I got keylogged. Was it Key Clone?

[Tasty]

But I do like the secone :P

[Havelcek]

Keyclone stole my cat. True story.

[Lockyie]

what can i say never got more instant suport on a application than ok keyclone.
its even bether then windows suport ....
till now no issuse whit keyclone or being logged.
keep up the good work rob. :thumbup:

[keyclone]

windows comes with support? really? ?(

i started doing windows programming around '88.. v2.10.. i tried calling once to ask about bitblts and imaging..
the people i spoke with had no idea (petzold was more help every day of the week)

[kllrwlf]

LOL... Windows Support.

[leukos]

windows comes with support? really? ?(

It actually does. You pay Microsoft a very large amount of money every year for The Enterprise Support Contract. There is also an option to pay per incident, but that isn't real support. I'll be brutally honest and say that I am not fair to Microsoft in what follows. I've had good calls and bad calls, I was asked to write something up at work for a new employee after a particularly bad call. Needless to say, my Manager at the time asked for a rewrite. Unfortunately, this was after I had sent it to the new employee

Microsoft Enterprise Support isn't really there to solve your problem, though it is nice when it does, it is to protect your rear end, and your Manager's rear end, when _you_ can't solve the problem.

---

When you have a problem that you can't solve, and a Manager from another group is complaining it is "absurd" that we can't solve the problem, your Manager can request in the daily "Manager's Meeting" that "The Microsoft Support Contract" be used to solve this problem.

Your Manager will point out that all other available methods of solving this problem have been exhausted, and will probably point out the numerous posts in the Microsoft MSDN forums that describe the exact same problem you are having (you did find that forum post? They are priceless). These post usually have several "Microsoft, why won't you solve this problem" messages in them. They always agree.

You call a toll-free number and get to describe your problem to the Call Router. The Call Router usually has no clue about the products you are describing, try to stay away from common acronyms (especially the acronym for any just released System Center product). If you are lucky they will put half of what you tell them on your support ticket, expect to have to correct what gets documented. The Call Router will ask how important this call is, lets assume this is just a regular "It doesn't work" support call that isn't causing company wide work stoppages (someone else will handle those). The Call Router then connects you with the Support Engineer. It is always import to refer to these people as "The Engineers," it implies knowledge and experience.

If you are lucky you will be connected with The Engineer, or you may have to wait on hold for a period of time. If you are very unlucky, the Call Router will tell you support is offered on a call back. This means The Engineer calls you back within four hours. This means if you put your support call in after Lunch, The Enginner will call you back at about 17:05 (make sure you leave on time at 17:00).

Now, this is the beauty of the Microsoft Enterprise Support Contract. Your Manager tells all the other Managers that The Engineer from Microsoft is working on the issue. If there is a solution Microsoft will know it.

You deal with The Engineer all morning, The Engineer is actually clueless and has never heard of your problem before and you have to constantly explain basic concepts to them - like what a VLAN is. Your software environment, which was created by only doing default "Click Next" installs, is unique. The Engineer may have a very heavy accent. Don't worry if you can't understand The Engineer's accent, after a couple months of support calls you will learn to. It is very important you document the time you spend talking to The Engineer and what you are doing.

At Lunch on day two, your Manager calls a meeting with all the other Managers to request authorization to "Escalate" the issue. They always agree.

Your Manager calls The Technical Account Manager (The TAM) assigned to us by Microsoft. The Technical Account Manager will then send some e-mails internal to Microsoft and you will get a call back from another The Engineer. This The Engineer may have a clue, it is about 50/50.

If you are lucky they will be able to provide you a solution to The Problem.. If they can't it is very important to get your Manager and The TAM talking again. By this point there are probably more then five hours into this support call and The TAM will provide options to your Manager on how The Microsoft can assist in solving The Problem.

Your Manager will probably have you spend some more time working on the problem until the next days Manager's Meeting.

The Managers will talk about the problem and how important it is to the company, especially since we only have so many hours on the support contract. They will probably agree The Problem isn't important enough to spend additional support hours.

Here is where the beauty of our support contract. Your Manager will tell all the other Managers, "since Microsoft couldn't solve this problem what hope did we have to solve it." They always agree.

Make sure you point out to your Manager how the time was spent on the support call. If there were any tangents taken in trying to solve it, or if other The Engineers were brought onto the line to solve a problem and they didn't (and for about how long). This allows your Manager to call The TAM to try and get some of the hours spent on the support call refunded. This allows your Manager to tell all the other Managers in the Manager's Meeting that they got back X hours on the support contract (for some small value of X). It is an easy way to make your Manager look good.

We may be asked by Microsoft to write a Business Impact Report on how The Problem is causing problems at The Company. Write up something generic and reuse it in the future. I have a couple of these on file with Microsoft at any given time for various bugs, nothing usually comes of it. This will probably make it's way to the Manager's Meeting so make it presentable. No, you can't have my generic write up.

If the problem causing manager ever stops by your office make sure you give them the party line, "What hope did we have to solve your problem if Microsoft couldn't," and "I recall this issue being closed, I can schedule a meeting with my Manager (make sure you use your manager's name) and us to see how we can solve this problem. When are you available?" This last one will usually get them to leave without scheduling a meeting. They always agree.

[keyclone]

oh.. snap

[kllrwlf]

I don't think it's support when you buy a product... then pay to have them help.

That's like buying a car... paying a mechanic to fix all the problems and calling that support for the car. ?(

... and btw... your story made me cry a little inside... such pain...

[leukos]

I don't think it's support when you buy a product... then pay to have them help.

That's like buying a car... paying a mechanic to fix all the problems and calling that support for the car. ?(

... and btw... your story made me cry a little inside... such pain...

It's an interesting industry, but it pays the bills. I tend to think of Enterprise-class IT support as a bunch of smoke and mirrors.

As an old IBM System Administrator told me very early in my working days, "8 hours labour, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours rest".

Those IBM SysAdms had system administration down to a science. For any large change, they requested an IBM Support Engineer be brought on site to oversee, provide recommendation, and make sure all changes meet IBM Best Practices. Management, they always agree.

The real reason they requested the on site engineer is so when there was a problem, which happened on more then one occasion applying operating system updates, the onsite Engineer could provided a very quick turn around time to getting the problem resolved. No Call Router, no call back, that Engineer wanted to get to sleep before the sun came up.

Those old timers gave me another piece of advice; Management won't pay jack to support a $1,500 desktop or server, but when the hardware cost $250,000, the software cost $500,000, and the consultants that came in to install/configure it cost $1,000,000 they'll pay a fair wage for someone to support that infrastructure.