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DC DSL
There's a reason I'm Command.
Premium Member
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
Actiontec GT784WN

1 recommendation

DC DSL to Aranarth

Premium Member

to Aranarth

Re: Idiot users...

I had a doozy of a run in with a supposed "forensic IT super genius" at a law firm a while back. They were dealing with some nasty fight among family and business partners over an estate. None of the internal correspondence from the 1980s about several key items existed on paper any longer. The only place they might still exist was on diskettes from over 20 years ago. I got dragged into the foray because the email system used was part of the operating environment I created back then.

The Super Genius calls me, barks out who he is, and wants me to explain everything about DOSMENU/VS to him. No explanation about why he wants to know or what he really needs. I told him I would have to schedule a time to for this, and that he needed to narrow down what he needed to know. "NO. YOU CLEARLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS" and then he goes off on some tirade about how he will have me hauled in for a deposition if I don't drop everything right then and there to assist him. I told him that I would be happy to help, just not now; that this would be billable at my standard rates, so I needed him to email me his full contact and billing information. SG passed a stone and slammed up the phone.

A couple of days later, SG calls back. "I am trying to run the setup program but it is failing with some error message." Again, this is at an inconvenient moment. I asked him how he was trying to run it. "Double-clicking on it in Windows Explorer. Some black window appears and disappears." I told him the program was for DOS, not Windows, and that he would have to create a DOS VM to try installing it in. "DOS? What the hell is that? Is that a Linux distro?"

I again told him he needed to schedule an appointment. He wigged out that he doesn't have time for that and that I am being an uncooperative prick. Slams up phone again.

Moi was now pretty ticked. I called the law firm and asked for whomever the poor soul is who is in charge of him. Secretary to that guy gets on the horn and talks down to me that "data forensics is an extremely complex and specialized skill" and how I needed to defer to SG's expertise. I told her that she was dealing with the author of the program he was trying to figure out, not some idiot user, and if they hoped for any assistance from me they would lose the attitude, learn to address me as "Dr." or "Sir" and fork over their billing information and make an appointment for my time. She said she would have to take that matter up with the partner responsible for this matter.

A couple of weeks later, I get a subpoena for all records I have about the software, including full source code listings and design specs, and a demand that I make myself available for a deposition. I handed it over to my attorney, who wrote them back and pointed out that this was 30-year-old software, that whatever documentation might still exist would not be easily locatable, was irrelevant to what they said they needed help with, and that since they had previously been told that my assistance was only available for a fee, they could not attempt to circumvent that with a deposition. Never heard anything more from them.
Secyurityet
Premium Member
join:2012-01-07
untied state
·T-Mobile

Secyurityet

Premium Member

said by DC DSL:

Never heard anything more from them.

They must have been up in my attic. I can't find my DOS 6.22 diskettes...

DC DSL
There's a reason I'm Command.
Premium Member
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
Actiontec GT784WN

DC DSL

Premium Member

said by Secyurityet:

They must have been up in my attic. I can't find my DOS 6.22 diskettes...

What's really wrong with the picture is that the supposed "super genius" had no idea what DOS was. Perhaps in another 20 years it would be understandable to have never heard of it, much less know anything about it. While this kid was probably quite good at hacking current systems to cough-up hidden treasure, being completely lost when it came to an old system and not bothering to accept the challenge of cracking it was rather stupefying. And, that his superiors (who certainly have to be old enough to have used computers before Windows, Macs, and Linux) didn't realize they needed someone with deeper expertise, who could turn the damn thing on for them, is just stupid. IMNSHO, those attorneys must not be all that hot if they passed up a big-ticket reimbursable. Vicki Lawrence's term "backwoods, Southern lawyer" comes to mind.