Comments on: I think they mean us http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/i-think-they-mean-us/ Simon Murphy on professional spreadsheet development stuff Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:02:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: sam http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/i-think-they-mean-us/#comment-11139 sam Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:40:05 +0000 http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/?p=564#comment-11139 I have been lucky...the first 4 years of my career were in resonably large companty (2000+ people) but without a real IT department....just a set of people who advised us to press CTRL+ALT+DEL when something went wrong....So apart from installing games on the computer I could basically do whatever I wanted on my PC The next 6 years were in a firm with 6 people and again no formal IT department.... just guidlines on what the company does not want on its PCs-- Movies...Inappropriate Wallpapers etc which was really great... The Last 2 years were in a large company but with the regular IT department in place.... There was control on every single thing including the wallpaper ....Of course it ment every PC had identical installs...settings same versions of each software , identical pathches etc...etc... But the FUN element that was present in the first 10 years .....was completly lost......It was kind of similiar to not being able to customise the ribbon as easily as the toolbars... I have been lucky…the first 4 years of my career were in resonably large companty (2000+ people) but without a real IT department….just a set of people who advised us to press CTRL+ALT+DEL when something went wrong….So apart from installing games on the computer I could basically do whatever I wanted on my PC

The next 6 years were in a firm with 6 people and again no formal IT department…. just guidlines on what the company does not want on its PCs– Movies…Inappropriate Wallpapers etc which was really great…

The Last 2 years were in a large company but with the regular IT department in place…. There was control on every single thing including the wallpaper ….Of course it ment every PC had identical installs…settings same versions of each software , identical pathches etc…etc…

But the FUN element that was present in the first 10 years …..was completly lost……It was kind of similiar to not being able to customise the ribbon as easily as the toolbars…

]]> By: Harlan Grove http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/i-think-they-mean-us/#comment-11138 Harlan Grove Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:18:39 +0000 http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/?p=564#comment-11138 'Superuser' is a term of condescension. User is still the base term, and 'super' when combined with 'user' is meant in exactly the same sense as 'special' when qualifying 'Olympics'. When and if I ever meet an IT person with a rudimentary understanding of numeric programming I may change my opinion of them. Not until. This is over the top. Most IT people understand their jobs. As long as they don't simply assume they understand mine, I have no issues with them. ‘Superuser’ is a term of condescension. User is still the base term, and ’super’ when combined with ‘user’ is meant in exactly the same sense as ’special’ when qualifying ‘Olympics’.

When and if I ever meet an IT person with a rudimentary understanding of numeric programming I may change my opinion of them. Not until.

This is over the top. Most IT people understand their jobs. As long as they don’t simply assume they understand mine, I have no issues with them.

]]> By: Rob Bruce http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/i-think-they-mean-us/#comment-11134 Rob Bruce Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:34:43 +0000 http://smurfonspreadsheets.wordpress.com/?p=564#comment-11134 Over ten years ago I worked for a company that realised that some of its board members were directly employing power users/guerilla developers in order to prototype new solutions to business problems. They were doing this because they realised that not all problems demand a five year multi-million dollar project and even those that do need some preparatory scoping before the idea could even be discussed with formal IT people. In addition, these were solutions to on-going problems - some kind of quick fix was required <i>now</i>, not six months down the line. The response of the IT department was surprisingly realistic: They set up a Power Users group in order to facilitate two way communication between the two sides. This meant that they were able to establish some bounds and best practices amongst the guerillas and, in return, power users got slightly enhanced NT priviledges. I don't know what happened after I left. It only takes a couple of people on either side not to understand how the informal <i>détente</i> works for war to resume, but while it lasted I'm sure that it was of enormous benefit to the company. BTW, seen this? http://tinyurl.com/6lc8wh I reckon it must be a plant. Over ten years ago I worked for a company that realised that some of its board members were directly employing power users/guerilla developers in order to prototype new solutions to business problems. They were doing this because they realised that not all problems demand a five year multi-million dollar project and even those that do need some preparatory scoping before the idea could even be discussed with formal IT people. In addition, these were solutions to on-going problems - some kind of quick fix was required now, not six months down the line.

The response of the IT department was surprisingly realistic: They set up a Power Users group in order to facilitate two way communication between the two sides. This meant that they were able to establish some bounds and best practices amongst the guerillas and, in return, power users got slightly enhanced NT priviledges.

I don’t know what happened after I left. It only takes a couple of people on either side not to understand how the informal détente works for war to resume, but while it lasted I’m sure that it was of enormous benefit to the company.

BTW, seen this? http://tinyurl.com/6lc8wh
I reckon it must be a plant.

]]>