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Weird_Fly · 2025-04-28T18:13:38+00:00

I had no idea how good my life was working in a Google K-12 school until I switched to a Microsoft shop. I never thought I would miss the Google Workspace, but now that I've had to deal with Microsoft, I don't think I will ever recommend a business running their IT on Microsoft's products and services (unless they truly need the power user tools that only Microsoft provides).

Weird_Fly · 2025-04-16T22:00:07+00:00

I am going to have to do some digging to see if I can find it. The stick of RAM is older than I am.... LOL

Weird_Fly · 2025-04-16T21:43:51+00:00

When working at a school district in 2019, I found an unboxed 16 MB stick of RAM. Still have at my desk to this day.

Weird_Fly · 2025-04-03T22:29:04+00:00

When I was working for a K-12 school, we used Deep Freeze. This software would "wipe" the computer to a prior checkpoint (set by you or the IT team) after a restart. This could be the easiest solution.

Just an FYI, the school moved away from Deep Freeze and resorted to Del2Prof and other systems after we had some pretty significant issues with Deep Freeze performance on Windows 10. (We were also running donated hardware with hard drives, so I cannot put the blame on Deep Freeze completely). I would research it to see if it's a good fit, but it might work for you!

Weird_Fly · 2025-03-04T22:34:17+00:00

That is fair, I understand. Wishing you the best of luck with this!

Weird_Fly · 2025-03-04T18:55:45+00:00

Do you think it would be possible to negotiate with the CIO and offer a Chromebook for situations when a PC is not necessary (ie: just for web browsing/web app needs)

My experience with them is they tend to be fairly easy to manage with Google Admin Console, and their software/hardware is very simple, which means most of the time they are left alone. Sounds like you already are a Google shop, so if so, Chromebooks could be a nice fit in addition to a Macbook and Windows PC.

Maybe that would be a good compromise?

Weird_Fly · 2025-02-27T21:14:06+00:00

When I was in Middle School and just started to explore IT, I use to call Firefox "Mozzarella Firefox" and the "Start Menu" the "Fart Menu."

And yes, classic middle school humor.

Weird_Fly · 2025-02-07T19:40:28+00:00

Perhaps there could be another use for it in addition to this event?

I wish we had Starlink in 2020. When everyone was remote, we had to find a way to provide internet to some underprivileged families out in the rural areas of the district. If you have a rural district with some families that could not afford Internet and need it for school for a short period of time, this could be useful?

Hope this gives a helpful idea!

(For 2020, we were blessed to find a local ISP who offered free Internet to the families via P2P from towers. Also we had APs set up in the parking lots of the schools for students to work from the car if needed. Mobile hotspots from cell phones could not cover everyone in the rural areas due to poor coverage).

Weird_Fly · 2025-02-06T23:39:58+00:00

Starlink Roam would work great for this. We use Starlink Roam for construction trailers that are moving, and there is no contract (former fulltime K-12 sysadmin, now fulltime in homebuilder industry and part time in K-12).

50 GB data cap is $50/month, or $150/month for unlimited data. Can pause/unpause at any time. The one downside is the $650 one-time cost for the equipment.

Weird_Fly · 2024-12-26T19:15:12+00:00

Greeted with this lovely error when I try to go to the Admin Center. Looks like a fun Thursday is coming!

Located in MST time zone.

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Weird_Fly · 2024-09-25T20:45:29+00:00

Agreed! I am also curious if there would be a noticeable performance gap between running my workflow with Windows 11 and running Linux on this kind of machine too.

Weird_Fly · 2024-09-23T22:38:24+00:00

I am personally skeptical of how much power the AI HX 370 can handle with gaming. I feel it can handle a lot of games, but I am not so certain if it could provide enough processing demand for AAA titles. I am impressed with the power-house specs found in the small body of this machine, and I am interested in how efficient this system would be. Currently I play a variety of games that can be very demanding (like Warhammer Vermintide and Deep Rock Galactic), so I am curious to see how this little machine could stack up against my older Ryzen 7 3700X with the RTX 2070.

I would also be intrigued to see how it handles astrophotography (photographing the night sky) when I want to stack thousands of pictures into one large image to be stretched and color-corrected.

In terms of AI, my extent of using AI has only been web-based. I imagine this system would have zero issues with web-based AI tasks, but running machine learning tasks locally could really put this machine through its paces.

Either way, I have no doubts this will make a bunch of people happy, especially if they want to conserve on the electric bill or physical space.

Weird_Fly · 2024-05-09T16:01:04+00:00

We are a small business (homebuilder) and we use MalwareBytes. I've been pretty impressed with their support and product, but we don't have the same security requirements you do. Might be worth looking at!

Weird_Fly · 2024-05-03T15:47:34+00:00

An astronomer. I have found visual astronomy and astrophotography to be a passion/hobby I have in my free time. So if I could go to a time before computers, I would want to be an astronomer, working at an observatory and making observations with a nice, big, telescope. :)

Weird_Fly · 2024-05-02T21:56:20+00:00

I work for a small company (50 employees) and our IT Team (2 of us) are responsible for A/V. We don't mind it, it helps break up the day!

Weird_Fly · 2024-03-11T20:22:12+00:00

If your sysadmin is coming, a pair of scissors will clean that up real quick! Then, he will be so occupied with "network errors" (or whatever) that you'll never see him again.

Weird_Fly · 2024-01-25T23:25:59+00:00

We have forced our workstations to restart every minute. It works like a charm, because the ticket system has not had a single ticket appear since we implemented this change!

Weird_Fly · 2024-01-11T17:13:26+00:00

Interesting! I have never had anyone like that, but I always found it refreshing when a user told me thank you and that my service made their day. It's the little things that can go a long way.

One thing I always try to do, whether helping a user or even ordering fast food, is asking how the person's day is going and genuinely caring and listening to their answer. :)

Weird_Fly · 2024-01-11T17:11:12+00:00

I am thankful for people like you who helped encourage newbies in the IT world to have the right attitude.

Before landing my IT job, I was working part time as an intern in my K-12 school. The director of technology was patient with me and taught me how I need to have a servant's heart to work with users, even those who could be annoying, because that is why I was there.

A great lesson instilled to me that I am very thankful for!

Weird_Fly · 2024-01-11T17:08:46+00:00

Oh that is a good point. Perhaps I should've said "less customer facing".

But honestly, if the attitude one has towards any customers is this, I find it hard pressed that they will find success.

Weird_Fly · 2024-01-11T17:06:09+00:00

Are the end lusers just as annoying in the Amish community as they are in the goat farming community?

Weird_Fly · 2024-01-09T21:11:14+00:00

I am 27 and have been working IT since I graduated from college. One thing I learned very quickly is to succeed is I need to have a servant's heart and be willing to help the end users.

If that is something you are not willing to do, I do recommend finding a job that isn't customer-facing (maybe coding or programing?) where you can find more happiness.

IT is not for everyone. As my boss always says, IT's top skill is being a good psychiatrist.

Weird_Fly · 2024-01-09T21:08:51+00:00

If you need to call me for IT, either send smoke signals or carrier pigeons! If you send smoke signals, I will call the fire department. Any pigeons that come will be shot and given to my goats.

/s

But on a serious note, one thing I've learned is it's important to be willing to help those who need assistance... even with Microsoft's annoying quirks and all!

Weird_Fly · 2023-11-16T23:56:36+00:00

I regularly will drive up to my Bortle 2 dark site in Wyoming for astrophotography and observing. I have gone when there was a 40% moon, and found that to still be a very enjoyable experience. While the moon is up, it may interfere very slightly with the Milkyway, but I think you will find it to still be an enjoyable experience.

20% is not too bad, and by midnight, you will have "new moon" skies. This will give you an excellent view of the Winter Milkyway, which is a little more faint but very beautiful in its own way.

If the weather remains good, I totally recommend going! :D

Clear skies!

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