@Minion-Queen said in If you could get a Bachelor's Degree for under $8,000 in less than a year... would you?:

So if you can get a degree without going into major debt. Go for it. But do not rely on the "teaching" to actually mean anything and know that you have to keep your skills up by doing not learning. Because 90% of what is taught is garbage. Know that going in and I think you would be all set.

That's actually the piece I intend to avoid as well. I'm not looking for the teaching. I can teach myself and show that I retained it in an exam. I figure I've been in the field long enough to know at least a decent amount of what is and isn't worth knowing. Plus, we have these communities to ensure that we always stay in line with that.

@Dashrender said in If you could get a Bachelor's Degree for under $8,000 in less than a year... would you?:

This is the double edged sword of employment.

We see Scott running around here claiming that the places you want to work don't require a degree - but then we have posts like this that say that the jobs they are seeing do.

I haven't been job hunting in a while - but the last time I was, I do recall seeing a lot that wanted it (and sometimes or equivalent experience).

This is just a hard place to be in. I think if you can find a good placement agency, that might give you leg up, but some many of those places just seem shady.

Here's actually my fear- https://www.fastcompany.com/3057941/the-future-of-work/how-the-masters-degree-became-the-new-bachelors-in-the-hiring-world
. Mind you, I haven't personally seen the changes that are noted in that article, but it does get me wondering. At the very least, it gets me thinking I should get a bachelor's degree.

Legitimately every single job posting I have ran across requires a Bachelor's. Often they'll say or equivalent experience, but it seems to be obvious that they're looking for one.

@scottalanmiller said in Are CMS Detectors Legal?:

Nessus

Via SlashDot:
Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday October 06, 2005 @04:02PM from the say-it-ain't-so dept.
JBOD writes
"As reported at news.com, the makers of the popular security tool Nessus are closing its source code. Although it will will remain free as in beer, Nessus is dropping the GPL license for the upcoming version 3 of the software. The problem appears to be that Tenable Network Security (the company which primary author Renaud Deraison founded around Nessus) isn't making money because it's competition is simply repackaging their product. Deraison's writes "A number of companies are using the source code against us, by selling or renting appliances, thus exploiting a loophole in the GPL. So in that regard, we have been fueling our competition, and we want to put an end to that." He also notes that the OSS community has contributed very little to Nessus in the past six years, so they were reaping no benefit from using the GPL."
Update: 10/06 22:48 GMT by CN : Nessus' Renaud Deraison wrote me to let me know that the company is "good money-wise," but has become annoyed with competitors repackaging their product.

Apparently you're 11 years behind on that news, Scott.

@Breffni-Potter said in If you could get a Bachelor's Degree for under $8,000 in less than a year... would you?:

The need for a degree is due to the HR machine, would that HR machine look at the school in question and filter you out automatically?

Nope. As stated, the main thing looked for, according to what I read, is regional accreditation for a college to make sure it's not just a diploma mill. So, at worst, it would flag it for more information about the school, but the degree is there and legitimate.

Let me start by saying I abhor the idea and concept of college education. Put simply in my mind, the return on such a significant investment never really comes to fruition.

However, I have been doing some reading on getting a bachelor's degree because it seems to be getting harder and harder to get a job without a degree. I stumbled across this little nugget of information:

http://degreeforum.wikia.com/wiki/Degree_Forum_Wiki

Essentially the idea is to take a huge amount of standardized tests, get credit for them, submit a portfolio of work you've already done in the field and get credit off of that, then either take classes for the remainder of the credit needed, or test out of them at the college itself (The "Big 3" online colleges allow you to transfer in all credits instead of just some, except for like one class)

From what I read, the colleges are regionally accredited- "...two of them are state schools, and the third was formerly a state college of New York." which would mean they are verified as legitimate.

Tell me- is this something you would do?

Over the last 36 hours I think I have put about 18 hours into thoroughly researching labor laws, retaliation laws, and court cases set as precedence.

@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

We didn't make it. Grandma died while we were in Oklahoma. Slowing down the drive now. Will sleep in Cuba, MO tonight.

I'm so sorry, man.

@Sparkum said in Any Jet Reports guru's here?:

@FiyaFly
Hey

Ya one of the largest points of re-doing everything is to get it to a point where we can schedule it (we currently run it 2 times a week and then enter some information)

So we are also trying to get all the cells that we would manually add information to populate.

There are alot of one off reports (using this report) that people want, for example we currently run it on Monday and Thursday, but people also want then different time frames etc so while scheduling it eliminates the time problem it only really half eliminates it.

I was actually able to make a few changes and got the report down to 27 minutes, so I'm back on track for optimizing the report!

Thanks

Sweet! What changes did you make?

@wirestyle22 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@Dashrender said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@wirestyle22 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

My wisdom teeth grew in impacted. I am going to need to get them removed in the very near future. I asked Laura to video tape me when I'm all loopy on drugs. I hear this is extremely painful so I'm not looking forward to it but it's a necessity.

I had mine removed at 30 - full out knockout gas when it happened.

Yeah I think that's whats going to happen with me. I don't know what to expect with days out from work, inability to drive, etc.

The most you should be out of work will be a day, in theory. The drugs will have worn off by then, and you can still do your duties, provided you can fight through the pain or don't get doped up too hard on the painkillers

@DustinB3403 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@Dashrender I had my right wisdom removed while awake, was only provided Novocaine.

Never again.

Same. They gave me the shot eight times in the same spot before they started ripping the tooth out, and it wore off within an hour. I asked them what to do for pain and they said "Take some Tylenol and you should be fine."

@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:

Looks like this is still ongoing.....

Fort Lauderdale airport shooting: Multiple people shot dead by Florida gunman
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38535699

Damn...

@scottalanmiller said in Cyber Security Business:

@FiyaFly said in Cyber Security Business:

But I also feel like saying small business generally have little to no security is a blanket statement that's not necessarily true either.

But it is absolutely true. Generally SMBs have little to no security. More often than not, they actively disable default security.

Well, then I must have gotten the smart few who have at least some security, and I can't necessarily say 'little' or 'bad'.

Not saying you're wrong. I just find it odd, from an anecdotal level. Not enough to argue I'm right, but enough to want to look up some statistics on this.

@scottalanmiller said in Cyber Security Business:

@FiyaFly said in Cyber Security Business:

From that page:

Hackers seek low hanging fruit and small business generally have little to no security.

I would change the wording on this to "...Small businesses don't always have the budget for sufficient security to prevent these attacks"

I would not because it's not true. SMBs can often afford to do things well. They choose not to, it's not the same at all.

But I also feel like saying small business generally have little to no security is a blanket statement that's not necessarily true either.

@Dashrender said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

@FiyaFly said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

@scottalanmiller said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

It's not AS cheap, but I'd consider doing this on Vultr or Digital Ocean instead. Will look way more professional and give you even better experience. And for two systems, you can do it for $10/mo.

I was considering going hosted, but right now I need to actually do some tuning to my budget to figure out when I can buy a domain name and have it forward to my IP...

@scottalanmiller said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

@JaredBusch said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

Just do not expect to actually perform any VM backups with Veeam on VMWare free. You can do agent backups, but not VM level.

Good point, the free Veeam agent would work fine, but not normal Veeam. Not the Veeam that companies are looking for.

Very true, however, read above on budget. I am going to be doing some training in Veeam, and want at least something to practice with, even if it doesn't offer full functionality.

The free stand alone version doesn't work anything like the paid product though, not really.

Then I guess this would be my secondary question- would it be worth building a lab with it at all? If it's nothing like paid, it sounds like I won't really benefit from learning to use it.

@IRJ said in Cyber Security Business:

@Breffni-Potter said in Cyber Security Business:

Right now you have an explanation on certifications, why security is a problem and the services you offer but why would I pick you over anyone else? I know the who and I know the what but give me the why.

Pricing is the main sell. I just made that page public about 20 minutes ago. Most security firms won't charge less than $10k for a pen test and they don't work with small companies that can't afford security.

selectcybersecurity.com/pricing

From that page:

Hackers seek low hanging fruit and small business generally have little to no security.

I would change the wording on this to "...Small businesses don't always have the budget for sufficient security to prevent these attacks"

I know a one-man IT shop or two who might take offense to that original wording.
Marketing. Saying the same thing as the other guy, but saying it better.

@Sparkum said in Any Jet Reports guru's here?:

@scottalanmiller

For sure, and I am definately going to take SUMINDEXING to our developer.

So that would explain the 45-60 minutes jump (since we got the 3 hours back down to 60 minutes)

But the fact that it jumped from 60 minutes to 120 minutes is ENTIRELY on me since my previous version still runs in 60 minutes.

I hate to sound ignorant, as I don't know much of anything about Jet Reports, and I'm basing just off the information I've gleaned from this discussion, their website, and my knowledge of excel (which seems to be massively greater than I think I'd like to admit. Dark Days of "Doing Everything With Nothing"... /tangent)

Schedule reports to automatically run and distribute on a regular interval – daily, weekly or monthly. You can also trigger reports to send based on set alerts (did the budget get exceeded?). Tailor reports to your needs, save your scheduled tasks, then sit back and relax while Jet Reports does the work for you. Like magic!

Maybe set these reports on a schedule? That'd save actually noticing the run time, though it wouldn't actually reduce it.

It sounds like, since the formulas are a little longer, and I'm assuming there are many of them, it is trying to run calculations god knows how many times during the report compilation. Try turning off Automatic Workbook Calculation (File -> Options -> Formulas -> Workbook Calculation. Set to Manual. Will recalculate before saves and can be done manually with F9) See if that helps.

Another possibility is if your screen is showing Jet Reports trying to compile the report from a spreadsheet, it might be heavily taxing the processor due to the visuals. Take a look into programmatically turning off and on screen updating in excel. Might help

@travisdh1 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@DustinB3403 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@travisdh1 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Well, looks like the server boot drive is dead. Looks like I'll get to upgrade that to XS7 after lunch. For now, everything is working how it's supposed to in a fail over scenario, and I knew it would before I had to juggle things around, yay.

what happened?

Root was in read only mode and I couldn't start/reboot anything from the console. That's all I know for sure at the moment.

XO restored everything we need to get by to the backup workstation I keep around for just this situation. Nobody else would know anything was wrong at the moment if I didn't tell them.

Well, sir, that deserves a beer and a celebration. I tip my hat to you, in your well thought out and designed DR plan. You are a gentleman and a scholar, and are held in high regard in my book.

I know it sounds sarcastic, but really it isn't. I've seen a few too many people get their servers and networks dropped hard due to a poor or non-existent DR plan.

In slightly related news from about a year ago:
Apparently TMobile may be violating Net Neutrality laws. For price? I'd switch. Though, for me personally, learning about this makes me wonder if I'd support TMobile. Though, still not sure how much into the whole Boycotting thing I am. So, for now, just information for you guys.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/01/friends-please-tell-t-mobiles-ceo-about-eff

@scottalanmiller said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

@FiyaFly said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

@scottalanmiller said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

It's not AS cheap, but I'd consider doing this on Vultr or Digital Ocean instead. Will look way more professional and give you even better experience. And for two systems, you can do it for $10/mo.

I was considering going hosted, but right now I need to actually do some tuning to my budget to figure out when I can buy a domain name and have it forward to my IP...

Use GoDaddy for your Registrar. CloudFlare for your DNS. One time cost of about $18 to buy your domain name.

DNS does not "forward", it is a lookup, not a forward.

Fair enough. Yet another thing I've been looking to learn more about is DNS. Still need to find that money somewhere, but I will be looking to start doing it soon.

@dafyre said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

Seems like decent hardware. I'd try to bump up the RAM if you plan on doing much more with it.

Sweet. The hardware I'm using is literally my old PC from 2011.

@scottalanmiller said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

It's not AS cheap, but I'd consider doing this on Vultr or Digital Ocean instead. Will look way more professional and give you even better experience. And for two systems, you can do it for $10/mo.

I was considering going hosted, but right now I need to actually do some tuning to my budget to figure out when I can buy a domain name and have it forward to my IP...

@scottalanmiller said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

@JaredBusch said in Home Lab, Multiple Servers on Repurposed Hardware- Feasible?:

Just do not expect to actually perform any VM backups with Veeam on VMWare free. You can do agent backups, but not VM level.

Good point, the free Veeam agent would work fine, but not normal Veeam. Not the Veeam that companies are looking for.

Very true, however, read above on budget. I am going to be doing some training in Veeam, and want at least something to practice with, even if it doesn't offer full functionality.