Help Desk?

I got a new mouse at work today. Spiffy new wireless jobbie with a tilt wheel (AKA: horizontal scroll) and because I’m a lowly user, I cannot install the drivers and I can’t even plugin a different mouse and have the system recognize it, it takes an administrator. Our local IT guy was off, so I called the Help Desk in Florham Park.

Mike answered the phone. When I explained what I wanted to do he assured me that just unplugging the old mouse and plugging in the new mouse to the same USB port was all I needed to do. He said it works 9 out of 10 times. I said, if I happen to be a number 10 I’d call him back.

Every contact with the help desk generates a ticket number. I got my email telling me that a ticket had been created with the trouble listed as: “client had new mouse he thought he needed someone to install the software. ” Time on the ticket was 3:09:41.

Because I wasn’t sure if the weasel was going to check on my PC status, I went through the motions even though I knew it wouldn’t work. Shutdown PC, unplug old mouse, plug in new mouse, restart PC. Oh, geez, the mouse doesn’t work. Shutdown PC, unplug new mouse, plug in old mouse, restart PC. Look at that, the mouse works.

Once I’ve logged in I notice I have new mail. The trouble ticket has been closed with a solution of: “explained to client that software is not required to operate new mouse.” Time of closure was listed as 3:09:45.

Elapsed time from opening to closing, 4 seconds. Didn’t even give me a chance to see if it was going to work. You don’t think the Help Desk Grunts are graded on average ticket closure time, do you? As I stew whether to call back and open another ticket or not, I get a new piece of email with the subject line of: “Help Desk Customer Satisfaction Survey for Ticket # 26443.”

“The Help Desk is committed to delivering the best service to you our customers. As part of our commitment, we would like to invite you to participate in our online satisfaction survey.” Perfect, I’ll fill out the survey and give them a piece of my mind. There is a clickable link in the email that goes to a server in Florham Park where the survey is hosted. So I click. Nothing happens for a bunch of seconds until the connection times out and I get a “the page is unavailable” error.

Nice service guys. I think I’ll just wait to Monday to let the local guy do it…

More Power Cap’n

More Power Cap'nWent out this afternoon looking for a fall like background for Miata photos. I’m working on a 2006 Garnet Red Miata Calendar. I’ve gathered about 16 images in a directory for me to choose from, but I wanted a couple more choices…

This was taken at the power station at the J. Strom Thurmond Dam. I’ve a couple other possibilities from today’s photo safari. One from an intersection not too far from home, plus one or two more from around the dam area.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 347

Black Is The New Black

Cafepress has added black t-shirts for printing on. At one time I had an idea that was perfect for a black shirt, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was.

I have always wanted to have a tee that said “New Navy” on it, as a parody of the Old Navy merchandise. Maybe one that says, “Regular Navy.” Now I just need a line art sailor graphic and I’m n business.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 347

Oh! Charlie

Aiken added another chain eatery to its lineup the other week, O’Charley’s. Tonight Donna and I sampled the place. The menu was pretty much like all the others in the casual dining category. There wasn’t anything there that you couldn’t get identically or really similar someplace else. Whatever their signature dish is, the one every one thinks of when they think of O’Charley’s, I hope we didn’t have it, because our dinner was totally forgettable. Matter of fact, we have after one meal decided that we may not ever need to go back. The place was packed, but that is more attributable to the fact that it is new, than the food and or atmosphere.

Not that the food was bad. We split a side salad, whole rack of ribs, fries and slaw. We started off with a bowl of potato soup that no less than two co-workers said was to die for, and I wouldn’t suffer through a paper cut for any more. More cheddar cheese and bacon pieces than potatoes served luke-hot. The ribs were advertised as “Fall-Off-The-Bone”, but they needed some coaxing to let go of the bone. Fries are fries and the cole slaw was slightly better than average.

Within a mile of O’Charley’s is a Chili’s, a Ruby Tuesday, an Applebee’s and they are building a Fatz Cafe which are all the same kind of eatery. Also within the same radius is an Outback, a Red Lobster, an Atlanta Bread Company, a Ryan’s, an IHOP, about a dozen different fast food places and the usual smattering of Chinese, Mexican and Pizza places. I wish them luck, put they probably don’t need it because although Donna and I probably won’t ever darken their door again there are definitely enough others that will.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 347

Circle Flies

A cowboy in Texas got pulled over by a State Trooper for speeding.

The trooper started to lecture the cowboy about his speeding, and in general began to throw his weight around to try to make the cowboy feel uncomfortable.

Finally, the trooper got around to writing out the ticket.

As he was doing that, he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head.

The cowboy said, “Having some problem with Circle flies there, are ya?”

The trooper stopped writing the ticket and said, “Well yeah, if that’s what they are. I never heard of Circle flies.”

So the cowboy says, “Well, Circle flies are common on ranches. See, they’re called Circle flies because they’re almost always found circling around the back end of a horse.”

The trooper says, “Oh,” and goes back to writing the ticket. Then after a minute, he stops and says, “Are you trying to call me a horse’s ass?”

The cowboy says, “Oh no, officer. I have too much respect for law enforcement and police officers to even think about calling you a horse’s ass.”

The trooper says, “Well that’s a good thing,” and goes back to writing the ticket.

After a long pause, the cowboy says, “Hard to fool them flies though.”

On This Date In History

1805 Lewis & Clark 1st sight the Pacific Ocean.
1867 Madame Marie Sklodowska Curie was born.
1918 Billy Graham was born in Charlotte NC.
1922 Al Hirt, famous jazz trumpeter born in New Orleans LA.
1932 CBS radio presents 1st broadcast of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
1943 Detroit Lions 0, NY Giants 0; last scoreless tie in NFL.
1962 Eleanor Roosevelt Former 1st Lady, dies at 78 in NYC.
1962 Nixon quits politics saying, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around.”
1964 Dana Plato is born in Maywood CA.
1972 President Nixon is re-elected, defeating George McGovern.
1978 Gene Tunney former heavyweight boxing champ, dies at 80.
1980 Steve McQueen Slater MO, actor, dies at 50.
1982 Liz Taylor’s 7th divorce (from John Warner) is finalized.
1989 Brian Bogardus takes delivery of his first Miata.
1991 Pee Wee Herman pleads no contest to charges of indecent exposure.
1994 The Electrical Engineering Times discovers flaws in Intel’s Pentium chip.

Random Event Reinforces Moronic Behavior

Sitting patiently, second in line behind an Acura MDX at a stoplight tonight and after waiting for what seemed a long time, but was perhaps only a couple of minutes, he crept up a foot or so in what I can only assume was a threatening gesture towards the light or perhaps just frustration at having to wait for practically no vehicles, when the cross traffic light goes yellow and ours soon follows by turning green.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 347