OK. FaWtLers: What happens at the end of August that I don't know about?
Not only did said Unnamed Party get those two calls this week, but today I've received two phone calls from unidentified numbers (I'll assume they were scams) and two text messages informing me that my Chase and J.P. Morgan accounts had been suspended due to suspicious activity, and I should go to a t.ly URL to resolve the issue.
So two reactions:
(1) Given the sudden flurry of scamming activity, what the heck happened that I don't know about? I am bewildered.(2) Given the t.ly URLs and the poor grammar, I am saddened that anyone still falls for these scams.
But of course we live in a world where a member of our Senate is accusing scientists of being "Trump haters" for refusing to investigate the efficacy of horse de-worming medication as a possible COVID cure, so is it any wonder our populace is so gullible?
My understanding is monthly quotas as I notice an uptick. They are ostensibly businesses. The FCC COULD do things about it, but they dun wanna.
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Some local news, may be of interest to those of you in IT...
SMH.
Do I need to provide my alibi now, or do I have time to make it a really good one?
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I've been working on a client's server for 5 hours now. Our contracts state that we'll give our "best effort". At what point does my "best effort" turn into "I can no longer give a damn"?
I just wanted to do a (relatively) simple thing, but their old, old, old server will not allow me to do it in two different straightforward ways. A coworker gave a third option I hadn't thought of.
Let's just say that I'm glad I took that backup of the server before I found that not only does this method not work at all the way he described, but I'll be lucky if I get it back up and running by 2am.
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Crookshanks has her driver's license.
This will be your only warning.
The next week will be interesting.
It's a holiday shortened week by contract.
Inventory is also allegedly next week.
If they try to make me work five or six days in yet another holiday shortened week, I'll be talking a few days for personal health reasons.
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So...yet another reason to never go to Wisconsin?Crookshanks has her driver's license.
This will be your only warning.
She learned from me, so she's already one of the better drivers on the road.
With both of us now on the road you're probably safer up here then in Illinois.
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So, what am I doing at 7:00 am this morning?
A group of managers finally wants us to report on the research we did two months ago. My colleague asked, "Shouldn't we have a meeting to prepare for the meeting?"
I responded, "No, that's stupid."
He set up a meeting anyway.
So in 15 minutes I'm having a meeting to prepare for a meeting.
I live in Corporate Hell.
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And then you'll need a meeting to discuss the outcome from the second meeting, and another meeting to talk though what happened in that meeting, in preparation for your meeting tomorrow to summarise what happened in the previous day's meetings, and thus the Business Fun will never end.
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The other one that kills me (and Vanykrye and Woran will weep over this one) is employees' attitude that their work computers are exactly the same as their home computers, so it's totally OK to download and install free trial software because there's nothing wrong with that.
If you're ever bored, read the license agreement for a free trial. Most of them are very explicit: "This free trial is for personal use only," meaning they are specifically forbidding corporations from taking advantage of their free trials.
Yet just Monday I had two managers try to tell me to download free trials, and my manager had to forward corporate policy to them that free trials require legal review and approval before being installed on corporate machines.
Your work computer is NOT your home computer. Don't treat it as if it is!
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That's why I like my job, axes and saws don't come with license agreements. Though they're all super specific about using eye protection.
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So, what am I doing at 7:00 am this morning?
A group of managers finally wants us to report on the research we did two months ago. My colleague asked, "Shouldn't we have a meeting to prepare for the meeting?"
I responded, "No, that's stupid."
He set up a meeting anyway.
So in 15 minutes I'm having a meeting to prepare for a meeting.
I live in Corporate Hell.
OK. Cutting him some slack. 10 minutes to discuss how we wanted to present our findings, and then he volunteered to build the presentation.
So, "Let's do this so that we look more professional, and I'll do all the work for you."
Can't really argue with that one.
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The other one that kills me (and Vanykrye and Woran will weep over this one) is employees' attitude that their work computers are exactly the same as their home computers, so it's totally OK to download and install free trial software because there's nothing wrong with that.
If you're ever bored, read the license agreement for a free trial. Most of them are very explicit: "This free trial is for personal use only," meaning they are specifically forbidding corporations from taking advantage of their free trials.
Yet just Monday I had two managers try to tell me to download free trials, and my manager had to forward corporate policy to them that free trials require legal review and approval before being installed on corporate machines.
Your work computer is NOT your home computer. Don't treat it as if it is!
*lies down on the floor*
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*lies down on the floor*The other one that kills me (and Vanykrye and Woran will weep over this one) is employees' attitude that their work computers are exactly the same as their home computers, so it's totally OK to download and install free trial software because there's nothing wrong with that.
If you're ever bored, read the license agreement for a free trial. Most of them are very explicit: "This free trial is for personal use only," meaning they are specifically forbidding corporations from taking advantage of their free trials.
Yet just Monday I had two managers try to tell me to download free trials, and my manager had to forward corporate policy to them that free trials require legal review and approval before being installed on corporate machines.
Your work computer is NOT your home computer. Don't treat it as if it is!
*lies down next to Woran*
*begins quiet chanting*
And once again, someone makes their reservation wrong and tries to make it my fault. To be clear, just in case anyone here doesn't already know this, if you make a reservation at a hotel to check in on 9/1, that means after 3pm (or whatever the hotel's check-in time). Not 4:45am, because "Well, it's September 1st, isn't it?". Sure, but for the hotel it is still the night of 8/31. So this guy is A) real lucky that I had a room for him (only happened because someone cancelled really late), and B) out $140ish dollars because he still had to pay for tonight in addition to tomorrow.
Well, if that person doesn't travel stays in hotels much, that's a understandable error - in almost every other case we in our lives, the day date starts much earlier than 2-3 pm after all.
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Crookshanks has her driver's license.
This will be your only warning.
I'll start worrying when she gets her hands on an amphibious assault vehicle.
Or gets her pilot's license...
She learned from me, so she's already one of the better drivers on the road.So...yet another reason to never go to Wisconsin?Crookshanks has her driver's license.
This will be your only warning.
It's not terribly high threshold to compete over.
With both of us now on the road you're probably safer up here then in Illinois.
Again. With bar set so low it's really not a big challenge...
*lies down on the floor*The other one that kills me (and Vanykrye and Woran will weep over this one) is employees' attitude that their work computers are exactly the same as their home computers, so it's totally OK to download and install free trial software because there's nothing wrong with that.
If you're ever bored, read the license agreement for a free trial. Most of them are very explicit: "This free trial is for personal use only," meaning they are specifically forbidding corporations from taking advantage of their free trials.
Yet just Monday I had two managers try to tell me to download free trials, and my manager had to forward corporate policy to them that free trials require legal review and approval before being installed on corporate machines.
Your work computer is NOT your home computer. Don't treat it as if it is!
*lies down next to Woran*
*begins quiet chanting*
Sounds like "IT workers praying to server to keep working while they go on a holiday vacation" scene?
Your work computer is NOT your home computer. Don't treat it as if it is!
Maybe yours!
I'll do with my work computer whatever I want!
Incidentally, I don't bother with free trials anymore since... I don't remember when. Either I get a free programs or... Well, don't get them at all. There isn't much applications that I would be actually using besides browses and game clients anyway. I might not even bothered with installing text editor on this computer since I use Google Drive via browser anyway...
Crookshanks has her driver's license.
This will be your only warning.
I'll start worrying when she gets her hands on an amphibious assault vehicle.
Or gets her pilot's license...
She's been looking for one.
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She is also afraid of heights so you don't have to worry about her getting a pilot's license.
Random Thought of the Day: Japanese vs. U.S. Schools: One of the stories I've heard about Japanese schools is that while teaching styles are left to the teachers, teaching content is strictly regulated. So, for example, a student attending school in Sapporo one day could go home, do their homework, and show up in class in Fukuoka the next day and continue class as if nothing happened (other than the change in teacher, classroom, classmates, and location): The teacher would be at the same point in their lectures, the homework they did the night before would be the correct homework that was assigned, etc.
If it's true, I think it's a fantastic model; as a teacher, I don't have to worry about homework preparation, and once I've been working for a few years I know how I like to teach each lesson. As a student, you don't have to worry about moving or transferring classes.
And yes, this comes up because Impus Minor just switched classes two weeks into the semester and it turns out that one precalculus teacher was doing something completely different from the other precalculus teacher, so he has a lot of catching up to do, in the same school.
EDIT: In the U.S., what you are supposed to teach in a given semester is regulated, but the order in which you teach it, the book you use, the homework you assign, the grading, and pretty much everything else is up to you.
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The other one that kills me (and Vanykrye and Woran will weep over this one) is employees' attitude that their work computers are exactly the same as their home computers, so it's totally OK to download and install free trial software because there's nothing wrong with that.
If you're ever bored, read the license agreement for a free trial. Most of them are very explicit: "This free trial is for personal use only," meaning they are specifically forbidding corporations from taking advantage of their free trials.
Yet just Monday I had two managers try to tell me to download free trials, and my manager had to forward corporate policy to them that free trials require legal review and approval before being installed on corporate machines.
Your work computer is NOT your home computer. Don't treat it as if it is!
So you’re saying I shouldn’t have an array of character builders and virtual tabletops installed on my work laptop?
Asking for a friend…
The other one that kills me (and Vanykrye and Woran will weep over this one) is employees' attitude that their work computers are exactly the same as their home computers, so it's totally OK to download and install free trial software because there's nothing wrong with that.
If you're ever bored, read the license agreement for a free trial. Most of them are very explicit: "This free trial is for personal use only," meaning they are specifically forbidding corporations from taking advantage of their free trials.
Yet just Monday I had two managers try to tell me to download free trials, and my manager had to forward corporate policy to them that free trials require legal review and approval before being installed on corporate machines.
Your work computer is NOT your home computer. Don't treat it as if it is!
So you’re saying I shouldn’t have an array of character builders and virtual tabletops installed on my work laptop?
Asking for a friend…
Global Megacorporation's response to that sort of thing was hilarious: For many years, it was, "If you have personally-licensed software on your work computer that you are not using for corporate purposes, that's fine, but IT won't support you."
Someone in IT got a bug up their butt about that a few years ago and we got a new policy: "You are NOT to install personal software on your work laptop, EVER, for any reason whatsoever!"
That policy lasted all of 6 months before we went back to, "As long as you're not using it for work so we can't get sued, and you're not asking IT for help on it, then we don't care."
It's a reasonable policy; the problem is that people don't distinguish the legality of, "I bought this game and put it on my work computer, which is where I play it for my personal entertainment," and, "I signed up for a free trial of this game and installed it on my work computer so I can evaluate our competitors and determine how to beat them in the market."
Those agreements you always ignore and click through have all kinds of language making that illegal, so free trials on work computers for work purposes are almost always in violation.
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She is also afraid of heights so you don't have to worry about her getting a pilot's license.
So am I*, but I had no issue with actually flying by plane. Of course, I wasn't in the cockpit which might change a lot but still it might give her a chance.
*seriously, walking over a bridge just a few meters high above the river makes me shake. When a friend picked me up and raised me one meter above the floor I was panicking and flailing around with my arms while yelling "put me down, put me down!"
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She is also afraid of heights so you don't have to worry about her getting a pilot's license.
The fact that, if she does, she'll be flying past the speed of sound two foot off the ground at all times doesn't really make me feel better...
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The other one that kills me (and Vanykrye and Woran will weep over this one) is employees' attitude that their work computers are exactly the same as their home computers, so it's totally OK to download and install free trial software because there's nothing wrong with that.
If you're ever bored, read the license agreement for a free trial. Most of them are very explicit: "This free trial is for personal use only," meaning they are specifically forbidding corporations from taking advantage of their free trials.
Yet just Monday I had two managers try to tell me to download free trials, and my manager had to forward corporate policy to them that free trials require legal review and approval before being installed on corporate machines.
Your work computer is NOT your home computer. Don't treat it as if it is!
So you’re saying I shouldn’t have an array of character builders and virtual tabletops installed on my work laptop?
Asking for a friend…
Global Megacorporation's response to that sort of thing was hilarious: For many years, it was, "If you have personally-licensed software on your work computer that you are not using for corporate purposes, that's fine, but IT won't support you."
Someone in IT got a bug up their butt about that a few years ago and we got a new policy: "You are NOT to install personal software on your work laptop, EVER, for any reason whatsoever!"
That policy lasted all of 6 months before we went back to, "As long as you're not using it for work so we can't get sued, and you're not asking IT for help on it, then we don't care."
It's a reasonable policy; the problem is that people don't distinguish the legality of, "I bought this game and put it on my work computer, which is where I play it for my personal entertainment," and, "I signed up for a free trial of this game and installed it on my work computer so I can evaluate our competitors and determine how to beat them in the market."...
Well, the other wrinkle is that sometimes there are bad software interactions. You may not have intended for us to support it, but you installing Personal Software X broke Corporate Software Y on your computer and now we have to fix it. It's not commonplace, but it does happen.
It's a double-edged sword - the balance between livability and reasonableness versus "creating otherwise unnecessary work that would be avoided if you would just not install stuff". This is why most policies feel a bit draconian on the matter, but it's hard to pass regulated security audits when you've decided to have an open Telnet session to a legacy server for personal reasons and it's going over the corporate VPN.
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Things That Make Me Glad I Don't Do Elaborate Halloween Costumes:
Impus Major's friend just bet him that he wouldn't go as a "sexy octopus" for Halloween.
Being Impus Major, he accepted the bet.
GothBard, on hearing about the bet, said, "I already have an idea."
I'm glad I'm not involved. My idea would involve 4 pairs of purple leggings, some suction cups, high heels, big googly eyes with fake eyelashes, a big Mrs. Potatohead mouth, and then I'd be stuck.
I can't wait to see what they end up with.
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Elaborate for me was putting my hair in a forward ponytail and drawing a line down the middle of my face and I told everyone I was a horse's ass.
*lies down on the floor*The other one that kills me (and Vanykrye and Woran will weep over this one) is employees' attitude that their work computers are exactly the same as their home computers, so it's totally OK to download and install free trial software because there's nothing wrong with that.
If you're ever bored, read the license agreement for a free trial. Most of them are very explicit: "This free trial is for personal use only," meaning they are specifically forbidding corporations from taking advantage of their free trials.
Yet just Monday I had two managers try to tell me to download free trials, and my manager had to forward corporate policy to them that free trials require legal review and approval before being installed on corporate machines.
Your work computer is NOT your home computer. Don't treat it as if it is!
*lies down next to Woran*
*begins quiet chanting*
...what?
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Crookshanks has her driver's license.
This will be your only warning.
Congrats to Crookshanks!
She's been looking for one.
I'll start worrying when she gets her hands on an amphibious assault vehicle.
Or gets her pilot's license...
She is also afraid of heights so you don't have to worry about her getting a pilot's license.
I've read at least two interviews where the people earned their private pilot's license specifically because they were afraid of heights.
The fact that, if she does, she'll be flying past the speed of sound two foot off the ground at all times doesn't really make me feel better...
This sounds much like how I drive on my work commute. (Making classic tie fighter sounds while banking is optional.)
There are also different types of "fear of heights". For instance, my dad can fly no problem, but put him near the edge of any drop more than 3 feet and he starts to get real nervous. I remember going to places like the Sear's Tower (back when it was still the Sear's Tower) or the Gateway Arch with him. He'd go up to the observation areas, but stay as far from the windows as he could. But planes? Even window seats? He's fine with.... I've read at least two interviews where the people earned their private pilot's license specifically because they were afraid of heights.
...
That's how it works for me as well. Edges are a big no-no for me. Very high barriers - much above the waist help a bit, though. Windows are weird thing. Basically my reptile brain has a serious trust issue when it comes to them - I have a strong feeling that if I lose balance and fall on them, they will break under my weight and I will go right through.
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New York weather vs. California weather.
I feel like some people here might appreciate it.
Yep; he's pretty much dead on. The best line: "If we see a 7 for a temperature, we expect to see a 4, 5, or 6 after it."
From roughly May through September, our highs have been 64-77 with maybe 6-7 days' exception. Our lows have been 54-62.
It's the standard complaint: "California sucks because it doesn't have weather."
"Yeah, looking at your high of 7°F with a 20 mph wind, I'll take 'no weather', thanks!"
Of course, my kids have never known the joys of shoveling snow. I suppose they lack character for it.
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All I'm going to say about fear of heights is that somewhere in my physical photo archive is a picture from when I held my 61-year-old mother's legs as she extended her torso out over a 3000' cliff so she could take a picture straight down.
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"sexy octopus"
I suggest some combination of calamari and Mata Hari.
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"sexy octopus"I suggest some combination of calamari and Mata Hari.
Scint gets cookies.
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Shiro just found me a new fun tool. You can get the vaccination rate by ZIP Code, at least in California (I bet there are other URLS for the other states).
I knew Albany was high, but we're at 91% with at least one dose, and 85% fully vaccinated.
Woo hoo!