Best posts made by pchiodo

https://www.fox4news.com/news/man-awaits-compensation-after-vehicle-wrongly-towed-from-dallas-apartment-complex

@XROBAU So I don't know if you are still reading this, have abandoned the thread, or left the community, but if you are still here, I just want to tell you something....

Scott Alan Miller is probably in the top 20 storage experts IN THE WORLD. He may come off as a bit arrogant and maybe a little condescending, but at the end of the day, he really is an expert.

If you do even a modicum of research on Scott, you will find he is referenced, quoted, copied, and cloned throughout tech communities and forums around the world, and his advice and recommendations are used daily in businesses ranging from mom and pops, to Fortune 100 companies.

Companies like Change.org, Citi, Barclays, as well as hedge funds, and Wall Street firms have sought out Scott for his expertise. These companies do not take data and storage lightly, so when THEY seek out someone like Scott, you can be assured his skills and knowledge are rock solid.

Just sayin' dude

The goal was never to get into just one phone. They wanted a legal precedent that would allow them to force a manufacturer to assist in breaking any phone, along with the potential to use the same case to force manufacturers to provide an encryption back door.

Today, Wells Fargo experienced a system wide outage affecting virtually all of their customers. This was the second time in a week they had an outage. Just last Friday customers had issues logging onto their online accounts at Wells Fargo.

Their latest tweet confirms that the fire suppression was activated, and reports from Reddit and other sources indicate that they had to perform a system wide shutdown, and are now attempting to bring the systems back up.

To compound the issue, it appears their fail over failed, according to some inside sources. And to top it off, rumor has it that this came up in their risk management meeting and budgeting was turned down to fix the issue.

The consequences of this event are already impacting the company in countless ways:

• Their new head of technology, Saul Van Beurden, just 2 weeks into his new job, will not be getting much sleep, and may be looking for a new gig soon.

• Their stock took an immediate hit, and has lost 2.4% of it's value, or about $5.4 Billion, (yes, billion) according to The Street.

• Many customers who commented on social media have expressed they will be moving to a new banking solution as soon as they "can get their money!"

• Their will be a class action lawsuit filed in the next few days if one hasn't been filed already. Many customers are complaining about bills not being paid, incurring late fees, and having their credit scores affected due to late payments. One customer had to reschedule a medical procedure for their child because her card could not be processed.

Of course, the list goes on, and this won't be the end of the damage for Wells Fargo. The only good take away from this disaster is to bring to the forefront the absolute need for a well thought out and tested DR plan.

@David.Scammell

My Favorite Pie Chart:

Just to clarify as I have dealt with this in the past, have consulted attorneys, and have done extensive research on MS licensing compliance. MS has three ways that they perform audits:

But first, a word from the lawyers.... Understanding licensing agreements are not for the faint of heart, nor for those who have not had professional legal training. They are complex, and even most attorneys will not attempt to tackle this multidimensional albatross. The law firm we used referred us to a firm that specializes in software licensing. They are expensive, and unless you are the target of an actual Microsoft license compliance verification or a Business Software Alliance audit you will not have to go down this rabbit hole.

Back to their methods:

1. SAM audit, or Software Asset Management audit. This is voluntary, and is always done by a third party reseller. This is the most common encountered, and a lot of companies comply because they think it is required. It is not, and is in almost all cases, a sales pitch intended to extract licensing fees from the company whether they are needed or not. Again, this is voluntary, and you can refuse with no repercussions. I know what you are going to say..."But won't this lead to a full audit?" Nope... refused a number of them and never heard another word.

2. Microsoft license compliance verification. This is invoked by Microsoft and is done by a third party accounting firm. This type of audit is rarely done, and if you are the target, you would receive a certified letter directly from Microsoft. At this point, you should engage an attorney. If you are the target of this type of audit, you are probably out of compliance, and you would probably already know you are out of compliance.

3. BSA or Business Software Alliance audit. In most cases, this is triggered by a whistle blower who turned in your company. They offer rewards, so there is incentive for people to turn in companies who are pirating software. They do not exclusively audit Microsoft products, but this is by and large their biggest customer. They also act on behalf of Adobe, Autodesk, Oracle, and a litany of others. Again, with a BSA audit you would receive a certified letter, not an email, and again, if you get one of these, contact an attorney before doing anything.

At the end of the day, if you have been issued a EULA, and your software activates, you are probably just fine and have nothing to worry about.

Even if you end up with BSA or direct Microsoft audit, you will probably just have to buy some licenses and move on. Unless you are knowingly installing pirated software, or using some tool to bypass the activation process, you will likely never encounter anything beyond a SAM request.

I hope this clarifies some issues and belays some concerns.

@gjacobse said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@RojoLoco said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@gjacobse said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Cleaning out my iPad Browser. .... Seems I have maxed the open tab limit. Hee hee

What's the limit, like 3 or 4?

I think I have like 30 tabs open.

You mean something like this:

http://techtalk.pcpitstop.com/wp-content/uploads/toolbar.jpg

I am hoping to do a session on careers. Kind of a reboot of How to Get a Raise, but with more concentration on career development and advancement.

I was also considering a session on budgets and IT finance. I still believe many IT Pros have a hard time asking for money, and have a difficult time with budgets. Understanding that IT budgets are a huge waste of time and effort, but that many companies still require this approach leaves the IT pro in a sticky spot. Addressing how to handle budgeting and IT finance could potentially be an attractive subject.

Thoughts?

@dbeato

I've had two software vendors tell me these exact words. In both cases, I was able to virtualize their products without issue. One even had the audacity to say that the SQL server supporting the application couldn't be virtualized IN A 3 TIER environment.

As far as support, I don't necessarily tell them it's virtualized, and have yet to have them not support the issue nor fix the issue. In my mind there is no difference between an application on a virtual box and one on a physical box.

Greatest tech troll ever:

How to hack a jack for your iPhone 7:

Youtube Video

The comments are golden

Paul Chiodo, CEO of NTG will take you through IT Finance. You'll learn the ins and outs of getting your projects funded, appeasing the bean counters, and why understanding IT spend will make your life better.

Learn to talk the language of the CFO and their C-Suite counterparts, and why following the money is the key to project success. Paul will shed light on terms like ROI, CapEx, COGS, and other finance jargon to help you communicate with those that hold the purse strings.

We'll go through a concept that will lower your budget, while increasing your technology, and at the same time, reduce requests for non-value added technology.

If you have ever had a project turned down, or funding denied, this is a must attend session.

Reserve your seat for MangoCon 2019!

I saw this on SW:

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1881566-how-to-limit-printer-usage

At the time, there were 73 replies, and the "Best Answer" was to turn off printing for this employee.

I submit this is a management failure, not an IT problem:

My response:

*"Mike, I'm not saying this is a bad idea, but the primary issue is when management decides to use IT as a solution to a people problem. It is obvious this employee is the root of the problem. Deal with the employee, not the printer.

This is a clear sign of poor leadership. If they cannot sit down and talk to the employee, and then take the next step when they don't comply, but instead, sidestep the issue by inserting IT into the problem with all expectations that IT can somehow deal with a rouge employee, then they have failed as managers."*

@DustinB3403 Well, 6.5 million watched. 6.4 million knew it wouldn't work. 30% of those actually have iPhones, and a third of those went and bought the iPhone 7, so that makes about 10,000 that actually believed the video, and I would guess that maybe 5% of those actually got out the drill, so, best guess +/- 200 phones?

Also, were you aware that 83.6% of all statistics are made up?

It's the CEO's Birthday! As a present to all the IT professionals, we are having a 50% off sale on tickets to MangoCon this week. Reserve your seat today at https://mangocon.it/

I will not be there this year. Have some drinks for me, and somebody better order Chicken and Waffles!

https://9gag.com/gag/a0NpmbB

Due to the disruption of travel and gatherings due to the Covid 19 crisis, we are postponing MangoCon. Currently, we are monitoring the crisis, and plan to reschedule based on a number of factors. At this time, we do not have an anticipated date for MangoCon.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, and hope to see you all very soon!

We will update everyone as soon as we have more information available.

@scottalanmiller

Never let a drummer drive! They have heavy feet, and are always trying to "beat" the traffic!

As with any company, be it Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Verisign, Whoever.... We do not protect companies when we have credible knowledge of a company's failure, or on the other hand, accomplishments are reported.

In this case, we have first hand knowledge as reported by the OP.

Just as I reported, along with many major news outlets, Wells Fargo had an outage affecting a large number of their customers and all of their investors. I would not remove their name, nor the post just because they complain.