(no subject)

[nockergeek]

Sometimes, I really wish that our customers understood the difference between a computer programmer and a system administrator. One of our hosting servers went down briefly, and one of our customers (a problem customer of sorts anyways) calls me up at my desk to ask why the server's down, and while they're at it, why their email occasionally bounces. I have no answers for this, as I am:

A) Not trained in the administration and maintenance of Linux servers
B) Not trained in the administration and maintenance of email systems
C) Not personally responsible for the tasks outlined in either A or B anyway.

I got the impression that they didn't like my answer of, "I'll look into it, although I'm not the system administrator." It can't really be helped, though. Even if I wanted to be the system administrator, I have neither the time nor the materials (in the form of books and a spare Linux server) required to become one... never mind that it's not my damn job. I wouldn't mind if we hired a dedicated system administrator, though, preferably one who could help out on coding tasks when he wasn't maintaining the servers.

Comments

[telophase.livejournal.com]

But you speak computer, don't you??

I get that a lot. It took me a very long time (over a year) to get it through my grandfather's head that no, I could not help him with his Mac OSX problems because I switched from Mac to Windows pre-OSX and have had a grand total of about three hours experience with OSX checking my email on Mom's laptop.

And the serials librarian here thinks that because I speak computer I have the solution to all his problems. Sorry, I know /Web coding/ and thus that means you are more of an expert than me on the library's bindery module because you actually know something about binding journals! One day I will point out that he's doing the equivalent of asking me to coach a football game because I have a black belt in karate. *sigh*