Larry The Fiber Guy

BACK IN 2009,

 We had received a job request to do a system audit near downtown Los Angeles.  We were asked to access manholes throughout the city, remove fiber enclosures, audit them, then return them to it's original position.  Upon entering and leaving each manhole, we were asked to take pictures of each wall (n, s, e, w) and before and after of the enclosures.

Back then, I was given a cheap $30 Rite Aid Special cam but unfortunately lost my footing in a MH, and got it wet.  I replaced the camera by purchasing a new one on ebay and returning it to my boss and using my own camera, to prevent the feeling of guilt if it happened again.

Now, we were taking hundreds of pictures a day, and eating through batteries like many asians eat rice.  I am half asian and I love rice!!!!!!!  Anyways... due to the frequency of battery exchanges, I never programmed my camera with the date and time.  The file names would therefore be numeric, and start with 0001 upon the start of each battery pack.

I stayed with the boss in his house for a brief period while I transition my move from Florida.  Considering my IT background, I figured I would make it easy to exchange photos on a daily basis.  Instead of copying and pasting my photos each day to a flashdrive, i left my desktop on and renamed my workgroup to match the boss's, and saved my photos in a shared drive with shared folders, and gave each specific date of pictures, their own folder to avoid confusion with duplicate file names, as my camera was not programmed.  I was also told to only submit the best picture of each side and to take multiple pictures if i had to but delete the ones i don't keep.

So we do this for a while using flash drives, and everything, as far as I know is going smooth.  I give him a flash drive of my pics, even though he can just click on network computers and copy and paste right there without bothering me, but oh well.....

It's my day off finally, and I am chilling, playing some starcraft, and all of a sudden, the boss comes around the corner and says, "Larry, I need to talk to you"

"OK, what's up?"

"Larry, I don't want you going on my laptop without me knowing about it.  Ever.  There is information on there that I don't want you to know."

"What are you talking about?  I purposely don't go on anyone's computer, not even Shannon's without being asked.  It's a professional habit.  People always blame crap on IT guys and most of the time, it's their own fault.  Is that what's going on right now?  I never touched your laptop."

"Yes you did Larry."

"Uhmm.. no I didn't, and I am starting to get pretty pissed off with your accussations.  This is the exact reason I don't do that.  Why would you think I went on your freaking laptop?"

"Because, Larry.......I went to paste the pictures you gave me, and I already had them.  You obviously went on my laptop to put the pics on there for me.  Leave my laptop alone."

"I didn't touch your laptop, and you didn't have the pics already, not the ones I just gave you....."

"Yes I did, Larry.  It asked me if I wanted to overwrite right away."

"Oh wait.... do you save all of your pictures in the same folder?"

"Yes, it makes it easier for billing....."

"Ahhhhhh... ya I see now... let me show you.  Where do you see the picture you already have?"

"Right here... in this folder.... see this picture... file 0004.jpg.  It's from Friday Larry and it's already here."

"OK, LOL... sorry to laugh.... I see what is happening.... you pasted that single picture yourself but then stopped the operation while it was pasting when there was a conflict.... meaning a duplicate file name.  I create seperate dated folders because my files names are all over the place because I only use the best pictures like you asked and delete the rest.  The camera is not programmed, so everytime I swap batteries, it starts over with file name 0001.jpg.  So when I took pictures on Friday... I may have taken 15 pictures of the first manhole and selectively delete the extras and keep the ones that are clean.  The file numbers gets scattered and I don't rename them, as the entire folder is dated."

"That's all bull$#!t Larry, stay off my laptop, why do I have file 0004.jpg from Friday already on my laptop then?"

"Well, that's simple.  Whenever you copy and paste, the computer works in 1's and 0's and works sequentially and alphabetically when transferring data.  What that means is.... it will go ahead and copy and paste in sequential order, until there is a conflict.  Once the conflict appears, it stops, and asks what you want to do.  Did you overwrite or cancel the operation?"

"I canceled the operation, Larry"

"Well, that's perfect, then we will see it right here, take a look.  You see the first file from Friday is 0004.jpg.  That got pasted right away as there was not an existing 0004 in your folder.  The next file is 0007.jpg.  That is also on your laptop because you didn't have that file either.  Those 2 pasted immediately, with no conflicts.  The third file name is 0010.jpg.  BINGO!!!  There was your conflict.  You see the 0010 on your laptop is from Thursday.  The one on my flashdrive is from Friday and it's different.  That was when your overwrite message came up, and that was when the copy and paste function stopped.  After it already threw 2 pictures without conflicts onto your laptop."

"I still don't get it, Larry.  ALL DIGITAL CAMERAS CONTINUE WITH THEIR FILE NUMBERS EVEN WHEN YOU CHANGE THE BATTERIES.  THEY DON'T START OVER."

"..................."

"Lol... sorry man, not all cameras... mine doesn't.  I wouldn't have gone through all the trouble to make these pictures available to you on a shared drive so you can copy and paste them whenever you want, and then simply go on your laptop and do it myself, and give you the freaking flash drive, that's ridiculous.  It's ridiculous that we are using flashdrives and we are on the same network just open network computers and get it yourself. 

But yet again, if you want to blame me like every other person that blames an IT guy for their own misunderstandings... oh well.... it's not like I am not used to it.  But I didn't touch your laptop..... and you are proof why I shouldn't.  But it's all good.  Copy and paste them in to a different folder and you should be fine."

I left and got a call 2 hours later from my wife, the office manager, relaying a message from the business manager, my mother in law, asking me not to touch Dan's laptop..............

  This is the same guy I have heard numerous times insulting some Time Warner construction techs for not knowing how to use a laptop....and have been told by a few people that he thinks I don't know jack about computers....these are the same folks that I built computers for from ground zero to OS, which the boss had no idea about.

 What a clown shoe......

(Morale) of the story....
If you work in IT, Networking, or Telecommunications.....
Expect to blamed on stuff people do themselves, lol.  If you plan for it, you won't get upset later.

If you don't work in IT, be patient with the ones who do.  They take alot of heat for issues usually caused by the user.

CIAO!