Re: 60-806 help

[Frank Olson <use-the-email-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

brihyn wrote:
> just to make a few things clear:
> 1) I have never been on a high horse. I came here with my tail between
> my legs asking for help.

You asked politely and were told (equally politely) that you were
"hooped".  There was no reason to drag in the "chimp" and "monkey" comments.


> 2)I've noted numerous times that I do agree that randomly pushing
> buttons wasn't necessarily a smart thing to do. At the same time, I
> had nothing to lose, as the alarm was just as useless before as it is
> now.

Aux contraire (as they say in Quebec).  You should never push "random
buttons" on something you have no clue about.  Imagine what could have
happened had Bush decided to randomly push buttons on the football when
he first stepped into office.


> 3) I never mentioned the network engineer side until Crash told me
> that what I was just dumb as "trying to fix your pc on a friday
> night". I merely mentioned that I have no problems fixing my pc on a
> friday night myself.

Check.


> 4) as for my experience with alarms...Just mentioning that I am not a
> run of a mill home owner. I *do* have experience on some level with
> alarms. In fact, I would rightly argue that I have more knowledge of
> how an alarm board works than 99% of installers because of this
> experience having to fix and repair them. Does that help me in this
> case? Unfortunately, not a bit. But it *is* a fact that I've worked on
> a level on these circuit boards that few here have. (if only it DID
> help resolve my mistake!)

You obviously don't have the knowledge you say you do.  I'm thinking
that if you did have the knowledge of how the board works, you wouldn't
have been pushing buttons randomly now, would you?


> 5) Can you argue that a lot of installers really do know what they're
> doing and more importantly, why? An installer that truly understands
> the "why" of security beyond just the "how" of installing is worth his
> weight in gold. No argument.. But I found in hiring installers on the
> corporate side that frankly, my sales guy knew a lot more of how to
> actually keep a building safe then the installers. They knew how to
> run the wiring, etc, but failed the most critical piece...looking at
> the buiilding from the point of view of a thief, and alter their work
> accordingly. They were just doing what they were trained, and nothing
> beyond. Are all installers that way? thankfully no. Maybe "trained
> monkey" came off wrong, but it's the case in any career path. a
> trained monkey can do what they were trained, and can't look beyond.
> Installers can be that way, network engineers can be that way. And
> unfortunately, i've run into too many of both. (note, i refuse to use
> the annoying phrase here of "looking outside of the box". Maybe that
> wouldn't have ruffled the feathers quite so badly, but I just hate
> that phrase)

Now you're saying an installer has to think like a thief...  Most idiots
that perform B&E's are on drugs and they're looking for a few bits of
merchandise they can "hock" to pay for their next fix.  They're "in" and
"out" before the Police (or other local constabulary) can respond.  All
an installer will do is install the equipment you paid for.  Most aren't
going to try and "upsell" you, although if asked, most will tell you
where they figure the "holes" in your security are.  It's sort of like
the guy that goes out and decides to protect his PC against viruses with
"free" software he can get on the Internet.  AVG is one such company
that provides two levels of protection.  The "free" version doesn't have
all the features of the "paid" version.  You get what you pay for.  In
your case, you purchased a house with a security system you knew nothing
about.  My first instinct would have been to call someone in to reset
the codes if the original homeowner couldn't (or wouldn't) provide them.
  But then, I consider myself to be a reasonably prudent individual and
not some "chimp" or "chump".


> 6)Do I respect someone to crawl into crawlspaces? more than I can
> express here. I had a stint of doing side-contracting of running
> network cabling. Great pay, and I'd do it again, but words can not
> express how much I hated the work.

Yeah...  the "chimp" work sucks.


> Again, thanks for the constructive answers. And I realize my original
> reply created the stir. It was meant directly at Crash. Re-read the
> thread again from the top. I simply asked how to fix my screw up,
> Frank gave me a great reply that what I did was worse than I had
> thought, and than Crash responded with the most snarky reply of all.

Crashes response wasn't as "snarky" as some get.  I think you over
reacted.  And if what you've posted here is an attempt at apologizing,
it falls far short of that too.  To me, you're just trying to justify
your response which was assinine in the extreme through "frenetic
back-peddaling".  A simple "I'm sorry" would have gone a lot further,
but all of this is now "water under the bridge".  My original response
still stands.  You're "hooped", buddy.  Find yourself a friendly local
alarm provider, keep the "chimp" and "monkey" comments to yourself,
"bite the bullet" and pay for your bad judgement.  Hopefully, the "ape"
that responds to your plea for help won't charge you more than a couple
of bananas.