One of the reasons I’ve been so grouchy lately is that I have inherited support for UK’s recent installation of IBM’s Tivoli Storage Manager, after the co-worker who had been responsible for it got so sick of it he quit to become an anthropologist.
This is a product that is so crappy that the vendor’s customer support system frequently refuses to accept new problem reports because it’s overloaded.
I just got email from one of our users complaining about yet another problem with it. I think it was just a coincidence, but his signature line was particularly appropriate:
“It’s as if Franz Kafka designed this system and employed Rube Goldberg as his architect,” — Rob Glaser, the chairman of MusicNet
I responded to him that they would have done a MUCH better job than whaever idiots actually did design this system.
This is one of those situations where some VP with the IQ of a rock chose a product with no consultation with anybody that had a clue, and left us poor schmucks in the trenches to deal with the fallout from frustrated users.
It sort of reminds me of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld insistence on war in Iraq, despite the recommendations of military and diplomatic experts who know better.
The mosst recent dissent came from CIA Director George Tenet, who says the immediate threat from Iraq is less than W claims, and that a US attack on him would considerably escalate the threat.
I guess it puts my own frustrations into perspective to realize that other people have to deal with ignorant pigheaded bosses too, and in their situations, thousands of people are likely to die as a result of the boss’s stupidity.