IT BS thread

Hello all. I just found out about this thread.

So, uh, do I have to upload my resume for a keyword search, or do I just have to admit to thinking that, at the time, my 486 DX4/100 was the baddest bitch on the planet?

 

Next I suppose you will claim to have a video card with more than 256K. Computer shopper has a full page add and says my 386/33 is a screamer, what is this 486 you speak of?

 

Now? Probably some cell phones and a toaster oven after recycling.

 

I did a lot with Kali Linux when I was studying for my Certified Ethical Hacker test. It has a ton of pre-installed tools and programs for hacking and pen testing.

If you don't want to go the Ubuntu route, you might look into Mint Linux. It has a pretty user friendly UI if you just want to use it as an everyday OS.

 

I remember how much faster my 386/25 was over my 286/12.

 

I still have this bad boy laying around. Socket 7 Pentium @ 233Mhz

 

I said goodbye to all of that. It was hard; I still thought I could turn my P4 into a dedicated file server and firewall. Wife was like “what’s it do?” My answer was something flippant along the lines of look pretty and convert electricity into heat and she was like “nope, waste of electricity.”

Glad I didn’t keep it now because it was a power hog and my Nighthawk X10 does all that other crap and then some.

 

I still have a working K6-III+ machine. Think the last real use I had for it was acting as a router. While it's rather useless today, I can't bring myself to toss it.

 

Couple of years ago I did the same, yes it was hard. Had a guy that does computer recycling come with a F350 and trailer. Everything went. 10mb hubs, HP-UX 20" monitor that cost me $750 at half price years ago, motherboards, cases, 10mb hard drives and SCSI 10K rpm cheetah drives, SCSI 1 adapters with scanners and tape drives, ISA & EISA boards, 3DFX video cards, 9600 bps modems, and lots more - all of it. Filled both his truck bed and trailer. He paid me something like $200 for it all. If I would have taken it to the recycling center it would have cost me a fortune to get rid of it. Just the CRT monitors based on weight would have been in the hundreds.

I think there might be a proc or 2 laying around yet in a desk drawer. And maybe some SIMM chips that cost me a small fortune at one time. Hell it all cost a small fortune at one time. Considering where I ended up it was a good return on the investment though.

 

Luckily I don't have that much old stuff around. I've recently got rid of some old HDDs, most under 5gb, some old mainboards and computer cases and a lot of old power supplies. I still have some old memory, like 1mb sticks. Matrox G450 video hard, Number 9 video card somewhere. I've been giving away more modern HDDs.

 

We moved a few months ago and I donated a bunch of old stuff that moved with me the last time. I had zip drives. Those things were cool once. And about 20 VGA cables.

I once upgraded a video card from 1024k to 2048k with one of those bug-looking chips. That was my first upgrade I think. Kind of the start of a career, I guess.

 

What's your perspective? I have a team that reports to me and I went around their manager and asked "Fred" (not his real name) to figure out this technical problem that seemed to have no solution. (I told their manager what I'd done after the fact, because you know, keeping people in the loop) Anyway, after a day or two he comes back to me with an explanation of what is causing the problem and a way to fix it. I think awesome, good job, and thank you. Today the manager comes to me and says "Harry", Fred's team mate, has narced Fred out for not solving the problem himself. Seems Fred called the vendor's tech support and worked with them to solve the problem.

My jaded been there done that view of problem solving is I don't care where the solution comes from, google, vendors, or flash of genius. I'm not the least bit concerned that Fred call the vendor, actually I kind of expect it. This is Harry's first IT job and to say he's wet behind the ears is like saying the ocean is salty. But, am I missing something here?

 

Seems fine to me.

Don’t see an issue.

 

Good on Fred; don't trust Harry, because if he'll narc on Fred he'll narc on you. You need to let Fred's manager know that Fred did what you would expect any technician to do if they ran into a problem they didn't have the experience yet to solve. You know that he will be able to solve it next time, mission accomplished. This will also get back to Harry that his little narc operation had a negative effect, and maybe he won't be as motivated to tattle the next time...especially as there isn't really anything to tattle about. Harry needs to emulate Fred and not be a hater.

IT folks are a special breed - they're part scientist and part artist. It takes a very technical mind to understand and do the things we do, but there is a bit of artistic creativity needed in solving problems. "If - then - else" only gets you so far, and being able to think outside the box (please pardon that cliché) is needed to be a real problem solver.

Then there's the self-learning aspect of the IT world. I was a military technician for over 20 years. Often times in a deployment you'll show up, your predecessor will hand you the continuity binder saying "congrats, you're now the expert" and beat feat for the rotator. I was now responsible for whatever was in that binder, so I better get to being an expert quick. You MUST be capable of teaching yourself from vendor manuals, technical diagrams, O'Reilly or Mark Minasi books - anything that can help you figure out how it works so you can properly configure or repair it.

/SOAPBOX

 

I agree with the others. Nothing ticks me off more than to have someone struggle with a problem for days without looking for help. Many times all it takes is a Google search, but it always surprises me how bad even some people in technical jobs are at searching the web or even looking through help files. Apparently some people just think that's cheating.

 

The only way I see a problem in that is if calling support cost money. Then, *maybe*, it could be construed as an issue because “we’re paying you to know this stuff”. But overall I agree with the others, get the answer any way you can. Some of the art in IT is knowing what question to ask. Many people can’t find answers because they’re asking the wrong questions.

 

Pretty much.. I am also retired military and have been retired as long as I was active duty so it was a long time ago. Or I am old not sure which.

No one likes a Narc that is a problem which Harry needs to learn. Peers can teach that better than management IME, but management needs to know.

Being the technical specialist for my team I have to only advise management without putting on another hat. My management now has a human resource person and technical manager person. At first miffed me having 2 managers but this is a good case for having 2. One to deal with the rat and the other for how to solve technical issues.

I deal with knowledge management systems among other things so am pretty good at finding where someone else has solved the same problem as me and they are damn proud of it. It is someplace out there most of the time. But after a period of time searching it is wasting resources and someone needs to call tech support. Although there are a few tech support lines where I would rather put the family jewels in a vise and tighten it than pick up the phone. Having team members know where that line is as far as researching and then switching to calling tech support is important. Obviously it can vary in each case based on several factors. That comes from experience, something hard to document.

I try to never bypass the persons manager in the first place unless it is mission critical. As in a patient or multiple patients lives are on the line. But that is me and has been pounded into me over the years.

 

I miss working for K-12 education as well. I started with it and honestly it was the most diverse set of problems, equipment, and people I could be around. I install, fix, and maintain a call center and its equipment currently and while it pays better, it is far less interesting. I like to be thrown a curveball every now and again. You know something to make you think a bit. K-12 work gives you that. I remember one time a kid looped a CAT5 cable from one wall port to another and unfortunately our old Cisco switch wasn't having that. Brought down half the school and I got to play amateur detective essentially because the switch was so old I couldn't SSH to it while its logic was basically shorted. Happy that they have built in protection for that nowadays. Ended up using a Fluke cable diag tool to see which individual cable coming into the MDF was looping, then following that to the IDF, then finally to the wall-plate in a classroom. All in all a fun day

 

They have builtin protection but still not enabled by default on Cisco switches.

 

Really? Well that seems like a bit of an oversight haha. I stopped using Cisco stuff for anything I install now, Ubiquiti or Netgear for me now, although I'll still maintain Cisco stuff if a company already has it. I am going to start enabling that just in case, thanks!