Oh, lookie there! I was all worried about applying some inbound exceptions via GPO but all the firewalls are disabled anyway. =D Isn't that nice?

ya!

@Tanner As someone who's going from an environment with Windows firewall off to a system with Windows firewall on... I have mixed feelings (at best) about it.

@HopelessN00b I still feel like we should leave it up on the DCs...

Ok, WTF

@Cole ?

A recruiter I have never spoke to got in contact with my boss from $oldjob (he left a recommendation on my linkedin)

I've never even talked to this recruiting firm

@Tanner Might be different where you work, but for us, the value of added security of enabling firewalls (and a lot of our other BS-ier policies) is nowhere near the cost of implementing and following our dumbass security procedures.

 Hi,
    I am reaching out to you on behalf of Cole Lavallee.
    He has registered for some future work with us and recommended that we reach out to you for a brief technical reference.
    Please contact me via phone at xxx-xxx-xxxx
    Thank you,
    ~David

@Cole So have you called David and asked him WTF?

no I have not

should i?

That's my next question

@Cole I'm confused. Does that say he is reaching out to you on behalf of... you?

You should call David's boss and tell him you don't appreciate what his minions do

He's saying I told them to call my old boss

I NEVER EVEN SPOKE TO THEM

@HopelessN00b "I am reaching out to you on behalf of Cole Lavallee." I'd so say.

also my phone screen went fucking stellar today

@Cole Oh, that's what your old boss got? Then yes, I'd call them up and find out what the hell future work they're claiming you've registered for... and then rip them a new one.

hiring manager immediately emailed the recruiter and said it went super well, and that I'm "sharp"

sharp as a spoon!

Pretty much

I just have super awesome bullshit skills

and I'm super personable.

@Cole Most important skill in life.

I don't tell them about my genitals

5+ years of customer service before IT really helped

@Cole Regardless of your life history, I would recommend never mentioning your genitals in an interview.

@Tanner Yeah, it didn't go over well last time I drew a diagram on the white board of them

@Tanner I dunno. All the people I know in the adult entertainment industry give the opposite advice.

There's been a big demand for transguys in porn

so weird

@Cole I wouldn't know, but I imagine it's mainly due to a lack of supply...

Yeah

All set with that

Guys in porn make shit for money anyway... makes doing porn so not a good deal (for guys).

Truf

so lady friend got offered the job today

thank fucking christ

and she accepted

starts officially working next week (when she complete her extern hours)

@Cole Oh, it's her first professional job?

@HopelessN00b as a dental assistant, yes

Ah, well good for her, then. Is this the ladyfriend you knocked down a few pegs with the picture of your ex, or a different one?

Yeah same one

She's changed her attitude

Now she's like oh Cole you're so amazing I'm like damn right, bitch.

@Cole Yeah, women seem to do that a lot. At least it was a change for the better.

Don't get me wrong, I do like her

and she has a lot of awesome qualities

so i didnt have a baking sheet so I made one out of tinfoil, that's how I roll

Heh. I'll figure out how to do that one of these days...

Improvise!

@Cole Yeah, see... the thing is.... improvising is how all my stories involving the cops showing up start.

Anybody want to be an underpaid Windows SysAdmin at a university in an area with a high cost of living? sonoma.edu/jobs/job_opportunities.html

@HopelessN00b mine always end with "Now Mr. Lavallee please put you pants back on"

@Cole Not a common ending for me... but I guess I must run faster than you, since a lot of the time I do end up pantsless.

I have short legs

@freiheit Can I telecommute from my current job? I spend about 40 hours a week waiting for permission to do something, so I have the time...

@HopelessN00b Sadly, we have (effectively) a no telecommuting policy.

On the upside, for very directly related reasons, sysadmins aren't on call.

@freiheit Does it include staff that treats IT only as a cost center only, that doesn't add any value?

@Zoredache We call them "faculty"

@freiheit Yeah, us too. Even a no work from home policy. I had to stop working a production-down issue so I could drive into the office.... and then continue working it. :/

@HopelessN00b I just wouldn't answer that phone call, and then deal with it Monday morning.

Well, unless I was genuinely too drunk to deal with it, in which case I might answer it and say I'm unable to deal with that right now...

@freiheit fucker, I'm first on call for the next three months

@freiheit Oh, this was during the week, and it was a big deal that the VP of IT/CIO/whatever didn't see me at my desk when he walked by.

@Cole 3 months straight on call?

Yes

...where's the nope octopus?

@Tanner Pff, I was on call for 18 months

It's so stupid

<shrug> I've been on call the whole time at this job... and the previous one.

@HopelessN00b but do you support 80+ locations world wide?

@Cole 20-something, in the US.

@Cole I was on call in 1999...

I got a call at 330AM

@Cole Does that mean you can't drink for that whole three months? (well, at least not more than 1 beer)

today, BECAUSE A TAPE DRIVE WOULDNT EJECT

@freiheit pretty much

No life for three months, you can go fuck yourself

I'll be gone in 2-3 weeks, tops

I, wait, I missed something on my resume... I had a some on call time around Jan/Feb 2001. Think it kicked in like once...

@Cole There should be laws against that

@freiheit Yeah that's a big no. Either there's a rotation or I'm smelling like gin when you call me in.

@Cole Oh, well, that's different then. I wouldn't take that. You want to control what I do or don't do in my off hours, you can damn well pay me for them.

@HopelessN00b and we don't

@Tanner I actually did that once. Not gin, but everyone could literally smell the whiskey coming out of my pores (myself included).

@Tanner I could probably live with an on-call system like what my mom would get as a social worker: minimum-wage-ish ($10/hr) for all the time on call, plus 2 hour minimum time and a half if actually called.

But the guys I work with are 40+ years old, with wives and kids and are in bed by like 10PM

Hmm... Paid to not drink in the evening... Yeah that might work too.

I swear if this job cock blocks me this weekend, I'll be pissed

@Cole I've got a wife and kid and I'm in bed by 8:30. That doesn't mean I never have more than one beer after work.

Yeah, that happened to me recently. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.

@Tanner I'm just saying why should I be on call for 3 months straight

they claim it's to "learn"

@Cole Ah, so it's a feature?

I'm like "um"

My manager wants me to become the "lead/supervisor" dudemanguy

without a raise

@Cole Is "um" an alternate spelling of "fuck you! die in a fire!"?

@Cole "Thanks, I already know all about 'suck'."

I already looked my manager in the eye and said "I'm here because I want to be, not because I have to be."

After sitting in a 2 hour Lotus Samtime/Polycom integration meeting - I was like "yup totally making the right decision"

@Cole Gross.

Is it just me, or is this post title hilarious? "How to keep my manbag in place"

I'm really not as dumb as I come off in here

@freiheit LOL

@Cole That's reason enough to find a new job on its own.

Seriously

But pretty sure I got the job today

and its the one i want

What's the job?

@HopelessN00b SysAdmin at Reebok

Oh, sounds cool too.

It is, it's a rolling contract

but I really need the $$ plus another big name on my resume won't hurt. Plus, it's laid back, jeans and tshirt - and they actually have a budget

@Cole And I need need to buy new, dressier clothes for my workplace. Feeling so jealous...

@HopelessN00b I just function better in an environment like that

Everyone thinks I'm a stoner in real life

@Cole An environment that's more laid-back, or the type of one I'm in?

@HopelessN00b more laid back, I did much better at the $oldjob because of that

@Cole Yeah, me too. Seems I can focus on looking sharp and being "appropriate" or I can focus on doing the SA thing... make me do both, and I don't do either as well as I could.

I'm more productive on Fridays than any other day of the week

because it's casual Fridays

it's just so hard to find clothes that fit me

well pants

Being short sucks

@Cole Oh, yeah. We have "Casual Fridays" too. But we're not allowed to wear any denim or T-shirts. So really, it's just an even more confusing day at work than usual, for me.

Wtf?

hi everybody!

You crazy east-coast people

Jeans are dressing up for California

Yeah. Get this new environment implemented, all our new shit set up, and find someplace with a lot less.... crazy.

I loved my old job because I'd show up at 10AM in shorts and flip flops

@freiheit Well, I'm midwest... and it's not the midwest, it's my particular employer that's nuttier than hell.

@freiheit your half right... nice shorts are dressing up, jeans are for interviews or funurals

@HopelessN00b you need to move to a coast

@MattBear So you're saying they're lucky I change out of the bike shorts when I get to the office?

@freiheit I really need to move to the west coast

@freiheit oh yeah

im just wearing my tighty whiteys right now

Who wears tighty whiteys?

@Cole Want to be a windows sysadmin for possibly as much as $54k/year?

LOLnope

@Cole I've thought about it.... but I need the freaking space. (I live in a big 3 bedroom apartment... and kinda want a little more space, even.) A lot harder to afford that on the coasts.

@freiheit that sounds easier then what I do now, and pays a lot better!

@MattBear And dressing up is boxers with no more than one hole in them?

@HopelessN00b how much shit can you have?

Who wears boxers!?

Boxer briefs > *

@freiheit actually... thats not too far from where I am now lol

@HopelessN00b It's 50 miles north of SF. I pay $1500/month for a 3-bedroom house. I think 3 bedroom apartments can be found for $1000/month around here...

@freiheit that's not terrible

@MattBear Doesn't hurt to apply. Bonus points for any experience with VMs, SAN and NAS.

$1200 for most 1br apartments I live here

(HR apparently cut-n-pasted the job description for the current person, not updating anything)

I got lucky and found one for $725

@Cole It's space for me, not space for my things.

@freiheit I dunno, I have HUGE learning opportunities where I am now

@Cole We had a 2-bedder out in the 'burbs that we sold a few months ago, we could have got $1700-$2000/month easy for it

@HopelessN00b why do you need that?

@MarkHenderson dayum

@Cole If you want to live in the city here, expect to be paying $2500-$3000/month for a studio

actually, right now I'm trying to reverse engineer our jasper reporting server

@Cole I dunno. Same reason I spend money on beer and big, high quality screens. Somehow makes life worth living.

@MarkHenderson I thought Boston was bad at $1100-$1300 for a studio

@HopelessN00b what do you do with all the space?

I want a 2br to have a separate office

right now im stuck on finding wtf the MYSQL credentials are

@MattBear Just reset them

@MattBear delete the database and start over.

@MarkHenderson So you have to pay extra money AND get used to being upside down?

@JoelESalas suuuure, on a production server, that might be using those creds somewhere, and is a major part of our business...

I cant even --skip-grant-tables

I'm not sure what hurts more: Stabbing myself in the thigh with a needle or peeling the bandaid off after

@Cole Have lots of room to move around in. Have the ability to leave my shit just lying about until I get time to get to it... I dunno, I just love to have an abundance of space.

cause it requires a stop/start

@HopelessN00b hm, you'd hate my apartment then lol

I wish it was bigger but meh then more to clean

@Cole We basically pay manhatten prices for real estate in the city, but the cost of living is higher

(more expensive transport, food, electricity, gas, etc)

@MarkHenderson gross.

@MarkHenderson And a much broader range of cold-blooded and insectoid things that can kill you.

And plants. And mammals.

I think the list of things that can't kill you in Australia would be shorter.

@WesleyDavid OR eat their babies.

@HopelessN00b Markdown lives in Australia? I'll believe that.

@WesleyDavid No, dingoes are the baby-eating thing from Australia. Markdown is the baby-eating thing from America.

no ones eating my kid :p

@HopelessN00b how is baby eated?!

@Cole being married ftw

@WesleyDavid Yeah we're currently having another cockroach infestation all over the city too

Every few years they come raging back

well I am not married @DennisKaarsemaker lol

@DennisKaarsemaker Marriage sounds sad and scary a lot.

@Cole fix that :)

@WesleyDavid neh, it's pretty awesome

@DennisKaarsemaker girls are crazy

@WesleyDavid I dunno. I don't explain the eating, I just know about the eating... from TV stereotypes.

@Cole boys no less

@DennisKaarsemaker Maybe Dutch girls are cooler? I have had Der Netherlands on my top three list of places to expatriate to... I just wish it was warmer.

@WesleyDavid hey it was a whole 5 degrees celsius today (40F I think)

@DennisKaarsemaker Nah. Women/girls are crazy. Men/boys are just stupid.

^ Just for you Markypoo.

@DennisKaarsemaker Wow, over freezing? Get the shorts and tank tops out!

@WesleyDavid nekkid time!

@Cole Instructions unclear. Lost my squid in a parking lot. =(

LOL

It's all fun and games until someone unleashes their squid.

that's what she said

^ Tell me I wasn't the only one to watch that growing up.

@WesleyDavid you grew up?

@MattBear Biologically.

@WesleyDavid and damn... I cant remember what that is

@MattBear Squiddly Diddly.

@MattBear You can't? That's sad. It's clearly a purple octopus.

oswald?

@HopelessN00b Squid.

@WesleyDavid Nah, I think I'm gonna stick with octopus.

I still only count seven limbs.

Gentlemen, gentlemen

@jscott One is a prosthetic.

@WesleyDavid Hubba, hubba

@MDMarra You forgot to say hello to me too. =(

Cat

@MDMarra mew

mew = new mew()

@jscott Fine, an amputee purple octopus, then.

@HopelessN00b Or an overcompensating squid.

Or a deranged cuttlefish with macrocephaly.

@WesleyDavid Well, you'd overcompensate too, if you were an amputee-octopus.

@HopelessN00b Ohh, so he was a double amputee but could only afford one prosthetic? Tough life, man.

@WesleyDavid have you backed down from the "I think I'll pivot to devops" ledge yet?

@WesleyDavid Yes, an important lesson for the kiddies. You only get 8 limbs, so don't lose more than you can afford to replace with prosthetics.

@MDMarra No, but yes, but not really. I'm still pushing stuff out of the way to edge into web development. In fact, today marks getting this months pre-approved 20 hours done for one client, so money in the bank. Then in a few days I've got another guaranteed 20 for April, so I'll knock that out in three days or so and then be more able to dive into Python for the month.

Tomorrow and Friday are for my other slightly sketchier client to get some big stuff done so they can operate more on their own without me needing to put out fires.

Too many problems I want to solve, and no skills to solve them programmatically.

@WesleyDavid do you do tutorials or just read articles

@WesleyDavid nice

Howdy Gents.

@JoelESalas I want to go through Zed Shaw's "Learn Python The Hard Way" as well as some other modular learning programs and books.

@Adrian Yo

How goes the search?

@HopelessN00b He deleted the previous question and asked it again...

Although, I would like to say, if anyone has any work that I could help out with in exchange for currency, I will put down my Python books and get to work post haste.

He can't delete the new one as it has an upvoted answer.

Not as good as it was Monday. Yesterday's interviewer was supposed to call today with a yes/no either way, but no news. Which makes me sad. The afternoon phone screen was pretty good but it's a DevOps position, so I need to re-tool my skills & outlook on things.

@Adrian How the weather there? Been riding? I'm close to snapping if I don't get time this weekend to prep my bike and go for a ride.

Am I, literally, the only one in here that doesn't ride bikes?

@MDMarra And motorcycles

@jscott All my bikes are apart at the moment too. Which stinks. Strom needs lots of maintenance and the VFR needs new mirrors because the new aftermarket ones won't hold a position.

I haven't rode a bike in about a year and a half

@ChrisS You live in Michigan, yes? Precious little reason to continue living let alone ride a motorcycle. =D

@ChrisS I could teach you all about frame geometry, fork selection, crown installation, pedal cadence, breathing methods, and the proper use of the primary and secondary riding positions in traffic!

I just don't know how to ride a bike.

@ChrisS Can't find my bicycle. Either the roofers stole it or moved it somewhere that I haven't been able to find it yet.

@MDMarra ...we have something in common...

@Adrian Oh boy. Hoping it's just minor main't. I don't know Suzukis well (only had a GS500) but I thought they were pretty darn reliable.

@WesleyDavid Ha

@ChrisS Ah. I guess self-deleted questions don't show up in the moderator tools view, then. Loverly.