Subj : Re: OT:IT To : On-Liner From : Stacie Yates Date : Fri Oct 17 2003 12:11 pm From: stacie_yates@mailandnews.com (Stacie Yates) "On-Liner" wrote in message news:... > "fnxtr" wrote > > (Stacie Yates) sez: > > > > > > > Miss Yetigoosecreature aka Can you tell I've spent the better part of > > > a day hearing about users who have to be told not to do what they > > > claim they already know not to do but did anyway? Like spilling > > > coffee on laptops and unplugging running ceiling-mounted overhead > > > projectors while standing on rickety chairs? I'm beginning to feel > > > like we're running a babysitting service, not an IT office... > > > > "The screen says 'Press any key'. Where's the 'any' key? > > You wouldn't believe the number of people who ask that - and they aren't > joking. Sadly... yes. Yes, I would believe it. That and more. The users who just don't know any better (and really have no reason they should), those are just kind of fun and amusing, not annoying. I'm just as clueless about some aspects of their jobs. For the same reason. That's not my job, generally. So I don't think too much of it when a user gets a new CD drive installed and then complains of not being able to get the drawer out. It's a pleasure to tell them "That's a slot load. No drawer, just pop it straight in, label up. Sucks it right in." Or "Hey, lookee here, there's an option in the software that takes care of that, buried somewhere on the Options menu... boom! You're done!" Or "Oh, you just forgot to check the printer and make sure it had paper. No big deal." But when someone who managed to get a PhD does not understand that we do not drink coffee around expensive electronic equipment owned by the school, and more imporantly, we do not spill coffee on the expensive electronic equipment, and then HIDES it until we confront him about the incessant beeping and general lack of doing anything useful the laptop seems to be exhibiting, and ask if it was still working when he used it in class last, I worry. Same when we confront another professor about committing the punishable-by-death cardinal sin of unplugging a projector while in operation and he says "Oh, I knew we weren't supposed to do it when I did it. It was idea.>" Makes me want to post signs that read "The projector is mounted on the ceiling for a reason. To keep it away from your grubby little fingers. It is our job to service or troubleshoot it. Unplugging before it cools down can kill it. If you do so, it will come out of your hide or your paycheck. Your choice." It's not like we don't tell them this before we set them loose on our equipment. And don't get me started on the unauthorized "borrowing" (some would call it "theft") of equipment from labs. Sometimes makes me wonder if some of our professors were raised in the jungle... Staff can do some oddball/annoying things sometimes, but don't, generally. Faculty seems to do some of the more bizarre, inexplicable, jaw-dropping things. And then act like five-year-olds about it. "I wasn't there! I was on the moon! With Jeff! I was dead at the time! Okay, I unplugged it. Yes, I knew I wasn't supposed to. It was her idea! I did it on accident?" I actually got one of my coworkers to say it was coming out of the professor's allowance, when she emailed him back about that laptop. One of our finer "laugh in the face of lost equipment" moments as a department, I thought. Of course, the school actually ate the cost, but I can dream. Miss Yetigoosecreature aka If everyone else ruined their expensive techno toys, would you do it too? I thought we raised you better... --- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5 * Origin: FidoNet MONTE <--> alt.fan.monty-python (1:379/45) .