You Want What?
An interesting request came through to Ye Old IT Fort recently that was quite perplexing. A user requested the following specs for his new PC:
*3.2 GHz Processor
*2 GB RAM
*ATI FireGL 9600 dual monitor support video card
I?m sure you can see where it continues from there. Upon receipt of said request, the Fort was filled with laughter and a variety of smartass comments. Now this would not have been a typical response, as high end machines are often requested. The thing that got us IT folk so worked up was the fact that the requester was a corporate employee, a number cruncher, a man who makes his living off spreadsheets. What the fuck does this user need with such a powerful machine? That question was regularly muttered over the course of the last two days.
The user?s manager was contacted with alternatives to save The Company money. I laid out a very powerful argument, or so I thought. We could save at least $400 by slashing the memory to just 1 GB and bringing the proc down to a 2.8 GHz, still a powerful PC, but now with considerable savings. I went on to explain how programmers and artists alike do not share the technological studliness that is this speced out PC. 2 GB of RAM is wonderful and recommended to our PD staff lately, but for a Corporate suit? It is my job to give you technological advice, so please reconsider.
No such luck. A stern and quite professionally insulting response followed from the manager that stated this was absolutely necessary for the user to function in his daily duties and the alternative specs were plain unacceptable. OooooKkkkk then. Apparently these folks need access to Excel spreadsheets that live in the 150+ MB neighborhood and 2 GB of RAM is the only way to make things ?go?. Two questions immediately popped into my head?what did they do before 2GB of memory and why are they using such large documents? Well it turns out the answers to those questions are equal to a very long story, but let?s just say we now have the most perfect example inefficiency and waste. To solve problems, you do not cover them up with expensive bandages.
And yes, he is getting his originally requested PC.
Comments
Jesus.
My machine isn't that powerful.
Posted by: steve | December 11, 2003 10:12 PM
you can't tell me that the video card also is needed to push those spreadsheets....and if so, then I need to see one of these uberdocuments because that's gotta be the best fucking spreadsheet EVER
gotta love corporate waste...though last time I checked, it was that waste that was buying me my third round at the bar so.....
Posted by: crowdpleazr | December 12, 2003 12:03 AM
I'm typing my request to be upgraded to 2 GB and a 9600 as we speak...
Actually, I'm still waiting on the flat panel display.
Posted by: vince | December 12, 2003 1:46 AM
What I really don't understand about this is why the people who do the number crunching would at the same time be the least fiscally responsible. How ludicrous is this? We regularly are trying to keep costs down. We generally don't ask for things we don't absolutely need, and hell, lots of us in PD even buy a lot of little tools to improve our productivity and eat the costs (Visual Assist, anyone?). Because somehow, not going with the minimum seems frivolous and wasteful. Meanwhile, the very people who tell us to pinch every penny mindlessly spend money like water. These people are overhead.
If anyone in corporate can convincingly explain to me why they would need a FireGL video card (priced higher to support greater geometry through-put) I'd personally pay them $1000, cash. After expensing it, of course.
Posted by: The Black Goat with a 486 | December 12, 2003 8:54 PM
Probably so they call all play that Pacelle thing (Pacman written in Excel macros) at full speed.
As I wrote on a DVD build this week "Test this, cockpigs!"
Posted by: Graham | December 13, 2003 9:35 PM
FireGL = PowerPoint demonstration to end all PowerPoint demonstration
"And as we can see from the quarterlies HOLY SHIT IT'S COMING RIGHT AT YOU, ha ha! And here on the revised marketing checklist for Balle-CHRIST ALMIGHTY THAT BULLETPOINT IS GOING FOR YOUR SKULLLLLLLl!!!!!"
Posted by: McGroarty | December 21, 2003 2:30 PM
Yep. Once *again* the IT folks know better than the folks actually doing the work.
Posted by: Anon Mouse | December 26, 2003 9:20 PM
Hmm, sounds like he's playing Excel Tetris (http://games.softpedia.com/public/cat/1/1-32.shtml) instead of doing his job... Since Excel has VBA built in, maybe he is trying to port Doom 3 to VBA, and run it on MS Excel...
Posted by: bhtooefr | December 26, 2003 9:44 PM
I note a hint of sarcasm in your comment Anon Mouse, but I still think it's a fair and valid comment all the same. IT folk, including myself at times, have a way about them that tends to put off others, those 'others' being the users. We are skilled & knowledgeable in our craft, so we expect others to take our professional advice; especially corporate users who are not the most technologically savvy.
When a department famous for requesting additional RAM, while actually referring to hard drive space starts to request high end and expensive hardware, we try to point out the alternatives, especially when they have shown their lack of knowledge on previous occasions. It's not just a matter of the "I know more than you," ego trip, it's about what's best for The Company.
In this particular instance, even after a more sensible solution was reached, the core problem remained....some suit had a bout of poor judgment that resulted in expensive bandages. It happens. Even in IT.
Posted by: Princess | December 27, 2003 10:07 AM
You should just give him a 1GB machine, and if he even notices and asks, just tell him that the memory is "dual-ported" and that he really has 2GB even though Windows only reports 1GB ;). It's a "known issue" with XP. Heehee.
Posted by: mlee | December 29, 2003 11:37 PM