What I've learned about professors from one year as IT support at my university:

[Zell]

Buildings are mostly divided up by majors here, for the most part. So, when I get a call to meet with a professor, I tend to know what I'll be dealing with.

Humanities/Social Sciences

"Here's what's broken! I have no idea what is wrong and I haven't touched a thing to try and fix it because I don't deal with computers ever. Also, this wouldn't be happening if we had Macs. And my mic isn't working. Why isn't it working?? The red light is on, which has "Battery" written above it, and I don't know what it means!"

They're easy people to deal with. They admit that they don't know about computers. I go in and fix it, they continue their lecture, and I leave. Simple! They are very nice, funny, and sometimes will use us as part of their lecture while we're in there. Sometimes I want to answer questions and be apart of the discussion while I'm in there Lots of times, they need very, very simple fixes, and the mass accumulation of those tends to get kind of get annoying to deal with. Microphone battery replacement tends to be a common thing. We put rechargeables in all the rooms and labeled where they are for a reason

Computer Science/Electrical Engineering

"This isn't working. Here's what I think is wrong, and I'm going to tell you exactly what to check as you diagnose the problem. Also, I went and tried to fix all of this stuff, but in reality I'm not totally sure on how it works. But I have an idea on how it might work. Also, the cabinet door to the rack was open so I might have messed with stuff to try and fix it. I decided not to call the help desk and I just left it all broken this way."

Sometimes they diagnose stuff properly, sometimes they make it worse. They can be great to deal with, but at other times they can be a pain because they're telling me what to look at in the rack to fix. Other times they'll try and fix it, fail, and out of their own pride won't call us to get it fixed. So another professor comes in to find it all more broken than it originally was.

We had a case of someone trying to break a touchpanel. Some sneaky little bastard wired the ground to an electrical socket. Thankfully the socket was off. Never figured out who it was.

Mechanical/Industrial/Nuclear Engineering

Similar to computer science/electrical engineering, but more angry. They kinda have this "I'm better than you because I work in the nuclear lab/mechanical workshop" attitude.

Physics

"I have unnecessary requests and demand weird things. I think this building is top-priority over all campus-wide building projects and will get super mad if you don't do this before anyone else. Making you simpletons' lives miserable gives me an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. I hate you."

I dunno if your physics major professors are like this, but they really dislike us. A lot. They always ask for everything as top priority, and they tend to just treat us very poorly overall. I think it may have something to do with an incident a long time ago involving our department. I've heard that they purposely give us outrageous requests purely out of spite ever since the incident.

Biology/Genetics/Chemistry

"Nothing ever works EVER. EVERRRRR!! There hasn't been ONE TIME this whole semester that it has worked! Fix it now!!"

To be fair, they do get the crappiest rooms on campus, but they love telling us that nothing works 365 days a year.

Statistics:

"Does the PC have SAS? Can it run it? Does it hook up to a projector? Okay. I don't care about anything else. I'm happy."

Yeah, as a Stats major, I can attest to this. As long as we have something that can run SAS (Statistical Analysis Software), and as long as we can project it, we're good But it really is a bear of a program to install. Took me a good 2 hours to get it on my own computer. It requires a deployment file cause it has so many programs that do so many obscure other things.

Math

"We don't use computers."

Yep. In every room in the math building, all of the monitors are pushed in weird ways to get them out of the way of the board. If they do use the computer and it breaks, they just continue their lecture on the board. Even when I'm off shift, I get to see it in action: in all of my math classes, it's been this way. Ironically, the math building is the most technologically advanced building on campus. Automatic lights, two $5,000 projectors in each room, 4GB RAM computers with 2.4GHz Core2Duo's, and a brand-spanking-new 3-$15,000-projectors (WHY?!) auditorium with a monitor that supports 256 different levels of touch sensitivity and displays in 1900x1080.

And none of it is used.


How about you guys? What are your departments like? I'm sure that there are parallels using other departments in your area of work

[earl colby pottinger]

Tech Shop version

Working out of a computer store that has an entire separate repair center I saw:

Humanities/Social Sciences

"Here's what's broken! I have no idea what is wrong and I haven't touched a thing to try and fix it because I don't deal with computers ever.[ ..... They're easy people to deal with.

True, most of the time. But they are also the people who understand hardware the least. That is why it was an Art's teacher who nailed their laptop to the desk so it would stop moving around - Hey, it worked fine with the mouse pad!

Computer Science/Electrical Engineering

"This isn't working. Here's what I think is wrong, and I'm going to tell you exactly what to check as you diagnose the problem.

Never had a customer who was Computer Science Major who did not do something very dumb. I assume all the smart ones fixed their problems themselves so they never needed to see me.

EE tended just to need an education on the differences between using a Mainframe vs a Micro (I have programmed Mainframes, Minis and Micros - no Super Computer however.), some of them get lost when there is no Fortran compiler available.

Sometimes they diagnose stuff properly, sometimes they make it worse.

You know whose diags I trust? Radio Hams! I never had one not give clear descriptions of what is wrong with their computer and how they would like it repaired. Hams are great. Non-hams are all over the map.

Mechanical/Industrial/Nuclear Engineering

My sore spot, the only highly educated and trained techs I had deal but were so full of themselves that they saw no need to take the wrapping off the instruction manual, instead if they could not get it to work, it must be broken! Funny how the same hardware worked for me after five minutes of reading the manual.

Physics

Don't remember any.

Biology/Genetics/Chemistry

Only problem is cleaning the curd off their equipment - you just don't know that the stuff was before it dried on. That is why I never asked, mentally safer that way.

Statistics:

"Does the PC have SAS? Can it run it?

OH, MY, GOD! How do they do that to software? My girlfriend was upgrading her nursing credits and need it for stats on patient health and was really needed for the section on care of cancer patients. It took us three days (weekend) and a number of calls to the university help desk to get all the modules installed. One should get credit on the course just for getting the software running on your machine.

Math

No MathLab? No simulation software? What a waste.

[Zell]

No MathLab? No simulation software? What a waste.

And here's the kicker: if they have MatLab/Maple simulation sessions or classes, they hold them in the math computer labs (which have unnecessarily large screens). So I keep wondering why they put all this stuff in these rooms. I don't get it.

And the best part is the design of the rooms. The math teachers requested chalk for some reason. The intakes on all of the computers are just COVERED in dust. I can only imagine what the motherboards look like. It's only a matter of time before they all overheat and die. Same with our super fancy, expensive, all-in-one control processors for the rooms.

[Hawaiian Eskimo]

And here's the kicker: if they have MatLab/Maple simulation sessions or classes, they hold them in the math computer labs (which have unnecessarily large screens). So I keep wondering why they put all this stuff in these rooms. I don't get it.

I hate seeing decent hardware not get used. They need to put that stuff in a graphic design lab or something.

It's like 80 year old grandmothers with 24" screens and i7 processors. I don't get it

[Flying Grype]

It's like 80 year old grandmothers with 24" screens and i7 processors. I don't get it

What suggests that she wouldn't be using it to its full potential? What kind of use would not be a waste?

If she looks at art and photographs and has vision problems, she may very well be putting a 24" monitor to good use. That's to say nothing of the possibility that she might actually be gaming or doing other things that you might not think an 80-year-old woman would do.

[Hawaiian Eskimo]

I was just using the old lady as an example.

If someone uses their nice expensive hardware to it's potential, I'm cool with it. I just don't like seeing people buy stuff that they're not going to need when something way cheaper would have worked.

[Magpie]

My husband and I take it as a given that the engineering department in a company is always IT's least favourite. We don't call unless it's a big problem because we can fix little ones on our own, but generally the fix we tried before we called you, when we thought it was a small problem, guarantees that by the time you come it's no longer a small problem.

During a frosh week intro to my programme, the head of the programme was giving a talk to everyone in my class. (We don't get a seperate department). The computer stopped talking to the projector, and the class was instantly, and very apparently, divided into two groups: those who though that, before starting first year, they had more experience than the prof did and those of us who either had the sense to keep our mouths shut, or honestly assumed that the prof did know better.

[Sandman]

You know whose diags I trust? Radio Hams! I never had one not give clear descriptions of what is wrong with their computer and how they would like it repaired. Hams are great. Non-hams are all over the map.

On behalf of all ham radio operators.. I thank you.

Sandman
Amateur Radio Operator

[Jack]

You know whose diags I trust? Radio Hams! I never had one not give clear descriptions of what is wrong with their computer and how they would like it repaired. Hams are great. Non-hams are all over the map.

TY OM DE A HAM 73 SK E E

:P

[earl colby pottinger]

Translate please

TY OM DE A HAM 73 SK E E

:P

Sorry, I am not a HAM myself, I only use to read QT for the pretty circuit diagrams, use to find some very neat stuff in there.

[mattm04]

During my Internship with the schools IT dept. i had similar experiences, however due to a sever lack of space, many times a science class lecture class my be held in a classroom in the Social Science section of a building or whatnot. Expecting someone who is patiently waiting for help, you find a science prof. who ripped half the podium apart trying "fix" it and in the process breaking the particle board side off.

A most likely simple issue will now take several hours to fix, and since you admitted to using a desk chair leg to "open" the podium, you dept now gets to pay for a new podium.

[lordlundar]

A most likely simple issue will now take several hours to fix, and since you admitted to using a desk chair leg to "open" the podium, you dept now gets to pay for a new podium.

Wait, what?

[mattm04]

Wait, what?

The older classrooms have a podium on wheels that has the PC, monitor, DVD/VHS player along with all the control components in it. The wires are bundled into a Velcro sleeve and run to the wall where they hook up to the jacks, which run the wire in the wall and ceiling to the projectors/flat panel and ceiling speakers.

The new classrooms and auditoriums have a podium with just a PC and DVD player and the control screen is on the wall with the amp and other equipment in a rack somewhere else in the room. The wiring is all run in the ceiling or under the floor as opposed to across the floor to the wall in the old rooms.

Anyway, one of the older rooms the control unit to turn on the projector and set the input (PC, DVD, DocCam, etc) was not working for some reason. The back of the podium is locked. The Prof Was able to shove a desk chair leg between the door and the frame, breaking the door in half and damaging the structure of the podium. IT ended up putting al the stuff on a old overhead projector cart until the new podium arrived, courtesy of the Chemistry Dept I believe.

[Zell]

Anyway, one of the older rooms the control unit to turn on the projector and set the input (PC, DVD, DocCam, etc) was not working for some reason. The back of the podium is locked.

Oh dear God.

That describes every single room we support on-campus.

I dread the day that a professor gets so pissed that he breaks open the cabinet I HATE assembling those things! They're so heavy and difficult to deal with. Blah. Well, at least ours are.

[lwb]

Automatic lights, two $5,000 projectors in each room, 4GB RAM computers with 2.4GHz Core2Duo's, and a brand-spanking-new 3-$15,000-projectors (WHY?!) auditorium with a monitor that supports 256 different levels of touch sensitivity and displays in 1900x1080.

And none of it is used.

I will come and teach math there! All I get is a whiteboard and the cheapest markers ever made. Hmmmm...math for game developers in a room like that...