1st post (finally, right?)

Okay, so I only opened this blog so I would have a blogger profile so I could comment on friends' blogs. Never really had the desire to post or anything. Never really felt I had anything to say. still don't, really, but the past couple of days at work have had several shall we say interesting things going on.

And by "interesting" I mean "bang your head on the desk stupid."

For those who don't know me, I work on a help desk, providing computer support to all and sundry who call in. We also help with printers, fix hardware, and are currently in process of deploying Vista out to all our supported seats. Yeah, we tried to get management to skip it and just go to Win7 once it's released, but. . .well. . . untested software coming out and all that, it's doubtful mgmt will look at it until SP1 is released.

And now I'm rambling. I do that.

Anyway.... here are some highlights of the past few days:

User: I can't use Bing.com to search, so I want to change my search provider.

Me: (Thinking he's referring to the search bar in IE) All right. Did you receive the email we sent out a couple of weeks ago with instructions on how to change the default search provider?

User: Yeah I did, but I didn't understand it. I called you guys the other day and he walked me through it. But it doesn't matter because it's still stuck on this stupid Bing!

Me: Huh, that's kinda weird. Let me see what's going on. (Remote connects in to the user's PC.)

Me: Oh, I see. You're using the search field at msn. That's actually a bing search. You'll need to choose a different search provider (4th wall break: we aren't allowed to "endorse" any provider, so we have to speak generically like that) and type it in your address bar above. Your search bar is also set to use google (4th wall broken again: this is probably what "you guys" did when he called last week), so if you type your search up there instead of into the website itself then it will search using that engine, rather than bing.

User: Oh, so I can't use the msn site to search anymore?

Me: No, the msn site uses bing as its search engine now. [Our employer] is blocking bing right now, so it won't work and you have to use a different search site or the search bar up in the top right of your window.

Sadly, he's not the 1st, nor even the worst offender. I think my favorite was the guy who went to the google site and then searched for bing.com from it.

There was the guy today having trouble with a certain website (which we don't support since, well, it's a website). The site has a helpdesk number prominently displayed on its main page for issues using the site. He called me instead.

We're experiencing a network outage right now. Many calls are coming in to report that email can't be accessed and suchlike. This is a typical exchange:

User: I can't get my email

Me: We're having an outage right now. Server guys are on it, but we don't have an estimate for when it will be fixed yet.

User: Oh. Do you know when it will be back?

On the bright side I haven't yet had any calls during an outage like at a former employer where the person says something to the effect of "Well, it's critical I get this email out to the client. Can you fix it for just me?"

As to the "classics" -- yes, I HAVE had the call where the person was complaining they couldn't turn on the computer during a power outage. It gets better: When I explained that computers need power to run, the rejoinder was "But the phones work!"

I also am rather fond of this one:

User: I got my new laptop today and brought it home, but now I can't get my email."

Me: Okay, how are you connected to the exchange server? VPN or the DID dial-up? (Yes, this was a few years back before broadband was terribly common.)

User: Connected? What do you mean? Don't these things just know what my email is?

This lady wasn't too bad, though -- once I explained connectivity to her she did get it, she was simply "initially ignorant."

Anyway, I think this is rambling enough for one day, so... adios and all that stuff.