Via: Actos lawsuit lawyers

If you’ve ever worked in tech support, chances are you’ll often come across people seeking assistance with problems who will, when served by you or a colleague, act or treat you in a manner that indicates they’ve not got the slightest grasp of what it is you can do for them, whether remotely or in person. Here’s a few that crop up frequently:

1) They have often not tried the simplest solution: you’d be surprised at how often tech support staff have their education rendered completely pointless by the number of times they’ve said “turn it off, and turn it on again.” It’s worth noting that whether your internet is slow when you need your email or want to play Party Poker, or your phone is lagging badly, the device may just need to start up fresh.

2) They will often assume that you are being condescending: this really isn’t true! A lot of people enjoy working in tech support and like helping others – this is proven by them continuing to hold down their jobs. It’s baffling to realize how often people think the advice in #1 is an insult, when it’s simply just a tried-and-tested first solution.

3) They do not realize a lot of tech support staff must follow a script: at least at first, anyway. The reason we’re given a troubleshooting script when working at a lower level is because it’s easier to narrow down the problem by asking a set of pre-defined questions that can be displayed as a solution flow-chart. Faster for us, faster for you. Stick with it, we’re not being pedantic and annoying.

4) They are very impatient: we understand as well as you do that a tech problem that takes a while to solve can be really frustrating – it prevents you from doing what you’d rather be doing, and it also prevents us from moving on to the next person. We do enjoy solving problems, however, so please bear in mind that we’re working as hard and fast as we can.

5) They assume we’re thick-skinned: you have to be, in this job, but it wouldn’t kill some people to be a little more gentle. Swearing and interrupting doesn’t help us do our jobs, and it means we can’t actually solve the problem, because you’re providing profanity rather than the specifics of the problem you’re having.

We tech support experts are gentle folk, and whatever field I find myself working in, I’m always grateful I had roles in tech support to teach me problem-solving and communications skills, as well as how to keep cool under extreme pressure. Next time someone solves your router issue for you, surprise them – say thank you!

DSC_2107

Originally uploaded by Olorinpc

I was playing around with night photography at the lake. Managed to come up with this great one.

30 second exposure with the aperture as wide open as possible. Liked how the moon really illuminated the clouds and it was long enough to capture a little of the cloud moment along with the reflections on the water.

Test post on blackberry, working with the updated version of the app and checking out the updates.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Easter weekend came in left in a rush.  My wife and I went down to Minneapolis, MN to visit family for the weekend.  Excluding coming down with a cold the weekend went great.

Over on Epic Plains I have a post about the signing with Brandon Sanderson I had the chance to attend.  Opportunities like that is one thing I do miss about living in a large metro area.  However, by the drive back up on Sunday, fighting traffic, drives more than 30min to where we needed to go while there… I remembered why I do live where I do.

The cold put a bit of a damper on the rest of the weekend, but was still able to visit with friends and family.  The only real big issue I had was with my CPAP machine, which a clogged nose doesn’t work well with a nasal mask.  Over on Hosehead Life I have a post about those issues.

All in all it was a good weekend though.  Somehow I also managed to acquire more books.  Now, this isn’t too surprising, but I ended up with a few more than I anticipated.  At the signing I brought one hardcover I already owned, then to support the bookstore I purchased one there.  So brining home one extra book wasn’t too bad for me.

However, my Dad bringing 1.5 bankers boxes full of paperbacks wasn’t something I had planned on.  (He is reorganizing his book collection and getting rid of ones he no longer wanted. ) Well quite a bit of the collection were either old books of mine, old Asimov books, or other books that I would be interested in.  Well 70′s scifi is a favorite fetish for me, and Asimov is where I developed my love of scifi (Robot novels anyone?), so I of course took the books.  That added about 85 books to my collection.  A brief look through them I found about a dozen that I will add to my paperbackswap.com set, the rest going in my permanent collection.

In the next week I hope to come up with a plan for what to do with them as they currently just added to the piles of books already sitting on the office floor.  I am still trying to figure out a way to get that bookshelf from MN up to Jamestown, but haven’t borrowed a truck yet.  I might also build another bookshelf while I am waiting for that.

Been a little off my track here on for a few different reasons. Life off the web got a little crazy has a lot to do with it, so haven’t really been able to get caught up on all of my side projects. (This site being one of them.) I have about 2-3 book reviews I need to get done and a stack of books I would like to get reading! Don’t even get me started on the extreme fail of the weekly photo project. Though I knew that was going to be one of the first things that went by the wayside if life got too busy.

I have recently started a new site that also probably has something to do with my being behind on things, Hosehead Life is my new site on Life with Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Some might find it interesting, so feel free to stop by and let me know what you think. (Facebook followers have probably already seen the site as I have it update my main twitter feed, which then auto updates my Facebook status.)

Wow, somehow we are rolling into February 2010 already.  I am behind on my photo project, yet I kind of suspected that would happen.  I have been focusing on things over at Epic Plains and that is going pretty well actually.  I have been doing a lot of book reviews and am managing about twice as many as I have planned on.  Which there is some good and bad to that.

The bad part being I am also behind my schedule for editing and expanding my novel and the photo project.  Yet there are some good things with that too.  I just have a big stack of really good books I have wanted to get through.  As a result I have also gotten a few advance reader copies to read/review for authors.  That has been fun.  One of those down and a couple of more in the mail actually.  (One book, Riddle of Berlin the author is sending a signed hardcover for me to review and a signed paperback to host a giveaway.) I hadn’t planned on doing quite so many book reviews, but it has been fun to do more of them.  Also, I am trying to also review books that I am not the biggest fan of along with the ones I really like.  It has been an extra little challenge for myself.

Sorting and re-shelving my book collection was a bit of a time consuming project as well.  That and working on grant paperwork for the fire department.  All in all it has been a busy start to the year, yet fun.  Swing on over to my other site.  I have done plenty of reviews this month, so you might find a book you want to pick up!

Well I have been managing to keep busy, though haven’t been posting as much on this site. I have been focusing more on building up Epic Plains, though have been working on the 52 Photo Project. (Finally got my picture for the week posted, but might try to get some more tonight!)

Epic Plains is going rather well actually. I have been posting a number of book reviews along with other content. The readership has built up enough that I am actually splitting it off from my regular account. (You will notice this if you follow my facebook statuses.) I was having the feeds post a link to my Olorinpc Twitter account, but I have ended up starting an EP Facebook page and an EP Twitter account.

I am also going to work on the site theme a bit more over there. I have found a template that I think I will like better, once I heavily customize it of course. So that will take some work in the next week or so. Between that and getting a jump on my “To-Read” pile, been rather busy. I also sometime plan on cataloging my book collection into a database. (My collection has grown to the point I think it’s needed. I believe on rough count I have now passed the 500 book mark.) Also, sometime in the next month or so, need to run down and pick up that bookshelf from MN.

February is shaping up to be a busy month as well. My weekends are pretty much booked from the 19th on. JRFD Fishing Derby, State Fireschool + Humane Society Fundraiser, followed by Team State Darts. So should be a marathon 3 weekends in a row, but good stuff all.  I think there might be something else in there that I am forgetting – but no matter, should be plenty to keep me busy!

The light snow and fog added up to a pretty drive to work this morning.

Ok, so this information is all but impossible to find online.  After a lot of searching I was finally able to turn up the current flier for the State Dart Tournament in Jamestown, ND in March 2010.

http://www.valleyvideogames.com/images/2010%20ndsda%20doubles%20state%20dart%20tournament.pdf

http://www.valleyvideogames.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=41

I know a few friends will be happy to see those – so enjoy!  (Yes I plan on playing at least one event in state this year!)