Random Thoughts - Part Deux [NO POLITICS]

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Will?

Am I there ......??

Where is there..??

When did I arrive there .. ??




humfrz

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by cjd

Exercising the lungs is key to long life. They say my grandpa found an extra ten years because he was in a harmonica band. The toll of WWII and years of smoking still had him on oxygen toward the end, but the insurance didn't even want to cover that because... he'd live too long?! Maybe this is why men die before their wives... who gets more lung exercise? In the stereotypical relationship, at any rate, the wind typically only blows in one direction.

Also, we like it when you bring back the memories these little stints dig up. I'm sure my grandpa had them, but never shared. Closest we got to a sense of things was when my sister was telling a story of an ex that had fleeced her (credit card company's poor security at fault, but she got left with the bill to the tune of $26k...) and he got up and had the phone in hand, and my grandma freaked out and convinced him to... not call someone... and return to the table, and another solid game of hand-and-foot. No idea who he was going to call, but... he was first gen American of Italian descent. So my imagination goes a little boggled crazy.

Carry on, after your nap.

Maybe you'll have a tale of fabric blowing in the breeze to your advantage next time 'round.

C

Good life hint about the deep breathing ......

Maybe your grandfather was going to "call in a favor" ......


humfrz

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by soulreapersteve

At the old job, we never interacted with end users, they were local IT's problem.

New place, we do everything from end user to back end system support... remotely. First time talking with an actual end user today. Monitoring software allows us to watch them as they do whatever they do for their company.

Now I didn't see any NSFW internet browsing going on (not yet) but wonder if they know we can see all...

Long ago when my old job used Microsoft SMS (basically the predecessor of SCCM) to manage all of our workstations, we could even spy on the users' desktop in real-time as they were working. And we knew NOC could spy on the workstation webcams lol! Most users were oblivious to the fact.

My old job was 100% remote all I had was a ThinkPad, a Crackberry and a RSA token so I can work anywhere that has Internet. Some people I've interacted with daily for many years (mostly field techs) I've never seen their faces in real life whether local or across the country.

[Andrew025]

Originally Posted by soulreapersteve

At the old job, we never interacted with end users, they were local IT's problem.

New place, we do everything from end user to back end system support... remotely. First time talking with an actual end user today. Monitoring software allows us to watch them as they do whatever they do for their company.

Now I didn't see any NSFW internet browsing going on (not yet) but wonder if they know we can see all...

I doubt they know.
Most people are blissfully ignorant when it comes to this stuff.
Some of the stuff my coworker does on his work phone is ridiculous.

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by Andrew025

I doubt they know.
Most people are blissfully ignorant when it comes to this stuff.
Some of the stuff my coworker does on his work phone is ridiculous.

But some of these end users are actually quite knowledgeable.

One time an user (stock broker) told me how to circumvent the IT Policy for our work Crackberry while still on BES 5 and 7 by surfing the web with Opera instead of the stock browser.

[Teseo]

Originally Posted by soulreapersteve

At the old job, we never interacted with end users, they were local IT's problem.

New place, we do everything from end user to back end system support... remotely. First time talking with an actual end user today. Monitoring software allows us to watch them as they do whatever they do for their company.

Now I didn't see any NSFW internet browsing going on (not yet) but wonder if they know we can see all...

If NSFW take a screenshot and report back to us, will give us material for random thoughts.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by soulreapersteve

Now I didn't see any NSFW internet browsing going on (not yet) but wonder if they know we can see all...

The teams that have access to these kind of records have worked for me my last two companies. Honestly, we just have better things to do than to police this, unless it causes issues or a request is put in to investigate it. We consider this a management, not a technology, issue. Yes we block sites and even entire countries, but we don't monitor utilization or spy on people. Who's got time for that! Now our policies all say we can, and we will if there is a real business need, but that is pretty rare.

It reminds me of phone utilization when I first started my career. In big companies long distance and such was locked down and phones were monitored for personal usage. That eventually ended as the price of the calls became cheaper than the cost of monitoring massive phone bills.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

The teams that have access to these kind of records have worked for me my last two companies. Honestly, we just have better things to do than to police this, unless it causes issues or a request is put in to investigate it. We consider this a management, not a technology, issue. Yes we block sites and even entire countries, but we don't monitor utilization or spy on people. Who's got time for that! Now our policies all say we can, and we will if there is a real business need, but that is pretty rare.

It reminds me of phone utilization when I first started my career. In big companies long distance and such was locked down and phones were monitored for personal usage. That eventually ended as the price of the calls became cheaper than the cost of monitoring massive phone bills.

One of my responsibilities is the management end of internet use (ironic isn't it?). Even from that perspective there isn't time to worry about what people are doing online. A few years back when we paid for the amount of time it was used it made sense but now it is dirt cheap and costs more to monitor than it is worth. We do have several functions that are blocked for most people (entertainment, social media, Youtube, etc) but some have figured out how to get around that. As long as I don't receive a complaint or a request for usage from HR I really don't care what people are doing.

[ScoobsMcGee]

Originally Posted by soulreapersteve

At the old job, we never interacted with end users, they were local IT's problem.

New place, we do everything from end user to back end system support... remotely. First time talking with an actual end user today. Monitoring software allows us to watch them as they do whatever they do for their company.

Now I didn't see any NSFW internet browsing going on (not yet) but wonder if they know we can see all...

I used to have a lot of fun with this back in an IT job that was a mostly terminal environment. You'd find a hung process on a session and have some fun with it.

"My screen is locked up, I can't do anything."
"Okay, is anyone around?"
"What? Ummm, no why?"
"Alright, when I tell you to, hit the winterm."
"What?"
"Yeah, they just get stuck sometimes and need a good slap."
"Really?"
"I mean if nothing else, it'll make you feel a bit better?"
"Okay" *thud sound*
*terminate hung process*
"That worked?!?"
"Yup. It may not every time though, so don't hesitate to call again."
"Thanks!"

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by ScoobsMcGee

I used to have a lot of fun with this back in an IT job that was a mostly terminal environment. You'd find a hung process on a session and have some fun with it.

"My screen is locked up, I can't do anything."
"Okay, is anyone around?"
"What? Ummm, no why?"
"Alright, when I tell you to, hit the winterm."
"What?"
"Yeah, they just get stuck sometimes and need a good slap."
"Really?"
"I mean if nothing else, it'll make you feel a bit better?"
"Okay" *thud sound*
*terminate hung process*
"That worked?!?"
"Yup. It may not every time though, so don't hesitate to call again."
"Thanks!"

LOL


So just how many here even remember the good old terminal days? Was a whole different world of computer use.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by ScoobsMcGee

"Yeah, they just get stuck sometimes and need a good slap."

My first technology job was as a "Systems Engineer" that was essentially technical sales support for Anderson-Jacobson (the inventors of the acoustic coupler and a big datacomm company at one point).

They OEMed and rebranded the Hyperion computer (pictured below) built by a Canadian firm (Ottawa I believe) and was a direct competitor with Compaq, having beaten Compaq to market by a couple of months. It was also smaller and lighter than the Compaq. (Lighter being a relative term, it still weighed 18 pounds but was 10 lbs lighter than the original Compaq). The Hyperion cost almost twice as much though, which is why Compaq won out.

Anyway, one of the compatibility tests at the time was would it run Lotus 1,2,3 and Microsoft Flight Simulator. The Hyperion ran flight simulator fine, but had an issue with the IBM version of Lotus because of the on diskette copy protection, so we sold our own "version" version of 123.

That did not satisfy a lot of folks though as they wanted to know it could run the "original" IBM version of 123.


Accidentally, I discovered if you waited until it started making the "grinding" sound as it tried to read the protected diskette and you tapped just right above the top diskette it would get past the copy protection. No idea why it worked but it did. So, in future demos I discretely performed this if someone pulled the disks out.

After we sold them I did take support calls where I let go of the "secret".

[go_a_way1]

Hi

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by go_a_way1

Hi

Welcome back to the barren wasteland that once was Random

[NickD]

sup