Posts made by alexntg

@scottalanmiller said:

Looks like the hands are bleeding.

It's not a clap. It's stigmata.

Some meetings have purpose. They're still quite necessary when dealing with external parties. Internally, if you're having regular meetings on something, something's wrong with your processes. The processes you use should have communications and information steps built-in. Order got held up? Send an email to the logistics group. I've been in multiple manufacturing organizations where production/logistics would sit down every morning for their daily powwow. They'd always be rehashing the same things - order 123's still awaiting raw materials, work center 8 is down, etc. If they instead communicated this via a job status board/spreadsheet/application/slate and chisel, the info would be available to those that need it when they need it.

Case study:
In a manufacturing environment, customer jobs would get handed off between departments as needed. There was no cross-visibility between departments, so the key players from the departments would have a morning meeting to ask questions on orders. The other folks in the room would take notes in their notebooks, then go their own ways afterwards. This meeting would consume nearly 2 hours a day, and there was likely some job or question that was overlooked. The ball would get dropped on jobs, material purchases weren't made in a timely fashion because logistics didn't know the order was coming, etc. It was a mess.

Later on, Purchasing worked with IT to develop a job material purchase tracking system spreadsheet. They'd have visibility on each job and easily be able to keep material purchase info updated. Eventually, Scheduling was working with Purchasing on an issue, and liked the material spreadsheet. Soon after, Purchasing brought a laptop to the daily meeting, and just updated the spreadsheet with the meeting's notes. After a couple months, the spreadsheet was added to in order to include Scheduling's info, as well as Order Entry, Tooling, etc. People started entering their own data into the spreadsheet. A projector was set up in the conference room, and updates were added real-time as the meeting went on. After a few months (when all the open orders had been entered and kept in the spreadsheet), the meeting wasn't really needed anymore. Everyone had timely information at their fingertips and didn't need to sit around a table to discuss it. Notes and discussions happened within the spreadsheet, and everyone was on the same page.

With that in mind, if you see recurring meetings happening, try to figure out what's wrong with the process that's creating the need for these meetings.

Meeting prevention's also important. Set your environment up to be conducive to one-off discussions. Have whiteboards in open areas so that folks can just walk up and discuss a concept. They can hash out ideas on the marker board and move on. Bam! Meeting prevented. A newer, yet growing concept, for internal-use conference rooms, get rid of the chairs and put a projector and marker boards in. It changes the dynamic of the room from sitting around talking to being active and doing. Meetings will be shorter, less prone to attention drift, and more collaborative instead of one-sided.

After reading this, I think I might be in the wrong line of work. Maybe I should pick up an MBA and go into business consulting?

@scottalanmiller said:

NTG uses Zoho ManageEngine ServiceDesk+ OnDemand for our internal IT.

We do? Last I knew, we were on Asana.

@scottalanmiller said:

@alexntg said:

@RAM. said:

@scottalanmiller I don't think the small scale of ML is going to be an issue for a while. The reality is that everyone who is here, is here for a reason, we have some form of disagreeance with the other site. We are either dedicated, or ignorant to a bigger picture, and the way I see it. Everyone who is here now, is dedicated.

Not all of us have a disagreement with SW.

No. However as part of NTG you were on their proposed banish list. So while you might be okay with them, they sure are not okay with you. You especially should be upset because you were one of the ones singled out, and still singled out, for special punishment.

I was one of the people (if not the only one) that agreed that if an MSP wanted to be able to market in any fashion, they should be a partner of one sort or another. It would also open them up to be able to openly market to others.

As someone that's been in IT a while, you may want to mention some of your major achievements, you know, the real head-grabbers. If they're front and center, they (and you) will have a better chance of getting noticed. 2 pages is the going length for an IT resume.

Is it possible to attach a sanitized version? I don't think pasting it in did you any justice.

@RAM. said:

@scottalanmiller I don't think the small scale of ML is going to be an issue for a while. The reality is that everyone who is here, is here for a reason, we have some form of disagreeance with the other site. We are either dedicated, or ignorant to a bigger picture, and the way I see it. Everyone who is here now, is dedicated.

Not all of us have a disagreement with SW.

Do the replacement batteries offer return service? APC includes a return label with their replacement batteries. Otherwise, you're paying to dispose of them.

@IRJ said:

@alexntg said:

@IRJ said:

It happened again today. I can confirm that it is caused by the Mail App. It seems to be related to moving the app into split screen mode. I tried removing the Mail App and reinstalling it. I still needed a reboot to fix the issue.

I think you're the first person I've ever heard from that uses the Mail app.

I will take that as a compliment

If you'd like. It isn't an insult, at least. As long as it isn't http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lotus notes

@RAM. said:

lol dang @alexntg I don't hate the product if that's what you're implying. Mainly my recent boxing match with possible employment has knocked it out of my favor, this grudge isn't going to subside in a day, a week, or even a month.

It wasn't aimed directly at you, just a blanket statement for the encyclopedia of posts prior to mine.

That being said, don't keep grudges. They aren't healthy.

I'm going to try to keep this non-TL;DR, but there are so many different sub-topics here, that it could be a challenge.

I like answering questions. I get a bit of a warm fuzzy when I get a BA. Without a BA, it feels a bit more like monotony. Sure, I get a bit of a thrill when I fix someone's issue, but the affirmation that comes along with a BA or HP is what drives me. Points are great, and are a bit of reward for having spent hours on the forum. Without the points, it feels a bit meaningless, and not worth spending the time on.

Private groups are a good thing. In most environments, there's concepts and discussions that shouldn't be for the masses. As someone who's been part of private groups, be it professionally, personally, or socially/online, I see their necessity. The key factor is to limit what goes on inside the private group and to make sure to disseminate pertinent info to the masses in a regular and timely fashion so that they aren't left out of the big picture.

I like Spiceworks as a community and an app. With SMB IT changing radically from nuts and bolts systems managers to more of a business enabling role, it makes sense that they'd look to enterprise users now. From a community perspective, they're going to have more bizarre, thoughtful questions. Those are the fun ones that actually make us scratch our heads and bring new and different ideas to the table. The community can already support enterprise needs. The app, with some modularization and optimization, could also support enterprise usage.

Spiceworks collects data. We've known this from day 1. This is something that is either acceptable or it isn't, based on corporate requirements and personal beliefs. Much the same applies to Google. Do you use them, understanding that they could well know more about you than you do, or do you use a different company?

TL;DR version: If you don't like their community, don't use it. If you don't like their application, don't use it. Otherwise, get on with life.

Mine looks different. I'm on Server 2008R2.

@IRJ said:

It happened again today. I can confirm that it is caused by the Mail App. It seems to be related to moving the app into split screen mode. I tried removing the Mail App and reinstalling it. I still needed a reboot to fix the issue.

I think you're the first person I've ever heard from that uses the Mail app.

@technobabble said:

Which is which?

GFI MAX is just an RMM. Continuum has staff to do some of the work for you.
http://www.continuum.net/solutions/rmm-software/service-desk

@alexntg said:

I was using Firefox 28 on Server 2008R2, but my browser just updated a moment ago to 29. Let's see if that helps.

No difference.

GFI and Continuum are different products, really. One's an RMM system for MSPs to manage their clients, and the other's a service to help augment your staff along with RMM.

@Dashrender said:

@Katie said:

Why does he need a secondary calendar?
Perhaps a shared calendar is in order instead of the delegates system.

Category changes from the primary works just fine to delegates...

Currently it appears that we are going to be forced to use the primary calendar - but then that means that the user can't use it for their own personal stuff.

How do you create a shared calendar in O365? (I haven't even googled this yet). As long as we don't need another license for a shared calendar it will probably be a good solution. Another question/thought. What about a sharepoint calendar? Do they integrate with Exchange? Can I get a SP calendar on an iPhone like I can a secondary calendar? How do I add a shared calendar to an iPhone?

Thanks

Shared mailboxes can be created in the Exchange Management section of Office 365. These would not be accessible via ActiveSync. They also don't consume licenses. SharePoint calendars do synchronize with Outlook. In theory, you can add them to an iPhone using CalDAV, though I haven't tried it myself.

@scottalanmiller said:

I hear 29 is pretty nice?

It's like IE and Chrome had a baby and named it Firefox. I'm more comfortable using it now.

@Joyfano said:

@JaredBusch said:

@Joyfano said:

@IRJ said:

I live in FL and I am going to NY in June

Everyone is going to somewhere.. Hmm i wish i could go too hahaha

You went to the beach. I get to stay home.. Yeah, I think you won this one. The only thing we may do (that I get to do with everyone) is a weekend trip to Chicago before the girls start school again in the fall.

I am going to beach again.. Hmm i want to live near the beach

There's lots of beaches here!

@scottalanmiller said:

@alexntg said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Not the same idea. With SVN, for example, we can look up changes over time, do rollbacks, see who committed changes, deploy to other systems, do comparisons.

Both are good to have but version control is a different thing than those technologies.

I'm not sure about device comparison, but LANDesk does the remainder. It logs every action taken. if you push out a bad patch or package, you can roll it back/call the uninstaller.

That's pretty nice. Not free though

What's it matter if it's free? If it can save a few techs' worth of salary per year and makes managing thousands of computers much easier, it's paid for itself.