Sometimes Giving Good Support is Hard Without The Tools…

I am a sysadmin and let me pass on some advice for future IT managers…
Now, as a sysadmin, I am depended on. Alot. So much so, I even get paged on vacation. Is that wrong? I say it definitely is unless your provided with the tools. By tools, I mean:

1. Blackberry
2. Laptop
3. UltraMobile PC
4. Broadband Access

These tools aren’t needed if you have sufficient staff. Without the staff to cover things around the clock, then you will have:

1. TONS OF OVERTIME.
2. People working 24 hour shifts.
3. People working tired.
4. People making mistakes.
5. People quitting.

A vacation should be just that…..a vacation. You shouldn’t HAVE to take the Blackberry with you.

Some say that your a sysadmin…that’s part of the job. Well, I guess, but NOONE….I REPEAT….NOONE should ever have to work a 24 hour shift. If your doing that at work as a sysadmin, then something is WRONG. Yes, one should expect to occasionally get calls after work hours but when it’s every vacation, every day off, every weekend and every dinner that gets interrupted by a squawking cellphone, it gets a little old and then people want to quit.

Some will say well if so in so over in payroll can’t get a blackberry then why should the sysadmins. The reason they get them is the nature of your job. Alot of people don’t realize that with out the syadmin, you probably won’t have a system. ERP systems especially take alot to administer. Alot of the problems sysadmins have with them is that the ERP itself is not documented sufficiently and we spend way too much time putting fires out to document it ourselves and in reality, we should not have to document it. The vendor should have proper documentation and failing that, their support systems better have a excellent search.

Also, some vendors think it’s a good idea to hide the source code from their clients. Maybe, but when you already had the source code available, and you take it back between version upgrades, that screws with the very people you depend on…your clients. I say this because IF the source code is available, then it will OFTEN get tweaked because your product is insufficient because it’s generic.

I guess if I had anything to say to companies thinking you can buy any off the shelf ERP system and expect it to work as well as a custom system, then your WRONG. You CAN’T force the ERP to work in your way. You MUST change your business to work around the ERP. USE the ERP as it’s intended, and you won’t have problems.

Also, don’t bring on new technologies into the company until the staff is sufficiently trained. When I say New Technologies, I mean things like Fibre Channel, SAN technology and other network infrastructure technology. UMPC’s and laptops are NOT NEW TECHNOLOGY! They are re-purposing of standard, off the shelf, PC technology. If anything, the new stuff used in UMPC’s you won’t need to support as the new stuff is all supported by a cellular provider. Yes, you will have to figure out how to bill it and the policy for using it, but in reality that’s easier then not having it when you need it.

What it all boils down to if you expect a sysadmin to be on call 24/7, then you need to give them ALL the tools to work from anywhere. That means they get all the cool toys because they are NOT toys to the sysadmin…they are tools.

TSA Stupidity Goes UP AGAIN!

As most of the 10 people that read this blog know, I am a CPAP user. Well I was surfing around and came across some new TSA rules. The rules state I MUST remove my machine from the case and put it in a bin ala my laptop. Excuse me TSA…I BREATH at night with this machine! I don’t want to put it in the bin where some thousands of pairs of SHOES go into every day! I protest this stupidity! CPAPS are detectable via XRAY. In fact the first time I traveled, both times the TSA agent spotted it, took it over and ran the swab test on it and returned it. I did not have to take it out of the case and he ran the test without need of taking it out. This is a MEDICAL DEVICE!

Can I now take one gallon of distilled water too if I label it for medical use? I need that water to use it and sometimes it’s a pain. I would like to take it with me but never do because of TSA.

Waiting for the day they want us to check everything and strip our clothes and travel naked!

What WAS AT&T Thinkin?

This is iPhone related, but it’s NOT Apple’s fault.  AT&T has detailed paper billing and when I mean detailed, it’s DETAILED!  You have unlimited data…..WHY are you detailing every time you access the network?  Unlimited SMS, why are you doing that?  Unlimited nights and weekends….why are you printing every call?  Well, AT&T does and it resulted in a 300+ page bill for social butterfly, Justine.  Read and watch it here!

VZW “RED” UI…SUCKS!

My phone is due for replacement in January.  I am starting to plan/save for my upgrade.  I really want a smartphone, but the cost of the data plan is prohibiting me from going this way so I am going to be getting a regular Verizon phone.  So I start looking and looking for a Verizon phone that does not have the  VZW “RED” UI and I am unable to find much.  My wife has a Motorola phone that has this and I find it LESS intuitive then the Motorola firmware on my e815 and the firmware on almost every non VZW phone I have ever used.

Suggestions  for Verizon….Motorola, Nokia and LG all have a programming staff much larger then yours.  They have put millions of R&D into each phone they make and the menu system they have on each of these phones that are carried on other carriers like sprint is far superior to your branded interface.  All us phone users just want a SERVICE.  Stop trying to sell us wallpapers, ringtones, ringback tones, music, videos and stupid BREW apps.  JUST GIVE US GOOD SERVICE!  Wait…..you already do.  How about this….make the service cheaper especially the EVDO services?  If you do, you can literally corner the market on both phone and mobile broadband.

You already have one of the best networks there is.  Market your service and let us use other services through yours.  Stop selling us things we don’t want.  I don’t buy music on your service and never will.  Apple already does this better then you do anyway.  You can’t compete because I can only buy the music on my phone.  I probably can’t buy it on my PC and I probably can’t play it there either.

Verizon…stop being stupid and reduce the prices….revenues will come!

Crazy STUPID Windows VPN Conflageration

Why Why WHY can’t you just TELL me that you can’t communicate with the server rather then give me Error 721??

Go figure that my port triggering I setup in the router was the culprit.  All this because my wife’s stupid company sent a alert about her password expiring to the WRONG email address!  Also, you can’t FIX your signon without being able to SIGN IN to the VPN.  EVEN DUMBER!

BASTARDS…..

Taxes, Windows and Trying to Copy a PDF

Tonight is the inevitable night my wife tries to file our now due taxes online.  Boy was that a pain in the butt.   First off, it appeared the provider we chose was a bit overloaded.  Try explaining that to my impatient wife.  Second, we ran out of ink and had to print off the online filing form even though we’ve already paid the tax. That’s moronic.  Lastly, I figure out how to save the PDF to her hard disk and then I can copy it to a thumb drive because Mac OS X refuses to let Windows see my printer share in my office and I am too friggin lazy to do it now and it would all just take longer.  More time is what my impatient wife doesn’t need.  So, I plug my trusty thumb drive into her computer.  I see the drive letter, then windows explorer chokes…friggin great.  So I tell her finish it all and save all the forms and then reboot, then I’ll get it and that finally works.

I  know some of my friends will say why don’t you make her use Linux and blah blah blah, well, the reason I don’t is my wife would not stand for it.  She likes Windows and for her the stupid crap Microsoft puts a user through is acceptable.  I wish i could pound it into her thick skull that we, as computer users, should NEVER expect the crap that Microsoft puts them through.  Also, another reason she must use Windows is her work…all of the instructions are Windows centric and I don’t want to be her tech support when she can’t get connected to work (VPN connection and a terminal program called Outside View).  Anyway, I just wish more companies would stop treating Windows as the end all be all.  Even if they simply offered a Mac choice in addition to the Windows choice, then I could expunge Windows from my house (except the corporate required instance I must run for almost the same reason on my laptop).