Another day in the office

Whow! My Holiday plans didn't go as planned. I did zero work on my website (imagine that), I cleaned up two of my last client visits that I'd handled in the week prior to the holiday.

I of course undercharged both of them. I also answered my cell phone at least four times (I can't help it). I'm hopeless.

Things I learned during the Holiday:

1. Some times it's fun to try to do nothing and only partially get away with it
2. Every homeowner should buy a ladder before they buy a house. They cost way too freaking much!
3. You're lawnmower will always break when you've skipped the last two mowings.
4. Never tell a client that something they are trying to do sounds simple!

You'd think that since Windows evolves every two years they would make faxing things a little easier don't you? I'm probably mad at the wrong group of people here but here it goes anyway. Windows has allowed for faxing since Windows 95 (awfax). They tried to hide it from you in Windows 2000 (those sneaky add on tools folder bastards) and they hid it in plain site as a service in Windows XP but the shitty part of all this is that you can make outbound faxes but you still have to have dial tone available. You'd think that with all these neat desktop sharing, Video conferencing, and Windows Kernal tuning you'd be able to send a fax pretty easily but suprise it's not so easy.

I'm doing some research right now on ways of implementing easy, free, or low-cost outbound faxing and I'll blog about it later. There a million ways to receive faxes on the internet for free or next to nothing but it's the oubound faxing I'm looking for right now. Maybe the guys over at skype will come up with something...

Funny shit that you get asked while supervising a helpdesk:

This really happened today.

(Technician who will remain unamed) Jeff, do you mind if leave early real quick?
(Cool guy supervisor) Sure no problem, what's up?
(Technician who will remain unamed)My wife/x-wifes house caught on fire and my kids are there?
[Now I'm thinking shit are you happy or sad your x-wifes house is on fire and did your kids have something to do with it]
(Cool guy supervisor) Sure man. Fuck get the hell out of here I'm suprized you even stopped to ask me if it was okay to leave since you're kids are in a house fire.

Now he actually returned to work about two hours later.

Apparently his son saved the day by dousing the fire with water (it was electrical and started in the bathroom) and then proceeded to go outside and turn off the breaker box outside. I'm thinking pretty smart kid and then the Technician who will remain unamed says he's been through a couple of these house fires already so he's kind of used to it. [again I'm thinking pyromaniac]

Pretty uncommon shit to hear around the office but it still lightens up the mood in the room.

I was suprized that the call flow at work today was as light as it was. Normally anytime a call center of anykind returns from an extended holiday weekend the switchboard just goes all crazy with people who have returned to work to discover that business still carried on without them and now they are +1 days behind on work, or they've discovered that their PC has evolved into a worthless door stop since somebody forgot to turn the thing off and now it's been fried by solar radiation.

More drivel later. Have a safe and happy summer PC experience and remember not to leave your computer in direct sunlight for too long your going to wish that you bought that extra warranty that the retailer offered.

Posted by Jeff from his Windoze box while dodging phone calls from work!