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Tomorrow is System Administrator Day 2006

Posted by timothy on Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:13 AM
from the pizza-bawls-dates-toys-cash-chocolate dept.
Announcements It's funny. Laugh. IT
ferrgle writes with a reminder of the annual observation of Sysadmin Day. "This celebration's aim is to acknowledge the tireless effort that sysadmins perform every day of the year. It is celebrated on the last Friday of July and more info can be read at sysadminday.com This year there is also a dedicated site for sys admins who are Welsh or who live in Wales (it can be found at sysadminday.org.uk). We hope that all sys admins have a nice day on Friday and get a little less hassle than normal."
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[+] Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day! 201 comments
saintp writes "In case you forgot, today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. Be sure to appreciate your sysadmin with some sweet schwag, a LOPSA membership, or even some theme cupcakes. Here's to all the sysadmins out there! Now I've got to go fix the mail server...." Update: 07/28 17:44 GMT by H :And remember that you can vote/nominate them for SysAdmin of the Year.
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Tomorrow is System Administrator Day 2006 50 Comments More /

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  • Happy time is over (Score:5, Funny)

    by Overzeetop (214511) on Thursday July 27 2006, @10:17AM (#15791225) Journal
    Now get back to work, damnit. My email is down again.

    Sincerely,
    the CEO

  • In celebration... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by andrewman327 (635952) on Thursday July 27 2006, @10:18AM (#15791237) Homepage Journal
    In order to show how underappreciated they are, I think sysadmins should just go party instead of coming into the office on Friday. When thousands of dollars go missing and the building burns to the ground, they won't be to blame (and Milton will get away again).

    • Re:In celebration... (Score:5, Funny)

      by rbanzai (596355) on Thursday July 27 2006, @10:23AM (#15791278)
      Hey I actually PREVENTED the building from burning to the ground. The power cord from our primary UPS was defective and was starting to melt. For some reason only my nose could pick up the faint plastic smell, and I was able to track it all the way to the back of the server rack, right to the plug. Damn thing was already burning when I got everything shut down.

      Did not get even a single mmumbled "thanks" from my boss. He looked terrified during the event though so I guess that's as good as it's going to get, watching him sweat his ass off.
      • That's my point from the GP. Without sysadmins around, everything would burn to the ground even without the senseless Office Space allusion. You certainly deserve a hearty celebration of the newfound holiday!

  • Lies (Score:5, Funny)

    by happyfrogcow (708359) on Thursday July 27 2006, @10:21AM (#15791267)
    Some SysAdmin at /. is probably just upset and hacked this story onto the front page.

    I'll believe it when my SysAdmin comes complaining on monday that we forgot about SysAdmin Day. And even then, I won't believe it.
  • Well, I don't hold much regard for the sysadmins here (part of a very large insurance organisation) but that doesn't prevent me from giving praise where praise is due - enjoy the day! I know some of the stupid reports they're given day-to-day and can only admire their patience :)

    Is there a coders day by chance? I could do with an excuse to partey!

  • Woohoo. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by HugePedlar (900427) on Thursday July 27 2006, @10:22AM (#15791273) Homepage
    Think this'll make any difference if I put a notice on my door? Of course, that assumes people come to see me, rather than summoning me to their desks.
  • What's a system administrator?
  • You know you are important when you have to remind everyone that tomorrow is your day.
  • These "secretary" oh i mean "administrative executive assistant" days are just pointless. if someone is doing a good job, you tell them. they don't need a special day of appreciation for someone doing their job.

    • Re:Stupid (Score:4, Informative)

      by hey! (33014) on Thursday July 27 2006, @11:24AM (#15791860) Homepage Journal
      Same for valentine's day or mother's day.

      My kids asked me one Mother's day, "Hey, how come there's no Kids Day?". Answer: "Because every other friggen day of the year is kids day."

      Sad to say, there a plenty of people out there who tend to treat people who are important or do important things to them like they are furniture. With kids, of course, it's natural, and it's your fault if you don't train 'em out of it.

      But it doesn't hurt to be forced to at least fake appreciation for those people once and a while. I view it kind of like putting a paraplegic on a machine that works and stretches his leg muscles. Maybe if science finds a cure for his condition, then his unused muscles won't be atrophied past any hope of recovery.

      • My kids asked me one Mother's day, "Hey, how come there's no Kids Day?". Answer: "Because every other friggen day of the year is kids day."
        eh? [wikipedia.org]
  • So what would make a good gift for a well deserving system admin? Funny or serious ideas are welcome.

    (Nick, I know you read ./ Ignore the rest of this thread for your own good.)

  • ...no one will be at work to thank their Sysadmin, unless they've brought their laptop to the beach and are logged on remotely. Summer hours, people! And mind you, most Sysadmins never see the light of day, so you'd never find them at the beach.

  • Yay! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Chysn (898420) on Thursday July 27 2006, @10:33AM (#15791373)
    Oh, I LOVE System Administrator Day! First, I make my way through a bouquet of brightly-colored balloons to my desk, where there's a pot of orchids waiting for me. I open the card and I'm pleasantly surprised to find FOUR Tigers tickets; it was only two last year.

    At lunch, they take me to the best place in town. "On us," they say. "Have the prime rib, and don't worry about having a couple glasses of wine. Gina in Human Resources is handling the server today." When we get back to the office, there's a mariachi band and talk of a stripper. "Nothing's getting done today!" exclaims the boss as he whips out a beer-stained toga.

    After the cake, it's all, "Hey, Chysn, why don't you cut out early today? And leave your pager with Gina."
    • Yep, happens every year for me... but as soon as you try to leave the building: oooh, guruevi, guruevi, wait a second, we just got a problem with this computer.... aaargh...

  • My sysadmin (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    From the website referenced:

    A sysadmin ... installed an operating system, patched it for security, ...

    Mine didn't think it needed to be patched for Sasser so it went down.

    ... and kept backups in case anything went wrong.

    Mine didn't test the backups which were corrupted and we lost over a week's worth of work.

    A sysadmin makes sure your network connection is safe, secure, open, and working.

    Mine doesn't know how to properly configure a firewall so our software development tools that require special conn

    • Unless you're a tiny company paying $8 an hour for a sysadmin, you shouldn't be hiring sysadmins right out of school at all unless you have more senior sysadmins on staff to serve as mentors. Never put your entire company's network in the hands of one green sysadmin unless you don't have any particular attachment to your data.

      Being a sysadmin is complex, and small mistakes can cause huge problems. Don't hire an inexperienced sysadmin without someone more senior around to guide him, or he's virtually guara
    • We run Win2000 PC's hooked up to an AS-400 at my office of roughly 400 peons. I work in analysis, and I have lots of reports that need to be copied to other locations on a daily basis. I wrote DOS batch files to take care of that.

      One day, my PC won't open any files. The mouse works, the cursor moves around the screen, but nothing happens when you try to open the file. I call my sysadmin. She arrives, and asks "What seems to be the problem?".

      I tell her I can't open anything, even my batch files. Her re

      • "Oh a shell script" would most likely be the reply. An AS-400 admin who is not old enough to have mucked about with MSDOS at home is unlikely to know much in the way of details of a single user home computer operating system. Those of us who are old enough occasionaly have to deal with idiots who don't know about things like filenames limited to 11 characters (including the dot) when they use the home computer scripting system they don't understand for things like stand alone installs. Unless you were do

  • Already sent out notices (Score:3, Funny)

    by smooth wombat (796938) on Thursday July 27 2006, @10:34AM (#15791390) Homepage Journal
    On monday I sent out an email to people I know who work in the industry and who might appreciate celebrating tomorrow. I even talked to my supervisors and while they all agreed it would be nice to celebrate, those higher up the food chain, not to mention the users, would not appreciate giving us a small token of appreciation.

    Unfortunately we're not in a position to muck with the system such as putting on special logon scripts or delaying taking care of issues so for us it's just another friday. *sigh*

    At least I, and a few others, get free pizza for doing some other work last month so I'll take what I can get.
  • Remember - help your sysadmin out: download all updates from Microsoft, especially things like Window Genuine Assurance, IE7, and any antivirus programs - some of which will show up when you browse certain web sites.

    It will make your sysadmin's life much easier if he doesn't have to do these downloads for you - so don't bother asking them before you do the downloads; that just makes more work for them.

    (For the stupid among the moderators - this post is sarcastic humor. Of course I don't mean YOU - I mean the OTHER moderators that are stupid.)

  • Break out the bananas!!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by intrico (100334) on Thursday July 27 2006, @10:52AM (#15791567) Homepage
    It's server monkey day, and every geek is celebratin', YAY!!!

  • Thanks, guys (Score:3, Interesting)

    by blueZ3 (744446) on Thursday July 27 2006, @11:00AM (#15791646) Homepage
    I rarely if ever see the sys admins here at work... I'm moderately well-informed and handle most of the problems on my Windows, Linux, and ESX systems myself. But I am aware of the work that goes into keeping the network running and everything humming along.

    So, from one of those "customers" you never talk to, a sincere thanks for your often unsung efforts.
  • At my last place, I managed 3 SAs. I picked up a big tub from Walmart and filled it with snacks from BJs. I bought the big box of assorted candy bars, the big box of assorted chips, popcorn, nuts, etc. Needless to say this was well received and lasted several months. The fact that it lasted months was the plan. I could have bought them lunch, but it would have been gone and forgotten in a week.

    We actually had to store it in the computer room for safe keeping.
    Josh
  • As a grizzled vet of many a foo'd environment, I'd really like to say forget the hallmark holiday. I know what I'm paid to do, and I'm damned good at it. If I'm appreciated, that'll show that in day-to-day interactions, and if not - well, I still have a job to do. I'm not paid for sitting around and whining about how hard my life is, ooh poor me.

  • That we can have sex tomorrow?

    Wait, I forget. This is Slashdot. :-P

  • Sysadmin of the year contest. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PMcGovern (13300) * on Thursday July 27 2006, @11:34AM (#15791939)
    If you happen to know a great Sysadmin, nominate them as Sysadmin of the year 2006. They can win great prizes including an Apple MacBook, Trip to LISA (conference) in Washington DC, Splunk Professional server and cases of Bawls. The first 2500 nominees receive a free ThinkGeek Tshirt.

    Sponsored by OSTG (owner of Slashdot.org).

    http://www.sysadminoftheyear.com/ [sysadminoftheyear.com]
  • Do you get to celebrate this day if you have only been a System Administrator for 8 months? I would like my Friday to be less stressful as well, but I just starting being one, and am being hammered with system patches and kernel upgrades.
  • This is a general thanks to all the sysadmins out there that have helped me get better at managing my own systems. Don't get lazy because I will always have another dumb question for you! :)

  • maytag sysadmin (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sgt scrub (869860) <saintium AT yahoo DOT com> on Thursday July 27 2006, @01:29PM (#15793096) Homepage
    Last year I got this conversation.

    Boss: When you first started here spam dropped to almost nothing, downtime was determined by the building having power, and you added several services that helped everyone become more productive.
    Me: Thanks man.
    Boss: But, what happened this year?
    Me: What do you mean?
    Boss: I never see you do anything. What have you done this year?
    Me: How much spam do you get each day?
    Boss: One maybe two.
    Me: How many times has someone been unable to get their email?
    Boss: I think so in so had trouble when he was in Dunabi.
    Me: Once?
    Boss: Sounds right.
    Me: Are there services that you want but we don't have?
    Boss: I don't know. What else is out there?
    Me: -shrug- So this year you have hardly no spam, your never down, you have all the tools you can think of needing?
    Boss: -untrusting look- Your being sarcastic aren't you.
    Me: -looks at his watch- Well, see you Monday.

  • Don't Let Them Forget (Score:4, Funny)

    by Sean0michael (923458) on Thursday July 27 2006, @03:12PM (#15794139)
    As a sysadmin, it should be easy to get the praise and admiration you deserve tomorrow. Simply revoke the user privileges of every employee, then simply ask that they come see you to have them restored if they are having internet issues. Have them thank you for your hard work, and then magically their computers all work again! Everyone at the company will realize how awesome you are and really appreciate you!

    It went over great at the last place I worked, right before they fired me.

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