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[#] Mon Aug 02 2021 18:52:55 EDT from Nurb432

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After 2 days of pulling teeth.  "this is where you get a quote from, then after you submit we do it ourselves too" "and here is a link ( again ) to the form to submit, stop bothering us"  ( the one that is requiring a lot of stupid things before you can submit it )

 

Why am i doing it if they are just going to do it again anyway, from the same place?   Useless flaming hoops



[#] Thu Aug 05 2021 16:07:50 EDT from Nurb432

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Got the 'procurement request' in today. Took 3 of us to figure out all the questions.  What a bunch of nonsense.

 

May still get rejected. 



[#] Sun Aug 08 2021 11:10:00 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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That's really funny, compared to where I am ... they sent me a new machine simply because I had a problem they couldn't (or wouldn't) fix remotely.  Easier to just reload the old machine and give it to the next person who needs one, they said.

And if I think about it long enough, they're probably right.  If you take the number of hours it would require for them to remotely walk someone through all of the steps it would require to take care of things ... they don't know I'm an advanced user, so it probably does take less time to cross-ship a new machine.  I was just lucky they had a new one to send me and not a retread.

 



[#] Sun Aug 08 2021 11:14:07 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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Meanwhile ... we got a company-wide announcement indicating that the return-to-the-office date "has been postponed indefinitely."

I think ours was supposed to be in October.  They cited the rising delta-plague cases as one reason, but they also cited "the changing nature of the modern workplace".  That's kind of a big deal, I think.  Working from home, at least for jobs at which it is practical, is now a societal norm rather than something special.

And yet I still get teased about the guest bed in my office whenever I forget to drop the video curtain or roll the white board in behind me.



[#] Sun Aug 08 2021 11:15:58 EDT from Nurb432

Subject: Re: Meanwhile...

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boooooo i want that ..  well, i guess instead to be sent back home. this 3 day a week thing is a crock.



[#] Sun Aug 08 2021 11:21:01 EDT from Nurb432

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Yes that is often what happens to us too. The problem is i have, and want, non-standard equipment. If i was using our normal stuff, this would have been a non-issue and id have a machine tomorow with nothing more than a simple email or 'ticket'..  But how dare me to step outside the box.

Sun Aug 08 2021 11:10:00 AM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

That's really funny, compared to where I am ... they sent me a new machine simply because I had a problem they couldn't (or wouldn't) fix remotely.  Easier to just reload the old machine and give it to the next person who needs one, they said.

And if I think about it long enough, they're probably right.  If you take the number of hours it would require for them to remotely walk someone through all of the steps it would require to take care of things ... they don't know I'm an advanced user, so it probably does take less time to cross-ship a new machine.  I was just lucky they had a new one to send me and not a retread.



 



[#] Thu Aug 19 2021 05:11:56 EDT from darknetuser

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I can't ellaborate much on this story, so details are going to be sparse, but this is so much fun. Or anti-fun, rahter.

Ok, so boss here had decided to use some vendor's services and charged me to migrate a good bunch of stuff to that vendor's infrastructure. So I pretty much do. In order to use the new infrastructure, both boss and a bunch of other people need authentication credentials and some tools intalled on their computers. I am told to install the stuff so I do.

I tell boss we should test before we go into production. He tells me to do it later and tasks me with a bunch of urgent, unrelated tasks to do instead. Then I tell them I should teach people how to use the whole thing and he tells me I can do that later.

Next day, a customer requests us to provide them with a service that requires the new infrastructure. Boss sits in front of his laptop so happy because he is going to make a deal worth many $$$.

Obviously, he does not know what his user/password is and starts cursing because it is not his obligation to know what his user/password is. Thankfully I was prepared and had a copy ready in a post-it.

Then he discovers he has no idea how to use the whole thing because it is the first time he sees it. By that time he is cursing twice as loud because why the fuck have things to be so complicated. I pretty much start operating the thing for him right then because he has not a clue.

At that moment, the vendor's end breaks. That's right, when you don't test things before going into production they have some tendency to break. By this time the boss is walking around in circles and throwing office material around, screaming "why doesn't it work?" and punching the walls and the furniture. By that time everybody in the room is running around like beheaded chickens.


I discover I have colder blood than I thought I had and do something absolutely illegal, which consists in switching to a third party solution from a "non-vendor" (think the pizza loving fat guy who has a hobby servers in his house, you get the picture). We build something in 15 minutes with duct tape and chewing gum and I manage to get the whole mess working with degraded performance.


Then I realized I should have phoned the vendor and demanded them to fix their stuff instead, but I guess it is hard to make decision when your boss is throwing staplers around.

Oh well, business as usual :)

[#] Thu Aug 19 2021 16:15:13 EDT from Nurb432

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Duct tape to get it up *NOW* is SOP for most of the IT world i think.  "whatever it takes"

As far as vendors on the hook, i will say that as i have gotten older, while its often more overhead than on-site, there is some value of being able to shrug and just say " its the vendors fault"...

 

Now that said, if i had a boss physically attacking things and throwing stuff. Id be looking for another place to be.

Thu Aug 19 2021 05:11:56 AM EDT from darknetuser
.We build something in 15 minutes with duct tape and chewing gum and I manage to get the whole mess working with degraded performance.


Then I realized I should have phoned the vendor and demanded them to fix their stuff instead, but I guess it is hard to make decision when your boss is throwing staplers around.

Oh well, business as usual :)

 



[#] Mon Aug 23 2021 04:31:51 EDT from darknetuser

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Now that said, if i had a boss physically attacking things and
throwing stuff. Id be looking for another place to be.

The pay (related to the qualification level for the job) is quite fine and I also get some perks because I am literally the only IT person they have. This is no IT workshop, but something else which hosts a lot of their infrastructure in premises because of legal concerns.

I have been trying to break away of this place but there are just no sysadmin offers I can take around here. There are some offers related to my actual studies but they are worse than what I currently have, by an order of magnitude. Therefore, it seems I am stuck in this place and doing some side jobs here and there for some extra cash.

[#] Wed Aug 25 2021 09:07:39 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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But you're picking up skills and experience ... it takes some time.

[#] Thu Aug 26 2021 11:59:52 EDT from darknetuser

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2021-08-25 09:07 from IGnatius T Foobar
But you're picking up skills and experience ... it takes some time.




Not that much.

It is the sort of business whose IT infrastructure grows up so slowly as not to be a meaningful experience. Setting it up was actual hard work. Now it is all in "automatic" and most of what I do nowadays is solve issues related to users who can't scan a document because they forgot to plug the scanner's powercord.

I am getting a lot of personal networking with people who is not in IT at all, which is quite nice, and getting some business synergies, but this place 's IT is just not going to grow and there is not much of a chance for personal promotion, which is a bit of a bummer. Adding or removing anything of importance within the network is quite rare.

Definitively not growing up to data center architect from a shop scaled to 50 users, running salvaged computers from recycle containers.

I must say I am a bit worried because in 10 years the boss - the one who throws staplers around - is going to retire, and by that point the whole firm is going to crash. The only reason this whole ship is kept together is that this guy is very good at keeping it together. When that happens I will be left only with any side business I have managed to grow by then, and while I am generating some nice extra cash from little side jobs and operations, I don't see myself making a living out of them.

[#] Thu Aug 26 2021 12:26:15 EDT from ParanoidDelusions

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IT is a weird industry - in that your business may be so stable and risk adverse that you end up falling behind on learning new, marketable technologies if you stay with the same company too long. 

After Intel, I ran into a lot of difficulty because outside companies considered me "Intel-ized," that is - Intel's methods are so specific, strict and internal that many companies find that former Intel IT employees have trouble readjusting to the real world. 

At least, that was the perception. When the company in Ohio hired me - the principles I learned at Intel were largely responsible for basically revolutionizing their entire IT operations from a podunk NE Ohio shop that started in a DB engineer's living room and that the IT team ended up *managed* by that DBA - into something that helped sell the company to a Bay Area firm.

But on leaving THAT place - I was in a strange place again. I guess part of the problem is that the bubble for tech workers never came back like it existed before, especially engineers. DBAs/Devs are still in demand - but DC engineers/administrators is a much more narrow field. 

But if you're worrying about 10 years down the road at your firm, start developing a 5 year plan for where you want to be. 

 

Thu Aug 26 2021 11:59:52 EDT from darknetuser
2021-08-25 09:07 from IGnatius T Foobar
But you're picking up skills and experience ... it takes some time.




Not that much.

It is the sort of business whose IT infrastructure grows up so slowly as not to be a meaningful experience. Setting it up was actual hard work. Now it is all in "automatic" and most of what I do nowadays is solve issues related to users who can't scan a document because they forgot to plug the scanner's powercord.

I am getting a lot of personal networking with people who is not in IT at all, which is quite nice, and getting some business synergies, but this place 's IT is just not going to grow and there is not much of a chance for personal promotion, which is a bit of a bummer. Adding or removing anything of importance within the network is quite rare.

Definitively not growing up to data center architect from a shop scaled to 50 users, running salvaged computers from recycle containers.

I must say I am a bit worried because in 10 years the boss - the one who throws staplers around - is going to retire, and by that point the whole firm is going to crash. The only reason this whole ship is kept together is that this guy is very good at keeping it together. When that happens I will be left only with any side business I have managed to grow by then, and while I am generating some nice extra cash from little side jobs and operations, I don't see myself making a living out of them.

 



[#] Thu Aug 26 2021 16:34:49 EDT from Nurb432

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Something that has helped me i think is other than 2 positions over the years, i have been IT but not 'in' IT. And in one case i was mostly assigned to a client who was not an IT shop.   Where im at now, our entire agency is IT, so its sort of 1/2 way due to its size.  Like being part of a huge department but the 'core business' is still not IT.



[#] Fri Aug 27 2021 11:35:25 EDT from ParanoidDelusions

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I mean, Intel argued that IT wasn't their core business. Manufacturing widgets were there core business - it just happened that the widgets they manufactured were IT related. 

They basically argued that they would still use the same basic business model if they were the world's largest manufacturer of dildos. 

I'm not sure that is true - but that is the company line. 

 

Thu Aug 26 2021 16:34:49 EDT from Nurb432

Something that has helped me i think is other than 2 positions over the years, i have been IT but not 'in' IT. And in one case i was mostly assigned to a client who was not an IT shop.   Where im at now, our entire agency is IT, so its sort of 1/2 way due to its size.  Like being part of a huge department but the 'core business' is still not IT.



 



[#] Fri Aug 27 2021 11:49:24 EDT from Nurb432

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I guess technically that is true. They were not selling traditional 'it services'. But since their product WAS IT.. its sort of fuzzy, to me anyway.

 

I think of companies like EDS, VMware, Microsoft or Dell, or even IBM as traditional IT.    ( ya Several also made/sold "widgets", but they sold a ton of services too )



[#] Fri Aug 27 2021 14:33:37 EDT from ParanoidDelusions

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I think before "Da Cloud" IT services were almost *always* support services for a different core industry. 

I mean, I worked at MCI. IT wasn't really the service - telephone and related services were the service. The IT was just a service industry for the core business of telecommunications. 

I worked at EMC/Legato. IT wasn't really the service. Backup, high availability, disaster recovery *software* was the core industry. IT was just support services. 

I worked at Matrix/NextGen EHR/EMR solutions. We actually hosted. We did provide service as a core *part* of the business. But the core part of the business was again, software. We were selling NextGEN EMR/EHR software. IT was just a support service. 

There can certainly be crossover. MCI, EMC and NextGen all did sell services as part of their core business. But the foundation business was really something other than "IT". IT was just support for the core business. This is why IT is so often regarded as a cost-center and not a revenue producer. It is what made the cloud so popular. The idea that you could get RID of the cost center and just do your core business. You've just shifted the cost-center, really - but something about not having that cost center INTERNAL on the books appeals to a lot of the C level staff. I bet it has to do with the bottom line financials. A paid service probably accounts differently on financials than an internal fixed cost. 

 

 

 

Fri Aug 27 2021 11:49:24 EDT from Nurb432

I guess technically that is true. They were not selling traditional 'it services'. But since their product WAS IT.. its sort of fuzzy, to me anyway.

 

I think of companies like EDS, VMware, Microsoft or Dell, or even IBM as traditional IT.    ( ya Several also made/sold "widgets", but they sold a ton of services too )



 



[#] Fri Aug 27 2021 14:49:50 EDT from Nurb432

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I donno, there were pure IT companies like i worked for some in the early 90s after i left EDS.  We did service work for external customers.  Pre-cloud, and all we did was 'services' ( site builds, hardware break/fix, OS reloads, network stuff, bla bla ). 

 

I had actuality forgot about one of them until just now.  Left on bad terms so i wanted to forget the place ( got fired for not stealing from customers ).  Every IT person in town knew the place, "oooohhh you work for so and so"  Shop manager looked like a greasy haired used car salesman from the 70s.  Acted like it too. Was terrible. Actually, being fired was a good thing, in the long run.



[#] Fri Aug 27 2021 16:04:03 EDT from Nurb432

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So an app at the office has surfaced as needing changes.

Turns out it was on a rouge LAMP server ( we think lamp anyway ), by a dev guy that is no longer here and ALL our dev people are .net/IIS people, and for better or worse that is our standard.  Unix server team cant log in as dev guy even changed the root login.  Is using suse 11... Aside from being old , suse was never approved for use. ( not real sure how he even got it built. it was built in 2013.. )

I guess this dev guy was known for not following our standards, got in trouble and threatened to be fired for using mongo instead of our standard/supported databases.  

Sure, root can be fixed with a reboot with a live image, but sounds like someone is going to be paying for a rewrite in supported technologies.  

 

Oops :)



[#] Sat Aug 28 2021 17:33:38 EDT from ParanoidDelusions

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Awesome. Linux mavericks who insist that their own preferred solutions are superior and aren't team players. 

I mean - this is really common because so many Linux folks are Linux *and* Foss *evangelists*. They've got a philosophical and often fanatical desire to proselytize about Linux - and they'll try to fit it in where it isn't the optimal solution. 

You get Mac and Windows fanatics - and fanatics for certain platforms and applications, outside of Linux too - it isn't exclusive. But sometimes, you just have to go and do the job they're paying you to do, even if you disagree with their approach. 

At least he got shitcanned. He is probably still pulling the same shit somewhere else. On the plus side, guys like this make a lot of outside work for consultants, crisis mitigation services, and other contractors and temporary gigs - so they're arguably good for the economy. 

 



 

Fri Aug 27 2021 16:04:03 EDT from Nurb432

So an app at the office has surfaced as needing changes.

Turns out it was on a rouge LAMP server ( we think lamp anyway ), by a dev guy that is no longer here and ALL our dev people are .net/IIS people, and for better or worse that is our standard.  Unix server team cant log in as dev guy even changed the root login.  Is using suse 11... Aside from being old , suse was never approved for use. ( not real sure how he even got it built. it was built in 2013.. )

I guess this dev guy was known for not following our standards, got in trouble and threatened to be fired for using mongo instead of our standard/supported databases.  

Sure, root can be fixed with a reboot with a live image, but sounds like someone is going to be paying for a rewrite in supported technologies.  

 

Oops :)



 



[#] Sat Aug 28 2021 18:09:06 EDT from Nurb432

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I fall under that umbrella.  but i also have been around long enough to understand im not going to be there forever, and 'standards' are important for when that happens.  Even if those standards are lame or i disagree with them, its 'standard' so they know the next guy can come in and get up to speed. The enterprise is larger than me.

Its not my house, so its their rules. People that come in and flat out refuse to keep up their end of the bargain, well, they shouldn't be around. 

And its not so much that Linux isn't supported at all, just not for the in-house dev team to do their code on.  Canned apps, we do have Linux server support.  But, its RH or Oracle. How he got SUSE installed, ill never even guess.

Sat Aug 28 2021 05:33:38 PM EDT from ParanoidDelusions


I mean - this is really common because so many Linux folks are Linux *and* Foss *evangelists*. 

 

 



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