The Jaded Tech

I overheard the otherday that Justice Of The Peace is a politically appointed position and that it had nothing to do with ‘ability to perform’.  Now, I don’t know much about the political system, could care less really, but I decided to look into this term and see if I could understand it a bit more.  Being the diligent geek, the first thing I hit was Google.  Here are the top 5 references that I saw for this term:

1/ BCTF > Politically appointed college draws deeper outrage from … – “That the minister act on the commitment she made in the December 10, 2003 open cabinet meeting and dismiss the politically appointed council and hold …”

That didn’t sound too good, dismissing anyone can’t be a good thing.  Let’s check the next one.

2/ 1st-36th, Volume 37 – Oral Questions – The Hydro Board, politically appointed board members, again after the election, went up some 36 percent in terms of the remuneration for those board members …

Hmm, politically appointed memebrs giving themselves a raise…err…’increase in renumeration’…ok, still not looking good.  Next.

3/ Incompentent polictically appointed Minnesota family court referee … — He’s pathetic scum, politically appointed, and totally inadequate for the position he holds — a disgusting disgrace — if I must say. …

Well, this ‘politically appointed’ term seems to be getting quite the bad rap so far….next.

4/ AIMS : Issues : Oil and Gas – Last Friday Western Petroleum forced the politically appointed Newfoundland oil pricing commissioner to increase the price of a litre of gasoline by 5.8 …

So a ‘politically appointed’ commisioner increases the price fo gas.  Yup, that’ll make him popular for sure!  Next…but I’m not holding my breath that this will be any better…

5/ Responsibility in the Constitution – Chapter 7 – Constitutional … - 1 Jun 1993 … It is also important to stress that they are politically appointed and not intended to be non-partisan. Indeed, the appearance of officials …

So let me see if I can sum up what I’ve learned about being ‘politically appointed’ here:

• you can dismiss people
• your position has nothing to do with your skill
• you can give yourself a ‘renumeration increase’
• you are ‘pathetic scum’
• you can raise the price of gasoline
• you are not intented to be non-biased

So then IT Managers must all be ‘politically appointed’ as that describes just about every IT Manager working at many companies I know about.

Got this client(IT manager) who removed himself from some software connections.  Problem is he wasn’t fully associated with those connections and blamed us for his missing connections.  Between not properly explaining the issue in the first place,  finding out that he could be missing any ONE of 10,000 different connections associated with his company, and not hearing back from him after a week of requesting updates, he then goes and blames US for HIS lack of software management.  Shame on us eh?

It doesn’t matter where in the world you are, there are clueless morons all over the place who are ‘it managers’ and still don’t know squat.  And they really hate it when you point it out to them too but I _really_ like it

Why do people ask the dumbest of questions?  I swear that technology makes the majority of people stupid.  Seriously.  The saying that the two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and Stupidity are more true now than ever.  The other saying, that I have modified, is “Nothing makes more mistakes quicker than guns or tequilla.”  I’ll throw in computers with that lot!

Dumb question #1:  “I can’t see this person on my contract.  Is here there?”

Ok, do I really have to answer this?  Seriously?  Shall I lend you my glasses because I know damn well they work as I have proof that idiocy abounds in the IT world right in front of me!  Much like a neutered dog, you just don’t get it do you?

Dumb question #2:  “How do I fix ordering 14,000 wrong licenses?”

Huh?  How the hell does someone order 14,000 wrong of anything???  The depth of this stupidity is simply astounding, and by that I mean “Retarded Policeman” type of astounding!  That’s like asking “How do I get 213 women un-pregnant?”  Like, did you simply not pay attention in school?  Dude, it’s called protection and not the ‘pay or we’ll not be responsible for any accidents that occur to your legs’ type of protection either!  Damn.

Dumb question #3:  background, previous company:  Client has a power outage and is concerned about her phone system.  She calls in.  “Can you tell me if our phones are working?”  Ok, the first problem with this is that we do tech support for their computers.  We have no information/help for their phone systems but I give it a shot any ways.  “What seems to be the problem?”  She responds “We’ve had a power outage and our computers are down.”  I, in my infinite wisdom, ask the obvious question “Then how are you calling me?”

Wait for it….

“On the phone………oh….”

It took 4 Advil to clear up that headache.

I really, really do wonder if people pay ANY type of attention to what they do.  Like the  other day I witnessed this SUV wandering back and forth in his lane.  He was ahead of me in the lane beside me and I had to contemplate what I was going to do.  Not being the impatient type, (although I do wonder how I am able to keep my sanity while waiting for Windows to do anything  even though the System Idle shows 99% but yet my click hasn’t freaking gotten any respect and thus no action….) I really wanted to get passed this guy.  Tought luck on anyone else behind him I say.  So here I am trying to time his lane wandering to when I can floor it and get by this guy.

Oh, did I mention this was happening on a mountain access?  Yeah, I could just see someone getting side-swiped by this idiot trying to fiddle with his glove box and punting some stupid little Hyundai over the embankment to more cars below.  Well, it would make for some news any ways.

Ok, back to my trying to guess correct timing to random lane wanderings.  I wait and SLAM on the gas! (Thanks Vanilla Ice for that metaphor!).  All 183 ft-lbs of torque scream by him and I’m safe to complete my trip home.  I noted that in my rear-view mirror he is looking at me like I’m crazy.  Well, maybe he’s right.  I make money from fixing stupid Windows errors…

So, like this guy who can’t make up his mind where in his lane he wants to be, I get a client who can’t make u his mind what email address he wants us to use for him.  The clueless client (to which I will lovingly refer as CC)asks use to add an email address to his account  (let’s call it 123@456.com).  I check and the email address isn’t setup on our site.  So I
reply and tell him he has to register that emailaddress before I can add it to his account.

CC then responds with “I have registered abc@def.com”.  What the….

I email him back and say “You initally said to ass 123@345.com and then you replied to me with ‘I have registered 123@456.com’.  Just so we are clear, do you now want me to add 123@456.com to your account?”

Are you just dying for CC’s response?  Can you even guess what he will say?  I am still floored by it.

CC’s response:  “I am a little confused by your response.  Please add 123@456.com.”

My reply: “I guess when you wrote ‘I have registered abc@def.com’ that it had nothig to do with your original request.”  (A pretty mild but politically-correct bitch slap there).

You know….you just can’t make this shit up.