The good thing about being an in-house IT department is that it's easy to multi-task, so there's less time (no time?) sitting around waiting for something to complete. I get frustrated when I'm paying a consultant $1000 a day to sit and watch something install or download. We can often be loads more productive doing it in-house simply because we're doing several jobs at the same time.

For the record, I don't resent it, it's just frustrating for all concerned. No-one wants to sit around.

@Carnival-Boy said:

Isn't it easier to disable macros in Word? I've never known anyone ever use macros in Word (Excel, yes, Word, no).

Went to do this today. Downloaded and installed all the Office ADMX files from Microsoft. Spent ages trying to figure out why it wasn't working. Eventually found a Spiceworks thread where someone points out that Group Policy is not supported with Office 365 Business Plans.

That sucks!!!

Any alternative suggestions would be appreciated. I guess I could do a custom group policy object to change the registry values where macro settings for Word are specified? It looks like it is set by a DWORD called VBAWarnings. That wouldn't stop a user from changing it back, but it would help.

If the vendor is going to be at the event then I think it's fine. It's about building a rapport with them, talking business, and doing it in a pleasant environment. I have no concerns about going to these kinds of events.

If they're not going to be at the event, or aren't going to talk to you there, then it is just giving you free tickets and I'd consider that a bribe and wouldn't go. Some of my colleagues do and I think it's disgusting - especially when they go during work hours.

The normal format for the events I go to is you have to sit through a few boring presentations in the morning, then have lunch whilst being hassled by a salesmen, then do something interesting and fun in the afternoon. If it's during work time I only go if I think my employer can get something out of it because I don't believe in getting paid to have fun. There can be value in creating a good rapport with a salesman at these events as it can help you negotiate better pricing if you do ever buy.

Also, these events are often great places to network with your industry peers. There's usually several of the vendor's existing customers at the event and I always try and talk to them privately and find out what they think of the vendor. It's a great way to get references.

If I want to obtain 3 quotes for some HP kit, is it true that the first reseller could register the deal to obtain bigger discounts, and this would prevent the other two resellers from getting the same price? Is that how it works? It seems unfair from our point of view.

Also, when are deals registered? Is it only for big projects? I'm after a new Proliant server with a budget of around $10k. I'm guessing that would be considered too small to do a deal registration?

I don't understand what's going on with Dynamics. The transition from Dynamics CRM to the new Dynamics 365 seems to be more than just a re-branding exercise, it feels like an entirely new product. Or rather two products, as Microsoft has been its usual annoying self and decided "why offer one product when we can confuse users by offering two?". So there's Dynamics 365 for Enterprise and Dynamics 365 for Business. Where "Enterprise" is defined, somewhat arbitrarily, as a company with 250+ users.

Worst still, Dynamics 365 for Business isn't even available in Europe yet, and yet neither is the old Dynamics CRM, leaving SMBs seemingly in limbo.

If anyone understands what's going on and can explain it to me, I'd be very grateful, as the concept of Dynamics 365 is pretty appealing.

Which country is that? I've never heard of beards being banned. Visible tattoos and unusual body piercings, yes, but half of the male population of the UK seems to have a beard at the moment.

Sadly, I am unable to grow one

@RoopanKumar said:

what reason can i give to them for having beard.

Religious?

As always, the answer is "it depends". In our case, we wouldn't charge for the initial high level meetings or the initial proposal. But the proposal would only contain ball-part estimates of cost. We wouldn't know the exact cost until we did detailed analysis, which is always chargeable.

So after receiving ball-park estimates, the client could choose to proceed on a time and material basis, or, if they wanted an exact cost, pay for analysis meetings and a detailed design document. Having written, and been paid for, a design document, the price can be fixed - so if it ends up costing more because we've made a mistake in the design or underestimated the time required, then that would be on us.

This generally works fine other than clients often fail to appreciate the difference between "ballpark costs" and "quote". So if we estimate it will cost between $10k and $30k, in their head the quote is fixed at $10k and they get upset if it ends up costing more. Clients also fail to appreciate how much time it actually takes to write a decent design document.

@scottalanmiller said:

Welcome to America. Lots of companies do that in the US.

I thought it was the land of the free? You have the right to bear arms but not the right to have facial hair?

I've started getting spam sent to the e-mail address I use for ML, even though my settings hide my e-mail address. Any reason why?

Just chill. The first few weeks are always a bit uncomfortable, in my experience, but they'll soon settle in. Just got to get through the first couple of weeks without them quitting, destroying something, or punching somebody, and then it'll be plain sailing.

Are you sure they "secretly" turned it on and it's not just the case that you didn't notice/realise at the time you setup the account?

I want to use screen capture software to record some short training videos for users to watch at their leisure. So I need to record a section of my screen, and talk over it, as I explain how our new software application works. Very simple. I think some of our users will prefer this to traditional user manuals.

So far, I'm looking into using Jing to record the video (which creates a .swf file), and screencast.com to host it. Using screencast.com (rather than, say, Youtube) allows me to password protect the video.

So far, all good and all free.

Is there a better way of doing this that you can recommend?

Thanks. I'm after some graphs on my intranet. I've started with the Google ones (being a Google fanboy) and they are pretty cool.

Would be interested how other MLers use graphs.

I know why you're doing it, I'm just saying it's not my thing. I may be unique, or there may be other people who are put off from posting questions. I'm just making an observation.

I love ESXi Free. And I believe you can backup VMs now using Unitrends Free (albeit with the need to install agents on the VM). So for a single host with 2 VMs (as per the SW link), I'd use ESXi.

So there you go. I don't care about brands and my boss is never going to sack me, I just really love ESXi. Feel free to slate me here!

@JaredBusch said in Best Whiskey (Hypervisor) versus the most sold Whiskey (Hypervisor):

The entire concept and stupid.

Me: Jim Beam's my favourite bourbon
ML: Why? There are better bourbons, and cheaper bourbons. Why would you stick with something that is worse and more expensive?
Me: I'm not saying Jim Beam is the best. I haven't tried other bourbons to compare. I just like it. I'm happy with it. And I can't be bothered to seek out better bourbons. I'm not interested enough in bourbon to spend time trying something else.
ML: You only buy Jim Beam because they have a bigger marketing budget than the others. You're an idiot.
Me: I just love Jim Beam is all! Leave me alone.

Me: ESXi's my favourite hypervisor
ML: Why? There are better hypervisors, and cheaper hypervisors. Why would you stick with something that is worse and more expensive?
Me: I'm not saying ESXi is the best. I haven't tried other hypervisors to compare. I just like it. I'm happy with it. And I can't be bothered to seek out better hypervisors. I'm not interested enough in hypervisors to spend time trying something else.
ML: You only buy ESXi because they have a bigger marketing budget than the others.You're an idiot.
Me: I just love ESXi is all! Leave me alone.

@scottalanmiller said in Stolen laptop advice.:

@brianlittlejohn said in Stolen laptop advice.:

Let me clarify, I don't care about the data or the laptop itself, I'm just curious what policies ya'll have for negligence of company equipment.

Basically, if they keep doing it, you fire them. There is nothing else to be done.

This. I've only had one incident in the last few years where someone left a laptop in the boot of their car overnight and it got stolen. I believe they got a telling off and told not to do it again. We don't have a policy, which suits me, as I prefer the employer-employee relationship to be a bit less formal and a bit more based on trust and common sense rather than rules and regulations.

If people are persistently negligent then they're unlikely to be good employees generally, so it's worth firing them anyway. If they don't care about looking after their laptops, they're unlikely to care about looking after their customers and colleagues either.

@DustinB3403 said in ESXi Evaluation Period:

I'm curious as to how could one be so dense as to have to ask what they should do. Can someone help me to understand the mindset that this person was going through setting up this system?

I don't think they have to be particularly dense. I don't think the licencing around ESXi is particularly clear. I mean it's not rocket science, but it's not spelled out either. Kind of understandable, I guess, as VMWare don't want to make it too easy for people to use the free version.

In my experience, most evaluation software reverts automatically to the free version when the evaluation period expires. ESXi is slightly unusual in that you have to obtain and install a licence to use the free version. But only slightly unusual, I'm not trying to defend the guy particularly.

I find it hard to believe that if you have a page called Products.html and a page called products.html and they are identical in every way that a company that has developed a self-driving car is too stupid to work out that they are actually the same page.

Although if I come in to work tomorrow and find my laptop has been stolen and there's a note on my desk that says "I win, love from Breffni", you'll have taken the challenge too far.