In the forest with wife and kids. Lots of wild blueberries and raspberries all over the forests here.

What's the goal here?

• Restart two known services named:
  • "Sophos Agent"
  • "Sophos Message Router"

If that's the case, there's a much easier way to do it:

function Restart-SophosServices {
Restart-Service -Name "Sophos Agent" -Force -Verbose
Restart-Service -Name "Sophos Message Router" -Force -Verbose
}

@Dashrender said in Non-IT News Thread:

@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:

@Dashrender said in Non-IT News Thread:

@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/02/breached-water-plant-employees-used-the-same-teamviewer-password-and-no-firewall/

Further, all computers shared the same password for remote access and appeared to be connected directly to the Internet without any type of firewall protection installed

While this is possible - this seems extremely unlikely. No edge firewall/router/NAT device? Again possible, likely - seems not. Only exception to this I can think of is if each of these computers were on their own internet connection, not not a shared network for the facility.

Now - that said, it's completely likely that the Windows 7 machines didn't have firewalls.

Windows 7 has a firewall, and on by default.

Just because it was not some third party thing, does not mean no firewall. I hate news reporting on technical details.

I couldn't remember if Win 7 had one by default...

How? I don't know of any OS in the past 20 years that doesn't by default. Even XP did.

Also, in your WP settings page, verify these are "https":

@hobbit666 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

just wondering. I'm spinning up a new Ubuntu server.
Does anyone encrypt the drive(s)?

I do. You should always have your data encrypted at rest.

These are the requirements you should give out for MS SQL alone: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/install/hardware-and-software-requirements-for-installing-sql-server

Then, you should have your own requirements for your software, separate from any SQL requirements.

@jaredbusch said in I can't even:

You just made me log in for the first time in nearly a year just to thumbs down that assclown.

So, your employer knows they are doing this, but is giving it to IT? That doesn't make sense. This is a management issue, supervisors needing to tell them to stop. If they still aren't getting work done, that alone is enough to replace them.

Anyways, NirCmd can do this.

@scottalanmiller said in I can't even:

Today's customer conversation...

Customer: "Hi, you guys have been great but now that you aren't local we don't feel comfortable [fyi, we have local people still just I am not local] so we want to use a local IT provider. We'd like to stop paying for your service."

Me: "We understand, and understood months ago when the new IT firm came in and seized control without talking to us. I talked to your COO and worked out the end of service for that day and you've not been billed since then... months ago."

Customer: "Oh, well I get a bill I'd like to cancel whatever that is."

Me: "That's your phone service that you always had separate from any IT support. You went through several phone services while with us as IT because you didn't want to use us but none could get your phones to work so you finally gave in and paid half as much with us and your phones have been with us for years now."

Customer: "I don't understand what phone service is. What does that mean. Just cancel service."

Me: "...."

How do you deal with a customer who has had RingCentral, SpectrumVOIP, Charter phones and after decades of owning multiple major medical practices and work for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and now doesn't even know what a "phone company" does? She's the owner and CIO and doesn't know that phones need service... even though she and she alone has installed and purchased every phone vendor ever for the company!!

At that point, do as asked. Draw up a legal contract for cancelling the phone service and then disconnect it. At least you won't get any more calls from her after that, LOL!

@g-i-jones said in New to server builds. Making new DC on domain.:

@tim_g I gather it's not possible on the same domain then? Am I correct in assuming the replication would be that of/including the AD?

Yeah it doesn't work like that.

You either add a new DC to an existing domain, add a new domain to existing forest, or create a new forest/domain entirely.

I'm really not sure what you are asking now.

If you are adding a new DC to an existing domain... then yes of course you pick an existing DC to replicate from, so the new DC can become part of the existing domain. You can't join a new DC to an existing domain wiht only that DC not having anything from the existing domain. That just doesn't make any sense at all.

I finally got to the store today to pick up a mini-B (mini usb) cable to connect the telescope mount to the Raspberry Pi.

I was able to get it configured and working. That was one of the biggest things I was worried about because I've seen so many people having issues with the Prolific PL2303 drivers and R-Pis in general. The mount's hand controller uses a built-in serial to usb interface. But with Astroberry, it was fairly simple and worked.

I already got the Fuji camera working with the Pi a few months ago while I was waiting for the telescope on backorder.

Now that the biggest hurdles are overcome, I just need to wait a little longer for the t-adapter to arrive. Winter here is the cloudy/rainy season The t-ring already came. In the meantime, I'm going to have to wait for some clear nights to be able to align the scope properly and really give this a thorough test with the Pi.

The Barlow and the 8-24mm eye piece should arrive around the same time as the t-adapter. That should be some fun viewing as well.

@vhinzsanchez said in Windows file server query:

• Storage Spaces – software RAID?
• Storage Spaces Direct – LAN RAID or VSAN?

Don't do it.

@Dashrender said in Is Real Estate Actually a Good Investment on Average?:

@Mario-Jakovina said in Is Real Estate Actually a Good Investment on Average?:

This source (and others) says that prices of houses in US have risen more then 100% percent in 20 years, so it is much faster then inflation:

This is pretty much true here in NE, but that's mainly during/post pandemic - leading up to the pandemic, it might have been around 30% more than I paid...

Bought my house in 2005 for $202K, today 'valued' at $380+

As for my actual income - it's been raising around 1%/year

Curious, over the last 20 years, how much interest have you paid? How much in insurance? How much in maintenance and repairs? How much in upgrades and add-ons? How much in other things? How much did you miss out on because of not wanting to move for better income being held back by a house? What about after adjusted for inflation?

Additionally, had you put 202K into an index fund in 2005,what would it be worth today?

@vhinzsanchez said in Windows file server query:

• Now I think that the last 2 will not necessarily be needed as VMWare VSA will take care of it (also, if we upgrade, still to Pro version not Data Center), but what’s your take?

What do you have that is a requirement to have Windows-based file servers and VMWare?

@RojoLoco said in RojoLoco gets a new kitchen....:

Here's a quick pic of the actual countertop:

C'mon man, everyone knows you should always use a banana for scale.

@stacksofplates said in Is Docker a joke or do I just not see the point?:

But they might not be, they might be constant, never go down cases and would then require updates just like any other system.

This is weird and not the use case at all. You don't store persistent data in a container. If you care about the data, it's on a backing store that a new container attaches to. You'd have to do something really really weird to update something inside of a container like you're describing.

This is the big one here... think of containers as "throw-a-way". If you have data on there you can't throw away, containers aren't for you. Your data should be elsewhere like he says above.

On a nice hike

I know this post is old, but I've found doing scheduled tasks with SaltStack is insanely simple and very effective lately... so much more than using MS Group Policy.

https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.win_task.html

Full Moon
2023.01.06 @ 21:32
Alt: 55°

First night out in a few cloudy/rainy weeks, next week or two the same
I did a little bit of everything of what I could. Dew point reached, everything got wet that wasn't in a heated dew shield, which thankfully the telescope was.

Setup:
5" SCT + Fujifilm X-T4 @ ~1250mm f/10 - 3840x2160
iOptron mount, tracking: mount-only
Fujifilm Camera Remote
FPS: 29.97 / Shutter 1/250 (4ms) / ISO 320 / Histogram 50-75%
Dynamic Range: 200%
70% / 450 light frames
PIPP + AS!3 + RegiStax6 + Lightroom

Same shot, different processing:

@wrx7m said in Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account:

@obsolesce said in Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account:

I know this post is old, but I've found doing scheduled tasks with SaltStack is insanely simple and very effective lately... so much more than using MS Group Policy.

https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.win_task.html

I really want to get back into learning saltstack again.

Here's an example of a task that goes to all minions it's supposed to go to... and it "just works". No AD required.
Also, using SaltStack to sync that .ps1 it runs from GitLab: