End users are stupid!

[mycarsavw]

Stupid users you say - I have one at my office here

Nothing has changed.

[Flash477]

I remember my first job involved supporting a GP system, written in a language called MUMPS (was an NHS system too). I lost count of the number of times that problems stemed from the plug or monitor not being switched on!

[scaryjim]

... written in a language called MUMPS ...

dailywtf regular, by any chance?

[Flash477]

dailywtf regular, by any chance?

No, I'm serious!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUMPS

[latrosicarius]

why do you have all your passwords changing on the same day? that's horrible. Let each password individually expire X days after it was last changed. I think that's the default setting for Active Directory users. It seems like someone in your company orchestrated a policy change with no identifiable benefit... unless I'm just missing the benefit of practically the entire workforce having computer issues on the same day.

[oolon]

Sounds like you have a PEBKAC situation there. (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair).

[shaithis]

why do you have all your passwords changing on the same day? that's horrible. Let each password individually expire X days after it was last changed. I think that's the default setting for Active Directory users. It seems like someone in your company orchestrated a policy change with no identifiable benefit... unless I'm just missing the benefit of practically the entire workforce having computer issues on the same day.

I find it halarious that you need to assume your going to get a ton of calls because "it's password change day"....I guess that des sum up the users you have to deal with though


I can think of a couple of reasons to have all changing on 1 day and both involve temporary or out-sourced tech staff......there are probably more reasons though.

[dangel]

Still, stupidity can come from the other side too - our network admins decided that 3 retries is all you get before you're locked out of the domain. Seeing as we outsource, i'm guessing it's either a: a very shrewd way of increasing their jobs or b: they're so thick they think this is a good idea.

Or how about the choice (free choice mind) of Lotus Notes, or SAP which doesn't work properly at all (our purchasing system is a mess after three years) etc etc.

Oh, how it hurts. Really it does.

[oolon]

I remember coming back from getting coffee to find a luser had sat in my chair and was talking to the other systems administrators (not a problem), however he ignored me when I asked him to move repeatedly, much to the amusement of everyone else. When he left, I spend a nice rest of the day ticking the little box in active directory saying password change, later he came back to report a "fault" and told us it was getting to be a real problem, strangely we managed to fix it quite quickly.

[Jay]

ha ha... a long time ago when I was young and cared what people said down the phone I had a user shout at me about an issue unrelated to IT. I disabled his account

[dshepsman]

i had a great quote from a desktop support guy when i started my new job.
i got my nice new laptop, and it was requested to have 2gb of RAM.
it arrived with 1gb, and the reason:

"it was a new type of memory, and so faster, so 2gb wasnt required"

i didnt really want to upset him by explaining how ram/virtual memory worked....

[GaryRW]

I remember once, I was troublshooting my PC - there was no sound. I pulled out all the cables, switched everything around, plugged the speakers into a another computer. After about 2.5 hours of messing around, I found that the speakers where muted

Since then, that is the FIRST thing I check when people complain of sound problems.

I'm not IT, but word got around i'm a geek, so I get called in when secretaries can't get hold of our IT guy. First time that "my ear phones have stopped working", it took me 15 mins before I thought to check the windows volume level (application volume was still maxed). Now first thing I check is the bottom right hand corner of the screen

And as for support idiots, my mate had a problem with his internet connection. phoned the ISP support line, and I think the conversation got to the point where the support guy was going through the "I can't believe it's this but better check anyway" list. I think the relevant bit of the call was:

what do you mean? yes of course the phone line is plugged into the modem..... erm...... hang on, there's someone at the door (cue dial tone)

And normally he's a reasonably intelligent chap (ish).

[Singh400]

Still, stupidity can come from the other side too - our network admins decided that 3 retries is all you get before you're locked out of the domain. Seeing as we outsource, i'm guessing it's either a: a very shrewd way of increasing their jobs or b: they're so thick they think this is a good idea.

They [our IT Dept] have the same policy here. Locked out after the 3rd try. On our desk booking system it's 2 wrong attempts and thats it.

I'm not IT, but word got around i'm a geek, so I get called in when secretaries can't get hold of our IT guy. First time that "my ear phones have stopped working", it took me 15 mins before I thought to check the windows volume level (application volume was still maxed). Now first thing I check is the bottom right hand corner of the screen

Same sort of situation here. I'm not in IT (but I want to be, got the knowledge but "no experience" is killing me). I couldn't help but laugh out loud (really) when IT sent a new contractor round to sort out a mates machine. She needs a generic PostScript printer install for Quark. And he couldn't do it, in the end I had to show him how to do it. It was really fun and really sad - he was on like £400 per day.

And as for support idiots, my mate had a problem with his internet connection. phoned the ISP support line, and I think the conversation got to the point where the support guy was going through the "I can't believe it's this but better check anyway" list. I think the relevant bit of the call was

LOL, can't say I've heard that one before. You got me there!

[Jay]

I had to say "7 characters including 1 captial letter and 1 number" to a guy over 5 times yesterday, people in the office where laughing.

In the end I had to ask him what he wanted it to be (it still had no numbers in it) and use AD to change it for him....

one guy said "I am putting a number in" when I asked what he said "1" I asked him to spell out his password and he said "******one"

[Raz316]

Its password change day and it needs to be 7 characters with 1 cap and 1 number. I have had 40+ calls from users who cant do this without support and its only 9:37am!

I had to do this a while back, knowing that many people don't read instructions properly (im guilty of that too) I included an example of a correct password and an example of an incorrect password.

Turns our 3-4 users put in the example passwords and even worse, one kept trying to put in the incorrect password... X| *head -> desk.

[watercooled]

Changing the subject a little - back in school I remember we had a network admin who put some software called Gatekeeper on the computers to prevent people using unregistered flash drives or from using flash drives that had exes on them, to stop people playing games for example. But I found a pretty dosey flaw - when you plugged a registered drive into the computer it would open an explorer window with admin privileges so you could see the C drive, navigate to the Gatekeeper uninstaller and run it...