Comments on: A desperate recommission

By: What’s with the lousy start time? « Motho ke motho ka botho

What’s with the lousy start time? « Motho ke motho ka botho — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:47:04 +0000

[...] Waiting for the sign-in prompt is almost as slow as waiting for the sign-in prompt on the ancient Sotec K6-2. And even after that, it takes more time to get to a usable point. Sure, the desktop appears and [...]

By: Two and a half epilogues « Motho ke motho ka botho

Two and a half epilogues « Motho ke motho ka botho — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:55:52 +0000

[...] second epilogue is either heartening or disheartening, depending on your perspective and mood. The horrid K6-2 struggling with Windows XP which was pulled out of retirement — more like pulled out of the garbage, really — was [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:54:08 +0000

Cautionary note. There’s a classic trap here. Offering to fix the machine shows you had the skills to break it! They would wonder why you’re offering, is it out of guilt? or was it a set-up for a pay-raise?

Presumably you have the skills to set the ‘old-trooper’ laptop up as a dedicated server machine with linux and have it working much faster and more reliably than the better-spec machine ever did under Windoze. Again, beware of risking it.

I mention the traps above because i have been unbelievably stupid in often falling into traps like that, resulting in dismissals and an appalling Cv. Luckily it sounds like you managed to get away with a good deed there but beware because “No good deed goes unpunished”!

Work places often have a large number of “dead” machines lurking in cupboards, a bit of tlc could soon revive them. It is sad especially considering the “computer for every child” initiatives and such-like but is it worth making yourself the prime suspect the next time something serious goes wrong?

Take care and regards from
Tom

By: K.Mandla

K.Mandla — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:18:47 +0000

Well, unfortunately, you’re both right. I should take pity and do something about it, but I resent becoming the informal fix-it guy. My job is not necessarily related to computers, so anything I might do maintenance-wise would be way outside my job description. And really, in a business of any size, if you rely that heavily on your office equipment, you should contract a professional to fix them for you. I mean, we contract for regular carpet cleaning, why not tech services?

By: Nepherte

Nepherte — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:50:38 +0000

I think fixing and maintaining computers is what K.Mandla absolutely doesn’t want to do. Once you profile yourself as such a person in a company like that, you’re pretty much doomed to do nothing else but fixing stuff. It’s also not one of the most thankful jobs either.

K.Mandla, correct me if I’m wrong

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:48:20 +0000

I understand that the machine has some proprietary software that probably doesn’t play well with GNU / Linux, but could you offer to try to fix up the misused and underappreciated desktop monstrosity?

I understand that technically it probably isn’t in your job description but, as you said, the Sotec you have isn’t going to make matters any better and the specs on that desktop sound as if they’re able to do the job (and do it well, I might add) should the machine be fixed.

I suppose it’s all about where your job ends and where anotehr begins and how open the company (and you, for that matter) are to ‘double-dipping’ into different job descriptions. Being from the United States, I’m not sure what the societal standards on that would be way over where you are, but it’s apparent to me that you know your stuff and the machine needs someone that knows their stuff.