On 23/10/2011 9:57 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Is it really worth abandoning everything I've ever cared about just to 
> have more coins in my pocket?
It might be. You've only worked in one place in all your life. You don't 
know.

>
> That's not a rhetorical question. The answer I suppose depends on your 
> priorities. If you value happiness more than money, then I guess that 
> fixes the answer...
You don't sound happy.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On 23/10/2011 9:44 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Who the hell has internet access from a telephone?! 

I bet the majority of people your age in MK do.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On 10/23/2011 11:01, Jim Henderson wrote:
> That's a Windows answer to most problems, sadly.

It's actually the answer to most closed-source proprietary systems. If you 
combine code from lots of independent developers without any way of checking 
that it's done correctly (i.e., you have no source, and no central 
repository), then there are not uncommonly situations where there are race 
conditions, or one program is using a resource the other program expects, or 
etc. When you get in a bad state, the fastest and easiest way to fix it is 
to reboot. If you don't have the source or detailed insight into the system 
to see what's wrong, and all you care is whether it's working, it's a decent 
solution.

If your google search times out, what do you do? You refresh the page. What 
could *I* do? Something a bit deeper, most likely. You don't have that 
visibility, tho.

> a function of your teammates or their nationality, it's the way Microsoft
> has trained people to "troubleshoot".

And how do people fix such problems in MacOSX, or on their Android phone? 
It's not Microsoft. It's just that Microsoft provides a huge proprietary 
platform with no checks on who can use it.

> That can mean there's a hardware issue (e.g, bad memory), or in the
> program that's running in the VM there's a memory leak or some other
> oddity.

Or a race condition, which is not at all uncommon.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   People tell me I am the counter-example.

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On 10/23/2011 13:44, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Who the hell has internet access from a telephone?!

I bet the other sysadmins in your company do. Get your company to pay for 
it. ;-)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   People tell me I am the counter-example.

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On Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:12:34 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> On 10/23/2011 11:01, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> That's a Windows answer to most problems, sadly.
> 
> It's actually the answer to most closed-source proprietary systems. If
> you combine code from lots of independent developers without any way of
> checking that it's done correctly (i.e., you have no source, and no
> central repository), then there are not uncommonly situations where
> there are race conditions, or one program is using a resource the other
> program expects, or etc. When you get in a bad state, the fastest and
> easiest way to fix it is to reboot. If you don't have the source or
> detailed insight into the system to see what's wrong, and all you care
> is whether it's working, it's a decent solution.
> 
> If your google search times out, what do you do? You refresh the page.
> What could *I* do? Something a bit deeper, most likely. You don't have
> that visibility, tho.

If a search times out for me, I try pinging google.com to see if the 
problem is at my end.  I then also try things like checking my router, 
checking the route, and using "downforeveryoneorjustme.com" to see if the 
site is actually down or if it's something beyond me.

But maybe I'm an abberation.

>> a function of your teammates or their nationality, it's the way
>> Microsoft has trained people to "troubleshoot".
> 
> And how do people fix such problems in MacOSX, or on their Android
> phone? It's not Microsoft. It's just that Microsoft provides a huge
> proprietary platform with no checks on who can use it.

Well, I can tell you that when I run into trouble, I actually do take the 
time to try to figure out what's going wrong rather than just refreshing 
or rebooting.

Because I would far rather not run into a preventable issue over and over 
again.  I get bored with the same problems cropping up, so I try to 
resolve them.

>> That can mean there's a hardware issue (e.g, bad memory), or in the
>> program that's running in the VM there's a memory leak or some other
>> oddity.
> 
> Or a race condition, which is not at all uncommon.

True.

Jim

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On Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:57:29 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 23/10/2011 8:36 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> That's certainly true.  I know some who work on helpdesks who suggest
>> it to buy time to research the issue.  Not always a good idea, though,
>> because if the problem doesn't come back, then you have to wait for the
>> next incidence in order to try to address it.:)
> By then it might be someone else's problem. :-P

I've never taken the position that I *might* have moved onto something 
else, so I don't have to worry about it. :)

> Seriously though, there are sp many things that can add up to a SNAFU
> that a power off reset is the simplest solution. Like. who test software
> 100%, if it at all possible.
> 
> Yes I've fault found your problem and it is a memory leak so you can
> report it and wait for a fix or reboot when it happens. Your call! ;-)

Sure, but at least I can get to the point to report it.  If it's a 
serious enough problem, I'll push it higher until it gets addressed.  
Done that with Novell, Microsoft, SUSE, and a few other tech companies 
whose products I've worked with or bought.

Jim

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>> Why did you even apply?!" I'd feel like I wasted everybody's time.
>
> What if they said "We'll give you $150,000 more each year to move to
> London"?

That's almost a hundred grand in UK currency. Nobody earns that much.

>> More to the point, I absolutely hate
>> London, so unless they're going to pay me 10x what I get now, it
>> wouldn't be worth it.
>
> Can it hurt to try? Trust me, you'd not be wasting anyone's time. If
> nothing else, if you're 100% dead set against setting foot in london,
> tell the interviewer that. I have no idea where all the offices are.

AFAIK, London is their only UK presence. (Although obviously they 
themselves would have a better idea than I do.)

And it's not that I don't ever want to come to London, just that I don't 
want to do so with any great frequency. Once per month wouldn't be so 
bad. Once per day would be.

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On 23/10/2011 11:16 PM, Darren New wrote:
> On 10/23/2011 13:44, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> Who the hell has internet access from a telephone?!
>
> I bet the other sysadmins in your company do. Get your company to pay
> for it. ;-)

I know a few of the more important members of staff get a company phone. 
People like the CEO, the site managers, and so on. I'm not nearly 
important enough for that. :-P (Besides, who *wants* to be contactable 
24/7?)

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On 24/10/2011 8:58 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>
>> What if they said "We'll give you $150,000 more each year to move to
>> London"?
>
> That's almost a hundred grand in UK currency. Nobody earns that much.
>

Yes people do. I know several.

>
> AFAIK, London is their only UK presence. (Although obviously they 
> themselves would have a better idea than I do.)
>
> And it's not that I don't ever want to come to London, just that I 
> don't want to do so with any great frequency. Once per month wouldn't 
> be so bad. Once per day would be.

Commuting from MK to Victoria would take at least 75 minutes each way by 
train and tube and cost about GBP 50 per day. As for driving there, no 
one in their right mind would drive into central London to work in an 
office. AFAIR parking is GBP 4 per hour.



-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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>>> What if they said "We'll give you $150,000 more each year to move to
>>> London"?
>>
>> That's almost a hundred grand in UK currency. Nobody earns that much.
>
> Yes people do. I know several.

Sure, the CEO of a large corporation might earn something like that. 
(Depending on how large, of course.) Normal humans don't earn that sort 
of money.

> Commuting from MK to Victoria would take at least 75 minutes each way by
> train and tube and cost about GBP 50 per day.

Yeah, not fun.

> As for driving there, no
> one in their right mind would drive into central London to work in an
> office. AFAIR parking is GBP 4 per hour.

The cost of parking is the least of your worries. Have you *seen* the 
traffic?! At rush hour? Truly no sane person would do this unless they 
had absolutely no alternative...

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