Give us the cheat codes to your industry/place of work!
Tech. Everyone felt overwhelmed when they started, like they’d never be able to catch up, like they were in over their head. It’s not just you. We all went through it.
Does it generally get better by the second decade? Lol only kind of half joking
I work in the magical world of ISPs. If you’re having an internet issue, reboot your router and/or modem before calling in. It may not seem like much to you, but many background processes happen when you do so. This can be useful to troubleshoot where the issue lies. There’s a reason why techs will make you do so when calling in. And yes, they can tell on their end if and when you do so. So don’t bullshit them by saying you already did it if you didn’t.
Yeah, but we all know that no matter how many times that I have already done, tech support won’t talk to me until we do it again together
If I had a nickel for every time a full power cycle fixed it all, I’d be rich. However, if you did power cycle before and call in again, often it’s an issue that needs deeper investigation. In that case, the tech can likely watch the process of your equipment coming online in realtime to see where the issue is happening. Network entry, authentication, package application, DHCP, it can often be monitored as it’s happening. A reboot while on the phone starts the process right from the beginning so it can be monitored to determine what happens immediately and what happens after it sits for a while.
I work in tech support. An error I haven’t seen doesn’t exist. So yes, I’m going to re-trace the trouble-shooting steps with you.
90% of the people who call in haven’t done it, but claim they did. Because they think I have a magic tech wand that can find and fix all problems, and that I just make them go through the motions because I’m lazy.IT guy here, it is fairly common to make a change in the system™, and need to reboot the device for the change to take effect.
I feel like some people “lie” about rebooting their modem simply because they don’t know how to reboot it
- Unplug the power
- Wait ~30 seconds, just to ensure it’s good and off
- Plug it back in
Fortunately there are no commands to enter or buttons to click. They’re designed to handle losing power.
Concerts, the rooms are always tuned visually and sonically for about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way back on the floor. If you care about audio or visuals this is where you go. If you can’t afford the floor, anywhere in the center will still be a good experience, avoid the sides unless you don’t care about visuals or audio. We literally call those the bone seats, because they have no substance to them.
I’d they’ve got a control booth in the middle of the venue, that’s usually where I want to hang out. Best audio/visuals right where the guy engineering it is listening to it
Nursing/Psychiatry: here’s what to pack for your friend in the psych hospital!
- T-shirts, logos fine, avoid anything explicit/vulgar
- stretchy pants, no drawstring or that can have the drawstring removed and don’t need a belt
- a sweater without a hood or zipper
- socks
- slide on shoes (no places)
- a puzzle book with more than one type of puzzle
- a book in a genre they like
- a coloring book
- a notebook to write in
- crayons
- a stress ball
- one of those silicone bubble popper toys
- snacks/food that are still sealed or that have one of those doordasher stickers fast food places use sometimes.
DON’T bring:
- anything with long strings or cords
- anything sharp or pointy or made of glass or ceramic
- plastic bags
- bedding/pillows
- anything valuable or sentimental other than maybe a smartphone, and ID
I’m a waitress. It never hurts to say it’s your birthday or better yet, anniversary. Birthdays get free dessert most places but anniversaries get free bubbles. It costs me nothing to give it to you.
Just make sure to tip on the pre-discount amount and it’s all good.
Even if my wife and I get our meal fully comped because the kitchen messed up or it took a long time (has happened a few times, college town. We never complain or get upset, the managers just come over and apologize then comp it), we qt least tip as if it wasn’t comped, if we liked our server and/or the food a lot (both, most of the time) then we tip the full amount of the comped meal. Without fail the servers have been surprised that we tip at all when that happens
IT - if you have an issue with an application, give us step by step instructions on how we can repeat your issue like we are five years old. We’ll get it fixed more quickly that way.
As an IT director, I encourage my techs first action to be to connect to the clients machine and ask them to “show me what’s happening.” Then they aren’t to interrupt the user until they complete their explanation except to ask for clarification.
You can see all the steps leading up to the error, the users workflow, typically the desired end result, and the error message.
You also are building rapport with the user making them feel listened to. Far too often I see techs assume something else is the issue, “fix” that, call it done and the user gets frustrated.
Even if you can’t fix it, like so many user issues, at the very least the support experience is a positive one for the end users. Sometimes it’s just that a specific preference isn’t in an applications options or they need to change a step in their workflow. But at least the end users was listened to and their experience and frustration was validated.
If you have metrics or surveys, it’s always interesting to hear a user write in that the issue was not resolved, but they were extremely satisfied.
I’m doing that and generally the next step after that is : “OK, can you do it again and this time DO NOT CLOSE THE ERROR POPUP so we can get information on what is happening”
I have great service with IT people because I do this by default. I’ll have already tried some steps myself, so I’ll give them info about what exactly works, doesn’t work, and things that I can or can’t do that might be related to the main issue.
They really appreciate the detail.
I feel bad that my old job’s IT department would never trust me when I listed this amount of detail, so I stopped putting in the extra effort.
My ticket: I am not able to login using the standard portal. The error I recieve is X. I have already tried rebooting. I have confirmed that everything was fully plugged in and that I am on the correct network. I also already went through the normal recovery process which did not work. Here is the result, [X].
The first response from IT: Why don’t you try rebooting and then let me know if it’s working. If not, go through the normal recovery process.
Like, I get it, you’re being thorough and don’t want to just blindly trust the user, but I’m only talking to you because I already tried your quick fixes. Please understand.
Reasoning: For everyone one You, we have a 1000 not-You. But the other 1000 say almost the same as you.
Once you experience that you become jaded and assume they are either lying or tell or miss some details. But we know our usuals and if we notice the name we might assume you know x and y more than the usual.Please dont stop putting in the last mile :)
Yeah, I get that. I think it’s partially to do with how rarely I’ll have an actual issue. Also with their turnover rate, I rarely interact with the same tech twice.
I still do all the legwork to figure out if it’s something I can fix myself and always put specifics (Repro steps, Error Codes, etc.), but pulled back on listing every other step I’ve already tried.
Corporate IT: I see nearly everything you do on your computer. I can see exactly how long what application is open. If I ask you to restart your computer, you don’t, and you somehow get me in front of it, restarting it better not fix it or your next ticket is gonna be low priority no matter what. If you want in with IT, always open a ticket and include as much info as you can clearly convey. Snacks and bribes won’t always work with those of us who are very antisocial.
or your next ticket is gonna be low priority no matter what.
That’s childish and won’t ever cause a change in their behavior.
Bonus points if they show management the ticket that’s stalling a project from progressing and has been sitting on your desk for 2 weeks.Stalling a ticket here means a day, not two weeks. I have 72 hours to respond at a maximum before I get penalized. We are worked so fast here the skin flies off your bones.
I will prioritize nicer clients (assuming the issue is equal as fast to solve) if they are more pleasent to work with.
You say that like it’s the one “high priority” ticket that the one big project is waiting on. In a sea of backlogged high priority issues attached to critical projects, being an asshat means that yours will be at the bottom of the 100 other super-important, my job-is-special tickets.
I’ve dealt with my share of PC issues and apart from digging in and writing scripts, I’m an advanced end user. One time le tired IT guy needed to remote in for some issue I didn’t have appropriate access to deal with. He seemed rather startled when I opened notepad and said “Hi!”
I also swear I began to get more difficult to recognize fake phishing attempts shortly after.
Dave, if you’re reading this you never caught me with one! Gotta try harder!
Snacks and bribes won’t always work with those of us who are very antisocial.
Always ask the person you are trying to bribe what they like to be bribed with.
Can you hijack the camera and see us too?
No and if I found a way I would file a report against any other IT agent who did. That’s invasion of privacy IMO. Microsoft can tho, remember the Kinect?
Yes, of course. Though your camera light would alert you of the usage, unless of course, your IT guy ordered a camera that can deactivate the light via software (or simply opened the camera and yanked the light)
Software Engineer:
Make a junk email for junk signups and accounts, if you can. Don’t accept the cookies. If the product you’re using is free, the information you enter is what’s being sold to someone else.
Ctrl+Shift+Tab reopens the tab you just accidentally closed.
Adding onto this, either have a temp mail addon, or have one such site bookmarked on your browser.
If the product you’re using is free, the information you enter is what’s being sold to someone else.
Even paid services can and usually will sell your information, so just assume that everything that you enter is considered public information from that moment on
Looking at you, Adobe
I just started using Proton mail’s aliases for that and love it. If I see a bunch of spam coming to one particular alias, I’ll just delete it and make a new one. So far, it’s been great
Isnt the reopen tab CTRL SHIFT T?
My god, I hadn’t even noticed that autocorrected to “Tab”. Fixed it, thanks for the call out.
HVAC: Don’t shut your air vents to give you better heating or cooling in certain rooms/floors. You’re adding pressure to your system and reducing its life. If it’s AC then you’re turning it into a freezer. That’s why doing so freezes the coil, not enough air flow to move the cold air out and keep it from freezing. For heat it literally can overheat the control board frying it since the blower also helps cool the electronics. If you have hot and/or cold rooms (this is normal per floors) ask about adding dampers. Most of the time it’s not possible without major drywall rework and it isn’t cheap. Your builder sucks (basically). A lot of companies won’t quote the work because it can’t be guaranteed. You’re essentially stuck with the crappy design the builder got approved. One potential is minisplits. Again, not cheap per room and not pretty but they will fix your issue.
Rethinking so many life choices.
HVAC: mini splits
black mold forms and causes breathing problems. Clean aircons (air conditioner) every 6 months - 1 year.
If water is dripping from the outside unit, your aircon is lacking gas. Making it into a giant fan.
A mini-split is chosen to meet the needs for one room. Some folks, and can’t be convinced otherwise, think an aircon can cover the entire universe. And to prove it, they leave all the doors open.
This is proof we live in the matrix. It’s completely unsolvable issue without self closing doors
If water is dripping from the outside unit, your aircon is lacking gas. Making it into a giant fan.
Water dripping means the cold side coil is cold enough to condense water out of the air. In what way does that suggest it is not working?
Normally the cold is carried by the gas to your room. The less gas you have, the less efficient this transfer is, and the colder your outside unit will be.
When the cold side is for inside air, I think you’ll find that the water it condenses from the inside air is piped outside
Some, especially newer units are designed to evaporate most of the condensate (water). That being said many will still drip water depending on the humidity (high) outside and also inside. And it be perfectly normal.
Are you in the industry, 'cause that doesn’t ring true to me. Why would you spend the energy to evaporate water when it’s so cheap and easy to dump the water on the petunia patch?
Refrigerators collect waste water in a tray on the assumption that the indoor climate will be dry enough for the water to ambient evaporate
Air con is incredibly popular in the tropics where it’s dropping 100% RH to 30% and making a lot of water
Yes 15 years, because it saves energy by making the system more efficient.
Window units design the fan to throw the water onto the condenser this evaporates the water AND cools the freon in the condenser coil. Commercial stand up refrigerators often run the condenser line through the condensate pan for the same reason.
They don’t “spend” energy doing it, they save it.
Split units and traditional A/C will just drain or pump the water somewhere.
Thanks, that is pretty neat
Also, don’t use evaporated water for your flowers; there are no minerals in pure water and for them it’s like eating wallpaper paste
I looked up dampers, and I’m confused about how they are functionally different than closing/opening the vent? I’m sure I’m not understanding though. Is it just about the location?
Proper dampers redirect airflow, not eliminate it. Again, see, your house builder sucks.
They don’t operate differently. Also he is assuming your ducts are designed and balanced properly to begin with. Most in residential homes aren’t.
While shutting off a lot of vents can cause problems. Shutting off an unused room isn’t going to hurt anything. Or partially closing a vent because a room gets too warm/cold. Because like I said they do fuck to balance systems in residential homes.
Thanks. I was thinking of shutting the vents of one room in the house that is empty and unused, but I figured just keeping the door closed would probably be better, right?
Shut it off, it won’t hurt anything. It’s only an issue if you’re shutting off a lot of vents. Now how much good it’ll do energy saving wise, depends on where the room is in the house and how old your house is. Newer houses with better insulation will see much less improvement.
Won’t it potentially cause humidity issues? The room does not get direct sunlight (faces south). It’s a new house with pretty good insulation (as far as I’ve experienced so far).
Without being there, I couldn’t say for sure., but I doubt it Personally, I would just use common sense. Shut it off and and just check the room a couple times over the next week or two.
I agree that shutting 1 vent isn’t going to kill your system. However, that one room isn’t insulated on interior walls. Best to leave it alone for overall comfort. You aren’t saving $ closing the vent. The system is going to run until the thermostat is satisfied no matter what.
Also, best thing for the entire building is to run the fan constantly (I forgot to mention this in the original). Balances the building much better than just the entire system kicking on and off every 15 min or so.
I’m in the museum sector.
Never pick something up to move it until you’ve seen the place where you’re moving the thing and it’s clear of junk.
It’s safer to make two trips instead of one. It’s safer to make three trips instead of two.
The best thing you can do for something old that looks like it’s slowly falling apart is usually to leave it alone.
A lot of people who come into the museum do that, do they?
Can’t imagine this is relevant to a lot of folks here, but corporate event audio visual:
Don’t use the audio visual company that’s “in house” at a hotel. They’re paying nearly 50% commission for the privilege of being there and getting business shunted to them, so only half of what you pay is going to goods or services.
That said, make sure your hotel contract leaves you free to bring in an outside vendor without having to pay too many fees. Cross out any lines related to things like “load in/out liaison,” paying for polytak floor covering, or paying some percentage of your outside AV bill to the in house company. It might help to include a proactive clause like “client will not be charged any fees for bringing in our own audio visual partner”. Include a line that you won’t be required to pay surcharges like “event technical support” which is just a “we’re charging you a fee” fee.
You will still have to pay the in-house AV vendor for any power, internet and rigging. For internet, confirm what your rate will be before signing the contract. We see a lot of cases where they’ll say “the meeting room wifi is discounted (free) if you use us for AV too, but if you don’t it’s $20k” (actual number, and could be even higher) Once you sign without negotiating they’ve got you over a barrel.
If you already have a contract you may be able to mitigate these issues by leaning on your hotel salesperson. Trying to negotiate with the in house AV rep will usually be ineffective (sometimes they’re cool). The hotel is the in-house AV vendor’s number one customer, so if the hotel says they need to do something, they’ll do it. Usually leaning on your hotel salesperson after signing a contract only works if you have some leverage like potential for future business.
Yeah, the main company for most hotels literally got the exclusive contract by bribing the hell out of all of the hotel owners/executives. And they were so notoriously shitty that they bought a smaller company a few years ago, just so they could change their name to the smaller company’s name and attempt to sidestep lots of the bad reputation.
And to add to that an outside vendor will almost always provide a better result because they actually have to work for their jobs, rather than their jobs being given to them. They also have to work in more venues so they are more flexible and able to customize your AV to meet your specific needs. Many of these in house crews have only a couple setups that they will do for a room and if your setup doesn’t fit that preset, tough.
The only downside is, because their shop is not on site, last minute add ons are difficult if not impossible to do. So make sure you account for everything that is happening and communicate it with your AV company so they can spares for any last minute add ons you may want.
Good points! I know my last couple jobs have had “partner” companies that were similar to us in each major metropolitan area. So if we had a pop up request beyond the backup gear we packed, we could still get it from a warehouse less than an hour away. (And there’s always the wholesale rental houses like Rentex)
Brother, Pharmacist:
Just because we called doesn’t mean your prescription is ready. Listen to the message
Just because your doctor said they sent in your prescription… it means nothing. He or she probably asked an assistant to send it or put it in their inbox.
Lmao, is the bottom one because you ask to see some ID?
Correct! It’s a disturbingly large proportion. Some medications absolutely require one, and people who just drove up will tell you they didn’t bring any form of ID whatsoever.
In my state you aren’t required to have your license with you while driving. You just have to provide it within 24 hours of getting pulled over, etc.
What the fuck is this world sometimes
I’m the UK you can’t be required to carry ID at all.
If the police ask you for them, you have 7 days to present them at a police station.
That’s kind of ironic for a nation that’s leaned into eyes everywhere pretty hard.
Really.
AFAIK the ID law is a consequence of a centuries-old right that you cannot be required to identify yourself if you’re doing nothing wrong, and then even if you did do something wrong, you still can’t be required to have brought ID with you since it’s likely you didn’t set out knowing you’d be doing that today.
But the surveillance/camera thing is recent, when rights of ordinary people apparently are less fashionable.
Huh, I didn’t know that. I used to give my da shit because he never carried his license. Though we’re in NI and police checkpoints are a thing here.
You know I said UK but this is exactly the sort of law that tends to be different in NI.
I read that in Alabama (or maybe Mississippi, I can’t recall) you can drink alcohol while driving. You just can’t be above the blood alcohol concentration limit.
Louisiana, I believe.
Louisiana had famously (or infamously) lax liquor laws for decades, so maybe that‘s what you’re thinking of. Shit like drive-thru daiquiri stores, where as long as they don’t put the straw in the cup it’s not considered an “open” container. So they can just hand you a cup full of liquor, and the straw separately.
It’s also a large part of why New Orleans developed a reputation as a party town; Louisiana kept their drinking age at 18 while every other state was at 21, so all the college freshmen/sophomores would go to Louisiana during spring break because they could drink.
TIL. Thanks.
In Canada, the drinking age is 19 everywhere except Quebec where it’s 18, so in Ottawa 18 year olds just go across the river to buy liquor.
Depends on the drug, but for some, it’s required every time it’s filled. Also, if they don’t know you, they should probably ask for ID anyway.
I work at a gas station—take note of your damn pump number.
Like everyone else, I get distracted and forget to do this. Then I look out at my car while standing at the register. Naturally, the numbers are not visible from this location…
Indeed.
Can you just check on the camera. Yeah, the blue car. No not that one, the other one.
“It’s the one at the end.”
Turns out it’s Pump #2, not Pump #1…
King of England. Please don’t visit the Palace, there’s literally nothing to see.
If you’re going to see the show and spot me in a side booth, please don’t heckle. Yes she knows. Yes of course she knows. Yes he’s a prick. Yes your money is being wasted on us, but we’re all you’ve got in terms of benevolent rich people so live with it.
I’m a truck driver.
- You are far safer behind me than in front of me. It can take me over two US football fields (200 yards or roughly 180 meters) to come to a full stop and it takes more distance if my trailer is empty. The average car can stop in half that distance. Most cars turn into tin cans when hit by a rig at 25 mph.
- If you see a number of trucks all moving into the same lane, might consider getting in the same lane, behind us. Odds are pretty good we either saw something in the lane ahead or we heard about something over the CB.
- I can see you playing on your phone while driving. Cops in some states have been known to hitch rides with truck drivers in order to catch distracted drivers.
- Learn zipper merging!
it takes more distance if my trailer is empty
This seems counterintuitive. I would love to hear why.
I would imagine it has to do with traction and ability to apply braking forces without skidding the wheels.
Even in a pickup truck, it’s easy to skid the rear wheels (antilock brakes aside) with the bed empty because the brakes can easily overcome the traction of the tires. This is why pickups have height sensing proportioning valves.
That makes sense.
Most of a tractor-trailer’s stopping power is split between the trailer brakes and the tractor’s drive tandems. If there is not enough weight on those axles, the tires can’t grip the pavement properly. If I apply too much power to the brakes the wheels can start bouncing or just lock up and start skidding if the ABS system is acting up.
Most tractor-trailers you see on the road in the US are designed to weigh 60,000 to 80,000 lbs (~ 27,000 - 36,000 kg). For comparison, a Honda Civic weighs roughly 3,000 lbs (1360 kg). Every system on the truck is designed around moving that amount of mass safely. With an empty dry van trailer your looking at closer to 30,000 lbs (~ 13,000 kg). Makes a difference in performance. Ride is rougher, takes longer to stop.
In the age of computer-controlled ABS and brake assistance systems, that just sounds like poor programming.
There’s no reason why the computer shouldn’t be able to take current weight into account and deliver more braking power to the tractor when the trailer is empty.Is ABS a thing with air brakes?
- https://www.bts.gov/content/average-age-automobiles-and-trucks-operation-united-states
- https://www.bendix.com/en/products/vehicle-dynamics/
Some probably do, tech has advanced quite a bit since I started driving in 2008, but the newer tech tends not to be installed widely when it first comes out due to how unreliable tech becomes under the working conditions that are normal in the trucking industry. Fleet owners want their equipment on the road making money, not in the shop costing money, so they tend to wait till a tech proves itself to be reliable. Plus upgrades costs money, so they tend not to happen till a unit is replaced with a newer model, which can take a while.
Most large companies in the US have an experimental fleet where they try out new tech first, before they roll it out to the rest of their fleets. They are looking for cost effectiveness, reliability and driver response. The smaller owner operators, which make up the bulk of the trucking industry, tend to follow (slowly) after them. And as old as the trucks are, the trailers are often even older. While most trailers in my company’s fleet are less than 3 years old right now, the oldest trailer (now mostly used for hauling pallets back to Chep) was built in 1992 according to it’s data plate. If it’s ABS system is newer then 2008, when it was last active in the fleet I’m a monkey’s uncle, and I’d pay long odds it’s still the original system from 92.
Great insight, thanks!
Sounds like you’re talking about icy or wet roads. I’ve never had a trailer do that on dry pavement and I can definitely stop faster emptying than full.
Thank you. That’s fascinating.
ZIPPER MERGE, PEOPLE!!
Additional hot take, merge near the end of the merge lane rather than slowly try to force yourself into traffic further back. Keep it moving and respect the zipper merge at the end.
And when you get to the end, start looking for the opening and merge, don’t slow down or gun it and try to get ahead of five more cars.
🙏
Yeah it looks just like that but with cars
I have driven many thousands of miles and my favorite place on the road is 100 yards behind a big rig that’s heading my way. i can zone out and safely follow and people rarely want the spot between you and the truck for long so you can just go hours keeping that square centered.
It’s even better at night when the trucks lights give you a nice preview of exactly how curvy the road is.
Eventually big guy takes an exit and i always send a grateful salute cuz following a big rig 100 yards back is better than cruise control imo.
Plus your probably save on gas too.
It takes more distance to stop with an empty trailer? I would have thought the opposite. How come?
NM, saw your reply below. Thanks.
