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Well the space heaters compound the problem. They'll trip the thermostat which will then either cause no heat, or the chiller to run to attempt to adjust the temp. Thereby screwing everybody else in the zone. That said HVAC zones are never perfect anyways - but should be able to get reasonably close - until some nitwit brings in a heater.Quote:
they let them stay because for whatever reason they just can't get the HVAC system zones correct
Good points. Maybe we will try to get them abolished again before winter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Melcar
Just tell people to wear a sweater!, I mean its not like SoCal gets bone chilling winters that can stick tongues to flag poles.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonlainy
No, but northern CA does get chilly. Not NJ chilly mind you, but nothing near as mild as a So Cal winter.Quote:
Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker
Has the company considered fans? if one side has too much AC and the other too little, That means they are wasting energy... depending on layout(is it walled off offices or cube farm) if its cube farm, I would not be surprised if some well placed fans to create secondary air movement could improve the issue. Main office building problem is that the best fan for the job cannot be hung from drop ceilings. the ceiling fan. to get them into that setup would need more work than i imagine a company wants to spend.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonlainy
Yeah, that sounds like a really poorly-ventilated HVAC system if a few space heaters can screw it up that badly. Unless you place the space heater right under a thermostat, of course. And if the office was heated properly to shirtsleeve temperatures during cold days people would not feel the need to place a space heater under their desks where it might melt their charger cables. Just turn the vent system fans on and turn the thermostat to at least 68 degrees and watch your space heater problems melt away like last year's charger cables!
You'd think that. Doesn't work though. We have people running space heaters when their office temp is 70+Quote:
And if the office was heated properly to shirtsleeve temperatures during cold days people would not feel the need to place a space heater under their desks where it might melt their charger cables. Just turn the vent system fans on and turn the thermostat to at least 68 degrees and watch your space heater problems melt away like last year's charger cables!
which means one technically needs a company wide policy banning space heaters in all normal office spaces.
I state normal as those "sheetrock shack" offices found in warehouses can sometimes be brutal in the winter if its not a very climate controlled warehouse.(and many warehouses are not climate controlled unless what they store is sensitive). And of course if the parking lot is access controlled the dude in the shack should be allowed a heater. But the people in the cubes farms can just dress warmly if needed.
I have always dressed warm for commercial buildings, It is much easier to take the sweatshirt off if its warm than to go in unprepared for ice box AC.
Yeah, we have space heaters on in the middle of the summer, and our summers get a tad warm. The building is old and the HVAC system is old, and the thermostats are in odd locations. I think most who have them now at least know not to aim them directly towards their computers, which is a step in the right direction if nothing else.Quote:
Originally Posted by Melcar
More importantly, make sure you have a paper trail proving that you told them so, so as to cover your ass.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonlainy
Double doozy day.
Training Manager: I'm trying to uninstall Robohelp 8 so that I can install a new version.
Me: What sort of problem are you having?
TM: Every time I choose Uninstall, go through the steps, the line item from Programs & Features disappears, then is back by the time I reopen P&F.
Me: (knowing he reboots once a month) Reboot then try again.
TM: (comes back) Same thing.
Me: (goes to his desk and watches him click the "Repair" option instead of "Remove" in the uninstall wizard) Repairing won't remove it, you need to uninstall it.
TM: But I want to uninstall it!
Me: Right, you chose "Repair" which will basically reinstall it without removing it.
TM: But I want to remove it!
Me: So choose Remove instead.
TM: But I don't want to move it, I want to uninstall it!
Me: Uninstall is the same as remove...
I do some of the system support for two of our sister offices on the East Coast
Boston User: I'm trying to access datasets that NJ User is accessing, but cannot see them
NJU: I'm running the program on my network drive
Me: BU, are you running the program from your network drive?
BU: Of course, how else would I use my program?
Me: And NJU, to clarify, your data is on your NJ server?
BJU: Yes
Me: BU, you won't be able to access NJU data on the NJ server if you're using your program running on the Boston Server
NJU + BU: But why not?
Oop, make that triple.
Tech Guy: It looks like the users installed your program into Dropbox
Me: You can't do that. Dropbox's automatic upload upon file change causes locking programs with our apps.
TG: Well, let me copy the folder out of dropbox and we can set it back up correctly.
Me: Okay
TG: Hmm, it's going to take 90 minutes to copy 2.3GB. Must be because it's downloading it from the internet.
Me: Um, dropbox, when installed, doesn't work that way unless it's a new install and before the folders sync. It's working as a local copy...
TG: No it's not, it's downloading from the internet! 2.3GB on cheap Cable takes a while.
TG: Oh, you have DSL? No wonder...
Me: Still, you're not downloading it...
TG: Yes I AM!
First one sounds like an ESL problem, as in the word "repair" can mean "to go to," as in "Let us repair to the egress." And the word "Remove" might look like it means "to move again," and it definitely does have an alternate definition of "a faraway place," as in "Their words cannot reach us at this remove." But once you've explained what the words actually mean in the Microsoftian context, the dude should shut the fuck up and accept your explanation and try to fucking learn something from you instead of arguing with you.
If you have a trail of paper covering your ass, you really need to be more careful when using the bathroom. Just sayin'.......Quote:
Originally Posted by Zumino Zufeilon
Depends, A lawyer might have a paper trail covering their ass just so they can make sure (in triplicate of course), When they shit, how much they shit, how much toilet paper was used, how many flushes it took to clear the bowl, Amount of soap used to clean hands. I mean someone from the legal department documents everything!Quote:
Originally Posted by Alikat Astrae
This is sort of like tech support, but not.
I had to shut off a boiler, and the cold water inlet to a 3 story building with 28 multi-story apartments in it all tied to the one main/one boiler. I spent Thursday mapping the isolation process for the boiler, and for the cold water from the street. Alot of these places have redundancies so that you can further isolate systems in the boiler/filter/storage/circulation and then replace systems while residents can keep their water as though nothing is being interrupted from their normal service.
Unfortunately, i had to get change out some very outdated stop-valves beneath some bathroom faucets on galvanized MIP, and I really wanted to make sure I didn't mess it up, and things went smoothly.
So the cold water array that I'd been looking at was made mostly of 2inch directly from the shutoff at the street. It came out of the ground, hit a ball valve, went through a pressure regulator, hit another ball valve, and then worked its way up to the building, hit what looked like a Check-valve (and on a 2inch, this check-valve was a gigantic box - I wish I took a picture). and from the check valve it wandered through a circulatory bypass of sorts to another pressure regulator (I imagine as a redundancy in case it or the other one ever fails).
So, feeling confident, my boiler shutoff mapped and marked, I went to work. The ball valves were all stuck to high hell,a nd the last thing i wanted to do was pressure shock the system, so even though they eventually gave way and let me close them, I hit the pressure relief valve over the storage each time. Easy peeazy. Finally, i got the broiler shut down, and hit the kill-switch next to the whole system's breaker just in case I missed another system of the electrical - finally, I turned down the thermostat.
i was real happy and feeling confident. Whenever I get handed an old building like this, someone onboard staff always has something to say along the lines of, "Well, i hear its awful shutting off water to ____ building" or "just know that shutting off water here is really dangerous." They're words never said by anyone who is in the know of what they are actually talking about, but I'd heard from the interim guy before me AND the previous guy out on injury (who started doing this as retirement of sorts from professional plumbing) that this building that I was shutting water down on could be a challenge.
So I walk around to the opposite side of the building where the cold water shutoff is. Real simple ball valve, right beneath that 2 inch check valve I'd mentioned - it was the most logical place to shut it off, seeing as touching any of the gate valves could leave me with a gate valve that might completely freeze itself shut due to corrosion. So, I've got the pressure relief bibb open on the bottom of the junction to the redundant Pressure Regulator, and sending out plenty of high-pressure water when I slowly shut off the ball valve below the check valve.
For a second I start to wonder if I should even leave the PR open, hesitate for a moment - the last thing i want to do is blow the lines up above because of an excessive air buildup - and go ahead and close it, and cap it. Water starts flowing out of the check valve - its entire container, and out the side. Nowhere specific, just out the whole damn thing.
My first thought is, "FUCK. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK. WHY DID I HESITATE?" At this point, I honestly don't know what I'm going to do about that check valve, because there's absolutely no way I can bypass it where I shut off the water, and I still have the stop valves 3 flights above to deal with.
I figure, i might as well get my mission completed and worry about cleanup after.
So I'm upstairs, and i'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. These galvanized pipes have got to crack, chip, break, who knows. Everyone always complains about them, and the building is pushing 40 years old.
Only they don't. These pipes were so well tended, where I normally have to use the amount of strength to bend a steel train track with my bare hands in such a confined space that a cheater bar doesn't even have room to cheat - I hardly move the pressure in my arm at the same amount of strength it takes to cut into butter thats been out of the fridge for an hour. One FIP stop valves off, Two stop valves, then 3, then 4. New ones on even quicker. Threading was so clean, I didn't need PTFE on there, but I figure I might as well be courteous to the guy who might have to do this same thing a decade after me.
That all easily done, I didn't even bother to put new supply lines on yet. I needed to cook my noodle on the water coming out of that check valve first.
So I get back down to the boiler, release pressure - even though there is none - from the storage tank. In reverse, I pop back on the circulatory pump's flow, the cold water to the filtration system, and then back through the boiler from the main line. Kill switch/breaker both re-engaged, and hit the PRV 3 more times.
Back down to the cold water line, I just stand there staring at the check valve. It is right in front of me where my hands are holding the Ball valve continuing to have water fall out of the cold water system above it, waiting for me to turn that ball valve on. My mind is calculating the possibilities all the while. I'm up on a pretty high and very steep hill. The street is about a 20 foot roll down the hill into a small brick wall and then concrete if I can dodge the wall. That will send water into the system and directly to that check valve at maybe 100 to 160 PSI - I guess I could hope that its actually going to be 60. In my mind I'm thinking, maybe the Pressure relief valve that was below this ball valve I used to shut off the line was no longer operating properly, and the check valve was taking brute punishment on its diaphragm before hitting the redundant PRV beyond it, and it finally "checked" its final cache of usefulness.
Without further much ado, I went to turn the ball valve. Water stopped coming out of the check valve. I stood there shocked. I should be soaked at the very least. Water should be spraying everywhere. I had the drain bibb open and water was spraying out of it - so I decided to go ahead and close that one in the mean-time.
i coudl not get my head around what I was looking at until I realized that the diaphragm of the check valve was designed to vent water when the system was closed - it sure as hell LOOKED bad, but in actuality, it was just a little corrosive in its designed nature.
End of the day, these things are always sort of a wonder to me. 3 years ago, you couldn't get me to even look at two valves and tell you which was which, and what went to wear. "Check" what?
I was brought up by a mother who said that if I didn't go to college I would be a garbage man. I was given the impression that people who worked with their hands were people lesser than me. I went my entire young life always curious about things like what I do now as second nature, and days like today are absolutely fucking amazing.
_____
THen there's that moment of humility that brings it all down, when at the end of the day, I'm in my work-shop, sitting at the desk, writing in my journal, condensing my notes about the property, revising, making and building timelines for projects that could happen, should happen, and need to happen, when I get a call about a toilet that is backed up.
Carrying my regular magical weapons up the apartment with the same sort of confidence in my smile, I am absolutely shocked when the tenant says, "Yeah, i told my husband about it this morning, and he said he'd take care of it, but he didn't, and now the toilet is backed up." -- followed by, "I don't know what happened exactly, I just know that our son put 3 rolls of toilet paper in there, and that someone used it and it hasn't been able to flush since.
Yeah -- Yeah -- I'll fix it... I always fix everything. Just.... Just next time... Next time, just fucking call when it happens. I'll fix it. I'll fix it like I always do. It's 5 o'clock and I have a family to feed and take care of, and my code of ethics requires me to finish this and get it working before I go home.
At least when this happen at 5 o'clock, it all turns into overtime.
Obviously you don't know any lawyers if you believe that they ever wash.Quote:
Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinthalas Tigris
Hey at least its not NYC... Not only do you have the water that comes into the building but you have the water tower on the roof that actually supplies the water pressure. Upside is not all buildings have boilers to fight with, central steam comes from the cogeneration and heats the buildings and believe it not the steam also cools the buildings.
Yeah, there's a University I'm looking into transferring to that relies on their steam system for heating and cooling. Its not really surprising its the same concept of heat exchange that freon goes through a condensor, its just that you have so much more room and volume to work with a heavier compound (water as opposed to freon) that it is very simply done at a macro elvel.Quote:
Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker
One of our apps communicates with an internet server.
Because this is a high traffic server, there are several failover IPs.
If there's a communication problem, there's a log file reporting which IP is having the issue.
Because this is an internet-facing application, we request adding the exe or the IPs to a whitelist.
(examples are unusable IP ranges, I know)
Whitelist entry: 333.444.555.66
Log entry: 333.444.555.666
Customer asks "Your white list entry says one thing, but the log says the other."
I email development. "Which one's correct?"
Developer: The whitelist entry, but it doesn't matter, because they're both the same.
Uh, what?
Two weeks ago, I got a call from a customer's tech.
He asked me to explain the errors he was getting. I start to do so.
30 seconds in to my explanation, he begins to yell at me, saying our support sucks ("but not you man, this is the first time I've talked to you"), that we should be able to fix an error that 4 developers had never seen, and that 3 senior technicians in 27+ combined years supporting the products had never seen, and that (according to several hours of code digging by developers) should never have been able to happen.
Roughly 4 hours of troubleshooting later (almost 2 by me, 30+ mins of which was the tech yelling at me, followed by 10+ minutes of my counterpart yelling at me about this issue being a "call ownership" issue) plus almost 2 hours of "sitting at the desk of the development manager as he re-did all of my troubleshooting plus 2 extra developer-only steps" resulted in said tech guy realizing it's an environmental problem.
Today I get a call from another tech for that customer and he says "Yeah we fixed that issue."
Me: What did you do?
Tech: Well we restored the folder from backup
Me: Um... (Considering we'd done full reinstalls of the program, and still couldn't get it to work, I don't see how going back to an older folder structure would have been a good thing...)
Tech: Yeah, it started right up, no errors. We still have no idea what was going on, we think it was a user profile issue. SO we also replaced the user's computer.
Me: But four of your users were having the exact same problem. You replaced one computer, and restored the folder?
Tech: Yeah, weird huh
No, it's freaking insane. His call was about as useful as someone stopping me on the street to say "Marshmallows are made of sugar."