Thursday, April 20, 2006

Computer Tips from an IT person.

Dealing with people in my job usually means that I have to deal with different IT situations. Here are some helpful hints in dealing with I.T. people. I'm sure it will really help. Oh and thanks to Dr. Chery for sending me this.

IT support guidelines:

1. When you call us to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it
buried under half a ton of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals,
dried flowers, bowling trophies and children's art. We don't have lives,
and we find it deeply moving to catch a fleeting glimpse of yours.

2. Don't write anything down. Ever. We can play back the error messages
telepathically.

3. When an I.T. person says he's coming right over, go for coffee. That
way you won't be there when we need your password. It's nothing for us
to remember 300 screen
saver passwords.

4. When you call the help desk, state what you want, not what's keeping
you from getting it. We don't need to know that you can't get into your
mail because your computer won't power on at all.

5. When I.T. support sends you an e-mail with high importance, delete
it at once. We're just testing.

6. When an I.T. person is eating lunch at his desk, walk right in and
spill your guts right out. We exist only to serve.

7. Send urgent email all in uppercase. The mail server picks it up and
flags it as a rush delivery.

8. When the photocopier doesn't work, call computer support. There's
electronics in it.

9. When you're getting a NO DIAL TONE message at home, call computer
support. We can fix your telephone line from here.

10. When you have a dozen old computer screens to get rid of, call
computer support. We're collectors.

11. When something's wrong with your home PC, dump it on an I.T.
person's chair with no name, no phone number and no description of the
problem. We love a puzzle.

12. When an I.T. person tells you that computer screens don't have
cartridges in them, argue. We love a good argument.

13. When an I.T. person tells you that he'll be there shortly, reply in
a scathing tone of voice, "And just how many weeks do you mean by
shortly?" That motivates us.

14. When the printer won't print, re-send the job at least 20 times.
Print jobs frequently get sucked into black holes.

15. When the printer still won't print after 20 tries, send the job to
all 68 printers in the company. One of them is bound to work.

16. Don't learn the proper name for anything technical. We know exactly
what you mean by "my thingy blew up."

17. Don't use on-line help. On-line help is for wimps.

18. If the mouse cable keeps knocking down the framed picture of your
dog, lift the computer and stuff the cable under it. Mouse cables were
designed to have 25lbs of computer sitting on top of them.

19. If the space bar on your keyboard doesn't work, blame it on the
mail upgrade. Keyboards are actually very happy with half a pound of
muffin crumbs and nail clippings in them.

20. When you get a message saying "Are you sure?" click on that Yes
button as fast as you can. Hell, if you weren't sure, you wouldn't be
doing it, would you?

21. When you find an I.T. person on the phone with his bank, sit
uninvited on the corner of his desk and stare at him until he hangs up.
We don't have any money to speak of anyway.

22. Feel perfectly free to say things like "I don't know nothing about
that computer crap." We don't mind at all hearing our area of
professional expertise referred to as crap.

23. When you need to change the toner cartridge in a printer, call I.T.
support. Changing a toner cartridge is an extremely complex task and
Hewlett-Packard recommends that it be performed only by a professional
engineer with a Masters degree in nuclear physics.

24. When something's the matter with your computer, ask your secretary
to call the help desk. We enjoy the challenge of having to deal with a
third party who doesn't now anything about the problem.

25. When you receive a 30MB (huge) movie file, send it to everyone as a
mail attachment. Bandwidth? We don't need no stinking bandwidth!

26. Don't even think of breaking large print jobs down into smaller
chunks. Somebody else might get a chance to squeeze a memo into the
queue.

27. When an I.T. person gets on the elevator pushing $100,000 worth of>
computer equipment on a cart, ask in a very loud voice: "Good grief, you
take the elevator to go DOWN one floor?!?" That one cracks us up.

28. When you lose your car keys, send an email to the entire company.
People out in Timbuktu like to keep abreast of what's going on.

29. When you bump into an I.T. person at the grocery store on a
Saturday, ask a computer question. We do weekends.

30. Don't bother to tell us when you move computers around on your own.
Really, who needs to know where that stuff is anyway?

31. When you bring your own personal home PC for repair at the office,
leave the documentation at home. We'll find all the settings.

My 2 bytes.

No comments: