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A tech brainburp. Or so I thought, at first.

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  • A tech brainburp. Or so I thought, at first.

    SSH is a tool that anyone who has any business being in IT should know about. I don't really care if you're just a Windows guy, you should at least be familiar with using an SSH client. Moreover, anyone claiming to be in Information Security should have a clue when it comes to SSH. It's not like you have a choice, after all: most security appliances run some flavor of *nix. SSH runs on port 22.

    So imagine my complete and utter facepalm when I got this from a customer:

    "I'm using putty* to try to connect, and I put in the IP, and port 443, but it won't connect..."




    * - putty is an SSH client. Good! At least he's not trying to use his browser!

    So I shoot him an email to correct him, trying very hard not to ask him why he deliberately changed the port from 22 to 443 -- putty auto-populates the port number when you choose SSH after all -- and including the next steps he must take after successfully logging in.

    So what's he do?

    He ignores half my message. That half being the part where I tell him what he needs to do after logging in. The steps I emailed him are required before you can run any other commands. Admittedly, this part is specific to our product, but still...basic stuff he should've known. (For my fellow techies, basically you have to run a command that functions as a cross between sudo and su that elevates you to root privileges. You run it, it prompts you for YOUR password--like sudo--then you're permanently root--like su--for that session)

    I ended up getting on a webex with him to walk him through basic stuff that is documented in multiple places, including my previous emails to him. Otherwise, I never would've gotten the files I needed from him.

    His excuse? He was new to the system. Bullshit dude, I've seen your name on cases dating back to when I joined the company, so I know you should know these things by now.
    Supporting the idiots charged with protecting your personal information.

  • #2
    Quoth otakuneko View Post
    His excuse? He was new to the system. Bullshit dude, I've seen your name on cases dating back to when I joined the company, so I know you should know these things by now.
    I love that excuse. People honestly believe that in this age of terabytes of storage space, people don't keep records. That's right up there with people calling into help centers for the first time and saying that they've called "dozens" of times about the same issue, or insist that you never told them such-and-such when it's in the email traffic between you.

    Man up and face your mistakes. We know if we've spoken to you before, and we can prove it.
    Sorry, my cow died so I don't need your bull

    Comment


    • #3
      Quoth otakuneko View Post
      He ignores half my message.
      I HATE that!

      I don't type this stuff for my own amusement. If I'm giving technical advice, every word I type is relevant.
      Seshat's self-help guide:
      1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
      2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
      3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
      4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

      "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

      Comment


      • #4
        Quoth Seshat View Post
        I HATE that!

        I don't type this stuff for my own amusement. If I'm giving technical advice, every word I type is relevant.
        We had a "soft skills" class recently. The presenter told us the vast majority of people don't bother to scroll. So if you send a long email, anything past what displays on the screen without scrolling... is ignored. He suggested that if we need to send a long procedure to somebody, put it in a document and attach it. Aside from the scalability issues (even small attachments add up, and outlook already barfs regularly if you have too many emails) I'm not sure I buy that people will read an attachment, either.

        Anyway, I ended up ratting this guy out to his account team (read: sales guys)... he'll be getting calls offering training and consulting services.
        Supporting the idiots charged with protecting your personal information.

        Comment


        • #5
          reminds me of a lot of the people I work with who are middleware "admins". If you can't do it in the little console you access through the web browser, they don't have a clue.

          Comment


          • #6
            My boss back at AccountingFirm would do the TL;DR thing, too. He'd read far enough to answer ONE question, deal with it, and ignore the rest or delete the email....and then, hours later, demand to know why I hadn't addressed the other questions...even though I already had in said prior email >_<
            "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
            "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
            "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
            "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
            "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
            "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
            Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
            "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

            Comment


            • #7
              Quoth EricKei View Post
              My boss back at AccountingFirm would do the TL;DR thing, too. He'd read far enough to answer ONE question, deal with it, and ignore the rest or delete the email....and then, hours later, demand to know why I hadn't addressed the other questions...even though I already had in said prior email >_<
              Yup. I've got one of those. Drives me nuts. Even better is the vague "thanks!!" response, usually sent in reply to a list of questions!

              Comment


              • #8
                Quoth otakuneko View Post
                We had a "soft skills" class recently. The presenter told us the vast majority of people don't bother to scroll.
                So .. what, you send them a lot of short emails?

                I do that anyway when I have multiple questions/issues: send one email per issue. I assume that it makes it easier for the person at the other end to file the problems appropriately.
                Seshat's self-help guide:
                1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Quoth otakuneko View Post
                  We had a "soft skills" class recently. The presenter told us the vast majority of people don't bother to scroll.
                  This makes ... all kinds of sense, sadly.

                  Those of us who grew up with/on Usenet are familiar with the concept of an article / post / email taking up more than one screen's worth of text. Especially when you're reading it on a VT102 terminal. We are also conversant with the practise of interspersing replies with quotes, as practised . . . well, here, for one example. As opposed to, say, top-posting.

                  But I have, several times, sent long emails to various people, and by their response it was obvious that they had never read past the first page. Of course their reply was top-posted.

                  So if you send a long email, anything past what displays on the screen without scrolling... is ignored. He suggested that if we need to send a long procedure to somebody, put it in a document and attach it.
                  I wonder if it might work placing an introductory line at the top, maybe in ALL-CAPS/bold/color/<blink>/large font text if you're sending HTML mail:[1]

                  THIS E-MAIL CONSISTS OF $num PAGES. PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THING BEFORE REPLYING.

                  It's just frustrating, though.

                  [1](And the fact that I have to specify that kinda gives away my age, or at least the length of time I've been using email...)

                  Aside from the scalability issues (even small attachments add up, and outlook already barfs regularly if you have too many emails) I'm not sure I buy that people will read an attachment, either.
                  Well if all the info is in the attachment, at least they'll have to open it. Whether they'll scroll down in that is another open question.
                  Last edited by Shalom; 01-29-2014, 03:35 PM.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth Shalom View Post
                    [1](And the fact that I have to specify that kinda gives away my age, or at least the length of time I've been using email...)
                    I'm only 25, and I use plaintext mail all the time because my pocket computer's email client, Claws Mail's HTML mail interpreter is busted. And the only other option is the command line client, mutt, which also doesn't support HTML mail.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Heh. We had a project running a couple of years ago, and sent out regular status reports. At the top we listed the key actions items, tagging with the name of the responsible person. Some people still required personal nagging to complete their tasks. And *no one* ever claimed the reward promised near the end of the report (something like "the first person who reads this and comes by my desk gets a gift card").
                      There's no such thing as a stupid question... just stupid people.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth Seshat View Post
                        So .. what, you send them a lot of short emails?

                        I do that anyway when I have multiple questions/issues: send one email per issue. I assume that it makes it easier for the person at the other end to file the problems appropriately.
                        The presenter's suggestion was to basically summarize everything in a few bullet points... and then include all the detail in an attachment.

                        I think if we all did that though, our Exchange server would . It would also suck for our case documentation. Email text gets automatically pulled into several documentation systems...but NOT attachments. Or inline images, for that matter, which is very annoying.
                        Supporting the idiots charged with protecting your personal information.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I don't care how old you are, not reading the entire message is simply rude. Keep reading until you get to the end, or at least something that looks close to such a stopping point (like a sig line or some other sign-off).

                          You might not be able to do anything about it in your bosses, but teach the next generation better manners. Whether it's your kids or the people you train at work, beat it into them with a wireless mouse if you have to. It's the only way to stop the trend.
                          Sorry, my cow died so I don't need your bull

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Quoth otakuneko View Post
                            His excuse? He was new to the system. Bullshit dude, I've seen your name on cases dating back to when I joined the company, so I know you should know these things by now.
                            Uh... It's my first day?
                            Sometimes life is altered.
                            Break from the ropes your hands are tied.
                            Uneasy with confrontation.
                            Won't turn out right. Can't turn out right

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