helpdeskblog

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The back of the shirt...now in duo + 1 tone.....

Well, it's been a while since I've written on this blog, but I just wanted to say that I really do like this new T-shirt design with the little guide to the galaxy dude. Mean Dell technicians...*sigh*...do they really feel better about themselves at the end of the day? Can they look at themselves in the mirror and say, "I am a good person for being mean to another human being??" I'm glad I haven't experienced one yet, but knock on wood..who knows when it'll happen.

Carlos's 2nd 42 entry

Here is the latest and greates t-shirt design. The front:

and then the back:

Here is a link to the old one since that messages mysteriously vanished
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The future of Jit in the Holy Helpdesk

Now that we started talking about holy error codes, we should also talk about the future of Jit with St. John at the Holy HelpDesk. St. Jo...who?

Yeah, the same guy who blames Dell technicians for unleashing their personal problems on you - not that he doesn't do it himself whenever he feels like. And Ji...who? Yeah, the "Hawaiian-looking" dude with the Hawaiian shirt who is in the Helpdesk every time you step in there and even when you don't.

It is yet to be confirmed, but Jit apparnelty has a job. Only he is not sure about it. The location and positionare also unknown as of noe. "His IM message went like...'So I got a job, but I will know tomorrow for sure.'" (?!?!?) In the meantime, Jit doesn't pick up his phone :)

So, will it be that St. John will finally fulfil his ultimate goal to kick the whole Class of 2005 out of the Helpdesk? (I think he wanted that since we first stepped in there) Who will suffer from that? The innocent UNIX machine in the Elrod Commons? (How did they get UNIX machines in the Commons in the first place????)

Anyway, I might see some of you around campus, me and my roommate are coming down to Lex this weekend. It is a mere coincidence it is Homecoming - I generally am not a big fan of Homecoming, but this is the best weekend both for my and my rommate's schedule.

Back on line

Apparently all the files for the updated blog entries were going to 137.113.173.142 which is an abandoned unix box in Elrod Commons. It had become sentient and started grabbing network traffic that it felt kinship to. We will be killing this box shortly, as we do with all unix boxes we find around campus, abandoned or not. We will do it as soon as Jit gets a job. It is part of his portfolio apparently, although I don't know that I'd want a calendar site that hasn't been touched since March as part of my portfolio.

Pain and Humiliation at the Hands of Dell

Yesterday I called Dell on a student computer with a bad NIC (No Network Cable connected) and after 5 minutes of truly unenthusiastic service by the normal tech support guy I was transferred to Gold Level Service. I had naively assumed that Gold Level service was something good, like the gold standard, or the Golden Fleece, but they must actually have a number of minerals and precious metals above the gold standard because the technician I got could only be described as openly hostile. Maybe I am wrong and the customers who have diamond level service are actually physically abused by the technicians, but I am guessing that it may have been this technician.

The symptom was that despite the proven viability of the network cable and connection this computer was telling us that no network cable was connected. I checked all the settings, I deleted and reinstalled the card, same thing, I fluked it, and alas, no MAC address. To troubleshoot it we did the following, updated and checked Bios, reinstalled the card again, checked all the settings, and ran the diags. Because we had no error code the tech did not want to believe that the port was dead. Now after an hour and 20 minutes on the phone, I basically refused to do anything more, this is when the gold service tech started to get really irate. Apparently, if I had to go to the meetings that he has to go to I would understand why it was important for me to provide him with the holy “Error Code” which would allow him to release the part. The sad thing is that for this type of error there isn’t any error code, there can never be any type of error code, because the computer’s diags can’t actually test the soldered connections. The situation brought to mind Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch

http://montypythonpages.com/sounds/parrot-sketch.wav

I love the helpdesk's customer satisfaction goals...

As many of the lurkers here may have noticed, last week, the Helpdeskblog had a prolonged unscheduled system outage resulting from an improperly administered server change.

I kindly notified the person responsible for the site with the following message.

Dearest John,

I have been unable to post some really thought provoking and
philosophical discussions over such important matters such as how much
better life was when I didn't have to wake up at 7:30 in the freaking
morning.

I WANT MY HELPDESKBLOG!!!! I WANT!!!! I WANT!!!! I WANT!!!!

To further aid the effort in getting the site back, I went so far as to put a job in the Jobtraq system.

Despite my diligence, I have recently discovered that I have been slandered in the very job that I so kindly submitted.

Oh well, I'll have my revenge. I just got the survey in the email and I think I'm gonna go ahead and fill that out. Vengence is mine!