More Network Admin Gold
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ok here is a little piece of network admin gold that happened to me a few months ago.
I am a programmer by trade but a while back our parent company needed a new gateway server with a firewall etc. nothing fancy just cheap and secure. Because no one wanted to buy a new licence for server 2003 it was decided linux would be the best option. I run linux at home and have the ability to use google which somehow makes me the "linux guru" and the admin for the network only knows windows, he's never even seen linux before. Anyway the gateway is up for about six months, then the admin decides he needs to have an ftp server on the gateway(definitely not my idea, but it's his network so what the hell).
he comes into my office and i get the following series of questions.
na - "Can you have an ftp server on linux?"
me - "yes"
na - "how do i install and ftp server on linux?"
me - "That's not the kind of thing i know off the top of my head, probably apt-get something, but that's the sort of thing google will tell you"
this is the best question of all
na - "Will google work on linux?"
me - "the website google.com?"
na - "yes"
I was just blown away, i mean we're not talking a commmand line only linux distro here, it was an ubuntu build(can't remember which one exactly). The question wasn't "is there a web browser installed on that box?" or something like that it was "will google work on linux?". I mean honestly if you can't understand how html works you shouldn't be administering anything.
This guy has no ability to use google, or any research tool if it's not the official microsoft user manual. Some other beauties include "how do i open a rar file?", "how do i open an iso file?". and he has to walk from his office at one end of the building to my office on the other just to ask me so i can type it into google and then read the first hit. My standard response now when he asks me a question is "have you googled it yet?" and if he says no i tell him to try it. Sorry that turned into a bit of a rant but it kills me when people can't just google something really simple. I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences. It does have one advantage in that people think you are really smart('cos you can type a question into a box) but then that just encourages the "Oh yeah just ask that guy he seems to know everything " mentality.
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Looking for a phrase "google" in my IM history:
someone: hey - is that QNX free, or another commercial *nix?
me: google...someone: do you know what's that service - "mcstransd"?
me: SELinux Translation Daemon http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com/someone: btw how to record shoutcasts on linux
me: .... googlesomeone: is there a .chm reader for linux
me: google / freshmeat...and many MANY more.... Yes - I ask some people about soft... a lot. But not when FIRST FREAKING HIT ON GOOGLE IS THE ANSWER!
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Oh god, I can so relate to that. Back in the mid 90s, I worked at a large well known computer company writing applications for cash registers. The systems that we manufactured, programmed, sold, and installed for our customers were a mix of DOS/Windows, and Unix boxes. The backend database was on Unix, but the point of sale systems were mostly DOS. At one point I was telling one of my programmer coworkers that I had written a small app to do something or other on my Mac. His response was, "It's possible to program a Mac?"
Now, I can understand some user not realizing that because they never think about it, but this was another programmer! He had to understand that there were applications on the Mac, and that people actually did something with their Macs. He knew how to write applications for 2 other operating systems. How the fuck could he not know that you could program a Mac? Needless to say, I didn't stay at that job too long.
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@dcardani said:
His response was, "It's possible to program a Mac?"
I will treasure this forever. Thank you.
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@dcardani said:
Oh god, I can so relate to that. Back in the mid 90s, I worked at a large well known computer company writing applications for cash registers. The systems that we manufactured, programmed, sold, and installed for our customers were a mix of DOS/Windows, and Unix boxes. The backend database was on Unix, but the point of sale systems were mostly DOS. At one point I was telling one of my programmer coworkers that I had written a small app to do something or other on my Mac. His response was, "It's possible to program a Mac?"
Now, I can understand some user not realizing that because they never think about it, but this was another programmer! He had to understand that there were applications on the Mac, and that people actually did something with their Macs. He knew how to write applications for 2 other operating systems. How the fuck could he not know that you could program a Mac? Needless to say, I didn't stay at that job too long.Well, it wasn't always possible to program a Mac. Originally you needed two Macs and a Lisa. The Pascal compiler only ran on the Lisa, and you used the second Mac for Mac-to-Mac debugging.
Then third-party compilers became available, but you still had to buy and install them.
Before the Mac, the Apple II came with BASIC built in, so you could program it right out of the box.
And remember the TI 99/4A? Great computer, but in order to program it you had to buy a license from Texas Instruments and submit your finished product to them.
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@newfweiler said:
remember the TI 99/4A? Great computer, but in order to program it you had to buy a license from Texas Instruments and submit your finished product to them.
Uh, no. If you wanted TI to manufacture cartridges for you, then yeah, I can see as how they'd want to review what you did, and license the cartridge technology to you. Programs on tape or disk had no such restrictions, and a number of folks sold software in those formats.
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@element[0] said:
I run linux at home and have the ability to use google which somehow makes me the "linux guru" and the admin for the network only knows windows, he's never even seen linux before.
.. snip ...This guy has no ability to use google, or any research tool if it's not the official microsoft user manual. Some other beauties include "how do i open a rar file?", "how do i open an iso file?". and he has to walk from his office at one end of the building to my office on the other just to ask me so i can type it into google and then read the first hit. My standard response now when he asks me a question is "have you googled it yet?" and if he says no i tell him to try it. Sorry that turned into a bit of a rant but it kills me when people can't just google something really simple. I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences. It does have one advantage in that people think you are really smart('cos you can type a question into a box) but then that just encourages the "Oh yeah just ask that guy he seems to know everything " mentality.
Very true, I see it all the time! I am the resident "expert" for many applications I've never even used because I know how to google and read help files! You might enjoy my blog post about this from a few months back.
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Nice one Jeff, that's exactly what i'm talking about. Good blog post. I know that "glazed over" look a user gets in their eyes when you attempt to explain how to solve future problems and you just know they're thinking "why do i need to know how to solve a problem that hasn't happened yet when i can just come and ask you to fix it when it does?"
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Actually, many people have no idea how to search for information themselves. When presented with the task of finding a driver for the Foobartron 20XB on Google, they never manage to think of searching for "foobartron 20xb" driver. Similarly, using the help function's search function to look up how to use, say, an export dialog is arcane magic to them. They are by no means stupid, but they are completely unable to locate information by themselves.
It's pretty amazing how you can get branded a hardware guru for comparing a dualcore Athlon with a similar Opteron using Wikipedia. "Wow, you know that OPM and Cool'n'Quiet are the same! You really know a lot about AMD processors!" (Yes, OPM is listed in the Opteron specs and yes, it's a link that goes to the CnQ page, which explains how CnQ and OPM are identical.) No real research done, just summarizing the specs from the WP article, but you get treated like some kind of superhero because you were able to enter "Opteron" into the WP search box.
Information gathering is a skill that many people (even highly intelligent ones) neither have nor apparently want. But hey, I'd rather have a job catering to tham than no job at all...
Dilbert principle - Wikipedia
