Some problems with working in IT?

I received my daily dose of tech republic emails which I’m not to fond of but keep subscribed to none the less as to keep updated to any major changes in certain IT divisions. I did however come across an interesting article by by Jason Hiner, Editor in Chief called Tech Sanity Check.

Basically what are the most frustrating aspects of working in IT for a company. Here’s a few of my personal favourites:

1. Users confuse IT with magic

TechRepublic member Eric from Colorado pointed to the problem of “Wildly unreasonable expectations, i.e. IT=magic.” He wrote, “Non-technical end users think you are a graduate of Hogwarts instead of some place in the real world. Typical end-user expectation: ‘I would like access to the last 10 years of my email, with all attachments, instantly searchable and with no performance lag – and I expect you to make this happen on my Pentium II… Anything less means you’re an utter incompetent.’”

Very true sometimes users and clients have unrealistic expectations on what a PC or a person is simply capable of, Sometimes we IT folk need magic wands to perform some requests!

4. People assume you’re an expert in all things tech

When you’re an IT worker, non-techies tend to assume that you know everything about all tech subjects. For example, if you’re a help desk technician you get questions about how the company’s Web site is built. And if you’re a Java developer you can expect to field questions about how to deal with spam and spyware on an employee’s machine.

Getting asked to fix laptops has become a weekly occurrence for me with users arriving at my desk whilst having my lunch with there laptop in hand which is not even theres but they thought you would have a look as your in IT. “Il buy you a pint at next Staff outing”, yeah right take a jump melon head.

Or walking to canteen you get stopped two to three times by people with requests to fix something thats not your responsibility. Log a help desk ticket and wait, do I interrupt you on your lunch and ask you questions NO! Go away…..

And my personal favourite:

5. You get a lot of fingers pointed at you

When error messages pop up and system outages occur, employees and managers quickly start pointing fingers at IT and the pressure is intense to get things fixed quickly to keep users from losing productivity. That’s part of the job and you have to always be prepared for it. In fact, some IT pros even get an adrenaline rush from this type of high-pressure stakes.

The problem is that IT pros hear loud and clear when things aren’t working, but they rarely get much appreciation during the other 99% of the time when systems are running smoothly.

So so true, a press breaks ring IT, the lights are gone ring IT, My chair is uncomfortable ring IT. You have to take a Zen like approach to these requests with some tongue in cheek humor to move past this.

Working in IT often requires Kid gloves it’s not all bad the projects keep you going but the helpdesk world is always difficult. IT and human inadequacy is bound to have breaches of intelligence, organization, structure and technical ability. Question is Is it worth the pain.

I work in  a small office where the users are all easy going and friendly so I am lucky in this respect but its the bigger offices with the large staff numbers are that can be problematic!

New Toys! A Car and maybe a GPS SAT NAV

I love my brand spanking new Kia Pro’ceed

Kia Pro

I had enough of driving around in my old run down car so I bought a brand new 2008 Kia Pro’ceed a few months back. The car is unreal. Lovely drive. Brilliant for cruising around the place and comfortable as hell, or heaven even. 

Because of the huge cost of the car I haven’t had much chance to get other toys but a few days ago I started looking for a GPS SAT NAV device to put in the car. I’m driving around like mad but half the time I don’t know where I am. My best bet is a SAT NAV of some sorts .

I began searching around for cheap SAT NAVs a few days ago at buysatnav.co.uk and I found a good few bargains in their Garmin, TomTom, Becker and Navman categories. 

Garmin Nuvi SAT NAV 300

The Navman look unreal and I have heard good things about them but Garmin are the more recognisable brand and are a popular choice here in Ireland. So it looks like it’s between the Garmin Nuvi 300 and the Navman S50. 

Navman S50

The Garmin is slightly cheaper but the Navman looks the better option. Decisions. Decisions. Decisions.

System Restore through the command Prompt

It is sometimes useful when System Restore tool when you are unable to start your Windows Me-based computer normally or in Safe mode. Here’s how:

1. Restart your computer and press [F8] during the initial startup.
2. When you see the Windows Advanced Options Menu, select the Safe Mode with a Command Prompt option.
3. Select the Windows XP operating system.
4. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials.
5. Type the following command at a command prompt:
   C:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

Reasons why Pc’s are slow!

Background applications

Have you ever visited an end-user’s desktop and noticed a dozen icons in the system tray? Each icon represents a process running in either the foreground or background. Most of them are running in the background, so the users may not be aware that they are running 20+ applications at the same time. So this is a problem as it’s hogging all the CPU, to view these run msconfig and check the Startup tab to view startup programs. You can uncheck the boxes to keep individual programs from running at startup.

Runaway processes

Runaway processes take up all of the processors’ cycles. The usual suspects are badly written device drivers, and legacy software installed on a newer operating system. You can identify a runaway process by looking at the process list in the Windows Task Manager. Any process that takes almost 100 percent of the processing time is likely a runaway process.

Windows services

Many Windows services are enabled by default. Many of these services, however, are not required for your machine to run properly. You should review the services running on your Windows 2000/Windows XP computer and disable those that you don’t need.
One way to see what services are running is to use the Services applet found in the Administrative Tools menu. Right-click My Computer and select Manage. Important information contained in the Services console includes the service Name, Status, and Startup Type. You can get more details on a service by double-clicking on it to bring up the service’s Properties.

Failing hard disk

There may be many signs of imminent failure before a hard disk finally gives up, depending on the type of failure (mechanical, electronic, logical or firmware failure). Some of these signs include:
• Slow access times on the affected drive.
• An increasing number of bad sectors when running scandisk and chkdsk.
• Unexplained Blue Screens.
• Intermittent boot failures.
Detecting a failing hard disk can be tricky because the early signs are subtle. Experienced computer professionals can often hear a change in the normal disk spin (often manifested as a clicking or crunching noise or a high pitched whine). After the disk deteriorates further, you’ll see the system crawl to a standstill. Write processes will take a long time as the system tries to find good blocks to write to. (This will occur if you’re using a robust file system such as NTFS; other file systems will likely Blue Screen the computer.) You may get error messages such as “Windows delayed write failure” on Windows computers.

Bad RAM – Several situations can lead to a bad RAM relationship with a particular machine:

• RAM timing is slower than optimal machine spec.
• RAM has minor flaws that only appear on detailed testing.
• RAM is overheating.

Spyware and viruses

Spyware and viruses pose a significant security threat, and they can also dramatically decrease computer performance. The first step when combating spyware should always be to scan the machine with updated spyware detection/removal and antivirus software.

To remove spyware:
• Identify and end suspicious processes with Windows Task Manager.
• Identify and disable suspicious services with the Management Console.
• Identify and disable suspicious services and startup items with the System Configuration Utility.
• Search and delete registry entries associated with suspicious services or startup items.
• Identify and delete suspicious files.
• Install and use multiple spyware detection and removal utilities.
Note: If the above techniques fail, start Windows in Safe Mode and retry.

Will Firefox 2 burn IE-7!

2006 has been a hectic year in the Web browser war. Microsoft released first with the anticipated release of Internet Explorer 7 on October 18. Less than one week later on October 24, Mozilla reponded by releasing Firefox 2. Both browsers offer improved security features and RSS support, and now IE 7 supports tabbed browsing!IE currently has over 85 percent of the browser market compared to Firefox’s 11.5. Will these latest releases shift the balance of power? I used IE 7for a couple of day’s before reverting back to Firefox. I prefer Firefox as I find it easier to use and find its functionality more efficient than IE’S 7 attempts. Let’s take a look at some of the new features of IE 7 before Firefox.

• By default, Internet Explorer’s Phishing Filter, which helps protect users from divulging sensitive information to fraudulent providers, is not enabled by default. Users must elect to enable the Phishing Filter.

• Numerous add-ons, plug-ins and third-party tools are available for Internet Explorer 7. Clicking Tools | Find More Add-Ons takes users to this page, from which they can download a wide range of additional add-ons.

• Tabbed BrowsingJust as in IE 6, IE 7 blocks pop-up menus by default. Here you can see the tell-tale yellow bar indicating that IE has blocked a pop-up menu.

  

Tabbed Browsing.

IE 7 shows address of all webpages unlike 6.

Phishing Filter

Phishing Settings

Search Providers

To add search providers in IE 7, click the magnifying glass drop-down menu and select Find More Providers to display this selection page.

FTP function.

IE 7 also supports transferring files via FTP. To trigger FTP connectivity, users need only enter an FTP address in IE 7’s Address Bar and select Open FTP Site In Windows Explorer from the View menu.

IE 7 adds a network diagnostic tool designed to help users test their Internet connection. Clicking Tools | Diagnose Connection Problems opens the Network Diagnostics For Windows XP tool, shown here.

Microsoft also boasts IE 7 possesses improved printing capabilities. Clicking File | Print Preview provides the preview window shown here. In addition to specifying the number of pages viewed, users can adjust zoom levels and change page setup settings.

Overall IE 7 has dramatically improved it’s browser. One cant help think though they have just copied the best browsers out there and thrown it all into IE 7. Microsoft have done this with innovative technology before and overtaken it’s rivals because of the fact it’s such a big company. So do you follow in the footsteps of the Microsoft giant who are two steps behind the likes of firefox but are at the same time making progress or stick with the firefox pioneers who seem to be a head on the creative usability, functionality and security front?

My money is on Firefox.