@johnhooks Implosions are cool! Especially live!

I normally contract out cabling because it is not worth my time to do it, except when it is just one drop. I can get one drop done faster than getting on my cabling people's schedule.

It was 70 degrees here yesterday... it is snowing right now....

Just finished running a CAT6 line in one of our 30yr old buidlings... lots of nasty insulation above the ceiling...

@scottalanmiller said:

that part is nice. What sucks is that it is only part of Texas. So you get used to that, come to Houston and the roads are "tag only"... surprise!

Yea, for the most part it is only the newer toll roads... But I think they've turned all of them in Dallas that way.

@scottalanmiller said:

@PSX_Defector said:

@JaredBusch said:

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@JaredBusch said:

@DustinB3403 said:

@JaredBusch there is a battery in the units that the customer takes with them in the car?

I've never seen where those units come apart to provide a new battery.

They don't. You have to replace them.

How long do they last? I feel like ours is over a decade.

Yeah - years .. I have no idea how many. I have one for my yearly trips to Chicago. It's at least 5 years old now. I expect to have to replace it at any random time in the future now.

Illinois uses I-Pass and is a separate network than EZPass but the units are compatible.

I-Pass units have an expiration date clearly printed on the units themselves for this reason.

I have the same tag from NTTA for the past 19 years, usually goes into the car that I have first. If I buy a second car or third, I get a new one which is a passive device and essentially just a sticker.

Our tags have always been passive. My original tag is kind of beefy, but it doesn't have a battery. They also used to have a license plate frame for some cars with some window coating, mostly GM 90's models like their minivans and full size cars, so they are very much passive. So a tag shouldn't need any battery, just that someone picked a loser of a technology. When I used to go back and forth to Chicago a while ago, I forgot how bad the Illinois Tollway was behind compared to the NTTA. Wasn't it around 2004 they even offered any kind of electronic toll collection?

A nice article about how our system works:

http://tollroadsnews.com/news/texas-turnpike-now-ntta-recognized-as-pioneer-in-transponder-tolling-history

I have that one too. I hate NTTA but their tags work great. Definitely no battery and works from really far away. Even at really high speeds. I think I've used it at 90mph.

I don't know what they are doing in other parts of the country, but I do like the fact that now if you don't have a tag, they take a picture of the license plate and mail you a bill.

I believe you usually have a confirmation screen you have to accept when you initialize an array as well.

@DustinB3403 Skull PooP L...lol

Deadpool

I'm glad... imgur stuff loads so slow for me, sometimes not at all.

@travisdh1 said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Yeah that's a big mental. Encouraging people to send them in if caught is one thing. But encouraging people to go out looking for them seems a little reckless.

"Hey kids, guess what we are going to do this weekend... we are going spider hunting!"

My wife grew up on a Texas 1 parcel ranch. She raised money as a young teenager by catching rattle snakes for the Rattle Snake Roundup. Train them right, have the anti-venom readily available, and maybe. Don't know that I'd actively encourage doing that tho.

Was it the rattlesnake roundup in Sweetwater per chance?

@Our-Tech-Team said:

I've never used or worked with Samba so dont know anything about it. The AD I thought was great for them as they want to have more 'control' over users, add more security to the network and manage permissions on folders much better. I'm familiar with AD so thought it would suit them well.

The reason we named the domain name the same as their external domain is because a Microsoft technician advised me to do so if we wanted to Sync our Office365 tenant with the on-premise server.

I can easily nuke the DC and start over, but to re-configure the 15 computers and drag everything over to their new profile is easy, but frustrating to have to spend the extra time doing it as i've just done it for their new server!!!

You can use the AD migration tool if you spin up a new DC. Then it keeps all the SIDs for the users. Just join PC to new domain and it will keep using the profiles, no need to rebuild them. I just don't know if the setup for ADMT will take more time than just doing it manually for 15 users.

I've used egnyte in the past for situations like that, don't remember pricing or limits though

@scottalanmiller said:

Started playing Portal finally today.

I like portal!

With only 15 users, personally, I would spend a weekend and reset up my AD environment just to avoid issues in the future.

This comes to mind with robots doing everything...

Youtube Video

There is alot of US education that needs to changed. Everything the school districts do is to get money from the state. They don't provide a real education anymore, they just teach to tests that you have to pass, beyond that the school districts don't care if you learn anything else except that you can't be successful if you don't go to college. That was rammed down my throat since 3rd grade.

I just have a dislike of all secondary education for the most part... It is not accomplishing what it needs to, enormously expensive, and putting alot of people deeply in debt.

I would say Texas A&M is worst than UT, mostly because there is a strange cult-like allegiance between there graduates. I've known people that would only hire other Texas A&M graduates.

@DustinB3403 said:

@brianlittlejohn said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@travisdh1 said:

@coliver said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Honestly, I bet they have a massive turnover rate just from their entry level staff getting married and not working any more. The "went to college to find a spouse, didn't, and am now just working an entry level job so that I can meet people and get married and stop working" demographic is strong and the general business-preparedness suggests that that is the common goal.

Is that really a thing? I've only met one person like that before.

Hoping I can avoid it, but might be looking for another job soon. Wouldn't mind finding a place like that...... I may be becoming the creepy old widower tho.

Well I know where you can find one and most of them are very nice and quite cute. UT is famous for being a collective of that. Not a school known outside of Texas and inside of Texas is only known for sports, not academics, so you can guess what kind of students they tend to collect. It's why UT is definitely a "don't hire" red flag on a resume for many people.

I can confirm this...

You have been declined jobs because you went to UT ? or you've declined to hire someone because they went to UT?

Should have clarified... I can confirm that UT is only known for sports, not academics.

@scottalanmiller said:

@travisdh1 said:

@coliver said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Honestly, I bet they have a massive turnover rate just from their entry level staff getting married and not working any more. The "went to college to find a spouse, didn't, and am now just working an entry level job so that I can meet people and get married and stop working" demographic is strong and the general business-preparedness suggests that that is the common goal.

Is that really a thing? I've only met one person like that before.

Hoping I can avoid it, but might be looking for another job soon. Wouldn't mind finding a place like that...... I may be becoming the creepy old widower tho.

Well I know where you can find one and most of them are very nice and quite cute. UT is famous for being a collective of that. Not a school known outside of Texas and inside of Texas is only known for sports, not academics, so you can guess what kind of students they tend to collect. It's why UT is definitely a "don't hire" red flag on a resume for many people.

I can confirm this...