@FiyaFly I think it's the kind of thing that requires upkeep as you go along. Wait too long, and you might not be able to recall all the salient details that need to be included. (or you'll need really stellar notes!)
I try to keep lists of pending documentation work so I don't forget anything.

@Nic said:

You could always do barter - like your price for an hour of tech support is gonna be a case of beer. That straddles the line between friendly favor and business transaction.

The bartering idea is a good one - I think it helps the friends realise the value of the help they're asking for.

@FiyaFly I used Synergy 2 jobs ago when I had 4 desktop machines to wrangle - 2 windows (Win7 and XP) and 2 Macs (Intel and Power PC).
It worked great when it worked, though I will say that because my Mac keyboard was the primary, it lost the config settings from time to time and I'd have to rebuild the profile. Happened like clockwork every 6-8 months.

How did you get started in IT? Was that always a career goal?
At professional events I meet a interesting mix of people who have either always gone in for IT or related fields such as computer science, and then there is the more intriguing set of folks who never intended to do IT to begin with. Personally IT was never a career goal for me, but something I fell into during college.

What's your story?

@PSX_Defector said:

The 90's were a strange time to be in IT.

I agree - and then the dot-com bubble burst.

@Bill-Kindle All caps so he can hear better. Brilliant!

@Eric said:

So we had 20 inches of snow Wednesday in Rochester NY. Is anyone else sick of winter yet?

Yes, I got tired of winter years ago and migrated south.
Consider Tampa Bay.

@PSX_Defector said:

I work in Avaya and Aspect. They each have different terms versus Cisco and Asterisk when it comes to doing things, but it's easy enough to figure it out. Aspect is a completely different animal though, which requires lots more training to know the subtleties than Avaya, Cisco, or Asterisk.

I remember a lot of things in Cisco were relatively buried, while in Shoretel being much easier to find. And yes - different terms on each for some things.

@FiyaFly said:

Could you give me some examples on what administering a proprietary system like that is like?

In the systems I've administered, the hardware and software involved had to be specific - I had a closet full of Shoretel gear and Shoretel-branded phones on every desk. The Cisco system was even more intensive in terms of hardware, at a much greater cost.

I think for some enterprise environments, the comfort of a well-known name brand is preferred, even though it comes at a higher cost. In the SMB market, open-source seems to be more cost effective. Much of the research I've done on this topic seems to support open source as a better alternative. I wanted to get some feedback on one vs the other. I'm sure there are advantages to each, wanted to spark some discussion on that.

What are the pros and cons of implementing an open-source PBX as opposed to a proprietary system?
I've worked in shops that ran Cisco Unity, and after that - Shoretel. I found Shoretel to be a great deal easier to learn over the Cisco system and had a fairly easy time administering it.
How do these compare to something like Elastix or Asterisk?

@Dashrender said:

It's interesting that deleted posts don't just get deleted, they appear to hang around a bit just grayed out and saying - this post has been deleted.

Are they awaiting resurrection?

@scottalanmiller said:

I wonder if there is a Mac equivalent? I feel like I knowing one but can't think of what it was.

Looks like a few Mac apps are available. Check it.

@NetworkNerd said:

So am I the only radical out there who doesn't push his e-mail? Do you find that pushing e-mail to your phone makes you a slave to it in a way?

I have my phone set up to only push during the work days. On weekends, I don't wish to be a slave to email, so it's set for manual.

@RoguePacket Not much to add on this, though good points about the OX version and hard drive. If the OS is over 2 years old, it is worthwhile to get the updated version if the hardware will support it.
The Fruit Company is notorious for end-of-life'ing things after 3 years. (perfectly reasonable, to them)

@pol.darreljade said:

I want to learn iOS programming but I don't have macbook or any mac environment to do my study. Can I do virtual on my windows? Please help thanks.

Here's something handy - xCode for iOS development. Can be downloaded for free here

@pol.darreljade said:

I want to learn iOS programming but I don't have macbook or any mac environment to do my study. Can I do virtual on my windows? Please help thanks.

Hey there - some free(ish) MacOS developer tools can be found here: https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/mac/index.action
Back in the day, Apple offer SDK resources for free. Indeed, many iOS dev kits can also be found for free out on the internets. I'll check a few places and post what's relevant here.

I've heard real good things about this application, from the discussion here, it may be worth a closer look.

I thought it was a themed restaurant based on the David Lynch series. Boy, was I wrong...

@FiyaFly said:

Last night I slept, but that is a very uncommon thing for me as well. I just had to deal with those outlandish things called 'social interactions' yesterday and it took all of my energy to get through it!

Those darn analog social interactions can sometimes zap the life out of you.

@Dashrender said:

@Katie said:

@ajstringham said:

Winter is by far my favorite season

Nope, nope, nope. Winter is not for me.

Agreed! I want SUMMER!!! glau
..

Exactly!