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  1. - Top - End - #31
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    Eldan's Avatar

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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    So, more Fitting anecdotes. We had to restart an expensive piece of lab equipment today. Usually, it runs constantly, so it hadn't been restarted in like two years. Something wasn't right, but the software wouldn't let us access the right diagnostics without a password the manufacturer wasn't handing out. While two of us were taking turns on the waiting loop of the manufacturer's Hotline, one of our post-docs walked up to the machine, which is about a five foot cube of mysterious wires and cubing, put her ear to a Panel and after about 30 seconds said "Turbopump 2 is running at half speed, turbopump 1 is fine". In a room full of dozens and dozens of running machines.
    Resident Vancian Apologist

  2. - Top - End - #32
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    So, more Fitting anecdotes. We had to restart an expensive piece of lab equipment today. Usually, it runs constantly, so it hadn't been restarted in like two years. Something wasn't right, but the software wouldn't let us access the right diagnostics without a password the manufacturer wasn't handing out. While two of us were taking turns on the waiting loop of the manufacturer's Hotline, one of our post-docs walked up to the machine, which is about a five foot cube of mysterious wires and cubing, put her ear to a Panel and after about 30 seconds said "Turbopump 2 is running at half speed, turbopump 1 is fine". In a room full of dozens and dozens of running machines.
    I mean that's like me and my old game-cube. I could tell if it was going to accept a game disc or not just by the noises it was making long before it displayed the 'something went wrong' screen.
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    Quote Originally Posted by AvatarZero View Post
    I like the "hobo" in there.
    "Hey, you just got 10000gp! You going to buy a fully staffed mansion or something?"
    "Nah, I'll upgrade my +2 sword to a +3 sword and sleep in my cloak."

    Non est salvatori salvator, neque defensori dominus, nec pater nec mater, nihil supernum.

    Torumekian knight Avatar by Licoot.

    Note to self: Never get involved in an ethics thread again...Especially if I'm defending the empire.

  3. - Top - End - #33
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    oxybe's Avatar

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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    Quote Originally Posted by Lacuna Caster View Post
    Wouldn't magnetic tapes be hopelessly degraded by now regardless? I'm puzzled by why the data couldn't be transferred to a more modern format.
    Because just like a Titan, this god-machine has momentum and is difficult to stop if you're just one guy.

    See, years and years ago, management decided to buy stuff.

    Management HATES buying stuff. For other people. It likes buying stuff for itself, but that's another story.

    We need data storage, we get data storage.

    Now we have data storage.

    Along comes the march of time and new software and hardware is created. We could get new and more efficient data storage, but the current stuff does technically work and see line 3.

    At this point we're probably 2 new operating systems in and still using the old format.

    But the company has grown and many of our systems are now bound like Prometheus to this data storage rock. Moving away from it would require petitioning Zeus or the god-emperor of mankind himself and proving that spending money not just on upgrading the hardware, but also the software used to interface to it and every other piece of technology that it interacts with is worth their money.

    We know that it's worth our time, but our time is their money.

    And see line 3.

  4. - Top - End - #34
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    Eldan's Avatar

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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    Also, they have to keep stuff around for set time periods. Don't remember what it was, exactly. 20 years+lifetime of product? 30 years? Something like that...

    So, at some point someone realizes "Hey, if these tapes degrade we are screwed if there's a government audit. But it would cost 500'000 (made up number) to hire a company to copy it all to modern storage. But wait. They have only ever requested any data older than 15 years once, and it's only 5 more years until we no longer have to keep that data around. So we'll just... put it on a shelf and pretend it's still readable and hope no one asks to see it."
    Resident Vancian Apologist

  5. - Top - End - #35
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    BarbarianGuy

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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    I've just had a good one.

    In a cloud situation using a system created by a very clever man who has since left I found something that didn't work. I asked a colleague who said "I did some magic that I don't pretend to understand and it works now".

    All praise the Omnissiah!

  6. - Top - End - #36
    Troll in the Playground
     
    ElfRangerGuy

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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    You should always try to store your long-term stuff in the 'lowest' format possible. For instance, don't use a .xslx format when a .csv format works as well or don't use a .docx format if .txt also works. The lower formats can be read by more types of programs.
    I have files from 20+ years back that I then saved in .txt format (as the floppies we were still using could only store so much). I can still open those without any problems whatsoever. Not on the floppies of course (the last time I saw one of those was in a science museum about 5 years ago), but if you transfer them over to your new system, they stay readable.
    Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett

    "Magic can turn a frog into a prince. Science can turn a frog into a Ph.D. and you still have the frog you started with." Terry Pratchett
    "I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."

  7. - Top - End - #37
    Titan in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    Quote Originally Posted by farothel View Post
    You should always try to store your long-term stuff in the 'lowest' format possible. For instance, don't use a .xslx format when a .csv format works as well or don't use a .docx format if .txt also works. The lower formats can be read by more types of programs.
    I have files from 20+ years back that I then saved in .txt format (as the floppies we were still using could only store so much). I can still open those without any problems whatsoever. Not on the floppies of course (the last time I saw one of those was in a science museum about 5 years ago), but if you transfer them over to your new system, they stay readable.
    .txt... .txt never changes...
    “Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”

  8. - Top - End - #38
    Orc in the Playground
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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    Quote Originally Posted by Keltest View Post
    .txt... .txt never changes...
    Unless it was originally in EBCDIC of course

  9. - Top - End - #39
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    Devil

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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    All this would be a decent background for a Astartes vs mechanicus 40k or KT battle, the IT finally rebelling

  10. - Top - End - #40
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    oxybe's Avatar

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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    Quote Originally Posted by farothel View Post
    Not on the floppies of course (the last time I saw one of those was in a science museum about 5 years ago), but if you transfer them over to your new system, they stay readable.
    I still have a floppy disk case with all 7 floppies needed to install Windows 3.1 and the 2-disk videogame juggernaut... Metal Marines. It's on a shelf of nostalgia, next to my NES Zapper, a copy of Dragon Warrior for the NES and a 1995 VHS box set of the original star wars trilogy.

  11. - Top - End - #41
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    Brother Oni's Avatar

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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    Also, they have to keep stuff around for set time periods. Don't remember what it was, exactly. 20 years+lifetime of product? 30 years? Something like that...
    Eudralex Vol 4 Chapter 4 states 5 years after the Qualified Person's last certification of batch.

    I read that as 5 years after the last batch made by a particular company, so 5 years after the original company gives up and manufactures its last batch, then 5 years after the generics give up and make their last batch.

    Which is odd as I remember it being 10 years after the last batch but I'm too drunk to search for the appropriate legislation.

  12. - Top - End - #42
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    Tech Support at my work is often more like the Old Ones. Someone we know existed, we see signs of their work at times, but finding them is impossible.
    *It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude... seeming to be true within the context of the game world.

    "D&D does not have SECRET rules that can only be revealed by meticulous deconstruction of words and grammar. There is only the unclear rules prose that makes people think there are secret rules to be revealed."

    Consistency between games and tables is but the dream of a madman - Mastikator

  13. - Top - End - #43
    Troll in the Playground
     
    ElfRangerGuy

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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    Quote Originally Posted by dafrca View Post
    Tech Support at my work is often more like the Old Ones. Someone we know existed, we see signs of their work at times, but finding them is impossible.
    And summoning them leads to insanity?
    Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett

    "Magic can turn a frog into a prince. Science can turn a frog into a Ph.D. and you still have the frog you started with." Terry Pratchett
    "I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."

  14. - Top - End - #44
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: Tech support compared with 40k

    Quote Originally Posted by farothel View Post
    And summoning them leads to insanity?
    In many cases, why yes it does.
    *It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude... seeming to be true within the context of the game world.

    "D&D does not have SECRET rules that can only be revealed by meticulous deconstruction of words and grammar. There is only the unclear rules prose that makes people think there are secret rules to be revealed."

    Consistency between games and tables is but the dream of a madman - Mastikator

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