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!!
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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

@PSX_Defector said:

....I insulted a moderator, not even in a joking sense....

Community Manager != Moderator

Microsoft MDT process (via Easy Transfer) can do some of it. Being MS, the transferred bit are MS specific. Stephen Rose had a Springboard series of videos on it (TechEd, too?).

Hands down awesome way is OS X's Migration Assistant transferring Time Machine (or others HDD target) to a fresh machine. It gets all the programs, data, settings, passwords/credentials, and even one's messy desktop. Very slick. Few small caveats, such as Adobe programs need be re-activated (...by design Adobe being Adobe). MSFT really needs take a lesson from Apple's book on that bit.

General thought to be alert for—

• Are you interviewing the candidate, or is the candidate interviewing you? Related, are you seeking a subordinate, direct report, equal, or something else?

Another sad case filed under reality being stranger than fiction.

@Dominica Basically, yes. Newer the OS X version the better. Caveat is if the Time Machine backup is encrypted.

If the Mac was reset, why not use Migration Assistant to pull the applications, data, and/or settings? There are caveats to this, notably it ought be the first thing done after such a refresh. Care needs be applied if done later.

@scottalanmiller

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

Consider Readability add-on for Firefox a must-have. Allows a "day" mode (bright), and "night" mode (dark). Had some added tweaking to boot (serif & sans serif options). Know the El Reg mobile app does day/night, too.

Soo.... one button day/night switching would be awesome.

@Duffney Have at it! It is how Daniel Petri did it—

• http://www.petri.co.il/
• http://www.petri.co.il/author/daniel-petri

Check the WaybackMachine to see how it had evolved over the last fifteen years.

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.

Books are going away. Like records, don't expect them to be extinct.

Newspapers and magazines have been dropping for years. Shift to all digital formats has stalled the drop for those who can commit to it.

Kindle's price point has been attractive. Heck, even seeing numerous traditional libraries offering digital checkout. Certainly more convenient than travelling with weighty tomes. (yeah, more delicate than those tomes, of course.)

Been noticing digital versions being released months in advance of printed editions. Significant point for technology topics.