Andrew Hale: IT Talk & Other Topics

Recently, a co-worker found my blog, read some bits, and gave me feedback on it. Mind you I don't do this for any kind of promotional reasons or because I have to. I have a gift for gab and I'm not the worst writer so I essentially do this for me. He mentioned that he liked the posts I've done but that I don't have a lot of pictures. He likes pictures. To be honest, I don't post a lot of pictures because my cell-phone sucks.

The other day last week, my co-worker and I were guestimating how many users we have in our organization. We figured it was about 1500 users. We decided to Powershell our way to an answer. In case you've been working in a Windowless datacenter for sometime or under a proverbial rock, Powershell is the automation and scripting framework built into all of Microsoft's recent business and enterprise softwares. It can be a shell for single commands like DOS (but so much more) or it can handle complex scripts the same way BASH can. Below, I'll run you through the first Powershell script I wrote with the help of my colleague, Steven.

There's a dividing belief in the motorcycle community over the saying "Loud Pipes Save Lives". A lot of riders, primarily on cruisers are all for loud pipes while many, both riders and non-riders, just find it annoying. I'm for loud pipes for reasons of safety and for enjoyment. First, let's talk about hybrids.

Providing technical support isn't easy. You have to know your systems and policies for computer usage, how everything works for troubleshooting when things don't work the way they should, and how to assist your users. Helping a user in person is relatively easy. You can show them what to do, explain things a little better and it's usually faster too. However, not every environment has that luxury. A lot of Help Desk techs and people with other IT titles assist users via phone or email. This makes things a bit more tricky, especially phone support. With email, you can prepare each message, verifying that it's carefully crafted and has all of the information you need to provide (plus, if you're smart, you've got templates or hotkeys setup for canned responses). On the phone, you have to think a bit more on your feet and hope your people skills are up to snuff. Below, I examine some general questions and run through a scenario where asking the right questions can...

Despite the faults I can find with my VLX 600 (the runt of Honda Shadow line-up), I still love it. It's great for around-town riding, comfortable, and doesn't look terrible from the factory either. However, my two primary complaints about it are the lack of overall power (I can't say at what RPM power starts dropping since it doesn't have a tach), and the sound. I could even live with the power it has stock but it's way too quiet. With stock pipes, the VLX sounds like a really awesome sewing machine. To top it off, the bike sat for the better part of 2 years before I bought it. The previous owner said that he started it up every now and again and it seems to run alright, but low-end throttle response is choppy at best. It also took longer than average to warm up and seemed to show symptoms of running bit lean. With that, my goal is to make the shadow run better, get a bit more power and overall, just give it some balls.

One of my projects lately has been going through some 1600+ login scripts (written in VBscript) and merely alphabetizing the mapped drive letters. Tedious and boring, yes but it wasn't as horrible as I'd initially thought. However, login scripts like this can certainly have their share of issues.

There comes a time in everyone's career when their current position or company just isn't fulfilling the employee's needs. Or they just fucking hate their job. There's always that too. Regardless of the reasons why, sooner or later, you'll be looking for another job. Below, I explore how to know when to leave your job.

So, you want a motorcycle? Got the need for speed? Maybe you just wanna cruise and feel a bit of wind in your face , right? Whatever your reason(s) may be for wanting to get your two-wheeled beast of your choice, there are plenty of differences between bikes and cars. According to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, the primary differences between cars and motorcycles are stability and vulnerability. In the real-world, there's a few other differences worth noting.

My organization had an awards show today. They gave out milestone awards for people working 5s of years, for people that went "above and beyond", people that had perfect attendance, people that took the most training programs last semester, snappiest dresser... you get the point.

I'd like to discuss a new form of energy that I believe my organization is harnessing. In my department, I feel like I understand how things work. Not just the machines and policies and such but just the general flow of work. The NOC, where I work, is the first round of help. We're akin to emergency dispatchers. We'll help however we can but it's usually outside of our scope so it's our job to get information about the problem and pass that info along to the proper group. If it's a network/server problem, notify the Admins. If it's specifically a security issue, notify the security Admins. More often than not, it's a staff IT problem so we create a ticket and pass it along to our Support guys who contact the end-user and handle it from there. As NOC, we also support the other departments where we can. We run reports for the Admins, assist a student-run team designed to help other students connect to the campus network in the dorms or the wireless, and we...

I'm not saying I'm old by any stretch. With modern medical technology, I'm at least only at the 33% mark. A couple weeks ago, I celebrated my 25th birthday. I can't be the only one that looks back on a younger Andrew and wonder "What was I thinking?" I feel older and I've outlined just a few reasons why I've noticed a step-up in my maturity game.

We're moving this weekend. Not far; Just across town actually. But, lo, we're still moving. That means packing, cleaning, sorting, laboring, carrying, fixing, painting, aching, etc. That has pretty much my past couple weekends. Weekend before last, Sunday night, I was a bit nervous about my first day at my new job. What if nobody liked me? What if I sucked? What if I trip or throw up or do something embarrassing? What If I'm completely amazing and they make me the manager and Lord of all things electronic on campus? Yes, these were the thoughts stirring in my mind as I went to sleep. I got about 90 minutes of sleep before my brain was wide awake with questions and wonderment of the day to come.

If you're reading this, you've already probably bought your first motorcycle and are looking to upgrade. That, or, you're my grandma. (Yes Grandma, I'm fine and I've been taking care of my self. I love you too.) But this article is geared towards riders, not Grandma. She hates the idea of her baby riding on a motorcycle anyway. Back to the topic, so you're looking for your second motorcycle, eh? Well, it's very different then buying your first. It's harder in some respects and easier in others. Read-on.

About 2 and a half years ago, I went through a really rough breakup with my, now, ex-fiance. We'd recently moved across the country together, became engaged a couple months before that, and had been together for nearly 3 years. Well, seemingly out of the blue, she had a change of heart. I get it. It happens. We're always changing and the unfortunate truth is that couples don't always change together. One of the things I look back on is what got me through such a tough ordeal; My friends. One of them was a mutual friend named Jeremy who took my side in the break up (I joke that I got him in the divorce), and the other I met a little later on in my dating adventures. I got friend-zoned but it was for the best and Heather is now one of my best friends. Now, these friends of mine aren't miracle workers or anything. They aren't psychiatrists, therapists, or anything of the sort. They're just normal young adults. They helped me get through a very tough time in my life...

I'll start by saying that I'm no expert at job interviews. I'm not an HR person, never interviewed someone myself, nor can I recall those daunting, double-edged questions that interviewers tend to ask. However, I did just go through an interview and got the job. Come to think of it, I've gotten almost every job I've ever interviewed for. I'd say that's a decent track record. Below, is my advice and general tips for an interview.

The short of it is that I got a new job. My official title is a NOC Assistant and I'll be working for the Department of Housing at a large university. Part of the duties include managing MS Exchange and Active Directory servers, 2 things I have 0 experience with. It also calls for managing RHEL servers so I'll get to dip into my homebrew Linux experience. Yay! I'm excited and nervous but I know I'll be fine. To be honest. I'm still coming to grips with the idea of actually leaving my current job. In some ways, I love my job but I dislike the company. A little history is in order.

I don't know how you might have found my blog but if you did then I'm sure you know what tabs are in a web browser. At least, I'd be willing to bet money that you do. If you don't then hopefully I can educate you. Remember back when the Internet first got popular? (HINT: If you do then you're probably old enough to be in the primary group of people this post is geared towards.) If you do then you'll remember the day of only being able to view one page at a time. In it's infancy, the web was far less exciting than it is now. Now, we have Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, a forum for anything imaginable and more pr0n than you can shake a stick at. Any modern browser has a feature called tabs.  Webopedia  actually has a great explanation of it. They describe it as "a function of some Web browsers that allow uses to surf and view multiple pages by loading the Web sites into 'tabbed' sections of one page, rather than multiple pages. This allows the user ...

Let me start by saying that I'm a new rider (to motorcycles that is). I got my license in February of '12 and bought my first bike the following March. Needless to say, it was the single greatest decision of my life. There's nothing like the exhilaration a motorcycle provides. The bike I bought was an '03 Honda Shadow VLX 600. I knew that it was a good beginner bike and due to being tall, the cruiser position was much more comfortable than any of the "beginner" sport bikes I sat on. Well, after only a few months of owning it, I've learned that "beginner" is marketing for "slow". I want something faster. During my initial butt-testing of motorcycles at the 2 dealers that reside in our town, I found that I loved nearly every Triumph a swung a leg over. The Street Triple particularly called out to me. I recently got to take the Street Triple and the Bonneville out for test rides and thought I'd blab about my initial impressions.

All credit goes to Scott Adams. I'm not claiming this as my own work but merely sharing due to the lolz and that it's kinda true sometimes.

We've all done it. Searching the front and back cover of an owner's manual or scanning the "Contact us!" page of a website. It's that dreaded moment: You have to call Technical Support. (*cue sad music*) Like I said, we've all been there but it doesn't have to be the painful, frustrating experience that society has depicted in movies and TV programs. Believe it or not, it's really a 2-way street. If the rep you get on the phone is a dick then no amount of preparation or politeness on your end can save you. However, all companies really do strive to provide fast, simple solutions, contrary to what you or others may think.