10th Annual System Administrator Appreciation Day 232
jonk689 writes "Let's face it, System Administrators get no respect 364 days a year. This is the day that all fellow System Administrators across the globe will be showered with large piles of cash and expensive sports cars in appreciation of their diligent work. But seriously, we are asking for a nice token gift and some public acknowledgment. It's the least you could do."
"But we did all the work!" (Score:5, Interesting)
As an aside, the IT department at work has kept a running tally on how long it's been since we've been thanked for our work at the company picnic. I've been here for 6 years... nothing yet. Meanwhile, the lowliest assistant gets a mention (and even sometimes [some assistant's] husband or wife, "for moral support").
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Re:"But we did all the work!" (Score:5, Funny)
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That's one of my favorites. Its sheer brilliance.
But not because it illustrates the idiocy of the users (which it does) but because in that one IT is completely dysfunctional too. I mean its funny not because I know users like that (and I do), but because I know IT people like that... arrogant, dishonest, totally incompetent...
Its unbelievable (and yet eerily familiar) how bad IT is in that that clip.
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Oh I never claimed it was ALL IT's fault, but lets face it...
1) he's playing video games when he should be working, even as the shit is hitting the fan
2) he brings down a website he wasn't supposed to, without any real reason
3) he initially lies about the fact that he brught it down
4) he lies about the fact that he received an email not to reboot it
5) he deletes the sent record of a message from someones exchange box to help him justify the lie he never received it
6) he takes a screenshot of the penis deskt
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As an aside, the IT department at work has kept a running tally on how long it's been since we've been thanked for our work at the company picnic. I've been here for 6 years... nothing yet. Meanwhile, the lowliest assistant gets a mention (and even sometimes [some assistant's] husband or wife, "for moral support").
They haven't paid you in 6 years?
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I always instill confidence in the user population by loudly declaring, "it's a miracle any of this stuff ever works" as often as possible.
How about a garbage collector appreciation day? (Score:5, Insightful)
What, paying you isn't enough? What makes you more deserving of appreciation than any other profession?
Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day? (Score:5, Funny)
Physicists have the Nobel Prize.
Computer programmers have furry conventions.
Why not give sys admins the same respect?
Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day? (Score:5, Funny)
Believe me, I give the sysadmins the same respect I give furries~
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>Computer programmers have furry conventions.
So do sysadmins! :) Some of us even do admin work for them.
Not me; the day I do my day job at a convention will be the day I start running Windows as my main operating system.
(I actually know more admins in the fandom than programmers. Figure that...)
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The fact that without the servers being up and available, most other professions do not continue to run.
Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day? (Score:5, Interesting)
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I am not a sys-admin I work on software that is used in power plants and a lot of other areas.
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So those computers that run those services are powered and cooled by unicorn flatulence, right?
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Oh, so you mean the grid power provided by a plant 300 miles away that's built and maintained by power-plant engineers, electricians, and A/C maintenance folks with control systems monitored by sysadmins?
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Now there is an under-appreciated profession: unicorn flatulence collection!
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Well without car mechanics I'd be willing to say that after a while a good number of all of those guys wouldn't even be able to get into work!
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Real sysadmins never have to leave the house. Engineers & maintenance folk aren't usually so lucky.
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Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day? (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact that without the servers being up and available, most other professions do not continue to run.
Yet without other professions to do the actual work of your company, there's not even a need for you and your servers.
Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day? (Score:4, Insightful)
That's right; sysadmins are part of a team of people required to keep the business running smoothly. But how many other folks in the company need to get up at 3am to do their jobs? Many sales guys have an emergency sales meeting at 3am? How about the secretary, does he get paged and need to come in with no notice so he can file some documents at 3am? Not many other professions would put up with the lack of resources and total ignorance of planning that a sysadmin puts up with all the time. Yet since the sysadmin isn't doing anything that can have a simple metric applied to it (number of sales closed, number of documents filed), people just assume they aren't doing anything useful.
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Not many other professions would put up with the lack of resources and total ignorance of planning that a sysadmin puts up with all the time.
What, you think lack of planning and resources are somehow unique to IT? News flash: every aspect of most businesses is run right on the edge of inadequacy. It's the right way, usually. Excess resource availability is a wasteful expense. It is more cost effective to make people do their jobs with scarce resources and at the limit of their capabilities (and occasionally suffer the consequences of that) than it is to make sure everyone is comfy and supplied with everything they think they need and only
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So is spending $3,000 to cool a room full of servers a reasonable expenditure? Especially when that room full of servers is failing due to heat, taking down company email, web, and file shares, and possibly damaging 30-40 thousand dollars worth of equipment? I've had bosses quibble over things even more idiotic than this, believe me. And then the higher ups wonder why things are broken, and why haven't you finished all your other projects? while pleas for $
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I've setup MANY systems specifically designed to replace 100 people, performing time-consuming tasks, with 1 guy hitting a few buttons and moving some paper around.
If that guy didn't exist, I could do that job myself, in-between other tasks.
My company has other employees, of course, but certain companies can be almost COMPLETELY automated by computers, and some entire industries have disappe
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That argument is a dead end. Not insightful.
Without all of the other reasons the professionals need the servers, there are others that also need them. Say if the google servers go down. Not only will google suffer but the dependent users and other third party positions that utilize those informational sources.
Now the other extreme, say your companies servers go down, you will be unable to log in to your computer if it is a domain. You will be unable to get into outlook since exchange is down. (assuming a wi
Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, the point is that the people who know how to make the integral parts of the system that glues all of the other positions together and lets it function, should be getting as much recognition on a company wide basis as say, the secratary. Who has an appreciation day.
To say that the people who spend years carefully crafting systems that have contradictory requirements and multiple departmental roles are just and only as important as every other department in a company is overly idealistic. Yes, everybody should be equally appreciated. But that's not the real world and you should be ashamed of using that fallacy of an argument on slashdot.
The point is that there are people that get blamed if something goes wrong but not congradulated if everything works perfectly for months on end. There are jobs out there that the sole purpose is to make it seem like the position is not needed by making the system have no problems on the user side. There are jobs where people work until the 7am hours of the morning monday so that everybody can come in and not notice that the entire server cluster has been moved to a new version since the old one had security holes and Microsoft released an updated OS.
Saying things like:
"IT is no more or less important than the functions of a company that produce, design, and sell their product."
Is like going to your boss and saying that their job is no more or less important than the custodial crew and why are they compensated so much more than them.
You really think you'll have a job if they don't think you're joking?
Are you that out of touch with the real world that you think that those idealistic arguments hold any water?
The stock holders know nothing about what OS service pack or Linux Kernel the servers are running. They see the reports of other departments sometimes blaming the IT department for downtime or cost overruns. Unforseen increases of budget, without the explination of what worm, patch, or user error caused the initial problem.
This is the problem with the industry. The whole job of the sysadmin is to make him/herself not seen. To make it look like the systems are fine and running smoothly. Any reports that there are problems are like any other department reporting that something they are doing broke and is going to cost the company money. Like the marketing department comming the the president and saying that the next few weeks are going to be problematic because the graphics department is not working on new designes since they all need to be replaced with designers with faster fingers so in the future they won't be too slow.
There's usually no middleground between the IT department having a problem and the boss/users seeing it immediatly. It doesn't get to go the the IT manager and get fixed at that level. Everybody sees or hears about the problem when it happens. Very publicly. But when was the last time you heard anybody say that the IT department at your work did a good job upgrading or migrating a server?
You are probably just as guilty of widening the devide between departmental appreciation.
Most businesses that are not completely computer centric are guilty of this. Since I know quite a few sysadmins and I haven't heard that any of their jobs were appreciative, I'd say that your statements and theirs help to prove that this day is not even given the lip service it was intended to create. Is it too hard for you people to admit that the ones who make everything easier should get a little nod, instead, we get the arguments and belittling that our jobs are just the same as everybody elses.
Walk a mile in our shoes.
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Kinda the point of your argument. You don't like my attitude but won't even admit my point of view exists as a rational response to the environment my position requires. You don't even allow for the experiences of the other posters to mean that what we are going through exists since you haven't been there at those jobs. Couldn't you at least think for a second that there are jobs out there that are designed to be unseen and that are at the same time, very important in an immediate sense. That others couldn'
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The fact that without the servers being up and available, most other professions do not continue to run.
Unless you're a developer. In that case, it's better to go ahead and fix it yourself instead of waiting for the sysadmin to try rebooting and then come asking for help.
:-(
I guess some of us have better work environments than others
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Unless you're a developer. In that case, it's better to go ahead and fix it yourself instead of waiting for the sysadmin to try rebooting and then come asking for help. I guess some of us have better work environments than others
Unless you're a sysadmin who's getting a call from a developer because they *think* they know what's wrong and "fixed" the problem, yet their software isn't working...
Sorry, this is a bit of a raw and recently reopened wound for me...
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It makes us all look bad and depresses salaries.
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The fact is, without sales guys most corporation stop to run.
Also programmers, DBAs, accounts and a slew of other people.
If garbage isn't collected, cities have a tendency to stop functioning.
Water to, and eletricity, and many other things.
Do yuor job. If you, as a person, aren't appreciated either step up your game or find a new place to work.
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I bet you send the guys at the electricity generating station a thank-you every year, don't you? And the guys who run the local silicon fab.
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A little extra show of appreciation, especially to someone who often has to work late without warning or come in at odd times and deal with frustrating problems and frustrated people, can go a long way to making a person feel comfortable and, well, appreciated. Treating people nicely, whatever their profession, generally encourages them to go that extra mile for you; saying that you give them a check and
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Sure, a PERSON goes above anfd beyond and is good at there job should be appreciated.
But not a day where they all are appreciated. That's just stupid, and I suspect it doesn't help moral when the good sysadmin is getting recognized and lumped in with the crap sysadmins.
Of course since there is an appreciation day, there really isn't a reason to appreciate someone for going about and beyond, right?
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How about a garbage collector appreciation day?
That's on October 10th [blogspot.com].
Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day? (Score:5, Funny)
How about a garbage collector appreciation day?
That's on October 10th [blogspot.com].
Thank God, I hate memory leaks.
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The fact that they're reading your email at this very moment?
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I agree entirely. Where's "Poor customer service person who has to deal with your stupid backward ass" appreciation day? Where's Garbage Man Appreciation Day? Mail man? Pretty much every public service industry.
Where the hell is Fire Fighter appreciation day? EMT appreciation day?
Re:How about a garbage collector appreciation day? (Score:5, Insightful)
What makes you more deserving of appreciation than any other profession?
Who said anything about being *more* deserving of appreciation? Every hard worker deserves some appreciation.
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You assume that other professions don't have "appreciation days" when, in fact, they do. Also, you appear to think that SAs believe that they are more deserving than other professions. While I don't doubt that there are plenty of admins out there that hold an arrogant view like that, I also believe that the majority of professional sysadmins don't. I don't begrudge my boss bosses day, or our administrative assistant's secretaries day. It's just nice to be appreciated.
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How about the anti-appreciation we get the rest of the year?
"Come on, all you do all day is play on the internet anyway"
"It's not like you guys don't read my email"
"What do you mean you won't fix my home computer?"
"You nerds are all alike, all technical skill no personality"
Besides, it's not as if secretaries, maintenance workers and bosses don't already have their own day. ( April 21, Oct 2, Oct 16 )
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Since there are Secretary's day, Boss's Day, Inventors' Day, etc.
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What about all those farmers that the government is paying to not farm? Should we have an appreciation day for them, too?
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Change cattle-farming to livestock-farming above please. Thanks.
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I did not intend on implying that cattle lay eggs...
Actually though, this would be awesome! We need animals that give milk, lay eggs, and produce a variety of meat parts (bacon, steak, etc) that grow and fall off for easy harvesting. Why is the chicken/cow/pig hybrid not a reality in this day and age? My proposed name for this perfect beast is the wonderful Chowig btw.
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Many farmers do very well -- you are correct. However people don't necessarily have an accurate perception of what a farmer is. People tend to want to cling to the archetype of the dirt on the hands, god fearing, simple man trying to provide for his family. So when people hear of good times for farmers, there is this perception of this dumb, lucky rube sitting on a pile of money.
The farmers who do well today (and to reiterate, yes, many do very well) aren't farmers in the traditional sense as much as the
Consolation Prize! (Score:3, Funny)
Wholly crap that was funny! (Score:2)
I just wasted a ton of our bandwidth watching that.
I'm part of the chior! (Score:2)
Piss off (Score:5, Insightful)
But seriously, we are asking for a nice token gift and some public acknowledgment. It's the least you could do.
Why should you get a gift for doing your job like everyone else does?
Summary of the Article (Score:4, Funny)
Sysadmins setup the networks that allow you to view www.sysadminday.com [sysadminday.com]
Sysadmins protect your networks to make sure you're really viewing www.sysadminday.com [sysadminday.com]
Sysadmins make backups of www.sysadminday.com [sysadminday.com]in case it has issues.
Sysadmins ensure there is no viruses on the www.sysadminday.com [sysadminday.com]
Sysadmins wakeup at 2am to reboot the servers and ensure www.sysadminday.com [sysadminday.com] is up.
Sysadmins would will gladly help you navigate to www.sysadminday.com [sysadminday.com]
Sysadmins really just want a friend, but if that's not possible they are satisfied with you going to www.sysadminday.com [sysadminday.com]
Sysadmins would also be very happy if you post a link to www.sysadminday.com [sysadminday.com] on other sites
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Indeed. Let's show our appreciation on this special day by slashdotting their servers....
Re:Summary of the Article (Score:4, Funny)
The rant above assumes I have any interest in visiting sysadminday.com, but we'll gloss over that for the moment. :)
Sysadmins setup the web server to host www.sysadminday.com
A web server that was created by developers.
Sysadmins setup the networks that allow you to view www.sysadminday.com
If you mean the physical infrastructure, then no; otherwise, yes, using the software created by developers for that purpose.
Sysadmins protect your networks to make sure you're really viewing www.sysadminday.com
ITYM "try to protect", and again, using software created by developers.
Sysadmins make backups of www.sysadminday.com
By running scripts and applications created by developers (and hardware provided by...another kind of developers).
Sysadmins ensure there is no viruses on the www.sysadminday.com
ITYM "try to ensure", and again, using software created by developers, assuming that the sysadmins or their bosses were foolish enough to select virus-prone software in the first place. (Otherwise, they try to ensure it by selecting or installing systems which aren't virus-prone, the solution used by my company.)
Sysadmins wakeup at 2am to reboot the servers and ensure www.sysadminday.com is up
That one I'll give you, although if it still has problems after rebooting, who do the admins call? That's right--the developers.
Sysadmins would will gladly help you navigate to www.sysadminday.com
Using software created by developers.
Sysadmins really just want a friend, but if that's not possible they are satisfied with you going to www.sysadminday.com
In my experience, I have to say I think you're overgeneralizing, but some admins are friendly enough. Others follow the advice of the BOFH, though... :)
(I'm tempted to inject something here about "some of my best friends are...", but I'll resist the urge.)
Sysadmins would also be very happy if you post a link to www.sysadminday.com on other sites
Except for the ones that have enough sense not to support link-spamming. :)
So, as near as I can figure it, sysadmins should be worshipping the ground I walk on. Yet that doesn't seem to be happening. Oh well, maybe I'll take one out for a beer later in any case.
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Sysadmins would also be very happy if you post a link to www.sysadminday.com on other sites
Unless that results in their server being slashdotted at 2am...
Technically... (Score:2)
System Administrators get no respect at least 364 days a year.
Stop the madness (Score:2, Insightful)
these stupid I need to be recognized for my job class days need to end.
How about you do your job the best you can and stop whining?
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We did, until the internet showed up. Now EVERYONE can beg for attention. Triple points if you work in a profession which requires some web-savviness, since you can leverage that into a bigger cry for attention.
Look, I've been tech support and a SA, I've relied on tech support and the SA. I do my job, you do your job. I thank you for doing your job well, you thank me for doing my job well.
If this isn't your work climate, LEAVE! Get yourself a job where people appreciate your work, and you
Pet Peeve (Score:2)
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Users are generally the least of our problems.
1. Management/bosses that have no grasp of technology but need to look like they do to stay employed.
2. Middle management who see their role as web-surfing and bare minimum work because they have people under them to do it all.
3. Underfunding
4. Being forced into unrealistic timetables and deadlines
5. Being expected to be on-call 24x7 with no extra pay or time off
6. Being afraid to speak up ever because the response will always be, "OK, then get on that"
7. Expect
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365.25 (Score:2)
Let's face it, System Administrators get no respect 364 days a year
Let's face it and make it 365 or 365.249 days in an average year.
CU, Martin
Maybe we could couple it with Guy Fawkes day (Score:4, Funny)
My sysadmin tattled on me when I played a prank on a co-worker by changing his wallpaper to look like his computer had an error. The admin took half a second to figure out what was wrong. Then he went off and told my manager and they sent out a company wide email saying that the sysadmin was owed an apology. I've also had a number of run ins with previous sysadmins. Blocking web access randomly and refusing to allow me to change my mouse to left handed mode.
I think it would work better as a holiday if we could couple it with Guy Fawkes day. Maybe burn a few effigies.
I know there are probably a lot of sysadmins on this website so I didn't post anonymously because I know how you people take such pleasure in getting your petty petty revenges. So that's my gift to you on your special day. :)
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LOL...
I would have fired you on the spot.
A nice token gift and some public acknowledgment? (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, the least I could do is nothing.
Re:A nice token gift and some public acknowledgmen (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, the least I could do is nothing.
You sir, are ready to be a Sysadmin. Welcome.
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I would feel truly blessed if my "clients" would do nothing for a day. My day would be so nice and enjoyable, without any tickets, or emergencies, or questions I've answered 12 times already (and that's just to them!), not to mention a day without the "Wow $NameofPersonWhosDeskImSittingAt, you sure look different today! HAHAHAHAHAH" It was funny, the first time I heard it, in 1996. The 5 times a week since then, not so much...
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As long as nothing includes reading /. I'm fine with that.
I've got really bad news for you IT guys and gals (Score:5, Insightful)
This just cements you in place as being very low on the corporate totem pole. Every hear CEO appreciation day? Management appreciation day? Doctor appreciation day? Engineer appreciation day (engineer's day in India doesn't count)? Lawyer appreciation day?
No?
How about teacher appreciation day? Secretary (or, ahem, administrative assistant) appreciation day? See where I'm going with this? I wouldn't take this as a compliment.
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Every hear CEO appreciation day?
Yes, it's the day they pay the multi-million dollar bonuses.
Re:I've got really bad news for you IT guys and ga (Score:2)
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Generosity (Score:3, Funny)
It's today? (Score:5, Insightful)
If /. had run this story yesterday, many more sysadmins would have been appreciated...
ironic (Score:2)
Yay sysadmins (Score:2)
You should clearly get them a ThinkGeek gift certificate. $20 gets most sysadmins a T-Shirt they really would like.
-- Kirby, ThinkGeek programmer
(Okay, see, I'm biased, but I'm _still_ right.)
Hey To All Sys Admins (Score:2)
What's sad is... (Score:2)
How many besides us admins even know about Sys Admin Day? I'd guess about zero. As someone who has done this job for about 12 years now, I can honestly say that my current job will be my last in this field when it comes to an end. I love how posts in this thread state "we knew what we were getting into when we took this job" No, I am a very hard-working individual who gets results and saves companies a lot of time and money. I'm not a hot-air admin who knows nothing but buzzwords, or a paper admin who has e
some public acknowledgment? (Score:3, Informative)
How about just be left alone for the day by the 'public' ?
Ironic day (Score:2)
But what if your sysadmin is a total dick? (Score:2)
Stop getting in my way then you may get something. (Score:2)
Most sysadmin I've met (yes fortune 500 included) are pedantic, computer illiterate slackers. I deal with you as a consultant so I probably get the worst treatment you guys can give. An basic example, currently my average delay to get a simple test email account set-up hovers around 6 hours after approval with a 50/50 chance that I end up being given access to the Administrator account on the exchange server and a 80/20 chance that I need to physically coerce the sysadmin into doing
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FYI as a consultant, you are given the lowest man on the totem to work with.
I find it funny to watch you overpriced goons squirm.
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1) "The printer stops printing when it runs out of paper".
2) "Can you make this report print darker?" (Attached to a fax of a xerox of a dot-matrix printout).
And the ubiquitous 2:30 A.M. call from the machine room operator:
Him: "Batch job xxx.yyy aborted"
Me: "What does the log file say?"
Him: "Let me check..."
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Maybe you feel it sucks, but you did choose it.....we don't have the sysadmins, but people who go around begging for appreciation are annoying.
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Wow- well said.
I happen to the the IT Director for a national charity.
I'm 43 years old, and the rest of the management team is 30 years older than me. These guys have no idea what I do. They gave me a mandate 5 years ago to bring the company up to date technologically. So I did that. And I'm still doing that.
About 6 weeks ago part of the management team showed up at my house on a Friday and fired me. It was surreal. I couldn't believe it.
Apparently- someone's poker buddy had trashed my work at a poker game-
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The reason that sysadmins can be unpopular even with other nerds is because it's all too common for them to come across as having shitty attitudes, even if they are good at their job and do all the things you've just described. I've been a sysadmin for about 5 years and have worked both with developers that I'm supporting and with more senior sysadmins, so I'm familiar with both "sides" of the matter. Sysadmins are often in a fairly unique position in the organisations that they work for in that they are us
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You must be a lucky one with admins that actually try.
Around here, sysadmins ask for 3 weeks to make a blank PostgreSQL install, with a tablespace in the default mount point of a regular Linux server. When we show them that there's a major privilege escalation problem in their infrastructure and show them a proof of concept that changes the root password to 'maracas', they shrug. They switch authentication methods on the VPN and don't even send an email to tell everyone that their username and password have
Heh.. (Score:2)
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I don't know, I've got about $2k worth of equipment here (maybe)... a decent laptop (2gb ram, 80gb HDD, core2 based. with a dock, and dual monitors. The hardware isn't worth as much now, or since I've been here though. Brought in my own unicomp keyboard and logitech mouse though. I've got local admin access, and haven't abused it. Though, I'm pretty security paranoid, I tend to be safer than most. I also run a lot of different hardware/software and oses at home. I'm a techie geek, and prefer developm
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While I might agree that there are more clueless windoze admins than clueless programmers per capita, there are many sys admins that know their stuff (which includes a decent understanding of all aspects of
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True, I actually was doing development work while I had a sysadmin type day job, and was doing graphics work on the side... it was kind of a natural progression. I've kept up for the most part with the tech/os chores though. I just don't like doing it for anyone outside my home, and even then.
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per the responses i'm getting on my post [slashdot.org] (which by the way was simply humor