Best posts made by garak0410

Missing SpiceWorld right now...

@Reid-Cooper

One of the 100's of watch faces...

Music controller... (if you swipe right to left, you can control volume, skip or rewind a song:

It does let you know how much physical activity you've had (but doesn't remind you to get up and walk):

Weather...it also has an expanded Weather "app" to get a few more details:

Main App listing...scrolls vertically...

Twitter Notifications:

You can also voice respond to texts, can voice command "track my walk/run" and as long as you have your phone and runkeeper, it will GPS your walk.

You can also interact with some apps via the notifications. Like I can approve Chore Monster chores via the SmartWatch.

Also, when you clear a notification on the watch, it also clears it on phone. Nice...

Android Wear is a lot better than I expected and it really all depends if you need a smartwatch...bottom line, if you want fitness, go with Fitbit or Microsoft Band 2. If you want a well rounded SmartWatch with excellent notifications and step/calorie/activity counter, AndroidWear based watches are great.

Perhaps we can begin a new "sticky" post but I am always interested in what other IT pros are using in their "tech" lives...and how it changes from time to time. I've recently become a convert of using "whatever works" over being "all in" with Microsoft products and ecosystem...so, guess I'll start:

Home:
Dell XPS 8700 with 16 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 10 Pro, GeForce GTX 645 (my primary file/media sever)
Plex Media Server
Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-Bay NAS 8TB
WD MyCloud NAS (2 units)
Surface Pro 4 (basically, my main PC)
Amazon Echo (Alexa)

Cloud
OneDrive
Amazon Cloud Drive
Google Play Music
Amazon Music
Groove Music

Mobile
Samsung Note 5
LG Watch Urbane w/Android Wear

Media Center
XBOX One
Plex App

I am currently in transition with my cloud services and music providers. I've been in the Groove ecosystem ever since Zune but since the app on Android is weak (no music scrubbing / fast forwarding), I've decided to try Gogle Play Music. Though ever sense getting an Amazon Echo, I like the convenience of using it for Amazon Music. Their PRIME catalog is way behind Google, Groove and Apple Music but I love to tell Alexa to play something. And Amazon Music has decent apps for the phone and desktop (it has lyrics on a lot of songs). If I can live with less "free music", I may just use Amazon and just buy albums not in Prime that I want . But, I don't know, sometimes paying for Google Music (which includes YouTube RED) is worth taking ads out of YouTube videos...

With Cloud storage, OneDrive seems too quirky for me. I actually mapped my main file server libraries to OneDrive but I always have a handful of files with sync errors but no way to fix them. Amazon Cloud Drive doesn't work quite like OneDrive but it doesn't have to if I need an occasional file. I may always use OneDrive for personal, Office documents. And do I dare say the Mobile version of Excel saves to OneDrive way better than full Excel? I'd always end up with corruption or version problems.

I've got a ghost writer...nice...

I am just crazy busy at work but this post reflects a fraction of what's on my plate right now. SO let me take a piece at a time.

We are running production VM's on that aging (but licensed) PowerEdge 2900. Do I need replacing that as my priority or perhaps look at the Starwind solution first? We are going to need more storage since we are adopting DocuWare.

@scottalanmiller said:

We will need the DPACK to know for sure, but an R510 is a monster compared to what you have and so much cheaper than the R700 series. The R510 can hold more storage than you could possibly need and is a very low cost chassis. Hard to go wrong with it. It's my favourite entry level Dell on the market. (The R720xd is my favourite mainline Dell.)

We currently are still tower servers...so will look for the equivalent for sure.

@MattSpeller said:

@garak0410 said:

@scottalanmiller said:

What GPU does that have?

It is a custom GPU along the lines of a Nvidia GeForce 860M. So it isn't a gamers dream, but that said, I CAN game and game well on the go. I've not loaded GeForce Experience on it since this is a custom GPU and before the last firmware update, there were many unstable issues with both the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4.

I've played ALIEN: Isolation with details maxed but but a much lower resolution. Video Rendering speeds with Adobe Premiere have been quite impressive.

Does it have dedicated vram or does it sneak around like a thief in the night, hungry for some delicious ram

It has 1GB of dedicated, GDDR5 video RAM.

We set up a Survey Money account and this project is finally starting to take off.

Their reporting options are, well, less than robust, as it looks like I'll be manually building reports in Excel.

I'd rather not have "yet another spreadsheet" but as stated ion other posts, development isn't my strong suit but I can learn. We also have SharePoint Online but still haven't fully utilized it but not sure if that will be a good option for dumping and using this data.

Anyone have any common practices, suggestions or ideas on how to making reporting better?

Has anyone used BLOC for those online developer training bootcamps? Are just having the right books and resources with self-discipline still the best, cheapest way?

https://www.bloc.io/web-developer-career-track

Did anyone see Independence Day: Resurgence over the weekend? I had fun with it but the film is full of many odd edits/poor dialog moments and just some truly bizarre scenes.

SPOILERS: Like when Dr. Isaacs died. Dr. Okun's reaction was so over the top and I didn't know if they were close friends or in a relationship. The character of Floyd Rosenberg and his desire to find himself by mentoring with Dikembe Umbutu seemed so one dimensional and predictable. And the kids driving the car who find
Julius Levinson came out of nowhere, long after all of the character building had taken place. The sphere and it talking seemed so out of place. And many other scenes... END SPOILERS

That said, I still smiled a lot and had fun with it. But the more I think about it, the more I realize it was a mess.

@coliver said in Independence Day: Resurgence - Atrocious Script But Admittingly Fun:

I think I'm going to wait till it is available to stream. The original Independence Day was a little cheesy, but ridiculously enjoyable.

This one was ridiculously cheesy and a little enjoyable.

@thwr said in VBA Hint Needed - Change Way An Existing Project Grabs Data:

@garak0410 said in VBA Hint Needed - Change Way An Existing Project Grabs Data:

@thwr said in VBA Hint Needed - Change Way An Existing Project Grabs Data:

@garak0410 said in VBA Hint Needed - Change Way An Existing Project Grabs Data:

@thwr said in VBA Hint Needed - Change Way An Existing Project Grabs Data:

@garak0410 said in VBA Hint Needed - Change Way An Existing Project Grabs Data:

@garak0410 said in VBA Hint Needed - Change Way An Existing Project Grabs Data:

I am going to examine the code on the existing project that grabs this same data by date range and a list from another spreadsheet. Will see how it stops its data collection to complete the macro.

It has a "Do Until" statement that keeps getting those job numbers until the date range is exceeded...wondering if I can DO UNTIL "null"?

You mean like when the cell is empty?

Yes...Do Until cell is empty...unless I am just thinking too hard on this...

If ActiveCell.Value = vbNullString
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13360651/excel-how-to-check-if-a-cell-is-empty-with-vba

Great...will see what happens...

Don't blame me in case of a nuclear meltdown

Never...just jump into a lead lined Fridge before I begin...

@garak0410 said in Sophos Cloud Endpoint Advanced - Any Thoughts???:

@garak0410 said in Sophos Cloud Endpoint Advanced - Any Thoughts???:

@IRJ said in Sophos Cloud Endpoint Advanced - Any Thoughts???:

@garak0410 said in Sophos Cloud Endpoint Advanced - Any Thoughts???:

Wow...just wow...after I had to totally rebuild/reload Windows 10 on my PC, I tried Webroot...now, my PC reboots after being logged in for 2 minutes. First, my second monitor goes dim and everything locks up. Then, it reboots. I log back in...same thing...works for 2 minutes and same thing happens.

So, I am wondering since I am now 0-2 with Sophos and Webroot, that it could be a hardware problem with my PC or most likely, it doesn't like Windows 10 1607 update.

At this point, I may just stay with Symantec another year and just put up with those hiccups...

I've never heard of that before. I am sure you probably already did this, but I just want to double check. You uninstalled Symantec first, right?

Last week during Sophos, yes, uninstalled Symantec first and then loaded Sophos...bam, wouldn't boot.

Now, this is a CLEAN copy of Windows 10 1607 with all updates...bam...reboots every 2 minutes...I noticed I can only uninstall Webroot from its website console, so I sent an uninstall command...said it could take 24 hours but hoping it will be soon...

Update...it uninstalled but still locked up and rebooted...will report back on what happens after this...

Uninstalling stopped the reboots. And as someone said earlier, their support is fast...they are already working with me on this...

I have a single user with a new iPhone 7+ that I upgraded from an iPhone 6+. She is receiving her EXCHANGE email from the stock email app just done but she always gets the message: CANNOT GET MAIL. CONNECTION TO SERVER FAILED

I've searched and none of the suggestions out there seem to fix her issue. I've set to NO LIMIT, I've removed/re-added account, nothing works.

NOTE - She doesn't manage her inbox. She has over 42,000 emails in her email box alone not to mention thousands showing unread. Not sure if that could be part of the problem but she did not have this issue on her iPhone 6.

I currently have her set on 1 Week email. When I moved her to no limit to troubleshoot the problem, she text me after hours wondering why she had 5800 unread messages. I explained it nicely to her about her large inbox.

Any other suggestions? Like I mentioned, she is getting her email but it is an annoyance...

Thanks...

I can't explain it as we did try this stuff throughout this thread...but as far as the Workstations not pinging, it was a Windows Firewall Issue...I disabled it (which I KNOW we tried on other workstations when troubleshooting) but tried it last night and it worked...and I know we looked but guess didn't look hard enough but ALL File/Print Sharing Options were disabled...ALL of them...so I'm leaving Windows Firewall On but enabling the domain rules for File/Print Sharing...I swear I checked this.

I guess I don't know who or what to blame for these settings being turned off, but guessing it was Symantec Endpoint on the uninstall.

So, I will go around and fix the affected workstations and hopefully close this off my list.

One thing I can't do on ANY PC right now, even those that could ping, is remote COMPUTER MANAGEMENT...hasn't worked since the Endpoint Migration. Is there a specific setting in Windows Firewall to turn that back on or could that be something on the domain controller, since the "pinging PC's" couldn't even do this...

@dafyre said in Most Workstations Don't Ping But Are Connected - Some Network Apps Are Locking Up:

@garak0410 said in Most Workstations Don't Ping But Are Connected - Some Network Apps Are Locking Up:

@dafyre said in Most Workstations Don't Ping But Are Connected - Some Network Apps Are Locking Up:

Check your Windows Firewall settings and ensure that Windows Remote Management is checked... (screenshot is from a non-domain joined machine)

Tried that...still get this and then it says it cannot be connected...

Check the WinRM service is started?

It was stopped and on manual...started it and set to automatic...rebooted...still can't access it on this one PC...will test on another PC where I know the user is out today.

So really, what could have caused all these Windows Firewall settings and remote services to be so messed up? I'm guessing it was the "Scorched Earth" of Symantec removal but weird it was hit and miss...

@Danp said in Invoice Software - Office 365 Or Purchase Software Suite?:

@garak0410 It's sudo apt not sudo app.

Installed now...moving...will report progress...

I'm in the midst of a difficult search. Our trusty HP 9040 with an 8 tray sorter/mailbox has died on us...

Upon searching, I can't seem to find anything close to this. HP makes a sorter but mainly for an option to have a stapler. I've checked Lexmark and they have some options but not sure about the quality and if we can assign trays per user like we can with the HP.

The craziest part, is my preferred vendors are dragging their feet on researching and quoting options for me. I am doing my own searches but I might not blame them. It has been difficult...

Our needs:

Enterprise/Production Level Printing
Trays: Letter, Legal, 11x17
The most output bins we can get these days.

Any suggestions?

Craziest thing...that program called CONFIG TOOL just decided to discover everything...was able to find cameras, give them a proper IP, used the IP of the network card on the Milestone system as GATEWAY address and I am halfway through this converstion now...

So let's post our stories, opinions and photos of SpiceWorld 2022.

It was a smaller scale this year for sure but not distractingly so. We were on the opposite end of the convention center so some of the meeting rooms were smaller. The Vendor room seemed smaller but it may have just been the hall we were in.

The showroom closed down an hour before the party, so no cocktails and a place to hang out before going to party.

And the "drinks" showed 2 limit but don't think it was being enforced, especially with 4 stations.

The sessions were good but some where not on the subject you thought they would be.

But overall, it felt "normal"...

Listening to Crowder's NEON STEEPLE album on XBOX Music and trying to trouble shoot an IP Address issue with a VBA heavy spreadsheet.