That's my opinion anyway. What say you?
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Politics? Polls? Really? Why? Ahh... Who cares?
That's my opinion anyway. What say you?
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
My PCRes Hell
Its midnight. I am dizzy, my chest feels like I have an elephant on it, and I am very tired but I cannot sleep. Yes, I am fighting a cold. I am also in PCRes Hell.
PCRes is a wonderful tool we have for patrons to reserve computer time with little or no staff intervention. 90-95% of the time I think it works like a charm. It's the other 5-10% that stinks! We recently upgraded to the latest and greatest version (v3.3). One of the things we were encountering that prompted the upgrade was double bookings and missing session clocks. I must admit, of all the double bookings reported, only two were true double bookings. The rest were usually user (staff or patron) error.
An example would be when a patron tries to get a time closer than their first reservation. They keep making reservations until they get the time they want. In the process, they cancel their previous reservation when they accept the new one. Then they get ready for the computer and forget which time they had. Not too mention, they inadvertently tossed out the good receipt. So they show up and their computer is gone. Someone is already on it. Other times the card gets used by two different people. Mom makes a reservation then one of the kids needs to get a computer. They use the same card Mom did, canceling out Mom's computer time. Mom then shows up and her computer is in use by someone else.
Next is the missing session clock. I have been able to duplicate this three times. But never the same way twice. Though some staff have seen patrons type a few keys while the computer is logging on, and poof, no session clock. Then there are times the session clock is missing but staff are sure it wasn't removed by user intervention. What stinks is that the system appears Off Line to the server. Which means reservations are being made. Unless the system is marked Out of Service, PCRes will continue to make reservations for the computer. As far as the server knows the computer is Off Line because it is getting ready for the next user.
So far I have been able to determine that the suspect computers are being restarted in the middle of login. Is this user intervention or a glitch in the program? I do not know yet. I spoke to our vendor prior to the upgrade and we appear to have all the bases covered. I would mention the list of things we checked but I am not at work right now. It's after midnight. One thing I do know is the user policy isn't in play until the Desktop Manager loads. This means, with the right timing, a user could tinker around with the keyboard and kill PCRes. I am not ruling out the fact that malware may be causing this.
The missing session clock is very random and jumps around from computer to computer. Many locations share one server for the Management Console and we have some branches that haven't reported the problem. This, however, doesn't mean they are not experiencing the problem. I have to take people at their word. But, I am certain if they had a missing session clock they would be on the phone to the Help Desk toot sweet. Because it will appear to double book patrons. And patrons who are legitimately on the receiving end of this are far worse to deal with than someone who may be... say... trying to pull a fast one. It sucks. They thought they had a computer, probably waited hours for it, then find out their time was lost because of this missing clock. If it were me I would be ticked off too.
So here is where the frustration comes in. Staff are dealing with a patron who just lost their reservation. That patron is probably a little ticked off. Add to this the fact that they now have to stop helping one patron to deal with this PCRes issue. See where I am going. STINKS! The Help Desk gets a call about how a computer has double booked people. That's about all you can get out of the staff person that called. They are too busy and/or frustrated to give you anymore information. After a little time the tech will call back to get more information. For whatever reason, there isn't much more information to get. All I have is a computer and time and double bookings. Trying to troubleshoot this would be just the same as if a patron came in asking for a book. Nothing more to go on other than they want a book. You can ask for more information, but that is all you are getting. See? How do you know what book they want?
If I only had a reservation number to look up. Better yet, the library card or Guest ID number that was used to make the reservation. When I have this information I can use the tools provided in the PCRes software to determine what happened. Especially if it was s reservation issue. Having the same information has helped with the process of isolating the processes involved with the missing clock.
The information on the reservation receipt alone can provide so much information for troubleshooting. I am told that many times patrons don't even have their receipts with them. As long as you have their library card or Guest ID you can look up their reservation information. So there isn't much concern over this. Personally, I wish there was.
We use to try and get staff to send us the receipts when they report PCRes problems. I think we should do this again. When patrons have reservation complaints staff do their best to resolve the problem on the spot by getting them the next available computer. This means I have time to investigate these problems and could wait to get the receipts before I do.
I wouldn't mind setting up a PCRes lab at Library Plaza and offer classes to staff on how to use the Staff application to lookup some of this information. If anything it would be a refresher. I could also use the time to show staff all that is involved from the IT perspective when we try to run down these problems.
It seems like I may be taking this PCRes thing a bit to personal but I can't help it. When you add up the time involved in learning the system, creating the application objects, training staff, and time spent investigating trouble tickets. It's easy to do this. The first thing I have to remind myself is that the problem isn't me. Not personally any way. There could be a problem with the application object or how the system is configured. All things I have worked on, but those are learning events. Learning from your mistakes helps you improve your skill set.
Well, if you've made it this far thanks. If you run into any PCRes problems try to remember to get the library card or Guest ID, and the information off the receipt. I am committed to getting these problems resolved and can assure you I do feel your pain.
Please, if you have anything good or bad to say about this please comment. You may be helpful in solving a problem.
PCRes is a wonderful tool we have for patrons to reserve computer time with little or no staff intervention. 90-95% of the time I think it works like a charm. It's the other 5-10% that stinks! We recently upgraded to the latest and greatest version (v3.3). One of the things we were encountering that prompted the upgrade was double bookings and missing session clocks. I must admit, of all the double bookings reported, only two were true double bookings. The rest were usually user (staff or patron) error.
An example would be when a patron tries to get a time closer than their first reservation. They keep making reservations until they get the time they want. In the process, they cancel their previous reservation when they accept the new one. Then they get ready for the computer and forget which time they had. Not too mention, they inadvertently tossed out the good receipt. So they show up and their computer is gone. Someone is already on it. Other times the card gets used by two different people. Mom makes a reservation then one of the kids needs to get a computer. They use the same card Mom did, canceling out Mom's computer time. Mom then shows up and her computer is in use by someone else.
Next is the missing session clock. I have been able to duplicate this three times. But never the same way twice. Though some staff have seen patrons type a few keys while the computer is logging on, and poof, no session clock. Then there are times the session clock is missing but staff are sure it wasn't removed by user intervention. What stinks is that the system appears Off Line to the server. Which means reservations are being made. Unless the system is marked Out of Service, PCRes will continue to make reservations for the computer. As far as the server knows the computer is Off Line because it is getting ready for the next user.
So far I have been able to determine that the suspect computers are being restarted in the middle of login. Is this user intervention or a glitch in the program? I do not know yet. I spoke to our vendor prior to the upgrade and we appear to have all the bases covered. I would mention the list of things we checked but I am not at work right now. It's after midnight. One thing I do know is the user policy isn't in play until the Desktop Manager loads. This means, with the right timing, a user could tinker around with the keyboard and kill PCRes. I am not ruling out the fact that malware may be causing this.
The missing session clock is very random and jumps around from computer to computer. Many locations share one server for the Management Console and we have some branches that haven't reported the problem. This, however, doesn't mean they are not experiencing the problem. I have to take people at their word. But, I am certain if they had a missing session clock they would be on the phone to the Help Desk toot sweet. Because it will appear to double book patrons. And patrons who are legitimately on the receiving end of this are far worse to deal with than someone who may be... say... trying to pull a fast one. It sucks. They thought they had a computer, probably waited hours for it, then find out their time was lost because of this missing clock. If it were me I would be ticked off too.
So here is where the frustration comes in. Staff are dealing with a patron who just lost their reservation. That patron is probably a little ticked off. Add to this the fact that they now have to stop helping one patron to deal with this PCRes issue. See where I am going. STINKS! The Help Desk gets a call about how a computer has double booked people. That's about all you can get out of the staff person that called. They are too busy and/or frustrated to give you anymore information. After a little time the tech will call back to get more information. For whatever reason, there isn't much more information to get. All I have is a computer and time and double bookings. Trying to troubleshoot this would be just the same as if a patron came in asking for a book. Nothing more to go on other than they want a book. You can ask for more information, but that is all you are getting. See? How do you know what book they want?
If I only had a reservation number to look up. Better yet, the library card or Guest ID number that was used to make the reservation. When I have this information I can use the tools provided in the PCRes software to determine what happened. Especially if it was s reservation issue. Having the same information has helped with the process of isolating the processes involved with the missing clock.
The information on the reservation receipt alone can provide so much information for troubleshooting. I am told that many times patrons don't even have their receipts with them. As long as you have their library card or Guest ID you can look up their reservation information. So there isn't much concern over this. Personally, I wish there was.
We use to try and get staff to send us the receipts when they report PCRes problems. I think we should do this again. When patrons have reservation complaints staff do their best to resolve the problem on the spot by getting them the next available computer. This means I have time to investigate these problems and could wait to get the receipts before I do.
I wouldn't mind setting up a PCRes lab at Library Plaza and offer classes to staff on how to use the Staff application to lookup some of this information. If anything it would be a refresher. I could also use the time to show staff all that is involved from the IT perspective when we try to run down these problems.
It seems like I may be taking this PCRes thing a bit to personal but I can't help it. When you add up the time involved in learning the system, creating the application objects, training staff, and time spent investigating trouble tickets. It's easy to do this. The first thing I have to remind myself is that the problem isn't me. Not personally any way. There could be a problem with the application object or how the system is configured. All things I have worked on, but those are learning events. Learning from your mistakes helps you improve your skill set.
Well, if you've made it this far thanks. If you run into any PCRes problems try to remember to get the library card or Guest ID, and the information off the receipt. I am committed to getting these problems resolved and can assure you I do feel your pain.
Please, if you have anything good or bad to say about this please comment. You may be helpful in solving a problem.
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