BASELINE Official Rant

[Bograt]

BASELINE stinks. I believe it is actually causing damage to my retina. I believe I receive a 1000 Baseline Control Centre Alerts a day. The constant flashing of its white sign is causing me to have epileptic fits.

I have tried everything to stop them, including:
1. Praying
2. Calling the techies
3. Clicking Close
4. Clicking View
5. Screaming
6. Shutting down and booting up.

 

[Inch]

That's one cool thing about sailing, besides the satisfaction of planting an 18,000 lb Sea King on the deck and getting centre lock and centre rail, there's no baseline!

 

[SeaKingTacco]

besides the satisfaction of planting an 18,000 lb Sea King on the deck and getting centre lock and centre rail,

Quit bragging.  You were lucky... 

 

[Inch]

Quit bragging.  You were lucky... 

I can't lie to you, centre lock centre rail is all luck, I've only ever gotten it once. I have yet to see the triple crown, centre lock centre rail and #1 blade position.

 

[Bograt]

I thought I detected bragging.

Are you on the Fredricton? If so, I'll see you Friday.

Back to baseline, I have now put SPF 30 sun screen on my nose to prevent utltra violet burn associated with Baseline control centre alerts.

 

[aesop081]

I thought I detected bragging.

Are you on the Fredricton? If so, I'll see you Friday.

Back to baseline, I have now put SPF 30 sun screen on my nose to prevent utltra violet burn associated with Baseline control centre alerts.

I came back from 3 weeks in Sigonella, only to have to reboot my computer 5 times........stupid update patch instalations  :threat:

 

[SeaKingTacco]

What I detest is that, in the middle of teaching a lesson, Baseline will just arbitrarily decide that you are due for a virus check or a reboot, with very little option for you to defer it.  Another system designed by techies, for techies.

 

[Trinity]

What I detest is that, in the middle of teaching a lesson, Baseline will just arbitrarily decide that you are due for a virus check or a reboot, with very little option for you to defer it.  Another system designed by techies, for techies.

You hit it right on the nose.

I'm an occasional user of the system... so every time I have to sit through updates for god knows how long
to check what email I had from the previous week.

 

[Michael OLeary]

One of my long-standing frustrations with baseline, for which I have never received a credible answer:

Why do I need a personalized account that has to be taken down and re-established every time I change units?

What is wrong with an account set up as "posn@unit@base (or formation)" using the same standard position and unit abbreviations we've had for over a century (instead of the many invented unit abbreviations we see in accounts now).  With position based acounts, all working files stay in place, all mail stays in place.  When I sign out reset the passowrd, when the new appointee signs in, give the new password to him.  As a major secondary benefit, I won't need to know who is in a job to send e-mail, I just need to know the standard job title.

Then, when I join a unit, I sign for 'my' account and my personal info is added to the background data.

I sign for my weapon, it doesn't get my name put on it and I am still responsible for it. Why can't I sign for my computer account without it having to have my name on it "for security reasons"?

Who do we talk to about such things?  The guy/gal at the service desk who answers the one number I have to use for all calls is too far down to food chain to care, let alone to discuss the potential efficiencies of user suggestions.

 

[AmmoTech90]

What is wrong with an account set up as "posn@unit@base (or formation)" using the same standard position and unit abbreviations we've had for over a century (instead of the many invented unit abbreviations we see in accounts now).  With position based acounts, all working files stay in place, all mail stays in place.  When I sign out reset the passowrd, when the new appointee signs in, give the new password to him.  As a major secondary benefit, I won't need to know who is in a job to send e-mail, I just need to know the standard job title.

This is how the Brit "DIN" is set up and it is a nightmare.  It can be impossible to follow someone once they leave a position if you have to send admin related email.  I have never been able to find someone on it using their job description.  This may come down to a badly designed address book, but why would Canada do it any better?
Plus if you knew the person in the old position you can still find him by user name (in the Canadian system).  Give him a call and ask who took over, much easier.  If you don't know the position they moved to you cant find them easily.  Plus the geographical search is a great tool in the CF Outlook.
We had one person who had to log on to three different accounts because he moved positions and had the IT couldn't keep up.  Personal drives are not too useful for work related activity I've found.  It's much better to set up a directory on a shared drive and restrict who can access, that way you add or delete who has access.

I think the key is issuing an account to an individual and then granting that person, or an IT adminstrator at a very low level (Pl/Coy) permission to create and grant access to directories on the main share as they see fit.

D

 

[ZipperHead]

I see I'm not the only one underwhelmed by the way that Baseline/DWAN/DIN is set up  I have thought about looking into why we couldn't have secondary accounts (so you can keep your Freely.IP@forces.gc.ca or Freely.IP@ArmdSch@Gagetown, or whichever so you can be tracked by admirers and enemies alike) with something along the lines of RecceSqn2TpWO@FGH@Winnipeg, so you can indeed send an email without having to find out who the 2 Tp WO in the Garry's Recce Sqn is. I have heard tell that they were going to improve (if they haven't already... I am too lazy to check) the Global address list, so you could search by position, MOC (MOS-ID now, and won't THAT be a treat to track somebody down now), etc, etc. That would be somewhat of a compromise. I'll have to check at work tomorrow.

I have had many an angry moment when dealing with Sigs/computer related issues, and have come to realize, that in many cases, the average Army.ca user has much more computer know-how than many people working down in that part of the world. I, too, have heard many lame, vague, half-baked "reasons" on why some IT policies are in place (can somebody tell me please how anybody could gain access to Protected information on a computer via a cordless mouse (or more precisely, gain access because someone was using a cordless mouse)??? We aren't allowed to use cordless peripherals because of the security implications. Give me strength...... It's not like those things have a range of 10km, and some foreign power can access my personal drive from a van with frequency scanning gear, down by the Burton Bridge: "We have accessed his account!!! He has..... Sunshine Girl photo's stored in his folder!!!! We know his weakness!! The fool!" (I don't actually have Sunshine Girl photo's in my folder, as that would breach copyright laws, and be a misuse of DND IT assets.... you can't catch me that easily!!)

My goal is to get at least one computer related issue changed/abolished/investigated in my current job (IT Tp WO for Armd School). If everybody takes up that modest challenge, we may eventually catch up to some of the Banana Republic countries that are actually using WindowsXP, OfficeXP, and other 5 year old "new" technology. Dare to dream......

Al

 

[aesop081]

My biggest beef with baseline is the "help" desk.  This is the second base where the extension for the base IT "help" desk is on a sticker applied to every computer and when you call the "help" desk.....

"Don't call us, go see your unit IT rep"

What kind of "help" is that ?

:brickwall:

 

[navymich]

BASELINE stinks. I believe it is actually causing damage to my retina. I believe I receive a 1000 Baseline Control Centre Alerts a day. The constant flashing of its white sign is causing me to have epileptic fits.

After you click view, you need to actually open the alert by double-clicking on the envelope, similiar to a message.  Once it is opened, click on close and it will go away....at least until you get another one.