Technology Overload

I just have one question before I start here people... Where's the finish line?!? Where is the end of technological advancements? Are we just gonna keep go on surpassing science fictional properties of what was until we make all those thing and finally catch up to The Jetsons?!? Ok, so that was three questions, but it's all relative. There is no stopping this juggernaut. But in doing such are we negating the old school purists as well as assuming that everyone knows and understand enough to adapt, or is technological evolution going to be the de facto of our existence. Here's my beef on the situation. 

In most of my professional work career I've dealt with helping people in a technical level; everything from computers to the Internet to so much other stuff to recall. This isn't a résumé for me bragging, I can do that without a résumé. This is more of a double-edged sword in most cases. It's a gift that I use to understand and help people that don't; but it's also a curse in that when people don't want to learn for themselves or abuse my good nature for their own gain. I feel that as technology evolves, my symbiotic relationship grows more so. And that double-edged sword just keeps impaling me while I slay the obstacle that is in my way. It almost makes me wish for simpler times. Times where there wasn't so much confusion in technology. Just so people could understand shit and not leech on the nerdy on something as simple as finding a button to click on or why it's so hard to type something verbatim in front of them. 

Let's take on something light, like the setup of a new television. Before it used to be as simple as unboxing it plug it in and whether you had cable you screwed on the coaxial cable or if you had an antenna connection adjust the rabbit ears. Maybe you had a Nintendo and would have to connect an AV cable to it and thanked God if the TV had stereo. Fast forward to today's modern technology. You get your TV, you immediately want to hook it up to everything in your county. Set it up to your surround sound, your game consoles, your HD cable or satellite, connect wifi to your Internet, position it for the most optimal viewing point for 3-D viewing, all in the fear that you might run out of HDMI ports to plug shit into. For someone like me that's entertainment euphoria, for others it's a claustrophobic clusterfuck of cables and tweaking of settings for multiple devices. And the difference between old and new, not much. 

Another example, and probably the most appropriate for this post, just about anything that is computer related. Even back in the day when they were the shit to own and even cooler if you knew how to use one, the Apple II and the Commodore 64 were PC titans among all others. (By the way, just to say that the new iMac and the revamp of the Commodore 64 looks pretty sweet, nothing productive to the post but I had to mention it. It's the nerd in me.) Nowadays, they can't even light a candle to a $.99 app on today's phones. Some people just never learned to adapt and overcome from command lines and all of the archaic crap that those things presented then that they've grown, developed, and passed on a fear to all things gigabytes. If it involves a username and password it's total Greek to them, even after ten minutes after they created it. If it involves finding something in a folder that they didn't create a shortcut for it in their desktop, it might as well never existed. And God help the poor computer tech that come to their aide if they think they have a virus or any other malware on their machine. If they don't bash their machines (or their clients) with a sledgehammer in a fit of frustration or rage, they should be nominated for sainthood. But I've dove into these waters with a previous WTF for those whom need a refresher. Although most people whom I helped said that I have the patience of Job; most people either don't know me very well or just said that instead of me having more restraint than Hannibal Lector's muzzle. 

The point to all this is that we as a civilization haven't grown from the era of the flashing 12:00 on our VCR's. It's a pretty damn sad state of affairs. I just have to ask why?!? Why in my 29 years of living haven't we gone past this? Is it laziness or are we to daft to adapt and overcome such adversity of the old saying "teaching a old dog new tricks". Honestly if I think about it more so I'll go mad. It's deafeningly insane that remedial stuff such as the right plug for something, or pushing a button strikes such a high level of danger that a bomb squad is needed to diffuse their worrying. 

The fact of the matter is, no matter how simple something might be in the whole schema of the technological spectrum, there will always be the techno-sensei's that are out there helping no matter how remedial or mundane something might be. And if you could turn a profit out of it, that's aces in my book. Now I'm not gonna say that I know everything, but from what I do know, I can hang pretty damn well. (Okay, that last part was a little résumé-ish, but screw it... it's my blog...)

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

WTF PEOPLE!?! Tech support

I can't really complain about this, since I've been on both sides of the tech support chain. Trust me it's a fickle mistress for those that call and those who receive. And I would like to bring up the different genres of both the helper and the helped that makes up the majority of such. Wha, you thought that this was a going to be a serious post?!? Listen, just cause I've taken a little time off between posts and I've been on a serious kick for most of my recent posts, so I decided to just let this one rip. I've been long overdue for a WTF PEOPLE!?! for a good while now. So let's get'r dun and have some fun on this one...

Let me start with the funnier of the two. The people that call in for help or even worse brave enough to meet with the diabolical supernerds to help them with whatever. Oh how I can so poke fun at this. Recently a coworker had shown me this site, The Oatmeal, it opened my eyes to what I wanted to WTF about for a good while. And the sad thing is, most of this stuff is right on point. It's almost like it seems that to the tech support person on the receiving end's brain is imploding in front of their client with their queries. Most of which are reasonable because they either are 1) sincerely too daft to perform such tasks themselves without any help or 2) to lazy to RTFM!!! That's the good kind of customers. Need some help and can normally be coached to do the right thing or at least figure out where they can research where to do the right thing. Than they're the ones that wants you to not only wants you to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but out of my ass and their asses as well. The ones that think that we (the technical support help community) are magical techno-genies that within a blink of an eye not only fix their issue but make their computer faster, turn into a transformer, and cure cancer while making sure their email will never stop working; ever! The kind of people that knows that such and such are impossible but we try and tell them time and time again that no those files can not perform that action or no it does not double as a cup holder. And then there are also the ones that think they know everything (like me at times and yes I'm playing the humility card here) and totally get owned by the one that is helping them either by proving that it was something done that was their fault or using the prescribed methods of troubleshooting after they failed to RTFM and it worked. Those kind are a special breed...

I mean I could go on and on about the side on the phone needing help; but alas, we to as the tech supporters have our own idioms that makes us flawed. Oh and in case you haven't figured it out by now, I do tech support as a nine to five; but I don't let it try to drag me into the stereotypical realm of other technical support reps that I've experienced (or at least I try to rise above that for my own right.) They are the condescending ones that try to talk as if you're tree and a haff years old wishing that you just follow their script to do this, this, this, and not that to end as quickly as possible. Those guys are epic wastes of space and they can kiss my Sasquatch-hairy ass for all I care. (Seriously I could go for a mani-pedi-glutious maxi if there was such a thing. But that's probably TMI.) Than they're those who just read off of a friggin' script, and I mean it's so bad that my seven-year-old did a better job at our church's Christmas concert last year making it more believable than these tools did over the phones. Also the outsourcing, dear Lord the outsourcing. Hence why people (like me) try to fix it ourselves most of the time unless we know we have no choice and it needs to be done on their end, my ISP for example when they were experiencing droppage of connection. I'm so friggin' done with calling Abu-Dabi that I'm ready to go out to the junction box and clear the issue my own damn self the next time it happens. But then there are those that honest, earnestly do care about their client's issues (like me, not really tooting my own horn but I do at my nine to five.) They go the extra mile to make sure that the clients truly understood what happened and even help them to be more proactive on the whatever it was about. And it's sad to say that in the industry in a whole, that's a minority. Not to say that it doesn't happen, but it doesn't happen enough. Oh, and I almost forgot about bot-techs. They're the worst. I don't want some stupid bot telling me what's wrong even after I'd RTFM and it's still not working. The bot isn't going to fix the problem. I rather have all bots eliminated and replaced by a pop-up to the help article that I'm at that will answer my question. Or at least make the bots more human like and type out snarky comments like 'is your son/daughter here to help you' or 'it seems to me that it's a PIBKAC error.' That'll at least give me a chuckle or something rather than a "WTF is that BS?!?"

If we improve our techs supporting our clients, than we won't have as many people knowing that their computer is not a Deloran and trying to find the flux capacitor and suping up their power source to 1.21 gigawatts will fix the issue. But then again, the flip side of things is that those clients that can't seem to find the Any Key will keep nerds like me employed for a long, long time. What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Finally, the Dry Spell is Broken...

For the past six weeks, I've been on a mission searching for something. Something that could complete me. Something that would bring a sense of normalcy to my life as well as others close to me. That thing is; a job. And thank goodness now that I've found one, because it's not a moment too soon. This is my chronicles of live on the unemployed side and the triumphant feeling of awe of being employed again.

It started with me hitting the ground running, doing the job network thing (Monster, Career Builder, Dice (because I'm a techie kinda guy), etc.) and applied for anything and everything in my field and job skill. I had a method, every other day I would check for new jobs that would suite me. Some of those searches landed me into a few interviews with a couple of staffing agencies that would try to fit me into a job as well as other interviews for direct hires in my profession. This also included applying for unemployment, which I totally am against doing but taking pride out of the equation, it was a necessity that certainly helped. Included with applying for unemployment was the long friggin' approval wait for it, as well as attending job fairs that the state had setup and reemployment classes. Reemployment classes that were mandatory for me to be eligible for unemployment and if I happened to missed one of those classes, I would be disqualified for unemployment and my funding would be stopped. Once again, I had to swallow my pride, but pride don't mean shit if I can't provide for my family by any means necessary.

On the days that I didn't search, I did moderate housework. That's where things start to go sour. I do my chores like dishes and laundry just like as if I did prior to getting let go, but then there was the realm of taking care of the ENTIRE FRIGGIN' HOUSE... Holy crap that's a huge endeavor. I don't know how the wifie does it. I was on her like white on rice trying to learn from my housewife sensei about trying to keep up. And what I've learned from that experience, don't piss off the sensei, because it will bite you in the ass... HARD! I couldn't do half the work to par that she normally does, and the only thing that I did was get in her way on most things. It was getting to the point to that if I don't get a job soon..., let's just say that it wouldn't end well for me.

Thankfully, at that point in time, a job offer arose. Two interviews later and I was hired. That was this past Monday. I went to orientation filling in jobbie type stuff only to realize that at that time, my out-of-state licence was expired recently and it was not a valid form of ID. That was Wednesday. Needless to say, the wifie was mad and was on the suspicion that we (meaning I) won't get the job and dire straits would be near if something didn't happen. So the next day we went to the DMV to get my licence changed over; why didn't I do that earlier, I don't know; but there's a snafu in that plan. My licence is suspended for some strange reason and I have to get in contact with them for a reason why. So until then, they just gave me a regular state issued ID card. So I can't drive (well drive legally) but at least it's a legitimate ID card that means three things: 1) I start my job on Monday!!! 2) I get out of my wife's hair because I start my job on Monday!!! And 3) I still can by beer to celebrate points 1 and 2.

It's been quite an adventure and I'm just glad that it's over and a new one just begun. No doubt that I'll do my damndest to thrive in this venture. I'm just glad that my drought of unemployment is over and things will go as close to normal as things can get.

I would also like to thank those whom helped me in any way, shape, or form towards me getting a job. Whether it was as a reference, a lead to put my foot in, prayer, whatever the case was. Thanks, I truly mean it.

Off to the rat race once again...

BootLeG sampler.. signing off...

Confessions of a Tech-whore

I'm in love with technology. I've been in love with it almost my entire life. I personally blame the Mattel Aquarius as the gateway to my obsession with technology and all things nerd and geeky. It was truly my first computer/console/piece of crap thing of technology that I ever had. But as time go by, technology has advanced to new heights and all I can do is just drool over all that is tech.

But I also realize that I'm a broke-ass and can't afford the luxuries that I so desperately want. And as technology advance more and more, the more and more I drool over things that are just out of reach. It's a cruel thing wanting the newest and greatest of things at the moment because in just a short amount of time, it'll be outdated. We all know that, but we're all guilty of it's beacon call. We all wanted the next big thing; whether it's a next-gen videogame console, a high-def TV and Blu-Ray player, the latest smartphone, fastest computer with the fastest internet connection available; everything under the sun and more. And just for the record, I'm not singleing out anyone, hence the title of the post in case you forgotten.

I was always fixated with technology. One of my earliest memories is my dad playing his Atari 2600 with his drinking buddies. It looked like so much fun. Then I played it a little, and I was hooked, like a junkie to the needle. It only grew worse when I got my first console at the ripe young age of 5; my NES was the shit back then, and it's still is now. And for the longest time, I was the freckin' man in my neighborhood cause I had a Nintendo, then... The SNES came out; and I was like "Ahhh, crap!!!" with the new hotness that I didn't have. Eventually I got a Sega Genesis, but that was feeling of being the man again was short lived with the next gen consoles hitting the streets. My best friend had all the consoles at the badass consoles at the time. From the NES to both the SNES and Genesis, and even a Nintendo 64 when it came out. Of course his mom and oldest sister worked at Toys-R-Us and had it held for them during it's release, so they had the hookup. And in turn, I had the hookup.

But finally as I was old enough for a job, I bought my first console (with my own money that is) on it's release day, 9.9.99; the Sega Dreamcast. In my opinion the best damn console ever made giving it's time of inception. (Honestly, the best damn console ever: I just pissed off everyone that owns a PS3 and a 360). But for what it's worth, at the time it had the best controls on its games, the most fluid graphics, and well, IT'S SEGA!!! Ya can't go wrong with Sega. Until... (ugh), the Playstation 2 came out. Then the XBox came out. Next thing you know, The Dreamcast is nothing but a memory and my elite status was shot to hell, yet again.

And the fact of having the best in electronics isn't just on the videogame aspect as well. Although, videogames are a pretty big chunk of that experience. There was plenty of instances where I longed for what I could afford and get the best for what I could get. Everything from cellphones, to camcorders, to computers. It's nothing but a big friggin' rat race. I just stopped trying to compete for the best and now I guess I can call this me being in tech-addict remission. I still want, but I know that I don't need it.

Currently, I'm working on building the computer of my dreams. It will handle normal stuff, but it'll mainly be for music production and other media storage. I want this computer to be a media center for my living room as well as if I wanted to just jam on my bass guitar, play some chords on it and record it for prosperity. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of my music to be put onto the internet for those to enjoy. But that computer is a little ways from being built and all that I can do is just build and collect little by little. But once it's done, it'll be epic. Then I'll work on getting that Playstation 3.

So for now, I'll just sit at home and watch my kids play the Wii then watch House in HD. (yeah, that's not bad if you ask me...)

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...