Things not to keep on your school file server #4

Any combination of non-school files that total around 14GB.

If a student uploads 14GB in a day (a bunch of ripped DVDs and personal photos, for example),  I’ll notice first thing the next morning after the nightly audit.

Bond, on the other hand, will notice almost immediately when he gets an email from the storage server because it has just tipped over to the ‘warning’ level on free space.

He will then call me and relay his anger, shortly after which he will accidentally disable the student’s account.

Anger Management

Sometimes when I get annoyed, I’ll have to vent to someone to cool off.

Sometimes I go for a walk.

Sometimes it becomes that day’s blog post.

Eventually, it becomes clear that there is only one way to deal with it.

I handed in my notice today. At the end of June, I will be taking up a Network Manager post in a school much closer to home. It’s more responsibility, better pay, and less than 10 minutes drive from my house.

It’s hard to be angry on a day like today.

Time after time

There is a teacher in the school who has asked me on 5 separate occasions to install a particular piece of software ASAP on a computer because she expected it to be there already and couldn’t find it when she needed it.

Each time it is a different computer. Each time, the software is already installed, complete with a shortcut in the same place on the Start Menu as on every other computer.

I might be able to understand this if a) the shortcut was not in an obvious place, and b) this had only happened once or twice, but after 5 times of the shortcut being in a place that everyone else in the department has no trouble finding, I’m starting to wonder if she has genuine memory problems, or if she is just an idiot.

Toast

This, for future reference, is what a toasted hard disk interface board looks like. Notice the small crater in the chip nearest the front, and the scorched foam padding on the drive housing.

Who likes their hard drive extra crispy?

Dear YouTube

I recently tried to upload a video file to your service. It was a large file, and I was therefore irritated when it failed with an ‘unknown internal error’ right after the lengthy upload had completed. I was doubly irritated when it happened the second time, and about ready to shoot someone when it happened a third time after I had spent a considerable amount of time re-encoding it to a different format, one suggested by the prominent “Best video formats for YouTube” link.

It was then that I spotted the comparatively minuscule ‘Having trouble?’ link, and on clicking it, discovered I had been sent by default to your new beta uploader.

Your beta uploader is not labelled as a beta. It appears almost identical to the ‘non-beta’ uploader. That is, with one exception. Your non-beta uploader actually works without throwing a useless error message.

If you are going to try out new software on your customers, may I suggest:

1. telling them,
2. putting in some error messages that are actually useful, and
3. making the software actually work.

A less able user would almost certainly have given up after the three failed attempts I had. This does not bode well given that the vast majority of your content is user-generated. If you upset your contributors, you upset your entire business model and can kiss your butts goodbye. I put it to you, sirs, that this would be a stupid thing to do.

Love and kisses,
AngryTechnician

HP seriously need to get it together

Last month, HP published a support document outlining a problem with their Universal Printer Driver. The issue is one that, when I spoke to HP about it 6 months ago, they claimed was a problem with my configuration and had no interest in helping me with.

The workarounds they list are not very effective; I know, because I’ve tried them. The actual fix, according to the support document, is to install version 4.7.2 of the driver software.

It’s been more than 7 weeks since they published that document, and version 4.7.2 has still not been made available on the HP website. No public release schedule exists. No-one from HP seems to want to discuss it.

HP really, really, need to get their act together.

Promotion

Two years ago I learned that my nickname amongst the sixth form was “The Angry Man”. It eventually inspired the name of this blog.

Today, I learned that I have been promoted. Apparently, I am now known amongst the sixth form as “Captain Angry”.

Let’s solve everything with Technology #4

IT professionals, especially in schools, are frequently asked to address problems that are not technical in nature, but that management have decided are best handled with a technical solution.

Our most recent tale is of a headmaster driven to distraction by staff who can’t follow instructions:

“Some staff keep using the old version of the school logo on letters. Can you delete all copies of the old version from the network?”

Sure I could, in theory. However, I would have to search through the files of more than 150 staff, the entire shared departmental folders, and then also examine every single Word document on the network since I know a lot of staff will simply copy & paste the school logo from an old document they have.

Instead, may I suggest telling these staff that if they continue to ignore the clear instructions that have already been circulated, you will simply discipline them for being bad at their job?

Training

Today I ran an important IT training session for staff. It’s a training on computer security that has been described by many people who have already done it as very useful.

While it is now mandatory for all new starters, it’s taken nearly 6 months to get it put on a training day schedule so that existing staff can attend without interrupting their normal day.

Less than half the people who were supposed to be there even bothered to show up.

I had one apology.

Easter Zen

The students are gone.

The staff are all but gone.

The school breaks are not typically filled with anger. While busy, they offer a repose from the annoyances and interruptions that are a feature of a normal day, and lengthy projects can finally be worked on in peace.

Your daily doses of anger will resume on 20^th April.