4-8-08

Why don’ t I learn?

Yesterday I sat in this office waiting for people to finish what they were doing so I could get a new assignment. I finally got a new project and went about my work the rest of the day. Near the end of the day I was told that a new computer would be delivered no later than the next morning.

Now. This is not a mom and pop operation. I met with the owner for awhile yesterday and he was telling me about all the things he has going on. As usual the man has at least three businesses he owns and oversees, none of them are small. So when I was told a new computer would be delivered I assumed that meant it would be delivered and set up, operational. I also assumed that meant when I got in this morning, mid-morning, I could go right to work on the new computer.

Wrong!

I arrived this morning to find that he new computer had been dropped off sometime before I got in, but it was not set up. So when I arrived here were two attorneys finishing setting up a new computer. They had the CPU in place and were trying to get the monitor to come on. After a few minutes they got the monitor to turn on and then began the process of booting up the computer. During this process I noted that they had replaced the old HP Laser III with a "newer" HP Laser 5. Once the machine had booted up and they set up a login and password I was told to go ahead and take a look at it.

As I sat down to the keyboard I was told we still had to load software, "Word", "WordPerfect" and any other software we would regularly use in this office. Then I was told, before I did anything else, to make sure the printer would work with the computer. For the next fifteen minutes I tried to get the printer to print a test page. It never did. I was able to load the printer driver and get the computer to recognize the printer, the printer even said it was ready, but it never printed a thing. After being in the office for about a half hour without even starting on a project I left the new computer sitting on the desk and walked into the next office where the "old" computer had been moved. Now this computer is using Windows ‘98, and is a turtle compared to the speed of the new computer, but, I was able to sit down at it and go right to work. I actually completed a project.

So, I’m not against getting new things, computers especially. But doesn’t it make more sense to have it actually set up with all the correct software and equipment before you turn someone loose to work with it?