Grumpy Techs

So, I’m still in that training session, listening to the instructor read from the textbook while enduring countless hours of contradiction from my grumpy coworker who’s also attending the session. I had the idea of putting Microsloth 2008 on a test VM and creating a test VLAN to allow us to get an idea of the conversion upgrade. When I mentioned this to grumpy coworker, I was instantly met with harsh criticism along with a number of sighs and rolling of the eyes. I guess this was a “dumb idea.” Fortunately, the instructor managed to look up from the book and actually offer some input about deploying 2008 within a test environment prior to rolling out to production. Fortunately, again, my coworker thought this was the smartest idea in the world and he was “so happy” the instructor saw his side of rolling it out.

I guess it’s a good thing I know my coworker so well as that’s exactly how I wanted him to react since it was “his” idea in the first place. (Ahem.)

Oh, and all the while this is going on, I’m really impressed with three of our classmates from another corporation that just happens to be the state’s largest power company. These guys really know how to carry on a conversation about which latest and greatest server they’re gonna buy to implement the Federation server functionality. They know all about Pricewatch.com and everything. They’re soooo cool. I wanna be just like them when I grow up and especially have conversations in the middle of claustrophobic training sessions that would make anyone wanna jump from a three story high window.

See y’all tomorrow, Three Stooges and “common sense” coworker.

I’ve actually been out of the office for the last couple of days, attending a training course for upgrading Microsloth Server 2043 to 2048. The cool part about this is that the training drone is making excellent use of his Shakespherean ways whenever he emphasizes keywords in the instructor textbook he’s reading from. It’s awesome that he’s such a wonderful storyteller because there’s no way I could have read the book with such feeling and emotion exactly the way he is. Oh, and the labs match the virtual machine images nicely too. Everything’s just superb down to the lukewarm instant coffee that we pay $0.50 for a cup. I guess $1,500 for the course just wasn’t enough income to warrant a free cup of bad coffee.

Fortunately for me I’ve been the “dedicated employee” in checking my email to ensure I’m not missing any juicy gossip back at the office. I’m not sure, though, how that “issue with my laptop” email made it to the trash. Must be a problem with the webmail version of the server. I’ll have to look into that.

I did miss an interesting thread about an “upcoming project that involves deploying an in-house social networking initiative.” I guess I’ve been sick all this week in that the corporate higher-ups decided this is a “fantastic idea” and “let’s have the IT guys do this when they get back.” (BTW, my coworker is attending the same training so there’s no one back at the shop except for my Betta and he’s not really good with the keyboard. My coworker timed our both being out quite well!)

The email regarding this “awesome project” highlights how “wonderful and morally uplifting it’ll be for our employees.” I guess they failed to think about the time and resources involved in not only hardware and software but employee hours as well. Sure, having two people run a 500+ workstation, 20+ server supporting over 1,000 people environment is very much doable. Now we’ll add an in-house social networking platform much like Facebook and REALLY watch our productivity take off! I can’t wait to ask the question, when I get back, of “what kind of content are you going to put on it and how will it increase productivity if everyone’s playing ‘Google Meme’”?

:::crickets chirping:::

I’ll probably get some flak on this one but I’m sure anyone who’s ever worked with this company in an “enterprise-level” environment can relate. I personally don’t drink the Kool-Aid when it comes to one operating system over another and prefer to think of myself as going with the flow, especially when it comes to whatever allows me a paycheck. That being said, I’ll work with whatever. Without specifically naming names due to trademark protection, let’s just say the two companies I’ll be discussion today are: “Crabble” and “Minisloth.” Y’all with me? Good.

Prior to my time someone withing the bowels of my employer had the “great” idea of putting Bootcamp (I’ll use that word since it could mean military training or…umm…something else) on a bunch of Crabble CrabBooks back ran the OS was running…ummm…not the current level of OS which rhymes with “shepard.” The previous version was actually a BETA version of Bootcamp and not the current version which allows one to run SP3 of Minisloth (again, not the current OS but the one that rhymes with “says-me.”) Only the current version of Bootcamp allows one to upgrade “says-me” to SP3. That obviously doesn’t fare well with a number of my coworkers who are running the previous version of Crabble’s OS and leaves a wonderful level of security exploits wide open.

You might be thinking “easy enough; just upgrade their CrabBooks to ‘shepard’.” Oh, contrare, dear readers. For, you see, only the must “cutting edge” CrabBooks will run “shepard.” The others must run the previous version. And since the others can only run the beta version of Bootcamp, they have to run old versions of Minisloth’s “says-me.” Of course, if we’re willing to purchase new hardware which come with “shepard,” we’ll be good to go.

Again, I don’t care as I could go either way. But, for those who “drink the Crabble Kool-Aid,” that’s something to think about. That or nothing a simple VM environment won’t fix.

Think I’ll fire up Ubuntu to move on.

There once was a time, for the most part, when many an employee used to feel respected and, even, appreciated. We hear bits and pieces of how that’s still the case which is fortunate for those who experience this. However, as more and more companies feel the economic turmoil and many others use it as an excuse, more and more employees are being put aside in favor if saving the “almighty dollar.” Granted, this is just business, of course, but sometimes it’s just nice to feel appreciated. That being said, hopefully this one will raise a chuck out of you, dear readers.

We’re in the midst of some major construction projects throughout the complex. Of course there are pieces of network equipment all throughout the complex, many of which are in the midst of this construction where hard hats are required to be worn. Fair enough, no problem. I’d like to protect what’s left of my noggin’ as much as I can. Well, as an employee, I would think I would be entitled to a hard hat so that I can DO MY JOB. “Nope,” I was told. “You can purchase one at Home Depot or Lowe’s as there’s no money in our budget for hats.” Thinking that was the most asinine thing I’ve ever heard (actually, considering where I work, it didn’t surprise me all that much), I managed to “beg” for one from another department. What really rocked my boat, however, was I was walking through the reception area the other day and, low and behold, what do I see? Yup, a box full of brand new hard hats. When I asked who they were for, I was told “touring visitors.” Thinking to myself that it’s just wonderful that we have to protect our idiot visitors from galavanting around dangerous construction areas while our employees can just risk getting their heads bashed open on open steel girders really made my day.

And that, my friends, is yet another notch down on the ‘ol “respect-o-meter.”

Every so often more than one piece of technology breaks at one time. Doesn’t happen all that much. (Can you sense the sarcasm here?) What’s really fun is that when more than one issue DOES arise at the same time, everyone expects the tech to fix everything, all at once, right now. That happened to me recently when two “very important” systems started acting up at the same time. Fortunately, I only had to deal with one person for both systems. Unfortunately, this person tends to overreact juuuuust a little at times.

Yet-Another-Person-Who-Thinks-Is-My-Boss (YAPWTIMB): “The library catalog system just went down along with the web server. I need you to fix them RIGHT NOW!!!”

Me: “Okay–no-problem–calm-down–we’re-not-launching-rockets-here. I can only work on one system at a time (much to one’s chagrin). Soooo which one do you want me to address first?” BBZzzzzTTTTTTTT!!!!! (That’s the sound of the YAPWTIMB’s claws coming through the phone and reaching for my neck.)

YAPWTIMB: “I dunno!!!! You’re the expert! What’s more important? Just FIX THEM DAMNIT!!!”

Me: “You’re asking me to tell you which one of your systems are more important? I’m sorry, but I’m not sure who your customers are so I don’t know which one you’d like me to address first.”

YAPWTIMB: :::thinking::: (I can almost smell the smoke this time.) “The library catalog. Fix that one first.”

So, I run down to the other building and get the terminal server that operates the three terminals that connect back to the main library catalog server back up and running. Interestingly enough, this creates a default IP address that doesn’t match our network’s IP schema so now my grumpy coworker is questioning what I did (he always does). I ignore him and run back to my desk to begin working on the web server that hosts a very simple static HTML page with links to subscription databases (actually, that whole setup warrants another blog post later on as it’s very amusing.)

Me to YAPWTIMB: “Okay, the catalog is back up. I’m working on the web server now.” (Now, bear in mind this particular server had been up and running for 10 years. This individual, along with our “webmaster” [thus the need for another post later on] were told numerous times that this server is on its way out. Of course, we kept getting the “we’re not worried about it” response. Fortunately, to CMA, I backed up this server before it finally died on this day.)

YAPWTIMB: “Good! Just hurry! We have thousands of people waiting on that server!!!”

Me: :::thinking “Thousands? Hmmm…two or three, maybe, but not ‘thousands.’”::: :::clickety-clickety::: “Voila!!! A MacBook running as a web server!” (No, dear readers, I’m not kidding here. What’s gonna be fun is when I unplug said MacBook to go war driving or whatever and no web server exists anymore!)

YAPWTIMB: “Thank you, thank you!!! You’re the best!!!”

Actually, the YAPWTIMB came in the next day with very lovely gift of appreciation so I can’t complain too much. Maybe I’ll start yanking some network cables and cause another “crisis” so I can get more presents.