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Kurieg posted:How can you create a hostile work environment for someone who isn't technically employed there? I think the appropriate response to this is "yeah gently caress off" before stabbing them with the nearest tool. This counts if the nearest tool is a spoon. But seriously, who the hell does that to people?
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 14:49 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 07:09 |
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It was a P.A. system with the speakers wired in parallel, so it was perfectly fine right up until someone tried to page someone. Then they used the P.A. system to tell people to not use the P.A. system. Followed by someone using the P.A. system to ask why. It was a small company with a two person IT department that doubled as building management. But I learned how to fish cable and punch down cat 5 B, so it wasn't a whole loss.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 15:05 |
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spankmeister posted:really? As I understand it, because interns aren't employed or paid by the company they can't sure the company when harassed by an employee. But nothing is stopping the intern from taking the issue to civil court or getting a restraining order against the harasser. Unless I've grossly misunderstood something, in which case what the gently caress US legal system?
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:03 |
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So we're opening a new facility and admin wants us to setup a pa system with wireless mics. Outside, where we have no power connections anywhere to be found. Its in the middle of a field, we'd have to run an extension cord around 500 feet over a road to some neighboring business if they'd let us. That's on top of all the interference we'd get on our lovely cheap mics from the wind. They got pissed when I told them it's not possible and to just get a megaphone.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:04 |
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You can't just wheel this diesel generator out to the field every morning? ... Our event was a disaster. The diesel generator wasn't working properly. Can you take a look at it first thing tomorrow please?
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:08 |
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Nah man, they're expecting you to rig up something like you see in festivals man. If they can set up giant speakers to throw out sound in the middle of a field, why can't you? E: Ninja'd like a motherfucker.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:10 |
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Roargasm posted:You can't just wheel this diesel generator out to the field every morning? This is why you say no to the first one. Are you a loving mechanic now?
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:13 |
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Would this be a good thread to ask about the software you all use for your tickets to come in? Our company uses ServiceNow(moved from Remedy, which wasn't loved by anyone) for both internal and external issues, and external stuff is probably 99.9% of the volume. There are separate teams to handle each, and since ServiceNow is kind of a clunky ugly monster, I'd like to make the case for moving Internal Help Desk over to a different and wholly separate system. Right now I am kind of leaning toward Zendesk or Mojo, but I'd appreciate any advise or anecdotes.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:16 |
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Sirotan posted:I tried to set up Lync Server 2013 the other day to upgrade us from Office Communicator 2007 R2 and got stuck on step one of the AD upgrade wizard because our domain functional level was still at Sever 2000. Yup, that's where I am too. I'm really looking forward to this "Discuss AD rebuild" meeting that's scheduled in mid July so I can see the look on everyone's face when I tell them what this will involve and how long it will take. I don't think anyone really understands the scope of it. AlternateAccount posted:Right now I am kind of leaning toward Zendesk or Mojo, but I'd appreciate any advise or anecdotes. We use Kayako Fusion and for the most part, it's fine. I had to hack together a plug-in for it so it could parse email responses and place them in to bugs and it used to do LDAP authentication but now it's missing in the version we have for some reason. There's a couple things it does that I think is really clunky like how it handles Staff responses and how it wants people to put tags on loving everything but its audit logging is fantastic. Zendesk and Mojo both look like superior products, however. Edit: I forgot to mention that Kayako also doesn't seem to have any spam protection and comments is enabled by default on almost everything. This gets to be a little messy if yours is accessible from outside the intranet like ours is. The spam bots have also taken to adding a bunch of garbage tags on everything which I can't seem to find how to disable. Helushune fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Jun 4, 2014 |
# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:25 |
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AlternateAccount posted:Would this be a good thread to ask about the software you all use for your tickets to come in? We use Heat which is terrible and everyone hates it.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:30 |
AlternateAccount posted:Would this be a good thread to ask about the software you all use for your tickets to come in? Service Now is awful. SpiceWorks is one i hear pretty often for small/low-volume needs.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:30 |
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Kayako is pretty good.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:34 |
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Zendesk is pretty cool and Works which is convenient. I use JIRA (starter license) for internal logging and I'm in love with it. I wish I could scale it out to other departments but
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:38 |
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ConfusedUs posted:SpiceWorks is one i hear pretty often for small/low-volume needs. Word is that SpiceWorks starts to choke and gag past a few hundred users? I dunno, I probably shouldn't dismiss it out of hand. JIRA seems more focused on development and project tracking, I need something that's very, very Fisher Price and pretty for end users to encourage them to use it. Some kind of AD integration and E-mail->Ticket features are pretty much a must, I should've mentioned, so it sounds like Kayako is out.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:38 |
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Roargasm posted:Zendesk is pretty cool and Works which is convenient. I use JIRA (starter license) for internal logging and I'm in love with it. I wish I could scale it out to other departments but Zendesk is pretty awesome and I have suggested it a few times. The things I like about it. 1: Your users don't need to have accounts created. They are created automatically as they email in. 2: They can email in tickets. 3: Assigning tickets and leaving notes is simple. In and out of tickets quickly without a lot of fluff. 4: Metrics and reports are simple. 5: Its cheap.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:45 |
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Sickening posted:The things I like about it. Will it continue to auto-associate that newly created account with all future tickets from that e-mail?
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:50 |
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AlternateAccount posted:Will it continue to auto-associate that newly created account with all future tickets from that e-mail? It always has in my experience.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:54 |
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Guess what. We also use service now. It's a functional piece of poo poo but goddamn does it take a lot of work to get functional. SolarWinds Orion has a free tool - alert central, which can handle some parts of service now a lot easier, but only for IT. It's poo poo for regular users. I hope one day we too migrate away from SN but we won't.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 16:59 |
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Sickening posted:Zendesk is pretty awesome and I have suggested it a few times. We use it here to, and agreed. I've got very few bitches about Zendesk (collision detection was broken for-loving-ever, but, ah well). Its clean, its easy enough, and it just seems to work.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 17:24 |
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Ours is an in-house ticket system coded by, I think, the CEO and his daughter. It used to be kind of clunky, but almost all of the bugs have been worked out. It's probably not the sleekest interface, but it works well, and anyone can suggest fixes and changes that usually show up within a few days.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 17:32 |
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A ticket came in... for electrical work. A piece of lab equipment has a function that has never worked to anyone's memory, and now they want to use it. Despite this being totally not my job, there's no one else who even has a chance, and, well, I had an hour while my actual work was running, so I took a look at it. Usually it's something quick and easy to fix, like "researcher forgot to turn on the screen" or "screws had vibrated loose and needed to be tightened". But... something in this circuit is very hosed, because it's got the standard AC hot/neutral/ground, but I'm measuring 110V neutral to ground. I think this is outside my ability. Bobulus fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Jun 4, 2014 |
# ? Jun 4, 2014 17:38 |
Bobulus posted:A ticket came in... for electrical work. A piece of lab equipment has a function that has never worked to anyone's memory, and now they want to use it. I have three simple rules that I apply for electrical work. 1. Don't gently caress with electrical if you're untrained. 2. Don't gently caress with electrical if you're untrained. 3. Don't gently caress with electrical if you're untrained. It's not worth dying over.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 17:39 |
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Yeah, I'm declaring this one beyond my ability and letting someone else worry about it. My electrical knowledge only extends to dismantling various broken appliances in my teens. I was mostly just posting it because I'm not clear how the equipment could be that badly short-circuited and not blow a fuse in the building.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 17:41 |
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Fuses only blow when the current exceeds parameters and is emulating dangerous temperatures in the wire. They're intended to prevent electrical fires (As is the intention of 90% of the electrical code), If somethings just plain wired wrong or it might not actually be noted until someone gets a shock or is actually electrocuted. The exceptions to these are GFI circuits which detect a ground fault. Call an electrician.
QuiteEasilyDone fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Jun 4, 2014 |
# ? Jun 4, 2014 17:47 |
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AlternateAccount posted:Some kind of AD integration and E-mail->Ticket features are pretty much a must, I should've mentioned, so it sounds like Kayako is out. Kayako case is email driven and has ldap/ad support
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 17:49 |
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AlternateAccount posted:Would this be a good thread to ask about the software you all use for your tickets to come in? Another vote for Zendesk from me. We use it at my current company and it's great. Having people just e-mail tickets instead of having to log in every time is great. It goes down every once in a blue moon but their support staff are super on the ball.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 17:50 |
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MisterAlex posted:Ours is an in-house ticket system coded by, I think, the CEO and his daughter. It used to be kind of clunky, but almost all of the bugs have been worked out. It's probably not the sleekest interface, but it works well, and anyone can suggest fixes and changes that usually show up within a few days. To me, having the ability to customize and quickly make changes is the most important thing to look for in a ticketing system. Assuming that the software is not screwed up completely, the biggest problems have come from the software configuration trying to dictate reality and force you into a set of processes that make no sense. Having someone familiar with how the users work who can make changes can help this.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 17:59 |
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An email came in.quote:11:58am Well... no, actually. We don't supply hardware, departments have their own budgets for buying stuff. Sometimes I have a spare laptop around, but I don't right now, and four hours isn't enough time for me to try to scare one up for you. Maybe you could provide more than a few hours' notice next time. Or -- I know this is gonna sound crazy -- you might consider budgeting for your own loving equipment needs. This is an annoyingly regular occurrence. This is the second person today to ask me if I had a spare laptop they could use, except they wanted one on literally zero hours' notice.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 18:01 |
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pr0digal posted:Another vote for Zendesk from me. We use it at my current company and it's great. Having people just e-mail tickets instead of having to log in every time is great. Plus its in "the cloud".
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 18:01 |
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BaseballPCHiker posted:So we're opening a new facility and admin wants us to setup a pa system with wireless mics. Outside, where we have no power connections anywhere to be found. Its in the middle of a field, we'd have to run an extension cord around 500 feet over a road to some neighboring business if they'd let us. That's on top of all the interference we'd get on our lovely cheap mics from the wind. They got pissed when I told them it's not possible and to just get a megaphone. I did almost exactly this a couple years ago - PA system covering a couple of spots in the bay for a powerboating event. Had some pretty good PA equipment, but no power, no means to carry a signal site-to-site without draping cable all over the bay. So! Six car batteries each end, 12v inverters, laptops with GPS dongles, and a Mumble server to carry the signal. All wrapped in tarps to keep dry. It worked perfectly, but it was a pretty dumb setup forced into being by the dude accepting the job without having the right equipment or knowing much about computers. His first idea when he came to me was Skype with a couple of phones, somehow.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 18:07 |
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Service Now is a powerful tool, but as a ticketing system it is loving atrocious. My first ticketing software experience was with Track-It, which I thought was frustrating at the time. I would kill for some of those features now.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 18:20 |
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Sundayturks posted:I did almost exactly this a couple years ago - PA system covering a couple of spots in the bay for a powerboating event. Had some pretty good PA equipment, but no power, no means to carry a signal site-to-site without draping cable all over the bay. The standard way to do this is a wireless beltpack with line input and a receiver. or in-ear transmitter and receiver. Or just throw duct tape at it like you did
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 18:21 |
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spankmeister posted:Kayako case is email driven and has ldap/ad support My install of Fusion doesn't support ldap/ad or emails coming in as tickets and I had to hack together email reply parsing support. I swear our old pre-Fusion install did both of these though.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 18:22 |
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QuiteEasilyDone posted:Fuses only blow when the current exceeds parameters and is emulating dangerous temperatures in the wire. They're intended to prevent electrical fires (As is the intention of 90% of the electrical code), If somethings just plain wired wrong or it might not actually be noted until someone gets a shock or is actually electrocuted. The exceptions to these are GFI circuits which detect a ground fault. Call an electrician. And lock-out tag-out. Don't want anything happening in the mean time then have someone come after you for knowing there was a problem and not telling anyone.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 18:50 |
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guppy posted:An email came in. I get called when the meeting is already in progress.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 18:59 |
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Ooh, ticket chat. Many of our clients are in our (or their own) ServiceNow environment which went live this year. It works well enough when you have people actively fixing the issues and enhancing it on a daily basis. Before that, we did everything with a self-hosted system called ConnectWise. Two of our largest clients (in both size and call volume) still use it and probably won't switch until next year. And another client we have uses a Dell version of Remedy.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 19:14 |
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Dick Trauma posted:I get called when the meeting is already in progress. Yeah. We get a lot of walking into meetings with C-levels standing around waiting for you to fix something. Or a training room waiting on you to start because nothing was tested that morning or the day before. Bums me out man.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 19:20 |
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luminalflux posted:The standard way to do this is a wireless beltpack with line input and a receiver. or in-ear transmitter and receiver. I no longer do work of any sort for that guy because it became clear that if there was a good way to do something, that wasn't the way it was going to happen.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 19:57 |
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AlternateAccount posted:Would this be a good thread to ask about the software you all use for your tickets to come in? Cherwell is pretty drat good, if you bother to get it properly configured. BMC just pushed out FootPrints v12 and... well, wait for the first SP, I'd say. Internally, we're still using Service Desk Express (Magic), but we're going Remedy this year.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 20:00 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 07:09 |
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AlternateAccount posted:Would this be a good thread to ask about the software you all use for your tickets to come in? I've been using ManageEngine Service Desk for a year and a bit, and I find it excellent. Fully featured, easy to use for both technicians and users, and its actively developed with patches every 2 weeks.
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# ? Jun 4, 2014 20:06 |