@RojoLoco said:

@BBigford My people! I mean, my ancestors were in the banking industry...

Here's another scene I love...

Youtube Video

@RojoLoco said:

@BBigford My people! I mean, my ancestors were in the banking industry...

I bet they made a lot of withdrawls.... (sarcasm)

@RojoLoco said:

@BBigford Ha! That scene brings up 2 thoughts: 1) F@ck western medicine and the American health care system, and 2) I hope he got to bang the doctor lady.

If you haven't watched that movie, you should. I'm not going to spoil anything. It's an Irish, organized crime type of movie.

@RojoLoco said:

@BBigford you only get a few decades to ride this mudball around the sun. On your deathbed, a missed exam or honors list whatever will be inconsequential. Live your life well and it will all work out right.

You might get a kick out of this scene from The Departed. It always makes me laugh for some reason. I think just because it's way over the top in regards to someone really stressed out:

Youtube Video

@RojoLoco said:

@BBigford you only get a few decades to ride this mudball around the sun. On your deathbed, a missed exam or honors list whatever will be inconsequential. Live your life well and it will all work out right.

I keep trying to think of that exact thing. Thanks for that.

@coliver said:

Do you have the option to take a semester off?

I took like 10 years off between high school and now, I'm not taking another semester. To directly answer your question, no. If you stop going, you have to wait 12 months for that class to roll back around. Plus, if I have kids I'll probably never go back because of availability and finances, and we're gonna start thinking about kids in the next 5 years. Finishing school is now or never...

@RojoLoco said:

Make sure you are getting plenty of sleep (I know that seems like a daunting task itself). From what you've listed above, I would try to part time one of your full time things. Sounds like school is a real source of stress, maybe go part time on that.

Is your GF pulling her weight financially? I would love having someone to pay half my mortgage and bills. If she's not, that's a BIG stress causer.

There are many herbal remedies for stress, both legal and semi-legal. The semi-legal kind works much better, but some valerian root or kava kava will do wonders considering you can buy them at a health food store. Use the liquid extract in either case.

Exercise, in any form, can help as well. Work out w/ weights, take a jog or a swim, do yoga (good place to start),

The recipe for stress relief that works for me is: No gf, no kids, no school. Eat, drink, smoke, and f@ck what you want, repeat as needed. Life is for living, don't forget that....

Yeah my girlfriend pays half of everything (groceries, she has her own car, mortgage, power, everything). Haha I like your recipe for stress relief though.

@Dashrender said:

@BBigford said:

rs is slim. I find out soon if I am going to be shown any leniency but there is a chance I'll get suspended from honor society, any

Holy crap.. what school are you in?

Are you talking about college? Have you read Scott's opinion on college?

College of Western Idaho (Boise). I know school isn't necessary to some. I'm 27 with almost 10 years in IT so I don't feel I HAVE to go to school. I've always wanted to get a degree so it's more of a life goal than out of necessity to put on a resume/CV.

They are strict because it's not a broadview university where I can take other classes. I had a SQL class, Linux server class, and this is a security class. You have to pass one to move on to the other. D is failing, and if you fail, you wait 12 months for the class to roll back around.

Not going to go into too much detail. Short overview:

*Working full time
*School full time
*Mortgage
*Unmarried, no kids, but living with my girlfriend
*High level of bills
*Paying for school out of pocket

I am in honor society, and am now eligible for scholarships so I can stop paying out of pocket. What do I go and do with my good grades? Forget to take an exam (a take home exam, but we have 5 total, this was the first, and they are weighted 20%) while I'm studying for finals. So I went from an A+ in this class, to an F. If you even get a B, your chances of staying in honors is slim. I find out soon if I am going to be shown any leniency but there is a chance I'll get suspended from honor society, any scholarship opportunities frozen indefinitely. Worse case scenario, I fail the class and get kicked out of school for 12 months. Does it matter that I have a 4.0 average? Nope. You fail a class you are done.

I've been having a legitimate panic attack all day. Tried deep breathing exercises, talking to people, trying to keep an upbeat attitude, slow things down a little, and positive thinking.

What the hell else can one do besides just say f^ck it and start wading through sh^t creek? Anything that works for any of you?

@larsen161 said:

@BBigford I'm not sure what you're really looking at an alternative to here. Is it a replacement for accepting payments on a website (business use), international transfers, or just paying friends/family.

PayPal to send family money seems silly - it has a fee. I would just transfer it to their bank account from mine using BACS or send them an sms Paym if <£250, it doesn't cost a thing.

I just transferred $1000 to my brother last month. Free of charge. Another $300 to my mom 2 weeks ago, no fee. I'll have to look into why there is no fee if there is supposed to be.

@aaronstuder said:

@BBigford post the items here, someone might be interested

I've never used a forum like Mango or Spiceworks for posting items... thought maybe it was bad taste. Here's the items though:

http://boise.craigslist.org/sys/5518472090.html

http://boise.craigslist.org/ele/5509437203.html

@DustinB3403 said:

They've likely stolen the payment method, be it cc or whatever. And they are trying to buy as much as possible while the payment method is still usable.

As for the cancellation, they don't care, because you have to dispute the payment with PayPal, not them

Eesh, yeah. Good point.

PayPal sprung up out of necessity for ease to pay on sites without putting in you card information each time, send family and friends money, transactions can be linked to business payment software, etc. But how safe is it really? Scammers can set up fake accounts, get the transactions pulled or even linked to false payment information, etc. What is everyone else using when sending money to family, etc?

So I recently did a price drop on some newer photography gear, and a home lab server. When I reposted, I immediately started getting scammers texting me. The area codes were all spread out so I didn't think much about those. There was one though that is in my area code (living in rural Idaho, the whole state the same area code though, so...)

Fast forward, the scammer appeared to be a scammer as any other. They wanted to pay via PayPal, and do UPS Next Day Air a few states away. I can see where that's going... Ship it out real quick, the payment has a few days to process, and then pull the payment from PayPal.

How does someone get the payment pulled, when the tracking number would clearly show delivery? Short of processing a false payment... If that were the case, how could they do that when PayPal has to verify the payment method during submission of information?

@Jason said:

@BBigford said:

@Jason said:

@BBigford said:

@Jason said:

We tested the EliteBooks.. Didn't like them that well.

I personally owned a HP Pro x2 612 G1. It was interesting but it had a lot of issues.

I looked up the 612 G1. Looks like a 2-in-1. I've completely steered away from those. They look like a disaster (under-powered, over-priced, commodity devices)... I'd sooner get Chromebooks or Surface devices personally.

The HP Pro x2 is far far better than the Surface.. But it still sucks.

I'm not a big fan of the Surface devices. Good idea, but when it comes to support-ability, no way. Remoting into them is aweful, PXE boot requires a $50 adapter, and driver support is hard to roll up. Overall, not very easy to deploy from my experience.

PXE works fine with the Docks that have ethernet. The HP Pro X2 has ethernet on it's detachable keyboard even.

We just got in a dock for testing to see if PXE was going to work fine (we have to have docks anyway). So that's good to know!

@Jason said:

@BBigford said:

@Jason said:

We tested the EliteBooks.. Didn't like them that well.

I personally owned a HP Pro x2 612 G1. It was interesting but it had a lot of issues.

I looked up the 612 G1. Looks like a 2-in-1. I've completely steered away from those. They look like a disaster (under-powered, over-priced, commodity devices)... I'd sooner get Chromebooks or Surface devices personally.

The HP Pro x2 is far far better than the Surface.. But it still sucks.

I'm not a big fan of the Surface devices. Good idea, but when it comes to support-ability, no way. Remoting into them is aweful, PXE boot requires a $50 adapter, and driver support is hard to roll up. Overall, not very easy to deploy from my experience.

@Jason said:

We tested the EliteBooks.. Didn't like them that well.

I personally owned a HP Pro x2 612 G1. It was interesting but it had a lot of issues.

I looked up the 612 G1. Looks like a 2-in-1. I've completely steered away from those. They look like a disaster (under-powered, over-priced, commodity devices)... I'd sooner get Chromebooks or Surface devices personally.

@Jason said:

We tested the EliteBooks.. Didn't like them that well.

I personally owned a HP Pro x2 612 G1. It was interesting but it had a lot of issues.

What didn't you like about the Elitebooks (did you test these new low power ones, or just the "standard" form factor Elitebooks that have been around a while)? We've had some of the Elitebook 2560s, etc. Just standard laptops with good specs. I don't care for the driver support when it comes to WDS, but any laptop seems to be tricky since drivers are so particular with laptops.

Have you tried the M series processors yet? If so, how'd they do for you?

I've never been a fan of HP laptops. Having said that, Elitebooks have always done right where I've supported them. Usually all the businesses I go to, they just buy Latitudes/XPS/Precision. What are your thoughts about these? Not looking to buy. Just thought they are looking pretty good. Still not sure how I feel about the M series processors. Speed when you need it, energy efficient when power isn't needed. Haven't had an opportunity to try them out though.

http://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/business-solutions/elitebook-folio-356501--1#!&Tab=vao

@Jason said:

@BBigford said:

@Jason said:

@BBigford said:

I had to give a user a quote for a MacBook Pro. They need dedicated graphics and I went to look at Apple for a build-to-buy. Looks like they really slimmed that down. The only one that doesn't just have Iris graphics is their highest end model for $2499.99 ....

I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

I think Amazon has one slightly cheaper than that that has AMD r9 + iris 16gb of ram, 512gb SSD. I'd say don't get one unless there's a really good reason. Editing video and needing pro res codec is about the only reason these days. Most video work and all audio and graphics work is now better on windows

No there is absolutely no justified reason for buying it. They ended up getting every top of the line spec (~$3200 plus extras). But when it's for someone in sales, we really have zero pull since they are babied around here. They have quantifiable evidence of how much money they make the company. Whatever. I still use 3 year old monitors and a Latitude E6410. I just got in some laptops people are replacing with brand new ones so I can choose between a Latitude E6520 or M6600 (weighty, but the video card is pretty good, and bigger screen). Neither has support for Windows 10. I know the M6600 does terrible with Win10, the E6520 seems ok so far (setting it up now). Sales get to replace their laptops twice per year. IT, every 5 years (at best). I don't need brand new so I just take the replacement gear. Saves the company money while sales is spending money like it is going out of style. One person in marketing has had three MacBooks at one point recently. That's right, three. I think she is down to two... Plus a Windows laptop. Sales and marketing really push me to the edge of my sanity with all the demands for Apple products. If it was justified, sure. Go ahead, but "well...Mac. I work better on a Mac. Macs don't get viruses. It is faster. It just works." Zero validity in that argument and I hear that crap every argument.

Sorry. Ranting over here.

So a Sales guy that could likely work from a chrome book gets the most expensive mac..

We had that here too though sales guys get macs if they want them (if their managers approve) but they have to stay within the same budget a windows computer would be bought for.. And we don't do VMs with windows clients if you do that we end up paying double and might as well get a windows computer.

Definitely not the most expensive. The CEO's setup (x3 Apple Cinema displays, Mac Pro all decked out, etc) all came out to about $7500 I believe. But he is the CEO. So, whatever.