So, my IT dept here at work has decided

[Racer X]

that rather than order me a 512 meg stick of PC2100 So-DIMM for my Dull craptop

"Do not have the memory availble at this time, spoke with user and we both agreed to look into replacing the laptop with a newer unit as upgrades to a newer laptop will be easier and more cost effective"

I guess starting at $16 shipped, and letting me put it in (will take about 3 minutes tops) is too much effort for them.

[freeradical]

So instead of buying a $16 stick of RAM, they're going to get you a new laptop?

Are they receiving bailout money?

[crispy]

Working for an IT Department, don't look a gift-upgrade horse in the mouth.

[Lew Zealand]

If the $$ for the new laptop is coming from your Dept. and not IT, then WTF do they care?

[ztirffritz]

You work for the government don't you? That is the only place where that logic makes sense. In the past, I've purchase RAM for my users from my own pocket because I couldn't get the company to pay for it and it cost about the same as lunch. It is worth the goodwill that it buys from the end user though in my opinion.

Then again, if I asked for RAM and was offered a new computer instead, I'd be pretty happy too.

[JEBB]

"It can't be done" is IT dept. code for "we don't want to do it" or "we don't know how".

[Racer X]

probably someones recently replaced laptop. Mine is a Latitude C840/Inspiron 8200 P4/1.7 early 2003 vintage, the last with USB 1. If it didn't have all the security BS and disk encryption, it would be just fine with a full gig of RAM.

It was a 4 grand laptop when they ordered it all pimped out for me. 2 biggest drives, combo drive, the works. The FW port failed on the 6th day. ITs solution was to get me a PC card. Lazy bastiges, it was under warranty too.

I mentioned that a faster laptop, with a bigger drive, better screen, and a DVD burner would have been 2,800 from Apple, I just got a grimmace.

[decay]

JEBB wrote:
"It can't be done" is IT dept. code for "we don't want to do it" or "we don't know how".

that's just silly.

there are limitations to some software packages, hardware limitations, and all kinds of issues that IT has to manage.

sometimes preventing users from installing their own software heads off HUNDREDS of tech support calls that tie up a department who should be working on more important issues not related to, say, a Facebook virus.

[ztirffritz]

I'd love to let my users manage their own IT Issues, but there are times when I have to subscribe to the weakest link, lowest common denominator theory since there is only one of me, and 300 of them that I'm managing for the entire western US. I've found that some users are willing to learn, but don't have the skills yet, while others simply don't want to know anything about computers. To them, a computers is nothing more than an adding machine with a bigger screen. The concept of a virus moving from one 'adding machine' to another doesn't cross their minds. They have no concept of the difference between megabytes, gigabytes, or terabytes (hence the users storing 40 GB of music, movies and 'cute' powerpoint files to the servers getting backed up every night until I realize that all of their data, which I'm not allowed to look at, is not work related). I get questions like, "Can you come to my house so that I can connect to the company VPN using my son's 10 year old PC running Windows 95 with no AV software? I used to use it every day to do this, but all those Porn Popup ads make it difficult to get the VPN connected. I just copied the settings from the secured, updated, patched company provided laptop to his computer because I like the keyboard/mouse better. I had to turn off the AV software to make those annoying warnings go away." Sorry, you touched a nerve and I'm venting now...

[DaviDC.]

A couple of years ago a guy I know who works for a window company installed Picasa on his company issued laptop in order to keep up with the photos he was required to take for his job. Months later the IT guy was doing a routine update on the laptop & deleted Picasa because he didn't know what it was & the company "officially" used some crap HP photo program. This frequently caused the computer to freeze, which was why he wanted to use Picasa in the 1st place. It never caused any problems & was easy to use as well as being familiar. Go figure.