IT BS thread

I haven't used many, we have Remedy here. I'm sure it's $$$... I don't deal with ze money .

Yea... Sad thing is I'm pretty close to my bachelors, and the University I was going to pull the degree out from under me, and said I wasn't far enough into to be grandfathered thru. I was livid, and immediately dropped out. Part of me wishes I had just found "something" and finished it, but the other part didn't want some stupid piece of paper that was basically meaningless... Certs are definitely a good way to get your foot in the door, and if you really like it continue to get more certs. I just don't know if Cisco is where I want to get pigeonholed...

 

CSB time!

I started on 'computers' back before Windows existed. The trash-80s and 286s I started tinkering with were for bulletin boards and such.

I started out as a hardware guy. Back then, all hardware was separate and needed specialized knowledge to configure correctly, or you would "Let out all the magic smoke" when you plugged it in. Hell, math coprocessors weren't even standard equipment until....what, the 386 sx-16s I think? Good lord I'm old.

Anyhow, I got into them for games and bulletin boards. When I was a kid working at the paper mills, I started fixing OTHER people's computers. The millworkers made GOOD money and could afford home computers, and they'd break them or need them upgraded. Since I worked the night shift, I could often fix them right then and there.

Then, I got tired of working at paper mills, so I went to college. During this time I had a motorcycle accident on horked my shoulder all to hell and back. Took a year to rehab.

So, I'm looking for work to live on, and I lost my scholarship (long story), and I can't use my left arm for shit. I see a newspaper ad for a local computer shop, on the back page of the student newspaper, looking for modem installers.

I called, he point-blank tested me with about 10 questions regarding modem hardware and installing them under various OSes...IRQ assignments, memory addresses, this sort of thing.

I got 6 right, and on one laughed at him and said "I wouldn't install that piece of shit!".

He hired me, for I think it was $7 an hour at the time, full time. No bennies, but enough to cover the rent and get beer. At 18, who needs more out of life?

So, I became a 'computer tech' and passed my A+ a few months later and never looked back. I've been working on computers and networks and whatnot ever since. By 1999ish I was starting at gigs for 30-35K as a QA guy, because I could do server-based work as well as workstation/enduser stuff.

I miss hardware. Nowadays its all-included and too easy

 

So you cant go back and recover at least some of your credits?

 

So for the RDP issues I had. Reinstalled win 7, everything works.

I tired to copy the RDP reg keys from one PC to another, didn't work. Gave up and just reformatted it. Not sure what the cause was but it works now.

 

I probably can, but apply them to what?

Never worked on Juniper devices. Redhat seems interesting, not sure it's for me. Not a huge fan of M$ products either...

My issue is I don't know what I want to do when I grow up. I like development, perhaps I should refocus there.

Ha, sometimes the best fix for a Windows box is to blow it all away. Will save yourself time in the long run...

 

Yeah I have a set amount of time I work on a windows box before I deem it quicker to just reformat it.

 

I solve this by never growing up. I plan to be childish until I retire.

Seriously though, I've long since had the same belief...if it takes more than two hours, its faster to yank the data off and nuke it. A clean install of Windows is silly easy.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but that's the general idea.

 

Had a funny one this morning. Corporate rehab director comes into my office frustrated because she cant get the projector to work. She's pretty computer savvy and generally doesn't have issues like this. Went to take a look... the semi-transparent lens cap was still on

 

You may not like M$ products, but they make you money. They are in use everywhere and there is always a need for someone to fix them. They are kind of like GM.

 

Anything, honestly the biggest thing a degree says about you is that you can finish what you started. In your case, it's your real world experience that will put you in the field you want to be in.

 

Twice now, in the wild, I've come across where otherwise excellent techs accidentally the whole network segment by plugging a broadcasting switch into itself and 'packet storm'!!!

(Thankfully, it was only me once)

 

^ That is it exactly. It basically shows that you had a big project that you were responsible for and were able to finish it. It's not about what you learned (although a little of it is), it's about finishing. I work at a company where you can get a degree fully paid for, and still some people never take advantage of it and expect to get promoted just for being around for 20 years or more. It used to happen, but not anymore, and it makes for some difficult conversations -- you have to invest in yourself, especially if all it is is spare time.

 

A better way is to install clean, put all your apps on it and then do a Ghost or Acronis of the machine. That way if you need to restore it, all the app-work already done.

 

I have always been an advocate of standardized platforms and ghost/acronis or something else. It makes bringing up new servers a piece of cake and it makes solving desktop problems pretty easy. Plus, if you fix something for someone, you only need fix it one time and if required, distribute it.

Same goes for data storage. Obviously, laptops are a separate thing but there are ways to manage that as well.

The biggest point is that we put resources where it matters ( storage/servers/applications/consistency) while still providing a pretty solid desktop environment.

 

The only problem with that is keeping up with the hardware.

Yea, Ghost/StorageCraft/Arconis/etc are getting better with every release, but I still need six 'versions' of windows 7 images for generic workstation deployment with a minimum of farting around afterwards.

My boss tried to sell me on that with StorageCraft most recently, "Oh the hardware-agnostic imaging is wonderful, goes off without a hitch!" and whatnot.

Till I tried it. Like the rest, sure it works...after six restarts, four new windows update sessions, and a pair of custom download-update-driver applications later.

Really, it saves about an hour or so per machine. Yes, that adds up over time, but it ain't the end-all, be-all that the marketing shit tends to try to convince you of.

 

Dang, I thought this would have gotten better. It's been 10 years since I had to manage stuff like that, but we spec'd our own machine and had control over hardware changes. We still had to have 3 different images with different drivers due to obsolescense, but 3 was manageable.

What gets me is that my current company "builds" VM's from the ground up -- they don't just clone the latest updated base image. Dumbest thing I ever heard of.

 

Heh, yea. I can fix a lot of different issues on Windoze systems, but I still don't really like 'em. Their server platforms have been surprisingly rock-solid in our CallCenter tho. I was really leery about it at first - and updates are a big PITA!

Which, if anyone has advice here I'd love to hear it. Kinda OT to this topic, but our Windows servers in the CallCenter aren't allowed to connect to the internet - and they're also not allowed to have updated pushed thru SCCM. So short of downloading each individual update by hand and applying it by hand every month, what can I do?

Yea, you're right. I should go finish it, just to get the piece of paper...

My company pays for "certain" degrees. Also, it's an after-the-fact paid thing as I understand it, but still - they're paying for it. I just need to make sure they will pay for the degree I pick to finish up with...

That does seem crazy. We use VMWare View and these "Wyse" thin client terminals now. It's funny, we went from green screens which were kinda VM's, then physical desktops, now we're going back to thin clients... of a completely different animal.

I don't work with 'em much directly cuz I'm in a different department, but it does seem cool. You can have a parent VM and child VM's - apply the changes to the master, and all the children get updated. Just have 'em in a pool, make sure you have enough for your userbase and done.

 

An old client just called me, practically hysterical, she got on the Google Chrome and looked through the history and her 17 year old son went to orgasm dot com, haha she was just flustered as all get out!