[NefCanuck]

Okay this is just getting goddamn stupid. I've been stuck at work not able to access my e-mail or files for over an hour because the IT department can't keep its s**t together long enough to give us a stable network connection.

We were recently upgraded[/u] to a centralized server for our email, file and printing requirements. The servers are being shared with the other 79 legal clinics in the province of Ontario in a central location as a [i]cost rationalization move.

They've been rolling out clinics on to the new system for the past three months, ours is one of the later ones because they were have "performance issues" and stopped adding clinics for a while (They of course promised that the issues would be dead by the time we got upgraded)

We've only been on the system two weeks and I'm just about ready to kill somebody, because between the unstable network connections and the fact that our network printing is still screwed up more than a fish in a blender (No one can get an envelope printed at all) I get to hear it all and I can't do my work besides! <_<

I can't wait for the next meeting I have with the CIO of Legal Aid in June. I'm bringing NAPALM!
:censored2: :wtf: :censored2:

NefCanuck

[NOS2Go4Me]

You need to work for a private business. Businesses normally seem to have their s*** together.

And someone remind me to never work for the government.

[Aka]

I wanna work for the government and be lazy like that and get paid.

[darkpuppet]

sounds like somebody didn't pony up for the SVT, IVT, or PCT.

When I worked for the MTO, we did a migration from 50 IBM servers to a Compaq proliant superserver, which had an ethernet/token ring bridge.

"so we have over 500 users on both networks, will the bridge hold?"
"sure!"

day of reckoning arrives, and when the 501st user logs on, the whole network dies...

"well, it should have handled 500 users, but we didn't test it".

I've been in this business too long to pass up the opportunity to draw up a thorough test plan before you even think of implementation.

[NOS2Go4Me]

darkpuppet,May 9 2006, 04:33 PM Wrote:I've been in this business too long to pass up the opportunity to draw up a thorough test plan before you even think of implementation.
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Exactly. Plan, test, analyze and review, test again... and THEN roll out.

[Phantom]

NOS2Go4Me,May 9 2006, 03:24 PM Wrote:

darkpuppet,May 9 2006, 04:33 PM Wrote:I've been in this business too long to pass up the opportunity to draw up a thorough test plan before you even think of implementation.
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Exactly. Plan, test, analyze and review, test again... and THEN roll out.
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Isn't everything done like Microsoft u know just throw the product togther release and sorta fix everything after people have problems :D

[OAC_Sparky]

Phantom,May 9 2006, 06:18 PM Wrote:Isn't everything done like Microsoft u know just throw the product togther release and sorta fix everything after people have problems :D
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NOS2Go4Me,May 9 2006, 04:08 PM Wrote:You need to work for a private business. Businesses normally seem to have their s*** together.
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Last I checked, Microsoft was a private company. ;)

[darkpuppet]

Phantom,May 9 2006, 06:18 PM Wrote:Isn't everything done like Microsoft u know just throw the product togther release and sorta fix everything after people have problems :D
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people think microsoft is garbage, but for the record, the software works a lot better on first release than a lot of 2nd or 3rd releases of software by most other larger companies.... even open source isn't as bug free.

[Phantom]

darkpuppet,May 9 2006, 05:06 PM Wrote:

Phantom,May 9 2006, 06:18 PM Wrote:Isn't everything done like Microsoft u know just throw the product togther release and sorta fix everything after people have problems :D
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people think microsoft is garbage, but for the record, the software works a lot better on first release than a lot of 2nd or 3rd releases of software by most other larger companies.... even open source isn't as bug free.
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But atleast open source doesn't rape u up the ass and in the wallet when you go to get the software in the first place.

I have no problem with bugs in something I never paid for. But when software f***s up when I did pay for it. Then I get mad.

[NefCanuck]

Just thought I'd add this rather than add to my original post because its so goddamn pathetic...

So I'm sitting there stewing having tried everything short of sacrificing a live virgin to get the printing issues resolved (and I was eyeing the virigins in my office at this point <_< ) when I decided to see if I could actually monkey around with my printers settings at the OS level (This is Win XP Pro)

So I start checking things out and I hit a tab for the printer that says "User profile" I click it figuring "what the hell, nothing else works"

I see only the one profile "factory default" and then I look down at the box labelled "currently loaded profile"... wanna take a wild guess what was loaded there?

That's right ZILCH, ZERO, DIDDLY SQUAT!

So I load the factory default profile (Which should have been done when these new systems were set *up* mind you) and hellefreakinlujah! We have envelope printing and the ability to choose our paper trays! So at this point I'm running around setting up all the computers and planning my killing spree at our funders IT "Help Desk"

f***tards, the whole lot of them <_<

NefCanuck

[meford4u]

Ask your IT dept. to join the site.

I wanna make them f***tard of the month for MAY

[nass]

meford4u,May 10 2006, 02:14 AM Wrote:Ask your IT dept. to join the site.

I wanna make them f***tard of the month for MAY
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nice avatar.

[darkpuppet]

Phantom,May 9 2006, 07:10 PM Wrote:But atleast open source doesn't rape u up the ass and in the wallet when you go to get the software in the first place.

I have no problem with bugs in something I never paid for. But when software f***s up when I did pay for it. Then I get mad.
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I have to go dig it up, but there was a report released a while back that showed that linux had a higher cost of ownership than MS -- in the corporate world anyways. Linux requires a lot more support and skilled (higher paid) people to maintain it.

[NOS2Go4Me]

Daniel - you have an altrusitic streak the size of Alaska. Kudos for not only finding the problem but resolving it for your officemates as well.

My opinions on paid vs. free software?

Pros:

Paid - generally better tech support and patch availability, better features (for the most part), easiest use for non technically-minded people. Day-to-day management is easier.

Open-source - more variety, lower initial cost per unit, lower security risks due to lack of worldwide acceptance and its feasibility as a target for hackers, etc.

Cons / Operating system anecdotes:

MS - W2K3 Server and ISA 2004 (newer version of MS Proxy), new server rollout as the "gateway" for our office to the Internet (eventually). Handles not only local-to-the-server traffic, but also WAN traffic from shops (8KMs away) and Sudbury office (125 KMs away). ISA 2004 hijacks the routing tables and MS's RRAS functionality, refusing to allow you to redirect the proper data flow back to the remote sites. Ordinarily this is a 5-second operation to configure. Solution: Install an older version of ISA that doesn't interefere with routing. Problem solved. Ease of solution - about all we were ready to do as MS says this wasn't the case, but nothing else was left to do EXCEPT switch proxy software.

Linux - Configuring a Linux box for wireless surveying and intrusion detection. All current "good" releases of Linux apparently lack native D-Link WLAN support (even with Broadcom chipsets on the card). Found the right driver on the Internet. Downloaded it. Followed standard procedure to add to the kernel and recompile. First 2 attempts fail, after realizing we were missing an obscure setting in a config file during one of the "make" operations. Finally get the driver added to the kernel. Compiled. Reboot. Won't load. Revert to previous kernel. Boot. Return network card and try again with a different card. Still a WIP. :rolleyes:

[Aka]

darkpuppet: I've heard that stuff too, but usually it's funded by Microsoft.

I have nothing against MS, or Open Source, and I dont' care which is cheapest. MS's stuff is far easier to use than Linux. End of story.

I can no longer bash MS for their OS. The number of configurations they try and make their OS run on is just crazy. The fact that 95% of the time it runs out of the box on all those systems is an acheivement in itself. If one little thing doesn't work, yeah I'm a bit p'd off but there's usually a solution somewhere that's not that difficult.

Contrast that to Linux, where if something doesn't work, I have to program my own driver. Or if I ask a question in a forum or IRC they tell me to RTFM. When I RTFM and my question isn't answered there and go back and tell them that, then they tell you to write the documentation yourself, it's offered free you know. Meanwhile it's their support #, so where's the f***ing support?

I guess mostly Linux just ruins itself because of the elitist bastard users.

Anyway.....

*goes back to trying to figure out why his laptop only stutters on music when it's in his car, but no where else. Which is annoying because he wants to play music off his laptop over the car stereo*

[darkpuppet]

Aka,May 10 2006, 08:22 AM Wrote:*goes back to trying to figure out why his laptop only stutters on music when it's in his car, but no where else. Which is annoying because he wants to play music off his laptop over the car stereo*
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check to see if your computer has harddrive crash protection.. it'll pause the hdd if bumps are encountered. That would cause your stutter.

[Aka]

I thought so too, so I sat here shaking my laptop and the external harddrive for 4 minutes. Now maybe I just don't have the right shake. But it didn't stutter the whole time I was shaking it.

The only thing that comes to mind is the power source in the car, so I was thinking of going out and just using the battery on the laptop to see if it solved the problem.

Basically, I tried to simulate the car sitting here at my desk. The only things I couldn't simulate was connecting it to the headunit, and the power. I suppose I could connect it to my stereo and see if that changes anything. But I doubt it.

*sigh* it just seems so weird.

[nass]

Aka,May 10 2006, 02:02 PM Wrote:I thought so too, so I sat here shaking my laptop and the external harddrive for 4 minutes. Now maybe I just don't have the right shake. But it didn't stutter the whole time I was shaking it.

The only thing that comes to mind is the power source in the car, so I was thinking of going out and just using the battery on the laptop to see if it solved the problem.

Basically, I tried to simulate the car sitting here at my desk. The only things I couldn't simulate was connecting it to the headunit, and the power. I suppose I could connect it to my stereo and see if that changes anything. But I doubt it.

*sigh* it just seems so weird.
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does it cut out or like pause buffer play?

[Aka]

Pause/slow buffer play. I upped it to 8 seconds, but it still does it. It happens when the laptop is reading/writing to the drive (page file?), or perhaps waiting for it to spin up, as it could be the protection mentioned above.

[nass]

could be the vibrations more then the bumps on the road. That would explain why you can simulate it on your desk since you'd be bumping it and not vibrating it?