It interesting to think about, one complaint about Linux is that it has fragmented off into tons of different distributions, however it's has managed to keep a lot of the tools standardized across them all.

@scottalanmiller said in MS Audit???:

@flaxking said in MS Audit???:

I meant only for the Windows OS licence itself, CALs is a whole different world.

Yeah, you can definitely find ways to poll those.

Unfortunately slmgr doesn't seem to be able to detect if it's using a product key from a Visual Studio subscription. But maybe we just have to use some logic.

i.e. says it's Retail, but we don't have any Retail licences purchases so it must be a VS licence. Or it's MAK but doesn't match our recorded MAK

@pchiodo said in MS Audit???:

Yeah, a SAM audit, not to be confused with a Scott Alan Miller audit, is complete and utter BS. The easiest way to figure this out is to specifically ask them if it is a required audit or voluntary. If it's voluntary, why would you ever do it? There is simply no upside. The only time I would be concerned is if BSA contacted me. Then I would go to a CDW or a PC Connection for a licensing expert. Plus, in every case of the BSA getting involved, your company attorney(s) should be called in.

At the end of the day, those companies who are really violating licensing know they are doing it, and should not be surprise when BSA comes knocking. This is things like installing a retail Office on 30 computers, or using one server license across a whole server stack.

If you are working with a good reputable reseller, and are doing your best to be compliant, you will likely never have a problem.

I wouldn't trust your reseller on being the licencing expert. I've talked to a CDW 'licencing expert' before and know first hand that they are only experts in comparison to your account manager

@scottalanmiller said in MS Audit???:

@flaxking said in MS Audit???:

Do you know of a good tool to run to run to detect the Windows licences being used?

I don't think that there is one. So much of MS licensing isn't technical, it's all on paper. You have to know how things are licensed. A few things like RDS, track their usage. But the big, obvious stuff like desktop licenses and CALs, are impossible to track at the network level and can only be done on paper.

I meant only for the Windows OS licence itself, CALs is a whole different world.

It looks like slmgr might be able to do what's needed here. I'll have to check how it displays the different licencing channels.

@scottalanmiller said in MS Audit???:

You should always be auditing yourself to know if you are compliant. If you worry that you are not, you want to bring in a licensing expert to help (it's not expensive and very fast.)

Do you know of a good tool to run to run to detect the Windows licences being used? Something you could use if you walked into a new client that had used multiple different MS licencing channels but didn't properly keep track of things.

I did see a guide before on a private forum that I no longer have access to that showed off a special tool that could be run that would get all kinds of information of the Windows licence on the system and how to interpret them. So I know it would be possible for something to be out there, or is it best to outsource to an auditing company that already has the tools needed for the job?

@scottalanmiller said in Where to read Code? or Best practices to Learn Code?:

@flaxking said in Where to read Code? or Best practices to Learn Code?:

With proper vetting of someone who is using modern tools, I can't imagine that since I don't have the aptitude for that kind of thing, I could ever be able to justify the cost of me learning it and hours spent messing around to get it right.

Outsource it every time, absolutely. You can say that about any task that isn't your bailiwick. But I don't think you can get that for peanuts. Cheaper than trying to do it yourself, yes, definitely. But it's still a costly process to get done well.

That's true, it influences customer perception and directly affects usability. A business is definitely going to want to invest there.

However, if I'm doing a personal project to help myself learn web development, I'm going to pay peanuts for it, just so I have something I'm working with. And learn some good outsourcing lessons in the process.

@scottalanmiller said in Where to read Code? or Best practices to Learn Code?:

@flaxking said in Where to read Code? or Best practices to Learn Code?:

I can't stand web design, drives me nuts. And you can pay someone peanuts to do the design for your web apps.

You can't. That's a myth. Web development is as hard or harder than non-web and needs more skills and expertise. Like any development, no one skilled is cheap. You can't actually get it cheaper offshore. They charge less per hour, but it costs more.

For web design? For someone to make up CSS stylesheet and HTML template to use?

With proper vetting of someone who is using modern tools, I can't imagine that since I don't have the aptitude for that kind of thing, I could ever be able to justify the cost of me learning it and hours spent messing around to get it right.

@Obsolesce said in Where to read Code? or Best practices to Learn Code?:

@flaxking said in Where to read Code? or Best practices to Learn Code?:

I can't stand web design, drives me nuts. And you can pay someone peanuts to do the design for your web apps. Definitely not worth the torture.

Python can be the first tool in your web development learning path. Django is popular web development framework, often used by companies who make custom web apps for clients.

If the goal is web development, wouldn't Node be a generally better route than Python?

I'd say there probably aren't as many Python web development jobs, and most web apps built by a company to provide a service aren't using Django. Python does have a path to web development, and when people trying to figure out what language to start with, they tend to want a path to their end goal from the language they learn to program with. However in reality the knowledge all combines together, so someone who learns Python first and then Node isn't going to be losing much time and will probably be better for it.

That being said, using a server-side JavaScript language was one of the recommendations made to me when I was looking to start learning programming.

I'd rather make a Powershell script than a batch file, but I'm still going to use executables to do tasks in my scripts when they are simplier, more specifically designed for the job, and there's not more advanced scripting required where I would benefit from using objects.

i.e. Copy-Item script vs using robocopy

Today I used icacls in a simple powershell script. And I always use the IIS management tool instead of the IIS powershell drive provider.

I think powershell's greatest strength is it's flexibility. Combine PS cmdlets, .Net, calling executables, even C# coded objects together to do what you need to do.

I can't stand web design, drives me nuts. And you can pay someone peanuts to do the design for your web apps. Definitely not worth the torture.

Python can be the first tool in your web development learning path. Django is popular web development framework, often used by companies who make custom web apps for clients.

I know this thread is over a year old, but for group chat, there's Mattermost. If you get the GitLab integrated version, you can have LDAP authentication without paying for the premium version.

@scottalanmiller said in Replacement Software?:

@stacksofplates said in Replacement Software?:

Zammad is an interesting help desk/ticketing system.

I've been interested to see someone using that.

Same

Instead of trying it out we're going to spend $15000 on software licences

@JaredBusch said in Where to read Code? or Best practices to Learn Code?:

@scottalanmiller said in Where to read Code? or Best practices to Learn Code?:

Here you go, a rundown on why Python...

I probably posted in most of those how much I hate python...

What language did you learn first?

I started with Learn Python the Hard Way. In order to get OOP I had to do a lot of playing with it. But after that it became natural to me and now I can't imagine how it took so long for me to get.

My first real personal project was a local job web scraper that posted to Facebook. When you go through learning material you should always have a project in mind/on the back burner that you can mentally (and then actually) apply what you are learning to.

Next up is Graylog

The Azure CentOS image I used for testing didn't have firewalld enabled by default

Basic GitLab omnibus installation, CentOS specific
Includes LDAP and Mattermost integrations
https://gitlab.com/flaxking/gitlab

@wrx7m said in PowerShell - Off-boarding Script:

@flaxking said in PowerShell - Off-boarding Script:

It wants a string and your giving it a SecureString

OK. How can you tell that?

On your read-host you have -AsSecureString to convert it.

Set-ADAccountPassword documentation shows it takes a SecureString for the password

Set-MsolUserPassword documentation shows it takes just a string for the password

If you run GetType() on your variable it should tell you it is a secure string

It wants a string and your giving it a SecureString

@JaredBusch said in What Are You Watching Now:

I started Batman vs Superman dawn of justice yesterday.

and will never go back and finish