Tales from Techsupport

[FilanFyretracker]

Going to be honest I always thought it was heavier and that was why it tended to build up in basements first. But then I googled and found it really is a wee bit lighter.

What sources did that supervisor use though I wonder because all the top Google hits gave me the right answer of .28 .

[Tinthalas Tigris]

Going to be honest I always thought it was heavier and that was why it tended to build up in basements first. But then I googled and found it really is a wee bit lighter.

What sources did that supervisor use though I wonder because all the top Google hits gave me the right answer of .28 .

I was lead to believe this when the report came out to my department as the rage came around when i was working for a different company. We were told it was a heavy gas, like everyone. Then all the detector manufacturers started making duplex plug in models, etc.

Everyone thought it. It was eluded in the CA developers handbook and other official materials.

Years ago i tracked it down to a ca.gov article attached to the legislation issued by the california fire Marshall. It has hence been fixed,but too few people realize it.

[FilanFyretracker]

Well part of the confusion comes from the fact Carbon dioxide is heavier than air. So it's pretty easy to relate it to its non Mormon cousin that only hooked up with one oxygen.

[Mileron]

Customer uses one of our small utility programs much more than we ever expected.
They migrate the programs to a new server and start getting all kinds of errors that we've never seen in conjunction with this program before because well, no one uses it to support 12-15 users or 500+ datasets. Historically, the most we see is 1-2 users and a couple dozen datasets.
So yeah, they hammer this little program.

The first call in August we got everything back up and running. However, I informed the developer as kind of a "check out what these people are doing with the program, isn't this awesome?" kind of comment.

The second call in September they start getting bizarre "out of memory" errors for files that are a tiny fraction (less than 5MB) at which the database engine maxes out (4GB).
Normally if it were specific to a field, the error would state that, but it doesn't.
So I submit an escalation and the developer basically throws up his arms and says "Got me."

I did some digging and poking and prodding.
The utility program uses a data table in the executable folder to cache the information. So I provided a blank copy of those files from a brand new install of the program on my own computer for the customer's install to repopulate with the necessary information.
Unfortunately, more errors popped up.
Again, the developer says "Iunno."

At this point, the customer's complaining about the lack of support he's getting for an application that was never envisioned to be used at the scale which they are beating this poor little program. (And that's my own opinion, and not anything explicitly said by the developer.)
It also doesn't help that this program is also not monetized - we make no money on its availability.
He calls me up and basically says "we don't want to go back to using Excel to track this stuff" - which I fully understand, but if I can't get the support I need from the developer, whaddamigonnado?

I end up running a bunch of options past the developer, including removing each dataset's trackable 2KB file (which is what gets added to the executable datacache), which would unfortunately have two drawbacks:
1 - any custom entries would be lost
2 - the firm would need to rebuild all of that information on their own time/dime

The developer comes back and says, "You know, the program you're asking about has a temporary cache folder that is created on a per-user basis. If this folder's contents get corrupt, you could see all kinds of problems."

Um... the escalation's been open over a month - on a program that's been available since mid-2010 and most recently updated Oct 2015 - why am I just finding out about this now?

[FilanFyretracker]

ahh good ole temp cache folders, Adobe AE CC has one of those and that fucker can chew up HDD space and it does not reliably dump that cache either.

[Melcar]

User brings laptop to Tweedledumber because a desktop Icon for a network application disappeared.

Tweedledumber: Stares at it blankly for 10 minutes. Finally gives up.

User brings the laptop to me. 30 seconds later back out the door. Tweedledumber says "He fixed it?" User: "Yup, sure did". Tweedledumber "well how?" User: "He grabbed it back out of the recycle bin". Tweedledumber: "Why didn't I think of that?"

[Eremius]

I want to make a snarky remark but I just can't even think of an appropriate one for that level of dumb.

[Alikat Astrae]

Did I ever mention the time we had a neighborhood temperature spike of about 110F that overwhelmed our air conditioning, and the temp was climbing in our server room, which was huge, 30'x60' and a 20 foot ceiling. The guy who was allegedly better educated than most of us who had been put in charge of Operations ordered me to run down to the store and buy 100 lbs of ice. I didn't even need the back of an envelope to know that 100 lbs of ice would only drop the temperature in that volume of air by a degree or two for less than half an hour. Putting up a mister outside the building would have been a much better use of our time and money than melting ice all over the floor, which made quite a mess that we were dealing with long after the outside temperature dropped back down to the low three digits.

I guess what I'm saying is that the guys who lie on their resumes and are not actually all that competent at the physical sciences and technology tend to work hard to get promoted to positions where they never have to touch a wrench, but they can still fuck things up because they direct the people who do wield the wrenches to do incredibly stupid things sometimes.

[Tinthalas Tigris]

Did I ever mention the time we had a neighborhood temperature spike of about 110F that overwhelmed our air conditioning, and the temp was climbing in our server room, which was huge, 30'x60' and a 20 foot ceiling. The guy who was allegedly better educated than most of us who had been put in charge of Operations ordered me to run down to the store and buy 100 lbs of ice. I didn't even need the back of an envelope to know that 100 lbs of ice would only drop the temperature in that volume of air by a degree or two for less than half an hour. Putting up a mister outside the building would have been a much better use of our time and money than melting ice all over the floor, which made quite a mess that we were dealing with long after the outside temperature dropped back down to the low three digits.

I guess what I'm saying is that the guys who lie on their resumes and are not actually all that competent at the physical sciences and technology tend to work hard to get promoted to positions where they never have to touch a wrench, but they can still fuck things up because they direct the people who do wield the wrenches to do incredibly stupid things sometimes.

Lol. In a situation like that, you are ultimately just fucked.

Ac probably is not running as optimal as it normally does and could use a service, but regardless, once you are there, you are fucked!

[Alikat Astrae]

Yeah we have a few measures that can get us through a really hot day, but when people are driving to Hell to cool off, we are pretty much just fucked.

[FilanFyretracker]

That is when you need a more powerful AC system. Sounds like you are a few tons short of a properly sized AC system.

Down side is most server rooms have no exterior access so you cannot even prop a few doors open and try to let "cooler" outside air in if the system is really failing.

But hey throwing a bunch of garden sprinklers on the roof might have actually helped Or even better point a hose at the AC condenser unit if it was not a water tower and was just a normal copper coils and fans setup I have heard of that in extreme heat people will spray them to help the system stay closer to operation ranges.

[Tinthalas Tigris]

That is when you need a more powerful AC system. Sounds like you are a few tons short of a properly sized AC system.

Down side is most server rooms have no exterior access so you cannot even prop a few doors open and try to let "cooler" outside air in if the system is really failing.

But hey throwing a bunch of garden sprinklers on the roof might have actually helped Or even better point a hose at the AC condenser unit if it was not a water tower and was just a normal copper coils and fans setup I have heard of that in extreme heat people will spray them to help the system stay closer to operation ranges.

Its funny, really. People see a technician do something and then assume he is doing it for one reason.

Hosing down the roof might help cool the roof, but the insulation beneath, esp if the site has a dropped/recessed commercial ceiling is already handling the natural cooling of the room.

The water on the coils is to get dust and dirt off the system.

I see people put insulation on the copper lines (redrigerant supply), thinking it will make things cool faster.

Well, sure. Maybe a drop of rocket fuel, undetectable will get you to the finish line in a drag race by a nose ahead of the conpetitor, but it is going to take a full tank to make the insured true performance difference of a guaranteed win.

Further comparison to cars:

You service your car once every 3 months. You change filters, oil and maybe a belt here and there, and are told, ideally, what else needs to be done.

Most people do not service their a/c until it is already broken.

That makes no fucking sense.

[FilanFyretracker]

Honestly the only line on AC loops I have seen insulated by a professional is suction and that is usually more to keep it from dripping if it has to run any real distance. Since naturally suction line will get cool and sweat and drip.

We service our HVAC system twice a year. In the fall to get the heating tuned up and cleaned and in the spring to get the AC checked.

[Mileron]

Me: With everything that we need to do to resolve your issue, I estimate it will take at least 90 minutes to complete. I highly recommend we either do this first thing tomorrow, or late afternoon, say after 2pm.
Caller: How's 10:30 in the morning sound to you?

...

[Alikat Astrae]

For some people, 10:30 is literally "first thing in the morning."

[Tinthalas Tigris]

Honestly the only line on AC loops I have seen insulated by a professional is suction and that is usually more to keep it from dripping if it has to run any real distance. Since naturally suction line will get cool and sweat and drip.

We service our HVAC system twice a year. In the fall to get the heating tuned up and cleaned and in the spring to get the AC checked.

You are the exception to the rule.

A great a/c blower will cause the evaporator to have excess condensation evaporate before it drips. A decent one will have a condensate pan with a drain line.

A bad one you seecdripping (or has low freon).

[FilanFyretracker]

And if the AH is mounted in an attic an overflow pan under the unit. While a clog is rare, why bet your sheetrock.

[Melcar]

The Stupid it burns.

User trying to do something over the wireless - accessing a server using a different protocol (SMB) then the majority of our users use to access that server (http). He speaks to our webmaster about the access denied issue... and gets "well, that just doesn't work over the wireless, you're just screwed, can't do it that way".

He talks to me saying "Oh this is just perfect except webmaster says I can't do "this".

To which my response is, "While webmaster is technically correct - she's also a fucking idiot - you can't do that, because there hasn't been a need to do that yet; so here, give me 30 seconds with my firewall access lists and BAM! FUcking magic happens. "


The worst part about "webmaster" is she doesn't even know how to fucking ask intelligent questions. Hit's a stumbling block and the brain shuts down. "can't do that..." Doesn't ask Hmmm, WHY can't we do that? and we can't do that simply because nobody has needed to do that before you fucking moron.

[Tinthalas Tigris]

Uncle called me and asked if I knew how to fix routers.

after a 192.168.1.1, etc I asked him to plug the modem into the laptop.

Long story short?

Router was fine. Cable Modem was not plugged in.

[FilanFyretracker]

When I worked in cable tech support since we knew which model of modem people had one of the first questions is "How many lights on the xx brand box are on". First thing we learned is never say modem because they would always say "My Link-Sees is on" yes that is how non technical people pronounced Linksys. Usually if you got them to find the Motorola box it was unplugged(Moto was the most common brand deployed by cable companies for awhile) Some folks though you had to tell them it was the box with the cat ears symbol(look at the moto logo... its stylized cat ears when you are making things simple)... Or the most idiot proof one "The box by the Linksys with a TV wire into it" (TV wire is the cable line, But oddly enough saying TV Wire always got better results)