We use the in house developers to write a proper helpdesk system with proper asset tracking.
Supports multiple sites, users, mapping of physical locations, it now even updates our DNS and will soon be updating our firewall configurations.
For anything beyond that, company wiki sometimes linking to files on the fileshare.
/plug:
Still looking for techs in Ottawa, need Good MS, some linux and experience on the phone. Talk to me and if your qulified, I will get you a job here - I have gotten 3 others already.
I don't have more then a half dozen courses of post secondary education( I know the stuff, or can learn it, just not in the normal post secondary environments - and found that I don't need to).
I also have over 6 years of experience, working my way up the chain of tech support. I'm now a server admin and general troubleshooter for an organization that supports over 3000 desktops, 150 servers from Vancouver to Angola, with 9 techs.
I didn't get the job for my education, I got it for my experience. The 4 years that I put in while most people were in college have earned me a larger pay increase on average then the techs I know(both in and out of my organization) have earned from 4 years in college.
I know someone is going to say, it will matter in the future - years down the road they will make more then me. But 6 years ago, I was told that after 4 years I would be making less. Don't buy it just because they say so.
Besides, the work is rewarding and I enjoy it, so I don't really care at this point.
I had been looking for a new job at my last employer for about 6 months before I left(every employee knew, except the owner, and it was because of his personality that I wanted to leave).
One of the huge tech firms in Ottawa was having a career fair(Cognos) and I decided to wander over to see if they needed any techs. While waiting in line I got interviewed by the local paper(the Citizen) and my quote was included in the article along with my name. Of course this gets back to my boss about 2 weeks later, via one of his clients who recognized my name(never found out who, don't really care).
Boss could not do anything, it was on my time(weekend) and my personal business. It pissed him off, but if he did _anything_ it would have put him in a very bad situation. Firing me would have been without cause, I was already in the lowest job in the company, (with coresponding pay) and I basically could not be touched for it.
As in this case, maybe your boss should be wondering why so many of their employees are looking to get out.
Now, I have a new job, and a 25% increase in pay. I really love the part where I hit my yearly review at my old job and they gave me 0% pay raise! When I left that company they had to hire three people to replace me.
This is exactly what I get paid to do. We drop in a linux box for a router, and set you up with a vpn from that to out network. We SSH to linux systems, RDP to servers and VNC to desktops all from our office. If it breaks too badly, we head onsite.
We run multiple companies, from 2 people to over 200 people with no problems and minimal cost - if you're in Ottawa, I can help. Otherwise, just look up the smaller IT outsourcing firms. They are always willing to let you keep some control of things. But we also will think your an idiot if you interfere with us keeping things running for you by breaking it.(have had one or two who do that constantly)
The confidentiality is part of the contract, and is about as good as any other outsourced finance or the like.
Just do the standard checking around before choosing someone, there are a lot of pathetic fakes out there too, and I hate cleaning up after one of them has messed up a network.
I'd be willing to pay money to the BBC for access to this and othe r content.
Heck, I'd be willing to pay a TV tax of some reasonable pittance just to replace our CBC up here with a much expanded and comercial reduced BBC Canada.
It's not like that's where CBC is getting it's news from anyway due to the strike...
Used my gmail address for username, same pw. On the second Tab I checked the first 3 boxes and set the server to talk.google.com with port auto set to 5223.
I had an error with qca tls on connection, but an apt-get install qca-tls later I was online.
Now if only all my contacts would get over to google messenger we would be set...
That would be my hope from a project such as this. I have an AMD64 based laptop, and linux on that, but flash is not an option for firefox.
I used to just connect to my main system, but it is being replaced with a dual AMD64 system soon too, so I need a working library once in a while.
Most of the time a barely notice, I don't even install flash for firefox on windows because the random sites that need it I can usually just pop open IE for a moment to take a look, get past the flash and copy the URL back to firefox.
I cannot stand the burned out pixels, and don't say that "new" lcd's don't burn out. My laptop is only 6 months old and has about 4 on the screen - they drive me nuts, but are "within manufacturer specs".
That and the resolution, with a little fiddling, linux works amazing at the highest resolution my 21" monitor will go(windows sucks) but LCD don't come near that resolution for the same bucks. I was just quoted a 21" flat screen CRT to replace my lightning killed one, and it's only $480CDN, I could get a mid range, 17" LCD for that money, but not the resolution...
CRT's will die when high res LCDs with insanely low pixel failure rates and low cost hit the market. While this sounds insane now, it will happen, just like an LCD on every desktop sounded insane a few years ago.
Yup, and this is covered by my house insurance, I live in a high lightning area - we don't think that it actually hit the house or the lines, but it was a nearby hit, and a lot of electronics in the area are blown out. Not just my system - but anything sensitive.
I have to replace my system - lightning strike yesterday took out all the neighbourhood systems. My system quote for replacing with same or near same hardware is just over $5G.
I need to get a new system, I was thinking dual CPU again(old was dual 2800+) but a dual core system could be just the thing. Anyone seen these in the channel yet?
As the article about mice earlier stated, these are the peripherals that you interact with the most. You want the best.
I paid over $250 for my keyboard/mouse combo, and feel it was worth every penny. ( Logitech diNovo bluetooth/ultrathin )
We all use our systems everyday, and if we don't use the best interfaces, then problems will develop. People are willing to spend hundreds on flat panel displays for their computer, and you use kb/mouse just as much.
Course, I use CRT's exclusivly, both price and quality cannot be beat(21" Trinitron + 2 X 17").
Anyway, that's just my opinion, but I think it's valid in this forum...
I have one of those sharp PC-1211 or similar model devices sitting at home. Being programmable in Basic meant that I could mess with it during math class to do my matrix transforms for me...
And simple graphics capabilities let me make games too.
Sounds like my clean up plan here, only I add Microsoft Anti-Spyware and Usually 2 or 3 other anti-virus utils too.
Scan with one, clean, scan with another, clean more... always on the bad systems it is needed for both virus and spywares.
Random anecdote... I got a call from a sales person at Panda AV, trying to get a feel for what we sell. They asked if I had ever tried their software. Truthfully, yes, I ran a scan on a system and cleaned a tonne of stuff of it, then ran trend and cleaned more. I told the person this. They assumed there was not sales opporitunity going to happen here. They thing they didn't ask: did I try it the other way? Trend first then Panda, and yes I have, trend cleaned a tonne, and Panda found more.
No product if perfect, on these bad systems, we need it all.
A hint that might help, as I don't know everything...
Google for "floppy drive robots" or similar ideas.
Base idea: build a robot using mostly or only the parts from a 3 1/2" floppy drive... If you have computers to spare, then be liberal and allow other parts and see what they come up with...
I sense automation, ease of use and scriptability in this possible solution... I must investigate further... Now where did I put that copy of Python?
Simple answer for me, might be scripting something myself. I already use have webdav setup for my mozilla calendar client to save online, so saving another xml file to webdav would be nothing, making that file formatted as an rss feed would allow me to set it up as a mozilla/firefox(maybe ie...) bookmark that auto updates. Then I just need some glue that updates the file from my local profiles.... hmmm... this could work.
Now I just need some free time to code... maybe I could get the boss to fire me without cause and get a few months of EI...
What I want, and have not looked for yet, is something that keeps my bookmarks the same between all my browsers on all my os, on all my systems.
Something that plugs into firefox/mozilla, modifies the links for ie and messes with opera. All of this stored on my server using webdav would be best, but someone else's system is fine for me.
I just want to bookmark a site at work, so I can waste time at home browsing it, and leave work time for work.
I currently just copy the cool urls to a wiki I installed for testing a while back and never took down... hundreds of links in there, most useless really...
Yup, I can see my bosses truck parked out front of the office(in the spot that he keeps telling everyone not to park in to let customers park there).
The parliment building and 24 Sussex(Prime Ministers residence) are all fully visible at full resolution.
I'm out of town, and don't get the full res, but I can clearly see the roads and the quarry just across the field looks larger then I thought it was...
Slashdot Mirror
For anything beyond that, company wiki sometimes linking to files on the fileshare.
JC
I don't have more then a half dozen courses of post secondary education( I know the stuff, or can learn it, just not in the normal post secondary environments - and found that I don't need to).
I also have over 6 years of experience, working my way up the chain of tech support. I'm now a server admin and general troubleshooter for an organization that supports over 3000 desktops, 150 servers from Vancouver to Angola, with 9 techs.
I didn't get the job for my education, I got it for my experience. The 4 years that I put in while most people were in college have earned me a larger pay increase on average then the techs I know(both in and out of my organization) have earned from 4 years in college.
I know someone is going to say, it will matter in the future - years down the road they will make more then me. But 6 years ago, I was told that after 4 years I would be making less. Don't buy it just because they say so.
Besides, the work is rewarding and I enjoy it, so I don't really care at this point.
I had been looking for a new job at my last employer for about 6 months before I left(every employee knew, except the owner, and it was because of his personality that I wanted to leave).
One of the huge tech firms in Ottawa was having a career fair(Cognos) and I decided to wander over to see if they needed any techs. While waiting in line I got interviewed by the local paper(the Citizen) and my quote was included in the article along with my name. Of course this gets back to my boss about 2 weeks later, via one of his clients who recognized my name(never found out who, don't really care).
Boss could not do anything, it was on my time(weekend) and my personal business. It pissed him off, but if he did _anything_ it would have put him in a very bad situation. Firing me would have been without cause, I was already in the lowest job in the company, (with coresponding pay) and I basically could not be touched for it.
As in this case, maybe your boss should be wondering why so many of their employees are looking to get out.
Now, I have a new job, and a 25% increase in pay. I really love the part where I hit my yearly review at my old job and they gave me 0% pay raise! When I left that company they had to hire three people to replace me.
I'll stop ranting now, enjoy!
This is exactly what I get paid to do.
We drop in a linux box for a router, and set you up with a vpn from that to out network. We SSH to linux systems, RDP to servers and VNC to desktops all from our office. If it breaks too badly, we head onsite.
We run multiple companies, from 2 people to over 200 people with no problems and minimal cost - if you're in Ottawa, I can help. Otherwise, just look up the smaller IT outsourcing firms. They are always willing to let you keep some control of things. But we also will think your an idiot if you interfere with us keeping things running for you by breaking it.(have had one or two who do that constantly)
The confidentiality is part of the contract, and is about as good as any other outsourced finance or the like.
Just do the standard checking around before choosing someone, there are a lot of pathetic fakes out there too, and I hate cleaning up after one of them has messed up a network.
Anyway...
Enjoy!
How much is this license?
I'd be willing to pay money to the BBC for access to this and othe r content.
Heck, I'd be willing to pay a TV tax of some reasonable pittance just to replace our CBC up here with a much expanded and comercial reduced BBC Canada.
It's not like that's where CBC is getting it's news from anyway due to the strike...
JC
Used my gmail address for username, same pw.
On the second Tab I checked the first 3 boxes and set the server to talk.google.com with port auto set to 5223.
I had an error with qca tls on connection, but an apt-get install qca-tls later I was online.
Now if only all my contacts would get over to google messenger we would be set...
JCLoony [is at] gmail [you know the rest]
That would be my hope from a project such as this. I have an AMD64 based laptop, and linux on that, but flash is not an option for firefox.
I used to just connect to my main system, but it is being replaced with a dual AMD64 system soon too, so I need a working library once in a while.
Most of the time a barely notice, I don't even install flash for firefox on windows because the random sites that need it I can usually just pop open IE for a moment to take a look, get past the flash and copy the URL back to firefox.
JC
Your probably right, until then I want my CRT's
If you could make a 1/2 inch thick CRT, I would demand that on my laptops...
Oh well.
JC
I hate LCD's!
I cannot stand the burned out pixels, and don't say that "new" lcd's don't burn out. My laptop is only 6 months old and has about 4 on the screen - they drive me nuts, but are "within manufacturer specs".
That and the resolution, with a little fiddling, linux works amazing at the highest resolution my 21" monitor will go(windows sucks) but LCD don't come near that resolution for the same bucks. I was just quoted a 21" flat screen CRT to replace my lightning killed one, and it's only $480CDN, I could get a mid range, 17" LCD for that money, but not the resolution...
CRT's will die when high res LCDs with insanely low pixel failure rates and low cost hit the market. While this sounds insane now, it will happen, just like an LCD on every desktop sounded insane a few years ago.
JC
Yup, and this is covered by my house insurance, I live in a high lightning area - we don't think that it actually hit the house or the lines, but it was a nearby hit, and a lot of electronics in the area are blown out. Not just my system - but anything sensitive.
JC
I have to replace my system - lightning strike yesterday took out all the neighbourhood systems. My system quote for replacing with same or near same hardware is just over $5G.
I need to get a new system, I was thinking dual CPU again(old was dual 2800+) but a dual core system could be just the thing. Anyone seen these in the channel yet?
JC
As the article about mice earlier stated, these are the peripherals that you interact with the most. You want the best.
I paid over $250 for my keyboard/mouse combo, and feel it was worth every penny. ( Logitech diNovo bluetooth/ultrathin )
We all use our systems everyday, and if we don't use the best interfaces, then problems will develop. People are willing to spend hundreds on flat panel displays for their computer, and you use kb/mouse just as much.
Course, I use CRT's exclusivly, both price and quality cannot be beat(21" Trinitron + 2 X 17").
Anyway, that's just my opinion, but I think it's valid in this forum...
JC
I have one of those sharp PC-1211 or similar model devices sitting at home. Being programmable in Basic meant that I could mess with it during math class to do my matrix transforms for me...
And simple graphics capabilities let me make games too.
Fun little device.
There is that... but I don't have a better solution to load up the system in a realistic way.
JC
Your saying that some Americans want to get the word out?
Sorry, couldn't help myself...
Just add a program to the login scripts that runs some tests against the server in the background.
Then when everyone logs in in the morning, it just overloads the thing...
And simulates the load spikes you see. I don't know a program or script that would do this, but I'm sure someone out there does.
JC
Sometimes works, you cannot delete a file that is in use, like a running process. But you can move it.
Move it to the recycle bin, then restart. On startup, the file is not where it should be, so it does not run, and then you can empty the recycle bin.
Worked for me a few times.
Safe mode works too.
Sounds like my clean up plan here, only I add Microsoft Anti-Spyware and Usually 2 or 3 other anti-virus utils too.
Scan with one, clean, scan with another, clean more... always on the bad systems it is needed for both virus and spywares.
Random anecdote... I got a call from a sales person at Panda AV, trying to get a feel for what we sell. They asked if I had ever tried their software. Truthfully, yes, I ran a scan on a system and cleaned a tonne of stuff of it, then ran trend and cleaned more. I told the person this. They assumed there was not sales opporitunity going to happen here. They thing they didn't ask: did I try it the other way? Trend first then Panda, and yes I have, trend cleaned a tonne, and Panda found more.
No product if perfect, on these bad systems, we need it all.
Trend housecall, AVG, Kaspersky online beta, AVG, MS AS, spybot adaware...
And even then, some stuff is still there and has to be pulled of hard.
A hint that might help, as I don't know everything...
Google for "floppy drive robots" or similar ideas.
Base idea: build a robot using mostly or only the parts from a 3 1/2" floppy drive... If you have computers to spare, then be liberal and allow other parts and see what they come up with...
I sense automation, ease of use and scriptability in this possible solution... I must investigate further... Now where did I put that copy of Python?
Simple answer for me, might be scripting something myself. I already use have webdav setup for my mozilla calendar client to save online, so saving another xml file to webdav would be nothing, making that file formatted as an rss feed would allow me to set it up as a mozilla/firefox(maybe ie...) bookmark that auto updates. Then I just need some glue that updates the file from my local profiles.... hmmm... this could work.
Now I just need some free time to code... maybe I could get the boss to fire me without cause and get a few months of EI...
Anyway!
What I want, and have not looked for yet, is something that keeps my bookmarks the same between all my browsers on all my os, on all my systems.
Something that plugs into firefox/mozilla, modifies the links for ie and messes with opera. All of this stored on my server using webdav would be best, but someone else's system is fine for me.
I just want to bookmark a site at work, so I can waste time at home browsing it, and leave work time for work.
I currently just copy the cool urls to a wiki I installed for testing a while back and never took down... hundreds of links in there, most useless really...
Totally aside here... just was reading most of those today and yesterday... damn funny.
"I don't like you, I'll sue!" is way too common.
JC
Sounds perfect for a pasty faced geek like me who avoids sunshine, mainly due to a severe disliking of sunscreen...
Anyway...
Check out Greenland, it's purd'y from up here...
No detail though, and Iceland still has cloud cover(most other areas do not)...
Still cool.
Yup, I can see my bosses truck parked out front of the office(in the spot that he keeps telling everyone not to park in to let customers park there).
The parliment building and 24 Sussex(Prime Ministers residence) are all fully visible at full resolution.
I'm out of town, and don't get the full res, but I can clearly see the roads and the quarry just across the field looks larger then I thought it was...
JC