Sorry for the ultrageeky post but I have had one of those experiences that point out that the world of software and IT is in bigger trouble than you might think.
We installed some web reporting software on our webserver. This software would connect to various databases on the webserver and spit out pretty charts and figures that management would marvel and coo over. After installing the software we found that it could indeed connect to our databases but perversely we got an error message whenever we went to generate a chart or graphical image.
The support centre for the company that made the software was really responsive when we sent them the error message but their fix was not so much a solution to our problem as a sign that the software was hopelessy dodgy and not worth wasting our time on.
They basically said that to get their software working we would have to have a user logged on to the server at all times. Our server lives in a server room in Ireland without anybody ever touching it. There isn't even a monitor plugged into the server. All access to it is over the internet.
Of course the reason I feel really sad about this is that I've worked with other server applications that were the same and required similiarly bizaare
conditions. Always a sign that someone was trying to use something for a purpose it really wasn't wasn't intended for.
For any curious people.... Life continues to be great in London :-)
5 comments:
There are probably going to be many people out there who are going to get really upset with you. How dare you criticise software!
But, I'm with you man, software sucks. Really, really sucks.
And no 'camp' is immune. It all sucks.
*rant* Well I'm not surprised welcome to I.T. :?)
Having to deal with maintaining and enhancing other vendors apps as well as irrate users on a daily basis I feel your pain */rant*
On another note I'm happy to hear London is going good and I hope you're doing your best to bring home the win for me in terms of Amandas and my bet :?)
Software? - *shrug* That's why
IT geeks exist - so if something goes wrong someone else can deal with it... =D (Please don't kill me!)
I'm really glad that you are enjoying london - but kinda sad at the same time. Reckon you might still be living there for me to come visit next year?
Agreed, software sucks and only through extreme superhuman efforts can it be made to suck slightly less.
That's what makes it rewarding to get it right every once in a while. :-)
Don't apologise for having a geeky blog entry, some of your readers are geeks too ya know!
and again lets see if these links will work now. download and print and start assembling
Paper Tux
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