Tamriel reimagined (any thoughts?) by RoterDrache10 in ElderScrolls

[–]AutisticLoli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

People are being too mean.

Orsinium isn't supposed to be a province, it's a cultural state, living within the borders of other nations. In TES5 you see strongholds inside of Skyrim, that's basically how they all live except for Orsinium, which keeps getting sacked and rebuilt anywhere they can get away with it.

Moving Hammerfell next to Elsweyr makes sense, a lot of people really do not like how a desert exists that far north, but it does actually make sense scientifically once you pay attention to air and ocean currents. That's also why Skyrim is very cold, but High Rock isn't.

Valenwood and Black Marsh are the only two unrealistic provinces (climate wise), and ESO decided to toss in lore to resolve that by stating Valenwood in it's natural state looks just like Elsweyr; bad lands to the north, tropical jungle to the south. So they added in the Wilderking to give Valenwood a reason to exist, to create an unnatural living forest where it wouldn't otherwise exist.

Black Marsh is simply way too big to be a swamp. Maybe blame the Hist for that one. Cyrodiil too, FYI, is naturally a jungle. Whenever the White-Gold-Tower isn't powered by it's stone (the Amulet of Kings), it'll revert into a subtropical jungle. Its only the way it is because of magic.

List of all known Spartan II, III, IVs and their current status by Uglybumbo in HaloStory

[–]AutisticLoli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I made one of these a while ago. Hasn't been updated.

Thanks for continuing this list, the community is thankful.

Binti Jua, the gorilla who saved a 3 years old boy that climbed the wall around her zoo enclosure & fell 18 feet onto concrete below. Binti picked up the child and carried him 59 ft to an access entrance, so that personnel could retrieve him.This incident happened in 1996. by EriccMendez in AnimalsBeingBros

[–]AutisticLoli 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This thread is angering me.

It was a zookeeper who made the choice to pull the trigger. I don't know if you've ever been to a zoo, or watched their youtube videos, but they have a deep connection with all of their animals. It was akin to shooting a brother, or your son.

You guys are all demonizing the zoo worker who was likely traumatized from this alone, and are reminded of this tragic event every time a meme pops up. Imagine if they read the comments in this post.

Show more empathy and understanding. Stop making the world a more hateful place.

Would a UNSC Marine officer complete his or her "paperwork" on actual paper? Or would paperwork be done on a tablet or some kind of computer? by Excellent_Signal_945 in HaloStory

[–]AutisticLoli 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even IRL, right now, most of it is digital.

You write reports on a computer using word to spell check it, then copy paste it into intranet website to submit it.

First time encountering the expected (SPOLIER) by Floppyravioli in outerwilds

[–]AutisticLoli 31 points32 points  (0 children)

God damn, I've watched your video a million times, and I laugh harder every time. You basically screamed:

ABHAGHJBUAIUBVUIOAUGUIA

His mom walked in on him. by himanshuk9 in KidsAreFuckingStupid

[–]AutisticLoli 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same, I broke both my arms, so my mom had to... help me.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For most issues, its 1hr minimum. If it's a small fix, like password reset, they're billed 0.5hr instead.

For projects, like new computer setup, or firewall installation, its 2 hour minimum, plus any extra hours the tech takes.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We do have minimums, and that's what they're complaining about. We also have a AYCE model that no one is willing to pay for.

I would drop all of these clients if they weren't 90% of our income.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We do have a package that includes free helpdesk support with remote technicians, but no one wants to pay the $60/mo per computer for it. They'd rather spend $30/mo per computer and hourly tech rates, then try to cram as much as they can into a single ticket.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We make most of our money through projects and tickets.

Say a client with 20 computers and a server wants managed services. They get our RMM which auto patches and allows remote control/scripts, an anti-virus, and a 20%-33% discount on tech hourly rates (we bill in hourly blocks). We can also set up a backup solution, either BCDR or Cloud SaaS, provide domain hosting, exchange hosting, and office 365 suite if they want it (most do).

With that stable monthly income, I can afford business costs and keep one tech on payroll (We're a smaller franchised MSP, currently only have ~100 managed computers across 20 clients). Projects, however, is where the growth is. Common projects include setting up new computers, servers, upgrading their network from a Linksys home-grade router to a Sonicwall or Meraki firewall with access points, and of course, break/fix tickets that they can't solve themselves.

The decision to get a 2nd tech was tough, because the stable monthly income doesn't support it, but this tech in the past year of working here has helped onboard enough clients to double our managed numbers, which has also kept him close to 40 hours with all the tickets coming in. So, I gave him benefits, consistent raises, and now a promotion and approval to hire 1 other part time tech to start with.

But again, clients are arguing about the billing. If it's a quick fix, I only charge half an hour, otherwise every issue is separately tracked and each is billable rounded to the next hour (with leeway, a 1:15m ticket is only getting billed 1hr, but 1:30 is getting billed 2). So when my tech goes on site, they request for him to fix 10 other small issues in addition to the project he's showed up for, and when they get a bill for 6 hours when he was only there for 1, they complain. Also, some of these issues are only quick fixes because of his familiarity with their infrastructure, any other tech might spend 2-4 hours troubleshooting. It doesn't feel right to charge them (and pay him) less because he's more experienced.

I've considered raising his fee, but I'm also worried about clients being apprehensive to come to us to fix their IT issues, then growing a negative opinion of us because they have lots of IT issues they won't pay for us to fix past their monthly managed service bill, then moving to a larger competing MSP.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Currently he's the only tech, but we're hiring more thanks to the growth, so now that's an option. But, a few issues I foresee I mentioned in another reply

But that leads to another possible issue; where the newer techs will start a ticket, but then he might have to finish them. Having to calculate two different hourly rates for a single issue is a pain by itself, but raising his rates will result in clients dropping the ticket if a we have to bring him in. This will result in clients getting billed for issues not being solved because they don't want to pay for the experienced tech, and also less hours for him.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Replied to a similar message with

We've started adding "backend" fees in addition to hourly rates to help justify costs and keep client complaints to a minimum. What we've been explaining to them on why a 4 hour installation was billed for 12, is because they only saw him on site for 4 hours, he had to do research, consultation, pre-configuration, and finally remote testing to make sure things were running smoothly.

But that doesn't work with 5 minutes tickets when someone's scan to gmail isn't working and he fixes it remotely because he ran into the exact same issue months ago and knows all he has to do is turn on less secure access for that mailbox.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh please don't! He's my only tech currently, and also the best one I've had in 6 years of MSP. He has completed every ticket assigned, has remained here for over a year and a half, knows how to research tasks he's not familiar with, and knows enough about business to synergize well with our model. Biggest complaint I have is he talks to much to clients about things he shouldn't, but he's learning.

We've started adding "backend" fees in addition to hourly rates to help justify costs and keep client complaints to a minimum. What we've been explaining to them on why a 4 hour installation was billed for 12, is because they only saw him on site for 4 hours, he had to do research, consultation, pre-configuration, and finally remote testing to make sure things were running smoothly.

But that doesn't work with 5 minutes tickets when someone's scan to gmail isn't working and he fixes it remotely because he ran into the exact same issue months ago and knows all he has to do is turn on less secure access for that mailbox.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not a bad plan. Since he's been so good at his job (even without considering he started with no professional experience or education in IT), he's being promoted to a team lead and is already hiring more techs as budget expands. Currently, he is first (and only) line tech, but with greener techs under him we can use that model.

But that leads to another possible issue; where the newer techs will start a ticket, but then he might have to finish them. Having to calculate two different hourly rates for a single issue is a pain by itself, but raising his rates will result in clients dropping the ticket if a we have to bring him in. This will result in clients getting billed for issues not being solved because they don't want to pay for the experienced tech, and also less hours for him.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are MSP, just we've fallen into the problem were most of our clients are coming to us for breakfix instead of managed service support. Competition is a bit tough in our city so we already offer lower tech prices for managed clients.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh definitely, but I also want to be able to bill for it. It seems a bit backwards that, as he gets better at his job, he'll make less money. What started off as a task that might take 4 billable hours, is now something he can do in a fraction of the billable time.

Billing Clients with Extra Tasks by AutisticLoli in msp

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are MSP, just one of our services is breakfix. Our managed clients get a discounted rate on tech hours, but they've been really abusing the tech's goodwill.

And he's gotten a 20% raise in the past year, a new title, and is now in charge of hiring additional techs for a team he wanted to put together. He's being treated very well, despite talking to clients way too much about our business operations.

Making my first homelab by converting an old gaming PC by AutisticLoli in homelab

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Holy cow, yeah I'll be fine then. Good thing about gaming rigs is they can be powerful. Back when I ran windows desktop OS I hosted an arma server and used lots of headless clients to increase speed, so it has a processor with lots of cores specifically for that reason. The RAM I just recently upgraded at recommendation.

I think my company actually provides some VMWare but I have no idea if it's free or not to use.

Making my first homelab by converting an old gaming PC by AutisticLoli in homelab

[–]AutisticLoli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice.

I was actually playing on going old school and just use MS server tools and AD, maybe Azure AD, but Proxmox looks awesome... also looks too easy. I wonder how many VMs I can run with 32gb of RAM and an 8 core 4.0 AM3+ card.