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System Administrator Appreciation Day 372

Posted by CowboyNeal from the this-bud's-for-you dept.
rmadmin writes "Yes, it's that time of year again! Today is the 5th annual Systems Administrator Appreciation Day! Show us admin's how much you love us. (Otherwise we may just walk out, It's been a long day) Happy Systems Administrator Day!" If any of the OSTG netops staff are reading this, thanks again for all your help in recent weeks.
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System Administrator Appreciation Day More

System Administrator Appreciation Day

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  • It's about time (Score:5, Funny)

    by jekewa ( 751500 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:26PM (#9845601) Homepage Journal
    It's about time we see appreciation other than the shrines to bad users and other system sacrifices.

    • Re:It's about time (Score:4, Funny)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Friday July 30, 2004 @01:28PM (#9846400) Homepage Journal
      It's about time we see appreciation other than the shrines to bad users and other system sacrifices.

      Appreciated: 1 day a year
      Depreciated: 364 days a year*

      *365 days on leap years

  • Thinkgeek (Score:5, Informative)

    by ack154 ( 591432 ) * on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:26PM (#9845603)
    Thinkgeek has a special section just for SysAdmins [thinkgeek.com] as well as an interest store [thinkgeek.com] for it too.

    Check it out.

  • Congrats! (Score:5, Funny)

    by WankersRevenge ( 452399 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:27PM (#9845618)
    You guys rock! Hats off to you!

    btw, can i have root access now?
  • Yeah. You make my life more... memorable. Thanks.

  • User Friendly Cartoon (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    In honor of today [userfriendly.org]

  • woohooo!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by drgonjo ( 746794 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:28PM (#9845639)
    Does this mean I'm allowed to drink on the job today?
  • Yeahhhh, Hi there, so uh, SysAdmin Appreciation Day, huh? That's just great. Great... Yeah. Listen, the VP of Finance just called me, and his daughter's laptop is giving her some weird message, could you get that fixed today at lunch? Yeah.. that would be great, thanks.

  • And remember the BOFH!! (Score:5, Informative)

    by 9-bits.tk ( 751823 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:29PM (#9845658)
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/ [theregister.co.uk]

    Don't forget that!!!

  • Wish I had one to appreciate! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by frostman ( 302143 ) * on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:29PM (#9845665) Homepage Journal
    For a couple years now I've been one of two de-facto sysadmins in a small operation, and I've definitely come to appreciate sysadmins much more than I did before.

    It's hard work and the vast majority of it is tedious. Of course a really good sysadmin doesn't have to do much of anything on a day-to-day basis (having scripted everything up nicely), but when something tricky needs doing it's soooo much better to have a real admin on hand to spend the day doing it.

    Next time I have a sysadmin who's not me, I'm definitely buying him/her a t-shirt [thinkgeek.com] and a beer [sierra-nevada.com] on S.A.A.D.

    (...though it would be nice to have a happier acronym)

  • Sounds like Festivus (Score:5, Funny)

    by Deagol ( 323173 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:30PM (#9845669) Homepage
    A holiday for the rest-iv-us! Yay!

  • How about "Please don't outsource us" day instead? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:30PM (#9845678)
    Thanking your admin is nice and all, but baking cookies won't take away from training your underpaid Indian replacement.

    Admin Appreciation Day is a pat on the shoulder while someone is getting ready to put a knife in your back.

  • Required: Getting the Most From Your IT Department (Score:5, Funny)

    by nmb3000 ( 741169 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:31PM (#9845686) Journal
    The required list for today:

    Getting the most from your IT department

    1. When you call us to have your computer moved or fixed, be sure to leave it buried under half a ton of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, bowling trophies and children's art. We don't have a life, and we find it deeply moving to catch a fleeting glimpse of yours.

    2. Don't write anything down. Ever. We can play back the error messages from here.

    3. When an IT person says he's coming right over, go for coffee. That way you won't be there when we need your password. It's nothing for us to remember 300 user passwords.

    4. When you call the help desk, state what you want, not what's keeping you from getting it. We don't need to know that you can't get into your mail because your computer won't power on at all.

    6. When IT support sends you an e-mail with high importance, delete it at once. We're just testing.

    7. When an IT person is eating lunch at his desk, walk right in and spill your guts right out. We exist only to serve.

    8. Send urgent email all in uppercase. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery.

    9. When the photocopier doesn't work, call computer support. There's electronics in it. Ditto for the microwave, timeclock, and coffee maker. Hell, if it plugs in, we're probably in charge of it anyway.

    10. When you're getting a NO DIAL TONE message at home, call computer support. We can fix your telephone line from here.

    11. When you have a dozen old computer screens to get rid of, call computer support. We're collectors.

    12. When something's wrong with your home PC, dump it on an IT person's chair with no name, no phone number and no description of the problem. We love a puzzle.

    13. When an IT person tells you that computer screens don't have cartridges in them, argue. We love a good argument.

    14. When an IT person tells you that he'll be there shortly, reply in a scathing tone of voice: "And just how many weeks do you mean by shortly?". That motivates us.

    15. When the printer won't print, re-send the job at least 20 times. Print jobs frequently get sucked into black holes.

    16. When the printer still won't print after 20 tries, send the job to all 68 printers in the company. One of them is bound to work.

    17. Don't learn the proper name for anything technical. We know exactly what you mean by "my thingy blew up".

    18. Don't use on-line help. On-line help is for wimps.

    19. If the mouse cable keeps knocking down the framed picture of your dog, lift the computer and stuff the cable under it. Mouse cables were designed to have 40lb of computer sitting on top of them.

    20. If the space bar on your keyboard doesn't work, blame it on the mail upgrade. Keyboards are actually very happy with half a pound of muffin crumbs and nail clippings in them.

    21. When you get a message saying "Are you sure?" click on that Yes button as fast as you can. Hell, if you weren't sure, you wouldn't be doing it, would you?

    22. When you find an IT person on the phone with his bank, sit uninvited on the corner of his desk and stare at him until he hangs up. We don't have any money to speak of anyway.

    23. Feel perfectly free to say things like "I don't know nothing about that computer crap". We don't mind at all hearing our area of professional expertise referred to as crap.

    24. When you need to change the toner cartridge in a printer, call IT support. Changing a toner cartridge is an extremely complex task, and Hewlett-Packard recommends that it be performed only by a professional engineer with a master's degree in nuclear physics.

    25. When you can't find someone in the government directory, call IT Support.

    26. When you have a lock to pick on an old file cabinet, call IT Support. We love to hack.

    27. When something's the matter with your computer, ask your secretary to call the help desk. We enjoy the challenge of h

    • Re:Required: Getting the Most From Your IT Departm (Score:5, Funny)

      by spellraiser ( 764337 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:48PM (#9845938) Journal
      10. When you're getting a NO DIAL TONE message at home, call computer support ...

      My brain hurts ...

    • Yep, I've had most of that happen to me when I used to do support.

      "9. When the photocopier doesn't work, call computer support. There's electronics in it. Ditto for the microwave, timeclock, and coffee maker. Hell, if it plugs in, we're probably in charge of it anyway."

      I was actually called by a user because her kettle wasn't working! I had to go looking for a fuse in the stores and change it for her.

      Another time, there was some work going on and they planned to switch off the power to the whole site ov

    • missing one (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jeffmeden ( 135043 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @01:09PM (#9846179) Homepage Journal
      You forgot a biggie: 36. When a supplier, be it of bandwidth, hardware, printer paper, etc. screws up, please get mad at us personally. We need the inspiration of your berating in order to effectively berate said supplier, and they need our berating because they love it when customers who 50% of the time ask for the wrong thing and get it, get even more upset the other 50% of the time when they're given what they actually needed in the first place.

  • Happy SysAdmin Appreciation Day Pravadesh (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:31PM (#9845688)
    Signed: your colleagues from the US office you administer.

  • What's the traditional gifts? Flowers? Chocolate? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Megaweapon ( 25185 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:31PM (#9845695) Homepage
    Guinness? ;)
  • The system administrator at my school banned me from the computer system for a year because I crashed his server. I don't feel like honoring him.
  • call me if you need me. Or better yet, don't call me.

  • Show it with a Story on Slashdot (Score:3, Funny)

    by Cryect ( 603197 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:34PM (#9845742)
    Best way to show your appreciation to your Sys Admins is making sure their websites get /.ed

  • Get the song (Score:3, Interesting)

    by lthown ( 737539 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:35PM (#9845756)
    Go to http://www.ampcast.com/music/22488/artist.php [ampcast.com] and get the Sys Admin song by Wes Borg [deadtroll.com] (also known for his Internet Helpdesk skit) We're eating pizza for lunch today in celebration, and I'm being taken to see Napoleon Dynamite [apple.com] tonight for the same reason.

  • Appreciate this (Score:3, Funny)

    by 6169 ( 318124 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:35PM (#9845763)
    Under the guise of appreciating my sysadmin, I emailed him this morning to notify him that our Exchange server had crashed again.

    Fortunately, he's taken his own appreciation to heart and is on vacation until the 9th of August. I guess hearing back from my new Nigerian friend will have to wait a few weeks!

    God bless you!!

  • Bah! (Score:5, Funny)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:35PM (#9845764)
    Sys Admins. Bunch of overweight, bespectacled idiots. All they do is waste time and money. A monkey could do their job. Honestly, everyday, talking about new distro-this, Farscape-that, get a damn life. No, get a treadmill. You've got no power over me. What a-+|... NO CARRIER
    • What was your $LUSERNAME again?

      < clickity-click >

    • He was cranky, wasn't overweght, and he never wanted to help. He was a contractor, making about $70/hour +/-. Anyway, the joke was, "if you needed help, get out your knee pads and KJ". Really! It wasn't frivolous shit either! It was access rights and things like that. We got to the point where we were trying to hack the system so that we wouldn't have to deal with him!

  • I got my appreciation today. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Trigun ( 685027 ) <evil AT evilempire DOT ath DOT cx> on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:35PM (#9845767)
    "The printers aren't working!"
    "I went searching on the internet and I'm getting popups!"
    "Why can't you convert that scanned image to text?"
    "I spilled water on my keyboard"
    "I spilled Pepsi all over my $300 phone"
    "My mouse isn't working... (replace it three times, notice water on the keyboard). That shouldn't have broken it."
    "My computer that sits in a telnet shell all day isn't fast enough for me to look for new houses ."
    "Why can't I spend all day on Pogo games?"
    "I don't care how important that server install or network install is, my mouse is dirty, and it's not rolling smoothly!"
    "I still can't print!"
    "The laser printer is always jammed in the corner and covered with paper, thereby not allowing it to breathe and frying every six months because I like to put my newspaper on this side of my desk. Why do you ask?"
    Why can't I use Wordperfect anymore. I don't like Word."

    Ad Nausea....

  • Once the IT color scheme is changed.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by FerretFrottage ( 714136 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:36PM (#9845772)
    I'll appreciate the /. admins much more, but I can forgive for now and say thanks
  • Chief Wiggum: "Well if it isn't Mr. No-Bribe."

  • Aren't We Missing A Few? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Chasuk ( 62477 ) <chasuk@gmail.com> on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:37PM (#9845787)
    How about:

    1. "Sewage Workers Appreciation Day" - the fine men and women who recycle our shit surely deserve a special day of their own.

    2. "Road Kill Removers Appreciation Day" - Ditto

    3. "Crime and Accident Scene Cleaners Appreciation Day" - Double ditto.

    4. "Proctologists and Gynecologists for the Morbidly Obese Appreciation Day" - Triple ditto.
  • I've had this in my calendar as July 23rd for years. When did it change?

  • 503 Unavailable (Score:3, Funny)

    by dieman ( 4814 ) * on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:40PM (#9845831) Homepage
    The content you are trying to request is not available.
  • Just like "Administrator's Day", "Bring your daughter to work day", "Bring your son to work day".

    Someone is just coming up with stupid holidays so people buy stupid things. Where's the calendar that points out every day of the year as "Something special day". I'm sure tomorrow is "Good User Day" where sys admins give prizes to the best users, and then it will be "Taxi Cab Driver Day" where you should give the cab drivers extra tip.

    Why do we have the need to create these stupid "fake holidays?"

    There used
    • How about people just do their job and stop thinking that they are the saviour of the world.

      Tell that to the guy living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

    • I disagree (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GuyMannDude ( 574364 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @01:26PM (#9846372) Journal

      While I understand your complaint against so-called "Hallmark Holidays" (so named because they are just an excuse to buy a Hallmark brand card) I think sysadmins really do deserve a day like this. By and large, most people's interaction with syadmins is to complain that something isn't working. No one ever walks up to a sysadmin and says "Hey, everything is working great today! Thanks for all you do!" (unless things have recently NOT been good). In this respect, sysadmins are very much like doctors or psychotherapists in that they have to deal with fixing things when the chips are down. These health workers, however, usually get lots of vacation time and very generous salaries to compensate for their stressful jobs -- something sysadmins typically do not enjoy.

      Not only are sysadmins taken for granted but unlike others in that situation (e.g., secretaries) their job is one where people are constantly complaining to them. This makes them very unique and very underappreciated. I don't think it's too much to ask that for one day out of the year that people interact with their sysadmins in a positive manner.

      GMD

    • Well, we could combine days... "Bring your hot 18-year old daughter to work to appreciate your sysadmin day" sounds like a good way to start. *grin*

    • The fact that you are getting paid is your appreciation.

      No, the fact that I am getting paid is my compensation for the work that I do. My employer isn't doing me a favor by allowing me to work there, we have a business agreement.

      I have friends whose days are spent solving the problems of people who then treat my friends as if they are the cause of the problems.

      Honestly, I don't care whether or not my profession has a "day". You have to agree, though, it's a good feeling when out of the blue someone says t

  • The employees here actually remembered sysadmin day! Choice quotes:

    "Today is SysAdmin Day and I would like to thank the IT dept for hanging in there when the going gets tough. Join me in thanking them for all their help this past year and keep up the good work."

    "I am always grateful to you guys but I will say it again THANKS!"

    "YOUR THE BEST!!!!!!"

    Makes us all warm and fuzzy inside. After all, were the best!

  • Slashdotted already (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:50PM (#9845953)
    We just slashdotted your site.

    Happy System Administrator Day! from the gang at slashdot.

  • Today is Systems Administrator Appreciation Day! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Westech ( 710854 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:51PM (#9845973) Journal
    So remember to have everyone sign a nice card and send it off to India.

  • To our Windows PC Admins (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Thanks... for confusing the fact that you have full access to my PC for having some kind of authority over me. Thanks... for treating my software development team with the same disdain and condescension as you treat the temp secretary who asks where the 'Any' key is. Thanks... for copping a major attitude... it's probably justified, I mean, I only have a BS and MS in CompSci and 12 years experience and you have some MSSTFU certification that probably took about 12 weeks.

    Thanks.

  • To Me: (Score:2, Funny)

    by karniv0re ( 746499 )
    Dear Self, Happy SysAdmin Day. Love, Self.
  • Sounds kinda ironic, like many SysAdmins. A duplicitous relationship we love to hate.

    System Administrtators
    Whom we love and hate
    Enjoy your SAAD day today!

    i heart haikus

  • I'm often struck by the humility and charm of the stereotypical sysadmin:

    it is often this person who really keeps the wheels of your company turning

    Never mind the people who, you know, actually create products. I know that sysadmins support those people, but c'mon guys... that statement makes the profession sound a bit self-absorbed.

    • Never mind the people who, you know, actually create products.

      Without products, and people who market and sell those products, and people who support the consumers of those products, sysadmining becomes a wank-fest.

      As an engineer I'm tempted to say "Engineers are the ones keeping the wheels turning," but I know that isn't true; without marketing and sales staff, my job would be pointless.

      I think sysadmin appreciation day is a great idea. Now, how about engineering appreciation day, too?

  • Dear Sysadmin (Score:5, Funny)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:58PM (#9846033) Homepage Journal
    Hey bud, I installed Linux as a present for you. No more worms! Great, huh?

    [1 day later]

    Hey bud, how do I set up dual monitors?

    [1 hour later]

    Hey bud, how do I change the refresh rate? They're stuck at 60.

    [30 minutes later]

    Hey bud, how do I get Quake running on this thing? I know, I know.. I just need to make sure my 3D card is working even though nothing during my work day even touches the 3D card.

    [10 minutes later]

    Hey bud, on Windows I could change my mouse cursor to a Tweety Bird, how do I do that on Linux?

    [another 10 minutes later]

    Hey bud, OpenOffice doesn't support this ActiveX control I need for my presentation, how do I fix this?

    [1 minute later]

    Whaddya mean you're putting Windows back on it? I switched just for you, man!

    • Moderate parent "Insightful" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pclminion ( 145572 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @01:18PM (#9846286)
      I think this post deserves at least one "Insightful" mod. It's easy to recommend your friends and family use Linux, but the situation is quite a bit different in an environment where it is your job to support the system.

      The difference is, with Windows, you spend most of your time supporting the computer. With Linux, you spend most of your time supporting the user. Linux isn't a magic bullet which will melt away all your support problems! The user must be knowledgeable, or else you'll just waste even more time than Windows was already wasting.

  • I dunno. Our sysadmins keep all Unix system information hidden as if it were precious Jedi knowledge. It took me seven emails last week just to find out what to source and the correct invocation for the new version of Modelsim. The PDF manuals were on a server at the South Pole or something. Put up a freaking web page on the Intranet with this stuff already!

    Earlier this year my Exceed xterms stopped running my .login script when I login even though nothing changed on *my* end. No one seems to be able to e

  • So, are they supposed to feel better? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kbahey ( 102895 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @12:59PM (#9846050) Homepage

    This kind of once a year on the calendar day for appreciation is not an appropriate way of recognition.

    This day is now just like other obligatory days like: Mother's day, then Father's day (why is he left out), and even the other ones like the Office Admin day.

    If it does not come sincere from the person doing it, then it is not that great. The only advantage I see is that it reminds those who are nice and appreciative, but forgetful.

  • This is great...It's my birthday today. I get double presents now!

    Or is that presents and a weekend at work fixing a MyDoom infection?...
  • The Poor Underpaid Intern Who Fixes All The System Administrator's Mistakes Appreciation Day
  • Yeah, so I'm not a sys admin.

    And I'm not a damn secretary.

    Hell I'm not even a father (or a mother for that matter).

    Yeah congrats everyone else for doing your %^&*$in' job.

    When the @#%^*& is my day!?
  • Like Rodney Dangerfield said: "I don't get any respect".

  • OSTG (Score:3, Funny)

    by EvanED ( 569694 ) <evanedNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday July 30, 2004 @01:19PM (#9846290)
    "If any of the OSTG netops staff are reading this, thanks again for all your help in recent weeks."

    Don't you mean:

    "If any of the OSTG netops staff are reading this, GET BACK TO WORK YOU LAZY BASTARDS!"

    Kidding of course... nice work fellas.

  • What about Network Admin Day?? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by djrok212 ( 801670 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @01:30PM (#9846429)
    I love my Sysadmins, but what about us Network Admins. We keep the backbone of the company running, and do we get any thanks.

    Of course not.

  • Too bad... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by shaitand ( 626655 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @01:35PM (#9846486) Journal
    It really is a shame the only ones who even know about (let alone recognize) system administrators day, are the system administrators.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @01:43PM (#9846576)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Best SysAdmin Gift Ever ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ayden ( 126539 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @01:50PM (#9846655) Homepage Journal
    A Job Offer.

    I actually got my current SysAdmin job on SysAdmin Appreciation day two years ago. I had been unemployed for 4 months, which was not bad considering the Boston regional economy.

  • You Slackers (Score:5, Funny)

    by Easy2RememberNick ( 179395 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @02:17PM (#9846949)
    I had my file tree up and decorated on System Administrator Appreciation Day Eve. ;)

  • Coincidence? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Mateito ( 746185 ) on Friday July 30, 2004 @03:54PM (#9847950) Homepage
    So is it just a cooincidence that National System Administration Day shares its date with Australia's National Save the Koala Day? [savethekoala.com]

    ie. Sysadmins look cute and Cuddly, but if you disturb them when they are sleeping or eating, they'll tear the skin off your face?

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