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The past couple of weeks has been annoying enough that I think the grey in my hair is increasing at an increasing rate. About a month ago the government tv station I work at switched over to a brand new digital video router, playout system, etc. While I'm not the only person in my department, I'm the only one that did any of the work since my coworkers pretty much refuse to do any work or have any interest in learning how everything goes together. In fact one of them threw a mini fit when I told him that I probably wouldn't be keeping this ancient dvd recorder that has a built in hard drive because in my opinion it's a piece of poo poo. Never mind the fact that the recordings look like crap, its analog only, and we'd have to dedicate about $1k in hardware to get it working with our new stuff. The main issue we are having right now is some of the cable stations in the outlying areas aren't receiving our signal due to our video encoder slowly dying. We bought a new one, but turns out no cable station in our area supports a mpeg-4 h.264 stream. So I called around and found a used encoder that will do the job for $2500. What I should have done was just purchase it, what I actually did was ask my bosses what they would like me to do. One of them never responded, another said go for it, and one wanted to wait till he got back from vacation in early August to set up a meeting to discuss the purchase of the encoder and why I was going to buy a used one. Considering that a new one is about $15k and for that kind of money we have to get the county board of supervisors to approve it, which would take about two months. Now it appears that the encoder is totally dead so we have to swing into high gear and get everything up as soon as possible. Thats fine, but where was this urgency last week? So I get the vendor going, explain we have a rush order, get a call from the tech at noon, and get a shipping confirmation at 2 p.m. But I can't get it configured tomorrow because I have to go to a mandatory new employee orientation that is about thirty feet from my desk with all the equipment. Could I count on my coworkers to help out? Nope, they'll be loving around on the internet or taking long lunches. After working for county government for almost a year I have an appreciation for the private section or at least how my old station was run. No meetings to discuss what needs to happen at the next meeting, no endless amounts of stupid metrics (quarterly goal and employee reviews), being asked "why are you rushing around? You work for the county now, you don't have to work so hard," etc. If I wasn't getting paid more, I'd jump ship and go back to my old job where I was appreciated and had coworkers that were willing to help.
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Jul 30, 2014 06:55
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 Our web filter is god awful.
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Jul 30, 2014 19:42
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poo poo pissing me off: I returned to my apartment after 2 months in exile, and apparently I packed down my mouse somewhere in a Good Place. I am now stuck with an apple trackpad.
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Jul 30, 2014 20:40
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Me: Just a heads up, at some point I'll be receiving a call from X about a production issue, when I get that call I'll have to drop off this call A short time later - rriiinnnggg. Me: Oh that's him, let me grab that. Them: No problem, I'm going to continue working on X and after that I'll Y and hey if you have a chance can we... (etc etc etc) Tell me, first time phone user, how many rings do you suppose I have to play with here? If you said "not bloody many", you are correct. This wasn't a one time issue today, either. The first time, it went roughly as above and I had to hang up on him. The second time, I did that "talk really fast so as to indicate your rush" thing, no luck, he still talked and I had to hang up on him. The third time, I just hung up outright. Come on.
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Jul 30, 2014 21:04
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totalnewbie posted:
We had to get a special exception for http://www.msexchange.org/ but then again, I can see how mSexChange.org might get caught up in the filters.
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Jul 30, 2014 21:55
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MC Fruit Stripe posted:Me: Just a heads up, at some point I'll be receiving a call from X about a production issue, when I get that call I'll have to drop off this call I have one of these too and I end up doing the same. Unsurprisingly, this guy basically just loves the sound of his own voice and will talk for the sake of talking. Not only do his own meetings never achieve anything, he will hijack other people's meetings and once he gets going he will. Not. Stop. It's all I can do to maintain my composure sometimes.
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Jul 30, 2014 22:58
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e: It is funny to be that it seems to be your button. I whine about a lot of stuff on here as a release, but someone who just refuses to shut up is probably my #1 button, so I do believe we share that.rolleyes posted:I have one of these too and I end up doing the same. Unsurprisingly, this guy basically just loves the sound of his own voice and will talk for the sake of talking. Not only do his own meetings never achieve anything, he will hijack other people's meetings and once he gets going he will. Not. Stop. MC Fruit Stripe fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Jul 30, 2014 |
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Jul 30, 2014 23:07
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That horrible woman in Marketing came to me with a design sketch for a showroom that's being built. She says "the CEO wants to see what's represented in this sketch scrolling on these two monitors. How do we do that?" Long story short, someone approved a quote for a $5,000 video display system which appears to be two TVs and a server of some sort. I asked for the make and model of the display system as well as the name of the server software so I can find out the specifics and she says "Well basically you just put the video on the server. So how do we do this?" I repeated that I need the details on the system and software they purchased. Without that info I can't tell them how to do it. She sends me the quotes, which have no info other than TV/SERVER/SOFTWARE. I ask for the details I requested. She sends me wall mount instructions for the TVs. I ask for the details I requested. She sends me the TV manual. I ask for the details I requested. FFFFfffffuck I can't stand this person. I also can't stand that they'd spend that much money on something I'm supposed to support without getting me involved. I told her we don't have any way of creating the scrolling animations ourselves and we have to work with a production house and now she's even more pissed off. Some people poison any process they touch.
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Jul 30, 2014 23:12
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How much do you want to bet that it's two TVs hooked up to an Extron distribution amplifier with a VGA input. "What do you mean they both have to show the same thing?"
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Jul 30, 2014 23:28
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Dick Trauma posted:"Well basically you just put the video on the server. So how do we do this?"
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Jul 30, 2014 23:31
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Oh man it's supposed to go live in two weeks. 
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Jul 30, 2014 23:41
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I'm not sure the systems that can do that and 2 displays of a decent size are doable for $5000 Unless you're going to use some TVs in which case good luck.
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Jul 30, 2014 23:49
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Thanks Ants posted:I'm not sure the systems that can do that and 2 displays of a decent size are doable for $5000 Maybe they forgot a zero on the end. http://www.superiorlighting.com/Gre...=googleproducts That's just the server by the way, the output devices are all added cost.
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Jul 30, 2014 23:54
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I was thinking more digital sign player than media server, but even then you're looking at 10k just in server and player licensing before you've bought any hardware.
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Jul 30, 2014 23:58
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Thanks Ants posted:I was thinking more digital sign player than media server, but even then you're looking at 10k just in server and player licensing before you've bought any hardware. It might be Samsung's MagicInfo software. Don't know for sure yet.
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Jul 31, 2014 00:08
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I'm betting it's just two consumer grade TVs and an off the shelf PC and they just overpaid by about $3500 because the reseller slapped a sticker on it. e: And the software is the free Powerpoint Viewer.
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Jul 31, 2014 00:36
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Dick Trauma posted:It might be Samsung's MagicInfo software. Don't know for sure yet. Not sure if I remember correctly, but I think when I was under contract to Kodak our main door receptionist used to have a PowerPoint presentation on infinite loop and would just make up a new slide for whichever client or vendor was coming in that day and played it on the 55" LCD we had hooked up to a dedicated computer.
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Jul 31, 2014 01:39
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Not sure if I remember correctly, but I think when I was under contract to Kodak our main door receptionist used to have a PowerPoint presentation on infinite loop and would just make up a new slide for whichever client or vendor was coming in that day and played it on the 55" LCD we had hooked up to a dedicated computer. This is exactly what we used to do at an accounting firm I used to work at when I was just starting out in IT. We also had another PC with VLC that would play our companies TV commercials on repeat throughout the day. It seemed to work well enough - cheap, too. 
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Jul 31, 2014 05:32
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skooky posted:This is exactly what we used to do at an accounting firm I used to work at when I was just starting out in IT. I once worked at an ad agency that just used a DVD player and a splitter to put our reel on display in the lobby. Including the spot where an art director stopped listening whenever I told her "that orange isn't just not NTSC-safe, it's actively dangerous." Hideous. And it aired nationally too. I got a good chuckle every time that spot played.
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Jul 31, 2014 07:04
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mllaneza posted:I once worked at an ad agency that just used a DVD player and a splitter to put our reel on display in the lobby. Including the spot where an art director stopped listening whenever I told her "that orange isn't just not NTSC-safe, it's actively dangerous." Hideous. And it aired nationally too. I got a good chuckle every time that spot played. If it's in YouTube, we would love to see it 
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Jul 31, 2014 12:22
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mllaneza posted:NTSC Never Twice the Same Colour HalloKitty fucked around with this message at 12:27 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 12:24
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If you run out of ideas, the ASCII production of Star Wars: A New Hope is still available via telnet at towel.blinkenlights.nl 
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Jul 31, 2014 12:43
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Roargasm posted:If you run out of ideas, the ASCII production of Star Wars: A New Hope is still available via telnet at towel.blinkenlights.nl This is magical.
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Jul 31, 2014 14:46
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RadicalR posted:This is magical. I have never even seen any of the star war movies, but still find this awesome.
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Jul 31, 2014 16:16
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It's not the full episode  Cuts out right as Luke meets Leia.
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Jul 31, 2014 16:37
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Moey posted:I have never even seen any of the star war movies How does this happen in 2014?
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Jul 31, 2014 17:07
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Big Mean Jerk posted:How does this happen in 2014? Some of us have taste. In other news, a customer refuses to read documentation and submits a brand-new urgent ticket - which now auto-escalates to critical if not answered within eight hours - every ten minutes. Every other ticket is just "PROBLEM" as the subject, with "HOW DO I REMOVE YOUR SOFTWARE" as the body.
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Jul 31, 2014 17:17
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Big Mean Jerk posted:How does this happen in 2014?
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Jul 31, 2014 17:19
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Big Mean Jerk posted:How does this happen in 2014?
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Jul 31, 2014 17:34
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Roargasm posted:If you run out of ideas, the ASCII production of Star Wars: A New Hope is still available via telnet at towel.blinkenlights.nl I met the guy who made that at a LAN party.. 14 years ago? It's still as magical as it was back then.
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Jul 31, 2014 17:36
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Not sure if I remember correctly, but I think when I was under contract to Kodak our main door receptionist used to have a PowerPoint presentation on infinite loop and would just make up a new slide for whichever client or vendor was coming in that day and played it on the 55" LCD we had hooked up to a dedicated computer. This is smart. More reception desks should just do this.
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Jul 31, 2014 18:46
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Moey posted:I have never even seen any of the star war movies, but still find this awesome. Big Mean Jerk posted:How does this happen in 2014? This blog is for you: http://somewonderfulkindofnoise.blogspot.ca/, Star Wars OT, both liveblogging and after-reports of each film by an injured college(?) athlete living with his grandparents who is (increasingly was) pop-culture impaired. Factory Factory fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 18:51
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Factory Factory posted:This blog is for you: http://somewonderfulkindofnoise.blogspot.ca/, Star Wars OT, both liveblogging and after-reports of each film by an injured college(?) athlete living with his grandparents who is (increasingly was) pop-culture impaired. Sure is interesting that people take the time to do crap like this, and even more interesting that other people take the time to read it.
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Jul 31, 2014 19:05
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So, an exploit came out that is going to make life very difficult for Security folks. http://www.wired.com/2014/07/usb-security/
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Jul 31, 2014 19:07
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I am out of Peppridge farm goldfish. This is affecting production.
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Jul 31, 2014 19:16
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Dick Trauma posted:Long story short, someone approved a quote for a $5,000 video display system which appears to be two TVs and a server of some sort. I asked for the make and model of the display system as well as the name of the server software so I can find out the specifics and she says "Well basically you just put the video on the server. So how do we do this?" I hope for your sake it isn't Symon Targetvision SDA. If they bought consumer grade TV's your price sounds just about right. It's a networked digital signage device that's really just a P4 windows (Vista on ours!) box with some custom software. At my job they use them to send company information to monitors at the various coffee break stations. It's pretty much a glorified power point that also has a news crawl at the bottom and weather information that it pulls from Symon's servers. Besides the fact that Symon's support is less than good and their news and weather feeds just randomly break, we have had a just under 50% hardware failure rate with their boxes.
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Jul 31, 2014 19:29
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Moey posted:Sure is interesting that people take the time to do crap like this, and even more interesting that other people take the time to read it. I meant for the person who was shocked that someone could miss Star Wars, not for the grumpus who's ready to take the piss out of a teenager blogging to keep his spirits up after he got mangled and is going through a series of painful surgeries. 
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Jul 31, 2014 19:37
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Moey posted:Sure is interesting that people take the time to do crap like this, and even more interesting that other people take the time to read it. 
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Jul 31, 2014 20:30
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We have contractors pulling cables for some infrastructure upgrades. Work was scheduled to be completed upwards of two weeks ago and they are not especially near done. We called the lead to a status meeting to get them back on track. He arrived 40 minutes late to it. I am not an unreasonable guy. I understand delays happen and not everything can be foreseen. But for some reason no one is able to pick up a phone or send an email to tell people about them. I loving hate contractors. EDIT: I am peripheral on this, they didn't tell our lead guy on it either. We had to call and ask. guppy fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 21:11
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I love vague assignments. Write a knowledgebase article on boot from SAN for linux. Why? because ${manager} asked for it. ok, but why does he want it. What purpose does this article need to serve? Just write it.So I ask ${manager} what he wants in the article. what does this kb article you requested need to say? I need you to document the config for boot from san. there is really no config required for linux, its supported natively, along with multipath. What purpose do you want this article to serve? is it so the support folks know what boot from san is? Do you want them to be able to replicate it if necessary? Do you just want a basic article explaining how it works? I really don't have time to tell you how to do your job.So the article I wrote just says "${customer} uses boot from san on all their physical blade servers." I'm sure that's not enough, but i'll get yelled at for lack of content and maybe then they'll tell me what they really want.
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Jul 31, 2014 21:14
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