My wife decided to try out a Pro 2 last year and it just lacked a lot. The Pro 3s have been getting much better reviews and I would say the hardware is certainly much nicer. But like many of you have commented on... The price is still a big negative for me. Sure their intro level 65GB i3 Surface Pro 3 is 799, but that is all you get. That does not even include their crappy keyboard/cover. For the Pro/RT/Pro 2s you had 2 options of keyboards, the Type Cover and Touch Cover. The Touch was the crappy no click keyboard and the type was an actual keyboard. But the prices were just ridiculous. Currently 119.99 for Touch and 129.99 for Type. Thankfully they have removed the Touch option for the Pro 3 but still leave you with a 130 dollar keyboard. They market the Pro 3 as a Macbook Air competitor, mainly boasting about Windows apps, removable keyboard, and touch screen. But here is what you get for a 799 Pro 3:
64GB i3 1.5GHz 4GB of Memory (64GB/128GB models) up to 9 hours battery life (WOW That is great! Oh wait... fine print... ) For Web Browsing:( so basically anything more than that you will be lucky to get 4 hours. Oh yeah no keyboard included in this... but we have a nice pen. oh and Windows 8.1 of course (psst this runs better on a Mac)
Now what do you get with a base model Macbook Air for $899: 128GB storage 1.4GHz i5 4-8GB memory (for either model) They say similar 9 hours of wireless Web, but I've multi-tasked and got some good life out of a single charge. Keyboard included! Yep, you get that with the Air, no extra fee for it. It has enough power to run Windows in a virtual machine or bootcamped. It will only cost me a license for Windows (or not depending on your resources). The Mac touchpad and magic mouse work very good in Windows 8.1 so it is like a touch screen without all the finger prints.
Now if someone gave me a surface, I would certainly use it, but at this time I would not drop the almost $2K to replace my fully functioning Desktop or laptop. I just recently picked up a nice HP Probook 430 and after maxing the the RAM to 16GB it handles all my VMs nicely. My wife now has all my Mac stuff.
MS is on the right track, but they need better price points and marketing strategies, oh and to fricking throw in the keyboard! It is better to compare it to an Air but it is still Apples to Oranges as far as the tech goes. And you can't compare to an iPad either because again they are really not the same type of device. Then again with a nice BT keyboard and case, my wife uses her iPad Air like a laptop and only takes the MBP out when she needs to do something that requires a bit more heavy lifting.
It probably would have saved a lot of tax dollars had they just implemented signs saying there were cameras prior to actually signing the contract to install them. It's the old "if you think you are being watched, you will behave properly" notion. There are areas around my state that say "speed tracked by cameras" and usually I obey the posted limit but there are times I don't and have yet to get a ticket.
If the signs don't stop the problem of speeders, then implement the actual cameras but be prepared to not see a huge revenue increase as once the word is out, people will obey the limits.
Not sure if it has been mentioned, I had a similar problem with my iPad and Wireless Sync being used. Once I disabled that, the system started to behave. On the Apple forums, there were a number of people having the same types of issues. If you always connect directly, then there is no reason to keep the Wireless sync enabled. Though each update to iTunes does seem to add more performance issues. One I am finding is with an agent causing a delay to closing iTunes because it might be used by something else. Haven't dived into that just yet but I plan to.
If it is, then I will be happy to give you some advise. As a number of people have already mentioned, keep it simple. With that keep it so it is easy for you to manage as well as easy for you to get support for. Sure you can save a ton of upfront cost putting some linux based solution in but I am a big fan of "you get what you pay for." So go with a supported solution.
Start with the back end and work your way forward. People knock Microsoft, but Windows SMB is pretty affordable. Just don't skimp on the hardware, get something scalable. Either way having centralized management of users and resources is key! It is much easier to build it now than to have to migrate to it later. I had a client that was running in full workgroup but had a server. The previous consultants never set them up on a domain, hell they didn't even have the OS they paid for installed on the server. So if you have the opportunity to build from the ground up, build it right!
As for the network, if it is not already wired, well you may want to consider running hard Cat 6 cabling. Hire someone to do it since they will do it properly. Also remember it costs the same in labor to run multiple runs to a location as it does a single run. So plan for expansion. Same goes for the network hardware. Do max a single switch with just what you need, make sure you have room to add more connections.
For the storage server, well where is this data stored now? Are we talking GBs of current data or TBs? Also you mentioned Archving, well how often will this archived material be needed? Will it be accessed frequently or maybe once a year? You can always move it to optical disc and store in a secure location. You could also store it on the web as well.
As for moving everything to "THE CLOUD" well sure, you can host your entire server infrastructure there. There are decent companies out there like Rackspace for hosting services. But if you are working with large media files then you may want to keep some things in-house. To back all this up, well you can go with online backup solutions. Check out reviews, but keep in mind that the initial upload could take days to almost weeks depending on your bandwidth and the size of your data. So you may want to look at some form of backup-to-disk and then run your online backup of those files.
But before you begin ordering and what not, work with the staff and figure out what your budget is. That will help you decided what you can build.
If you are not fresh out of school and this isn't your first job, well then I am with the rest of the guys, quit and let them hire someone who can do the job and please go back to Geek Squad!
It certainly isn't a bad idea to test new hires. I currently have a non-profit client that has a large number of service staff that use laptops. A majority of them have absolutely no clue how to use the computers. Most see the application and confirm they know how to use computers. Frankly I believe laptops are reserved for slightly more advanced end users. We were back and forth with this client a couple times a week because their most recent user was completely computer illiterate. She didn't know why her laptop wouldn't stay on.... I checked the docking station and the power cable was not connected.
Many state agencies require prospective admin staff to take an exam before they can apply for a job. These exams cover a number of topics that have to do with the level of job they are going for. I don't see a problem with developing similar standards for non-government jobs. Then again its tougher for a small business with no IT staff to go through this. What I would recommend is to get your parents to hire an outside firm to help them not only with their IT support but with educating their users. They should easily be able to develop a hiring quiz for new hires as well as develop training plans for users.
Locking down the workstations is also not a bad idea. Get regular users out of the local admin groups on the workstations. Make sure AV is being properly updated and even look into installing a small business class firewall that does some content filtering as well as gateway AV. Sonicwalls provide these services and usually at a pretty good rate.
I say take all that iPhone money and invest it back into the network!! As a former Verizon customer now turned AT&T slave because I wanted an iPhone, I am a little sad that I was swayed over such a phone as nice as it is. Granted at my last two homes I had barely 2 bars for Verizon and now have full bars for AT&T. Then again the calls still drop. Go figure. So even if they used accurate facts, I would still say "sure they have coverage but it ain't that reliable!" I have a feeling that after the 2 years I may be swinging back to Verizon.
I say shock therapy. Wear some form of optic like the apache pilots have. If the computer senses that they are looking elsewhere other than their mirrors and in front of them, a small shock in the butt could correct this:D
If you are a large startup and you may require an internal Network Admin. Eventually companies get large enough where they do need an internal IT staff that can take care of day-to-day activities and then use an outside consulting company for projects and even extra hands.
I work for an IT consulting firm that actually specializes as both staff augmentation and full time IT support. Most of our clients are small to medium businesses. Some with as little as 10 employees. They don't have enough for a full time person to work on so they use us once a month. We also have an oncall/helpdesk department to handle things when the primary engineer is not on-site. But we also don't automatically give ourselves remote access without the permission of the client. We have some clients that only remote us in when there is a problem. Others trust us fully to be their full time IT support. It really depends on what your product is. I've signed confidentiality agreements with clients in order for them to allow me to work on their systems.
In this day and age IT is a major part of many businesses. You really can't take it for granted. Also you can't go around being paranoid of every IT person. Of course they are going to have full access to your systems and data, but if they are good they will not jeopardize their reputation by stealing data. You get what you pay for also. Look for the companies who have been doing this for a while. Look at their partnerships (Microsoft Gold Partner etc..) Many vendors require that their partners meet certain criteria so not every consulting company can be a Gold Partner just because they know about the product. They need to have a certain amount of certificates among their engineers.
As far as the remote monitoring, well that is a cost savings to you. It costs much less to have someone remote into the systems to look at it than to have someone travel to your office and look at something that may only take a few minutes to fix.
That was excellent Jiu!!
We used to only get offered comp-time for any off-hour work for our clients but then management realized that they were not getting enough volunteers for off-hour work so they changed the options to comp time or extra pay for doing the work. Gotta love those off-hour remote Exchange defrags!:D
Aside from the hardware, you also have to consider support for the software. Microsoft will limit support on the OS eventually. Windows 95 was EOL a very long time ago.
The best bet would be to plan better. Most manufacturers will not warranty workstations for more than 5 years. Shortly after the system will become End of Life. This is of course if you are going with a brand computer. If you build them, you will need to check the manufacturer warranties on all the parts. So you need to put some IT planning into affect.
If he wants something that will last long, your best bet would be to look into a small business level server. The hardware in an official server is designed to run for long period of times with longer life spans as well. Desktop grade hardware will eventually fail and it certainly will if it is running extended periods of time.
Now on top of all that, you also need to consider support for his business application. Can this database and software be migrated to newer platforms? If not then he may be looking at other problems beside just keeping his hardware running.
Ha! Didn't even know the game was still up and running. Good for them. But yeah I was certainly one who jumped in and attempted to play. I got fed up with the ridiculous lag as well as the system requirements to play it at the time. Since then I've got a better rig. Unfortunately Blizzard just keeps my addicted arse coming back to WoW.
Think there are plenty of us out there that would love for someone to come out with an MMO that makes us feel what we felt with WoW 4 years ago. Since then nothing has done that for me.
If you are good, you can always pick up contract jobs. Right now I have a full time job and no point in leaving at the moment. But if the something ever happened and the company closed or I was laid off I would go for the 6 month contract deals, if anything you can use them to learn some new stuff as well.
As for the Anonymous guy who has a thorn in his side about IT pros calling themselves engineers, well true not everyone one of use could be considered that, but the good ones can. We are given problems every day that we need to "engineer solutions for."
um, I think this was geared towards the corporate infrastructure. I've gone on a lot of technical pre-sale visits and many small businesses that have heavy storage don't back it up. Then they ask about online backups. We still recommend tape or tape libraries.
As what I do at home, for one I do not even have close to a TB of data. But I just backup to disk. having a copy of data store elsewhere is better than nothing. What home users should do is buy a couple inexpensive external drives and do regular backups of their computer HDDs, at least their personal DATA. Get a firebox safe and store the drives in that.
What I recommend back to the corporate/small business owners is to get at least 2 weeks worth of media as well as monthly tapes. Store the monthlies off site. They can spend the money on Iron Mountain or they can keep it in someone's home safe. (I don't recommend the home safe, but whatever works!). The more data you have the larger the the backup solution will be. But then you have to ask yourself how much is this data worth to the company?? Suddenly $20K is not looking to bad.
What the evangelist church DOES notice is the increase in Catholic priests requesting to be part of these "Halo Nights" to better understand them and possible use them for their churches (supposedly).
Such is the nature of most MMORPGs. But WoW by far, does not force you to group with people to play the game. You can solo your way to 70 and never once work with another individual. You can jump in the game and spend an hour doing something without relying on people. I do it regularly. Grouping only helps enhance the experience. There are some great people who play the game and you can end up making some good friends. Hell I even met up with an old friend from High School who plays the game.
Though if you don't like grouping with people, then an MMORPG is probably not the game for you. Quests are repetitive to some degree but they are not all that bad and they are that way to help you gain the XP to go further into the game.
If you want a time sync and a game that really requires you to be in a group most of the time, then try out Final Fantasy XI.
And on one final note, these games aren't for everyone. I like them because A) it costs less than going to the bar every night:D and B) it takes me away from reality for a bit. My wife watches the TV I play WoW and we are happy.
LOL, I spent the time to kill more crabs to get to a lv34 warrior, lv52 SAM, lv15 THF, NIN and a few others. My final ending was waiting for 3 hours for a party only to get invited to one at the tree with the spiders and have a party with no refresh class (rdm or brd) try to pull something we could not take without one of those classes. We die and I deleveled (oh another piece of crap concept!). At that point I said farewell to the game donated things to the Linkshell and sold items that I could not trade to other players.
I recently tried again to go the route of rdm and eventually get bst but I got 4 levels in a few days and got bored.
One way to deal with farmers is make them not needed! WoW has done this by creating daily quests. You get an average of 12g per quest along with faction rep. So basically you are giving players a steady cash flow. With the ability to make enough gold to eventually buy one of the epic flying mounts, it deters most players from buying gold. Granted it may take a year if you do not do them every day, but you know it will happen. Just like granting epic gear through pvp, you need to pvp a certain amount of time in a battleground or arena (arena you have to win) and you are awarded points. You know it will take a certain amount of points to get said piece of gear.
Some may say that this takes some of the challenge out of the game but on the other hand some of these quests are not the easiest and it allows you to spend time doing other things instead of camping a mob all day.
Three things I like about WoW compared to FFXI: 1. It is only a time sync if you want it to be. I can jump in game and do something really quick and jump out, whether its a few BGs, arena or just doing some fishing. 2. Experience gain is greater and allows you to make it to mid level fairly quickly which makes it easier to catch up to friends and join them in end game. Also the quests are design to get you levels appropriate to the next set. By the time you hit the next zone you are at the level you should be for that zone. 3. Soloing - this goes back to #1 on the list. One MAJOR thing I didn't like about FFXI was waiting around to join a group just to kill mobs for xp.
Now the things I liked about FFXI compared to WoW: 1. The community was better in FFXI. Having to play with people from Japan it forced you to be polite to others. The community in a whole seemed more intelligent. If you don't believe me, spend a day in Barrens Chat or the Trade channel on WoW. You will grow dumber just reading the crap that flows from there. 2. Group mechanics - yeah I like to solo, but I also like some social interaction. Much of FFXI required you to be in groups at low levels. so by the time you got to end-game content you should know your class and how it works in the group. WoW makes it TOO easy for people to rush to 70 and then you get someone with a pet or totem that keeps breaking CC because that pet keeps attacking anything nearby.
Ok, thats all. These stories always get me going.
One thing FFXI can do to improve on fighting farmers is give the players more gil through quests or mob drops making the need to use the farmers less.
Why hasn't someone taken this man's movie making license away!!!??? And what frickin suckers would give this guy money to make movies in the first place?????
The best scene in Bloodrayne was Meatloaf's naked vamp chick harem, then you he actually had to throw meatloaf in that scene which took it down a bunch of notches.
I saw a brief story a while back on Postal and thought to myself, um, like the game REALLY didn't have much of a story line. It was pretty much "I've lost it, oo a gun! BANG BANG BANG!!!! I regret nothing" and blows off his head. How in the world could you figure that would make a good 1:30 movie?
Damn it Jack Thompson use your ignorance to do some good and stop Uwe Bolle from making movies!
I have been tempted to go down to my local BestBuy dressed up as a sheep herder with a Sony Logo on my chest and just wander around the idiots waiting outside in the rain for days.
I'm sorry but nothing out there would ever get me to waste that much time of my life for something that will be replaced in 3-5 more years. Not to mention wasting that much money on something with less moving parts than my mountain bike.
Notice that they never tell you what software it was that caused the problem to begin with. Its like um, maybe if you tell us what exactly we did wrong, we will make sure we don't do it again. I remember a similar story about a person using that keyboard with the mini display and macro buttons to level his dagger or something. They never did once tell him what program or mod got him flagged.
Oh well, I guess we may all be future victims of this. It sucks when it happens and the person it happens to doesn't even realize why they were banned. I have a guild member right now waiting to hear back from Blizzard about an account closure and we all know that he is not a cheater or exploiter. He said he was trying out some new mods. I've seen mods cause problems with data and Blizzard has labeled them as exploits or automation programs. Hell some have been labeled as key loggers (Auctioneer). So be careful what mods you use.
Some of those nifty priest mods they have to auto heal/debuff/buff may get flagged so you may not want to use those any longer.
Frankly I like finding a bot because they are fun to kill.
hmm, probably not a great idea to move to something unstable such as that. Problem this guy has is remote users. He probably has a lot and trying to serve down Gigs of data is tough. The biggest problem is the location of this data and how fast the internet lines are. They need to have large upload capacities. So the bigger the data files, the longer it takes for the remote users to pull down. Security is great, but the problem with any secure connection is overheard, granted its not a lot, but still a factor to keep in mind. The more encryption used the more the overheard over securing each packet.
Now the next question is.. Are these users working from remote offices or from home offices? If they are in real offices then there are a few options ranging from bumping up the speed of their internet connections (WAN or otherwise) to dropping in a remote file server to keep up-to-date replicas of the data files. If these are home offices, well you will be out of luck since they are probably using some form of home broadband which has limitations. If anyone is using dial-up, just hang up the phone on them!:D
You could also always give them access to data using Citrix, unless the data is big like CAD files and such.
Hope this helps, but like others have said, its tough to give you suggestions without knowing more about what you are trying to do.
Do your research and look into what the current trends are with software development. Probably the best thing to do is look into web application development. That seems to be where many things are heading. hell as a system admin, I would love to see more web based apps. They tend to not be OS dependent or even hardware dependent.
Anyway you may find it hard to find something prior to college. Definitely plan on going to college, you will have a much better chance finding something through their career centers. You may also want to get a portfolio together so you have something to show.
Well its a tough business out there. I work for a consulting firm that has doubled in size with clients ranging from 5 to 75 desktops. We have a number of clients who have larger server farms as well as clients with remote sites that also have a server or 2. In any case, you need to evaluate your current business plan and see if you planned for growth. You will need to start to look for personnel to handle the in-house operations. You will need a business manager to start organizing your business end of things. What you will also need to do is figure out how to keep your current tech staff current with upcoming technologies. Frankly if you are asking about ways to go from manual rebuilds to enterprise deployments then you certainly have a lot of catching up to do.
What I see happening, if you continue on your current trend, you will burn out for one. Then you will start to lose your current customer base due to lack of support. We have gotten a ton of new clients due to the lack of support from their old company.
Also you may want to look into hiring a consultant to help you plan ahead. You will need to drop some clients and get back to working normal hours.
As for hiring talented individuals, well remember, certs aren't everything but they do help clear up the piles. Look for experience, you will need people who are good with networking, Server systems, hardware and desktop support. Learn how to monitor systems and prevent major fires from happening. Thats always the best plan. As for helping with desktop deployments, there are a ton of apps out there that can help as well as built in services from Windows server solutions.
Unfortunately I worked in a school system that was run by a bunch of scarred administrators that were always afraid to offend someone. Kids and teachers alike would get away with murder because the administration would never even bother trying to discipline them. Teachers would cry to the union and kids' parents would bitch and moan about different things. Anyway its sometimes a losing battle if you don't have the higher ups backing you.
Evil little bastards will steak anything that isn't (and sometimes is) fastened down. So make sure you get those PCs locked down physically. Keep this in mind.. out of site, out of mind. If they don't see it, they won't try and break it. I came across a Dell tower one day while wondering the high school and found that someone had punched a hole though the empty bays as well as poked out the PCI slot covers in the back. They managed to swipe the CD-ROM, Memory and processor. The dumb ass teacher didn't even think to report this to use. And its not like the system was hidden under the desk, it was right on the counter in the front of the classroom. Another kid brought in a duffle bag and bolt cutters. He actually made it to the parking lot before security caught him. Oh did I mention he got this thing unsecured and in the bag during class?
Anyway as far as locking the system down, if you own Windows 2000/2003 server Active directory is the easiest and cheapest way to go. It will take some tweaking but it works pretty well. I also found striking the fear of god into the kids was equally effective.;-)
And the guy who posted about the stock of mice and keyboards, he is also right on! They run through that equipment like water! So you strike a good deal with a vendor and buy those things in bulk. We got the keyboards down to like 7 bucks ea. and the mice about 3-4 bucks each.
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My wife decided to try out a Pro 2 last year and it just lacked a lot. The Pro 3s have been getting much better reviews and I would say the hardware is certainly much nicer. But like many of you have commented on... The price is still a big negative for me. Sure their intro level 65GB i3 Surface Pro 3 is 799, but that is all you get. That does not even include their crappy keyboard/cover. For the Pro/RT/Pro 2s you had 2 options of keyboards, the Type Cover and Touch Cover. The Touch was the crappy no click keyboard and the type was an actual keyboard. But the prices were just ridiculous. Currently 119.99 for Touch and 129.99 for Type. Thankfully they have removed the Touch option for the Pro 3 but still leave you with a 130 dollar keyboard. They market the Pro 3 as a Macbook Air competitor, mainly boasting about Windows apps, removable keyboard, and touch screen. But here is what you get for a 799 Pro 3:
64GB i3 1.5GHz :( so basically anything more than that you will be lucky to get 4 hours.
4GB of Memory (64GB/128GB models)
up to 9 hours battery life (WOW That is great! Oh wait... fine print... ) For Web Browsing
Oh yeah no keyboard included in this... but we have a nice pen.
oh and Windows 8.1 of course (psst this runs better on a Mac)
Now what do you get with a base model Macbook Air for $899:
128GB storage 1.4GHz i5
4-8GB memory (for either model)
They say similar 9 hours of wireless Web, but I've multi-tasked and got some good life out of a single charge.
Keyboard included! Yep, you get that with the Air, no extra fee for it.
It has enough power to run Windows in a virtual machine or bootcamped. It will only cost me a license for Windows (or not depending on your resources).
The Mac touchpad and magic mouse work very good in Windows 8.1 so it is like a touch screen without all the finger prints.
Now if someone gave me a surface, I would certainly use it, but at this time I would not drop the almost $2K to replace my fully functioning Desktop or laptop. I just recently picked up a nice HP Probook 430 and after maxing the the RAM to 16GB it handles all my VMs nicely. My wife now has all my Mac stuff.
MS is on the right track, but they need better price points and marketing strategies, oh and to fricking throw in the keyboard! It is better to compare it to an Air but it is still Apples to Oranges as far as the tech goes. And you can't compare to an iPad either because again they are really not the same type of device. Then again with a nice BT keyboard and case, my wife uses her iPad Air like a laptop and only takes the MBP out when she needs to do something that requires a bit more heavy lifting.
It probably would have saved a lot of tax dollars had they just implemented signs saying there were cameras prior to actually signing the contract to install them. It's the old "if you think you are being watched, you will behave properly" notion. There are areas around my state that say "speed tracked by cameras" and usually I obey the posted limit but there are times I don't and have yet to get a ticket.
If the signs don't stop the problem of speeders, then implement the actual cameras but be prepared to not see a huge revenue increase as once the word is out, people will obey the limits.
Not sure if it has been mentioned, I had a similar problem with my iPad and Wireless Sync being used. Once I disabled that, the system started to behave. On the Apple forums, there were a number of people having the same types of issues. If you always connect directly, then there is no reason to keep the Wireless sync enabled. Though each update to iTunes does seem to add more performance issues. One I am finding is with an agent causing a delay to closing iTunes because it might be used by something else. Haven't dived into that just yet but I plan to.
If it is, then I will be happy to give you some advise. As a number of people have already mentioned, keep it simple. With that keep it so it is easy for you to manage as well as easy for you to get support for. Sure you can save a ton of upfront cost putting some linux based solution in but I am a big fan of "you get what you pay for." So go with a supported solution.
Start with the back end and work your way forward. People knock Microsoft, but Windows SMB is pretty affordable. Just don't skimp on the hardware, get something scalable. Either way having centralized management of users and resources is key! It is much easier to build it now than to have to migrate to it later. I had a client that was running in full workgroup but had a server. The previous consultants never set them up on a domain, hell they didn't even have the OS they paid for installed on the server. So if you have the opportunity to build from the ground up, build it right!
As for the network, if it is not already wired, well you may want to consider running hard Cat 6 cabling. Hire someone to do it since they will do it properly. Also remember it costs the same in labor to run multiple runs to a location as it does a single run. So plan for expansion. Same goes for the network hardware. Do max a single switch with just what you need, make sure you have room to add more connections.
For the storage server, well where is this data stored now? Are we talking GBs of current data or TBs? Also you mentioned Archving, well how often will this archived material be needed? Will it be accessed frequently or maybe once a year? You can always move it to optical disc and store in a secure location. You could also store it on the web as well.
As for moving everything to "THE CLOUD" well sure, you can host your entire server infrastructure there. There are decent companies out there like Rackspace for hosting services. But if you are working with large media files then you may want to keep some things in-house. To back all this up, well you can go with online backup solutions. Check out reviews, but keep in mind that the initial upload could take days to almost weeks depending on your bandwidth and the size of your data. So you may want to look at some form of backup-to-disk and then run your online backup of those files.
But before you begin ordering and what not, work with the staff and figure out what your budget is. That will help you decided what you can build.
If you are not fresh out of school and this isn't your first job, well then I am with the rest of the guys, quit and let them hire someone who can do the job and please go back to Geek Squad!
It certainly isn't a bad idea to test new hires. I currently have a non-profit client that has a large number of service staff that use laptops. A majority of them have absolutely no clue how to use the computers. Most see the application and confirm they know how to use computers. Frankly I believe laptops are reserved for slightly more advanced end users. We were back and forth with this client a couple times a week because their most recent user was completely computer illiterate. She didn't know why her laptop wouldn't stay on.... I checked the docking station and the power cable was not connected.
Many state agencies require prospective admin staff to take an exam before they can apply for a job. These exams cover a number of topics that have to do with the level of job they are going for. I don't see a problem with developing similar standards for non-government jobs. Then again its tougher for a small business with no IT staff to go through this. What I would recommend is to get your parents to hire an outside firm to help them not only with their IT support but with educating their users. They should easily be able to develop a hiring quiz for new hires as well as develop training plans for users.
Locking down the workstations is also not a bad idea. Get regular users out of the local admin groups on the workstations. Make sure AV is being properly updated and even look into installing a small business class firewall that does some content filtering as well as gateway AV. Sonicwalls provide these services and usually at a pretty good rate.
Good luck!!
I say take all that iPhone money and invest it back into the network!! As a former Verizon customer now turned AT&T slave because I wanted an iPhone, I am a little sad that I was swayed over such a phone as nice as it is. Granted at my last two homes I had barely 2 bars for Verizon and now have full bars for AT&T. Then again the calls still drop. Go figure. So even if they used accurate facts, I would still say "sure they have coverage but it ain't that reliable!" I have a feeling that after the 2 years I may be swinging back to Verizon.
I say shock therapy. Wear some form of optic like the apache pilots have. If the computer senses that they are looking elsewhere other than their mirrors and in front of them, a small shock in the butt could correct this :D
If you are a large startup and you may require an internal Network Admin. Eventually companies get large enough where they do need an internal IT staff that can take care of day-to-day activities and then use an outside consulting company for projects and even extra hands.
I work for an IT consulting firm that actually specializes as both staff augmentation and full time IT support. Most of our clients are small to medium businesses. Some with as little as 10 employees. They don't have enough for a full time person to work on so they use us once a month. We also have an oncall/helpdesk department to handle things when the primary engineer is not on-site. But we also don't automatically give ourselves remote access without the permission of the client. We have some clients that only remote us in when there is a problem. Others trust us fully to be their full time IT support. It really depends on what your product is. I've signed confidentiality agreements with clients in order for them to allow me to work on their systems.
In this day and age IT is a major part of many businesses. You really can't take it for granted. Also you can't go around being paranoid of every IT person. Of course they are going to have full access to your systems and data, but if they are good they will not jeopardize their reputation by stealing data. You get what you pay for also. Look for the companies who have been doing this for a while. Look at their partnerships (Microsoft Gold Partner etc..) Many vendors require that their partners meet certain criteria so not every consulting company can be a Gold Partner just because they know about the product. They need to have a certain amount of certificates among their engineers.
As far as the remote monitoring, well that is a cost savings to you. It costs much less to have someone remote into the systems to look at it than to have someone travel to your office and look at something that may only take a few minutes to fix.
That was excellent Jiu!! :D
We used to only get offered comp-time for any off-hour work for our clients but then management realized that they were not getting enough volunteers for off-hour work so they changed the options to comp time or extra pay for doing the work. Gotta love those off-hour remote Exchange defrags!
Aside from the hardware, you also have to consider support for the software. Microsoft will limit support on the OS eventually. Windows 95 was EOL a very long time ago.
The best bet would be to plan better. Most manufacturers will not warranty workstations for more than 5 years. Shortly after the system will become End of Life. This is of course if you are going with a brand computer. If you build them, you will need to check the manufacturer warranties on all the parts. So you need to put some IT planning into affect.
If he wants something that will last long, your best bet would be to look into a small business level server. The hardware in an official server is designed to run for long period of times with longer life spans as well. Desktop grade hardware will eventually fail and it certainly will if it is running extended periods of time.
Now on top of all that, you also need to consider support for his business application. Can this database and software be migrated to newer platforms? If not then he may be looking at other problems beside just keeping his hardware running.
Hope this helps.
Ha! Didn't even know the game was still up and running. Good for them. But yeah I was certainly one who jumped in and attempted to play. I got fed up with the ridiculous lag as well as the system requirements to play it at the time. Since then I've got a better rig. Unfortunately Blizzard just keeps my addicted arse coming back to WoW.
Think there are plenty of us out there that would love for someone to come out with an MMO that makes us feel what we felt with WoW 4 years ago. Since then nothing has done that for me.
As for the Anonymous guy who has a thorn in his side about IT pros calling themselves engineers, well true not everyone one of use could be considered that, but the good ones can. We are given problems every day that we need to "engineer solutions for."
As what I do at home, for one I do not even have close to a TB of data. But I just backup to disk. having a copy of data store elsewhere is better than nothing. What home users should do is buy a couple inexpensive external drives and do regular backups of their computer HDDs, at least their personal DATA. Get a firebox safe and store the drives in that.
What I recommend back to the corporate/small business owners is to get at least 2 weeks worth of media as well as monthly tapes. Store the monthlies off site. They can spend the money on Iron Mountain or they can keep it in someone's home safe. (I don't recommend the home safe, but whatever works!). The more data you have the larger the the backup solution will be. But then you have to ask yourself how much is this data worth to the company?? Suddenly $20K is not looking to bad.
What the evangelist church DOES notice is the increase in Catholic priests requesting to be part of these "Halo Nights" to better understand them and possible use them for their churches (supposedly).
Such is the nature of most MMORPGs. But WoW by far, does not force you to group with people to play the game. You can solo your way to 70 and never once work with another individual. You can jump in the game and spend an hour doing something without relying on people. I do it regularly. Grouping only helps enhance the experience. There are some great people who play the game and you can end up making some good friends. Hell I even met up with an old friend from High School who plays the game.
:D and B) it takes me away from reality for a bit. My wife watches the TV I play WoW and we are happy.
Though if you don't like grouping with people, then an MMORPG is probably not the game for you. Quests are repetitive to some degree but they are not all that bad and they are that way to help you gain the XP to go further into the game.
If you want a time sync and a game that really requires you to be in a group most of the time, then try out Final Fantasy XI.
And on one final note, these games aren't for everyone. I like them because A) it costs less than going to the bar every night
LOL, I spent the time to kill more crabs to get to a lv34 warrior, lv52 SAM, lv15 THF, NIN and a few others. My final ending was waiting for 3 hours for a party only to get invited to one at the tree with the spiders and have a party with no refresh class (rdm or brd) try to pull something we could not take without one of those classes. We die and I deleveled (oh another piece of crap concept!). At that point I said farewell to the game donated things to the Linkshell and sold items that I could not trade to other players.
I recently tried again to go the route of rdm and eventually get bst but I got 4 levels in a few days and got bored.
One way to deal with farmers is make them not needed! WoW has done this by creating daily quests. You get an average of 12g per quest along with faction rep. So basically you are giving players a steady cash flow. With the ability to make enough gold to eventually buy one of the epic flying mounts, it deters most players from buying gold. Granted it may take a year if you do not do them every day, but you know it will happen. Just like granting epic gear through pvp, you need to pvp a certain amount of time in a battleground or arena (arena you have to win) and you are awarded points. You know it will take a certain amount of points to get said piece of gear.
Some may say that this takes some of the challenge out of the game but on the other hand some of these quests are not the easiest and it allows you to spend time doing other things instead of camping a mob all day.
Three things I like about WoW compared to FFXI:
1. It is only a time sync if you want it to be. I can jump in game and do something really quick and jump out, whether its a few BGs, arena or just doing some fishing.
2. Experience gain is greater and allows you to make it to mid level fairly quickly which makes it easier to catch up to friends and join them in end game. Also the quests are design to get you levels appropriate to the next set. By the time you hit the next zone you are at the level you should be for that zone.
3. Soloing - this goes back to #1 on the list. One MAJOR thing I didn't like about FFXI was waiting around to join a group just to kill mobs for xp.
Now the things I liked about FFXI compared to WoW:
1. The community was better in FFXI. Having to play with people from Japan it forced you to be polite to others. The community in a whole seemed more intelligent. If you don't believe me, spend a day in Barrens Chat or the Trade channel on WoW. You will grow dumber just reading the crap that flows from there.
2. Group mechanics - yeah I like to solo, but I also like some social interaction. Much of FFXI required you to be in groups at low levels. so by the time you got to end-game content you should know your class and how it works in the group. WoW makes it TOO easy for people to rush to 70 and then you get someone with a pet or totem that keeps breaking CC because that pet keeps attacking anything nearby.
Ok, thats all. These stories always get me going.
One thing FFXI can do to improve on fighting farmers is give the players more gil through quests or mob drops making the need to use the farmers less.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Why hasn't someone taken this man's movie making license away!!!??? And what frickin suckers would give this guy money to make movies in the first place?????
The best scene in Bloodrayne was Meatloaf's naked vamp chick harem, then you he actually had to throw meatloaf in that scene which took it down a bunch of notches.
I saw a brief story a while back on Postal and thought to myself, um, like the game REALLY didn't have much of a story line. It was pretty much "I've lost it, oo a gun! BANG BANG BANG!!!! I regret nothing" and blows off his head. How in the world could you figure that would make a good 1:30 movie?
Damn it Jack Thompson use your ignorance to do some good and stop Uwe Bolle from making movies!
I have been tempted to go down to my local BestBuy dressed up as a sheep herder with a Sony Logo on my chest and just wander around the idiots waiting outside in the rain for days.
I'm sorry but nothing out there would ever get me to waste that much time of my life for something that will be replaced in 3-5 more years. Not to mention wasting that much money on something with less moving parts than my mountain bike.
Notice that they never tell you what software it was that caused the problem to begin with. Its like um, maybe if you tell us what exactly we did wrong, we will make sure we don't do it again. I remember a similar story about a person using that keyboard with the mini display and macro buttons to level his dagger or something. They never did once tell him what program or mod got him flagged.
Oh well, I guess we may all be future victims of this. It sucks when it happens and the person it happens to doesn't even realize why they were banned. I have a guild member right now waiting to hear back from Blizzard about an account closure and we all know that he is not a cheater or exploiter. He said he was trying out some new mods. I've seen mods cause problems with data and Blizzard has labeled them as exploits or automation programs. Hell some have been labeled as key loggers (Auctioneer). So be careful what mods you use.
Some of those nifty priest mods they have to auto heal/debuff/buff may get flagged so you may not want to use those any longer.
Frankly I like finding a bot because they are fun to kill.
hmm, probably not a great idea to move to something unstable such as that. Problem this guy has is remote users. He probably has a lot and trying to serve down Gigs of data is tough. The biggest problem is the location of this data and how fast the internet lines are. They need to have large upload capacities. So the bigger the data files, the longer it takes for the remote users to pull down. Security is great, but the problem with any secure connection is overheard, granted its not a lot, but still a factor to keep in mind. The more encryption used the more the overheard over securing each packet.
:D
Now the next question is.. Are these users working from remote offices or from home offices? If they are in real offices then there are a few options ranging from bumping up the speed of their internet connections (WAN or otherwise) to dropping in a remote file server to keep up-to-date replicas of the data files. If these are home offices, well you will be out of luck since they are probably using some form of home broadband which has limitations. If anyone is using dial-up, just hang up the phone on them!
You could also always give them access to data using Citrix, unless the data is big like CAD files and such.
Hope this helps, but like others have said, its tough to give you suggestions without knowing more about what you are trying to do.
Do your research and look into what the current trends are with software development. Probably the best thing to do is look into web application development. That seems to be where many things are heading. hell as a system admin, I would love to see more web based apps. They tend to not be OS dependent or even hardware dependent.
Anyway you may find it hard to find something prior to college. Definitely plan on going to college, you will have a much better chance finding something through their career centers. You may also want to get a portfolio together so you have something to show.
Good luck!
Well its a tough business out there. I work for a consulting firm that has doubled in size with clients ranging from 5 to 75 desktops. We have a number of clients who have larger server farms as well as clients with remote sites that also have a server or 2. In any case, you need to evaluate your current business plan and see if you planned for growth. You will need to start to look for personnel to handle the in-house operations. You will need a business manager to start organizing your business end of things. What you will also need to do is figure out how to keep your current tech staff current with upcoming technologies. Frankly if you are asking about ways to go from manual rebuilds to enterprise deployments then you certainly have a lot of catching up to do.
What I see happening, if you continue on your current trend, you will burn out for one. Then you will start to lose your current customer base due to lack of support. We have gotten a ton of new clients due to the lack of support from their old company.
Also you may want to look into hiring a consultant to help you plan ahead. You will need to drop some clients and get back to working normal hours.
As for hiring talented individuals, well remember, certs aren't everything but they do help clear up the piles. Look for experience, you will need people who are good with networking, Server systems, hardware and desktop support. Learn how to monitor systems and prevent major fires from happening. Thats always the best plan. As for helping with desktop deployments, there are a ton of apps out there that can help as well as built in services from Windows server solutions.
Good luck!
Unfortunately I worked in a school system that was run by a bunch of scarred administrators that were always afraid to offend someone. Kids and teachers alike would get away with murder because the administration would never even bother trying to discipline them. Teachers would cry to the union and kids' parents would bitch and moan about different things. Anyway its sometimes a losing battle if you don't have the higher ups backing you.
Evil little bastards will steak anything that isn't (and sometimes is) fastened down. So make sure you get those PCs locked down physically. Keep this in mind.. out of site, out of mind. If they don't see it, they won't try and break it. I came across a Dell tower one day while wondering the high school and found that someone had punched a hole though the empty bays as well as poked out the PCI slot covers in the back. They managed to swipe the CD-ROM, Memory and processor. The dumb ass teacher didn't even think to report this to use. And its not like the system was hidden under the desk, it was right on the counter in the front of the classroom. Another kid brought in a duffle bag and bolt cutters. He actually made it to the parking lot before security caught him. Oh did I mention he got this thing unsecured and in the bag during class?
;-)
Anyway as far as locking the system down, if you own Windows 2000/2003 server Active directory is the easiest and cheapest way to go. It will take some tweaking but it works pretty well. I also found striking the fear of god into the kids was equally effective.
And the guy who posted about the stock of mice and keyboards, he is also right on! They run through that equipment like water! So you strike a good deal with a vendor and buy those things in bulk. We got the keyboards down to like 7 bucks ea. and the mice about 3-4 bucks each.