Bursting into flame
Or nearly so, anyway. No, this is not a remark about the weather – today I did a cabling walk-through for a Baptist Church that’s expanding.
Not your everyday experience. Full-on rebuilding of the whole church with over a hundred new voice and data drops. If I’m lucky, they won’t take our cabling bid but will hire us for the new computers they need.
Once again, I hate HP printers. Different client this time, but the software for these things is just so stupid. Not only do they load half-a-dozen things in the background at boot, they make it impossible to add features later – you have to uninstall all, then go back and do a full install with ALL of the additional crap to get the one added feature you wanted beyond the print drivers. I remember the grand old days when printers did their own work instead of foisting it off on the PC.
And then there’s Symantec – when it works, it’s great. When it screws up, it takes everything with it. Another client had an install of System Works go south on him, and the only way to get it out is to run the SymNRT removal tool – which must remove EVERY Symantec product in the computer, not just the one you want to get rid of. And even then, it likely won’t work, and I’ll have to rebuild this guy’s server from scratch.
Oh, I found out what happened to the new property manager Saturday – he went to the wrong house. In his defense, the house he went to is occupied by a man with a similar first name as mine, but he didn’t think to carry my cell number with him, so he still loses points. So far, he’s just breaking even – willing to come to us to talk about the new agreement, but can’t find the house he’s managing.
Woof.
July 25th, 2006 at 4:28 am
Hey, he qualifies about the same with me. When I told him that NtNG (figure it out) was only going to be there through August and I already had moved, he was cool, but then I still haven’t heard back from him regarding either our notice or whether he will take a check from PA for the last months rent.
July 26th, 2006 at 9:26 am
I’ve had that exact same experience with HP printers and Symantec anything. I thought it was just me.
The part I hate most about the HP software is all the phone-home shit that happens. And then … the updates it phones home for don’t work. Mmm, nice. Glad I waited for THAT. And yes, I have turned the auto updates off, but they magically turn themselves back on. HP updates + Sony rootkits = World Domination.
Symantec … My husband works on a Mac. Whenever it breaks, it was the Symantec software that took it down. Every time. I keep trying to convince hubby to use something else, but I think he likes the challenge. Otherwise, it all just works too well, know what I mean?