Where Do Sent Items Go?

Email the other day...

"Is there a folder that contains sent e-mail messages that you can grab to keep them on file?"

Umm, yes. It is called sent items and it has been there since you started 4 years ago.

Special People

So today I'm minding my own business ordering new computers, setting up user accounts and what not...when I am interrupted by someone that I can only classify as special.

The question...
When I try look at my personal folders in Outlook, I get an error message that the path is not found to drive x.

Hmm, this isn't unheard of. Sometimes the login script fails and the drive is not mapped. Rather than walking special person through mapping the drive, I tell them to reboot which will cause the login script to run again.

Special returns moments later to tell me that it didn't work. The conversation goes like this:

Me: Can you get to drive x:?
Special: Yes.
Me: Have you moved or deleted any files from drive x recently?
Special: Oh yeah, I think I deleted my mail.
Me: Do you need your mail?
Special: Yes.

@(*$%#*(%#(*^#!(*)(*&!, WTF? Seriously if you need it, why did you delete it? It was stored in a folder called mail. Could would be anymore descriptive with the name? So, of course I went and restored the files.

This incident was followed up with a visit from another special user. Special #2's cell phone headset had died and my boss said special could go purchase one anywhere and expense it. Why did special need to talk to me? Well you see, special didn't know where to go to purchase one. That's right, apparently special lives under a rock.

I suggested Bestbuy, Staples, or Circuit City as all are nearby. Then I asked if the phone was a Cingular phone because there is also a Cingular store. Special stared blankly at me, held up the phone and said, "I don't know. It is Samsung if that helps." From across my cube I could see the Verizon logo. I nodded and said go to Bestbuy.

Spam, Spam, Spam

Yes, I love the spam filter.

We upgraded the spam filter the other day. For some reason it stopped functioning correctly and more spam was sneaking through than normal. Mind you, I was still blocking about 12,000 spam messages.

Anyway, I sent out an email stating that I was aware of the problem and that I was working with the vendor to fix the influx of spam. Do you know what happened?

I received 50...count 'em 50, responses saying yes, I am getting more spam. Hello...didn't I just say I was working on it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Let's see what else...

Someone asked why the spam filter doesn't catch spam in their AOL account when they check their mail from work. Hmmmm...I wonder?

Lastly, riddle me this Batman? What does whitelist mean? Yes, that's right when I sent an email out about whitelisting, people wrote back asking me what that means.

Ignoring the fact that there were contextual clues within my email that should allow a normal person to figure it out on their own...what does blacklist mean in the real world?

If you understand blacklist, wouldn't whitelist be the opposite?

I need a new computer... & and Analogy For You

I've got many excuses for not posting, but none are any good. Rather than type up an explanation, here's a new entry for you.

First an analogy:

Disable wireless is to wireless as
Disable LAN is to ?

If you aren't smart enough to figure out the answer, you really shouldn't be reading this blog, but just in case, the answer is LAN!

The other day I received an email where about 9 people were cc'd. (I love when that happens.) The email stated that their laptop wouldn't connect to the network and that we needed to order a new one for them.

Let me fill you in on one important little fact before we continue. Last week this person complained to me that the laptop didn't connect to their Internet connection at home. Since their connection at home is wired, I suggested that they turn off wireless. This is because WindowsXP is so stupid that it will preferentially pick a flaky/non-operational wireless connection over a perfectly good wired connection. Instructions: Go to start, connections, show all connections, and then right click the wireless connection. Choose disable and you are done.

Back to this email message. I replied back to all 9 people. (Since they cc'd all those people to make me look like an ass, I cc'd back.) My suggestion was the user disabled the LAN connection rather than wireless after our conversation last week. If they disable LAN, then the computer no longer sees the network. Enable LAN and it should work just fine. Of course this fixed the problem.

My question to you? If you know you want to turn off wireless, why would you pick anything other than wireless. When you view all connection there are 3 available: LAN, VPN, and wireless. It is called wireless, what the heck is wrong with these people?

Your Spamminess...

Dear Cranky Sys Admin,

I am still getting 20 spam mails a day, can you fix the spam filter?

Yours Truly,

LUSER

~~~~~~~~~~

Dear LUSER,

My spam filter catches 680 spam emails to you per day and 20 make it through. That is a 97% catch rate. That is pretty effin good if you ask me. Perhaps if you used hotmail or something else for your non-work related email, you wouldn't have this problem. I've got better things to do, please stop wasting my time.

Sincerely,
Your Crankiness.

Captain, I think she's dead.

My department received a call that someone's laptop wouldn't boot. Since the user suspected hard drive, we went with that and had him send the laptop in for us to look at.

He Fedexed it to an office that I happened to be working in for one day and one day only! I opened up the laptop, turned it on and it immediately shutdown. In my head... "Fark, this thing needs to be charged."

So, I plug it in and it boots up fine. WTF? I'm about to set scandisk to run on the next boot when the lightbulb finally goes off. I glance down and notice the battery is 3% charged. Why did it take me this long to figure it out? I should have known the second, I tried to power it on.

That's right, the guy sent me his dead laptop which just needed to be plugged in. Either the power cord wasn't plugged in or the outlet he was plugged into didn't have power.

Is the light on?

I haven't posted in awhile. This is not due to lack of available content. I've just been very busy at work. We have lots of new hires and I have been traveling as well.

Last week I received a call from someone with a laptop who was trying to login to VPN. It wasn't working. VPN starts to connect, they type their username and password and then it disconnects. Obviously the problem is either they don't know their password or numlock/capslock is on.

Since they are new, I assumed they know their password. So, I ask if numlock or capslock is on. I immediately get the a response of no. Generally, a quick response like that implies that they didn't check. That being said, I asked if the numlock or capslock light was on.

Guess what? Numlock was on. Brilliant! Of course their account was locked out after so many failed login attempts, so it was necessary to unlock the account before they could use VPN.

On a similar note, I received an email from someone who could not change their VPN password. After some failed email attempts to help, I found out that VPN is not even installed on their computer.