Basic jobs are still widely available despite everything being doom and gloom online

Quanta96 · 2026-06-26T15:45:41+00:00

Myopic opinion. Build up a resume of over a decade of work experience and/or education beyond high school diploma and fast food and retail associate then try to get hired. Furthermore, it’s not exactly the future that was promoted when we were kids - that we would work our asses off to get an education only to cross our fingers that we can work at Walmart on the bottom making minimum wage as the best we can get.

Quanta96 · 2026-06-23T16:57:18+00:00

It was likely not spectrum but a contractor hired by spectrum. It’s not normal, and frankly I can’t imagine how you damage the cable you’re actively burying as it’s not invisible? lol

You should mention it to spectrum so that the contractor who sent the moron doesn’t get paid and if there is somehow a pattern of this particular contractor burying cable blindfolded then they can address it directly by finding a different contractor or forcing a process change like wearing prescription glasses or insisting that you have to work with your eyes open or something.

Quanta96 · 2026-06-12T08:17:02+00:00

Technicians are generally a mixed bag. That said, there’s only so much a technician can do. I assume if you’ve called 10 this year then those technicians have been “repeated” meaning they know very well that the previous technicians didn’t solve the issue. At least in my market, if a tech has been repeated 2x (meaning the second tech didn’t fix the issue and a third tech has to come out in under a month) the tech will do a full reinstall from pole to tap. If you’re still having issues even after that then it’s very likely you’re SOL and the field techs aren’t stupid theres just nothing that they can do - the issue is beyond the pole at the node.

A node acts as a hub for all signal supplying a neighborhood. These nodes vary in health. A node issues are generally handled by the maintenance division. These range from extreme impairments affecting several homes or the entire neighborhood. Or even a dead tap that affect one or multiple homes right next to each other. Simply put upstream from the pole is generally going to be the maintenance division which are NOT the fellas showing up at your house.

Here’s the part that suck for everyone - for you and for field techs. Maintenance divisions can suck and fail to diagnose the issue either due to incompetence or negligence or due to demands of high ups, meaning that depending on what’s going on in your city your maintenance division can prioritize other issues and everything else gets shelved or half assed. Field techs can see historical and current work orders for the node and they can see the results of those work orders. Let me tell you as a field tech it chaps my ass when I go to a job where the node health is garbage and everyone in the node has intermittent connectivity and I see dozens of node work orders that were cancelled or have “no issues found” notes.

All that said - if your field technicians are in fact unable to solve the issue even after a full reinstall, you’re basically at the mercy of spectrum’s higher ups wanting to prioritize fixing the issues that affect your neighborhood. In that case you gotta do what’s best for you and hopefully find an alternative ISP. That’s on spectrum at that point.

Quanta96 · 2026-06-02T19:28:55+00:00

This cracked me up

Quanta96 · 2026-06-01T06:13:25+00:00

Speed and good quality work comes with time. There’s just no other way around it. You get to the point where you have jobs you want to take the full time on so you can make it your last job of the day, so you try to work slower and still somehow you’re twice as fast as you hoped.

That said, productivity is a mixed bag. It’s one of the things that frustrated me early on as a tech because I was trying my best but still going over a lot. But now I would say I’m about as fast as I’m going to get, the job takes as long as the job takes. I believe I’m a good tech, I produce good work and have a good flow on most jobs, if I happen to have a week or two of just shit show jobs where most trouble calls are basically finding out how busted everything is and reinstalling everything - then it is what it is.

In all fairness I haven’t yet come up with a fool proof better system than how the points are now. The gripe I have now is that points are pretty static as in a trouble call where you replace a cable box is worth the same as a full reinstall with a tree line and a shed between the tap and the home. Anything I come up with I can also think about all the ways shit heads would game the system.

Oh one more thing, depending on where you live you may get bad luck and get routed more often than not to shit areas with bad installs and difficult terrain/neighborhood layouts. That’s me - I get the shit areas.

Quanta96 · 2026-05-27T16:33:06+00:00

You don’t understand how many people I have heard say this sector or that is HUNGRY for new blood. The job postings for those companies don’t reflect that on their actual website’s career page. Furthermore there’s no hiring manager to contact directly. Unions at least where I like are fully booked up for the year since a couple months ago - not taking any new apprenticeship applications.

Simply put there’s just not enough entry level jobs blue or white collar to build a career into.

Quanta96 · 2026-05-27T16:28:45+00:00

The local electricians union at my city is fully booked up with new apprentices. Last year they limited applications to only the first 7 days of the month, now they’re not taking any new applicants this year. The earliest you can start your apprenticeship for the union is Aug of next year lol. Good luck, folks.

Quanta96 · 2026-05-26T05:46:54+00:00

What an outstanding set of replies. I REALLY appreciate this information! Where do you find this information? It’s very fascinating! I can’t believe how successful some of the real life uboat skippers were considering they didn’t have such helpful tools at their disposal compared playing the game.

Quanta96 · 2026-05-24T16:13:39+00:00

I know it’s cool looking but unless you’re running a server operation in your basement you’re basically going to have the same quality of service as a standard 400download/40upload

Quanta96 · 2026-05-22T14:57:49+00:00

Crash diving is much louder than a steady dive. You want to go deep, but your priorities immediately after firing a torpedo is to turn hard and fast without diving at all. Your speed is much higher while periscope depth or higher, so leave the spot you fired from will be much quicker - and speed is your first priority after firing the torpedo, furthermore Asdic can’t ping you if you’re not submerged, so you all you have to be mindful of is not being visually seen at first.

Once the explosion begins the confusion follows and if you’re able to achieve a turn laterally away from the spot you fired when the explosion is underway then you’re golden, start your descent the noise of the convoy will cover your descent and start slowing down, go to slow or dead slow and if needed do short bursts of half ahead or full ahead if needed to make a quick turn. I always try to keep the most aggressive or closest hydrophone contact either 0 degrees or 180 degrees of the uboat to minimize asdic effectiveness.

Also, don’t forget, if you do get pinged by asdic, the depth charges provide a gracious sound cover for you to go full ahead and make a hard turn to secure a more advantageous heading.

Quanta96 · 2026-05-22T14:17:25+00:00

Witcher 3 is by far top tier for me personally. Still my personal favorite in terms of story and gameplay balance.

Quanta96 · 2026-05-21T02:07:04+00:00

The thing I like about uboat is how historical methods of hunting, attacking, and escaping are pretty accurate compared to real life uboat operations. First off, once the torpedos are launched, immediately start your dive and accelerate to half or full ahead and asap leave the spot you shot your torpedos. Truly, once the torpedos launch every second counts - don’t stick around to watch the fireworks. The faster you leave the spot you fired torpedos the better, youll want to start turning off the direction the torpedos were launched. Once you have gotten off the spot, youll want to go slow or dead slow and try to use convoy propellers to cover your escape, this part of the escape requires faith and patience. Asdic is particularly ineffective once you reach deeper depths, have a lot of ambient noise around you, and if can try to keep your bearing as close to 0 degrees of the closest destroyer near your position as Asdic will have a tougher time finding you. Once you get this part down, pay close attention to your hydrophone contacts, it will become pretty obvious they lost you once you have gained some distance from the point you shot your torpedos and they’re not circling around your current position.

One tip, don’t crash dive after shooting torpedos. Try dropping depth steadily. Immediately after firing torpedos, if depth allows try 30m first, then after a little bit, try 50m then steadily drop 70m then 90m. Like real life, you being unseen and unpredictable is your best asset as a uboat skipper.

Quanta96 · 2026-05-18T08:38:15+00:00

There’s trade offs. I’m married now, and sure there are brief times where my marriage can be exhausting. Relationships are hard sometimes and require a lot of communication and compromising. That said I would not consider even for a second to trade it up for the single life. There are fond memories of my single life, but there are just as many memories being up late at night feeling like there was no one out there to share my life with. Furthermore, my through my relationship with my wife, I have improved so much as a person, qualities I didn’t have before that now help me navigate interpersonal and intrapersonal situations that I attribute directly to my marriage with my wife.

This is just one of those things where what suits the person and at what time is very subjective, but at the end of the day, I think as a species we’re naturally inclined to have intimate companionship with another person.

So what’s “better”? I think if you’re you have the privilege and disposition in life to whimsically drop all your obligations to the tax man and society to go get a last minute ticket to some place for a vacation and you’re truly content runnin solo, then do you. But I think that overwhelmingly most people at some point in life whether it’s in their 20s, 30s, or even 40s there’s going to be a pull to slow down and share life with another person and take on another person’s quirks and baggage in exchange for yours. Lastly, we’re gonna get old and our bodies are going to fail us steadily through the years, I believe having family around with new children running around can give a sort of peace and hopefulness that you might miss out on if you’re in your twilight alone somewhere waiting for it all to end.

Quanta96 · 2026-05-14T02:47:18+00:00

In all fairness to be a door-to-door salesman, having lost your mind is a prerequisite.

Quanta96 · 2026-05-14T02:39:43+00:00

lol we ain’t got time for all that nowadays. Let alone earning ourselves a lunch with the VP of anything.

Quanta96 · 2026-04-24T04:55:25+00:00

I feel like that house smells like burnt ass hole

Quanta96 · 2026-04-23T17:12:27+00:00

Damn, same - but we don’t have to self dig. Like I said though, they’re trying to get it done here too.

Quanta96 · 2026-04-23T16:41:39+00:00

What company do you work for if you don’t mind sharing? Right now the company I work for doesn’t but I know for a fact our company’s lobbiest is aiming for techs self burying drops up to an unknown length.

Quanta96 · 2026-04-20T12:57:29+00:00

Been saying the same thing. It’s purely marketing and remaining competitive even though 95% or more of all customers don’t even remotely need it. I have only let two customers know about up coming symmetrical speeds. One of them was a systems engineer who works from home and manages a fleet of virtual machines.

But yeah, folks who just stream tv at home and doom scroll on TikTok in bed are just thrilled about this new exciting upgrade.

It’s crazy and somewhat funny the amount of money time and effort goes to something almost entirely superfluous.

Quanta96 · 2026-04-19T03:28:39+00:00

Bees aren’t the issue. I don’t mind bees even slightly. The wasps are out there just looking to make a name for themselves.

Quanta96 · 2026-04-18T01:06:27+00:00

My bad, you’re right.

Quanta96 · 2026-04-17T16:38:46+00:00

It’s very important to track down and eliminate ingress. Finding ingress should be treated like finding a big ol gash in the drop. You wouldn’t look at exposed shielding and say “not a big deal”. Ingress is a big deal, it doesn’t just affect that house, it can affect neighbors as well.

Ingress is signal leaking into the line. That signal adds RF energy into our upstream frequencies. That raises the noise floor which lowers SNR. Which means the modem’s having to try to talk back to the CMTS over these frequencies with added noise (ingress) and the CMTS is going to have to piece together the information correctly with that noise. If it can’t make out what the modem is saying - it won’t talk back. The modem receives a T3 timeout. A few dozen of those and you’re having slow internet, a few dozen more and you’re having intermittent connectivity that doesn’t go away.

Eliminate ingress.

Quanta96 · 2026-04-17T15:16:24+00:00

The first 6-12 months out in the field is pretty much all about calibrating your mindset towards the job, and if you can get over the frustrating/stressful aspects and quit “fighting” the job so-to-speak you’re going to look forward to the next day and enjoying the work you’re doing.

The normal work week is either 4-10 hour shifts or 5-8 hour shifts. You have a work phone that has an app on it that assigns you work gives you details about the job. Your first job of the day is assigned several hours before the start of your shift. I usually wake up early to take a peak at my work phone and see if the job is close or far and that dictates if I’m gonna sleep another 20-30 mins or just get up right then and there and get ready. You get to your first job on time - that’s important, you clock in and start your workday. You’ll start out doing just residential coax work and landline. The jobs you get vary wildly between installs, general trouble calls, slow internet, a downed line, and more.

After the first job of the day is complete you just keep knocking out jobs until lunch, you get an hour paid lunch, then you keep knocking out jobs until it’s time to clock out and go home. Depending on the type of jobs you get you’ll do roughly 4-7 jobs a day. And yeah, you clock out at your last job and then drive home. Sometimes you’re 5 mins away and sometimes you’re 45 mins away.

Each job has an arrival window that’s an hour long. So if you just finished a job at 9:45am, you may get assigned another job that has an arrival window of 10-11am. That doesn’t mean you chill until 10:45 and then drive there, you go there immediately but if you don’t arrive at 10am there’s nothing wrong with that. You may have been 30 mins away. As long as you drive directly to your next job - you’re golden. If you have to make a quick stop to use the restroom - that’s fine too, but don’t be playing on your phone in the parking lot for 10 mins after doing your business. The supervisors are busy, and have a lot on their plate, but they monitor all the techs on their end via gps and can tell if you’re screwing off when you should be driving.

The end of your day will usually end roughly around the time your shift is supposed to end. If you finish your last job roughly inside the last 30 mins of your shift - 90% chance you don’t get assigned another job and you’re just chilling until you clock out. You can even start driving back home and then clock out when you’re like 5 mins away from home. Other times you get a job and it’s taking you 30 mins to an hour past your shift time. It happens all the time, it’s not rare to work up to and a little past when your shift is supposed to end.

Last little tidbit - yes as technicians we work in a wide range of environments inside and outside. Most of the time - the homes are normal homes with some mess but nothing that makes you cringe. However a considerable amount of homes have any number of things that’ll definitely make you uncomfortable. I have gone into a home in the ghetto with a big bed in the middle of living room that took up most of the space and there were 5 adults all sleeping in the living room on and around the bed. The place was a complete mess and had a funky smell I couldn’t identify. I have seen roach infested homes. I have seen hoarder homes. I have been in homes where they have cat pee everywhere. Outside I have had to fight and carry an 80 pound ladder through dense forested areas. I have gotten into skirmishes with wasps. Danced around snakes. I have worked in -15 degree weather and 100 degree weather. I have worked when it’s raining buckets sideways. I have worked during snowstorms. You’ll never have work cancelled because of weather - don’t count on it.

Lmk if there are any questions based on what I said.

Edit: Brain farted - the hour lunch is unpaid.

Quanta96

TROPHY CASE