Computer lab tech blows a gasket (language)

[Dreamstalker]

I prefer to communicate via email - a lot less "he said, she said..."

Yup. IMO it makes things easier when setting up freelance job appointments, meetings with my job counselor etc. as it's fairly simple if someone says "you never said/did X" to go to my email and say "I did it on this date, are you sure you checked your email?"

Of course, this makes my mom think I have a phone phobia (no, I just prefer to schedule via email so there's a record of things)...and there are always people like in the OP who have an email address, but don't actually want to have anything to do with it (why do you have it then?)

At my school we are held accountable for not checking our email from professors. I'm surprised she hasn't failed out by now.

My Networks prof communicated entirely via email (he was reachable by phone for emergencies, such as the campus mailserver meltdowns that eventually became a semiregular happening) and one person did fail as she was relying on classmates to get the assignments verbally. He would spot-check this by making a visit to a link mandatory for the assignment (ie, a piece of information that was only available on that site).

[justZu]

I prefer to communicate via email - a lot less "he said, she said..."

I prefer email because if I talk on the phone to someone I will invariably lose any notes I have written regarding the call. If I communicate with email, at least I know where to find my information.

Unfortunately some people just refuse to use their email. I did a craft show last year and wanted to discuss a few details with the show owner through email. Her response? "Oh, you can call me - I refuse to email, its just a fad."
So I spent the next week playing phone tag with her before we finally connected.

[MadRocketScientist]

When I managed the student computer labs at the UW, I never had an employee speak like that to me. In a case like this, had she mouthed off like that to me in the privacy of my office, I would have let her off with a warning. Had she done so in public, in front of witnesses, especially other employees or lab users (i.e. folks who I needed to respect my authority), she would have been shit canned on the spot.

[wagegoth]

"Oh, you can call me - I refuse to email, its just a fad."

Yeah, like answering machines and voicemail in the 80s. When I was dealing with that way, way back then, I got so sick of customers questioning me as to why I hadn't called them. I had a company daytimer, so I would write down the date and time of every call I made. I had to show one caller that I had attempted to reach her about a dozen times over the last week, trying mornings, afternoons and evenings, never reaching anyone.

Geez, these people were retired (quite comfortably), gadding about most of the time, free to dine out, shop and travel whenever. How the heck am I supposed to know the one hour a day you decide to be home?

[Broomjockey]

What's so difficult about checking her e-mail?

Could be simply the issue that I used to have. No one ever emails, so there's no point in checking. I could go a full week without checking my email in the past. And that's with me managing to spend 5 or more hours a day within 2 ft. of a computer.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Does she know how bad it makes her look to cuss out the boss, when there are witnesses present? Does she know that in the real world, we don't let $hit like that slide? What an idiot.

Apparently she doesn't care how bad she makes her look, only if other people make her look bad...

When I was in college my job had us fill out an availability sheet every semester. It was broken up into a grid representing the different shifts, and you numbered your available shifts in order of preference (1-2-3). So you could indicate when you could work, and also when you would prefer to work, and if you were lucky, they would be able to accomodate you on both counts. I pretty much always got my first choices (only time I didn't was my first semester, when I got stuck with whatever was available, which was a 2 hour prep-work shift when we weren't even open).

[repsac]

When I was in college, I remember an incident in one of the computer labs that really got most of the techies in trouble.


One of the students noticed that the computers were running really slowly and doing some odd things. So, of his own volition he ran an anti virus program he had. (Thing was on a floppy disc. It'd boot and then erase any virus that tried to start. I forget who put the thing out, but it was at the time pretty neat tech. May have been an early Norton) Well, he pops in his little disc and runs it, only to find that the computer he was on had something in the neighborhood of twenty or thirty different viruses on it. Several of them being boot sector types which at the time could only be removed by formatting the whole HD over.

Bear decided to take it up with the techs during one lab when four of them were in there gaming. He told them the problem, and noted a few of the viruses. The techs actually look him in the eye and say quote "I don't care. Not my problem." They then banned bear from ever setting foot in the labs again.

Well, to Bear's credit, he went over the tech guys heads and straight to their manager. The labs were closed down for two days while the computer lab manager went through and cleaned every computer on campus. I forget how many viruses they found, but I know five computers out of one lab alone (which had maybe 20) had to have their whole HD's wiped and reformatted. When it was all done, the techs who had been gaming were banned from the labs (all of them) and I think placed on academic probation. Bear on the other hand was hired and became the coolest tech the college ever had.

[JustADude]

When it was all done, the techs who had been gaming were banned from the labs (all of them) and I think placed on academic probation. Bear on the other hand was hired and became the coolest tech the college ever had.

LESSON: Game on your own time, Geek on theirs.

[Andara Bledin]

Ahhh.... Gaming in the computer labs. I never worked in a college computer lab, but my ex, did. He worked both the PC and Mac labs at Cal State Dingus Hills (as we would call the place), and we used to game long into the night. As long as the doors were locked and whoever it was that actually worked there stayed on site at all times, the administration really didn't care if there were people there until it opened up again the next morning.

Ah, the fun times. We once loaded up MacPlaymate on every Mac in the lab, then set every single one of them to a slightly different part of the game so they were all making different sorts of sounds. The uptight member of our late-night crew didn't much care for that stunt.

It was on those computers that I learned that the rulebook for Teenagers From Outer Space was designed on a Mac. The basic template for the character sheet used specific fill patterns that matched exactly what the Mac used in Pagemaker. I was on scan & clean duty for the group, and we all had some nice custom character sheets for when we played.

^-.-^

[Geek King]

It was on those computers that I learned that the rulebook for Teenagers From Outer Space was designed on a Mac. The basic template for the character sheet used specific fill patterns that matched exactly what the Mac used in Pagemaker. I was on scan & clean duty for the group, and we all had some nice custom character sheets for when we played.

^-.-^

Not that unusual actually, as Macs have some excellent page layout software available. They seem to be well suited for that sort of thing.

Oh yeah, hullo to another TFOS player.

[MamaMootz]

I can tell you that if it were me in charge of the computer lab, Little Miss Prissy Pants would have been fired the minute she said "F*** YOU" to me.

of course, if she's under financial aid or some kind of program, I'm sure there are steps to be taken in order to get her fired but these would have definetly been strikes one and two on her record.

I hope the manager called financial aid after she came back ranting the 2nd time.

[Nekojin]

Oh yeah, hullo to another TFOS player.

Hullo to you too. =^_^=
I'm Andara's most regular TFOS GM - which is to say that we haven't played in ages.

[Andara Bledin]

Oh yeah, hullo to another TFOS player.

Hullo to you too. =^_^=
I'm Andara's most regular TFOS GM - which is to say that we haven't played in ages.

*pouts*

Yeah... it's so hard to get a decent TFOS group together.

Fun fact: TFOS is how I met Nekojin. My first gaming convention, he was running a session in open gaming, and it sounded fun, so I rounded up enough other players to get things started.

^-.-^

[Geek King]

*pouts*

Yeah... it's so hard to get a decent TFOS group together.

Fun fact: TFOS is how I met Nekojin. My first gaming convention, he was running a session in open gaming, and it sounded fun, so I rounded up enough other players to get things started.

^-.-^

If you guys are going to Origins or Gen Con next year, we should try to get together. My roomate plays too, and I might be able to drag along some of the other players if they come too.