Useless Conversation

[Paelos]

Someone really needs to make a decent wheatfree bread.

Down here, we call that cornbread.

[Lantyssa]

Udi's makes really good gluten-free muffins.  I'd bet their breads are pretty good, too.

Red Mill's cornbread is pretty good, though not a white loaf of course.  (Most cornbread has wheat flour in it, so we still have to get specialty.)

[penfold]

They really aren't that bad except for the 24 fasting and drinking the stuff that cleans out your system the night before.

This is something I've always wondered about; there are tons of pseudoscience "cleansing" diets, enemas, all that sort of shit. Why don't they just get a colonoscopy? Then, you get REAL MEDICINE to roto-rooter your insides.

Fleet Phospho Soda eh. For those that have never had to take it, you can simulate the sound, effect and what seems like volume of your first mad dash to the toilet by tipping a bucket of water into a half filled bath. The worst thing is the no eating the day before, and the lack of water when you wake on the day of the procedure and have to go nil by mouth.
 
I had a colonscopy and gastroscopy a few weeks ago, and the same about 5 years ago. I actually experienced a period of lucidity during the first one, discussed how far the camera view was (18" apparently) with doc and slipped back into sedated la-la land.  The second one I was out of it for the entire thing.

2 different consultancies about my IBS and 2 lots of anal probes, and ECG, a bunch of ultrasounds, tests, biopsies and no real answer or cure. They've found a hiatus hernia, the cause of reflux over the last few years, and nothing down below. I've been given a whole bunch of tablets, which I'm not too keen about taking forever. I'm glad it's not anything fatal or dangerous, but I've had a heck of a time over the last few years with stomach issues.  No idea what next, hookworms or something.

Work stress is the biggest contributor. I've always had stomach probs, but they never took over my life, as much as it has in recent years.  I work on the trading floor of a primary dealer although I hasten to add I'm not a millionaire trader or in sales but one of the poor fucks who has to work for them.  There was bonus pot this year, but none for us, it all went to the ones that are already millionaires as they had to keep the pot lower due to public and media scrutiny. I guess 20 Ops will pay for one junior traders next Porsche or something.  I joined the industry and had one great year (relatively speaking, enough to buy say a new basic compact car but not the Scrooge McDuck sized pile of money the public and media are convinced we all sleep on. I was happy though) before the bail-outs began and doughnuts ever since. I know it sounds mercenary but I've worked some crazy hours and have been personally responsible for ensuring a whole crap load of deals actually went ahead and well, I don't put up with severe stress and the associated physical disorders out of the goodness of my heart and I have full access to the revenues on these deals, and they are  

I'm currently actively interviewing etc for new work to escape the stress of the trading floor. Apart from constant illness and high stress its been very good experience, I understand all aspects of investment banking now, the products, the trade cycle, the banking infrastructure, electronic trading, credit, legal/docs, the works, not just my compliance AML niche. I can go back to my real passion and have a far better understanding of whats going on.

[ghost]

There is an absolutely spectacular gluten free bakery/restaurant in San Antonio called the Little Aussie Bakery.  Their bread is very good and they have some of the best deserts I've ever had, gluten free or not.  I would highly suggest to the Texas folks on here to check it out if you're ever in town and have to be gluten free. 

As for national stuff, I find Pamela's baking mix to do great pancakes, breads, waffles, etc., and the brownie mix is the best I've ever had, hands down. 

Pamela's

[ghost]

Is it typical that IT people have no idea what they're doing?  I have rarely used one and found a resolution.

[Merusk]

Is it typical that IT people have no idea what they're doing?  I have rarely used one and found a resolution.

In my experience, yes.  Normally I was also the one saying "Why don't we try this instead" because I didn't  have rights to actually do it myself, then there was shock and awe when it worked.

Of course that's because the IT guys I've worked with worry about mainframes and servers, and the PC is a foreign land to most of them.  The usual solution was "we'll just take it for a week and re-image the machine."   

[ghost]

That's unfortunate.  I have found that if I have trouble at the office that I usually have to fix it myself through trial and error.  And I know almost nothing about networking. 

[Lantyssa]

Speaking as someone in IT... yes.

And I positively detest the "I'll fix it by formatting" crowd.

[Morat20]

It also depends on who and what sort of IT you're talking to.

Take the phone support for your PC, Xbox, phone, whatever -- the first level guys absolutely know NOTHING. They are literate enough to follow a decision tree, and that's it. Some of the tree branches end on "kick it up to Tier 2" -- people who actually have something of a clue.

Which is a hassle if you're savvy enough on whatever's broken to *know* it's outside the scope of their decision tree, because you still have to sit through the entire decision tree.

OTOH, it probably resolves some 90%+ of issues without ever needing the time of someone who understands the system.

[Fraeg]

Speaking as someone in IT... yes.

And I positively detest the "I'll fix it by formatting" crowd.

It has gotten to the point in my new office that I shit you not just last week when I had an issue one of the IT folks logged onto my PC as an admin and basically said "go for it, just remember to log off when you are done". 

[Bunk]

When I started in phone support for my company 10ish years ago, the "basics" was unplug the printer from the dongle, cleanup MSCONFIG, reboot. After that was reinstall. That didn't work, you booted it up to Tier 2. I was in Teir 2 within 6 months, because I actually made a point of reading the research techs' notes so I actually learned how to fix things. Most of the staff couldn't be bothered.

Our IT department though is actually pretty good (not just saying that because I'm typing on a machine at work). And keeping a good relationship with your IT guys is pretty much manditory if you want things like the ability to actually install programs without needing a service ticket.

Generally, when a PC breaks in my department, the service ticket includes all the things I've run through already. Then they just reimage the drive...

[ghost]

You know, when I start having IP conflicts the network guy should be able to fix that.  My network is pretty damned simple.  I don't even have a server, really.  It's just computers connecting to the internet just like you'd have at home.  When I have to tread through and fix it it pisses me off.

Also, I love the crowd that doesn't understand the reboot phenomenon.  Fuck this has been an irritating day.

[Minvaren]

Speaking as someone in IT... yes.

And I positively detest the "I'll fix it by formatting" crowd.

Seconded.

Reboot?  Yeah, that fixes lots of stuff.

Format/reimage?  Unless you're running Win2k or earlier, or just lost a hard drive, NO.  Find the problem and fix it right.

[Ironwood]

These stupid fuckers you all seem to know and work with are doing it WRONG.

[ghost]

These stupid fuckers you all seem to know and work with are doing it WRONG.

Well, when are you coming by to fix it for me?  I'll pay for the goddamned plane ticket if you'll get it right.   

[Lantyssa]

I know, Ironwood.  That's why I'm still doing support while they shifted to the management track.

[Ironwood]

Oh, for fucks sake, you're making me even more sad.

[Lantyssa]

I don't mean that to say managers are all useless IT people, it's that these individuals were more people-oriented and less tech-oriented.

Which I guess did make them useless at IT, but they were great at BSing...

Okay, yeah.  Sorry.

[Ironwood]

No, that's not what I'm annoyed at.  This isn't about me, but you chaps :  You seem to have a real fucking problem with idiots getting the promotions over there.

[Lantyssa]

That's not normal?

[Paelos]

No, that's not what I'm annoyed at.  This isn't about me, but you chaps :  You seem to have a real fucking problem with idiots getting the promotions over there.

Idiots don't get promoted in my field. Can't speak to IT obviously.

[ghost]

There are plenty of idiot CPAs running around, but I have to say that most of the ones that I've dealt with are plenty sharp.

[Paelos]

There are plenty of idiot CPAs running around, but I have to say that most of the ones that I've dealt with are plenty sharp.

Didn't say there weren't, but they usually work for themselves or in small firms and don't get promoted 

[Samwise]

Scott Adams called it the "Dilbert Principle": in a large company where firing people is too difficult, you promote the least capable people to management on the theory that they can't possibly do any more damage there than they're already doing in their current position.

This is slightly different from the "Peter Principle" in which you promote the most capable people as a form of reward, until they reach a position in which they are no longer capable, at which point they just stay there.

The Dilbert Principle is the one I've seen in action more often, but you end up with questionable management either way.

[sinij]

I know, Ironwood.  That's why I'm still doing support while they shifted to the management track.

Don't let me interrupt your entitlementitis, but perhaps you should start entertaining idea that your own deficiencies are to blame?

[Lantyssa]

Or maybe it was a comment about how I stayed doing what I like and they went on to areas they like and were better at.

Maybe you should look at your own.

[Paelos]

I know, Ironwood.  That's why I'm still doing support while they shifted to the management track.

Don't let me interrupt your entitlementitis, but perhaps you should start entertaining idea that your own deficiencies are to blame?

You stay classy sinij. 

[Cheddar]

Scott Adams called it the "Dilbert Principle": in a large company where firing people is too difficult, you promote the least capable people to management on the theory that they can't possibly do any more damage there than they're already doing in their current position.

This is slightly different from the "Peter Principle" in which you promote the most capable people as a form of reward, until they reach a position in which they are no longer capable, at which point they just stay there.

The Dilbert Principle is the one I've seen in action more often, but you end up with questionable management either way.

When you get to a certain level of management part of the reward is job security.  Otherwise no sane person would ever seek to gain those levels of management and instead ride out lower levels to retirement.

There is more to it then this simple blurb, but it does sorta work.  What you see happen is the ineffective ones are shuffled to the side and not given the outstanding bonuses relegated to those that perform.

[Chimpy]

So with my new job they reactivated my NetID from when I was a student a decade+ ago. Which apparently caused weird issues because it had mold on it or something.

But one fun thing happened late this afternoon. I got a mass mailing from Wolfram Research about the new version of Mathematica on my work email address (which is the same as my address was way back when). I wonder how many other strange emails are going to pop-up out of the blue from places I dealt with over a decade ago.

[Ironwood]

When you get to a certain level of management part of the reward is job security. 

Wow.  No.  It isn't.

[Rasix]

Yah, I was going to say something.  It takes someone with a whiteboard about two minutes to reorg you out of a job.

[Selby]

It takes someone with a whiteboard about two minutes to reorg you out of a job.

I saw my new org chart earlier this week.  I found my name and did the happy dance.

[Ironwood]

Hootsuite or Posterous or something else.

Decisions, decisions.

[Sky]

I'm happily a bad admin, I guess. Why dick around fixing a computer you can re-image in ten minutes? Everyone's data is on the file server, so there's nothing lost. I do make exceptions for people who have music libraries (because mine is over 40GB, heh) that I don't allow on the file server.

Maybe if you've got more time or a bigger IT dep't (mine is me), but for me re-imaging is free, quick, easy and works. Those are my basic requirements for any technological solution.

That's not to say I won't take a more complex route if needed. The guys on the next level up from me I consider pretty irresponsible for relying solely on disk protection without any OS lockdowns for the public. They're not front-line guys, though. I like being able to keep my public computers as safe as possible while being functional AND have the disk protection for wipe on reboot as a backup plan, not the primary (not to mention my solution is free, unlike theirs).

[Ironwood]

In my experience you're just wallpapering over something that's only going to happen again.  And Again.  And Again.