The time is nearly upon us.

This year I’m going to GenCon. This will be my first convention trip and I hope it’ll be a memorable one. I plan on coming back with as much swag as my arms will carry. The greatest bit? After today, I don’t have to come to work til next Wednesday. That alone makes it worth it.

I’ll try to update with pictures (or at least links to a Picasa gallery or something) as well as some sort of recollection of my experiences while there. The Droid should be able to handle it.

Ok, so I think 2 work days’ worth of dealing with this gives me enough ammunition to fire at this issue.

The helpdesk I support just recently (as in yesterday morning) started supporting Blackberries for the management and home office employees we deal with. Now, normally I’d be OK with this, as it means I’d be gaining knowledge about how to fix problems that could be used for future positions and would be generally useful around. I’d normally be OK with this, if it weren’t for the fact that our ‘training’ consisted of what a Blackberry looks like, where the SIM card goes, and what the menu consists of. You know, stuff I could get from reading a damn manual. Nothing like the issues we’re seeing, like “Why isn’t my email showing up?” or “I can’t send email to people outside the company” or “Why am I getting this message about activation?”

Which brings me to my point: When you’re going to be training a helpdesk, TRAIN THEM ON THE ISSUES THEY’LL BE SUPPORTING. This irks me to no end. Why train someone on what an application LOOKS like, when it gives them no information on how to FIX it? Why have all my trainings told me what our reps DO, rather than what are the most common issues we take care of and how to fix them? Hell, I was lucky when I was trained on how to change a password for these people!

Most of the issues I fix I’ve learned how to fix by being on the phone and stumbling around blindly, hoping someone else on the desk isn’t busy and can help me. This Blackberry thing is just making my head hurt, because it’s like throwing a bucket of gas on the burning house that is my brain. I don’t understand how we can have any sort of efficiency by teaching what may not necessarily be the *wrong* things to our technicians, but are certainly not the *right* things to be teaching them.

I’m sure I’ll be ranting more about this at a later date.

Also, to anyone who reads this and cares, I’m working on a couple new vaping videos that should be made and posted to Youtube within the next few days or so. I’ve been busy and it was one of the things I sacrificed for a smidgen of relaxation time while I’ve been transferred and learning all the new desk material and whatnot. I apologize for the length of time, but more Darkened Eyes Vaping Videos are on the way!

Well, folks, it seems we’ll have to start adjusting the way we speak again. Never again shall we say we Googled something.

Announced this morning, the auspicious First of April, Google has decided to officially change its name to Topeka in honor of the Kansas city (not to be confused with Kansas City or the Kansas bands’ city or…you get the point) which just a few days ago officially changed its name to Google. It’s mind-boggling for the first few minutes until you get used to thinking about it.

The Google Topeka blog states “We didn’t reach this decision lightly; after all, we had a fair amount of brand equity tied up in our old name. But the more we surfed around (the former) Topeka’s municipal website, the more kinship we felt with this fine city at the edge of the Great Plains.  In fact, Topeka Google Mayor Bill Bunten expressed it best: “Don’t be fooled. Even Google recognizes that all roads lead to Kansas, not just yellow brick ones.””

Check out the Topeka blog for a couple tips on how to cope with the name change in the future. Now I’m off to Topeka search for a couple items to keep me occupied at work.

So, since I work for a helpdesk (and have for almost a year now), I’d like to point out something that bothers the hell out of me whenever I encounter it.

Why the FUCK do people think that becoming hostile and unhelpful on the phone will make anything easier?

If someone suggests a troubleshooting step that may resolve the issue, why do you think that answering “No, I refuse to touch that piece of equipment” will get anything done? What do you think it will accomplish besides pissing off your technician?

I can understand being a bit frustrated (especially if someone’s having you repeat steps you’ve done before to no avail), but just tell the person on the phone that you’ve already tried something if that’s the case. Don’t tell someone you refuse to do something because you’ve never done it before. The technician on the other end of the phone sometimes does know what they’re talking about.

Electronic Cigarette Community – Stand Together

This is what the e-cigarette community needs. Let’s all pull together to show that this is the future.