Are the posted questions getting worse?

  • Thought I'd share a conversation I had with a user at the office today, as I do enjoy it when they lie to me but fail to keep their "story" consistent between statements:

    User: "{Describes problem}. This has never happened before, why has this happened and what do I do? Why didn't this warn me when it actually happened 2 weeks ago?"

    Me: "Ok you {gives instructions to solve the issue}. And Outlook would warn you when it initially happens."

    User: "But i don't normally have my Outlook open"

    Me: {Internally thinks 'Well this explains why you never reply to any emails then'} "Ok, well, when you do open Outlook it will warn you, just like it has now. This seems to have been the first chance it has to warn you then."

    User: "But when this happens, {other person} normally does this for me? Why can't you do that?"

    Me: "I don't have access to that system, but I thought this had never happened before?"

    User: "It hasn't, this is the first time I've seen it"

    Me: "So how can {other person} do that for you, when this has never happened?"

    Silence...

    Call suddenly ends

    I don't mind offering network support when the Network Administrator isn't available; but when the problem is clearly yours, and you already know how to solve it, why are you lying to me about it? >_<

    Thom~

    Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
    Larnu.uk

  • drew.allen wrote:

    One of our groups is using MongoDB and we got a notice that we're evaluating making it more widely available.  In the announcement was a link to a course we could take to help in the evaluation.  The course uses an externally hosted database, but a coworker and I have both experienced problems connecting to that database.  I'm thinking it's probably a firewall setting, so I was in a chat with our help desk.  As part of the troubleshooting, the website suggested running a tracert.  The helpdesk person had apparently never seen a tracert before.

    Drew

    That's nothing, I found someone online who's supposedly an experienced database person who thinks optimistic concurrency is the same as using the nolock hint. Another guy I ran into literally cannot define a simple function that takes two weekdays as arguments and returns a deterministic answer, another one thinks linking a c sharp program to a visual basic library creates a "tower of babel."

    Honestly, I'm not surprised at all about the helpdesk guy, these positions (especially with the first tier of support) are often entry level jobs, complicated customer issues might get escalated to more experienced folks. Its the more lapses with more experienced folks that suprises me more, but I also wonder what simple lapses I have that would surprise someone (well one blind spot I know I have is that I try to avoid regular expressions in perl, and that's clearly not the perl way LOL)

     

     

  • x wrote:

    drew.allen wrote:

    One of our groups is using MongoDB and we got a notice that we're evaluating making it more widely available.  In the announcement was a link to a course we could take to help in the evaluation.  The course uses an externally hosted database, but a coworker and I have both experienced problems connecting to that database.  I'm thinking it's probably a firewall setting, so I was in a chat with our help desk.  As part of the troubleshooting, the website suggested running a tracert.  The helpdesk person had apparently never seen a tracert before.

    Drew

    That's nothing, I found someone online who's supposedly an experienced database person who thinks optimistic concurrency is the same as using the nolock hint. Another guy I ran into literally cannot define a simple function that takes two weekdays as arguments and returns a deterministic answer, another one thinks linking a c sharp program to a visual basic library creates a "tower of babel."

    Honestly, I'm not surprised at all about the helpdesk guy, these positions (especially with the first tier of support) are often entry level jobs, complicated customer issues might get escalated to more experienced folks. Its the more lapses with more experienced folks that suprises me more, but I also wonder what simple lapses I have that would surprise someone (well one blind spot I know I have is that I try to avoid regular expressions in perl, and that's clearly not the perl way LOL)

    Of course the nolock hint is optimistic concurrency. You're optimistic by thinking that you won't have concurrency or that it won't affect your system. 😀

    Luis C.
    General Disclaimer:
    Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

    How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2
  • Luis Cazares wrote:

    x wrote:

    drew.allen wrote:

    One of our groups is using MongoDB and we got a notice that we're evaluating making it more widely available.  In the announcement was a link to a course we could take to help in the evaluation.  The course uses an externally hosted database, but a coworker and I have both experienced problems connecting to that database.  I'm thinking it's probably a firewall setting, so I was in a chat with our help desk.  As part of the troubleshooting, the website suggested running a tracert.  The helpdesk person had apparently never seen a tracert before.

    Drew

    That's nothing, I found someone online who's supposedly an experienced database person who thinks optimistic concurrency is the same as using the nolock hint. Another guy I ran into literally cannot define a simple function that takes two weekdays as arguments and returns a deterministic answer, another one thinks linking a c sharp program to a visual basic library creates a "tower of babel."

    Honestly, I'm not surprised at all about the helpdesk guy, these positions (especially with the first tier of support) are often entry level jobs, complicated customer issues might get escalated to more experienced folks. Its the more lapses with more experienced folks that suprises me more, but I also wonder what simple lapses I have that would surprise someone (well one blind spot I know I have is that I try to avoid regular expressions in perl, and that's clearly not the perl way LOL)

    Of course the nolock hint is optimistic concurrency. You're optimistic by thinking that you won't have concurrency or that it won't affect your system. 😀

    ALRIGHT NOW I'M TRIGGERED!!!!! ROLL THAT COMMENT BACK!!!!!!

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Is there any chance we can get this account banned or something? I'm getting bored of flagging their posts now. based on their "points" it's seems they posted over 100 spam messages now.

    Thom~

    Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
    Larnu.uk

  • User blocked. Spam starts to catch up as we report things and Askimet learns what to get rid of. I'll try to look through a few posts and mark them.

  • Thanks Steve. I was more surprised than they hadn't been banned/blocked yet, when they'd made 1/2 posts (that I'd seen) almost every day; even after they'd all been reported. Hopefully we'll see them stop turning up now. 🙂

    Cheers.

    Thom~

    Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
    Larnu.uk

  • x wrote:

    another one thinks linking a c sharp program to a visual basic library creates a "tower of babel."

    Heh... that would be me and, actually, it does, cost wise and maintainability wise (in more ways than one) .  There's no difference between that and doing something like using a combination of Perl, Active X, VBs, C#, and a plethora of batch files all called from an SSIS package to prepare a a single file for import.  And, no... I couldn't make that last part up on a bet.  It really happened and I really replaced it all with some T-SQL that converted the 45 minute process just to get 1 file ready for import to importing, validating, and distributing the data for 8 files in 2 minutes.

    If you don't believe that calling visual basic libraries from c# creates a "tower of babel" or at least the foundation for one just because they all fall under the title of ".net", that's fine but consider the possible hidden costs.

    That being said, sometimes there is value in avoiding reinvention of the wheel by swapping wheels between similar models.  You just have to remember that you'll also need to save the tool for the different wheel locks, consider the different countersinks for the lug nuts, and that you'll sometimes need convince people that it's not a good idea to replace a broken steering wheel with a tire wheel just because it's round. 😀

    What's really odd is that the same people think it's totally wrong to make a call to the Cmd Shell from T-SQL.  Go figure.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • Shifting gears a bit and getting back to the new forum software and speaking of data integrity, I think should get an award for averaging 1,440 posts per login. 😀

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • Jeff Moden wrote:

    x wrote:

    another one thinks linking a c sharp program to a visual basic library creates a "tower of babel."

    Heh... that would be me and, actually, it does, cost wise and maintainability wise (in more ways than one) .  There's no difference between that and doing something like using a combination of Perl, Active X, VBs, C#, and a plethora of batch files all called from an SSIS package to prepare a a single file for import.  And, no... I couldn't make that last part up on a bet.  It really happened and I really replaced it all with some T-SQL that converted the 45 minute process just to get 1 file ready for import to importing, validating, and distributing the data for 8 files in 2 minutes.

    What, you aren't liking your stay in my little "hall of fame" ? LOLOL

    edit:

    If you think there is no difference between the list you gave me, and calling a VB method from C#, then how do you imagine you're not going to be honored in my little list?

     

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by  x.
  • For some reason, I'm not seeing a "report" link on this post. Can someone report it for me?

    https://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/topic/editing-a-post#post-3678729

    Brandie Tarvin, MCITP Database AdministratorLiveJournal Blog: http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/[/url]On LinkedIn!, Google+, and Twitter.Freelance Writer: ShadowrunLatchkeys: Nevermore, Latchkeys: The Bootleg War, and Latchkeys: Roscoes in the Night are now available on Nook and Kindle.

  • Brandie Tarvin wrote:

    For some reason, I'm not seeing a "report" link on this post. Can someone report it for me?

    https://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/topic/editing-a-post#post-3678729%5B/quote%5D

    Looks like it was already reported. I have to say the report system is less than ideal. But would also be a pretty low priority.

    _______________________________________________________________

    Need help? Help us help you.

    Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

    Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

  • I didn't see it as reported until after I posted here and then refreshed the other page to see if I could see the report button yet.

    Brandie Tarvin, MCITP Database AdministratorLiveJournal Blog: http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/[/url]On LinkedIn!, Google+, and Twitter.Freelance Writer: ShadowrunLatchkeys: Nevermore, Latchkeys: The Bootleg War, and Latchkeys: Roscoes in the Night are now available on Nook and Kindle.

  • Brandie Tarvin wrote:

    For some reason, I'm not seeing a "report" link on this post. Can someone report it for me?

    https://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/topic/editing-a-post#post-3678729%5B/quote%5D

    Did one better and just marked it as spam.

     

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

  • x wrote:

    Jeff Moden wrote:

    x wrote:

    another one thinks linking a c sharp program to a visual basic library creates a "tower of babel."

    Heh... that would be me and, actually, it does, cost wise and maintainability wise (in more ways than one) .  There's no difference between that and doing something like using a combination of Perl, Active X, VBs, C#, and a plethora of batch files all called from an SSIS package to prepare a a single file for import.  And, no... I couldn't make that last part up on a bet.  It really happened and I really replaced it all with some T-SQL that converted the 45 minute process just to get 1 file ready for import to importing, validating, and distributing the data for 8 files in 2 minutes.

    What, you aren't liking your stay in my little "hall of fame" ? LOLOL

    edit:

    If you think there is no difference between the list you gave me, and calling a VB method from C#, then how do you imagine you're not going to be honored in my little list?

    There is no question that there's a difference, Patrick, and I did mention that in my previous post and that sometimes it's necessary to prevent reinventing wheels.  But, despite your objections to what I've stated, you did point out in our original conversation, there are still other costs to consider.  I definitely agree.

    Anyway, glad to be on your frontal lobes. 😀

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

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