There are bosses that simply state they are boss, and make you work. There are managers that state they are here to help, and help to take all obstacles from your path so you are more effective. There is just something when your manager calls her husband who then brings dinner for everyone if a day grows too long, ensures everyone has coffee and tea, and asks what is going wrong when you hit a snag. Explaining it to a good listener helps you formulate your own solution, even if said manager is not tech skilled. I like working a long night when the world comes crumbling down and you get respect for it. I don't like working a long night because too many people were fired and we're just told to.

The worst driver I know uses a Smart, and uses the gas pedal like an on and off switch. Choices are idle, or full power, hardly anything seems to exist in between.

I have been known to take vacation because I could not afford to drive to work anymore, and am not much better off now, so I get what you mean. I squeezed out a hitch-hiking couch surfing holiday this year, which was very fun, and not very expensive. It was expensive enough to have me saving again for the next few months to have any buffer, costing a hefty sum of 250 euro's. I just hope my car keeps running.

There is a lot of difference in support desks, some actually have more hard then easy questions. When I call to my helpdesk, almost every time a chat screen is opened as well, it keeps me from stating error codes, and the other side from typing them out (both would have more errors then a simple copy-paste). I do not consider myself a particulary stupid user, but I prefer the combination of speech and chat to chat alone. Interpretation of written speech is harder, and it is easier to say "I get the error code in the chat, when I use program A and Program B under circumstance A. In the chat are the event logs of both programs, bolded are some things I find odd. I suspect this is the error, but can't look at the serverside, could you check if I am correct?." Another client here started chat sessions with end users, which is less of a success, mainly due to underestimations of the staffing it'd cost, but also because and users will type exactly what they'd say, but more slowly. Chat sessions are a nice tool, if used correctly, which is not for first line work.

It would be more like: "All people calling a cab from a pub will be lectured about the dangers of drunk driving before connecting to someone who will actually make the appointment." Except that drunk driving has a lot more impact to the drunk driver and his environment than downloading will.

These messages will be hard to walk out on, they will show when you hit play, there is not much you can do in that time. It's not "drop in the DVD and do something, the bad stuff will go away" it's "OK, you have had your time to show previews and warnings, I am ready, show me the movie... Wait, what is this crap?!". People ignored the previous warnings (they did not pertain to them) and these people hate nothing more than to be ignored. Piracy be damned, just WATCH OUR MESSAGES. One of the most idiotic ideas of these people yet, if they really were aiming to reach their stated goal.

You normally speak almost solely with helpdesk personnel. They are low paid people that are selected for analytic minds over communication skills, or vice versa, they have no job security, and deal with demanding clients and unbudging rules. Do you want highly trained analysts with very good communication skills? Expect to pay up.

99% of support staff are not your enemies as well, they just want to help you within the confines of the rules and budget. If you listen to them and try to understand the system, they'll gladly try to maneuver you to the right place to place the request. If you start foaming at the mouth at the first notion your request can not be fulfilled during the next 5 minutes, you'll probably won't hear how you can make it work.

If you need admin access, and there is no standardized way to gain it, it is you who needs to escalate. The IT department has nothing to gain from granting you more access, your department has. If you can't use the tools you need, get your department to pay for the access, or get the tools in the standardized package list. We have open systems, on which users can install what they need (technically, they can install what they want, but that might lose them the option when they install peer-to-peer software or other non-work related stuff). When they break, we have a finite time in which we troubleshoot, then we offer to re-image the system. Thus, you can install the driver from that obscure scanning tool of which only one exists in the company, and your development kits, but when the system breaks, there is a system on which all tested software that you should have will be reinstalled, you are then on your own for the software that is untested and unpackaged. If you want your software to be included, you request for it to be packaged, add your project code, and the funding required to actually package it will be deducted from the project that uses the software.

I admit to not reading the article before posting. I just wanted to post it because I found it funny. At the time, I didn't even have a /. login. Having read the article, I might have worded it differently, but the meaning would not alter.