Answer worse than question

Post #22,556 by tablizer 12/28/01 12:51:25 AM Reply	Answer worse than question >> The term "any key" does not refer to a particular key on the keyboard. It simply means to strike any one of the keys on your keyboard or handheld screen. << If they take 'any key' literally, then they may also take 'strike any one of the keys' literally also. I envision baseball bats. Once a newbie night operator at my company (several years ago) typed "star dot star" based on phone instructions. When the computer manager had to drive over at midnight to figure our why the mini was not rebooting properly and saw that in the printout (teletype-console), she nearly strangled the guy. ________________ oop.ismad.com
Post #22,560 by nking 12/28/01 1:20:21 AM Reply	Any key An intructor of mine had us trap the shift/alt/control keys to make sure that the "press any key" command worked if the user hit any key at all. So when a shift/alt/control key was pressed I had the program say "Hello Mr. Chant" before continuing. :) "Before Christmas it is 'Ho ho ho', after Christmas it is 'Owe owe owe'" - Santa Norm
Post #22,591 by Ric Locke 12/28/01 11:30:40 AM Reply	::chuckle:: Somewhere in my effects I have a poster cartoon. A duck character standing in front of a PC, with a seriously angry expression, and a large, cartoon-style mallet held above his head in "preparing to attack" position. The caption is, "Strike any key to continue." Regards, Ric
Post #22,769 by tablizer 12/31/01 10:42:45 PM 12/31/01 10:43:44 PM Reply	(cancel) ________________ oop.ismad.com Edited by tablizer Dec. 31, 2001, 10:43:44 PM EST Expand All History
Post #22,694 by static 12/29/01 10:55:10 PM Reply	Computer Operators are a bizarre breed. I have had the joy of talking a senior operator through a reasonably ordinary procedure. He refused point blank to understand what I was getting him to do and boy did it make my job harder. If it had been during the day, I think I would have gotten him to get his superior on the line and so on until I found the drop-kick who insisted the operators do not "learn". Operations staff who refuse to even try to understand the sometimes lengthy procedures they need to do also create problems like the one you described. I was glad to get out of "supporting" the operators. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #22,770 by tablizer 12/31/01 10:46:53 PM Reply	The bottleneck in most systems is humans RE: "Operations staff who refuse to even try to understand the sometimes lengthy procedures they need to do also create problems like the one you described. I was glad to get out of "supporting" the operators." Why are the procedures "lengthy"? Given a choice, I usually shorten them. ________________ oop.ismad.com
Post #22,812 by static 1/1/02 8:18:12 PM 1/1/02 8:18:33 PM Reply	Length. They get lengthy when steps can't be automated. Mostly, this tends to happen when vendors start putting Windows PCs in Operations for their special hardware or services. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!" Edited by static Jan. 1, 2002, 08:18:33 PM EST Expand All History
Post #22,808 by Ashton 1/1/02 7:51:03 PM Reply	Isn't the Enemy the "cookbook mindset"? ..the idea that you can just refer to some explicit list: for every eventuality? And the excuse is (often) .. well, how could I ever find the time to ummm grok to fullness\ufffd all this complicated stuff? I don't know what a 'Computer Operator' job description is like - nor the pay range and (absence of?) perks. All I can compare with is: When the Bevatron (accelerator complex) used the PDP-8 for the first time in world - to control the magnet guide field - we sent all 'Operators' to a Fortran class. Hey.. that was about all there Was, then-- esp in big science. (We were using ModComps - 'Modular Computers' in Florida - for overall control). Turned out that not a few of those, were indeed able to grok the Boolean stuff reel well - but everyone became at least conversant with the ideas, with how all that code actually managed.. (through ADCs, DACs etc.) to "control" 8000 Amperes at 16,000 Volts - to within a small fraction of a %. And went on to get better, via classes which complemented their daily (new) operations. I suspect that the vast majority of bizness droids appropriate near-0 $, \ufffd towards any 'real' training EXCEPT: pure rote. Just like the "NT Classes" I've seen on KCSM San Mateo (Silly Valley). Those 'classes' also make utterly clear even to me: Why it is that a 'MCSE' means nothing re any serious underlying understanding of a network. (As has been confirmed here and through the years) Those with an MCEIEIO who Are Good: have also educated themselves! not just memorized tons of menu BS. No? (But the &^$&#$ employer neither knows nor cares WHY their 'operations' suck and will continue to, with endless turn-over) ie - so what's the surprise? Even the assholes who (fail to) provide meaningful instruction -- haven't seen fit to increase their Own miniscule understanding! And these are the assholes who hire / don't train all the others. Pure unadulterated recursive Dumbth. (And.. typically, would any bizness today (well.. very many) actually compensate, promote the self-starter Operator -- who taught him/herself more than the norm, on own time? I thought not.) QED? Ashton or have I missed something here?
Post #22,813 by static 1/1/02 8:21:26 PM Reply	Probably. I did complain at one point to an ex-operations supervisor friend about how Operations Procedures seem to be required to insult their intelligence. He stopped short of saying "we want to keep them dumb" by saying "we've done it that way for years and it seems to work". If I'd been thinking somewhat clearer I might have made the point "so we get to talk to them like they're imbeciles, yes? except it has to be an Operations Procedure?". I'm not sure he would have appreciated that... Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #22,827 by a6l6e6x 1/2/02 1:04:00 AM Reply	Ah, yes. The mushroom technique. Keep them in the dark. Feed them horseshit. Alex Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Post #22,830 by static 1/2/02 5:55:52 AM Reply	Precisely. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #22,886 by Arkadiy 1/2/02 6:21:23 PM Reply	Everybody who could be a competent user ... has became a competitor.

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