The Comms Room

Matt Bear

20:00

I need one

Cole

@MattBear I need one as well

Matt Bear

@Cole im too the point of having headphones in all the time, I dont even have anything playing, just gives me an excuse to ignore the rabble

MDMarra

20:37

@ewwhite you know that post in meta isn't really for user discussion right?

:)

ewwhite

@MDMarra you posted it.

MDMarra

did you see what thread it's in though?

it's questions that moderator nominees will have to answer as part of the election process

you should run, it sounds like you'd be the green party of SF

ewwhite

Naw... I'm from Chicago... we're corrupt.

I'll delete it

MDMarra

it's good food for thought

it just wont get a lot of discussion, that's all

at least not until the election

Adrian

afternoon 'gents

MDMarra

20:44

'sup

Cole

@Adrian sup

Ryan Ries

Should I write my own Jet Blue reader

Surely there are already some good ones out there

Adrian

Yo. Laundry, and assembling my home VMWare box in between loads.

MDMarra

@RyanRies what's the difference between blue and red

(those are the two choices, right?)

Cole

@Adrian fun fun

Ryan Ries

20:49

@MDMarra Jet Red is for MSFT Access databases, Jet Blue (also known more appropriately as Extensible Storage Engine) is used for things like Exchange, Active Directory, DHCP, etc.

Adrian

@Cole yeah. that and trying to keep the two cats from killing one another.

MDMarra

@RyanRies ah

So, steer clear of red :D

Ryan Ries

Exactly

:(

I hate to hear that

MDMarra

It will work for most places

but it's missing some pretty glaring stuff

If you want to notify user1 that a ticket that used to be assigned to user2 is now assigned to user1, you need to dig into the XML and add it to a custom management pack

little things like that, that make you scratch your head and think "how did they miss that"

Ryan Ries

We hired a huge team to write us a service desk from scratch

A dozen full time employees just to support it

MDMarra

20:53

the AD/SCOM/SCCM/SCORCH connectors are amazing

and it can be bent to your will at a much lower cost than a custom 12-person operation :D

but I find myself adding a bunch of things to my "always do, post install" checklist

Ryan Ries

Yes our efficiency leaves something to be desired at times

Cole

We have some shitty Notes integrated ticketing system

no way to get any metrics

MDMarra

:(

TheCleaner

OK, before I go opening another meta question only to find out it's been discussed a hundred times years ago...
http://serverfault.com/privileges/vote-down
and: http://serverfault.com/questions/507790/how-important-are-ram-and-processor-speed-for-a-home-nas
I often see OT questions downvoted simply for being OT...that seems a little excessive. Does it even matter/does anyone care? Or should I let it go.

Cole

since everything just gets assigned to the "SysAdmin" pool. So no way of knowing who's doing what, are we getting the same type of tickets opened up, etc

Shane Madden

20:55

@TheCleaner I think the Community user drops a -1 on something for certain close reasons.

MDMarra

@TheCleaner if something is "kind of" OT, I just close it. If something is REALLY OT (like they didn't read the first line of the faq) then I downvote and close

also, things with a negative score that are closed are automatically deleted once a month (or was it week)

so things that don't belong that have low views and a negative score are automatically pruned

TheCleaner

OK, but... "Down-voting should be reserved for extreme cases. It's not meant as a substitute for communication and editing."

MDMarra

Voting down, also known as "casting downvotes", is how the community indicates which questions and answers are least useful.

i'd say all OT questions are the least useful, since they shouldn't even be here. But I do see your point

TheCleaner

I get your perspective on it getting auto-closed...so it makes it easier to push it that direction. Makes sense...I just always see the downvotes as "go away n00b".

along the lines of your question to the potential moderators almost

MDMarra

:)

I'd argue that if a n00b asks an OT question and didn't read the faq at all, then that's exactly the kind of user that I do want to go away

:)

woah, where'd that second smiley come from

TheCleaner

20:59

and now the OP is coming back on the defensive... :)

MDMarra

GHOST SMILES UP IN HERE, EVERYONE RUN

Cole

ghost...smiles?

Scott Pack

Jesus. Stop talking guys.

Adrian

@ScottPack Boy, must think you're important, telling Baby Jesus what to do...

MDMarra

:(

Cole

21:02

I am going to see if I can go back to my hotel and nap for an hour or two then go out drinking

Scott Pack

I go actually write an answer and come back to a wall of text.

Cole

otherwise, I'm going to fall asleep in my food tonight

MDMarra

@ScottPack you wrote an answer to that question?

Scott Pack

@MDMarra Which one?

Adrian

@Cole Hotel? You on the road someplace?

Cole

21:05

@Adrian in Colorado

TheCleaner

meta.serverfault.com/questions/5447/… Looks like you are talking to ghosts here now Scott...sorry mate

Adrian

@Cole Nice. Really beautiful up there.

Cole

@Adrian it is! but time change + altitude is making me tired and getting a bit of a headache

MDMarra

@ScottPack nvm

suck it

Scott Pack

It's all spooky up in this hizzouze

Adrian

21:06

@Cole Yeah, that it does. I do a trip to Sun Valley twice a year to visit with The Lady's family, and they're up around 6000'. Kicks my ass for the first few days.

Cole

Hopefully I can go take a nap. Nothing much for me to do today here

Scott Pack

@MDMarra Hey look! It's 5:07pm. Time to go home.

Adrian

Ok, time to mock Adrian. Just how bad of an idea is it to set up a 2 drive RAID with WD Green drives in a home-based virtualization server?

MDMarra

@ScottPack ive been home since 1:30

@Adrian meh

for home, if performance doesn't matter, its fine

Adrian

@MDMarra that's what I was thinking, since it's not going to have that heavy of a duty cycle.

Not exactly going into a 500-user Postfix/IMAP server here.

And consumer-grade PC cases these days are damn near made out of aluminum foil.

Zoredache

21:14

@Adrian Is that Linux, or hardware RAID? Some hardware, or fakeraids don't react well to green drives.

I would be tempted to go with the WD Red drives though, if you haven't purchased them already.

Adrian

@Zoredache it's FRY's, which is 3 miles from my house. I can take them back and get different ones.

Zoredache

I have never been into a FRYs. I always hear everyone saying that is a good store though.

Shane Madden

I'm using 8 greens in my home ZFS setup. No failures so far aside from the one that was DOA. But I don't trust them, they get scrubbed often.

(and RAIDZ-2)

TheCleaner

FRYs is like the Home Depot of technology.

Zoredache

Anyway, since it is two drives, I am assuming a RAID1? The worst that could happen is that occasionally it might decide to disable one of the drives.

ewwhite

21:19

@ShaneMadden WOOT! ZFS!!

Cole

I've never been to Fry's either

I think they have them out here

Shane Madden

@ewwhite I've had this setup for a while, but I just recently got the ZIL and L2ARC on SSD. It flies now.

Adrian

@Zoredache It's good as long as you're sure the stuff you're getting hasn't been opened and returned. They have a nasty habit of just boxing stuff up that was returned defective and selling it again to see if it's really broken or not.

ewwhite

@Adrian Adrian, depends on your raid solution. If using ZFS, you'll need to set ashift to deal with the 4k sectors

Adrian

@Zoredache Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I can deal with that.

ewwhite

21:21

@ShaneMadden really? you were able to tell?

Shane Madden

@ewwhite Absolutely - it was pretty sluggish before. (its main role in life is NFS datastore for my ESXi host)

Cole

oh nope no Fry's in CO

ewwhite

@ShaneMadden The write cache helps there. Using Nexenta?

Adrian

@ewwhite Dunno. Hadn't given ZFS that much thought to be honest. Will have to add that to the list.

And if the stupid cat would quit playing with the cage nuts......

ewwhite

@Adrian Straight linux-based storage is a bit weak nowadays

@Adrian chokes...

Kevin Soviero

21:25

WP Engine turned me down because they said I didn't have enough "industry experience" Oh well...

Adrian

@ewwhite If it's not nailed down, it's a cat toy.

Shane Madden

@ewwhite FreeBSD at the moment. First tried Nexenta, it didn't agree with the mobo's EFI, couldn't get it to boot. Then got it running using linux native ZFS, ran it like that for a while, ran into a huge bug with the linux implementation (a while ago, probably fixed by now) where certain datasets would no longer mount. Plopped FreeBSD on and imported the pool, been working great.

MDMarra

anyone know a good site to buy expensive sports memorabilia from?

ewwhite

@MDMarra You can always go back to Craigslist.

MDMarra

haha yeah

I'm going to drop a grand on a Mickey Mantle autograph from craigslist

Right after that, I'm going to follow up with the Nigerian prince that's been emailing me.

ewwhite

21:30

@MDMarra I'm Nigerian!!!

Zoredache

@MDMarra Hey now. Don't make fun of Nigerian princes. They are real. In fact, I happen to be acting as his agent. All you have to do is give me your bank account numbers and we will transfer $2 million USD into your account.

2

ewwhite

That's it. No pay for @MDMarra

MDMarra

Are you actually of Nigerian descent?

If so, I'm fully expecting you to file a dispute on all of the times you've paid me via PayPal

:)

ewwhite

@MDMarra Yes...

Paypal chargeback, bitch!!

MDMarra

KNEW IT

Cole

21:35

So right behind our building is where the Rockies meet the plains, probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

ewwhite

@Cole pix

Cole

@ewwhite wish I had brought my 50D now. I'll try to get some tonight or tomorrow.

I don't have a camera bag, otherwise I would have brought it

Matt Bear

@Cole thats pretty sick

is it a straight drop?

Cole

@MattBear yeah fucking nuts

I love it out here so far

Matt Bear

where u at?

Cole

21:41

Golden, CO

Matt Bear

Cole

It's fricken sweet

Matt Bear

@Zoredache I like Nigerian girls

they will do ANYTHING for food

Wipqozn

21:56

@JeffFerland Holy snap you're classy.

You could give @OrigamiRobot a run for his money.

Jeff Ferland

@Wipqozn Oh yes, nothing but class here. Also, I won the Franzia chugging contest last night.

That stuff is awful, by the way.

Wipqozn

I have no idea what Franzia is, but it sounds terrible.

Jeff Ferland

@ScottPack Jerkface.

3

We've got a pool of mod candidates this time around :)

freiheit

@JeffFerland Somebody has to step up and get themselves rejected. ;)

Mark Henderson

@freiheit Someone's already been rejected

MDMarra

22:08

who?

freiheit

@MarkHenderson Evan didn't remove himself?

Mark Henderson

@MDMarra E.C.

MDMarra

@MarkHenderson bahahaha

Iain

@MarkHenderson ejected more like

MDMarra

I didn't even see his nomination

Mark Henderson

22:08

@freiheit His nomination was removed

@MDMarra His whole nomination was "MARK HENDERSON CALLED ME A TROLL AND SAID SOMETHING MEAN ABOUT ME WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH"

MDMarra

@Iain Sad to see you step down, but I understand

@MarkHenderson Please tell me you have a screencap

freiheit

@MarkHenderson That's a blatant abuse of your modera.... hahaha I can't finish that with a straight face...

Iain

@ewwhite @wesleydavid @ward app.strava.com/activities/54208599 bit different tonight - practice chaingangs

@MDMarra cheers

ewwhite

@Iain Sprint!

Scott Pack

@JeffFerland I love you too, sweetness.

Iain

22:10

@JeffFerland not as many as last time yet

Jeff Ferland

@Iain I don't know about numbers, but I'd say we've got it covered on quality for just having 2 spots open.

Iain

@JeffFerland I'm currently struggling for a second candidate myself

Jeff Ferland

Facebook says I have to choose my equipment by tongight. Way to send that email at 2pm today.

MDMarra

@Iain You should totally run!

ewwhite

@JeffFerland what type of equipment do you prefer?

Jeff Ferland

22:13

@ewwhite snicker

ewwhite

@JeffFerland Mac? PC? Monitor choice?

MDMarra

@Iain Also, I think Ward is a real sleeper in the election. The dude reads almost every freaking Q&A that gets posted in order to vote on it. He's like a human review queue.

Mark Henderson

@MDMarra Nope, it didn't enter my mind

MDMarra

Does your diamond let you see it?

Matt Bear

I need my own office...

MDMarra

22:15

25k privs don't :(

Mark Henderson

@MDMarra Nope

Google Cache doesn't have it

Wayback Machine doesn't have it

Scott Pack

@JeffF A 13" MBP with a cinema display.

Mark Henderson

I think it's gone

Jeff Ferland

@ewwhite I'll figure out my options when I get logged into it. I have some email / phone issues at the moment. Story later...

ewwhite

@MDMarra 25k seems so long ago.

MDMarra

22:16

@ewwhite And there are no higher level of privs than 25k trusted user

yet we still whore for rep

2

my rep graph has died over the last 2 months though

Scott Pack

Shucks @Jeff. You're a peach.

MDMarra

Cole

@MDMarra well you got married and shit, yo

Dennis Kaarsemaker

@Cole that's no excuse for not trying harder.

MDMarra

nah its mostly the new job

Cole

22:20

@MDMarra how's that going btw?

MDMarra

no one asks SCSM questions on here :(

@Cole its great

Cole

@MDMarra nice, I'm about to do my 2nd of three interviews for a company I'm really interested in this week. (Phone interview, last round on site)

Very cool place to work, it's in the Back Bay so much long commute - but I can just take the commuter rail.

Hennes

Are phone interviews common?

Cole

Here, at least for me, yes.

I think it's like, why waste everyone's time if you're definitely not a match for the position which you can figure out in 15-30 minutes on the phone with someone.

Hennes

I heard other people over here had their first round over the phone, but it has never happened to me. So I am curious if that is a per country thing.

Aye.

I am insecure enough that I only job hunt for companies where I know I fit.

And then I check with people who already work there, google a lot,

Cole

22:23

I like phone screens too, because I can ask a lot of questions about the company and not waste my time.

Especially taking time off of work, etc

Hennes

When I finally sent the letter/mail "Hi, me want job!" I already know a lot about them

Cole

@Hennes that's smart, I do as much research as I can if the company is listed.

Scott Pack

@Hennes We usually phone interview to whittle down the pool and only bring in 3-6 people

Cole

Or, once the recruiter tells me who the client is.

@ScottPack yeah, because bringing in 10-20 people who may be a fit would suck.

MDMarra

@Hennes phone screens are common in the US. It's sort of a freak filter

Hennes

22:25

I guess the average distance in the US is also bigger.

Cole

@MDMarra really? Why do I keep getting through them then!?

MDMarra

you're good at covering up

Cole

I'm a transformer, literally.

Hennes

This evening I look at tweaker.net, selected job hunt and it defaulted to a max range of 30 km

MDMarra

As evidenced by the fact that you used to be a girl and now you're a dude

Scott Pack

22:25

@Hennes We have to submit our candidate pool to Institutional Equity before seeing anyone. Also makes their job easier.

Cole

@MDMarra well technically I was always a dude but no one knew it. I did, but had the wrong body. It's like face off or some shit.

MDMarra

yeah

Cole

I have SUCH bad cotton mouth.

MDMarra

whatever the correct terminology for it is, you had lady parts and became equipped with dude parts

Scott Pack

I've noticed that, as a rule, resumes are just plain terrible. The phone lets us check out what skills actually are.

MDMarra

22:27

@ScottPack my resume is awesome

speak for yourself

Scott Pack

I think my resume is good. Way better than the garbage I see.

MDMarra

I wish we had the same skillset

I'd love to have a resume-off with you

apply to the same jobs, see how many callbacks we get

Scott Pack

:-)

Cole

DUN DUN DUN

Next reality television show: RESUME IMPOSSIBLE!

Scott Pack

I could always send you mine and you can tell me why it's terrible.

Hennes

22:29

Resume (or CV's) are horrible to write. And as hiring person you need to read them differently depending on what you are hiring.
E.g. Experience with microsoft office, on a scale of 1 (nad), to 5 (master)>
For a salesdroid I read "4" as "Poor"
for an IT person I read "3" is "quite good"

ewwhite

@MDMarra Heh, you can resume-off with me!

MDMarra

@ewwhite An interview-off with you would be more challenging

but my schedule doesn't allow for that

ewwhite

@MDMarra Oh, I kill interviews

MDMarra

As do I

I've never had an in-person that didn't result in an offer

of course, I also haven't gone on as many as you. No one has. In all of history.

Hennes

Sadly I had. For starters the last one (made it to the third round though)

And the one before that... but that was because I was to old.

ewwhite

22:31

@MDMarra I'm a special type of employee.

4

Cole

I'd like to get better at interviewing

Scott Pack

Special.

ewwhite

I couldn't be content with $1x0k.

Hennes

$130k which town?

ewwhite

and I like hustling a bit... maybe it's being half-Nigerian.

2

Scott Pack

22:31

And...dinner. Ladies.

freiheit

@Hennes You were rejected due to age? That kind of thing is generally illegal...

MDMarra

@freiheit He's European, which I believe means that he's from one of Jupiter's moons. They're relatively lawless there.

4

Cole

Whattt age discrimination is illegal here

@MDMarra bunch of uncivilized heathens!

ewwhite

@Hennes Anytown, USA.

Hennes

Well, that was not the official reason. But except for the boss (who was a few month older) I would have been the olderst person in the firm. But about 10 years.

And I am only 42

ewwhite

22:33

Chicago, New York, LA...

Hennes

NY seems to be rather more expensive

Similar to Amsterdam over here, or London in the UK

If you work there you need 1/3td more salary to pay the rent and buy food

Cole

average age at my company is between 40-60

Matt Bear

wow... never seen that before

just got hit by scareware

Cole

Closer to 60 since 50% of the company is retiring in 5-10 years.

MDMarra

@Cole Power vacuum!

Cole

22:35

@MDMarra it'll be interesting what happens.

I'm the youngest by far.

I'm younger than the help desk guys, the desktop guys, the sysadmins, the security team and networking. All have 15-20 years at least on me

Matt Bear

@Cole 15-20 years.. of stupid!!

MDMarra

Everyone at my job assumes i'm in my mid thirties

Cole

@MattBear ZING!

MDMarra

I don't have the heart to tell them otherwise

Cole

Everyone at my job thinks I'm 19 - 22

MDMarra

22:37

The HR woman knows the truth

Matt Bear

Everyone at my job thinks I'm an asshole...

5

Cole

They're like "oh, you're a new help desk person?" My boss: "Nope he's a sys admin" usually followed by O_o

Matt Bear

thier right

MDMarra

I've never been asked directly, but someone was talking about how the most Jr Microsoft engineer on staff is 29

I'm the MS team lead and I'm 2 years younger than him

Jeff Ferland

But yeah, 13" MBP and 27" display was my last setup

BRB, done gaming; need Linux to read HFS+ so I can get my ssh key back so I can send email...

Cole

22:38

@MDMarra LOL. Just goes to show age =! experience/knowledge

MDMarra

I actually haven't even met him yet...and he's on my team

Matt Bear

precisesecurity.com/rogue/fbi-your-pc-is-blocked

MDMarra

he's been on a 12 week config manager project that started before I started haha

Matt Bear

heh just came across this one

Cole

@MDMarra wow

If/when I move to another company I'm not going to reveal my age. I think I'll just respond with "old enough to drink and rent a car"

MDMarra

22:40

no one has asked me

just don't participate in age discussions when other people are talking about it

that's how I've avoided it haha

Matt Bear

@Cole and buy a hooker

MDMarra

not that I think it would hurt me, but I don't necessarily want to advertise that I'm the youngest engineer on staff in the most senior position on the MS team

Cole

@MDMarra I was asked directly.

MDMarra

grow a beard

they'll stop

Cole

trying@!

MDMarra

22:41

hahaha

Cole

It's actually starting to really come in

My girlfriend had named my goatee Dumbledore because it's getting so big and long.

freiheit

Beards are proven to increase unix skills.

5

Matt Bear

@freiheit ONLY neckbeards

freiheit

But don't let your beard get too long, or the only bicycle you'll be able to ride is a recumbent

Hennes

Well, so a woolen socks.

And sandals.

freiheit

22:42

@MattBear That's gentoo

MDMarra

@freiheit Windows skills too, but only if you weren't already a waste of skin (a rare trait in windows admins nowadays)

Cole

my neck beard comes in

freiheit

@MattBear Real unix admins can grow a proper beard on their face. ;)

MDMarra

i'm buying a printer/scanner combo tonight

Cole

Day by day the hair slowly grows down from my sideburns and up from my goatee.

MDMarra

22:45

recommendations?

Cole

@MDMarra Brother

How much do you want to spend?

Hennes

One negative advise: no HP printer/scanner

MDMarra

@Cole below the cost of a ricoh MFP :)

Cole

Brother or Epson. Both I've had in the past - super solid

Hennes

Every single HP printer/scanner/fax combo I touched was horrible (ok 3 or 4 models)

Cole

22:46

@MDMarra any certain features you want?

MDMarra

@Cole scan, print, airprint, wifi

that's ut

Cole

Color or black & white

Matt Bear

@MDMarra make sure the scanner bed is large enough to accomodate your buttocks

MDMarra

prefer color but if there's such a thing as a laser print/scan combo i'd be open to b&w

@MattBear oh good point

Cole

I know Brother has a lot of printers with airprint

MDMarra

22:47

Ok, I'm out of here. Back in a while gentlemen and @MattBear

Matt Bear

@MDMarra damn right, im no gentleman

Jeff Ferland

13" macbook air or 15" macbook pro w/ retina display?

Cole

@MDMarra Brother MFC-8510DN

Scott Pack

I prefer the size of the 13. I just use an external monitor to get the extra space.

Jeff Ferland

The following usernames have already been taken: "jeff", "root"

Shane Madden

22:54

Curse you, VMware SSO!

Cole

@ShaneMadden what happened

Shane Madden

@Cole It's just a headache. Especially in multi-site mode.

Cole

@ShaneMadden I agree.

Scott Pack

@Jeff What about Jeffe?

Shane Madden

The current issue is installing Web Client -- the web client installer says "error registering to SSO, check vm_ssoreg.log".. which hasn't had anything written to it since yesterday.

Zypher

22:58

@ShaneMadden ohhhhhh yea i ran into that error the other day except the log had auth exceptions in it

slm

Hey is there a moderator around? I have a question about flags.

Matt Bear

@ShaneMadden I gave up on trying to get it configured... low priority, I'll get to it eventually

Shane Madden

@Zypher I'm thinking it wrote to a different location than c:\windows\temp with the other logs.

Zypher

also fun is the lack of command line documentation ... and then everything going "Use Web Client to manage SSO"

tylerl

@slm Do you mind if I ask you if I can ask a question?

Zypher

22:59

@ShaneMadden 2k8+?

Shane Madden

@Zypher Yup, 2k8R2

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