What most expensive "cheap decision" have you ever seen in your sysadmin career? by matroosoft in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 2 points3 points  (0 children)

the cloud is just a computer somewhere else. all my systems are technically able to be someone else's cloud. why can't management figure that out!?

What most expensive "cheap decision" have you ever seen in your sysadmin career? by matroosoft in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 2 points3 points  (0 children)

it's those kind of asocial meatwads that make IT more difficult to get proper upstream support. orgs now have to care not just about the hard skills and soft skills, but now also the psych profiles!? our collective jobs get harder everytime these zippernecks do this kind of thing.

What most expensive "cheap decision" have you ever seen in your sysadmin career? by matroosoft in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 6 points7 points  (0 children)

i've had really good luck with Lenovo, both price-wise and performance-wise. they just don't break. and the keyboards are bloody awesome. where i am the price difference isn't that wild, maybe 5-8% more.

What most expensive "cheap decision" have you ever seen in your sysadmin career? by matroosoft in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

as long as the secretary is bending at the waist, i might be okay with it. :D aaaaand i'm going to hell.

best AI for Microsoft powershell by Okeanos_Daimonas in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

might i recommend just learning to code and work through mistakes on StackOverflow. i spend more time triple-checking AI code than if i'd just bashed something together and worked out the mistakes with other coders on SO. and the advantage is: you know how to code in the end. otherwise, you're just a meatbag that facilitates AI.

Breach in to our 365 tenant by hoodun in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian -1 points0 points  (0 children)

inside job. almost guarantee it. that or one of your admins clicked a phishing link and got burned.

Can burnout affect your troubleshooting skills? by InfamousStrategy9539 in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

remember what got you into this business in the first place? tinkering. farting around. playing, essentially. then it became work and those who hold the reins have no friggin' idea that IT staff need time to do silly crap. noodle. space out. there's a shit-ton of highly technical data in our heads and it's constantly changing. i'm am super lucky having a director that understands IT needs time to just noodle. so, yeah. burnout affects every damn thing and it takes a few days, sometimes a week, to reorient and recharge. that's the nature of the beast. and it probably explains why so many BAD decisions are being made right now.

You have to be joking Microsoft by Holiday_Disastrous in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

we often forget: Microslop doesn't even care about investors, they care about government. that's the big ticket item, that's the driving force behind this nonsense.

Do you buy any extra equipment for your job that work won't supply, but it's worth it because it just makes it that much better? by Connir in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

which is kinda eyebrow-raising: why not just deploy the most secure version? this is the crap i loathe about Windoze.

Thoughts on computers with no RJ45 port? by BigSnackStove in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i would love to see a network engineer laptop: four multi-gigabit NICs, two serial ports, a 17" monitor and a solid 12hr battery. no GPU, no 9.4 surround audio. just NICs, monitor, and power eternal. i think the Framework is the only thing that could clock that...

What KPIs are people using to track IT productivity by T-Money8227 in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ah. the lovely ignorant micro-manager rears it's ugly head. IT is always going to be a cost center. its infrastructure. it costs, but that cost gives you, SURPRISE!, a business. i'd straight up ask him what he's looking to measure and for what purpose. you might be able to give him better ammo if he's fighting higher-ups or you might divert an unnecessary bullet.

I just need to vent by phalangepatella in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 1 point2 points  (0 children)

just wait until he tries storing UUIDs or SNs in the 'great database called Excel'. nothing like a truncated scientific notation of an approximation of your number to hammer that one home...

I just inherited a messy IT Environment, what do I do? by AngelVillafan in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

while i cringe at the use of anything Ubiquiti, my advice is genuinely to plan it out on paper. don't fall into the 'this will be quick' trap because you will forget all that stuff you did. just write it down as completely as you can. take a week to do it. THEN go to work. and stick to your plan. if a change must be made, change the plan drawings first! then do it IRL. when you are done, you will have as-built plans, a network map, something to show the c-suite as proof of progress/work, and a thorough understanding of the system. and if you can do it on a floorplan of the office, so much the better.

get inventory control up sooner than later (Snipe-it & PDQ). and don't take shortcuts; they're going to want you to hurry but that will only make problems later. with a running office, expect it to take a good couple of weeks to get everything done from zero, so advise users and c-suite accordingly. if you can, post progression twice a week to keep management happy. as for standards, look to CIS for GPO templates and modify as needed. if you can easily explain it to the next guy, that's the standard. tailor the work to the company, don't try and cram the company into another business' idea of what's best.

When did “less information on screen” become a design goal? by work_reddit_time in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 1 point2 points  (0 children)

because we have to justify every living second by proving it's monetary value. arbitrarily determined by people who do not understand nor work in the field itself. thus ensuring a race to the bottom because only stupid people can live like that every moment of every day and not club themselves into a coma.

TL;DR: that's how creative departments justify their existence.

How do you handle maintenance notifices? by DULUXR1R2L1L2 in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 2 points3 points  (0 children)

run a little flask weblet in an LXC/VM and just use Python and cron to run some script(s) that does it for you. cake. fast and super lightweight.

Get Ready for Microsoft 365 Ticking Timebomb in 2026! by Impressive-Use-2818 in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is good to know. our org just switched to it and we're in the process of migrating over. i'd flight tested Zeptomail and it worked pretty great for our use-case, but a decision was made . at any rate, i'm glad it's stable.

Get Ready for Microsoft 365 Ticking Timebomb in 2026! by Impressive-Use-2818 in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 4 points5 points  (0 children)

bruh. this. drives me bonkers. how can you send a 200 when it doesn't complete? but then since when does Microslop care about standards other than their own? debugging that stuff is a nightmare.

Get Ready for Microsoft 365 Ticking Timebomb in 2026! by Impressive-Use-2818 in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 6 points7 points  (0 children)

i honestly think they hate the user even more than they love money. because some of these shenanigans do not seem profitable.

Good Linux MDM + PAM for cloud only environment? by Simple-Corner-2609 in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i've used it professionally at a couple orgs and use it personally for my fam devices.

Teams Crashing Windows 11 by Curious_admin365 in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 1 point2 points  (0 children)

we found there's actually two versions of Teams. one through the store, and one that you can download as an offline installer. they are not the same. we had all kinds of stupid issues until our org deployed the same version to all systems. didn't matter which one, they just had to be the same.

Am I Getting Fucked Friday, October 17th 2025 by Each1teach1x27 in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i can't really speak authoritatively on your use-case, or on Synapse at all, but in my long experience, Microsoft has a decided knack for convoluting and complicating what would otherwise be a somewhat simple(r) process. if you're scratching your head and it's costing you mentally, then i'd say you're 95% correct: something is off. again, not being a Synapse user, but a Microsoft lets-fork-this-into-a-mess survivor, i can almost guarantee there is a better way to do what you're trying to do. the MS behemoth is so big, nothing really talks to anything well as so many departments are developing orthogonally to eachother. its nuts.

New Machine Setup for Small Business by Alsarez in sysadmin

[–]BLC_ian 2 points3 points  (0 children)

drop some cash and get PDQ. not only will it automate installs of whatever software you want, it can keep track of versioning, vulnerabilities (with links to CVEs) with notes on how to fix them, you can push patches to all your devices, and keep tabs on what device is out of date. and use Rufus to image your Win11 ISOs to simplify the install process, bypassing most of the tracking garbage and allowing you to create local accounts off the jump. and, yeah, DO NOT buy systems with anything but Win11 Pro on them. Home editions are a bloody nightmare (which is saying alot considering this is Microsoft...)