The Power User

[Sombeech]

The Power User, as mentioned in the Tech Forum, can be one of the biggest enemies of the I.T. dept. Here's a situation I run into constantly.

Them: My computer is freaking out on me! Your program won't work, it's got a bug.

Me: What's going on?

It's too hard to explain, you just need to see it.

OK, let me finish up with Mrs. _______ and I'll be right down.

....

Hi there, what's up?

See this? (Points to the general area contaning her desk and computer from about 20' away)

umm....

Try to open ______ program

OK, it's open

Now see how everything is slow?

Hmm, yes. Have you installed any other programs lately?

Oh no, not in about a month

It looks like your changing wallpaper program is slowing things down a bit, the "unicornwallpaperz.com". When was that installed?

This morning

...OK, yeah, it's set to change the image every 10 seconds. That's kind of loading you down right there.

Can't you guys make it so it doesn't slow down your program so much?

Well, we'd have to ask the programmers at Unicorn Memories Inc. It seems everything was running fine until their progr-

Well my Aunt showed me this program and said it doesn't give her any problems.

Yes, but I doubt she runs ______ program on top of it on her home computer.

You see, me and her (She and I) are really quite tech savvy.
(She begins to talk about her blog)

Well here's the deal, since you can't really see your wallpaper when this program window is up anyways, howz abouts we take some of the still images and just make a screensaver out of that?
(going completely over her head, but she nods in agreement just so she can wait for a chance to interrupt)

I was reading about some tweaks that you can do to the Registry that Microsoft doesn't want you to know about that will make your computer faster.

Me:

[Alex]

Got to love IT

[Iceaxe]

Perhaps if I sent over my Nigerian I.T. guy he could fix the problem..... I paid him a very large retainer for just such an eventuality.....

[Sombeech]

Hey, I went ahead and uninstalled our Anti Virus because my Dad told me about Norton.

........can you help me install Norton?

[ststephen]

I feel your pain beech. But I have a beef with my IT group which has, in my opinion, installed a virus on my computer.

Almost every Thursday this program pops up and says "I'd like to reboot your laptop". You can snooze this program and go back to work. But the default option is "reboot now".

The worst case is when I'm diligently filling in details about a bug into our internal bug tracking system, which is web based. I'm typing like mad and hitting RETURN to format my text when this thing pops up in the middle of my key strokes and BAM my computer is now rebooting before I can save anything.

Let's see the definition of a virus would be an unwanted program that can randomly reboot your computer causing you to lose work...

When I remember to do so, I find and terminate that program.

[Sombeech]

Almost every Thursday this program pops up and says "I'd like to reboot your laptop". You can snooze this program and go back to work. But the default option is "reboot now".

Sounds like a crappy Anti Virus, unless it's an update that keeps trying to go through but can't, in which case either confirms the poor quality of Anti Virus, or there's just something wrong with your configuration.

You shouldn't have to reboot after every scan. You should also be able to reschedule the scan to a different time, less often. Say midnight on Wednesday, and just plan on leaving your machine on that one night a week.

Another good sign you've got a virus is if you're constantly getting the prompts for Windows Updates, like every day. By default they come out on the 2nd Tuesday every month.

[DiscGo]

You see, me and her (She and I) are really quite tech savvy.
(She begins to talk about her blog)

That blog comment cracked me up.

[RedMan]

Almost every Thursday this program pops up and says "I'd like to reboot your laptop". You can snooze this program and go back to work. But the default option is "reboot now".

Sounds like a crappy Anti Virus, unless it's an update that keeps trying to go through but can't, in which case either confirms the poor quality of Anti Virus, or there's just something wrong with your configuration.

You shouldn't have to reboot after every scan. You should also be able to reschedule the scan to a different time, less often. Say midnight on Wednesday, and just plan on leaving your machine on that one night a week.

Another good sign you've got a virus is if you're constantly getting the prompts for Windows Updates, like every day. By default they come out on the 2nd Tuesday every month.

Sounds like a PC to me.

[ststephen]

Sounds like a PC to me.

Touché! More and more of the developers here are insisting on Macs. Since we do all our actual development for Linux anyway the desktop/laptop OS is mostly irrelevant.

To Beech: it's not the scan it's when they know they are pushing some type of update.

[Scott Card]

I am really learning a lot from this thread. I think I will call my IT guy and discuss a few "problems" ...

[RedMan]

I am really learning a lot from this thread. I think I will call my IT guy and discuss a few "problems" ...

I suggest a bunch of "My neighbor thought the problem was ________" type of conversations." They really love that.

[Sombeech]

To Beech: it's not the scan it's when they know they are pushing some type of update.

Yeah, sorry, sounds like you've got a weird IT dept then.

Go to your boss and put it in dollar signs, such as how much productivity you're losing out of the day because you have to reboot for some stupid reason, and you're losing that much time. Calculate it to "hours per week" of lost labor, that always seems to get them motivated to change.

[Deathcricket]

Hehe good thread! My favorite was "well I figured you were busy, so I thought to try and fix it myself. So I downloaded this Registry Mechanic shareware program and installed it. It suggested 121 things to fix. So I let it. And now nothing works at all. Should I uninstall Registry Mechanic so it will go back to the way it was?"

[Alex]

To Beech: it's not the scan it's when they know they are pushing some type of update.

Yeah, sorry, sounds like you've got a weird IT dept then.

Go to your boss and put it in dollar signs, such as how much productivity you're losing out of the day because you have to reboot for some stupid reason, and you're losing that much time. Calculate it to "hours per week" of lost labor, that always seems to get them motivated to change.

Justin, who are you talking about???

[accadacca]

This thread is priceless.
I finally got around to upgrading to Snow Leopard on my work MacBook Pro. Well, it looks like it nuked their symantec software. Shhhhh...

[moab mark]

I am really learning a lot from this thread. I think I will call my IT guy and discuss a few "problems" ...

Hey I would just like to have an I.T. guy!!!!!

[Sombeech]

Calculate it to "hours per week" of lost labor, that always seems to get them motivated to change.

Justin, who are you talking about???

This was a former boss, only acting when $$$ signs came up, trying to convince him to lose the Windows 98 machines and get everybody on XP. At our current job, there's not really a "productivity" factor.

[Scott Card]

I am really learning a lot from this thread. I think I will call my IT guy and discuss a few "problems" ...

Hey I would just like to have an I.T. guy!!!!!

I know where you are coming from. Been there, done that. I am actually thankful for our I.T. guys since I am mostly clueless as to all things computer. I do know how to shoot old hard drives with my .45 pistol.