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Daniel
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Joined: 30 Aug 2005
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Location: Gold Coast


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letting off steam

I'm not supposed to complain about how stupid customers are while I'm here at work but if I don't vent my annoyance somehow I'll end up putting my fist through the monitor. You can ignor the rest of this thread if you want.

Bloody stupid f&%$@%# old men who can't read a f@#&$%# drawing and make me revise the same thing 3 f$#@$&# times a day. Just because you are 3 time my age doesn't mean you know more me, which is clearly not the case today.

Reading from some faxes I just recieved from the customer

On monday he wanted one part to be machined, today he doesn't. He wants me to add hidden details to a part and when I do he complains because he can't understand it and wants it removed. He wants me to flip the hidden detail line, its a freaking mirror image, whats that damn point of wasting my time, you'll just cause the dimensions to colapse. He wants me to dimension every fillet even though I clearly put R5 TYP in the middle of the page. I have to make sure the fillets leave enough room to clear a washer but he doesn't say how big the washer is. Oh, I have to remove a dimension from the drawing even though you need that dimension to make the part. Hmmmm, the 3 hours I spent drawing the hole pattens on these two parts are to removed until further notice. And this part of so large I had to draw it on an A3 sheet while all the rest went on A4 sheets and he complans that I have to increse the scale of all the item on the sheet to match the others. Well bugger off, I ain't spending 4 hours redoing a drawing because you need glasses.

This guy has to be the second worst custmer on my list now. Can't beat the dick from Standfast.

It better be friday.

This is why I build robots. Destroying stuff makes it all better.

Ok, I feel better now. Anyone else want a go?

Post Fri May 19, 2006 4:00 pm 
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Philip
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Joined: 18 Jun 2004
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Location: Queensland near Brisbane


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I am glad I am not seeing you this weekend.
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Post Fri May 19, 2006 5:00 pm 
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Spockie-Tech
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Joined: 31 May 2004
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Location: Melbourne, Australia


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Heh, at least he told you what (he thought) was wrong. You want to try computer phone support.. about 30% of them go like this...

My computer wont let me do <xxx> !!

To which I often reply (If I'm in a sarcastic mood)

Oh, It told you to bugger off, you're not allowed to do that, did it ?

Well, No, it gave me some error message and didnt do what I wanted

What was the error message ?

I dont know !! One of those techie-sounding-errors - "Something did something or other", its not doing what I wanted though ! Whats Wrong ? I just want it fixed !

So... it actually *did* tell you what the problem was, but you didnt understand it, you didnt even try to figure it out yourself, instead you immediatetly rang me and complained that it didnt automatically understand what you wanted it to do, you didnt bother to take note of the error so you could give me a clue or two, and now I'm supposed to telepathically discover what the problem is and fix it right away ? Fine, just let me give you phone number for the psychic spiritual help line, I'm sorry we only deal with semi-*intelligent* life-forms here.. Twisted Evil

This is a good read if you like blowing off some steam at dumb customers
http://dansdata.com/pebkac.htm

and of probably interest to us EV Machine builders too..
http://dansdata.com/modularcar.htm
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Post Fri May 19, 2006 6:11 pm 
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Knightrous
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I'm currently doing contract IT work for for a local rural company who has just spent $160,000 buying a new software package (Momentum Pro).

It was only yesterday after 3 months of work that they discovered (When I gave them my tech inspection report) that around 30% of the computers were running Win 95, Win 98, Win ME and the program doesn't support that due to some crap with the terminal server using RDC... The program is to be up and running next friday...

First problem was the non-Win XP machines don't have RDC to connect to the terminal server... So we decided to install a specific version into them to get it working... Which involved 2 hours of juggling files across a network where Win 98 Machines will not share with XP machines and Win 95 will share with 98, but not 2000.... Since 95, 98, 2000 & ME al required drivers for flash drives, that was a no go, 85% of the computers didn't have working CD roms and I was left to network hop... Couldn't even get 98 or 95 to network map to the common X: drive Evil or Very Mad

Second problem was exporting all the emails from the computer to the terminal server... Outlook exports them as .PST files, Outlook Express doesn't, Outlook 2003 does it in something else again... So 3 hours of juggling and f**king around, I managed to get 2.6GB of emails onto 4 computers with crude measures of patching and cutting files and bahsing them around the network...

Third problem was tracking down 15 nameless networked printers in the building... MARCO!!!.........


POLO!!!


And that concludes my exciting 10hour day @ work and 2 hours of driving Rolling Eyes
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Post Fri May 19, 2006 7:35 pm 
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Nick
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That would be the RDP protocol and I know I used it on PCs prior to XP. RDP was not a standard protocol before XP and you always had to install a client; in this case the 16 bit client Which you can still download from MS. lternatively, youshould be able to create install disks from the terminal server.

So they use a software package that runs in a terminal server session? It sounds like it's all one site, so using TS for what sounds like a fairly straightforward supply chain database is weird to begin with; the extra cost of all the TS CALs and the large server makes term server very un-economical unless its widely distributed or an out-sourced solution. Does your client have remote offices or dial-in users?

As a client who has just laid down $160K, I would be expecting some serious vendor help here - can you get the company's authority hassle the reseller? If they are useles, get directly onto Markinson or at least threaten to. Stuff like what you are having to deal with should have been delt with by either the reseller or Markinson - They say they do that sort of stuff on their web site.

It sounds like the 95 & 98 PCs have old clients - you can dumb down security on the server to get around that at least partially. Bottom line - you seem to have been dumped into somebody else's mess and I would a) advise the client that the software vendor was negligent and b) charge a metric boatload for your overtime!

EDIT: If there is some money in it for both of us, I can simulate their network and give you precise settings to get the old & new talking.
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Post Fri May 19, 2006 10:08 pm 
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Knightrous
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Yeah, I'm always dragged into a big mess Cool

The reason for the terminal server is that the company will be slowly converting over to a Thin Client system. I've got the big hassles taken care of today, I've got 4 systems working perfectly fine, minus one with a printer issue. It's just now I have 7 stores to go and complete this work in... A total of 65 computers.

Sunday (Time and a half! w00t) right through till next Friday, I'll be slaving some nice 10-12hr shifts to get the whole network running before we "go live"... They better give me this full time position after this or I'm gonna kick some bawls Twisted Evil

Also, I don't think you could simulate their network... You could never simulate something so crap house Laughing redesigning the network will be one of my priorities if I get the full time position, along with a crap load of other things...
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Post Fri May 19, 2006 11:19 pm 
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Glen
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i had some guy at work send back 3 cameras, all of which had the lens caps on and 1 was tilted so far down it was filming its own base... idioth.

lol @ daniel that guy sounds like my boss hehe do it this way... *10 minutes later* NO ARGHHHH DONT DO THAT do it another way* XD no offence jeff lol
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Post Fri May 19, 2006 11:31 pm 
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Nick
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Sounds like they were sold an idea without a reality check. If you get is all going, you will definitely be worth the money! BTW: how did they buy the backend without the clients? sounds like you will be cleaning up a second time when the thin clients arrive Very Happy.
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Post Fri May 19, 2006 11:31 pm 
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Knightrous
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quote:
If you get is all going, you will definitely be worth the money!


I'm only worth $24.20/hr right now Rolling Eyes I'll get it done, I learnt a lot of new stuff today and hope to learn more during the week, it's a big enough insentive to me Razz Okay... The ability to make $300 a day helps as well Laughing

The Thin Clients take all of about 5 mins to setup to the terminal server. No cleaning up required for them thank god.... I just wish the project manager would spend the $$$$$ and buy 60 thin clients and just let me convert the whole network over a month or two...
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Post Fri May 19, 2006 11:37 pm 
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Glen
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actually you know what else totally gets to me?

those computer minded types... no seriously.. next person to spout of a bunch of random acronyms DIES. and it pisses me off how computer people get payed so much for doing nothing. i hope you all die XD
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Post Fri May 19, 2006 11:41 pm 
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Knightrous
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I feel sorry for all those non-computer minded types that don't get paid for doing nothing Laughing
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Post Sat May 20, 2006 12:02 am 
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Glen
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lol yeah when the computers turn against us ill be glad you will be the first to perish XD
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Post Sat May 20, 2006 12:11 am 
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Valen
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Joined: 07 Jul 2004
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TDT
dude its called linux boot disk with rdpclient on it. One instant thin client.
heck if the NIC's in the machines are any good you could network boot them and not have any media involved at all.

alternatly 32mb CF cards and adaptors are dirt cheap, linux rdpclient is free, thus total thin client cost ranges from 0 - $30(in bulk) using existing hardware.

Of course you then have to pay the microsoft licencing fees but hey, you dont need to pay for XP on the clients ;->.

If you really want to clean up, see if the program will run in linux nativly, or under wine. Run convert your server over to ubuntu (dapper drake in a few weeks, 5 year support life) run Xubuntu (*damn fast*, uses XFCE, or roll your own a bit with XDM and fluxbox. Go linux thin clients, and feel the lurve.

heh you may even be able to run XGL over the network to the "servers" with decent graphics cards.
SW cost 0 + whatever the vendor is charging *nix for the win.
drop me a line if you want more info
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Post Sat May 20, 2006 12:16 am 
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Knightrous
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At the moment, I'm just a contractor, they ask me to do something, I just do the job and collect my pay Razz These solutions are all great, but they are not needed as the problems are solved, it's just a case of completing the rest of the work over the network.

You idea is pretty cost effective Jake, but to the company I'm working for, Saving small change is not really an issue to them. They are a large corparate company and they want a reliable, easy to maintain system and the Thin Clients are there upcoming solution to it. If a thin client goes down, they open the a draw and pull another one out and plug it in. There main Xeon server just cost them $8000 and when I suggested a better AMD Opteron based server, I was faltly told they didn't care if they save $2000.

The Thin clients also saves them calling me, me driving an hour or two to the store, trouble shooting why some old shitty 233mhz system has died, fixing it and then giving them a bill. With the Thin Client, they can just replace it, and if there is further problems, I just VNC into the terminal server and have a look. The idea of using hardware older then 3yo is a real pain in the ass to me, it just causes more problems then it's worth.

Linux based, I'd love to get a crack at setting up a linux based network for this all, except I've as much experience with Linux as I do with flying a rocket Confused So it's no good if I cannot fix the system Rolling Eyes I've grown up with windows and until I can get more skills and a job that requires highly-focus linux skills, I'll be blissfully ignorant and stick with Windoze for now Wink
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Post Sat May 20, 2006 1:24 am 
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Nick
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Really, $8K for a server isn't much in the corporate world as servers go. A half decent HP DL380 with enough RAM disks and dual CPUs to run Term server or Citrix would cost $15K at least. I think the most I ever spent on a server was $45K, then there was a server farm and SAN that cost around $150K after heavy discounting... Your company is getting off lightly for hardware!
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Post Sat May 20, 2006 2:02 am 
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