@KazWolfe chip reader card terminal software upgrade == total company bug storm

Oh wait you said IT for retail...

I was thinking IT (customer support) in retail) IE the place your grandmother takes her computer to get it fixed...even worse...

@RobotHumans really? i had lots of fun with that.

@TheXed Yes. The bad of that was enough to push me back to plain retail.

(really) the hard part was training everyone

The place where everyone brings their shitty ass budget computers they buy from wal-mart, and expect you to perform some sort of miracle...and are never happy with the end results.

oh god. geek squad. god no, not again.

@KazWolfe Eh. Ours work sometimes. But it's a "never turn anything off" policy so IT can remote in at any time, but the Java POS software they use has a memory leak and the card reader embedded software is buggy. So, the higher volume a register does, the more it crashes. derp

I don't think geek squad could afford someone with my experience...but I guess if I was desperate enough...

yeah, we (thank god) had good software for our point of sales...

@TheXed no, they'd fire you for not selling enough.

I was desperate -- applied. "Sorry, you don't have enough sales experience for this position"

Sales? I can sell anything good. Just make your product not crap.

@KazWolfe yeah your probably right, because I would fix 90% of everything and offer practical and cost efficient solutions...because working for a public school budget rules everything...

yeah. gotta sell the grandmas on Norton Antivirus Pro Platinum 2017, AV Of The Year Edition, Plus E-Mail Scanning and Anti-Spyware Addons.

@TheXed Nah. You'ld get those old fogies that can't understand that even though you can see a desktop not all TSRs are done loading and their junk is OLD. My go to was "start your computer and brew a pot of coffee. When it's done, come back. It'll work" -- or buy a new PC

@RobotHumans yeah but that will only work for so long...

so you might as well fix it for them...

@TheXed And that is exactly the point. "Fix it" "Buy a new fancy toaster"

it does not translate lol..

generates a lot of heat for little real use

better yet..."here is my phone number, call me after hours and I will fix it for 50 bucks"

(that deal is only available for the poor little ladies that really have no idea)

Also, this office has no T6 screwdrivers. Somehow.

ahhh, I had to furnish my own torx drivers too

despite the fact that every computer in our office uses T6 screws.

Now that cocky kid that comes in with a 1000 dollar gaming rig I am going to sell him a $600 video card, some ram...and charge him 125$ install fee per device muahahahah

We don't have a single T6 driver.

one shop i worked in even hired an electrician to do fiber drops to avoid the cost of getting a fiber termination kit.

I made the school buy me a ifixit kit..

@RobotHumans to be fair, those are expensive.

@TheXed yeah, i have one at home. 300 miles away.

@RobotHumans its not just to kit that is expensive, you have to actualy know what you are doing to terminate them...

they're nice. plus i can just stop by the office whenever i want. :D

Yes, but I worked with an electrician for a week just to use his tools... and it's really just sand paper and shearing. Anyone can learn to use it in about a day.

I should see if they're hiring, actually.

well if you want to properly terminate fiber, you need to cleave it right, etc, etc, etc.

I mean if you know what you are doing and you do it often...then yeah it might be worth the investment...but honestly for most business that just doesn't make sense...

Yes. You need to shear it right. Then sand it on multiple grains until it's perfectly clean and shiny

then strip it properly...

fiber's annoying and hard to work with if you don't know what you're doing.

I suppose you could rent a kit...helps keep cost down if you know what you are doing...

and add the terminators. yes... i won't argue that point. but i worked 5 jobs for a particular company.and in those five jobs we billed to the electrician 3 times the cost of the kit.

still, if you screw up with fiber, you screw up big time.

you always leave a big service loop in fiber b/c it's so easy to screw up

Fiber is fragile too...

gotta be careful when you do the actual run as well...

basically. i don't really trust myself with fiber too much. leave it to someone who knows what they're doing if it's something important.

fiber is just fiber. the plastic stuff now is a lot cheaper and more durable than glass was.

new topic?

and there is so many damn types of terminals...

was that a topic change or complaining about st/sc connector variance?

and cable types..

and if you don't get the right connector for the right cable, blah blah it won't work...

@RobotHumans it was whatever you want it ot be...

i should probably learn how to use fiber at some point in time.... eventually..

eh, a plumber can read id/od numbers. that doesn't make it hard. you just have to be thorough.

@RobotHumans exactly...and that isn't always easy in a 100 year old building, when the fiber was ran 30 years ago, and i stuck behind brick and only god who knows what, and didn't the person that originally put it in didn't leave a service loop...

@TheXed that's fair enough

@TheXed sounds like government.

@KazWolfe or someone that didn't know what they where doing...

so... government.

@KazWolfe He already said public schools, but they only use fiber for mainlines or inter-building connections

And, just as an aside, does anyone know where I can buy about 10 miles of fiber for a... project?

@RobotHumans right, pretty much just a backbone...between sections of the buildings...

@KazWolfe no, you can not use fiber to connect to one of my schools for free internet...

@TheXed why would i want filtered school internet?

@KazWolfe you can bypass the filter...I am sure you are smart enough...

no, i just want to wire a terminal point out by the road so Charter can stop complaining that it's "too expensive" to wire me up.

And @KazWolfe drops in to the dslam mission impossible style to leave a danglilng fiber endpoint for the truck monkey.

basically.

"Hi, idiots. Can someone please connect endpoint 49 to the network? kthxbai"

@RobotHumans what is it with you and monkeys? :-P

"There's no endpoint with ID 49"

"There is now."

@TheXed Monkey is how I say "unskilled button masher"

@KazWolfe yup

"Um, no. There are only 48 endpoints there"

"Nope, you're wrong. I broke into your cabinet. There are definitely 49."

@KazWolfe you should really get an exact distance...because I imagine 10 miles of cable is going to really expensive and be on one huge ass spool

@TheXed i should but i'm lazy.

And that would require me cooperating with Charter.

No thanks.

Well...running your own fiber to an endpoint because they won't doesn't sound like cooperation...it sounds like vigilantism...

Well, no, they will.

For like $400k

@KazWolfe oh, sign me up!

That was sarcasm btw...

and that's just coax.

if i asked for fiber, it'd probably a project in the realm of millions.

So what is your current bandwidth?

3 Mbps.

is that the fastest you can get?

without paying way more than is fair.

I get 5 up/down for $100

or 3 symm for $60

rural.

hence 10 miles of fiber.

How rural?

like a farm, or a small town?

like, 10 minute drive to nearest village. 30 minute drive to nearest real "city".

how many people live in the nearest village?

3000 in one way, 18 in the other.

that is bigger then the town I live in...

but there are other little towns of similar sizes in a fairly compacted area...

the school there would probably be willing to let me tap into their fiber.

and provided i still have a key to their server room...

it's just a question of getting the permits then to do an open dig and attach fiber to a road.

permits are over rated...

or so I have been told

i don't want to pay lots for fiber, and then have to pay even more because i didn't pay for permits.

@KazWolfe where is your sense of adventure? lol

though, if i took my trusty serial cable to my current ISP's device, I could probably get 30 up/down. I wonder if they'd notice...

@KazWolfe do it...

and if they notice and cut me off, what other ISP can I go to?

I don't think Elon's deployed his global satellite thing yet.

@KazWolfe don't know, not really my problem :-P

but it is mine.

Launch your own satellite :D

All you need is a decent rocket and some circuits.

And 100 million dollars (not including government fees).

and how, pray tell, would i get my upstream internet to that?

@NathanOsman I have experience with model rockets...I might be useful here...

Set up something like NASA's DSN to beam signals to the satellite.

@TheXed Perfect! See, we are already making progress.

can i get gigabit over DSN?

@KazWolfe we can figure out the technical stuff once we get the satellite in orbit...

that is what the North Koreans do anyways...

yes, because then i need to crash the satellite to put new hardware things on the satellite.

get it up there first, then figure out what to do with it...

because I can't do SDR for speed.

eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

^--- live view

@KazWolfe we can put a parachute on it so when it crashes it won't come down as hard...assuming the parachute doesn't burn up on re-entry...

@NathanOsman somehow, that looks... fake?

It's real.

That page just shows you what spacecraft each antenna in the DSN is currently communicating with.

Madrid 55, for example, is communicating with Opportunity (MER-1).

okay so, serious question...what is the difference between a asus gtx 1050, and a msi gtx 1050, or are they the same card just rebadged?

One is made by Asus, the other by MSI :P

The GPU is probably identical.

The difference will be fan arrangement, etc.

so i need a satellite in the sky, and two giant dishes.

so basic same card just settle differences in fans, and looks...@NathanOsman?

@KazWolfe Well, maybe three dishes and preferably in different parts of the earth.

@TheXed same chipset, different "manufacturers", cards may have slightly different clocks/power/features/etc.

@TheXed I imagine so.

There may be other differences. I don't know.

This is where customer support and reliability come in.

@NathanOsman but nothing to say I should buy one brand over another?

I don't have any familiarity with either of those brands when it comes to GPUs.

I have bought tons of ASUS stuff and have been very happy with it...

performance-wise, not really.

but thermal is a consideration.

Good Darkness to you.

be back in a few...gotta go potty.

@ThomasWard Merry Chaos.

O... kay.