Please note there was a venue change for this meeting....

There was a miscommunication with the previous venue, so as of 11/7/2019 we have a change in venue to K1 Speed as stated above. We will have a private room with dinner and drinks provided. Anyone who wants to race will be able to do so in multiple groups after 6:30 PM.

If you can arrive at 5:30, that is fantastic. The presentation will begin around 6 PM to give folks enough time to make it to the venue.

It's the first day back after a long weekend, so what do you do? Take comfort in the fact that episode 7 of Nerd Journey is here to get you through the week.

http://nerd-journey.com/nerd-journey-007-professional-networking-and-training-revisited/

Date: 6/25/2020
Start Time: 6:30 PM Central
Format: Zoom

Note - the Zoom registration data is not used for Sales campaign purposes. It's to keep the trolls away.

It's that time again! This will be another virtual SpiceCorps meeting using Zoom. In addition to your RSVP in the community, please register to attend to receive the Zoom link and calendar invite.

Many of us are in charge of refreshing desktop / laptop / server / network (or other) technology equipment with the unstated responsibility to "get rid of" the old stuff. One option for disposal is to send the hardware to a recycling company. Have you ever thought about how the recycling process works and how this process has changed over the years? Join us from the comfort of your home office as Brad Chism of Computer Crusher Recycling brings us some education in this area. During this session, we'll consider the following questions:

1. How do people / companies normally manage the equipment disposal process?
2. What happens after old equipment leaves your premises?
3. What security precautions should be taken when disposing of equipment that we don't often consider (i.e. erasing hard drives, destroying hard drives, etc.)?
4. How much of the old stuff can actually be reused, and how can that work to your advantage?
5. How does the recycling process work, and how has it changed over the years?
6. What are some of the strangest things people recycle?

We hope to see you there (virtually). Bring your questions, and let's have fun with it!

It's late evening on Podcast Tuesday. Have you ever suffered from impostor syndrome? You are not alone. Listen in to our discussions on that topic here.

Date: 2/22/2021
Start Time: 6:30 PM Central
Format: Zoom

This will be our first virtual meeting of the year (open to all who would like to attend). Maybe you, like many others, want to start to the year by setting a goal to get a new job or change your career in some way. Come join us and get the scoop from people who have been there!

In this meeting, we will focus on the career progression of two technologists who changed jobs during the global pandemic. We'll get the scoop on the why, the interview and onboarding process and how it changed as a result of the pandemic, what it was like on the other side of the job change, how each adapted to new managers in teams, and how they have grown as professionals in the process.

Each of our guests will be sharing their experience and have time to answer your questions.
-Paul Mai (a member of our SpiceCorps) - Systems Administrator at Allied Electronics
-Jeff Eberhard - Oracle Cloud VMware Solutions Leader at Oracle

I'll open the bridge early for anyone who wants to hop on a few minutes before we start. Remember to register here to get the Zoom meeting details. You can also RSVP in the community.

The long awaited part 2 of 2 on Reasons not to Pursue an Opportunity is officially available! In this episode we will discuss reasons that come up during the interview process and after the offer. Get the full episode here.

@scottalanmiller said in Anybody in online retail and warehousing I need ERP advice:

@guyinpv said in Anybody in online retail and warehousing I need ERP advice:

They handle accounting a little differently. They use QuickBooks but do NOT import every sale and order and invoice etc. The only thing they record is the daily batches, that is, deposits.

Replace QB You don't normally use an ERP with QB, you replace QB with your ERP.

Yep - all the companies we've acquired had QB, and we've been ripping it out as we go.

How do you manage holidays and family time when working in the IT field? We'll go through how the community handles it and share some holiday war stories. Get the full episode here.

This one is an interesting one. Here's the architecture:

Elastix is running as a VM on ESXi with a Vega 100 G VOIP gateway connected to the PRI for inbound and outbound calls. Inbound and outbound calls work beautifully. We have a Grandstream HT701 connected to a physical fax machine and registered as a SIP device on the Elastix box. The HT701 is set to fax passthrough mode. That is the only setting that has been changed other than registering an extension. The fax machine is an older Sharp fax machine that has a max baud rate of 33.6K and is supposed to be auto-adjusting for lower speeds.

The primary use for this fax machine is for outbound faxes. When we try to fax outbound, the number gets dialed, you hear the fax tone on the other side like it connects just fine, but when trying to send you get a busy message which causes the fax to bomb. I feel like it is baud speed related but cannot validate that claim. There is no way to decrease the baud rate on the fax machine that we could fine. However, what makes this odd is that when we set an inbound route in Elastix to the extension for the fax, an inbound fax worked without a hitch. I am guessing maybe when the fax came in the speed was fine since it came over TDM first.

My thought was to maybe try putting the ATA in T.38 mode and enabling that on the Sangoma as well, which will bring the baud rate down to 14.4 Kbps and may succeed in sending faxes.

Has anyone else ever run into this? I have talked to folks in similar scenarios and remember them having to lower the baud rate to get faxing to work. Any help is much appreciated.

Have you ever considered Area of Destiny when it comes to finding a job? Are you working in your Area of Destiny now? We'll answer these questions and more as we dive into the concept. Get the full episode here.

Despite being one of those folks who has to have e-mail on my phone, a while back I stopped pushing my e-mail to it several months ago. Now I just check it when I check it, and I am not tempted to pick up my phone when I am spending time with my family that needs to be just their time with me. 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?

What is it like to work for a vendor as part of a Sales organization? This week (part 1 of 2) I'll share how my day-to-day has changed as a result of moving to a field-facing role. Get the full episode here.

I just figured you got your e-mails telepathically, Scott. That way you can respond as quickly as possible.

I didn’t realize when I wrote this blog on navigating VMware documentation that it would turn into a series, but it happened. You can find part 2 of the series on customizing VMware documentation here. In this installment (part 3), we will look at an adjacent area. It’s something that was mentioned in one of the previous articles, but we didn’t give quite enough attention to it. Are you ready for a treasure trove of knowledge?

Think of the last time you needed a knowledge base article (or KB for short) from a vendor. Now narrow that specifically to VMware for a second. It’s likely you did a Google search before searching the KB site (maybe not every time but likely I imagine). Fortunately for us, the web address for VMware KBs has become less messy. They can be found to match the pattern https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/52084, for example, with 52084 being the KB number. If you know the KB number, this makes life easy. But how many people have them memorized? I’d say not many do.

The full article can be found here.

And in conjunction with this, check out Jeffrey Snover's session about JITJEA. He shows some pretty neat Powershell tools to beef up your security for admins.

This time it's John's turn to share what he has learned in his 3-year stint working for a technology vendor. Once again, this is a part 1 of 2 episode. Get the full episode here.

I would say don't waste your time on it. I've found Spiceworks and MangoLassi so much more valuable than anything else most of the time.

Have you ever wished you could get inside the mind of John White? On this week's Nerd Journey episode, I get to ask all the questions as we continue John's 3-year check in at VMware. Let us know what you think! Get the full episode here.

It's one thing to sign up for support from a MSP while you are away, but it is another entirely to have that go well. If your documentation is lacking it may be difficult for the MSP to be effective in helping. As long as things are in order so that access levels to the right things are handed out and some documentation of your environment is in place, it can work. If not, they will be hard pressed to be effective in covering you.

What's your take on staying generalist vs. making the move to specialist? This week John White and I talk about the pros and cons of each choice and as usual, provide some career advice for each end of the spectrum. Where do you fall in the great divide? Get the full episode here.