Drop cam rant and why non IT people shouldn't be making IT decisions

[BigusSchmuck]

First off, if you guys ever get a home security camera system drop cams are for you if you don't plan to have more than 2 of them (and don't mind paying $200 per camera and a monthly surcharge to have your video stored in the "cloud"). Now here is the ugly part...
Our IT director in his infinite wisdom thought it was a great idea to get these wireless drop cams setup in our chemical warehouses (terrorist attack anyone?) and auto center due to the fact he thought he was saving money by not having a electrician or the rest of us in IT wire up some wired cameras. Problem with this line of thinking is if you ever tried to use anything wireless and streaming video in a corporate environment you will always run into problem with connectivity, lag, etc unless you are willing to pay some serious cash. Anyway, without IT's blessing he decides to get 8 of these stupid things hooked up and expects them just to work. Well, guess what, just because its got Apple endorsed on it doesn't mean its going to just work and the damn things keep on randomly disconnecting and he seems to blame the wireless access points as the cause to the issue. Flash forward today, I get all these lousy helpdesk tickets from people asking why their cameras are half working. So I ask something simple like getting a login for these things and guess what? I come to find out that they are closed API (meaning I can't upgrade the firmware or do any kind of config other than connecting to a wireless network and changing the video quality) so upon researching it about half of the reviews said this: these aren't meant for a corporate environment and if you use more than 2 on a wireless network they will continue to drop connection randomly. What pissed me off more than anything is 2 of them have cat 5e ports not even 10ft away from the cameras so all we had to do was go get some Ubiquiti Aircams (even worse we have a nvr on site lol) and would have been set to go instead of this fiasco. Oh well, at least Kumar got shit canned last week so that's one less idiot mucking things up. Anyway, thats the end of my rant for today..

[Opethian]

most people that head IT shops aren't technical that's why they manage ^_^

[BigusSchmuck]

most people that head IT shops aren't technical that's why they manage ^_^

By all means the old man should be running the show. The guy has been with the company for 15 years and shouldn't be stuck doing assistant manager type things. Hell, any IT guy over the age of 60 and is willing to learn new things is an asset indeed. Instead we got this ex Microsoft employee who thinks Apple stuff is the shit and anything windows or android based is crap. At least his "Network Administrator" is gone (70 grand a year salary and the guy comes in with a hawaii shirt and sandals wtf). That guy fouled up so many things we have to contract out from the damage he has done. On top of everything else, the board is closing down our retail stores so now we are looking at massive layoffs. Ugh a bad time for being a IT guy in rural America.

[PunkCryborg]

My entire day was spent browsing ebay and hanging in the chat room

fixed

[Ninja16608]

most people that head IT shops aren't technical that's why they manage ^_^

There is not a more true statement. My old boss was just that a manager, He knew some, but now where near what the rest of us knew.

[PunkCryborg]

I've never heard someone bitch about their job so much. You must be the most miserable co worker to have around. Way I see it the more stuff your boss screws up like that the more menial tasks you have to do which means job security for the time being.

[BigusSchmuck]

I've never heard someone bitch about their job so much. You must be the most miserable co worker to have around. Way I see it the more stuff your boss screws up like that the more menial tasks you have to do which means job security for the time being.

You would too if you did most of the work and got paid a measly salary. I don't complain at work. You know why? It doesn't get me anywhere. I have bigger fish to fry than to fix Non IT approved equipment like fixing this fucked up network crap ( two domains, vlans, gpos, migrating to a new file server, etc). Two threads in the 3 years is hardly a bitch fest and its better to post it here than to do something stupid like send a flame email.

[tggodfrey]

I am going to buy 4 of these and put them in my house and call customer service and bitch all day.  This will give me something to do in my downtime!

[jeffhlewis]

I have bigger fish to fry than to fix Non IT approved equipment...

Shit, I work in I.T. and I find any way humanly possible to go around I.T. approvals to get work done. Our management loves to circle jerk to the six sigma process excellence handbook; meanwhile it takes a meeting of 30 people and a 2-week project plan to get my new virtual server spun up.