Best posts made by Carnival Boy

You didn't notice thousands of dollars of unexpected transactions on your bank statements? How rich are you?

That's how I picture Americans - if there's something you don't like, shoot it.

@thanksajdotcom said:

"I understand 2014/2015 doesn't look good, but I was born into a religious cult and this was the period during which I escaped. I am now trying to put my life back together." It seems like a sound idea. Thoughts?

I don't like that. I'd never mention "religious cult" in any job application. I also don't like the term "trying to put my life back together", as that implies your life isn't currently together. It might be true, but surely you want to give the impression that the past is the past and you are now completely over it and perfect?

"Travel and personal development" is better. I'm not convinced by it, but something bland along those lines is definitely the right approach IMV.

Came across this shop whilst on holiday in Shropshire earlier this week and thought of this thread:

@ajstringham said:

I had watched his house for him while he was out-of-state

http://www.visualphotos.com/photo/2x4715361/businessman_looking_out_window_through_binoculars_u16588000.jpg

QA=Quality Assurance

I still can't believe how much you slag off your employer on a public forum (and on your blog). I think it's only a matter of time before you get caught and fired.

Dear Carnival Boy

I've used up all of my 5GB iCloud storage. My phone is full of work photos that I need backing up. Please resolve.

Regards

A. User

AFAIK, there is no corporate iCloud option, is there? So my options are:

1. Logon on to his iCloud account and use a company credit card to buy an annual iCloud plan for his personal use.
2. Get him to do it, using his own credit card, and reclaim on expenses.
3. Use an alternative backup system.

On my own phone, I've tried using OneDrive to backup my photos. It started ok. Then hung. Now the app just crashes everytime I open it. Par for the course, with Microsoft apps. I need something reliable, that works in the background.

I'm thinking about using Google Drive. Any good?

The problem is, iCloud is very good. It's reliable and I like the fact that when their phone breaks, I can just restore from iCloud onto their new device and they're away.

Advice please.

A member of my IT tech support team is moving to another part of the country. Rather than losing him, I'm hoping to let him work remotely, with the occasional on-site visit if required (maybe once or twice a month).

Although my company has lots of home and remote workers already, this is the first time I'll have managed one. Do you have any tips on how to make the arrangement as productive and pleasant as possible, in terms of how to manage him, what tools to use to communicate with him (eg slack), and how to keep him motivated and feeling part of the team. I know a number of you work from home, and some of you manage staff remotely (eg @Minion-Queen )

I'm looking forward to it as it'll give us a chance to really utilise a few online tools like Slack, Trello etc etc that are currently under-used because the team is sitting directly opposite each other and so often finds it easier to just open their mouths and talk.

@scottalanmiller said:

People ask me before using them and they don't even need to do that because I license them for certain use.

< considers where to post picture of @scottalanmiller in his pink, fluffy unicorn costume >

One thing I would like to do is have 6 weeks summer holiday when my kids are off and go travelling. But my company doesn't really like anyone taking more than 2 weeks off in a row, and we only have 5 weeks in total for the year.

When I was a kid, my dad was a University lecturer, so had 2 months over summer, and we'd travel round Europe for 4 or 5 weeks every year. Time of my life. Although he seemed to find both the cost and his annoying kids fairly stressful at times....

@ajstringham said:

They'll never see it but yeah, true.

You sure? ML is indexed by search engines. Someone Googling "A J Stringham McAfee" may well end up here and that could be bad news for you.

Anyway, congrats on your new job.

Hate 'em. Either send me a proper card that is hand-signed or don't bother.

/rant

I think just blaming IT departments is harsh. I know from back when I was running IT departments that there is constant pushback from users whenever security was tightened or new policies rolled out and it is critical to make clear that security is something being pushed from the very top and not from IT. In many companies, senior executives will actively undermine IT when it comes to security - that shouldn't happen.

It's important that when a senior executive moans to the CEO that IT are making his or her life difficult the reaction is "suck it up" and not "I'll have a word and see what I can do to make you an exception".

There were little things that I did like when a memo went out on a new policy I made it sure it came from the CFO and not from IT so (a) people took it seriously and (b) IT didn't get the pushback from necessary but unpopular polices.

There needs to be a culture of "IT are making your data safe" and not "IT are making your life difficult".

Sounds good. In the UK there is no way to stop them legally (as far as I'm aware).

I keep getting called by Adobe in Egypt trying to get me to upgrade to Creative Cloud. It makes me laugh:

Week 1: We have a special promotion but it only runs for 4 weeks.
Week 2: There is only 3 weeks left to benefit from our special promotion. After that it will be very expensive.
Week 3: Hurry, there is only 2 weeks before the price goes up.
Week 4: 1 week left. You must buy now or you'll regret it!
Week 5: Silence
Week 6: Silence
Week 7: We have a new promotion which is even better than our last one. But hurry, it only runs for 4 weeks.

Post like crazy and then get a job at NTG. That's what most people on here seem to do

My biggest gripe is shows like CSI where they view a really low-res CCTV image of the bad guy, and someone says "zoom in right there" and they zoom in a 1000% and can suddenly view a high-res image of a box of matches the bad guy is holding with the name of a bar on it or something. I just end up screaming "You can't zoom an image like that!"

I'm not lying! Honest!

It depends how you define failure. Take a common stat like "80% of ERP projects fail" (I made that stat up, but I hear similar ones all the time).

How do we define failure there? For me, I ask the following questions:

1. Was there any down time when the system went live?
2. Did we lose any customers?
3. Did we lose any revenue?
4. Did it go live more than a few months of the original stated go-live date?
5. Did it go over 20% of budget?
6. Did anyone get killed?

If the answer to all those is 'no', I treat the project as a success.

Whereas the CEO might ask:

1. Did we realise all the benefits the ERP salesmen promised us in his original proposal?

If the answer to that is no, he will treat it as a failure.

Different people, different definitions. Failure depends on what you set as your expectations. I generally have low expectations from life, so am often pleasantly surprised

But if, as a friend of mine did once, you give up your well paid job and spend two years of your life developing an app and then sell about 100 copies, by anyone's definition you have failed. It doesn't make you a failure, but it makes your project a failure.

I like arguing with people on here that live in different time zones. I'll come up with a pithy reply and have to wait 8 hours for them to wake up and answer me.

I've lost count of the number of times I've said this to a user. They see "Free" and assumes it means "Free Everywhere", whereas more often than not it is only free for non-commercial use.

I suspect that a lot of companies ignore this point, and use the software anyway. After all, there is nothing to stop them. I expect they are unlikely to prosecuted, as the software houses are often pretty small (compared with the likes of Adobe and Microsoft etc etc).

I'm talking about things like MalwareBytes and RealVNC that are free for home use but not for commercial use.

How do you deal with this when your bosses or your clients are wanting to use "free" software on their business PCs?

I wish there was an easier way of paying than credit card. Credit card payments aren't easy for me.

@Carnival-Boy said:

@scottalanmiller said:

No, NOTHING extra is going to Spain. Nothing. Even our clothing has to be cut down to the absolute bare necessities.