The Muppet show is still going....

[Bandit]

Muppet the first:

This user opened a ticket with the Help(less) desk claiming he can't receive any calls.

Check the software, ping the set, all looks good. I try to call, and get the right voice mail. Go and hike to the other end of the campus to physically check the set. Hmmmm....phone's there, but the bottom key does not match the extension. Go to cube beside, try the extension, and the phone there rings. So, note the extension on phone that's there, hike back, so some checks, and hmmmm......shows at a different building. Start calling the local admins.

The Muppet has moved without telling anyone.

Bonus points as I encounter the PC support guy starting to head to Desk 1 and tell him the situation. Seems he had opened a ticket because he couldn't get his computer to work. BIG HINT! It works better when everything is plugged in.

Muppet the Second.

Muppet calls me directly asking for a headset for his phone. Normally, this is handled by the departments, and I don't keep spares. I tell him I don't have any, but if he gives me his department charge number and he opens a help(less) desk ticket this morning (Thursday), I can have it to him tomorrow. "I gotta do that? Call the help desk? I dunno....I'll let you know."
I could hear the gears grinding in Muppet's head.
Turns out this Muppet's boss is on vacation this week. And Muppet's boss has a headset.
Yeah, you can see where this is going.
This afternoon, a ticket comes in where Muppet is having trouble with his phone.
Seems this Muppet decided to scarf his boss' headset, and while trying to hook things up, he managed to connect things so the amplifier got a good 96VAC hit.
It's designed to work at 3VDC.
Yeah, he let the smoke out.
Monday is going to be interesting. Especially as I opened a ticket for the Muppet when he first called as a precaution. I was expecting a charge number e-mail so I did the heavy lifting for the ticket. The timestamps are my backing.
Get the popcorn.

Muppet(s) the Third

The folks that have done our cafeteria / catering services for more than a decade is leaving us as of COB tomorrow. So, today, the company tried to do something nice for them with a bit of a shindig in the big cafeteria. Cake, coffee, tea - usual sorta stuff. Nice big cake, lots of vats of coffee - whole nine yards.
One problem - the cake the company bought was too big to fit through the door to the cafeteria - by about 6 inches.
Quick solution was to set up tables outside and then deal with crowd control later.

ETA: Muppet the -1
aka the guy who did my job before I showed up.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a brand new set to add for the Head Honcho, and trying to do the final connection was a challenge. The PBX gave me a nice list of ports that were not programmed. Unfortunately, the wire frame was showing a much different picture that what the software did.
So, after getting that set working, the intrepid Phone Guy decides to do a full audit and see what's really there.
One Saturday, and lots of regular hours later, I pulled 325 sets that were programmed in the software but either didn't have a wire attached at the main end or didn't have a phone on the other end of the wire.
That will drop the maintenance cost by $5000/year, and the upgrade cost by $50,000 when it happens.
Fucking Moron.


Homer Simpson would be proud.

B

Users - can't live with them, still illegal to kill them.

[ArcticChicken]

[QUOTE=Bandit;553633]
That will drop the maintenance cost by $5000/year, and the upgrade cost by $50,000 when it happens./QUOTE]



Please tell me you're gonna see some of that.

[technical.angel]

I pulled 325 sets that were programmed in the software but either didn't have a wire attached at the main end or didn't have a phone on the other end of the wire.

That's part of what I have planned for this summer. I don't think we have THAT many line out there, but I know we have many that aren't being used.

[Red Hand of Ulster]

But why are you insulting the Muppets???

[Bandit]

But why are you insulting the Muppets???

It's an apt comparison. A good hunk of my users:

1) Seem to have the IQ of an old sock
2) Have a frozen expression on their face
and
3) Walk around all day like they have a hand up their ass.



B

[Akasa]

It's an apt comparison. A good hunk of my users:

1) Seem to have the IQ of an old sock
2) Have a frozen expression on their face
and
3) Walk around all day like they have a hand up their ass.



B

I love that description!

[PepperElf]

you'd appreciate what i did on my second ship then.
Whenever anyone from work called my cell... it played the Muppet Theme.

[tamezin]

[QUOTE=Bandit;553633Seems this Muppet decided to scarf his boss' headset, and while trying to hook things up, he managed to connect things so the amplifier got a good 96VAC hit.
[/QUOTE]

I am still trying to figure out how he managed this one.

[tamezin]

[QUOTE=ArcticChicken;553645]

That will drop the maintenance cost by $5000/year, and the upgrade cost by $50,000 when it happens./QUOTE]



Please tell me you're gonna see some of that.

Please ... I set up a process to validate all of our invoices systematically and identify duplicate billings by line item for all of our vendors. The process routinely saves the company over 5G a month not to mention the FTE savings now that those invoices do not have to be manually reviewed.

Not only do I not get to see any of this, but I didn't get a raise this year and my bonus was peanuts.

If your company appreciates you enough to give you a piece please let me know I want to go there.

[trunks2k]

If your company appreciates you enough to give you a piece please let me know I want to go there.

I got a raise this year, although fairly meager, and an excellent bonus (more than 10% of my salary). On top of that, we give out additional prizes of $2000-$5000 every year to about 20 people in the company who did a particularly good job. We have an opening for an operations engineer (more or less tech support for a mobile location system. but not your standard "my mouse isn't working" sort of support).

[crashhelmet]

Yeah, he let the smoke out.

When I first started working in computer repair about 14 years ago, a wise man told me the secret to it all. He said:

"All computers require smoke to work. If you let the smoke out, they won't work anymore."

He said it was the most straightest of faces too. Best advice I've ever been given

CH

[dalesys]

I started teching on stage lighting dimmers (100A), so the greater risk was letting the smoke out of the tech.

My primal lesson was:

Experience is measured in equipment ruined.
Don't get experienced too fast.

We had a co-worker blow up a pole pig (the big transformer on a power pole) with a dimmer he took home.

[Bandit]

I am still trying to figure out how he managed this one.

Managed to plug the lead to the headset into the analogue aux port on his set. One ringy-dingy, and <poof!>

And no, until then, neither one of us knew he had an ATA attached to the set.

So, now we both know.



B

[draggar]

ETA: Muppet the -1
aka the guy who did my job before I showed up.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a brand new set to add for the Head Honcho, and trying to do the final connection was a challenge. The PBX gave me a nice list of ports that were not programmed. Unfortunately, the wire frame was showing a much different picture that what the software did.
So, after getting that set working, the intrepid Phone Guy decides to do a full audit and see what's really there.
One Saturday, and lots of regular hours later, I pulled 325 sets that were programmed in the software but either didn't have a wire attached at the main end or didn't have a phone on the other end of the wire.
That will drop the maintenance cost by $5000/year, and the upgrade cost by $50,000 when it happens.

This is why I'm glad my office(s) went VoIP. No more PBXs, no more 110 blocks (well, in the offices, and only a couple of them now for "analog" lines (hooked up to Mediatrix boxes), no more OTM, no more mass of wires looking like someone threw angel hair pasta all over the wall. Nope, just USB headsets that plug into their phones.