RoguePacket here. In Southern California. Feeling like a minion!

@Joyfano

It is good to have the person open up, if slowly, about outside issues.

There is a demarcation between work life and home life. HR may have coping options or counseling options for the home life items. (In the U.S. this isn't uncommon, but not necessarily greatly helpful.)

Meet with the person (& maybe have a HR person present, too). Reiterate the job's priorities. Inquire how the the person can meet the expectations of the job and the team. (May help to pre-plan with HR the meeting's agenda and exact "talk items".) Have the person commit to the proposed plan of action. Continue to meet frequently to not let issues be unresolved. Don't judge, rather let the person speak fully and hear everything (....repeat what has been said at proper points to show you have heard and understand what the person has said).

Can't match the Simpsons, so here is Churchill—

@RAM. said:

All People Seem To Need Data People
.... OSI!!!!

"Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away"

@Dominica Time Machine & Migration Assistant ought be the ticket. Quick links—

• http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/29/6-easy-steps-to-migrate-your-mac-using-time-machine/
• http://www.macworld.com/article/2066996/how-to-transfer-backups-from-time-machine-to-a-new-mac.html
• http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4500

OS X level wasn't mentioned. OS X 10.5 is very much on its last legs, and 10.6 is close to being unsupported. Generally, am reticent to move a Mac model too many OS X versions away from the one it shipped. Newer OS X levels work better with more RAM. Apple "lies" about max RAM capacity, check MacSales/OWC &/or EveryMac for prospective maximum RAM of the precise model (usually found by cross-checking the serial number).

If the Mac is older, say 3-4 years old ... it may be time to swap out the hard drive for something newer. Just a general tip which has served well over the years. (Newer is also a big bigger and prospectively faster.) If swapping HDDs then Time Machine becomes moot, as that HDD can be dropped in an external enclosure for Migration Assistant to transfer applications, data settings, accounts, et al. After the migration is complete and a break-in period passes (30-90 days according to comfort level), that "old" HDD can be used as a Time Machine HDD (being old & approaching suspect, but not "bad" ).

Caveats which come to mind—

• Ought be the first thing done after wiping the machine and the reboot after the OS install finishes
• New OS X versions have improved Time Machine (e.g., 10.7 or 10.8 multiple Time Machine backup points are possible such as one HDD at home & one HDD at the office)
• Use a HDD enclosure with the best interface possible (FW800 or USB3), mainly as waiting stinks (many GBs will take a while).
• If mixing OS X levels, some old programs may not work (well, yeah, no longer compatible & all that)
• Encryption/Filevault will complicate things (either on TM or the boot HDD)

See >> Simple!!
.
.
.
Believe KatieM has Mac expertise, and has a few tips & tricks to note, of course.

Reminds of the Funeral for IE6—

• http://www.webuser.co.uk/websites/online-fun-blog/websites/444642/ie6-funeral-hated-browser-is-dead

When starting & playing with it, use a VM. We don't want this to happen (https://xkcd.com/349/)—

At what point is it too much?

Basically, when it prevents other work from getting done. It is not a one-time thing. Rather, needs be continually revised and reviewed. Not to mean at an OCD level, rather a guideline/checklist level and by different people. Fantastic times for documentation reviews are when a person leaves, and when a new person comes on board.

It will take many iterations for I.T. operations to get the right documentation feel for the culture.

"Hit by a bus" stuff is DR/BCP. Typically higher level, and review ought be no less than once a year. Timing can be pre-business peak time, post peak time, post end-of-fiscal-year, or whatever is agreed on .. by senior management (not I.T.) who ultimately ought be the ones checking it out as BCP is their responsibility.

@fiyafly It is a business maturity component. Documentation fits into several larger pieces such as DR (disaster recovery) and BCP (business continuity planning). Another way to view it is not having documentation is a risk. Senior business management needs to accommodate the risk level accordingly (i.e., BCP which trickle down).

Having things streamlined helps reduce duplication of effort. Duplication can be by multiple people, or the documentation existing in multiple systems (e.g., printed docs and the change control system). Time is always a notable constraint

Reasonable ways to assess documentation satisfaction level is:

• during a periodic review (annual is preferred);
• when a new employee comes on board;
• when an experienced employee separates; and,
• when bad things happen.

Triple constraint concept and good-fast-cheap apply to the quality and effort applied to documentation—

Wha...? AJ is saying someone else is hyper...

=:-o

@scottalanmiller said:

Not surprising.
@Joyfano

...and not professional.

It has been often questioned when getting new employees: Should the hiring manager,

• Get the one with the best technical skills?
• Get the one with the best temperament?

"Skills" looks attractive, but "temperament" wins. There is a caveat in the person needs be willing and able to develop their own skills within and outside the company & within and outside the job description.

After all, that issues of all types arise is expected, what is important is how they are handled. Even in "bad situations", not resolving can be (somewhat) okay if the inability or delay in resolving is communicated expeditiously and effectively.

Better fortune with the next person!

With all the résumé (& cover letter) talk, am interested in how the HR applicant tracking systems target auto-filtering and how well HR departments do it.

Certainly inexpensive.

Thought iFixIt might have had a take-apart guide for it. Alas, not yet—

• https://www.ifixit.com/Device/HP_Netbook
• Other HP models may have insight to the process

There are rsync shells for Windows.

SyncToy and xcopy are deprecated in the wake of mature robocopy. Check its options, and get familiar with it (such as, /r, /w, /.mir, and its incremental job nature). More immediately, it handles larger jobs, longer paths, and a few other points which trip up the other two mentions. Been part of Windows Server since~2003 in the resource kit, and standard on Win7 (even Vista?). Can be stop gap until something else.

Robocopy is slick for the Windows world, but not a match for the venerable *nix program rsync.

Jump on the HOL material—

• http://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/
• http://blogs.vmware.com/hol/

To accommodate time constraints and workload, first understand your peak learning time. Carve that time out and make it sacred.

@scottalanmiller

Ah, secretses. Has lots of secretses in his pocketses, he does!

Good list.

SpaceSniffer is one of many disk space analyzers (WinDirStat is the venerable, well-known one).

AutoRuns and ProcExplorer are cool mentions. Part of the larger SysInternals Suite Microsoft now freely disseminates to those that look for it.

@Joyfano

It is good to have the person open up, if slowly, about outside issues.

There is a demarcation between work life and home life. HR may have coping options or counseling options for the home life items. (In the U.S. this isn't uncommon, but not necessarily greatly helpful.)

Meet with the person (& maybe have a HR person present, too). Reiterate the job's priorities. Inquire how the the person can meet the expectations of the job and the team. (May help to pre-plan with HR the meeting's agenda and exact "talk items".) Have the person commit to the proposed plan of action. Continue to meet frequently to not let issues be unresolved. Don't judge, rather let the person speak fully and hear everything (....repeat what has been said at proper points to show you have heard and understand what the person has said).

Thought they would have been in a landfill in New Mexico by now.

They killed Santa!