[HN Gopher] It's My Monitor
___________________________________________________________________
It's My Monitor
Author : pabs3
Score : 175 points
Date : 2023-09-09 10:52 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (popey.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (popey.com)
| Const-me wrote:
| I believe that providing technical support is a crucial skill for
| a developer.
|
| If someone cannot assist a single user in resolving their issue,
| I question their ability to create effective documentation that
| reduces the occurrence of perplexing problems for inexperienced
| users. Furthermore, they are less likely to design a user
| experience (UX) that tries to avoid unnecessary complications and
| strange issues.
| lolinder wrote:
| Depending on how large the organization is, software developers
| may not be doing any documenting or UX designing.
| svilen_dobrev wrote:
| 199x.. a friend is working as support technician of some highly-
| reliable-and prohibitely-expensive boxes. One day some lady from
| Big-corp-xyz rings, and says that her box would restart
| occasionaly. Whut? Taking all the machinery for diagnostics, he
| goes there. Takes box out, Opens it, plugs the cables, ... a
| hour+ later, nothing. The thing works as expected and no amount
| of fiddling around would make it restart by itself. He puts it
| back at its place under the desk.
|
| - You sure this.. restarts?
|
| - Of course, happened twice today
|
| - Huh? Can you show how it happens?
|
| She sits on the chair, start typing some document, crosses her
| legs and starts shaking the upper one. And, after a while, hits
| the reset button with nose of her shoe.
|
| - You see? Just restared, i could not even finish the letter..
|
| - Ahhhh. Okay. The.. location of the box is causing some..
| intereference. Moving it.
|
| He moves the box to the other side of desk, where no legs can
| reach.. and that's it.
| soks86 wrote:
| Brilliant. They could advise the highest courts and not lose
| his head with those kinds of moves.
| ooterness wrote:
| I worked tech support for a while. My favorite monitor-related
| story goes like this:
|
| User calls, says his PC stopped turning on. I arrive, ask him to
| demonstrate the problem.
|
| Screen is black. He presses the power button on the PC and the
| one on the monitor. Wait a minute. Screen is still black. Try
| both buttons again, just for good measure, screen is still black.
|
| Turns out the monitor was on but the PC was off.
| ryandrake wrote:
| The distinction between the PC being off and the monitor being
| off is one that is still lost on people, and it's
| understandable. End users should not have to separate these
| things in their minds. Why would you want one off but the other
| on, besides use cases that HN commenters will surely list that
| are only relevant to power users? Just have one fucking power
| switch.
|
| Apple has largely solved this with their external displays, and
| the laptop industry has also solved this. Yet the PC world is
| still full of monitors with separate power switches that just
| confuse.
| simoncion wrote:
| > Why would you want one off but the other on, besides use
| cases that HN commenters will surely list that are only
| relevant to power users?
|
| I like having my monitor off because of this one weird quirk
| that OSX seems to have. Specifically, the machine unfailingly
| wakes itself up from sleep every ~60 minutes to do
| _something_ , and then puts itself back to sleep shortly
| thereafter.
|
| When I'm trying to put _myself_ to sleep (and keep myself
| asleep), I don't want a bright-ass monitor briefly blazing
| across my room for no good goddamn reason.
| jamiek88 wrote:
| Hmmm. That sounds like a bug. That's not expected behavior
| and doesn't happen to me. Are you hdmi or DisplayPort?
| tigen wrote:
| It's not uncommon to want to shut off the display
| independently while a machine works on stuff. It seems
| with Macs you can learn to invoke that easily in the OS
| but it's probably not "discoverable" at all.
|
| Meanwhile, displays with indepdent power buttons have
| been around since decades ago and still tend to work that
| way with typical TV/media setups. Although that was
| always unergonomic and we now have semi-reliable HDMI
| fixes.
| crooked-v wrote:
| > It seems with Macs you can learn to invoke that easily
| in the OS but it's probably not "discoverable" at all.
|
| Apple menu -> Lock Screen, and the display will shut off
| after a few minutes of inactivity on the lock screen or
| by pressing the Escape key.
| xyzelement wrote:
| Obviously the partner is the jerk in the story but "Oh, we threw
| most of them away" and "I could just say 'fuck you' and walk out"
| aren't hallmarks of great support and probably contributed to the
| escalation of what started as a simple request for a manual.
|
| It took John (the protagonist's boss' boss) to calm the user and
| put them on track to express their real concern and having it
| resolved.
| simoncion wrote:
| > ..."Oh, we threw most of them away" and "I could just say
| 'fuck you' and walk out" aren't hallmarks of great support...
|
| Eh? Addressing your first point, the guy asked:
|
| > I just got this monitor, where's the manual?
|
| Which was honestly and directly answered with "We threw most of
| them away. We have hundreds of monitors and no need of all the
| manuals.".
|
| The next statement out of the guy's mouth _should_ have been
| "I need a copy of the manual.", which the support fellow
| answers with "I'll run back and get one for you. I'll be back
| in a jiffy.". Instead, the guy flips the fuck out in the middle
| of the explanation.
|
| One might even imagine that had the guy not flipped the fuck
| out, the words "I can go get a copy if you like." would have
| rapidly followed the completion of the "How Things Are and Why
| They Are That Way" explanation. [0]
|
| Addressing your second point... from the fine article:
|
| > "Part of me thought, "I am a contractor here. I could just
| say 'fuck you' and walk out", but I stood and took it."
|
| The fellow who just flipped the fuck out is absolutely not a
| mind-reader. Even if he _was_ , he flipped the fuck out before
| this thought entered the support guy's head... so the guy would
| have to be a time-traveler for this thought to have triggered
| his tantrum.
|
| [0] As someone who both does support, and has periodic need of
| support assistance, the "How Things Are, Why They Are That Way,
| and What I (as a support guy) Can Do About It" style of
| conversation is my absolute favorite. It's clear, to-the-point,
| and informative.
| VincentEvans wrote:
| John was the partner's peer, also partner level, which is why
| the conversation quickly returned to civility.
| sanitycheck wrote:
| I've seen deranged full-volume yelling for minutes on end,
| laptops being smashed into bits on desks, and a full on punch-up
| between middle aged men in nice suits in a fancy office.
|
| This story seems a little tame, honestly.
| popey wrote:
| It was only my first experience of it, to be fair :D
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| As someone who reads and keeps every instruction manual, I
| understand where the customer is coming from. I don't think the
| abuse is warranted but I understand.
| influx wrote:
| Agreed, obviously doesn't merit yelling at the tech, but they
| could have taped the manual to the monitor for those who wanted
| it.
| moron4hire wrote:
| Established accounting firm and shouty partners. This was
| Deloitte, wasn't it?
| kjs3 wrote:
| I can assure you that Deloitte has absolutely zero exclusivity
| to that description.
| moron4hire wrote:
| Yeah, it was just the large accounting firm where _I_ got
| shouted at for no reason by a partner.
| firefoxd wrote:
| When I was 11, i was the official tech support in the embassy of
| X in Y... (too embarrassing). The secretary had to redesign the
| template for official documents every day. No two documents ever
| looked the same. At least once a week the computer failed to boot
| and I had to reinstall win 95.
|
| One evening I stayed in the office until the end of the day,
| teaching her formatting tricks in office 97. When we were done,
| she didn't save the file. Instead, she reached for the wall and
| yanked the power cable. She gathered her purse, handed me 5
| (currency). She didn't understand the concept of saving files, or
| shutting down.
| andai wrote:
| Maybe she grew up with a Canon Cat!
| SoftTalker wrote:
| If she started on DOS, there was no concept of "shutting down."
| At the end of the day you just flipped the big red paddle
| switch on the side or front of the PC case.
|
| Not saving? If she learned her secretarial duties using a
| typewriter, there was no saving. Once the document was scrolled
| out of the typewriter, that page was done. I could see someone
| like that using the computer the same way. Type the letter or
| document, print it, done.
| johnchristopher wrote:
| > If she started on DOS, there was no concept of "shutting
| down." At the end of the day you just flipped the big red
| paddle switch on the side or front of the PC case.
|
| But... but... I diligently parked the disk every time !
| Modified3019 wrote:
| I just want to say this post is amazing at giving plausible
| context to otherwise baffling behavior, thanks
|
| A story I have is the time my father had set up a computer
| for my Grandma (Grandpa was very much a "no computers in the
| house" person until he passed) to give her something to do
| and people to take to. Naturally this means he had
| volunteered to become "tech support".
|
| Early on there he was trying to help Grandma over the phone
| because for some reason no letters were showing up when
| typing on the keyboard. After an agonizing 45 minutes trying
| to figure out what was going on, he finally asks her to move
| the mouse to the box she wants to type in, click it, and then
| type. It worked! Turns out we took for granted the concept of
| input focus.
| baz00 wrote:
| This does not surprise me in the slightest. I got a whole
| diatribe and stream of insults when a user complained that we'd
| epoxied the USB holes in his desktop PC because he couldn't bring
| his music in on a USB stick.
|
| This was an airgapped network in a defence installation. They
| weren't even allowed to bring in any personal possessions.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| I had an employer who stuck with NT4 into the late 00's
| primarily because it didn't support USB for this security
| scenario. Our PCs had the ports but they were effectively
| useless.
| NoZebra120vClip wrote:
| I recommend joining a local choral group. Singing your own
| music can definitely quell the desire to amass and carry around
| gobs of pre-recorded crap.
| baz00 wrote:
| I play the piano. That does it for me :)
| block_dagger wrote:
| Me too but I still love listening to gobs of music on
| Spotify.
| jamiek88 wrote:
| Ugh. You're one of those choral members looking down their
| noses at 'popular music'.
|
| One of the many reasons I left and the groups fail to attract
| new members.
| thereticent wrote:
| GP was being sarcastic, right? And you, too, right?
| baz00 wrote:
| He's just damaged by that lot. I had an ex girlfriend who
| was one of them.
|
| I annoyed her by playing black metal all the time
| instead.
| steveBK123 wrote:
| I've not worked in tech support exactly, but dev on internal apps
| that we also run the ops for.
|
| These types of users beyond the morals/niceness issue just seem
| plain stupid.
|
| The most intelligent manipulative users I observed were the ones
| who do the exact opposite - chew out the boss regularly, but are
| absolute saints to the lower level "doers".
|
| They engender good will with the people actually doing the ops
| work, often end up getting them to go the extra mile. Plus they
| shell shock the boss enough that the ops people are given the
| priority to work on their issues.
| em-bee wrote:
| _chew out the boss regularly, but are absolute saints to the
| lower level "doers"._
|
| i don't think that is manipulative, unless it is extreme. this
| is the behavior that you want. treat your subordinates with
| respect and move problems that you can't fix on your own up the
| chain.
|
| the thing is, if every level works that way then you don't
| usually need to chew out your boss, nor need your subordinates
| chew out you.
| matanyall wrote:
| [dead]
| billybuckwheat wrote:
| You can be sure that partner, even if he had the monitor's user
| manual, wouldn't have read it. He would have immediately called
| support to send someone up to explain all the buttons and whatnot
| to him.
| m463 wrote:
| people don't admit they're wrong or apologize1
|
| [1] statistically
| ankaAr wrote:
| In the 90's my dad had a tech support/service company. Small one,
| less than 10 employees. Fixing monitors was an every day task.
|
| One day a petroleum engineer came with his monitor (from the
| company he was working) to fix it.
|
| After 1 or 2 days it was fixed and they came to get it back.
|
| After few hours the engineer called very angry.
|
| -it is not my monitor!
|
| -oh, it cannot be
|
| -it is not!
|
| -is this brand and model?
|
| -yes
|
| -read me the service tag at the back
|
| -this
|
| -it is your monitor sir.
|
| -is not and I want my monitor back
|
| -sir, it is your monitor
|
| -no!
|
| So he came back with his monitor. It was his monitor, the
| technicians tested it again.
|
| -sir, this is your monitor.
|
| -no, I had a completely different background, and different
| programs, it is not my monitor
|
| -wait, what?
|
| The technicians called the it department and told them the
| situation.
|
| While the monitor was in service, IT used that free time to
| update his computer.
|
| The engineer leave my dad's place not 100% convinced
|
| If you are that engineer, the story is still alive 25 years
| later. Thank you.
| prox wrote:
| Ah what a great story, reminds me of the webguy vs salesdude
| video. If you don't know what that is, look it up :)
| BogdanPetre wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRGljemfwUE
| streakfix wrote:
| Psyonix implemented the vehicles in original Halo game
| after which they made supersonic acrobatic rocket powered
| battle cars followed by rocket league.
| folmar wrote:
| I think the first part of the title is more recognizable,
| i.e. "The Website is Down".
| Loggias wrote:
| [flagged]
| johnchristopher wrote:
| I don't understand how these people got their degree or keep up
| with the times while being so... arrogant ? sure of themselves
| ?
|
| What other important things do they not get ? Or is it just
| computer stuff ?
| f1shy wrote:
| I know PhD in technical areas, that still today could male
| such scene
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| It is 1989. I'm a newly minted ops whelp, granted the task of
| maintaining the thousands of miles of RS232 spread around the
| campus of this particular establishment, about 2000 terminals in
| all. Lots and lots of terminal boards, lots and lots of tone
| debugging in the wee hours.
|
| My boss calls me in, tells me I'm getting upgraded to the PC
| team. PC's are these new-fangled terminals that we will,
| eventually, get everyone switched over to .. but first we start
| with the execs. Take their terminals, set up their new PC's, get
| them logged in for the first time.
|
| I proceed to the nastiest exec first - even then, I knew one had
| to solve the gnarly problems first - as there'd be hell if some
| other underling got the upgrade first, of course. At least, I
| thought.
|
| 20 minutes of burned fingers amid measured cussing at the prior
| install teams lack of proper stripping methodology, and I get the
| PC booted up, the TERM.EXE started, and everything configured to
| take over the old Hazeltines job, which sits by the door ready to
| be carted away into an amber fugue ..
|
| In comes Mr. Nasty Exec, who immediately recoils at the PC blob
| on his desk. "What's that? I'm not getting that yet. Do everyone
| else first!"
|
| Oh, crap, I'd already sort of changed the connectors.
|
| Under the desk I go, off he storms across the barren cubical
| wasteland, his hoffs and guffaws somehow visible in the khaki
| haze.
|
| Alright, I get it all re-Hazeltined, PC sits on the cart. What to
| do...
|
| In comes Mr Nasty, who has by now seen what the new PC can do. "I
| want both the old and the new, you can do that can't you Computer
| Genius Kid?"
|
| Meh.
|
| Always get your boss involved when the work order changes, kids.
| swah wrote:
| That was a good idea - did he get both?
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| The whole point of the PC ugprade was so that we could stop
| draping wire everywhere we wanted a terminal to go, and just
| use 10Base-T, i.e. "one cable to rule them all" (lol,
| kthxbai...)
|
| So yes, he did get both, but it did require me to pull one
| last strand of RS232 a week before we had to do it all again
| for the 10Base-T, and my manager was not amused at how I'd
| multiplied the work for myself; and especially wasn't stunned
| by my smart-ass quip that, "if only he'd demo'ed the PC thing
| to Mr. Nasty Exec in the first place, things would've gone
| smoo .. oh, okay, I'll be on my way to pull that last strand,
| then .."
|
| Yeah, wasn't really a great idea, it was only a week later
| that I saw that old Hazeltine, forlorn once again, sitting on
| the cart to be carried away.. oh how I wish I'd kept a few of
| those, myself ..
| teekert wrote:
| Nice story. I feel, there are times for taking initiative,
| being a go-getter. Then there are times when work is work, and
| if anything l, you train your fine motor skills and be content
| with that.
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| >fine motor skills
|
| I've got muscle-memory for DB9 and DB25, I can twist pairs
| for RJ45 in my dawn hours, I have scars with many more tales
| behind them, but I'm so happy to have put it all behind me
| now ... ;)
|
| (Now I'm the grumpy guy who doesn't wanna change web
| frameworks every gronk season..)
| gumby wrote:
| BTW it's a DE-9 not a DB -- the "B" shell is a much larger
| lozenge with room for 25 pins (of 1960s scale).
|
| The VGA connector is also a E shell, thus DE-15.
|
| Of course, as you probably remember well, usually we'd only
| wire up three wires, but nobody called them DE-3!
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| Hmm, I dunno:
|
| https://www.eltima.com/article/9-pin-serial-port.html
|
| We had DB9 and DB25 offices. Eventually it all became
| Ethernet, and the coax era began ..
| gumby wrote:
| The very first sentence of that link says just what I
| said: "The RS232C DE-9, often mistakenly referred to as a
| DB-9..."
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-subminiature
|
| If you were doing this during the Ethernet transition (to
| thinnet) you probably remember the AUIs also had DE
| connectors though I don't remember how many pins --
| perhaps a dozen.
| korijn wrote:
| I guess the thing that stands out to me is that this story shows
| the value of managers. John is obviously more experienced in
| dealing with emotional people (we are all that person sometimes).
| freetime2 wrote:
| Or maybe the angry partner only listened to John because he is
| also a partner. There was probably nothing the author could
| have said to placate him, being a lowly tech in the unfortunate
| position of having to tell a partner something they didn't want
| to hear. But hearing the same explanation from someone he
| considered a peer was apparently enough to satisfy him.
|
| In other words, this shows the importance of titles.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Another possibility. This happens alot. The partner gets one of
| these calls a week and has become ept at handling it.
| lambdaba wrote:
| I was expecting this to be the conclusion at first, this
| ability to empathize and stay calm regardless of the other
| person's demeanor is a superpower.
| opengears wrote:
| I do not fully get it. So because the support person was able to
| explain the contents of the monitor manual the angry client was
| calmed?
| robinduckett wrote:
| No, probably because the bossman the "partner" rang up told him
| to calm down and that it wasn't worth his job to scream at
| contractors.
| Lacerda69 wrote:
| customers huh? can't live with em can't live without them
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Emotions eh!
| freetime2 wrote:
| > I had no idea at the time that people in the workplace would
| or could speak to co-workers like that and not apologise. It
| was enlightening!
|
| This was the main takeaway for me.
| chrisco255 wrote:
| I think this type of abusive behavior used to be way more
| common in all work places.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| I was a techie for 25 years and my response to this story would
| be predictable - combination of chuckle, sympathy, and outrage.
| And I still feel all of those.
|
| But now I've been in the management/client-facing role for a
| while, and my burning question is: 1. WHAT did the person say
| over the phone to calm them down? 2. Could the author of the
| article have said it with same results? Because I'm learning that
| as much fun as it is to understand and hack computers, it's also
| fun to understand and 'hack' people (something all my mentors
| have been telling me for 20 years but I've only recently been
| able to hear).
|
| For example (and the fun here is in guessing and hypothesizing:)
| -- rather than listening to tirade, could the author have said
| something like _" Oh, we have found it is far less efficient for
| partner level people to go through obscure manuals themselves; my
| team and I have gone through them and I can give you a customized
| review of the key features relevant to you that will be far more
| respectful of your and companies' time"_ ?
|
| (is it cheeky? Of course! Winning question is would it accomplish
| the same or similar result? _Was_ there a winning game strategy
| for author _other_ than escalating?)
| seer wrote:
| An angry neighbor rings on our "apartment turned office" door -
| we were an early stage startup.
|
| The guy is red faced, shouting profusely how someone had parked
| at his designated spot AGAIN. This goes on a while, until I
| understand what's going on - I parked at his place, as I
| thought we were entitled to it from the apartment, apparently
| in error.
|
| Well the guy was expecting to meet resistance I guess, he was
| all geared up for a confrontation.
|
| I immediately apologized said that I didn't know (which was
| true) and will not happen again.
|
| The guy relaxed like magic, just calmed down immediately. And
| then started apologizing to me, and telling how "its alright
| from time to time" etc.
|
| It was really bizarre transformation to witness. I attributed
| it to balkan culture generally being confrontational, so that
| when I just apologized, the situation the guy ended up at was
| not one he expected and he had to actually rethink his
| position. Or something like that.
|
| And this is a pattern I've used in other almost violent
| confrontations to dissolve them. If you're able to convince the
| other party that they are actually understood, then
| communication can happen.
| ilaksh wrote:
| That's not cultural. He was angry because he thought someone
| was deliberately stealing his parking spot. His anger went
| away when he found out that it was an accident and that he
| would now be able to access his parking as much as he wanted.
|
| He apologized because it turned out that his anger was not
| actually warranted by anything.
| sam_goody wrote:
| An intersection in some real tight and twisty part of an old
| city backed up with cars in both directions.
|
| Two cars had come in and neither was willing to move to the
| side to let the other pass. Plenty of shouting and honking
| was going nowhere fast.
|
| After twenty minutes a fellow from way down the jam got out
| of his car and whispered to one of the drivers. "It looks
| like the other guy is being a jerk, and I feel for you. But,
| I need to get to my kid's birthday party, and it is really
| important to her. Could you do me a favor and move over to
| let us through."
|
| A few minutes later and everyone was on their way.
| turtleyacht wrote:
| Reminds me of this bit:
|
| ---
|
| So I thought about the pictures in his head. I thought
| about what he does every day. Finally it hit me how I could
| value him. "You know," I said conspiratorially, "between
| you and this other car, you are the only professional
| driver here."
|
| He backed up.
|
| -- Diamond, Stuart. _Getting More_ (2010)
| hobs wrote:
| In tech support circles there's a bunch of methodologies, but
| a common one is PAIR. Probe, Analyze, Isolate, Resolve. The
| first step is probing and gaining agreement - asking
| meaningful questions to get to the bottom line and then
| making sure the person understands you have understood and
| have the right problem in mind.
|
| Many people spend a significant amount of their communication
| time failing to gain agreement on the actual problem, who was
| at fault, and how its going to be resolved - this is basic
| communication skills but many people are not given a
| framework to think about it and have to go through life
| getting screamed at, so they adopt a similar policy.
| euroderf wrote:
| This is how I try to handle a political argument with
| someone I already know I disagree with.
| stavros wrote:
| > If you're able to convince the other party that they are
| actually understood, then communication can happen.
|
| This is spot on, I think. Usually people are angry because
| they feel that their routine has been disrupted/they're
| frustrated/etc, and are ready to fight. If you show that you
| understand them, sympathize, and will try to help them
| without a fight, they relax.
| ryandrake wrote:
| > But now I've been in the management/client-facing role for a
| while, and my burning question is: 1. WHAT did the person say
| over the phone to calm them down? 2. Could the author of the
| article have said it with same results?
|
| Sometimes there is nothing the underling can do because people
| treat others differently depending on perceived social
| position. No matter what you say and how you say it, some
| people will treat you badly if they think you are below them on
| the totem pole. Think about people who berate service workers
| and ask to Speak To The Manager, then when the manager comes
| and says the same thing, they're mollified.
|
| I've had managers tell me "Bring me along when you go talk to
| Director ABC" because he knew Director ABC sees manager as a
| peer and will listen, and sees me as someone beneath him.
| michaelmrose wrote:
| People have goals and perceptions going into the conversation.
| If they want a manager they have already decided sometimes
| before the conversation starts that the conversation with the
| underling will not serve those ends. They go into the
| conversation with the manager with the expectation that the
| superior has the tools and intelligence to do the job and ergo
| actually listen. This isn't necessarily a failing on your side
| and it may not be something you can correct.
|
| Things that work
|
| - You can speak to the manager but the manager is an expert in
| managing people I am the expert in <subject matter>. I can
| resolve your issue.
|
| - You can speak to the manager but there will be a wait of up
| to 10 minutes and in that same time frame we could have already
| resolved your issue.
|
| - I know you want to do <impossible/illegal/crazy thing> in
| order to achieve <end> but the <system/law/policy> wont allow
| us to do that that way but fortunately there is another way to
| achieve <end> and we can get started on that right now.
|
| - I'm required to collect information about such issues before
| sending it up. I'll make it quick can I ask you a few questions
| about why you want to speak to the manager? <sympathetic
| sounds/interjections followed by a casual insertion of the
| obviously beneficial solution>
|
| However there are plenty of cases where the thing desired is
| the perceived importance of having someone themselves important
| take the case as it were and you can't replicate that without
| at least the pretense of importance. For instance when I was a
| low level supervisor at a retail establishment I came to the
| service desk on a number of occasions to deal with customer
| issues knowing no more than them and not even being over their
| area thus having LESS authority. They just wanted to jabber at
| someone in a collared shirt.
| [deleted]
| andrew-ld wrote:
| I worked as an apprentice at the age of 15/16 in a store where
| they develop software but also provide hardware support for
| consumer devices (phones, computers, etc.), a customer asked me
| if it was possible for me to cut off his phone battery with a
| hacksaw because it wouldn't fit in the case
|
| he was incredulous when I told him it couldn't be done and tried
| to explain that even trying is dangerous but he didn't want to
| give up, I hope he didn't try at home
| forinti wrote:
| I once got a dressing down for clearing someone's browser
| history. Instead of using bookmarks, this person relied on the
| browser's history.
| Libcat99 wrote:
| Why would you do that? I'd be upset too!
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| I can't imagine clearing somebody's browser history as part of
| support work. Yikes.
|
| At an old job, back in the 90s, a Customer demanded we fire one
| of our young techs because he cleared the "Recycle Bin" on a PC
| he was working on. The PC's assigned user had been storing
| important documents there because "you can always get them
| back".
|
| That incident set the bar in my mind. Touch nothing beyond what
| is necessary to get the job done at your peril. Don't touch
| monitor settings, chair settings, lighting-- anything.
|
| Edit: I've always used the vernacular "the PC assigned to
| (person)" rather than "(person)'s PC" because the computer
| belongs to the company, not the individual. As the tech it's
| important to remember it doesn't belong to you either.
| perihelions wrote:
| I rely on open tabs. Firefox' search bar helpfully orders its
| results by priority: tab-search results first, browser history
| second, and search-engine results third. It makes a convenient
| workflow for re-discovering things I've already found before.
| I'm too lazy to close tabs, since new ones proliferate a lot
| faster than I can keep up. And if I dedicate time to clearing
| out old tabs, like a garbage-collection sweep, I waste far too
| much time because I get sidetracked by all the "read later"
| stuff I'd forgotten about.
|
| When it goes up to several thousand open tabs, Firefox starts
| lagging, so I switch to a fresh browser profile.
|
| Once, Hacker News IP-banned me because Firefox crashed, and the
| post-restart recovery tried to load several hundred HN tabs at
| the same time. Firefox no longer does this; restored tabs are
| loaded lazily, when they become foreground tabs.
| euroderf wrote:
| > the post-restart recovery tried to load several hundred HN
| tabs at the same time. Firefox no longer does this; restored
| tabs are loaded lazily, when they become foreground tabs.
|
| I wonder if this is the problem with Safari on Mac. There is
| some Critical Number of Tabs, beyond which it refuses to stop
| the beachball. I have to go into Safari on iOS to delete tabs
| from the Mac.
| em-bee wrote:
| when firefox started lagging because there were to many open
| tabs, i took advantage of that lazy loading feature and
| restarted the browser, causing all tabs except the active
| ones to remain unloaded.
|
| now i installed an extension that suspends tabs that are not
| visited for a while. that keeps active tabs to a few dozen,
| so i never have to restart any more because of that.
|
| apparently i have more than 3700 tabs (spread over a dozen
| windows, each window for a somewhat defined activity, which
| should make cleaning out a bit easier, since tabs are
| related, although i would still have to take some time off to
| clean through all off them).
| SoftTalker wrote:
| I disable history entirely and clear cookies and cache
| automatically when I close the browser.
|
| If I want to save something, I copy/paste the URL into a text
| file.
| teekert wrote:
| Hmm yeah sorry without context it sounds like a bit of a dick
| move to be honest. You just assumed your way of working was
| somehow superior.
|
| I have always relied on search and "last openend" for seeing
| what I was working on. Then some dude just deletes my winXP
| "last used" (or whatever it was) menu item stating: you should
| sort things in folders. Not amused I was.
| em-bee wrote:
| even with sorting stuff in folders, "last opened" is a
| shortcut that saves several clicks and it helps me remember,
| which is important to get back into the zone.
|
| same goes for browser history. it's not just where i have
| been, but also when. that gets lost with bookmarks. i
| probably won't miss really old history entries, but that's
| also an advantage. history eventually ages out. bookmarks
| never age out. i'd have to delete them manually. lastly at
| least originally visited links had a different color.
| bookmarked links don't do that.
|
| but then, i'll just keep tabs open anyways.
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| >relied on the browser's hitory
|
| Hey now .. Its a perfectly cromulant way of going about
| tracking ones interests and information needs .. especially if
| you put the history directory in a git repo and practice good
| repo hygiene ..
|
| Another good technique is to print-to-PDF, which is like
| boomarks on acid.
|
| Of course, I'm implying intelligence where there is no evidence
| of any, in this case, just sayin' .. ;)
| kristopolous wrote:
| I let Google keep track of mine and occasionally do a takeout
| so I can search back over a decade on all the devices I use.
|
| One of the first browser extensions I wrote would archive the
| page you're looking at and create a navigable tree of your
| browsing history with a built in search. This was like 20 years
| ago. It's probably still somewhere, I don't even remember the
| name.
|
| Bookmarks presume I'll know the future while history presumes
| I'll know the past. One of them is more knowable.
|
| Clearing my history would be like wiping my home directory. If
| someone did it on my behalf I'd be shocked.
| rcarmo wrote:
| I think I stopped using bookmarks (other than 4 or 5 quick
| access buttons) some ten years ago, so I can relate.
| freetime2 wrote:
| I always try to avoid clearing peoples' history if possible.
| E.g. use the Disable Cache option or delete individual cookies
| via Developer Tools instead.
|
| In the rare case that I do try the nuclear option of clearing
| history, I always ask permission first.
| lowbloodsugar wrote:
| And rightly so!
| euiq wrote:
| Now this I can understand--why would you do that?!
| OJFord wrote:
| I think that is extremely and increasingly common, and even if
| it wasn't it's not like history was just added for fun, it has
| uses too.
| bombcar wrote:
| If I have to clear my browser I am very sad until N (enter)
| brings me back here.
| OJFord wrote:
| Yes I would be too, so I don't do that. But I think even
| more than the annoyance of everything lost I'd be mad at OP
| on principle for meddling? There's no context, but even if
| it was IT help desk my browser is too slow or something,
| seems like something I should be asked about first, given a
| chance to backup (or them do it for me and restore, and if
| that's not an option then it's just not an acceptable
| solution).
| bombcar wrote:
| I assume everyone who has done "tech support" either
| professionally or as a hobby for family/friends has had
| the case where they "emptied the trash" only to find out
| that the person was storing important documents in it.
| OJFord wrote:
| Well that is the reason for it to exist, vs. straight rm?
| I wouldn't do that to someone, at least not without
| asking, either.
| codetrotter wrote:
| But it's still weird to put something that you still need
| into the trash can on your desktop computer.
|
| Like, if someone at an office physically put a printed
| document into the trash can next to their desk, and then
| they started screaming the next day because the cleaning
| staff had emptied the trash can of "important documents".
| Most people would agree that that would be an insane
| reaction.
|
| So why people decide to intentionally put important
| documents in the trash can on the computer I don't
| understand.
|
| IMO the purpose of the trash can on the computer is to
| give you a chance to undo throwing it away, just like in
| real life. Instead of putting it straight into the
| shredder irl. But to expect things to stay in the trash
| for more than a little bit, that's bonkers.
| OJFord wrote:
| Only because you (should) expect (through
| experience/onboarding etc.) that that will happen. IMO
| it's a bit more like leaving a pile on your desk that
| looks like scrap, then being annoyed that someone cleared
| it without telling you or when you asked them to help
| with something else, and it actually wasn't scrap, or at
| least you hadn't yet determined that it certainly was.
|
| And browser history doesn't even look like scrap, it's
| just a useful thing that exists and many people _never_
| clear it. Myself included, no reason to.
| function_seven wrote:
| I rely on my browsing history all the time. I don't always know
| to bookmark a page the first I visit, oftentimes realizing its
| importance or utility much later.
|
| I think that's something you should ask before doing. Cache and
| cookies aren't as important, but history is useful.
| deredede wrote:
| Cache may not be that important (although I believe that
| nowadays clearing the cache also clears the local storage, so
| the same would apply) but there are sites that use long-lived
| cookies to deliver a personalized experience without needing
| to log in which you would irredeemably break by clearing the
| cookies.
| em-bee wrote:
| clearing the cache should not clear localstorage. it should
| be treated like cookies.
|
| in settings firefox has two categories for clearing data:
| 1: cookies and site data (which includes localstorage) and
| 2: cached web content
|
| history is managed in a different section of the settings.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| >>Cache and cookies aren't as important, but history is
| useful.
|
| If I were to clear my wife's cache and cookies, it would
| predictably lead to the biggest marital disturbance we had in
| our 10 years together.
| professoretc wrote:
| I once got chewed out by a finance director because we in IT
| had scheduled updates (and their associated restarts) to run on
| weekends. This guy was in the habit of creating important
| financial spreadsheets and then never saving them, just leaving
| them open all the time. So he came in one Monday and found all
| his work gone.
|
| There was a rumor that when he was let go, the police had to
| drag him from the building kicking and screaming. That rumor
| was not true, but it was plausible.
| shrubble wrote:
| Tech support proud moment: in the 1990s, walking a non-technical
| user through editing and then saving a config file for the
| product I was supporting, with him using vi and not being
| familiar with how it works, over the phone. The vi editor is the
| one that you know is always installed on every Unix system.
| callalex wrote:
| Surely anything with vi would also have pico or nano?
| shrubble wrote:
| I should have specified: in the mid-1990s, on SCO OpenServer
| 5.
| svilen_dobrev wrote:
| about 2000, my father called me one day while i was somewhere
| in middle of mountain.. about something going wrong, entering
| the BIOS-setup of his machine... and in the next 15 minutes i
| had to recall and imagine all them 6-7 screens of BIOS of his
| computer, and lead-him-"by-hand", that is, key-by-key...
| Luckily i had same BIOS on my machine so it was been..
| familiar. While even if he was seeing all the text there, it
| meant nothing to him...
| nickdothutton wrote:
| At a previous company, a startup, we made and sold Firewall
| software which was installed on either Sun hardware
| (Solaris/SPARC) or Compaq (NT/x86). A sales guy returned from a
| customer meeting proud to have made a sale. His customer loved
| the Sun hardware, it was so well put together in those days
| compared to the "Pee Cee", but he had only Windows sysadmins. So
| our sales guy sold him a Firewall on SPARC hardware running NT,
| which the company then asked me to deliver. Thanks BillJ,
| wherever you are.
| perryizgr8 wrote:
| I get the anger tbh. Just give me any documentation and
| accessories, cables that came with the device. There's no need to
| expend effort on getting rid of thousands of manuals when you can
| just give each manual to the end users along with the monitor,
| probably in the same box it shipped.
| lowbloodsugar wrote:
| But but you can't allow the plebs to have their own manuals!!!!
| MarkusWandel wrote:
| I once got borderline threatened (the owner of the computer was a
| lawyer) for changing a PC's screen resolution from 800x600 to
| 1024x768 (the monitor was a 17" CRT) as part of something else I
| was sorting out (voluntarily/socially, not as a job).
|
| Needless to say I didn't argue the point, I just got my ass over
| there and changed it back to 800x600. Luckily(?) I hadn't touched
| the stack of "toolbars" in the Internet Explorer window...
| croisillon wrote:
| i too have this story from the dark ages of computing, when my
| colleague asked how to make a pdf from an excel file. i told them
| to choose the menu item "print", then choose the PDF-program as a
| printer and then click on "print". they walk away immediately,
| come back, grumble at the computer... i ask what's wrong
| "nothing, nothing, tell me again: print, PDF-program and then
| print, correct?", they walk away again and finally come back "i
| found nothing at the printer, where is my PDF !?"
|
| mind you, it was 2022
| kevin_nisbet wrote:
| lol I've had this exact same occur multiple times... basically
| every time we have staff turnover in our condo office no one
| knows how to print to pdf... so every year or two I have to
| show someone how to do it, including up to 2022.
|
| My pet peeve is that even in 2023 I still receive scans of
| printouts from accountants. They print out their reports to add
| cover sheets and add pages, and then scan it back in to deliver
| as a financial statement.
| ryandrake wrote:
| Great example of terrible software UX that we just put up
| with. I want to save this _file_ onto my _filesystem_ as a
| PDF _file_. Why the hell do I need to choose "Print" to do
| this?? If you are a developer, you might know the reason, but
| as an end user, this is baffling and totally unexpected. Just
| put "PDF" as another option in File- >Export, where it makes
| the most sense to an end user.
|
| Or, even better, developers, just use the "Save" function,
| not "Export". Why we have to separate "Export" from "Save" is
| another terrible UX that only makes sense to developers.
| Aldipower wrote:
| There were reasons for it even developers didn't
| understand. PDF is actually Adobe PDF and you had to use
| the Adobe PDF Creator to create PDFs. To be able to save to
| PDF by a 3rd party application would have meant licenses
| fees to Adobe. So some clever guys came up to "misuse" a
| printer library for PDF creation... Today in Libre Office,
| of course you find a button to _save_ directly to PDF. Not
| sure about MS Office though.
| goosedragons wrote:
| Office has had it built-in since 2010, 2007 you need an
| add-on.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| You will have to cite this in some form.
|
| Latex has been able to create pdf files since the 90s.
| robinsonb5 wrote:
| >Why we have to separate "Export" from "Save" is another
| terrible UX that only makes sense to developers.
|
| I'm actually torn on this one. I can see where you're
| coming from, but I can also see value in the conceptual
| separation between saving a file in a form which can
| reloaded with full editability, and exporting it in a
| foreign format which effectively freezes it in its current
| form. Commingling those two concepts does cause significant
| confusion in non-technical people.
|
| Having said that, I still swear whenever muscle-memory from
| 20 years ago tricks me into trying to File->Save a .tif in
| GIMP, and instead of doing what I want, it _lectures_ me
| about how I should use File- >Export instead, like some
| bratty kid playing "Simon Says".
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| macOS has pdf in the print dialog because is just a fancy
| front end to CUPS. To the OS, a pdf is just another
| printer.
|
| Fortunately, nearly every Mac application uses the standard
| dialog, so you only have to learn it once.
| croisillon wrote:
| it's very true! i could add that my colleague is 60 and not
| particularly dumb
| michaelmrose wrote:
| If you see something that you believe only makes sense to
| developers odds are it actually DOES make sense in terms of
| the underling model that the application is working with.
| For instance the way save works is that you save your file
| as foo.txt subsequent saves automatically write further
| changes to the chosen file in the chosen format. If you
| "save as" again you change what the active file and format
| is. So for instance you "save as" foo.docx. Subsequent
| saves go to foo.docx and foo.txt stays as it is before the
| "save as" and you could open either one an continue where
| you left off.
|
| Now take PDF a piece of shit format able to submit remote
| forms, execute JavaScript, and render and manipulate 3D
| models. Its a garbage application formation masquerading as
| a bad document format.
|
| It makes sense to produce a pdf as a snapshot of the
| document but it makes zero sense to treat it as txt or docx
| one doesn't simply "save as" pdf and then continue editing
| in that format. If you use save for this feature how do you
| express the fact that you don't want to make foo.pdf the
| new default save target especially if you can't
| subsequently open it? Do you just silently not do that?
| This violates good design where observable functionality
| reflects as much as possible the comprehensible part of the
| user model you are presenting to the user. Having save as
| silently work differently when targeting an output only
| format is a bad solution.
|
| Save vs Export expresses the underlying reality. You see
| the same conceptual reality where you are creating
| multimedia and the output format is lossy.
| ryandrake wrote:
| This is part of what I'm complaining about: There often
| _is_ a technical reason (occasionally even a good
| technical reason) for why the software is made a certain
| way, but those reasons are things that should only be
| relevant to the developer, not to the end user. The end
| user should not care about the "underlying model" or the
| "active file format". The software should "just work",
| and the frontend developer's job is to make the right
| judgment calls and hide irrelevant underlying nuance and
| complexity from the user. Great software doesn't "ship
| the org chart" or "ship the class abstractions".
|
| If there really is an important power user case, provide
| an Expert Mode for those who care about the underlying
| model. That way, users who care about the lack of
| editabilty of PDFs or who actually mentally distinguish
| between lossless source material and lossy outputs to
| lose nothing, but other casual users gain a lot when
| these things are done for them.
| andybak wrote:
| How about this. Some formats are severely lossy. Users
| are used to "save" not being lossy. If they misunderstand
| the capabilities of a format then they can irretrievably
| lose data.
|
| "Export" is an attempt to make that less likely.
|
| Some misunderstandings are more serious than others.
| michaelmrose wrote:
| Providing export to PDF while allowing save to docx is
| what allows the user to completely ignore virtually
| everything about the underlying model at the expense of
| one additional menu. All the model they need is in
| knowing how to operate a standard menu.
|
| 99.99% of document editor don't open or edit PDFs for a
| reason and doing otherwise is incredibly impractical.
|
| You are best case asking to literally treble the scope of
| the app to go from one menu to two and because PDF is a
| giant piece of shit the result will probably be
| substantially more buggy.
|
| We either need to seamlessly handle the mismatched
| formats whilst handling complexity like embedded
| documents or the users mental model now must encompass
| what features work in different formats. In all
| likelihood we end up in the worst of all possible worlds
| where it's a little bit of both.
|
| Then the experts who actually care about sharing working
| documents now have the functionality they need hidden in
| a special mode which by definition few will ever learn
| about while received wisdom will end up being not using
| PDF or printing and scanning.
|
| If you special case save as *.PDF to produce a PDF but
| not change the active save target to avoid lovecraftian
| horror you avoid most of the above but now save as a
| feature most people understand works different in your
| app than everyone else's.
|
| The people who have export menus aren't stupid, you
| aren't actually smarter than them, you should at least
| understand why the fence you want to bulldoze exists it
| exists for good reason.
| weinzierl wrote:
| Around the time glossy displays became fashionable a colleague of
| mine got a new laptop from work. He opened it and there was a
| huge scratch across the display. So he went to his boss and asked
| if he could send the laptop back, because of the damaged display.
|
| He sent it in, got it back after a while, but the scratch was
| still there, so he sent it in again.
|
| A couple of days latter he was called into the bosses office to
| pick up the fixed laptop again. Boss gave it to him and casually
| remarked that he'd better check if the display was OK this the.
| Colleague opened it right there and - big surprise - the scratch
| was sure still there.
|
| After he'd stopped cussing, while his boss was silently looking
| at him, boss - still without saying a word - tore away the
| protective film, which just happened to have a big crease across
| the screen, to reveal a flawless glossy surface.
| euroderf wrote:
| I hope this made it into an episode of Office Space or
| something.
| jamdav16 wrote:
| Guess I've encountered the opposite.
|
| I started a job as a software engineer, first day. The
| engineering team mostly use Macbooks, my manager asked if I
| preferred Mac or Windows. I said mac.
|
| I got my Mac, but needed IT helpdesk to set it up (VPN, admin
| access etc...). I got told there was no ticketing system and for
| me to drop it off at the helpdesk instead. I did that, but was
| promptly told that 'Macbooks are hard to set up, so f off...'
| (yes, he swore at me).
|
| I left stunned back to my manager, he followed up with head of IT
| and that guy was ordered to apologise to me and was reprimanded.
| Safe to say I had my Macbook set up within minutes by someone
| else. Not a great first day.
| Jaygles wrote:
| When I started my current job, they asked me Mac or PC laptop
| and I said Mac. A couple days later a PC arrives. When I'm on
| the call with the IT guy to get things set up I mentioned I
| requested a Mac but PC is fine too and he said he never heard
| about my choice. Later I find out someone else on the team had
| the exact same experience, and we found out the preference WAS
| communicated. We've long since gotten a new IT guy and I'll
| probably switch to Mac when my current machine gets to three
| years old.
| [deleted]
| w0mbat wrote:
| Although the user should have been polite, I totally understand
| being annoyed that the manual was intercepted and thrown out.
| Users who actually read manuals are like gold. They want to learn
| and they want to solve their own problems if they can.
| RecycledEle wrote:
| When I was a teenager, I added extra cables in my PC case
| everywhere they fit. My idea was that if/when I added something,
| I would already have the cable.
|
| I probably spent $100 mail ordering the cables from sellers in
| Computer Shopper. I am not saying this made sense, but it
| probably made as much sense as RGB fans do today.
|
| I had to take it in for some repair that I could not figure out,
| and the service tech "stole" all my spare cables.
|
| I recall being unhappy, but I do not remember the details.
|
| I do know the tech refused to give me back all my cables.
| arrow7000 wrote:
| Okay? Not sure what the point of this post is
| sammyteee wrote:
| Huh? It's just a story being told lol. Do you comment this on
| everything you come across on the internet? What's the point in
| anything?
| pacifika wrote:
| Interesting anecdote related to the field of computer
| engineering.
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| The point is, sometimes you need a manager to keep the
| authoritarians and the servile classes, suitably lubricated.
| This guy pissed off someone who should know better, and
| eventually - thanks to middle management - did.
|
| There are class lessons in the narrative. Still relevant.
| H8crilA wrote:
| How did he piss him off exactly? All I see here is a mentally
| sick (but mostly functional) manager/partner.
|
| It is a good story to remind ourselves how deranged some
| individuals are. And yeah, knowing how to handle the crazies
| is useful.
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| The guy wanted the manual, because he felt he needed to
| read the manual - but when it was explained to him that the
| junior IT guy would help him with whatever he needed, it
| calmed him down.
|
| Its a generational thing. You may not feel it these days
| but there were indeed periods of computer evolution where
| it was, kind of important to read the manual. And, also,
| help the older generation get used to the new things.
| themadturk wrote:
| Partners are owners. In law and financial fields, they are
| often very knowledgable and experts in their fields and
| know little about things like computers.
|
| When I started computerizing a law firm in the early 90s,
| the only technology attorneys knew how to use was the
| telephone and the dictation machine -- and their
| automobiles, of course, which some attorneys used as a
| comparison for how they wanted their PCs to work.
|
| Especially for older attorneys, computers and such were
| frightening (many attorneys had never touched a
| typewriter), and I think this accounts for a lot of these
| kinds of reactions. Many people in power are used to having
| their whims catered to, to having others support them --
| the junior attorneys, secretaries, paralegals, word
| processing operators, accounting staff, etc.
| euroderf wrote:
| > and their automobiles, of course, which some attorneys
| used as a comparison for how they wanted their PCs to
| work.
|
| This is reasonable. We don't ask people to understand
| ICEs in order to drive their cars around town.
| abridgett wrote:
| I've only seen this behaviour once. Someone very publicly shouted
| at and then privately apologised to. Needless to say the shouter
| lost any respect I had for them - firstly for blaming without
| facts, secondly for being so pathetic they didn't make a public
| apology. The victim in this case went up in my estimation and us
| now a very successful team leader.
| EMM_386 wrote:
| Many ages ago, at my first software engineering job, I was tasked
| with building a new replacement system for an aging platform. I
| decided to write this in the new-thing at the time, C# and .Net.
|
| I managed to put together the overall framework, architect a SQL
| database for it, and after a bit of time had a working
| replacement for the most important parts of what it was
| replacing. While discussing the next steps, the owner of the
| company mentions he just sold one already to one of the largest
| clients using the old system. I found that rather surprising, as
| he made no mention of announcing it let alone starting to sell
| it, and it wasn't ready to be sold, but here we were.
|
| We go to meet with this company to discuss specifics, and one of
| the questions they ask is "exactly how much bandwidth is utilized
| when we do X? We have Y employees and want to know exactly how
| much it uses if they were to be using it at the same time".
|
| Now, I wrote this thing to be as performant as I could, but at no
| point up to now did I have time to run specific performance
| metrics on it such as how much bandwidth was being used by every
| specific piece of functionality. It wasn't even an announced
| product, as far as I knew.
|
| My boss turns and just stares at me. So I answered honestly, said
| I didn't have the exact numbers, and I can get back to them, but
| I felt that their current setup should be more than sufficient.
|
| Meeting ends, we get back to the car, and he is suddenly irate.
|
| "Don't ever, ever tell a client you don't know something! How
| could you do that? That made us look like we don't even
| understand our own product! You know what you do in that
| situation? Make up a number that works! You never say you don't
| know! Unbelievable!"
|
| I'm not in sales. I got dragged into this meeting out of nowhere
| only to get chewed out for not properly fielding a question,
| about a product that I didn't know we were selling, that I
| couldn't possibly have expected to answer at that point.
| patrickmay wrote:
| I used to work in technical sales and had the opposite
| interaction. The salesman told me "The customer knows I'm the
| sales guy. They automatically don't trust me. You're the
| technologist, make them trust you."
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| Wow. I've worked with a fair number of vendors, customers, and
| internal stakeholders in my time and "let me get back to you"
| is extremely common. The only time that wasn't acceptable was
| when you didn't get back to them in a reasonable amount of
| time.
| cgio wrote:
| I was in a proposal team for a big project, responsible for the
| estimation of work. My estimate brought the cost at three times
| the partner anticipated. I told him there is no way we can
| execute with his budget unless if we take the cost as marketing
| expense. He turned around to tell me "we are doing sales mate",
| to which I replied, "you are doing sales, I will be doing
| delivery". Ended up getting the project at partner's quote, two
| months later kicked out because the client felt there was not
| enough progress on the basis of budget proportion spent...
| 0x0000000 wrote:
| I know a lot of sales engineers - the ones that make up numbers
| and bullshit customers don't last very long. Anecdotally, I
| know of sales engineer interviews which will push you to the
| point of saying "I don't know" -- not being willing to admit
| what you don't know means not getting the job.
| callalex wrote:
| That boss sounds like a really annoying and crappy software
| sales person, you probably shouldn't heed their advice.
| oaiey wrote:
| Sales! They know everything and sell every feature of the
| product. Even if the product does not have the feature or
| cannot be understood.
| lawgimenez wrote:
| Around 2010 I started my career in a barely functioning software
| dev company. For some reason, my boss thinks it was a good idea
| to welcome our newly hired intern to the company by setting him
| up with two CRT monitors side by side. So dual CRT monitors.
| Everyone was already using dual Samsung LCD monitors.
|
| Until now, I still can't believe how ridiculous that setup was.
| fmajid wrote:
| The first thing I do when I get any equipment is record the
| serial number, purchase price and date in a spreadsheet. Second
| thing is to download the PDF manual, and in the rare cases one is
| not available online, scan then recycle the paper manual.
|
| If I ever become world leader, one of the first things I'll order
| is for every product to be engraved or printed with a QR code
| leading to the specs and manual.
| tomjen3 wrote:
| What do you use to scan the books?
|
| Edit: am apparently unable to type today.
| maccard wrote:
| The Google app on Android does a remarkably good job of image
| to pdf and text extraction.
| fmajid wrote:
| Usually a Fujitsu ScanSnap document scanner after unstapling
| the manual and slitting the binding fold with a paper knife.
| Also scanner phone apps like Readdle Scanner Pro work very
| well for thick cardboard that won't feed through a scanner (I
| do have flatbeds but it's usually too much trouble to unpack
| them into my tiny home office).
| GuB-42 wrote:
| The article is about the 90s, internet access was not a given
| scanners were expensive, QR codes as we know them didn't exist,
| and you may not have had a second computer to read the manual
| explaining why the first computer didn't work.
|
| Also, manuals meant something. Nowadays paper manuals included
| with products are mostly legal stuff about all the things you
| can't do and limits on warranty. Maybe a quick start guide. But
| the actual manual is often not included.
| theandrewbailey wrote:
| That QR code will only work until the website gets redesigned,
| probably with the next fad.js
| rhn_mk1 wrote:
| A dream - the code contains a hash which identifies the file.
| Like ipfs + bittorrent.
| ooterness wrote:
| Presumably their second act as King Of The World will be to
| mandate the use of perpetual third-party hosting services.
| (e.g., A simple HTTPS host for static files that's run by the
| government and never deletes or moves a file.) Use of these
| services is required for sale of QR-labeled hardware.
| fmajid wrote:
| Or mandatory registration with conservation authorities and
| copyright depositories like the Library of Congress,
| British Library, Biblotheque Nationale de France, etc.
| Freak_NL wrote:
| Or more likely, like with the Lidl story last week, the
| domain expires, gets bought by some spammer, and will host
| Chinese porn ads in perpetuity.
| throwarayes wrote:
| Sadly workplace assholery is everywhere
|
| One performance review I received was a 45 minute, one-sided rant
| from my boss directed at me. All completely out of left field.
| With no ability to get a word in. It left me utterly shell
| shocked.
|
| Most performance reviews I've had are good "gives and takes",
| leaving me with feedback to consider, but also offering my boss
| perspective too. They're also usually not complete surprises.
| I've had to give hard feedback to subordinates myself, and I know
| the importance of being open and listening when giving feedback,
| as almost always I have an incomplete picture of their behavior
| and a lot to learn about what they're going though.
|
| Trusting, dumbass me, just sat there and took this. I assumed I
| was the problem, that I was fundamentally broken as an employee,
| and wanted to just find any way to please this boss to make it
| all better.
|
| She used the time to tell me,
|
| - all the ways I was screwing up, without letting me ask
| questions, clarify, or correct anything.
|
| - that she, and only she, had the true objective perspective on
| and others wouldn't tell me their thoughts about me (despite
| regularly giving / receiving feedback)
|
| - Make me distrust my colleagues as my boss had me thinking they
| were holding something back / funneling all these complaints to
| my boss.
|
| This pattern of communication persisted for months sadly, and it
| took me months to "deprogram" away from thinking she had the a
| true, objective view of my performance.
|
| I slept poorly this whole time. My engagement suffered and my
| performance plummeted. I went from a top performer in my space to
| becoming disengaged and feeling I could do nothing right. I went
| from having regular open discussions with everyone on how I could
| improve to having convos with only her, and closed off from my
| colleagues.
|
| It was as if it was intended to get me to leave, which I did
| given how unhealthy the environment was. Which is interesting as
| early on she had been so positive and supportive. I guess it all
| had little to do with my performance and more to do with not
| being seen as useful anymore, and thus discarded by her.
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