Today has been a general technology nightmare at work. I’m writing this post on my own powerbook using TextEdit while I try and pass another hour at work.
This morning some brain donor(s) opened an attachment from a piece of spam and took down all our email servers and then our file servers. Who opens emails with attachments from people you don’t know?! These are probably the same people who would open a package that is ticking. To be honest, most people within the company don’t get much spam. I, however, get at least 30 pieces a day in my work account because I’ve used that email out on the web to sign up for work-related newsletters and webcasts and such. I’m sure if everyone in the company got as much spam as I do, the network people would do something about it and put some spam filters on the network. But since its basically just me, nobody cares.
Alas, our email access disappeared after I’d been at work for about half an hour. This hampered my productivity a little because I keep more files in my email than I realized, but I still had access to the network and the web. Then about an hour later, the network servers all started to slowly go down the drain and we lost our connections to those. Apparently the guy who opened the attachment had his whole hard drive wiped and the worm or virus spread to all the network servers that he was connected to (which, thankfully, wasn’t the main file server that we work on our website from).
At 1:30 this afternoon, we were informed to shutdown all our computers and that we should be able to restart and reconnect at around 2:15pm. It is currently 3:45pm and we still can’t work on the network. The rumor circulating is that we will probably be down for the rest of today and that the network people don’t have a clue how to stop whatever is playing havoc with the system. I could disconnect from the network and restart my machine locally, but there would be no point since all the work I need to do is either research on the web or using files from the network server.
I had just backed up all my local files and cleaned out my directories last week, so that doesn’t need to be done. I’ve caught up on all my journal and magazine reading. I had cleaned my desk last week and I just recycled everything in my big recycle box.
So here I sit with my powerbook. Typing this entry that I’ll have to wait until I get home to my internet connection to post.
I’ll take this time to share another computer-related gripe:
What is the deal with people not knowing what a wireless network is? Especially relating to home use. I’ve had to explain to at least four people in the last week that having a wireless network in your home is like having a cordless phone: it still has to be plugged into something and you have to pay for your internet access (unless you’re stealing bandwidth from your neighbor, but let’s not confuse these poor people anymore). I can’t figure out for the life of me why people keep asking if having a wireless network at home gives you free internet access. And I’ve had pretty tech and web savvy people asking me these questions. It boggles my mind.
I guess that’s my only other gripe. I still love my powerbook.
On a completely unrelated note, today is Mardi Gras and I’m painfully sad that I’m not in New Orleans right now. I’m wearing the beads I caught from Harry last year at the Orpheus ball. A few chicks that I know that are down NOLA way called me from the St. Anne’s parade this morning.
*sigh*
I’m going back next year. Its a must. Iowa Homecoming and Mardi Gras in New Orleans are two things that I must participate in on an annual basis.
