Computers don't run on magic.
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Category: News And Views
Forum Name: Thoughts and Opinions
Forum Description: Got something you need to say?
URL: http://www.tippmannsports.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=187055
Printed Date: 16 December 2025 at 10:49pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Computers don't run on magic.
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Subject: Computers don't run on magic.
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:06pm
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One room. One incredibly vapid teacher. Four Computers she wants hooked up ....in 3 different spots around the room. ONE data jack coming into the room. Zero wireless signals. Even with a switch, this room is going to be wired like a cancer patient....and I can't get this lady to understand that it is going to take a large chunk of time to complete, since the length of the cables I need to run are much, much longer than any standard length I can buy around here. I should have stuck to teaching. Then I could have immersed myself in the idiocy and been blissfully unaware of things that don't immediately pertain to me. ------------- ? |
Replies:
Posted By: carl_the_sniper
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:15pm
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Clearly you are a idiot
------------- <just say no to unnecessarily sexualized sigs> |
Posted By: oldpbnoob
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:19pm
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I would imagine that if you give her an estimate and she submits it to whomever she reports to that pays the bills, they will let her know that she is indeed retarded.
Don't they make wireless splitters? ------------- "When I grow up I want to marry a rich man and live in a condor next to the beach" -- My 7yr old daughter. |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:20pm
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Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:32pm
There's no wireless there yet. I'm putting a switch (or multiple) in there. I mean, it absolutely can be done...just not easily or quickly. And THAT is what you cannot explain to members of the academic world. To further the point, my old school wanted 20 desktop computers hooked up in a new room that was built, and it had a grand total of 16 power outlets. Their solution? daisy chain 3 or 4 power strips together to provide enough electricity to do the job.  ------------- ? |
oldpbnoob wrote:Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:33pm
'splain? ------------- ? |
Posted By: Benjichang
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:37pm
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Oh, the joys of IT. On another note, I've begun my word-of-mouth informal computer repair side job. Got one coming from a neighbor's uncle. Should be fun. -------------  irc.esper.net #paintball |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:47pm
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And now to my actual story: When I used to work for Dell installing computers into public schools, I'd have this happen on a near-regular basis. That's why I loved getting sent to brand new schools that had not opened yet - No teachers hovering in your way wondering what you are doing and wondering if you can scoot the machine a little more to the side and on and on and on. I'd just put on my iPod and roll around an entire floor of an empty building plugging in and configuring machines into the county school network. I've decided, since I've had a job very much like yours, and because I'm bored at work waiting for a shipping form to come in from across campus, I'll type out least favorite things about working on school computers in schools that were not freshly opened. This is not in any particular order. 1) The teachers who don't read e-mails. Weeks before the install, we'd ask the school's tech people to send out an e-mail to all the teachers explaining that they are getting new computers, so they need to clear everything away from the desks where they want them to be in classrooms. Of course, almost half the time I'd get there, things would be piled up on the desks around the old computers. Elementary schools were the worst. You'd have stuffed animals, books, puppets, a pet turtle, everything you could think of. I'd get in the classroom and ask if they could please move the stuff, and wait in a tiny little desk while they slowly moved everything, complaining about having to move it. I'd ask if they got the e-mail about moving things, and almost every time the response was "I don't check that thing." 2) The school tech people who didn't read their e-mail. This happened in existing schools with computer labs. We'd send out an e-mail saying "Look, if you have a computer lab with existing machines that are getting replaced, you MUST pull out the old machines before the crew gets there." Essentially, Dell didn't want to pay me and four other guys $14.50 per hour to lug around junk. More times than not, we'd get to a lab and there would be 45 circa-1998 gray Gateway stinkboxes still at stations. The tech guys never read the e-mail. So we'd tell them we were going to get lunch, and when he gets the stinkboxes moved we'll start the install. 4) The feng shui folks. You'd get everything set up in their room exactly how they asked, but then they'd stand back and go "No, you know, it just doesn't work for me. Could you scoot that desk down just a bit?" And then once you got it moved, they'd want it scooted back just a bit the other way. Why does this matter? It's for 8-year-olds to play MathBlaster on. 5) The wizard expectations. This is what you dealt with today. We'd get into the room, and the table for the computers would be across the room from the jack. So, I'd have to go get a 60 foot cable and run it along the side of the room. This usually was followed by the teacher complaining that the cord looks ugly and kids will trip on it, could I please move the computer and desk closer to the jack. So I then had to go back and get a shorter cord and put the 60 footer back in the van. I doubt the 60 footer every actually got used. That, or the ones who would have requested five computers in a room with two jacks, and complain that there were too many cords. 6) The ones who watched SWORDFISH too many times. If you work at a middle school or elementary school, you probably don't have to make system password "M1CH!U@HU1@" (That was an actual password. I'll never forget it). These are just a few examples. I could go on. |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:48pm
Its getting tougher to do that. There's so many people out of work near me that they're offering up IT work at some real rock bottom prices that are tough to compete with and still pay my gas money. ------------- ? |
Posted By: oldpbnoob
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:53pm
------------- "When I grow up I want to marry a rich man and live in a condor next to the beach" -- My 7yr old daughter. |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 12:56pm
I ran into that problem with Dell, but their policy is that one extension cord can be filled, and that is it. You can't daisy chain one extension cord into another. Of course, the school tech folks would always insist that we do it anyway, and then just do it once we left. |
Posted By: Gatyr
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 2:14pm
I'm fairly certain his post was a joke, if only because of the 'a idiot.' Get smrter, Reb. ------------- 
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Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 2:17pm
I had an irrational fear for a minute that he knew a quick and easy solution to my problem that was common sense and I'd just missed it. Hence my dig for an explanation. He could be right anyway. ------------- ? |
Posted By: High Voltage
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 2:17pm
Sounds like Reb needs more practice making cables. 
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Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 2:26pm
Yeah, fire code where I was dictated that daisy chaining power strips together was a bad thing. The superintendent had me hide the strips up in the raceway under the table. When I protested this setup for safety reasons, he practically snarled at me to 'Just get it done' ....you'll notice I'm not working there anymore. Whale, your list is exceptional. The only thing I'd add to it is this: - Irrational administration. they can often be in such a hurry to integrate the latest and greatest technology into the classrooms that they don't notice the physical infrastructure of the building itself cannot handle what they want it to do. This is where the daisy chaining, the miles of cable, and the sometimes shoddy performance of equipment comes from. Again at the old school: They were in the midst of a capital building project. Each room was supposed to get multiple data jacks that tied into the new system that got wired back to a brand new data closet. Well, come the end of one summer, the closet hadn't been moved, so the contractors wired one data jack to each room that tied back to the old data closet. Not bad- except each room was given 4 brand new desktop computers that the superintendent wanted working....NOW because he was giving a grand tour of the facilities to the board of education. When I suggested switches and wires, he flipped- telling me that under no circumstances was I tearing into the ceilings of the new rooms. instead, they authorized several thousands of dollars to purchase temporary wireless access points, and PCI wireless cards to be installed into every. single. computer. 10 months later, it was all torn out and replaced with the permanent wiring solution, and dozens of computers have these PCI cards in them that are now worthless- and the old access points are gathering dust. ------------- ? |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 2:31pm
hahaha. I've got an entire library with 18 workstations and custom length cables running to them that will say otherwise. 36 ends in the space of a handful of hours....you get nightmares about "White-Orange, Orange, White-Green, Blue..............." ....anyone ever play with the 3 piece ends that are meant to work on CAT6? What a pain in the neck those things are. ------------- ? |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 03 November 2010 at 3:27pm
Yep. Although, I had the advantage of working for the third-party installation company, so if we showed up and the admin wanted us to wire a lab in a room not made to be a lab - as in it had the standard two-plug connection, we could just tell him "Nope. Not doing it. Pick another room." That, and with the technology being not needed thing, I cannot tell you how many orders schools put in for mass, mass purchases for new computers where they added on microphones, headsets, wireless keyboards (They couldn't not order the normal ones, so now they had two) scanners, multiple video output adapters, etc., and then when we went to go set them up, the tech person would just tell us to pile all the extra peripherals up in a storage closet because they were not going to bother using them. And then, in one case, the dean ended up scolding the tech guy for telling us to not use the stuff they had paid for, and we ended up having to go get the crap out of the closet and unwrap and unplug. Oh, and then there was the guy who insisted - insisted - that we configure all the teachers' computers into a local server he set up at the school as opposed to the county server. He got mad, yelled at me, and called the admin while I called the county. The county explained to him that all the gradebooks are kept on servers that run county-wide, and you cannot run anything off of your own. I ended up winning. |