Day-dreaming About the End of Technical Support

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Mar
4
Submitted by Jeffrey on Thu, 2010-03-04 16:13

 My current employment is all about technical support. I'm the go-to-guy for any computer problems. Mysteriously, this includes anything with electrons or photons.

I've worked in the technical support field most of my life. One of my talents is comprehending machines and systems, which is quickly recognized by others in trouble with objects and processes. Sadly, I'm not omniscient, nor omnipotent (even if some problems magically fix themselves when I'm around). There are days when my talent becomes a curse.

At the end of such days, I can either laugh, or cry (and sometimes both).

An XKCD comic saying, "An x64 processor is screaming along at billions of cycles per second to run the XNU kernal, which is frantically working through all the POSIX-specified abstraction to create the Darwin system underlying OS X, which in turn is straining itself to run Firefox and its Gecko renderer, which creates a flash object which renders dozens of video frames every second...because I wanted to see a cat jump into a box and fall over. I am a god." 

Sadly, this "omnipotence" is a two-edged sword that cuts me, a lot. When that Flash movie is choppy, where does the real problem lie? No on really knows!

So how do I know what to do? I want to share with you the secret to my support powers:

An XKCD comic showing a flowchart that maps depicting brute-force troubleshooting steps for dummies.

So if I can't figure it out, who's my support? I usually have to give up. Then again, since failure is not usually an option at work, I just keep trying different menus, internet searches, and escalating measures (re-format!) until something works or the problem disappears. Magic is hard work!

At the end of some days, I just want the end of the world to come now and burn everything up! Or, I imagine the sun blasting the earth with a solar flare that fries all electronics and sends us back to an agrarian society. Then, while I may no longer be a wizard, at least everyone will have to be a little more self-sufficient and life will slow down a little.

2 comments

Visitor
Tue, 4 May, 2010 - 09:42

And in a somewhat loose analogy, your comments are one of the reasons I'm not a technophile. I love technology and the convenience, but I frankly just don't have the patience to learn and go through this process even if learning the process is just clicking menu options.

In my world, I keep technology that works and discard what doesn't. :-)

Oh, and I hands down agree with you on the agrarian society. I'd find a good deal of joy in that, I think.

Dave

Jeffrey
Thu, 22 April, 2010 - 16:50

I just wanted to direct you to another like-minded post about the love/hate relationship that system administrators have with computers.

Yes, computers are, by far, the most high-maintenance relationship in my life!

--
JeffreyD
http://Jeffrey.theDunsters.net/

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