The position had been filled by a temp, who vanished all of a sudden when trying to help.

    +111111!

  • Kasper (unregistered) in reply to Pastebreath
    Pastebreath:
    What helpdesk could employ people so incredibly stupid?
    The worst one I experienced was one time I filed a ticket because I could not reach a specific internal website. Policy required my access to said internal website to go through our http proxy. However I got an error message from the proxy indicating, that this internal proxy could not reach the internal website.

    The error message included both the name of the website, the name of the machine the http proxy was hosted on, and information about who to contact in case of problems.

    Their suggestion given all of the above information was: Have you tried rebooting your computer?

    This was in a multinational IT company known to be hiring some of the brightest IT people in the world. Too bad internal IT couldn't afford the same level of IT expertise as the rest of the company.

  • thedude (unregistered)

    FWIW, it seems like .* forces the next character to be the first alpha-numeric after a symbol (_, ., etc) or the start of the match. ? retains its status as single character wildcard but is not compatible with the new (to me) .* notation.

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