I very much wish you had been there on that call with me that day.

No, you’d ideally have a power management system in place with windows updates etc to avoid such a problem and increase security. But we’re just that shit.

Never occurred to me. I was not the owner of that business. Also sounds like a liability, and it wasn’t up to us to find or manage ways for an adult to figure their shit out.

Thank you, will do then

I will not deny you your joy and I understand that feeling of exorcism. But when its someone else’s exorcism do you ever feel that primal impulse to intervene and not destroy that device, until you too have also tried and failed to restore it? And even if you did, to what end? It’s useless. You could save it. And no one will thank you. That ancient barcode scanner. The thermal receipt printer. Once it was the most sought after tool in your office. Now it is worth less than the fourth cheapest mobile phone you keep to occupy your infant and his curious exploratory teeth.

One day we will all hear that piezo bios speaker cry out, LOOK TO THE RAM, THE RAM!! for the final time. And we will not recognise its passing. Like that day you pressed that AT power button and knew silence. And that day you hit that ATX button assured of imminent quiet.

Now you dig and scrape and claw your fingernail over a miniscule bar shaped button and press your ear, hoping to catch a whirr delayed or a belated faint screen glow or a deferred squeak.

I loved you, BIOS

With a tearful shuddering whimper I surrender. It’s UEFI now. Please. Maybe this time. If I wish hard enough, and BELIEVE. Maybe this time it will turn on. Am I not sufficiently penitent, UEFI? Grant me a sign. A dim LED, a blank yet powered backlit screen. A whisper of life. Please, turn on. Please turn on and heed my F12. Please. Please fucking bastard PXE boot. Please.

Oh you fucking cunt. I hate that spinning white circle. Shift+F10 and shutdown -s -t 0. Fuck me please, don’t ever boot to OOBE again. Please don’t make me wait or wonder. JUST BRING ME THE RAT IN THE CAGE

"…

I love big brother"

Sadly true. It’s just anathema to me not to so much as revert a VM to a snapshot and rerun a batch file after a change. All that convenience and technology is there, it takes 5 minutes…

Agreed. Because of the type of people I normally train and the subject, I start with asking what their experience is. Comfortable with BIOS, networking, drivers? OK cool I’m going to assume then you know enough to follow, don’t hesitate to stop me if i mention something or use an acronym you don’t understand but let’s continue optimistically that you have that knowledge. I think its better for their confidence that I don’t explain DHCP unless they ask. It’s a form if respect in my view.

The key difference as you mentioned is they sought out my knowledge instead of having it thrust upon them like with this guy. He honestly seemed confused what the relevance was to him, if it was important it would have come up on his course, no? The relevance is to your fucking job my friend.

I wouldn’t trade places with him for anything but it amazes me he can walk into his first job with a starting salary I’ll never achieve with such contempt for a simple screwdriver.

I’ve seen in some people, to a degree I’m guilty of this too, that “professional self preservation” is something only experience can teach.

Yep.

"How sure are you about this?

Ooooh… 99%?

“So you’re pretty confident”

What? No I couldn’t have less faith in this unless I saw it fail with my own two eyes.

Same. I’ve more than done my time on hardware but the occasional nostalgic thrill of getting hands on is still a delight.

I’m not so old that I’m of the generation that assumed a job was for life. I’ve never seen any of them as forever jobs. But if I’m doing something full time for what 2-5 years I’m going to take the time to find out what’s involved and make a choice if that’s what I want to do.

Unless that guy thought the same thing, but, I don’t want to climb ladders - THEY better get used to that clicks APPLY

I had a job where the culture was all you know and all you do is what you’re told, and fuck you for asking. I have bitter memories of being scolded for not knowing something I’d never been asked to work on before and wasn’t even aware of it’s existence. It’s so painful to read your story of taking the time to provide training and it being not just unappreciated but disrespected.

Shared MACs, you’re fucking kidding??

“Hey it’s fine no one would ever want more than one of our product, right?”

I wondered that myself, something must have been duplicating for all but one to get denied? I can’t believe even that manufacturer would reuse the same MAC but whatever it was I guessed they’re all sending but only one was getting a reply.

I assumed they had maybe a proxy set for their corporate network they’d forgotten to untick or something.