New programming languages props up the publishing industry by producing dead-tree door-stoppers that detail the new programming language. I stopped buying dead-tree door-stoppers years ago, cleared off the bookshelves and get the ebook version.
The government contractor I'm working for requires CAC to encrypt email and a separate eToken (USB dongle) to access network resources. Despite using these two devices, I still have to remember a half-dozen different passwords to do my job.
My policy lately is to have the user login with *their* credentials without me resetting them, and then I'll remote in and do any additional setup that must be done.
That works, if the user is around. Most times they aren't. Or sometimes they're uncooperative ("I just changed my password 89 days ago!"). If I don't have time to bark up the org chart because of a dead line, I'll do what I need to do. All the users are forewarned that this might happen via emails, fliers at their desks and verbal communications.
So if the user writes their password on a sticky on their laptop and you see it they just they fire YOU?;-
I'm a contractor. So everyone suspects I'm going to roll up to the back door with a delivery truck and steal all the computers. Never mind that regular employees can do the same thing -- and sometimes do steal things -- because physical security is weak. Contractors are usually the first to get fired if anything goes wrong. Most of the time it's reminding users what the password policy is and ripping the paper with the password to shreds.
Welcome to IT !:)
I've only been doing IT for 15+ years now. I did numerous password resets while replacing 3,000 PCs a few years ago. Only a few users ever got mad and management backed up my actions.
When setting up a new computer for you they'll ask for your username/password so they can log in and setup your profile, so they are well aware that people do that.
Asking a user for their password is against corporate policy at all the Fortune 500 companies that I worked for in Silicon Valley. The correct procedure is to inform the user that their password will get reset to a temporary password (i.e., Password123), and, after setting up their new system, check on the box on the AD account for the user to change their password when logging in. Under no circumstances should an I.T. technician know a user's passwords. That's ground for immediate termination.
Based on my file server usage, HDDs last about five years. Most have some kind of a mechanical problem. I replace all the drives every five years. Since SSDs have no mechanical parts, and become cheaper than HDDs, they should last at least ten years.
A $10,000+ loan for paying taxes is too small for a bank? I recently got a $2,500 @ 8.99% loan from my credit union to pay the rent as my new job paid semi-monthly (every 15 days) and it took two months to resync my finances.
I had three Commodore 64's for ten years (1984-1994) from middle school through college. Unlike the always breaking joysticks I had for the Atari 2600, I had a single third-party joystick with the red button on top for the entire ten years. Mid-1990's was when Pentium PCs became more affordable and widespread. I switched to keyboard and mouse on the PC to play Doom.
When the Hollywood and video game convergence was popular prior to the dot com bust, Accolade/Infogrames/Atari (same company, different owners, multiple personality disorder) made their video games available on ALL platforms (Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube/GameBoy Advance, PC, and Sony PlayStation 2). As a lead video game tester, I told management that the PS2 ports to the GameCube weren't going to fly with Nintendo. They didn't believe me until Nintendo pushed back and even demanded the cancellation of some titles. Most of these titles were great on one or two platforms, but bombed on the other platforms.
The only real reason to celebrate the Playstation is that it dramatically increased the average age of gamers, which is definitely a positive thing.
All those 10-year-olds in the 1990's who got a Playstation for Christmas are now playing video games in their 30's. Yeah, whatever. I got an Atari 2600 in the 1980's and I'm still playing video games in my 40's. We played our video games with ONE JOYSTICK and ONE RED BUTTON!
They didn't "voluntary" pay their taxes. They refused to pay their taxes. A huge difference. After being convicted in a cour of law for not paying the taxes they owe, and refusing to surrender to authorities, they got besieged by government agents. Idiots.
I'd love to see what would happen were withholding eliminated. Make every tax explicitly payable by the individual. No "hidden" taxation. You get your money, then you have to give a huge chunk of it to the government.
This does happen. When I worked for the community college bookstore, my monthly paychecks was issued by the county government. No federal, state, county or local taxes were withheld. I got every dollar I earned. As a college student, my tax liability was next to nothing. The full-time staff had to set aside money during the year or take out a loan to pay their taxes. Every April was a bitch-and-moan festival. Been there, done that.
Wealth production comes from owning assets with postive cash flow (i.e., dividend paying stocks and/or rental real estate) or appreciate in value (i.e., stocks and/or real estate). Cash sitting in a bank account that earns less interest than the rate of inflation doesn't generate more wealth by itself.
It was a 5 year old HP running Vista, and I have never seen a computer so fucked in my entire life. There were viruses in her viruses. Toolbars, toolbars everywhere! I told her it was a lost cause and we needed to reinstall.
My father's solution for this was buying a new Dell box every other year for $500 USD or less. Those "old" boxes became my FreeNAS file server over the years. I kept telling him to stay away from the naughty bits, but of course he never does.
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New programming languages props up the publishing industry by producing dead-tree door-stoppers that detail the new programming language. I stopped buying dead-tree door-stoppers years ago, cleared off the bookshelves and get the ebook version.
The government contractor I'm working for requires CAC to encrypt email and a separate eToken (USB dongle) to access network resources. Despite using these two devices, I still have to remember a half-dozen different passwords to do my job.
How many is that? 0? 3?
There were 22 Fortune 500 companies in Silicon Valley in 2013. I worked at four of them.
I previously worked at eBay/PayPal, Fujitsu, Google, Intuit and Sony. Your Fortune 1 company -- Wal-Mart? -- doesn't have a good security policy.
My policy lately is to have the user login with *their* credentials without me resetting them, and then I'll remote in and do any additional setup that must be done.
That works, if the user is around. Most times they aren't. Or sometimes they're uncooperative ("I just changed my password 89 days ago!"). If I don't have time to bark up the org chart because of a dead line, I'll do what I need to do. All the users are forewarned that this might happen via emails, fliers at their desks and verbal communications.
So if the user writes their password on a sticky on their laptop and you see it they just they fire YOU? ;-
I'm a contractor. So everyone suspects I'm going to roll up to the back door with a delivery truck and steal all the computers. Never mind that regular employees can do the same thing -- and sometimes do steal things -- because physical security is weak. Contractors are usually the first to get fired if anything goes wrong. Most of the time it's reminding users what the password policy is and ripping the paper with the password to shreds.
Welcome to IT ! :)
I've only been doing IT for 15+ years now. I did numerous password resets while replacing 3,000 PCs a few years ago. Only a few users ever got mad and management backed up my actions.
When setting up a new computer for you they'll ask for your username/password so they can log in and setup your profile, so they are well aware that people do that.
Asking a user for their password is against corporate policy at all the Fortune 500 companies that I worked for in Silicon Valley. The correct procedure is to inform the user that their password will get reset to a temporary password (i.e., Password123), and, after setting up their new system, check on the box on the AD account for the user to change their password when logging in. Under no circumstances should an I.T. technician know a user's passwords. That's ground for immediate termination.
Based on my file server usage, HDDs last about five years. Most have some kind of a mechanical problem. I replace all the drives every five years. Since SSDs have no mechanical parts, and become cheaper than HDDs, they should last at least ten years.
A $10,000+ loan for paying taxes is too small for a bank? I recently got a $2,500 @ 8.99% loan from my credit union to pay the rent as my new job paid semi-monthly (every 15 days) and it took two months to resync my finances.
I had three Commodore 64's for ten years (1984-1994) from middle school through college. Unlike the always breaking joysticks I had for the Atari 2600, I had a single third-party joystick with the red button on top for the entire ten years. Mid-1990's was when Pentium PCs became more affordable and widespread. I switched to keyboard and mouse on the PC to play Doom.
The full-time staffers didn't bitch about the interest rates on their bank loans. Back in the early 1990's, it was probably three percent.
Bitcoins. Not a penny less.
You're not going to accumulate wealth with cash sitting in the bank.
When the Hollywood and video game convergence was popular prior to the dot com bust, Accolade/Infogrames/Atari (same company, different owners, multiple personality disorder) made their video games available on ALL platforms (Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube/GameBoy Advance, PC, and Sony PlayStation 2). As a lead video game tester, I told management that the PS2 ports to the GameCube weren't going to fly with Nintendo. They didn't believe me until Nintendo pushed back and even demanded the cancellation of some titles. Most of these titles were great on one or two platforms, but bombed on the other platforms.
Companies thought they could put out anything that was vaguely a game, regardless of quality and fun level, and people would buy it.
Having worked in the video game industry for six years, nothing has changed.
The only real reason to celebrate the Playstation is that it dramatically increased the average age of gamers, which is definitely a positive thing.
All those 10-year-olds in the 1990's who got a Playstation for Christmas are now playing video games in their 30's. Yeah, whatever. I got an Atari 2600 in the 1980's and I'm still playing video games in my 40's. We played our video games with ONE JOYSTICK and ONE RED BUTTON!
They didn't "voluntary" pay their taxes. They refused to pay their taxes. A huge difference. After being convicted in a cour of law for not paying the taxes they owe, and refusing to surrender to authorities, they got besieged by government agents. Idiots.
I'd love to see what would happen were withholding eliminated. Make every tax explicitly payable by the individual. No "hidden" taxation. You get your money, then you have to give a huge chunk of it to the government.
This does happen. When I worked for the community college bookstore, my monthly paychecks was issued by the county government. No federal, state, county or local taxes were withheld. I got every dollar I earned. As a college student, my tax liability was next to nothing. The full-time staff had to set aside money during the year or take out a loan to pay their taxes. Every April was a bitch-and-moan festival. Been there, done that.
My uncle ran a landscaping business for 30 years under the table without ever paying any taxes on the cash he made. Of course, he came from Mexico.
Wealth production comes from owning assets with postive cash flow (i.e., dividend paying stocks and/or rental real estate) or appreciate in value (i.e., stocks and/or real estate). Cash sitting in a bank account that earns less interest than the rate of inflation doesn't generate more wealth by itself.
If you have a job and filled out a W2, then you're paying your taxes voluntarily.
When did 238 years ago became "ancient" in regards to time? Anything past 2,000 years is ancient, 228 years is more recent.
Unless Wall Street decides otherwise. Amazon wouldn't be the first tech stock to collapse from a lack of profits.
It was a 5 year old HP running Vista, and I have never seen a computer so fucked in my entire life. There were viruses in her viruses. Toolbars, toolbars everywhere! I told her it was a lost cause and we needed to reinstall.
My father's solution for this was buying a new Dell box every other year for $500 USD or less. Those "old" boxes became my FreeNAS file server over the years. I kept telling him to stay away from the naughty bits, but of course he never does.
Let's call it... drumroll, please... Cinnamon Mint!
When Amazon stops growing, investors will demand profits and find none.