Comment Re:Be Thankful (Score 1) 811
I think I *am* thankful that I work for a company where people do not know much about IT.
I work for a civil engineering design firm, a small shop w/ 10 desktops and a couple of laptops. The *official* network admin is a person who logs on remotely. I am the unofficial on-site network guy (and honorary). The following few instances intially frustrated me, then amused me, and then finally helped me decide that I had had enough and I gave up my unofficial IT duties:
a. People would use MS Outlook and download their emails from the server. With a pop server and "leave messages on server" unchecked, you can imagine what might have happened when we had to format a couple of machines.
b. We use AutoCAD (v. 2005/2006) wherein the recommended (or minimum? I forget) system requirements are 1 GB of RAM. Of course, we had 2 CAD operators with 512 MB machines. AutoCAD would crash left and right, and I had to go and help them recover files.
c. Windows updates are a joke in our office, and despite repeated reminders, people simply do not upgrade. (I uderstand this is the rule and not the eexception).
d. The Windows 2003 Server (Dell Small business server) often has the Admin logged on, the monitor on, all in a very visible and high-traffic (human) place.
e. Tape backups were a joke till they learnt the hard way how important monthly backups are. On Aug. 3rd, a client needed a file that was *deleted* the day before. Of course, we did daily backups, but we didn't have enough spare tapes.
f. All users initially had the same password for their email accounts.
g. I still have to e-mail the network admin about patches, etc. for AutoCAD and other design programs we use.
I think I would like to go on, but you get the picture. Oh By the way: the hard disk on a guy's laptop crashed last week, he hadn't backed up his data, and now I have to help him 'set up' his computer tomorrow morning. Sigh!
I work for a civil engineering design firm, a small shop w/ 10 desktops and a couple of laptops. The *official* network admin is a person who logs on remotely. I am the unofficial on-site network guy (and honorary). The following few instances intially frustrated me, then amused me, and then finally helped me decide that I had had enough and I gave up my unofficial IT duties:
a. People would use MS Outlook and download their emails from the server. With a pop server and "leave messages on server" unchecked, you can imagine what might have happened when we had to format a couple of machines.
b. We use AutoCAD (v. 2005/2006) wherein the recommended (or minimum? I forget) system requirements are 1 GB of RAM. Of course, we had 2 CAD operators with 512 MB machines. AutoCAD would crash left and right, and I had to go and help them recover files.
c. Windows updates are a joke in our office, and despite repeated reminders, people simply do not upgrade. (I uderstand this is the rule and not the eexception).
d. The Windows 2003 Server (Dell Small business server) often has the Admin logged on, the monitor on, all in a very visible and high-traffic (human) place.
e. Tape backups were a joke till they learnt the hard way how important monthly backups are. On Aug. 3rd, a client needed a file that was *deleted* the day before. Of course, we did daily backups, but we didn't have enough spare tapes.
f. All users initially had the same password for their email accounts.
g. I still have to e-mail the network admin about patches, etc. for AutoCAD and other design programs we use.
I think I would like to go on, but you get the picture. Oh By the way: the hard disk on a guy's laptop crashed last week, he hadn't backed up his data, and now I have to help him 'set up' his computer tomorrow morning. Sigh!
