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dorkanoid posted:Kyocera also does this, their "KX" implementation of postscript is OK...except that certain PDFs we create (from Adobe Indesign/Illustrator) actually hard-crashed the printer. When you tried printing, it would spit out a few pages, then show "ERROR Please turn the printer off and on again with the power button". Tried about a million different drivers, no luck, the only solution I found was to open the PDF in some kind of opensource PDF reader, re-print it to PDF, and then print it from Acrobat - but of course that hosed up the colors/fonts/illustrations/everything... Do they contain binary PostScript, or EPS files that contain binary PostScript. Illustrator loves to produce those and it fucks up a lot of things. If you need to de-poo poo such a job, I would recommend setting up a virtual printer that uses RedMon to chuck the job into GhostScript, convert to some other format (pdfwrite, ps or ljet4) and pass it on to the real printer. This can be set up on a print server in such a way that it's entirely transparent to the end user. This will work for other stuff beyond handling binary postscript. I've used to to send my hosed up PostScript jobs to a printer that is PCL-only due to Canon wanting to charge extra for PostScript support.
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Jan 28, 2014 20:27
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Lum posted:Do they contain binary PostScript, or EPS files that contain binary PostScript. We actually just let the (quite expensive) contract expire, bought a cheap color laser, and save money by having a nearby company print any "designed stuff" (and let them deal with the complexity of printing a PDF).
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Jan 28, 2014 20:39
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Che Delilas posted:Can anyone guess why? Lost and found policy was changed to "just bin it", new system scrapped, bonuses given for saving on development cost. Lady eventually promoted to head of it.
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Jan 28, 2014 20:43
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Galler posted:She never actually used the new system? Got it in one. Really, the problem wasn't that she was obstinate, the problem was that nobody above her (and there were plenty of people above her) would force her into line. It's easy: "You're using unauthorized software that accesses company databases. If you don't use this new thing we spent significant money on instead, you're fired." I knew from the moment we handed it off that it was never going to be used. Fortunately, enforcement of IT policy was not my problem. I made the software to spec, whether it gets used is up to someone else. The good thing is that I learned quite a bit from the project and its postmortem, including how I would approach another situation like that.
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Jan 28, 2014 21:03
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Che Delilas posted:I made the software to spec, whether it gets used is up to someone else. The good thing is that I learned quite a bit from the project and its postmortem, including how I would approach another situation like that. This. This is what too many people in IT don't understand. They get too involved in their projects. You are paid to code, to set up systems, to manage networks. If those systems aren't used? Not your issue dude, just go on to the next project. Once I learned this, my alcohol consumption went down 70% easily.
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Jan 28, 2014 21:09
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ratbert90 posted:This. This is what too many people in IT don't understand. They get too involved in their projects. You are paid to code, to set up systems, to manage networks. If those systems aren't used? Not your issue dude, just go on to the next project. I totally understand why people get too involved though. When you work on something for weeks or months and finally finish, you want people to appreciate that thing you did. When nobody does, it feels like all that time and energy was wasted. I actually think investment in your projects is a good thing. But when a project fails or doesn't get used, people focus too much on the fact that it failed, rather than why. If you focus on what you learned and how you grew as a professional during and after the project, its failure shouldn't get to you as much.
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Jan 28, 2014 21:20
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gently caress Aruba. We've been trying for about a month to get our support agreement renewed with them, after letting it expire for a while. Except they don't have the PO number from our reseller's original purchase agreement with them, and our reseller doesn't have it. Nor do they have a record of our controller's serial number ever having support, despite the fact I've already given them our invoice and poo poo we had with our reseller. And I don't even see why this is a problem. Just put the new god drat support agreement on the controller. I can't even log into our aruba account to see if there's any record of support information, because it loving expired. Shouldn't having a proper record of serial numbers and support agreements be a simple part of a loving service? Our network's been down for weeks, and all I want to do is spend a gently caress-ton of money to download a little firmware upgrade, and they're making it retarded.
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Jan 28, 2014 22:20
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Che Delilas posted:I totally understand why people get too involved though. When you work on something for weeks or months and finally finish, you want people to appreciate that thing you did. When nobody does, it feels like all that time and energy was wasted. I actually think investment in your projects is a good thing. But when a project fails or doesn't get used, people focus too much on the fact that it failed, rather than why. If you focus on what you learned and how you grew as a professional during and after the project, its failure shouldn't get to you as much. Exactly. That time and energy wasn't wasted because 1) You got paid for your time and 2) You *should* have learned something from the experience. If somebody appreciates what you did outside of the people who pay your paycheck, that's icing on the cake for sure.
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Jan 28, 2014 22:24
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I've been trying to get an evaluation license from RSA for FOUR WEEKS at this point, between 5 different sales reps
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Jan 28, 2014 23:27
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ratbert90 posted:This. This is what too many people in IT don't understand. They get too involved in their projects. You are paid to code, to set up systems, to manage networks. If those systems aren't used? Not your issue dude, just go on to the next project. The flipside of this build-to-spec mentality where you capitulate to the demands of dinosaurs who understand the workflow they've been using forever and who are you IT person to tell them how their department should work is that the world ends up with things like websites that close after 6pm because that's what the brick and mortar office does so why would a website function any different. But yeah, blame management for refusing to believe IT should have any input on how IT products function.
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Jan 28, 2014 23:28
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Lum posted:I altered the job so that it remains duplex throughout and added blank pages to be inserted after every page that was previously marked as simplex. Yuuuuup. The Toshitbox here at work does the same thing, with extra idiocy: if the inbuilt 3-hole punch attachment is down, you can still use 3-hole paper - except! if your document ends on an odd page (front side print, back side blank), then it'll print just fine... on the back side of the page only.  Also has the charming habit of folding pages as it exits the finisher, sometimes, and then throwing your job on the floor. (At least, until there's so much folded-up crap in the exit tray that a page jams, and then fuckyou I'm jamming all the way back through the paper path.) We shall not discuss the fact that this special snowflake *cannot* run NCR paper reliably, except for one particular grade/brand. Every other Toshiba in the organization will feed the old stock just fine. And jam up first page trying to run the "special". :gently caress
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Jan 28, 2014 23:39
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Caged posted:21c is a perfectly acceptable temperature. Anyone who thinks it's cold should wear a jumper. Apparently 66F / 19C are good temperatures to encourage fat burning: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25849628
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Jan 29, 2014 00:08
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fivre posted:The flipside of this build-to-spec mentality where you capitulate to the demands of dinosaurs who understand the workflow they've been using forever and who are you IT person to tell them how their department should work is that the world ends up with things like websites that close after 6pm because that's what the brick and mortar office does so why would a website function any different. It's not a build-to-(others')spec mentality that we're talking about really, it's more like don't internalize it when something out of your control goes wrong. The major lesson I learned from that project is that we (the development department) should have analyzed not only their requirements, but their existing workflow. The Lost & Found process was the way it was because the first thing people do when they lose or find something is go to the giant centralized security podium and say "hey can you help me?" Since Security mainly deals with "incidents" that go in a book, a lost/found report from a customer became an "incident" like all the others. We should have sat down with management and security and explained that L&F doesn't really qualify as incident-worthy, and propose a change in the internal policies and procedures. These are not impossible to change, they just have to be approved by a bunch of people. It's a coin flip over whether it would have worked; management was pretty lazy overall and the battleaxe would have complained to no end, I'm sure. The point is we didn't think to go in that direction. I have the confidence now to propose changes like this, if I get another corporate gig (which I am hoping to avoid).
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Jan 29, 2014 00:13
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dorkanoid posted:Kyocera also does this, their "KX" implementation of postscript is OK...except that certain PDFs we create (from Adobe Indesign/Illustrator) actually hard-crashed the printer. You would think a printer could print files created using the proper software wouldn't you? I've had the exact same problem many many times in the past. gently caress PDFs (more than printers)
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Jan 29, 2014 10:47
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Humphreys posted:You would think a printer could print files created using the proper software wouldn't you? I would at least expect it to handle things a bit more gracefully than "I give up, I'll just beep continuously and refuse new print jobs until you hard reboot me".
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Jan 29, 2014 11:02
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Somebody pinch me. One of the project managers from The Mothership is... (god I can't believe i'm about to actually type this) One of the project managers is managing a project adequately. She's asking questions to accurately predict a timeline, instead of just trying to determine one by fiat. She is setting expectations for the client that needs something pretty urgently. These expectations are adequate and based in reality.
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Jan 29, 2014 16:28
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Maybe you should lie down? Are you getting a fever?
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Jan 29, 2014 17:23
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nitrogen posted:Somebody pinch me. You're a liar.
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Jan 29, 2014 17:49
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nitrogen posted:Somebody pinch me. Look it dude, you don't have to lie on these forums to be cool OK? You can tell us the truth here, we are all friends.
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Jan 29, 2014 17:59
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nitrogen posted:Somebody pinch me. A good project manager is worth their weight in gold.
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Jan 29, 2014 18:08
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Don't worry, she's just going to be overruled, told her timeline is unacceptable, and to "make it fit, that's your job".
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Jan 29, 2014 18:23
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nitrogen posted:Somebody pinch me. Determing a timeline by Fiat = It trundles along moderately well and makes you think everything will be fine, then it suddenly breaks down leaving you stranded and somebody blows a gasket.
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Jan 29, 2014 18:28
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Lum posted:Determing a timeline by Fiat = It trundles along moderately well and makes you think everything will be fine, then it suddenly breaks down leaving you stranded and somebody blows a gasket. But then we get to move to CRISIS MODE and it's all hands on deck and assholes and elbows and nose to the grindstone until the project gets completed on time at the expense of employee burnout and all the PMs get attaboys from management... My gently caress that noise.
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Jan 29, 2014 19:39
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I have had enough of loving printers.... We have 50 printers spread across 8 different branch locations. All various makes and models. Spent just over $30k last year on toners/drums alone, and a few more $k in replacement and repair of said pieces of poo poo. Time to look into printer leasing or "managed print services". Anyone have any experience with such services? Any recommendations? All of our locations are in the area between Indianapolis, IN and Cincinnati, OH if anyone here knows any "locals".
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Jan 29, 2014 22:30
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D34THROW posted:Reminds me, has anyone worked with NAV? How is it? We've been through multiple versions of NAV, currently on 2009 for some of our subs. All of them have blown for one reason or another. The 4.0 version we used was some terrible C/SIDE abomination, and even the version of 2009 that we're on now uses C/Front and you have to push fobs around, frequently clobbering most of the permissions for unknown reasons. 2009 isn't unicode compliant. Users seem to like it okay.
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Jan 29, 2014 22:46
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Don't know who would be good for you locally, but as a general rule if you can get the printers on a lease contract then do it. I think if you were to spend more than about $800 purchasing a printer it will probably make more sense to lease it. Best thing is if it plays up you can just call a toll-free number and read out the fault code and walk away.
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Jan 29, 2014 22:59
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Westie posted:You're a liar. No man, I'm serious. Customer just askd her (and us) during a call. "When is X going to get done?" Her response? "I don't know, when are you going to sign the contract? As soon as you sign the contract, it'll be 21 business days from that point." This woman says "scope creep" more often than Jay from Clerks says 'gently caress'. This is awesome.
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Jan 29, 2014 23:03
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stevewm posted:I have had enough of loving printers.... I use Laser Networks and they have always been great. I'm pretty sure they do stuff in the U.S. as well.
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Jan 29, 2014 23:15
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For reasons even the VP of HR was unable to explain we now have an ADP/Kronos timeclock for our handful of hourly people. Apparently they thought their PCs took too long to boot up so they could clock in via the website, so instead of telling them to come in early enough to do so was too much trouble. And to get things started off right HR has already lost the maintenance keycard so I can't complete the install.
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Jan 29, 2014 23:38
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Dick Trauma posted:For reasons even the VP of HR was unable to explain we now have an ADP/Kronos timeclock for our handful of hourly people. Apparently they thought their PCs took too long to boot up so they could clock in via the website, so instead of telling them to come in early enough to do so was too much trouble. Well, that bullshit of nickle and diming hourly guys by having them login and stuff before their actual shift starts is pretty dumb. God forbid their manager keep track of their own employees or anything.
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Jan 29, 2014 23:41
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Dick Trauma posted:And to get things started off right HR has already lost the maintenance keycard so I can't complete the install. This is the best part. Being serious for a second, in an old job I had the timeclock-program automatically deducted two minutes from your check-in time to compensate you for your PC booting.
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Jan 29, 2014 23:42
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The best timeclock solution I've seen uses one of your door access readers setup specifically as an attendance reader that people tap their ID badges on to clock in and out. Everything else is hideously overpriced or just plain broken.
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Jan 29, 2014 23:44
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We just don't give a poo poo unless someone is being a problem employee, at which point we might pull the logs to see if they're first scanning to get into a door 2 hours after their shift is intended to start every day or something. Same as the web monitoring. I mean, we have logs of everything, but I've never once pulled them or looked at them because solving a managerial problem with a technical solution is dumb.
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Jan 29, 2014 23:52
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ratbert90 posted:This. This is what too many people in IT don't understand. They get too involved in their projects. You are paid to code, to set up systems, to manage networks. If those systems aren't used? Not your issue dude, just go on to the next project. Except then people keep getting on your case about why the new system isn't exactly like the old system except faster. Or you get blamed for how people don't use it. Or or or.
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Jan 29, 2014 23:57
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stevewm posted:I have had enough of loving printers.... We have about that same number of printers spread across over 30 sites (1 main campus, a few large off-campus sites, a bunch of tiny satellites) and if we didn't have a managed provider servicing them for any issue beyond "the paper's stuck" 100% of our time would be fixing printers. They're definitely a benefit, just make sure you go with one that offers a make and model that will work with what you want, and not just whatever they think you need. Speaking of printers, the reason I like fixing any issue the receptionist at our one satellite puts forth is the  responses I get whenever I do. She's been having a lot of issues with hung jobs on a desk MFP (not one of ours, a separate leased provider that a different department brought in for copiers) and she was smart enough to look at the queue, see who's job was hung, and go to their computer to clear it, so I gave her rights to clear jobs straight from the queue. Her response? " That's awesome! Thank you so much! *high fives*"It's nice to be appreciated.
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Jan 30, 2014 00:02
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Yeah sorry but gently caress turning up early to compensate for a clock in system reliant on PCs which take ages to start up. It's the company's responsibly to provide tools which are adequate for the job, not the employe's responsibility to spend extra time on site because the tools are poo poo.
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Jan 30, 2014 00:06
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Agrikk posted:But then we get to move to CRISIS MODE and it's all hands on deck and assholes and elbows and nose to the grindstone until the project gets completed on time at the expense of employee burnout and all the PMs get attaboys from management... My last project at the last company I worked for thought something like this would be a good idea. 11 hour days all week set in such a way that we didn't get a third break in the day (or, we did but they merged it in with our half hour lunch or something). I still don't know how I put up with a year of that but I remember it being absolutely horrendous for my health and being extremely taxing mentally.
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Jan 30, 2014 00:46
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We use ADP for our timeclock. The CEO's moron son set up the timeclock computer in our shop; every hourly employee uses it. Where aluminum gets cut with saws and metal dust goes everywhere. And it's exposed to the elements. And it's our smoke/break room. That loving thing won't make it another year.
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Jan 30, 2014 01:02
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rolleyes posted:Yeah sorry but gently caress turning up early to compensate for a clock in system reliant on PCs which take ages to start up. The PCs are all current and boot up quickly. The staff are showing up late (or returning late from breaks) and blaming the late clock in on the PC. So I guess they'll get what they want: a very strict timekeeper. I used to work at a call center so I hate digital sweatshops. No one should care about minor variances in clock in times. That said something else is pissing me off: supporting this ancient legacy system piece of poo poo:  I've dug through the batch files and found references to using Sidekick if you don't have enough memory for the program. 
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Jan 30, 2014 01:02
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sfwarlock posted:Except then people keep getting on your case about why the new system isn't exactly like the old system except faster. Or you get blamed for how people don't use it. Or or or. Because the new system was customized using the requirements we came up with together and you signed, this IS your signature right? Here on the list of requirements and mockup images? If someone wants to blame me for other departments not using a piece of software, I would ask them what complaints they've had about the program, and I'll refer to the lack of support tickets about the alleged problems. If problems DO exist, I'll suggest a meeting with the people having problems so we can iron them out, provided the company wants to dedicate my time to fixing them. If the problem is something trivial that an office drone is being obstinate about, management is going to have to decide whether it's worth X hours of my salary to fix it, or if that drone needs to sack up and deal with it. Maintenance of internal software is absolutely my concern in a job like that, it's just that my self-worth is not defined by whether or not a project is a success. If there are no problems and people are just being stubborn about using the new program, and somebody is trying to blame me, I'll affect delighted surprise that I was also the director of other departments all this time and didn't know it, and let's talk about re-negotiating my salary if that's the case, please!
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Jan 30, 2014 01:04
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