Best posts made by david.wiese

i hope you when you say rest rooms you are actually talking about breakrooms/lunchrooms correct? If you mean bathrooms, i would personally never allow that.

since i am involved or at least try to be involved on both sites I want offer up my opinion for what its worth. I joined the SW community when i started my current job, why because we used the software. As i become more involved in the community I started seeing more and more public power struggles.I myself posted in the rant thread a few times about the mods not doing their jobs and letting blatant things fly when those things were not allowed prior to a certain CM's departure. @Bill-Kindle sent me a link to this site after we had a public disagreement (but in the private conversation things were hashed out) I still post on both sites and attempt to help out where I can. ML seems to be more IT Pro based and not for the basic user (which is good). Now still haven't reached the SP level on SW yet and don't really care to, I'm not in it for the points, I'm there to provide help where possible just like here. While I post more there, i am starting to here since most of the people i talk to are now using this instead.

they were disabled because of this" Around 200 people purchased the phones via Project Fi and shipped them directly to a reseller in sales tax-free state New Hampshire, according to bargain-hunting site Dan's Deals. The phones were then resold to others, and the small profit split with the buyers."

source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/17/google-blocks-pixel-phone-resellers/

so yeah, it is expected to be disabled. you violated the t&s. You knowingly violate sales tax laws and expect to not get punished. Go cry and throw a hissy fit with someone who cares.

congrats!. I just had my first on 6/1 and went back to work after 7 business days off. It has been a very long 2 weeks thus far but quite rewarding. There is nothing like coming home from a crappy day at work and see them smile or just holding them. It just makes everything better.

@Minion-Queen

@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:

Something to remember: we are an IT firm. We have much higher standards than a business hiring an IT person. I talk to other managers etc. from other IT firms... we all ask this question.

IF you aren't playing with technology and constantly learning how to use both new tech and things you haven't used before, (old or new) then you won't be whole lot of use for a company like NTG, that has clients with 100,000 different environments that run everything under the sun.

So at NTG, if you don't have a home lab and aren't learning outside of work then you won't be hired?

I have interviewed at msp's, large and small companies over the past 10 years and have yet to be asked if I have a home lab or not. I don't know if this is a relatively new line of questioning to whittle down candidates or not but it doesn't seem fair. You cannot know everything out there, you get the knowledge by being exposed to it on the job.

Also it takes money to stay on top of new tech. I have a 8 year old tower, 5 year old laptop and a 5 year old android tablet at home. I don't have the means to go out and buy all of the gear necessary to setup a home lab and nor do I want to. Sure you could set it up for under $800, however, that is a mortgage, that is car payments, that is a new stove. For those that make under $50k a year have other things to pay for, so why should that disqualify me from working at your company?

This is because Frontier borked the transition from the switchover. They underestimated the complexity and blew the timeline. At first frontier said it would only be a few hours for the outage when it came time to switch. But it literally took months for some people to get reconnected after the buyout.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/04/frontier-needs-until-mid-april-to-fix-verizon-fios-changeover-problems/

http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/05/frontier-outages-persist-35-days-after-switch-from-verizon/

@Minion-Queen I can portray passion for my job, because I am passionate about it. If I were being hired at ntg I would show my on the job accomplishments, I would show how I constantly strive to better than I was the day before, through gaining knowledge on the job. Yes my learning of IT stops after I am done for the day, why? Because I value my family time. I value the time with my 2 month old son (time which if spent working on my home lab I wouldn't get back). I value the time spent away from a computer because it keeps me grounded Now this does not mean that if I get a call from an executive who needs my help, that I wouldn't answer and help them. This means that I value the work/life balance. I work to live, I don't live to work.

Passion can be shown in many different ways, as can dedication. I am very dedicated and will put in time when needed and or asked to. For me however I don't see having a home lab as not being passionate, it just means that my time is spent in other ways.

I feel it is very important to not be married to work. You need that separation to keep you grounded (at least I do).

The question that should be asked is does the dedication to the IT industry mean you should sacrifice your hobbies?

I guess at the end of the day my accomplishments should speak for themselves. If you don't find me qualified than so be it, but to have a qualifier of well this person has a home lab and this person doesn't, to me is crap. A job shouldn't ever be based on what someone choses to do with their time outside of the office. Maybe I am an oddball that likes to get away from all things tech, but that is me. And obviously I wouldn't fit in at ntg because of this.

does weird al count at a county fair? lol
edit: i was 15 at the time

first post here on mango, let's see how this goes, here is a pic of my dog, her name is ellie:

Here is my other dog, her name is Nora:

I think you basing your decision on hiring someone on whether they have a home lab or not is complete and udder crap. For example, I do have a media "sever" but that is it. I chose to not spend my money (whether it be on a home server or the electricity to power said home server) on things I have access to at work. My time out the office is my time, spent with family, doing things I enjoy. Not having my head buried in technology (I do that enough at work).

Scott you are different than most since you have come out and said that you cannot disconnect from technology (even when you are on vacation). Those like myself like to leave technology at work. When I get home, I usually (if I can) leave my cell phone on the opposite end of my house and spend time outside. When I go on the weekend camping trips, my phone stays in my tent. We as a society have become so dependent on technology to run our daily lives, we lose sight with the fact that the things we did as children, (hanging out with friends, playing at the park and not coming home until dinner...etc.) we no longer do. Most adults have their heads on a permanent 25 degree downward angle with a phone/tablet glued to their hands.

Yes IT is a hobby/passion but that does not mean IT needs to be your life. I think you discounting someone based on if they have a home server or not is total bs.

what about the cars that have wipers with the fluid detector sensor on the windshield to automatically activate the wipers? On newer vw's, and nissans this is pretty well standard. They have a sensor that mounts to the windshield on the inside and somehow detects fluid being on the windshield, when it detects fluid, it signals the wipers to activate, therefore giving the hackers a way to control them.

interesting to see if this is true or not. Knowing that it's a snowden release i bet there is some validity to this. Cisco has stated that they have never cooperated with the government to weaken products.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/16/nsa-bugged-cisco-routers/

@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:

So some things that I think are important, some are questions, others are points...

• If you don't have a lab at home, how do you cover that same educational ground in other ways? I understand that some people think that needing a lab is unnecessary, and I'll bite: what's the alternative that would show the same dedicated to learning on personal time and without needing outside resources?
• Given that the reasons that labs are seen as important are 1) a dedication to learning on your own 2) ability to learn without needing to be taught only by others and 3) passion because mostly we look for passion more than experience.... what would be alternative or better ways to gauge these factors?
• Given that practically unlimited candidates do have home labs, what differentiators do you feel should cause someone without a home lab to be considered above them (because without that, it's just another term for ruling out those without.)

1. Why do we need to show dedication outside of the office? What impact does that have to the job at hand?
2. I am passionate about my job and how I do my job, just because I do not show that same passion for IT outside of my job, does that make me any less qualified for the job?
3. My experience for the job duties outlined in the description should be enough. My time outside of work is my time and shouldn't come into play when comparing candidates. If I did, I wouldn't want to work for that company anyways.

Personally I see it as, if someone likes to disconnect the less likely they are to be burned out due to stress.

edited #3 comments

@Dashrender said in Teamviewer hacked:

@david.wiese said in Teamviewer hacked:

I have had my work Surface Pro 3 taken over Twice while teamviewer was running. Changed all Passwords, enabled 2FA and it still happened again. Contacted Teamviewer Support and what did they say? They said it must have been my fault and their software had no security holes. My Co-workers computer was also taken over, however he didn't have 2FA enabled. Nothing was compromised on our systems but we are now in the search for a new provider. Teamviewer can no longer be trusted! Their support is crap. They play, let's blame the users and not actually look at our software.

edit: I should add that I had a 18 character password with letters, numbers, caps as well as 2FA enabled plus the normal work security settings. Teamviewer was the hole, not our system.

How do you know it was team viewer the second time? The hackers could have installed some other software that gave them control.

I wiped my machine and started from scratch.

@Minion-Queen

@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:

Our hours can also be 24/7 so while it might seem unfair it is the life. While I have no issue with someone who wants to disconnect and just not be available. We could never hire someone who does that, our clients need us during outages etc. when they need us. We have had times where we are all hands on deck and work in 24 hour shifts for days and then all crash and take vacation days.

IT is what IT is

Don't get me wrong, if that is apart of the job description where you need to be reachable at anytime that is fine. That is IT in a nutshell. I am not arguing that. I am arguing the point of the validity of hiring someone based on the premise of a home lab or not.

@Minion-Queen

@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:

Well also the argument comes in that why should I pay someone to work on a client's environment if you don't at least have some idea. I can't charge a client for a staff member to learn. Where do you fit your learning time in, if when you are at work you are..working?

There is always a little piece as an IT person that GOOGLE comes to the rescue but it can't give you the wisdom to know how to apply what you are seeing. Wisdom comes with doing.

I agree with this as well, but that comes with experience, both on the job and to a small extent self taught. As every IT person knows, every environment is different and you cannot quite possibly be exposed to everything. So inherently there is going to be quite a bit of on the job learning that comes with it. My point is, I don't have time or money to do a home lab setup, but why should that disqualify me from working for you? If I can demonstrate the knowledge, and if I hit a wall I can resolve it (it might take me a little more time, but still get it resolved) isn't that doing the job?

That is why you have specialists, windows, Linux, mainframe etc....

@JaredBusch really i find it to be that people pick sides and once that side is chosen they stay since they are heavily invested in the OS in terms of learning and sheer cost of apps.

@Katie I love my droid (for the most part) the build quality is excellent. The issues only come into play (lose of bluetooth and speakerphone) after i dropped the phone a few dozen times. The sound quality is superior (imo) to that of samsung. My wife had the original Galaxy S and when i was talking to her on the phone it sounded like she was in a tin can. As far as the OS is concerned, once Moto decided to move away from the Moto Blur that is when things started to improve. The moto blur look was very buggy and my phone constantly froze, but now it only freezes every once in awhile and i blame verizon for that. Their crapware on the phone is horrible and quite intrusive.

@scottalanmiller I am in the middle of that right now, HR says i don't do enough to be considered a network admin, but my boss does. Therefore i am still a pc tech while working on exchange online, avaya ip office system for 5 offsite locations and many other things. HR should not be allowed to decided what job descriptions are.

@Bill-Kindle i have been at my company for 2.5 years, we are a metal fab shop and I have had 3 hard drives go out in time i have been here. For several drives to "die" in the same week is very suspicious.