• (cs) in reply to campkev

    "Instead of spending 15 seconds helping the guy, you were a NMJ-douche... priceless."

    Vehemently disagree. If you answer that one unrelated (to warranty) problem he’ll expect an answer to the next call, and the next call, and the next call, and the next call ad. Infinitum as will every other unrelated caller. The tech did the right thing.

  • Aaron Bratcher (unregistered)

    Everyone is assuming that person waiting for the screen saver is using Windows. That is not stated.

  • nobis (unregistered) in reply to Alan
    Alan:
    Windows key + L is a lot quicker...
    Except it does not work. (Win 2K, yeah very far behind)
  • JT (unregistered)

    What Should I Do?:

    One scenario how this kind of thing goes down:

    • I am trying to install some crap from twelve floppies
    • On the eleventh try, there is a read error
    • Remove broken files, reboot, try again. Same error on same disk.
    • Call the company. "Hello, I need you to send me a new copy of disk 11."
    • "Sorry sir, I need to troubleshoot this problem."
    • Describe the process I went through in detail.
    • "Sorry sir, you have to do it according to my script."
    • "Look, I just ran <disk utility> on it and it's got a bad sector."
    • "Sir, <disk utility> is not supported and will void your warranty."
    • Say something unkind. Hang up.
    • Meditate.
    • Call back.
    • "Okay, it says 'Insert Disk 1'. What should I do?"
    • Follow instructions to the letter
    • Mute phone and facepalm when the error doesn't occur
  • Mmmm good (unregistered)

    These stories remind me of the time when I get called by a friend of a "friend" who wanted to know how to do some function in an image editing program that I had never heard of.

    After getting the answer to my question of why in the world she thought I would know the answer to her question (because I work with computers)...I told oh that's easy. If you look at your computer near the top of the screen there are some words...do you see the words? I asked her to read the words to me. It actually took some time for her to get to File, Edit, View...and what was that last word again. It was help. Well click on that and see what if that doesn't help answer your question.

    Yeah, it was a douche bag response, but teach a person to fish and there are no stupid questions, just a lot of inquisitive idiots.

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymoose
    Anonymoose:
    It's amazing how people get "equipment envy"

    "How come THEY have that.."

    [image]

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to campkev
    campkev:
    bob:
    More tech support stories (if I may). While I was working at ... I got a call from a P&G user. With a very straight forward tone he said: - "How do I print my pdf document?" - "Sorry, sir not part of the out of warranty tech support (which was true)" - "Ok I see I'll be calling you again son..." hanged out loudly. Next day. - "May I speak with X(me)" - "Me speaking, how can I..." - "Spoke with you yesterday about how to print a pdf but this time I'm gonna record your answer on tape, ,ready ?" Instead of looking for an answer around the guy spent his day looking for a tape recorder... Priceless.

    Instead of spending 15 seconds helping the guy, you were a NMJ-douche... priceless.

    ...15 seconds later you find out he has no printer driver installed... 15 seconds later you find out the printer is still in the box... 15 seconds later you find out that he needs to plug in the wall wart... 15 seconds later you find out he needs to plug the USB cable from the printer to the computer... 15 seconds later the drivers won't install... 15 seconds later... you find out the ink cartridge has dried out... it never ends...

  • (cs) in reply to Bappi
    Bappi:
    the real wtf fool:
    Broken/Deliberately Destroyed - obvious result from having such a process in place. People are very good at gaming processes to achieve what they want rather than what management intended. Why such penny pinching over a £200 monitor anyway? It's a really cheap way of making employees feel happier/more motivated if that's what bothers them.
    It never ceases to amaze me how many people here assume that every story is about last week. As late as the nineties, a 19" monitor cost a good deal more than £200.

    Think about it. If they really were high priced at the time why were they replacing broken monitors with expensive pieces of kit when a spending freeze is in place?

  • (cs) in reply to Jon
    Jon:
    And don't get me started on people who think "the internet is broken" just because they can't get to Google...

    Other than failing to qualify it as "my connection to the internet is broken", that doesn't seem like much of a WTF to me. If you can't get to Google, then usually something really is wrong with your connection.

  • (cs) in reply to shepd
    shepd:
    Users breaking their equipment for upgrades during idiotic-type spending freezes is what we call Perverse Incentive. *Always* consider perverse incentive before making policies. Anna did exactly the logical thing to do in this situation. And they say that geeks like logic...

    Perverse incentive has caused a problem with drivers fleeing the scenes of accidents in my area. If a drunk driver gets into an accident (especially one in which someone is injured or killed) he has a strong incentive to leave the scene.

    The penalty for drunk driving is much, much more severe than the penalty for leaving the scene of an accident, so it is in the driver's best interests to go home and try to elude the police until it can no longer be proven that he was intoxicated at the time of the accident.

  • Mark Draughn (unregistered) in reply to Bappi
    Bappi:
    Sure, it's 15 seconds now, for this person, but the next day they'll call back with a 1-minute problem, and there's thousands of people calling... And then there are the people who convince you to help them with a 15-second problem, only to spring another one on you when you're 13 seconds in, and then another, and then another.. .In the mean time, there's people holding on the phone for warranty support
    Yup. It is the piteous state of most help desks that the most annoying callers get the most help, and the most helpful techs get the most calls.
  • Addison (unregistered)

    The first guy is a great example of a lot of people in regards to our industry. Fortunately in this story he couldn't do any damage. They think since they have an email account, can install windows, and set up a high speed connection they know what they're doing.

    It's like if I tried to land an airplane after the pilot passes out. Just because I can fly a kite doesn't mean I can land a jet.

    I find these people much more dangerous than people who are retarded and KNOW they are retarded.

  • (cs) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    campkev:
    bob:
    More tech support stories (if I may). While I was working at ... I got a call from a P&G user. With a very straight forward tone he said: - "How do I print my pdf document?" - "Sorry, sir not part of the out of warranty tech support (which was true)" - "Ok I see I'll be calling you again son..." hanged out loudly. Next day. - "May I speak with X(me)" - "Me speaking, how can I..." - "Spoke with you yesterday about how to print a pdf but this time I'm gonna record your answer on tape, ,ready ?" Instead of looking for an answer around the guy spent his day looking for a tape recorder... Priceless.

    Instead of spending 15 seconds helping the guy, you were a NMJ-douche... priceless.

    ...15 seconds later you find out he has no printer driver installed... 15 seconds later you find out the printer is still in the box... 15 seconds later you find out that he needs to plug in the wall wart... 15 seconds later you find out he needs to plug the USB cable from the printer to the computer... 15 seconds later the drivers won't install... 15 seconds later... you find out the ink cartridge has dried out... it never ends...

    Yeah, I worked with guys like you and the guys that are agreeing with you when I worked support. Not going to say that never happens, but the vast majority of the time, all it took was "Press ctrl+p". And the excuses they give were just an excuse for laziness. Then they wondered why I got promoted faster than they did and made more money.

  • becoming zealous (unregistered) in reply to rmz

    Your response is bogus. NO ONE has EVER claimed that Linux is intuitive.

    I use Windows Vista for browsing and graphics because it is too much hassle for me to set up Linux for less important stuff like that. But Vista sucks so bad that it has convinced me that it is time to bite the bullet and learn so I can migrate entirely to Linux as soon as possible. PS - I didn't used to agree with Microsoft bashers, I used Windows 98 for years without any more than minor troubles, I only "upgraded" because my 5 year old EMachines's hard drive controller died. Vista is worse in many ways than Windows 3.1 was. (Macrosh*t Vista - a view brown and smelly)

  • J (unregistered) in reply to Steve
    Steve:
    Having spent 10 years on Linux, then changed to Windows XP, I had to do some googling to find Windows+L. Then I was surprised to find that many of my Windows-only colleagues didn't know it.

    Windows is not any more intuitive than any other OS, it is just more widely used. That is not the same as "good".

    I remember working with someone who claimed that F1 for help was intuitive. Because that was the key Lotus-1-2-3 used. Yikes, I'm once again showing my age.

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to the real wtf fool
    the real wtf fool:
    Bappi:
    the real wtf fool:
    Broken/Deliberately Destroyed - obvious result from having such a process in place. People are very good at gaming processes to achieve what they want rather than what management intended. Why such penny pinching over a £200 monitor anyway? It's a really cheap way of making employees feel happier/more motivated if that's what bothers them.
    It never ceases to amaze me how many people here assume that every story is about last week. As late as the nineties, a 19" monitor cost a good deal more than £200.

    Think about it. If they really were high priced at the time why were they replacing broken monitors with expensive pieces of kit when a spending freeze is in place?

    Erm...because it's broken. It's really hard to get anything done on a computer without some way of seeing the screen output!

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to becoming zealous
    becoming zealous:
    Your response is bogus. NO ONE has EVER claimed that Linux is intuitive.

    I use Windows Vista for browsing and graphics because it is too much hassle for me to set up Linux for less important stuff like that. But Vista sucks so bad that it has convinced me that it is time to bite the bullet and learn so I can migrate entirely to Linux as soon as possible. PS - I didn't used to agree with Microsoft bashers, I used Windows 98 for years without any more than minor troubles, I only "upgraded" because my 5 year old EMachines's hard drive controller died. Vista is worse in many ways than Windows 3.1 was. (Macrosh*t Vista - a view brown and smelly)

    So you were stuck so far in the past with Windows 98 that when you were forced to switch to Vista you became scared and confused. Got it.

  • (cs) in reply to J

    #1 shows why those of us who really know what we're doing still have to go through the scripts.

    As for Anna, she needs a good smack. Or a firing. Either way.

    J:
    I remember working with someone who claimed that F1 for help was intuitive. Because that was the key Lotus-1-2-3 used. Yikes, I'm once again showing my age.
    What program doesn't use F1 for help these days?

  • jordanwb (unregistered) in reply to becoming zealous
    becoming zealous:
    I use Windows Vista for browsing and graphics because it is too much hassle for me to set up Linux for less important stuff like that.

    Step 1: Go to http://ubuntu.com Step 2: Click download Step 3: Burn ISO (YMMV) Step 4: Boot into completely working OS

  • rmz (unregistered) in reply to becoming zealous
    becoming zealous:
    Your response is bogus. NO ONE has EVER claimed that Linux is intuitive.
    Sure they have. Go hang out on Slashdot for a little while and you'll see them pop up before too long. They usually also bring up "Clicking 'Start' to shut down? OMGWTFBBQ!!!" in there as well.
  • jordanwb (unregistered) in reply to rmz
    rmz:
    becoming zealous:
    Your response is bogus. NO ONE has EVER claimed that Linux is intuitive.
    Sure they have. Go hang out on Slashdot for a little while and you'll see them pop up before too long. They usually also bring up "Clicking 'Start' to shut down? OMGWTFBBQ!!!" in there as well.

    Well that is kinda stupid. I put Ubuntu on my Grandfather's computer. He had no trouble figuring out that to shutdown his computer you click on System.

  • lol (unregistered) in reply to Paratus
    Paratus:
    campkev:
    bob:
    More tech support stories (if I may). While I was working at ... I got a call from a P&G user. With a very straight forward tone he said: - "How do I print my pdf document?" - "Sorry, sir not part of the out of warranty tech support (which was true)" - "Ok I see I'll be calling you again son..." hanged out loudly. Next day. - "May I speak with X(me)" - "Me speaking, how can I..." - "Spoke with you yesterday about how to print a pdf but this time I'm gonna record your answer on tape, ,ready ?" Instead of looking for an answer around the guy spent his day looking for a tape recorder... Priceless.

    Instead of spending 15 seconds helping the guy, you were a NMJ-douche... priceless.

    Agreed X == douche.

    Sure... then X has to explain to the boss why he wasted company money by spending N minutes on the toll-free line for a problem he was not authorized to help with.

    Excellent job.

  • becoming zealous (unregistered) in reply to Anon

    Since I upgraded to Vista, (copy of a comment I left on Bruce Schneier's blog last week)

    I patch regularly, and every patch breaks something. One regular problem, very minor which is probably why M$ doesn't apparently pay attention to it, is the disappearing recycle bin icon - first it disappears from my desktop when I empty it, after the next patch it stops disappearing, the next patch it disappears again, and around and around.

    More irritatingly, sometimes IE will bring up an older cached version of a webpage rather than the new one, sometimes even a day old one when I've just clicked the Back button. This has happened a couple of times for a few weeks at a time over the last year or so.

    Maybe as you said their security has improved, but their product in general hasn't.

    Also when I googled for Vista haters I got a lot of stories, some of which I also have, like the interface freezing up when the hard drive decides to run in the middle of whatever I'm doing, and others that I have never seen, at least partly because many are game related and I'm not a gamer.

  • becoming zealous (unregistered) in reply to rmz

    Maybe they do, you can waste time at slashdot if you want, it's not quite as stupid as watching TV, I guess.

  • jordanwb (unregistered) in reply to becoming zealous
    becoming zealous:
    More irritatingly, sometimes IE will bring up an older cached version of a webpage rather than the new one, sometimes even a day old one when I've just clicked the Back button. This has happened a couple of times for a few weeks at a time over the last year or so.

    That's interesting. I'm a web devoloper and a client of mine said his email address wasn't valid even though it was added to the database. I told him to clear his cache and it said "Added successfully"

  • bob (unregistered) in reply to campkev
    campkev:
    Bob:
    campkev:
    bob:
    More tech support stories (if I may). While I was working at ... I got a call from a P&G user. With a very straight forward tone he said: - "How do I print my pdf document?" - "Sorry, sir not part of the out of warranty tech support (which was true)" - "Ok I see I'll be calling you again son..." hanged out loudly. Next day. - "May I speak with X(me)" - "Me speaking, how can I..." - "Spoke with you yesterday about how to print a pdf but this time I'm gonna record your answer on tape, ,ready ?" Instead of looking for an answer around the guy spent his day looking for a tape recorder... Priceless.

    Instead of spending 15 seconds helping the guy, you were a NMJ-douche... priceless.

    ...15 seconds later you find out he has no printer driver installed... 15 seconds later you find out the printer is still in the box... 15 seconds later you find out that he needs to plug in the wall wart... 15 seconds later you find out he needs to plug the USB cable from the printer to the computer... 15 seconds later the drivers won't install... 15 seconds later... you find out the ink cartridge has dried out... it never ends...

    Yeah, I worked with guys like you and the guys that are agreeing with you when I worked support. Not going to say that never happens, but the vast majority of the time, all it took was "Press ctrl+p". And the excuses they give were just an excuse for laziness. Then they wondered why I got promoted faster than they did and made more money.

    Hey, if you got promoted for telling people how to print a document, please tell me where I can apply. And yes; And I was working with people like you who were letting non authorised people to clog a line that was supposed to be available for the true customers. Results we had to deal with 400 calls (instead of maybe 150 calls). Results bad quality support, upset people and upset management. Beat that. The enemy is often inside.

  • becoming zealous (unregistered) in reply to jordanwb

    Thanks. I've been thinking about trying Ubuntu. I bought cd-r sets of Slackware 10.1 and a new Debian distro about a year ago. The Slackware won't load, the setup program loads but then it can't find the drive it just loaded from. I would prefer Slackware if I could get it to work, it's the distro I've mostly been using for the last decade. The Debian loads and runs - but it starts in GUI and won't let me su into root to change anything, and I have to get root access since it's setup program can't find my modem, I've tried it twice now and each time ended up reloading Vista.

    You can see why, until Vista, I didn't have a problem with Microsoft. Windows 98 just worked like it was supposed to.

  • becoming zealous (unregistered) in reply to jordanwb

    I, just last week, had windows scramble several passwords I cache, not all of them just a few, and I just typed them back in and had windows save them over what they had cached. That was the first time that happened though.

  • jordanwb (unregistered) in reply to becoming zealous
    becoming zealous:
    Thanks. I've been thinking about trying Ubuntu. I bought cd-r sets of Slackware 10.1 and a new Debian distro about a year ago. The Slackware won't load, the setup program loads but then it can't find the drive it just loaded from. I would prefer Slackware if I could get it to work, it's the distro I've mostly been using for the last decade. The Debian loads and runs - but it starts in GUI and won't let me su into root to change anything, and I have to get root access since it's setup program can't find my modem, I've tried it twice now and each time ended up reloading Vista.

    You can see why, until Vista, I didn't have a problem with Microsoft. Windows 98 just worked like it was supposed to.

    Well I do not deny that there have been problems with Linux distros in the past, they have been getting better though. On my laptop with Ubuntu 8.10, everything worked perfectly, even wifi - even on the liveCD.

  • (cs) in reply to bob
    bob:
    campkev:
    Bob:
    campkev:
    bob:
    More tech support stories (if I may). While I was working at ... I got a call from a P&G user. With a very straight forward tone he said: - "How do I print my pdf document?" - "Sorry, sir not part of the out of warranty tech support (which was true)" - "Ok I see I'll be calling you again son..." hanged out loudly. Next day. - "May I speak with X(me)" - "Me speaking, how can I..." - "Spoke with you yesterday about how to print a pdf but this time I'm gonna record your answer on tape, ,ready ?" Instead of looking for an answer around the guy spent his day looking for a tape recorder... Priceless.

    Instead of spending 15 seconds helping the guy, you were a NMJ-douche... priceless.

    ...15 seconds later you find out he has no printer driver installed... 15 seconds later you find out the printer is still in the box... 15 seconds later you find out that he needs to plug in the wall wart... 15 seconds later you find out he needs to plug the USB cable from the printer to the computer... 15 seconds later the drivers won't install... 15 seconds later... you find out the ink cartridge has dried out... it never ends...

    Yeah, I worked with guys like you and the guys that are agreeing with you when I worked support. Not going to say that never happens, but the vast majority of the time, all it took was "Press ctrl+p". And the excuses they give were just an excuse for laziness. Then they wondered why I got promoted faster than they did and made more money.

    Hey, if you got promoted for telling people how to print a document, please tell me where I can apply. And yes; And I was working with people like you who were letting non authorised people to clog a line that was supposed to be available for the true customers. Results we had to deal with 400 calls (instead of maybe 150 calls). Results bad quality support, upset people and upset management. Beat that. The enemy is often inside.

    You didn't say he wasn't a customer, you said he was a customer calling about a non-supported issue. Big difference. A year from now when the customer goes to buy another computer, he's not going to say "Gee, that tech support guy at CompanyX was right for not helping me, I'll buy another CompanyX since he knew what his job was." He's going to say, "That guy at CompanyX was a dick, I think I'll buy a CompanyY computer instead."

  • justsomedude (unregistered) in reply to becoming zealous
    becoming zealous:
    I would prefer Slackware if I could get it to work, it's the distro I've mostly been using for the last decade.

    ¿WTF Qué?

  • Hruntio (unregistered) in reply to becoming zealous

    If you want to try Slackware, try the latest version (12.2) instead.

    Also, can't you issue "sudo su" to become root in Ubuntu?

  • justsomedude (unregistered) in reply to Hruntio
    Hruntio:
    Also, can't you issue "sudo su" to become root in Ubuntu?

    Yes you can, but you shouldn't need to do it much, if at all. Sounds to me like the OP should just launch his install app with gksudo...

  • Artemis (unregistered) in reply to Steve

    Which is why there's a very intuitive way to do it through the start menu. Log off -> Switch user.

  • (cs) in reply to lolwtf
    lolwtf:
    As for Anna, she needs a good smack. Or a firing. Either way.
    J:
    I remember working with someone who claimed that F1 for help was intuitive. Because that was the key Lotus-1-2-3 used. Yikes, I'm once again showing my age.
    What program doesn't use F1 for help these days?
    Almost all non-GUI programs?
  • Jeh-fuh-fuh (unregistered) in reply to Ben4jammin
    Ben4jammin:
    Oddly enough, her scanner, keyboard, and printer magically started springing leaks, too.

    yea, that which gets rewarded gets repeated. In our IT dept (with certain people...myself included) if you put in a ticket that has a 10-day SLA and you start bitching (including emails to higher-ups) on day 3, guess what...see you on day 10, and not a day before. Otherwise, you will probably get it around day 4-5.

    hahaha, and screw the sap who can't do his job because you're being a dick, right? hahaha.

    Moron.

  • (cs) in reply to bob
    bob:
    More tech support stories (if I may). While I was working at ... I got a call from a P&G user. With a very straight forward tone he said: - "How do I print my pdf document?" - "Sorry, sir not part of the out of warranty tech support (which was true)" - "Ok I see I'll be calling you again son..." hanged out loudly. Next day. - "May I speak with X(me)" - "Me speaking, how can I..." - "Spoke with you yesterday about how to print a pdf but this time I'm gonna record your answer on tape, ,ready ?" Instead of looking for an answer around the guy spent his day looking for a tape recorder... Priceless.
    Hi bob. Well bob, can I ask you something? When the client asked to speak with X, why did you say you were X? When your name really is bob? And did X ever find you you were stealing his clients?
  • justsomedude (unregistered) in reply to Artemis
    Artemis:
    Which is why there's a very intuitive way to do it through the start menu. Log off -> Switch user.

    You can't use the Switch User GUI in Ubuntu to log in with Gnome as root, unless you happen to know the randomly generated root password or have changed it to a known value. Even if you know the password, I think there's also a setting you have to change to allow login as root. This is good because if you find yourself needing to log in as root, you're probably doing it wrong.

    CAPTCHA: gksudo nautilus

  • Ben4jammin (unregistered) in reply to Jeh-fuh-fuh
    Jeh-fuh-fuh:
    Ben4jammin:
    Oddly enough, her scanner, keyboard, and printer magically started springing leaks, too.

    yea, that which gets rewarded gets repeated. In our IT dept (with certain people...myself included) if you put in a ticket that has a 10-day SLA and you start bitching (including emails to higher-ups) on day 3, guess what...see you on day 10, and not a day before. Otherwise, you will probably get it around day 4-5.

    hahaha, and screw the sap who can't do his job because you're being a dick, right? hahaha.

    Moron.

    It's not about screwing anyone. It's about allocating resources and not rewarding someone for acting like a 2 year old. If you notice, I said that usually we close within 50% or so of SLA...that is good customer service.

    Apparently you haven't worked in support or you would know from experience that if you do reward that crap, that crap is all you will get. Then, people who are following the rules get to wait (get punished) while brats get moved to the head of the line (rewarded). Then you have an atmosphere where more and more people have to throw more and more fits to get moved up...THAT is moronic, and a good way to burn out your IT staff.

    Just because someone has an unrealistic view of the resources available doesn't give them the right to make other people miserable.

  • RBoy (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Anonymoose:
    It's amazing how people get "equipment envy"

    "How come THEY have that.."

    [image]

    Hey, make one (or both) a wide screen and it's boner time.

  • jmzrbnsn (unregistered) in reply to jordanwb
    jordanwb:
    rmz:
    becoming zealous:
    Your response is bogus. NO ONE has EVER claimed that Linux is intuitive.
    Sure they have. Go hang out on Slashdot for a little while and you'll see them pop up before too long. They usually also bring up "Clicking 'Start' to shut down? OMGWTFBBQ!!!" in there as well.

    Well that is kinda stupid. I put Ubuntu on my Grandfather's computer. He had no trouble figuring out that to shutdown his computer you click on System.

    I've never had any problem with STARTing the shutdown process... these linuxers'll find any excuse...

    ((why not : sagaciter - one who quotes Beowulf))

  • Dr Evil (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    the real wtf fool:
    Bappi:
    the real wtf fool:
    Broken/Deliberately Destroyed - obvious result from having such a process in place. People are very good at gaming processes to achieve what they want rather than what management intended. Why such penny pinching over a £200 monitor anyway? It's a really cheap way of making employees feel happier/more motivated if that's what bothers them.
    It never ceases to amaze me how many people here assume that every story is about last week. As late as the nineties, a 19" monitor cost a good deal more than £200.

    Think about it. If they really were high priced at the time why were they replacing broken monitors with expensive pieces of kit when a spending freeze is in place?

    Erm...because it's broken. It's really hard to get anything done on a computer without some way of seeing the screen output!

    Monitors are for weak minded interns with no sense of imagination!

    As a manager who is also responsible (accountable) for the expenses incurred within my department, I do not mind paying people what they are worth, and I do not mind paying for the equipment needed to get the job done. I don't even mind paying for a nice upgrade, if there is a business need. What I cannot tolerate is paying good money to get exactly what you had already. I don't care if it is $2 or $200 or $2000 (sorry, my keyboard doesn't speak british), replacing a previously working monitor just because you want a new one is foolish. I would definitely not have let Anna get away with that crap.

  • Capt. Obvious (unregistered) in reply to Quango
    Quango:
    Anna was lucky.

    Water + high voltage circuitry usually results in a Darwin Award

    Maybe Anna was smart. Smart enough to use distilled water at least.

  • Zapp Brannigan (unregistered) in reply to Steve
    Steve:
    Having spent 10 years on Linux, then changed to Windows XP, I had to do some googling to find Windows+L. Then I was surprised to find that many of my Windows-only colleagues didn't know it.

    Windows is not any more intuitive than any other OS, it is just more widely used. That is not the same as "good".

    I'm sorry someone lied to you if they said Windows was intuitive. In my opinion hardware, operating systems or applications are only intuitive to their designers or experienced users. I watched an adult with no experience learn to use a mouse, we take a lot for granted.

  • (cs) in reply to RBoy
    RBoy:
    Code Dependent:
    Anonymoose:
    It's amazing how people get "equipment envy"

    "How come THEY have that.."

    [image]
    Hey, make one (or both) a wide screen and it's boner time.
    I have two wide-screens. Both are 1680 x 1050.

    BU-WA-HAHA!

  • Some Guy (unregistered) in reply to Ben4jammin
    Ben4jammin:
    Jeh-fuh-fuh:
    because you're being a dick, right? hahaha.

    Moron.

    It's not about screwing anyone. It's about allocating resources and not rewarding someone for acting like a 2 year old.

    See, that's exactly the problem. He called you a "dick" and a "moron" and you're so useless that you don't yet see that he's obviously better than you'll ever be. :)

  • Zapp Brannigan (unregistered)

    I'd find a way to adjust Anna's karma back to neutral.

  • justsomedude (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    RBoy:
    Code Dependent:
    Anonymoose:
    It's amazing how people get "equipment envy"

    "How come THEY have that.."

    [image]
    Hey, make one (or both) a wide screen and it's boner time.
    I have two wide-screens. Both are 1680 x 1050.

    BU-WA-HAHA!

    two monitors just makes you itch for a third; tri-mon is the only way to roll! Of course, imo tripple head rigs are better with 4:3 LCDs but those are getting harder and harder to find...

  • (cs) in reply to justsomedude
    justsomedude:
    two monitors just makes you itch for a third; tri-mon is the only way to roll! Of course, imo tripple head rigs are better with 4:3 LCDs but those are getting harder and harder to find...
    I'd rather use an HDTV.
  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Dr Evil
    Dr Evil:
    Anon:
    the real wtf fool:
    Bappi:
    the real wtf fool:
    Broken/Deliberately Destroyed - obvious result from having such a process in place. People are very good at gaming processes to achieve what they want rather than what management intended. Why such penny pinching over a £200 monitor anyway? It's a really cheap way of making employees feel happier/more motivated if that's what bothers them.
    It never ceases to amaze me how many people here assume that every story is about last week. As late as the nineties, a 19" monitor cost a good deal more than £200.

    Think about it. If they really were high priced at the time why were they replacing broken monitors with expensive pieces of kit when a spending freeze is in place?

    Erm...because it's broken. It's really hard to get anything done on a computer without some way of seeing the screen output!

    Monitors are for weak minded interns with no sense of imagination!

    As a manager who is also responsible (accountable) for the expenses incurred within my department, I do not mind paying people what they are worth, and I do not mind paying for the equipment needed to get the job done. I don't even mind paying for a nice upgrade, if there is a business need. What I cannot tolerate is paying good money to get exactly what you had already. I don't care if it is $2 or $200 or $2000 (sorry, my keyboard doesn't speak british), replacing a previously working monitor just because you want a new one is foolish. I would definitely not have let Anna get away with that crap.

    Sure, Anna should have been fired on the spot, but either way, you'll still down one monitor and somebody presumably will need to do Anna's (former) job and they will need a monitor. If it's broke, you need to fix it or replace it.

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