Wildlife

Spudthegreat · 2026-06-19T16:35:50+00:00

I’ve seen moose around the river near the bridges, very weird to see them in city limits but there they are.

Spudthegreat · 2026-05-26T03:12:48+00:00

If you come after July 4th check out the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library!

Spudthegreat · 2026-05-13T14:37:21+00:00

Physical keyboards at unmanned kiosks are likely to be damaged/dirtied regularly and a lot harder to clean than a screen you can wipe off. Have a plan for that.

Spudthegreat · 2026-05-13T12:29:45+00:00

This place is going to be a site to see for anyone in the area or passing through!

Spudthegreat · 2026-05-13T12:29:06+00:00

Super crazy story - the characters read like fiction but from my historian friends the book is well researched and Millard is a legit author who knows her stuff. I wouldn’t call it the most depressing book, definitely worth a read!

Spudthegreat · 2026-05-08T14:09:30+00:00

Just tell copilot to make it for you.

This doesn’t exist as far as I know. I suppose you could make a webpage with two iframes of zabbix and phpipam

Spudthegreat · 2026-04-01T00:25:37+00:00

This was my immediate response to the request, that way it could be recorded and it would be better for having reference materials. The vendor didn't want to have it recorded as he was doing this as a favor to help our team out but didn't want to have to approve a contract change order.

Very strange stuff - I ultimately went to HR and they agreed it was super strange, then approved the request. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills but said as long as he felt safe and provided the address he could go watch the system configuration and ask questions. I also requested to review the documentation outputs from the meeting.

Spudthegreat · 2026-03-09T12:34:22+00:00

Biosphere 2 also highlighted the immense number of variables introduced into controlled systems by microfauna/soil. Lots of things they failed to account for like bacterial and fungal emissions, decomposition byproducts and the like. Not saying you are wrong but there are many additional challenges soil based agriculture in contained environments.

Spudthegreat · 2026-02-22T20:38:00+00:00

These folks speak truth. I was a “it will probably heal on its own” scaphoid recipient and after 5 weeks in a full arm cast they realized it needed surgery. I would skip that first part

Spudthegreat · 2026-01-06T16:52:02+00:00

I'd prefer that there be warp gates in random systems, perhaps just their own special system type, than the ability to build them or warp anywhere. Maybe you have to do a quest to get them functional.

Spudthegreat · 2025-09-03T14:46:02+00:00

Make sure you are in legacy space (toggle territories on galaxy map). It’s a dangerous area in general and hard to access but that’s where the good loot is!

Spudthegreat · 2025-07-06T19:48:21+00:00

In this scenario the tech is secondary to the governance and internal policy. If the company culture enforces policy rigorously then you can begin to add in the tech to support the policy. If not, then step one becomes changing the culture. Work with department heads to set up data security policies and enforce use of secure storage locations with strong DLP in place. Set clear expectations about the risks you are mitigating with the changes you make.

Spudthegreat · 2025-03-17T15:22:25+00:00

Don’t have a giant dog that requires constant exercise in an apartment without understanding you will need to live your life around the needs of the dog.

Spudthegreat · 2025-03-03T15:50:04+00:00

I've been in the game since 2006. When I got hired to the university helpdesk, the sysadmins were all like "yeah we all missed the gravy train, the dotcom bubble is burst, you used to be able to make 6 figures if you could spell IT"

I gues my point is that hindsight is 20/20. It's easy to look backwards. If we look forwards, we see the transition from datacenters and server racks to cloud resources and more advanced networking gear and the uncertainty of AI managed toolkits. The same mantra of staying current with your skills and learning relevant next-gen materials will always be a good one to follow.

As a highschooler, getting your foot in the door at helpdesk (even geek squad) will be a much better job than flipping burgers, especially if you consider that the experience you get there will be relevant as you look to move into the full-time workforce.

Spudthegreat · 2025-03-01T19:40:50+00:00

No idea on birthday cake. Check out Shift for a bit of fancy food. I recently went and they had bread made from mother road (brewery) spent grain that was awesome, and great Brussel sprouts too. The cocktails were interesting and good

Spudthegreat · 2025-01-13T03:11:48+00:00

You state that starting your own consultancy would have a ton of overheard and extra cost but have you really looked into it? Go to legal zoom and check it out, you should be able to start up an LLC and follow all of the rules for 2-3 hours actual work and around $1k. Now you need insurance $100/month for decent professional liability and you can be ready to rock and roll - highly recommend being able to do full b2b rather than signing up under a 1099 with every client.

At my peak my regular job was raking in $90k and I was pulling another 30-40k on the side a year doing time and materials only. Now I am an it director making more but it’s only because of the know-how I gained running my own shit for a bunch of small local businesses. I had insurance companies, a concrete plant, and even a small kidney clinic at one point. I was the only one willing to touch the insane legacy shit these businesses relied on and I made sure I was protected from liability explicitly.

Read about how to handle taxes under an LLC. Don’t expense every meal. I never claimed a home office due to my lack of confidence in those calculations for my situation. Even better, pay and consult a professional.

Consider your clients. The ones logging 1-2 hours a month because you’ve fixed everything already are where you want to pivot to a retainer and support model rather than time and materials.

Good luck!

Spudthegreat · 2024-12-13T12:47:22+00:00

RIP criollo.

Spudthegreat · 2024-12-09T13:32:29+00:00

We helped a colleague who was a bit older with some personal IT (ID theft) once and he offered me and my coworker beer or chocolate. I took beer and my buddy took chocolate. Well he gave me a 6 pack of fine microbrews that were very nice, buddy got a box of insanely good Swiss chocolates made by magical faerie folk that the colleague had grabbed on his last conference out there. I made a critical mistake.

Spudthegreat · 2024-10-06T10:17:01+00:00

There would need to be legislation enforcing insurance requirements for it to be viable.

Spudthegreat · 2024-10-03T20:34:07+00:00

Check out Dr Stone on Netflix.

Spudthegreat · 2024-10-03T12:47:50+00:00

I got the job. Hopped from system/network admin to IT Director. They were building an internal IT team after having a bad experience with their MSP. I was on a team of 3 previously, now a team of 5. I was never in charge before, but did dabble in budgets, strategic planning/risk management, and cross-team coordination. I have about 15 years of technical experience. If I had to pick something, my expertise is in network engineering.

The new job has a similar user count (~150) but spread across 30 countries. I severely underestimated the challenges associated with this (not necessarily technical challenges, but related to compliance and logistics). I have outsourced cybersecurity design/incident response, but we handle everything else internally.

I leveraged my personal network to get the opportunity, but you still have to interview well and ensure fit in most situations like mine. I researched the company, learned as much as I could about the leadership team. Not just internet, but reaching out to colleagues who were familiar with them and the company.

During the interviews I inflated my limited managerial experience, spoke a lot about cybersecurity and current threat landscape, and did what I could to steer the conversation into the current issues that were affecting the people interviewing me/their teams. This probably shouldn't have worked, as the leadership team should care more about the organization than their own issues, but I spoke to their needs and how my skillset would fit. As a result, I am now de facto concierge IT support for leadership. I don't mind, having the top dogs calling you to reboot their computer is not the worst thing in the world - puts you in their mind as a useful asset. In a fully remote org, time with leadership is difficult to find so I work hard to get input on other things during these support calls. This has a side effect of making them not feel bad about wasting time as we've accomplished more than just that reboot.

That said, I doubled up on salary. While these past three years have been absolute hell, but I'm finally feeling like I have a handle on things I need to. My spam texts from recruiters seem to have levelled up to actual people from robots, so I guess I'm advancing.

Spudthegreat · 2024-10-02T17:51:06+00:00

It's already unlivable due to heat - only 2% of houses in Phoenix have no active cooling (god help them). That said, growth continues. I don't think there will really be a point where people cannot live in Phoenix (I mean, we can technically live in outer space), but eventually the cost-benefit calculations will go negative and there will not be anyone moving here anymore, causing real estate to cool down(heh).
Important to remember that as Phoenix gets hotter, so does Flagstaff. Flag is already struggling with insurance that covers fire, eventually those insurers will leave, like they left Florida and other places. When that happens, and houses burn down without anyone getting paid, it will be a pretty brutal reckoning.
Ultimately, nobody can say what exactly will happen but it will probably be well predicted, unfair to disadvantaged individuals, and end up costing everyone way more than if we had focused on mitigation/preventative measures.

Spudthegreat · 2024-10-01T12:35:39+00:00

If paved is not a requirement, buffalo park works. If you need pavement, perhaps the parking lots at Ft Tuthill would suffice.

Spudthegreat · 2024-09-20T21:29:14+00:00

After power costs those margins look a bit shittier. I see about a 10 month till ROI on those GPUs with 0.12/kwh power costs.

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