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‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds

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Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds

#71

Post by johnklos »

Why aren't aircraft made as simple to fly as cars are to drive? Why aren't regular people allowed to just get in an aircraft and start flying after a couple of hours of practice?

We see no problem in assuming that people need the lowest-common-denominator operating system in computer to suit the people instead of the people learning how to use a proper computer, though.

If something is mission critical, then it should NOT be running on Windows. And if people find it a little harder to use because it takes a little bit of learning, so be it.

"It's not as simple as that!" Bullshit. If something matters, it's worth extra energy to do it right. In reality, it's only extra energy at first. Once people learn how to use it, it's LESS energy because it works, it works the first time, and it works properly, unlike Windows.

Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds

#72

Post by joshstrange »

I will never understand when a company/government entity pay people a high salary then give them crap or low-end hardware. You should be maxing out dev machines and the rest of the company should rarely see a spinner or have to wait on their tech. It's a huge waste of time that you are paying for. I once calculated how much time I wasted waiting on slow processes at a job and then multiplied it by my effective hourly rate... I could have bought multiple maxed out MBPs with the money they lost, it's ridiculous. Also it's not just the time they spend waiting, it absolutely slaughters productivity, focus, and motivation.

Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds

#73

Post by newaccount2021 »

You cannot fix problems on this scale with moderation or half-measures. You must smash the system and restart.

Get rid of Windows, reset the entire chain by moving to Chromebooks. Schools have proven this truth: the only way to deploy to large numbers of transient and unsophisticated users is to go thin-client. That will force the DOD to build scalable networked services. Most of the time, using off-the-shelf services is fine. If DOD can be in AWS then they can also be in GSuite.

Everyone will have excuses why everything in .mil needs to be custom or done to some twisted set of DOD requirements, or why Windows is essential. That's fine, the problems will never go away

It would not surprise me to learn that NKorea with its in-house linux is able to run IT better than DOD.

Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds

#74

Post by thereddaikon »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #48
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were to guess and remember my time working at a 'hot desking' company, it's because on login, the user's profile will be copied from a central server onto the local system. I found out this is a thing when Chrome and Firefox started to put their files in the user's home directory by default. If that has to traverse a network - and who knows where all that data is coming from or how fast the internet connection i…

There's a few ways to set up profiles in Windows, and most of them are terrible. If you have the joy of stepping into a network with roaming profiles enabled, you will discover it takes years to untangle. The idea that you can log into any PC and your local desktop and documents all appear seems really nice, but the implementation weeds are nasty: I tell people to store things they want to access on multiple computer…

Onedrive has helped a lot. But only if you can make your users actually use Onedrive. More likely they invent some asinine workflow and save their documents in the most illogical places that will never get synced and you never manage to catch. Also causes problems when trying to recover data from corrupted user profiles.

Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds

#75

Post by tdrgabi »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #59
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US army has sponsored development of games quite a lot; I remember a friend of mine who was really into America's Army, that must've been 15 years ago now.

That game was pretty fun, to play as the medic class you actually had to sit in a first aid lecture with a test afterwords. I remember the lecture actually being really entertaining and educational.

I was pretty excited about that tutorial.

Then the game started and you pressed E to heal. Not sure what I expected, but was super disappointed

Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds

#76

Post by pc86 »

johnklos wrote: post #71

Why aren't aircraft made as simple to fly as cars are to drive? Why aren't regular people allowed to just get in an aircraft and start flying after a couple of hours of practice? We see no problem in assuming that people need the lowest-common-denominator operating system in computer to suit the people instead of the people learning how to use a proper computer, though. If something is mission critical, then it shoul…

> Why aren't regular people allowed to just get in an aircraft and start flying after a couple of hours of practice?

I mean, they are. Student pilots often solo at 8-10 hours total flight time.

Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds

#77

Post by Ensorceled »

> Knausenberger called this “a cultural issue … We need people to call the help desk to complain and order a new laptop when it breaks.” She said a service culture of stoically persevering in the face of impossible odds didn’t do anyone any favors. “If we suffer in silence it doesn’t get fixed,” she said.

Apparently all you need to do is call IT and get a new computer! I wonder why none of these service men and women thought of that?

Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds

#79

Post by formerly_proven »

iamben wrote: post #25
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were to guess and remember my time working at a 'hot desking' company, it's because on login, the user's profile will be copied from a central server onto the local system. I found out this is a thing when Chrome and Firefox started to put their files in the user's home directory by default. If that has to traverse a network - and who knows where all that data is coming from or how fast the internet connection i…

Interesting. So potentially downloading the entire browser cache each time? Goodness.

That's the difference between %APPDATA% (AppData/Roaming) and %LOCALAPPDATA% (AppData/Local). Caches should go into local appdata, or %TEMP% if you're feeling spicy.

Re: ‘Fix My Computer’ Cry Echos on Social Media; Air Force CIO Responds

#80

Post by Damogran6 »

I think there's an intersection between the number of common running processes, the 2 core/4 thread of the common business class Dell, and the additional abstraction layers that applications bring with them these days.

I just turned in a 7400 Latitude...the motherboard on it is dated 2018, it was out of production 6 months before it was given to me as a new machine...that was to last 4-5 years. it was out of date on day one and we kept getting them due to lifecycle hardware contracts.

Running Teams, Outlook, and a few Chrome tabs was enough to leave the poor mobile i7 running at 100% all day long. I'm certain it resulted in an enterprise cost increase in repair costs due to thermal damage...fans...dust...

The exact same system with a fresh Ubuntu install would be quiet and quick...but the layers of policy, software, and workloads keep pushing for more of everything....what Moore gives, Microsoft taketh away...

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