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Comment I did the 80 hour work week (Score 5, Insightful) 997

I used to work as a Field Service Computer Technician for a Large Corporation. We had Mandatory unpaid overtime and a 60-80 hour week was the norm. I was 23 when I started that job and when I left at 27 I was a dead man. High Blood Pressure, Borderline Diabetes, High Cholesterol. My Doctor had me on a stack of drugs just to keep me going and warned me if I kept this up I'd be dead in 5-10 years. I worked and worked and one day my boss pulled me aside and said "you can't take that vacation! You are too important to your Territory. I was shocked. He told me I'd lose my job if I took the Vacation. Long Story short I took my vacation. I posted my Resume and I got out of there. I work for a new company where we work 35 hour weeks. get paid lots more money and I sit at a Desk most of the day. Here's the best part. Of all the medication I was on about 7 prescriptions I now only take 1. With all the Free time I was able to get Married and have a good life. I now know about the Dangers involved in pulling 60-80 hour weeks. Don't be stupid. No jobs worth the bull shit.

Comment Ubisoft DRM = Funny (Score 1) 430

I'm sure that right now as thousands of people are struggling to play there games the Pirates that this resource was meant to stop are playing it probably with a custom hack/patch or whatever. I sometimes wonder if crazy DRM is used to catch pirates Pirate :I was playing Settlers 7 all day today. Ubisoft: How could you the servers were down! all day because Joey, The Data Center Tech. decided to cook a cheese burger on the 24 core servers CPU. Pirate! Get him! I miss the old DRM days. you had a little pin wheel and it prompted you with a code and it was good!

Comment Meeting Women! (Score 2, Interesting) 1354

Truthfully I'm an IT guy as well my downtime I like Video games and Anime. I met my wife to be at a convention believe it or not. Women are actually doing the convention scene. When I started doing Cons in the 90's women were rare but now there is almost a 1:1 ratio. The 4 Cons I attended before meeting my fiancee I was leaving with numbers and I'm not a great looking guy but girls are out there seeking guys like them. We have a good relationship its kind of cool playing and MMO and she's in the game with me makes RAIDS fun. Going to the movies is also a great experiance as we saw Lord of the Rings together. So if you are a guy looking for a babe go to the CON scene.

Comment My Experiance and 8 tips to survive in IT (Score 1) 902

I was a field IT guy for a couple of companies they outsourced to us plus I had to handle internal issues at times. best trick is to document everything you handle. This way when they inevitably do go back to your boss to get you fired you can point to a papertrail of cases that will show them at fault. Client who violate policies should always be documented. And in your documentation or even your ticket database always be polite and show you are the good guy. IE, fixed issue and optimized PC, user was using Kazaa removed and warned them not too etc. If you do this you are showing them that your on their side. When they inevitably go to your boss and try to get you fired because you aren't responsive enough you can come back with your cases as evidence. They will tell your boss you are "out to get them" or "jeopardizing operations" meanwhile your supervisor is looking at a paper trail that show they violated policy time and time again. You look like the nice guy and they look like the ass. When it happened to me my super asked "if they kept using kazaa why didn't you tell us" my reply was "I didn't want them to lose there job they are nice people" someone got fired that day, it wasn't me. But the big tips are as follows 1. under promise and over deliver. If you know you can fix it in an hour tell them 3. This will give you time should an emergency come up to resolve the problem. 2. Use tools like UBCD4WIN.com to automate your repairs. Automation is the key to being successful in this field. IF you are doing every repair by hand you are failing. If you can make scripts to solve your issues to do So! 3. Never take it personal. I know this is the hard one and should you succeed show me how. 4. Security is the key to success if someone keeps virusing their box you have to take this up high and let the management know that this 1 person can/will compromise the entire orginzation. 5. Web filters! web filters! webfilters! PORN = BAD 6. Firewalls block all the ports you know people will exploit Bit Torrent, KAZAA. No greater call then when someone says their Kazaa doesn't work. 7. Don't worry too much about being on the bleeding edge of technology. Windows XP is still good, 8. Active directory is GOD! and Group Policy is Jesus. use them well.

Comment Solution to the AIG Problem! (Score 1) 784

Maybe its time as a nation we as a people speak out. AIG is screwing us, Big Corps are screwing us. Hell our government screwed us for the last 2 terms of office. Maybe as a people we should just screw them back. I don't know where we went wrong as a country. We used to be the crown prince of the Earth. All nations looked to us and then we allowed an idiot from texas who ruled us. He took away our rights and idiot zealots thanked him for it. No more Due Process, No more Privacy, Screening our calls, Then demanding access to our e-mails and our internet searches. Thank god companies fought back but my god. We lost so much diplomatic ground. and these same idiots past bills and left the new president cleaning up an old mess. We have a war no one wants any part of. The republicans consistantly blame the democrats for Republican Failures. I used to be proud to be an American. If I traveled abroad on business I smiled and didn't I spoke about it. I hope Obama will make me proud again. I hope the Republican party falls. I hope someone blows up AIG. I hope Fox News Burns to the ground and I hope Rush Limbaugh catches an STD and suffers till death, and if he infects Sarah Palin SO BE IT! 300 years ago there was a dream about a country that gave people self evident rights. I hope in my lifetime I will see that dream return to a reality.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Technician's Plea

As friends I don't mind fixing your Computer. But you must remember something too When I tell you I'm going to get around to it it means just that, I will fix it when I get around to it. I know it hurts to hear you are not my biggest priority. Or you hate the fact that I have a LIFE! But I really mean it when I say I'll fix it, when I get around to it. So don't be angry when I tell you bring it over and you complain that you have to unplug stuff and throw it in your car. I know its a big incon

Comment My View from a NYer (Score 1) 888

I graduated in 1999 from Brentwood, NY I do see this as being a problem and my fiancee and I have discussed this for along time. If your a Nerdy kid who gets great grades you go to school to hear names like "Geek, Nerd, Freak, Weirdo!" If I had been a football player I would have gotten names like "All American, Going Pro! Elite!" But what people don't realize later on is that 1% of High school players get to go into the minors and maybe go Pro. Nerdy kids after graduating become Doctors, Lawyers, IT professionals, etc. After graduating I make more then the "all americans" I went to school with. Tragically many kids don't know their futures will be brighter after school.

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