I know a few people follow this blog. Some watch for it on my Facebook page. So more than a couple have noticed I haven't posted to it in several weeks.
So most of you know I've changed jobs, and no longer work with the medical group. Hell, it's possible almost 100% of you know this. But it's the heart of the matter.
You see, I now work for an natural gas distribution company that's spread across four states. While that doesn't itself make much of a difference in the userbase in the world at large, the users at my current company are FAR superior (in terms of computer usage) than any place I've ever been a technician or helpdesk agent at.
You see, the level of our users is generally so high that when they call or email us, it's nearly 95% of the time a bona fide issue. By the time we know there's a problem, they've rebooted, they've checked their password, they've ensured it's plugged in, they know the difference between a computer and a monitor, they understand the difference between an Operating System (OS) and a program/application.
And this last part might make many of my IT compatriots cringe: Our users are given local administrator access to their own machines by default. That's right. With one exception in 1500, our users have local admin rights to any machine we image for them.
So what does that mean for this blog? I'm not sure. The hilarious first- and second-hand stories are not likely to come out in large amounts; at least not frequent enough to make it worth while to keep tabs on this blog.
Perhaps a return to the original purpose: Hints, tips, and tricks for the end users (that's "those who use computers, but aren't IT tech support") to better understand what might be expected of them. Some will be high level stuff - Basic usage and understanding of computers. Some will be detailed and technical for the slightly more tech-savvy. Still others will be gems of the uber-geek and users who are curious to try things (please don't try on company computers if you're just curious).
So, I will be mining places like Reddit, How-to-Geek, Lifehacker, Household Hacker, PortableApps, and others to bring you things to think about from around the Intarwebz.
And any stories my friends/followers would like to throw my way about users who should know better: send 'em!! As long as it's no more than third-hand by the time I am posting it (meaning either you, or somebody you directly know talked with the user), I will consider posting the story. You know...for humor sake. What's life like without some fun? It's not like we're getting out alive. Enjoy it, dammit!
So feel free to contact me at jackrockblc+blog@gmail.com with any suggestions or possible post ideas!
