Why I hate my robot(s)
A few years ago I bought a backup robot for the business. I had lost one of my messaging servers which uspet most of the company employees (CEO can’t email the board, CFO can’t track the investors, VP BD can’t negotiate deals with partners, Secretary can’t arrange a vacation with boyfriend).
My robot hated me. I hated it. Veritas and it would cough up excuses for not performing a backup. They would collude to sending me email messages, syslog and other interruptions. There was always an open file that would not behave. There was always a tape that was full. There was always a cartridge that was out of sequence.
All in all the robot needed a robotsitter babysitter to keep it company. A babysitter that will feed it clean power, wipe its heads clean and replace the tape DAT we love so much. And once in a while change the channel on the Veritas application.
So we got the most reliable thing available to look after automated infrastructure. An IT guy. Life was as simple as before the robot but with the additional comfort knowing there was a backup. I still cannot understand why robot architect HP and Veritas could not fit an IT guy in the packaging.
A week ago I bought a Windows Home Server preinstalled on a $700 small form factor PC from HP. I hooked it up and I turned it on. It did my backup for me. It told me it was successful. The only failure it had was when I shut down my machine. It was unaccessible, my server notified me in a nice looking alert.
I was offended. I had prepared my expert troubleshooting capabilities. I had prepared to resolve a routing issue. I was ready to resolve Access Control issues. I was gravely disappointed. It just worked.
Simple is nice. Simple makes security easier by making my data more available at home. Simple makes my training obsolete.
More than that - Security does not have to be complex: Simplicity showed me that my expertise can be replaced by a well though out script. Ahem. Perhaps it is time to learn a new trick?
Way to go Microsoft!
NB: My Roomba robot hates me as well. It gets stuck on any piece of paper or rubber band or even while climbing that 1/2″ to the short haired carpet. Does this mean that all robots hate me?