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10 pounds down 32 pounds to go!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

"a vague threat is nobody's friend"

Last night Matt and I had to go out to dinner for a birthday. We were late but grandma was thrilled anyway. It's been a busy week and the restaurant is right next to a grocery store so I dragged a sleepy Matt over for tea and broccoli, staff of life and all that. And who do we run into but my Jamaican workforce. Who were pleased to see me and displeased to see Matt and told him several times, with shaking fingers, that if he wasn't good to me they'd be happy to take over. Heh. Honesty is a virtue I suppose.

It will amuse some of you who know me and my computer skills well enough to learn that I am the technical wizard at my job. It's amusing all around, especially when there is some computer emergency and they call me to fix it. Yesterday we tried to set up password protect on a very important computer. My boss is generally afraid of computers and doesn't want anything to happen to them. This is why we were passwording it in the first place only when I tried to set up a simple screensaver log on window it said there was already a password. There are some things I can do on the Mac that require a password so I tried to get the evil like satan windows vista machine to give it up and make me enter a password...without logging off of very important computer. I mentioned this to the primary user who said "I know what to do" and logged off. This is where the funny comes in because we didn't have the password. We entered every possible and whoops, nothing. I had to call the evil as satan geek squad who couldn't possibly help me over the phone and suggested I take the entire computer to Best Buy, have them back it up and then wipe it clean and start over. Help desk my ass. That's not helping. "Oh, you cut your finger...let's amputate and see if it grows back". What the hell kind of tech support is that? This would be the point where my head exploded because you do not tell your boss you have to wipe the computer clean after trying to set up a password. It's also the exact point when my boss ambled in on some other errand and said "I didn't mean for this to be so hard..." and wandered away again without really understanding that the computer was moments away from being a paperweight. Thank god, or buddha, everybody.

I sent some frantic emails to some very kind people and was in the process of creating a re-set disc from the locked computer's technological twin when they got the password...the very password the computer told me it couldn't accept because there was already a password. If I wasn't so relieved I would have run over it with a tractor. Seriously, it was an Office Space moment waiting to happen. At some point we have to do the same thing to the other half of the pair but we're not logging off of that bastard...not ever. And I'm making 7 re-set discs and I'll wear them like talismans and also I'll go to church that day and do the rosary wearing a hair shirt while I write a big fat tithe check. Desperate times, desperate measures. Even though my new iMac sometimes quits adobe the very second I have the photo perfect and that sometimes makes me cranky, I'll forgive it eternally because it's not a freaking Dell Vista piece of crap. It's important to count one's blessings, I think.

4 comments:

pinky pinkerson said...

the more you talk about the job, the more I have flashbacks to my unreasonable old job.

day 1: I was handed ten discs and told "to install them." I stuck them in, and what a surprise, nothing happened. I had to take them home for my technically-minded spouse to work his magic and turn them into an operating program. It took HOURS.

also, I had to back everything up on ZIP discs and take them home every night, because all the programs were unstable and if there was a crash - and there were, several times a day - programs wouldn't quite be the same and I had to figure out what data was lost.

and my boss happened to get every virus going on his computer. and the student-molesting tech support guy never wanted to come and fix anything.

talking about this makes me want therapy, and it's been at least six years!

Sugarcrook said...

Sorry I couldn't be more help with that. I've actually never used Vista. I'm fine with that. Really.

It's strange that so many companies are based on and driven by their IT infrastructure but nobody wants to admit it. Are you guys doing backups?

Amy said...

I'm sorry I'm causing you flashbacks. It sounds very painful...

You were very helpful, I have back ups backing up as we speak, and re-set discs all around. It's a very paranoid day around here. And I did very much appreciate your help, I always do!

pinky pinkerson said...

yes, pain. Thank you for letting me vent in your comments :-)