Shawn's Blog

a hair-band lovin', techni-junkie's banter about… whatever.

Long time gone

Posted on | June 13, 2007 | No Comments

It has been quite a bit since I’ve posted here. I actually haven’t had much to say, so I didn’t bother posting. I’ve been using Facebook (like everyone else) as it’s more private than this blog. I do have a post I want someone to read, so here goes:

This past week, I have been debating what to do about a post from a person on a blog I came across on a website which, according to Wikipedia.com is “proclaiming itself as the darker, less friendly alternative, and catering specifically to angry and/or depressed individuals.” (For the record, the topic of the website is not how I came across the post. ;-) )

I’m more than a little surprised that this person was posting as this site, as I never would have guessed him to be angry or depressed. He always presented himself as a professional well-mannered person. I’ve got to stop judging people by what I see, because I was blindsided by this.

I’m not going to bother to link to the post, as it’s not something I ever care to see again, and thankfully, I’m not mentioned specifically so most other people wouldn’t know the post was about me if they read it. The reason I debated what to do was simple. This former co-worker left the company last June, and while prior (and during employment where I work) was very visible online both with his real name, and by his online handle (as was his Fiancee). No information has been found on either (him since June 2006, and her since July 2006). A phone call to the last known phone number by my employer resulted in a phone disconnected message, and emails went unanswered. His T-4 has not been picked up, or even inquired about.

So, since this person has seemingly vanished (or wants to), I felt that writing him an e-mail would be a complete waste of time since I have my doubts that that e-mail address is even in use. I have no idea if this will even get read by him, but unlike him, this is being written using my real name, not a handle, as he did. I will return the favor to him though and not mention his name, so “Computer Guy” will refer to this person as “expert”.

The gist of his post is this… he was mad that I was working alongside him when our business decided to bring a server into the office to start hosting websites and sending e-mail. He claims that he had to constantly fix my screwups… blah.. blah..

So here goes… I’m not going to go into great detail here, but there are things I need to get off my chest.

You were brought in to set up a linux server so that we could host websites, and manage our e-mail addresses. I was instructed by my managers to work with you, and was basically told that I am responsible for the overall “server business” that we were trying to set up at the time. I was a “n00b” to Linux at the time, having limited experience in only Mandrake, and SuSE at the time. I’m sorry I didn’t bow down to you because you had knowledge using “Slackware” and were trying to make your own distro. For someone so advanced, I don’t understand why it took you so long (months) to get the server up and running. For the record, if we wanted to, we could have set up Mandrake to install the necessary software, as it is just another flavor of Linux. I didn’t suggest we use it, I stated thats what I had used in the past.

I didn’t realize that “Slackware” was billed to be designed for Linux newbies, as Mandrake was, otherwise I would have tried that as my first distro. (For those that don’t know… this is extreme sarcasm)

You had experience using Slackware, and were comfortable with it. I’ve now had almost 2 years experience using Slackware, and am not crazy on it. Given a choice, I would have used Debian or Ubuntu, as I now have experience using both (as well as may other distros) and find both to be better than Slackware.

I certainly could have done without getting involved in the server business, as I had enough on my plate at the time. Managing my regular full-time job, and trying to learn how to setup and use Linux in a business environment was a little much at the time. Seeing as you were the only Linux “expert” in the office at the time, somebody other than you had to have a sweet clue what to do if the server went down. Guess what… you’re not here, I am. Take a guess who is watching the servers now, and who will take heat if websites/ftp/email are not working. It really makes great business sense to have only 1 person know how a major part of the company works.

It’s a good thing I did work with the “expert”, as I at least know what to do, or have an idea where to look if there is a problem on the server. I, and the company would have been in a bind if you had just up and left (as you did end up doing) and nobody knew what to do about the server if it has crapped out (and it has).

Your comment about the “STATIC IP”… yeah, the connection to the “outside world” as you call it did go down when I switched the router settings. I did ask his greatness about Static IP settings in the router 2 times, as you stated, and was still not able to get the problem fixed. You failed to add a retraction to that statement a few days later after we found out that the router settings were in fact correct, but it was a problem at the ISP that had prevented the settings from working in the first place. You also failed to mention that you were unable to get the router working when you tried to set it up using the Static IP settings either. I can understand that it would have impacted your post about how great you were, and how low I was though.

I do have to thank you for 1 thing though…. thank you for being a “nice guy”, and letting me keep my job. Under the circumstances though, it was pretty much the other way around.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon
Category: Computers
Tags: > > > >

Comments

Leave a Reply





  • Tools