I've lost count of how many specialists there are who are having a harder time finding work than the generalists.

20+ years doing absolutely nothing but Microsoft Exchange? In a world of Office 365 and Google Apps, your options are limited.

@scottalanmiller said:

It's really true. The site has been a complete disaster. I've even spoken to people at HP about it and they act like nothing is wrong.

And then they act surprised when the cut backs happen..."What did we do wrong?!?"

@JaredBusch said:

@Breffni-Potter said:

@Drew - Ahh, internet mob mentality.

So much this.

Actually wait, that applies to anything, just look at most users. Not just internet mobs.

Bit of self promotion has to be done now and then.

Recently looked at what was being said, how it was being said, so cleaned it up a lot to make it even easier for new/existing clients to find out what we do.

https://darait.co.uk/

Thoughts and comments are appreciated.

Oh and something for the introverts:

https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts?language=en

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2979858/it-skills-training/the-myth-of-the-cybersecurity-skills-shortage.html#tk.rss_all

Saw something a green guy posted in August which did my nut about "lack of security" experts.
http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1131752-irs-says-criminals-actually-stole-data-on-330-000-3x-more-than-reported?stm_campaign=wall&stm_content=spice_event%2Bpost_response&stm_source=vendor_pages%2Bkeepersecurity

The computer-world article is the first published document I've found which confirms what I've suspected all along, mid way through the article:

Security professionals are developed over time, just as happens with experts in every profession, including all of the other disciplines within the computer profession: You are assigned a position that is consistent with your skill level, learn on the job and receive appropriate training. It is that simple. You can “create” a security professional by finding someone with the required minimum skills — usually a computer professional with several years of experience — and then having them learn the security-specific skills required through on-the-job training, mentorship and formal training. I mean, think about it: In many cases, firewalls have been installed and well maintained for years without the benefit of newly minted graduates from cybersecurity programs.

The approach that seems to prevail these days — seeking a new hire who already has the right skills and experience or hiring them away from another organization — just doesn’t work. But it is why so many people believe there is a shortage of security professionals.

https://darait.co.uk/2016/01/use-fear-to-buy-the-best-tools/ - Article shared here.

What do we mean about using fear? This article is about choosing the best product or tool for your needs, when thinking about spending money or changing something big, this will give you some guidance. For now read the below words and we’ll break down what they mean and how they can help you later.

Functional – Is it fit for purpose?
Easy – Can we use this quickly?
Achieve – Does it solve our needs?
Resilient – Will the tool break?

If we were to choose to knock a nail in with a screw-driver instead of a hammer, we might get it done but is it the best tool for the job? When buying new products you will find that a number of organisations large and small are choosing the wrong tools for doing the jobs they need.

When purchasing you need to have a set of questions to ask yourself before you commit to spending the money. You may have noticed the headings above spell out the word fear, normally we experience fear when we are in a dangerous situation or sense something to be hostile to us. The word fear has been chosen because we can use it as a positive check list when buying something new.

Functional

How do we know if something is functional? Ask for a demonstration of the product if you can or get a trial version to test it. Do you know someone who has worked with it before? Why not ask for their opinion? If you are new to what the product can do, can someone else who has used similar before help you test it?

If the product does not work properly, then move onto another product. There are many tools on the market to achieve what you want, don’t limit yourself to one brand or option.

Easy

Do you know long it takes to setup? Will it take lots of training? Can a new person use it quickly? What is easy for one type of person will be difficult for another, try to get different types of people in your organisation using the tool to test it, ideally the people who will use it most often.

Whether something is easy or not is subjective so get opinions on the tool from other members of your team, noting especially with how much difficulty they have from trying the tool out.

Achieve

Before you started looking for the product, you made a note of what problem you are trying to solve. Do you want things to get faster? Do you want the same product but cheaper? What is the need that makes you look for this product?

It can be very easy to look at the many features a product has and want to use them. This is how you increase costs and lose sight of the original needs. Make sure the original problem is fixed with the new tool.

Resilient

The largest companies in the world, with the biggest of budgets, will have things not working at some point. What you need to work out is how long it takes to fix the tool if that happens. No matter what you hear, assume that at some point, every tool will break down and fail. Whether it fails for a few seconds (Even Google have outages) or a number of days is something you need to review.

Do people in house know how to fix it or are they relying on a third party? Is that third party fast to fix problems? How long could you operate without that tool? Is it hours? Days? Weeks?

When buying, use Fear

Functional – Is it fit for purpose?
Easy – Can we use this quickly?
Achieve – Does it solve our needs?
Resilient – Will the tool break?

The best tools for you don’t have to be the most well known brand, they do not need to be expensive or hugely complex. They don’t need millions of people using them for you to know if it works or not. Every organisation is different, what works for one might not work for another, so make sure you check what you are buying.

What if he was not an AI...but actually....

Youtube Video

Pretty much!

Have your child get sick with a virus or your data centre.

Interesting the majority choose their child to be sick over a piece of tech...

@mlnews said:

SAM is such a slacker.

Palo Alto Networks PA-5060With SSDs, brand new, never used. 5 of them.

What would you do with them?

A data centre should be fixable in minutes. If it can't, you've screwed up badly in your DR planning

Child with a virus? days.

@scottalanmiller said:

Yup, a tried and true strategy.

Public opinion thankfully, is with our current health system. People have gotten more suspicious of Gov cuddling up to big businesses and when most people have had their lives saved by this health system and the hard working, underpaid people behind it, they are very supportive.

Whether that is enough to stop this Gov steam-rolling it anyway, who knows.

Spoke to someone else at HP.

Straight up return & refund now. Ordering a machine from somewhere else.

Laptop hopefully collected on Monday.

Feel free to share. - www.DaraIT.co.uk

Which is the better password?

Is it easier to remember.
Better against password attacks
Is the choice that over 300 IT pros recommend
Many environments rely on complex hard to remember passwords which weaken security in the long run.

Also, check out these 4 password facts to remember.

Youtube Video

Why are you helping Chip?!?! 1:38

@Dashrender

@scottalanmiller said:

For free that does not seem that bad. Don't know how good the product is, but filling out a survey for free support seems okay.

15 minutes after posting this, I get CCed on an email asking for my account to be looked at and re-activated by support, coincidence?

@dafyre said

Yeah, that is a perfectly valid point... and I think that is why their starter kits are more than one node, lol.

Yes, but even if I buy 500 nodes, the software is the single point of failure.

Look at Microsoft Azure.

They've not had hardware problems, Not lost data centres, their issues have been software based.

@scottalanmiller said in E-Mail Disclaimers:

Here, let's see if they work. Anyone reading this site owes me $100.

Do you think you all owe me $100? Same with the email.

Send me an email. I'll reply to it with my template disclaimer at the bottom that says I now own your house.