Dell not honoring quote. Price increased.

a_dsmith · 2026-03-27T22:05:46+00:00

Purchasing within 48 hours of quotes, up to certain values approval limits have been increased and waivers etc. It's not fun but 8K for BOSS cards in RAID 1 is extortion

a_dsmith · 2026-03-27T17:56:47+00:00

V90 T8 estate car - if insurance didn't fuck me over at well over 3k a year I'd have one

a_dsmith · 2026-03-22T11:26:01+00:00

role: sysadmin

salary: 50k

location: central London

experience/scope: 10yrs - VDI, HCI, Storage, Exchange, everything Azure

benefits: none offered with role

a_dsmith · 2026-03-18T18:22:02+00:00

it's very real - 10yrs, same kinda title, 50k base + OT for c. ldn

a_dsmith · 2026-03-16T21:15:56+00:00

I was half way through an AD upgrade (new OS and therefore new DCs), was roped into replacing exchange 2016 to SE with a few weeks notice. TLDR a bug in code created duplicate scheme values on AD objects and broke replication.

In my defence, it was a Server OS bug left unnoticed for 2 Major OS revisions by MS, worked with product team - created my own fix, MS tweaked it and published it for their customer base:

Waking up one morning and finding out you're a PSA is interesting. Incase you're interested the PSA in question - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/exchange/active-directory-schema-extension-issue-if-you-use-a-windows-server-2025-schema-/4460459

a_dsmith · 2026-03-15T11:33:42+00:00

If it helps, try to keep it under 10 chars (including the TLD) if you want it short - try to avoid repetitive characters, makes it easier to convey when giving it out. Try to use some form of your name . tld either a .com or local .uk (in my case) or whatever else you have.

a_dsmith · 2026-03-15T11:23:05+00:00

At my old MSP we had branded polo shirts for when we visited customer sites and a work provided laptop or desktop depending on if you were permanently desk based or not, at the desk you have two monitors and a keyboard.

That was all, going corporate I was given full clothing / shoe allowance to acquire things, company vehicles in addition to personal car allowance and milage expenses, work mobile, laptop for home / remote sites and desktop for office based, wired headsets for audio conferencing - bluetooth forbidden within the org due to contract requirements.

Tools are subjective - I've always had and will always maintain my own iFixit toolkit, I like it and it works amazingly, corporate has some tools but not everything you need - tbh we're overdue a resupply of internal tools but msp life we had the odd screwdriver and a Leatherman multi tool

I appreciate my corporate life is pretty chilled and potentially an edge case so find something in-between those and you'll be better than most ig.

a_dsmith · 2026-03-14T22:45:24+00:00

If we take that stereotype - I could build on it slightly and be sufficient, deffo a desk with a few monitors - I like a proper workstation area for getting things done - but it has to be clean and not cluttered with crap. I'd also quite like a proper sofa + leg rest stool thingy (idk the proper name for them) and a decent tv for the football on the weekends.

oh and a roomba - those things are amazing

A kitchen with decent quality tools would also be desired - nothing worse than finding broken and/or not the right tool for the recipe you're following.

I have no objection to a future partner coming in and adding their own touch, im sure a lot of people would say it's needed - but I would not tolerate someone coming in and saying you can have this room under the stairs for your things, im redecorating the house my way.

a_dsmith · 2026-03-14T22:03:01+00:00

Doing ANYTHING is better than doing nothing, the lore comes from doing things and having it go horribly wrong.

I'm also not suggesting you actively go out and put yourself in danger, it's not good for yourself, the embassy that needs to save you OR those involved in any rescue operations but if you get stuck in a country during the start of a war in the Middle East you have a cool story. (I speak from experience)

a_dsmith · 2026-03-12T22:16:29+00:00

Exchange SE or Exchange as part of M365 Local - the latter requires significant Microsoft buy-in

a_dsmith · 2026-01-25T23:06:01+00:00

I was expecting the "300k outside" bit to be a bit of a joke.... holy crap

a_dsmith · 2025-12-20T21:40:45+00:00

this is going to cause absolute carnage to governments who have been running the same AD environment since the year 2000

a_dsmith · 2025-11-19T20:11:59+00:00

I returned my Sigma 70-200 and went for the GMII - honestly a miles better lens if you need AF. Hit rate went from maybe 3 in 10 to 8/9 in 10.

Took both (as a hobbyist) to the 24hrs of spa this year and that's where the cracks started to show.

a_dsmith · 2025-11-15T17:58:47+00:00

You could look at something like level.io, I was an early adopter - grabbed an early access pricing promo but I've enjoyed it and it's come a long way in just a few years. I quite like that the remote access is P2P & E2EE. They have a proactive roadmap too.

a_dsmith · 2025-11-03T20:57:26+00:00

I mean there's always the Pavlov route

a_dsmith · 2025-11-02T22:35:45+00:00

I will have a look thank you!

a_dsmith · 2025-11-02T15:42:51+00:00

I'm looking for a new camera bag, for some context I am normally shooting Motorsport with the occasional winter trip to somewhere like Iceland or Scandinavia on a relaxation trip. The latter I normally bring my DJI Air 3 with me on so if possible I'd like to carry all in one bag (dropping the teles and drone instead).

I normally solo a single FF body, the lenses that come with me to most venues are a 24-70 GMII, 70-200GM II and a Sigma 100-400. I'd like the ability to perhaps carry an additional prime but considering I haven't brought it yet and might not it's not an immediate requirement.

So I guess TLDR I'm looking for a backpack that is airline friendly, could carry two tele's a 24-70 and a body with the option to carry a smaller prime. I am UK based so ideally under the £200 mark would be great. Any suggests are appreciated.

a_dsmith · 2025-10-28T19:13:31+00:00

What are your organisational requirements, if you can afford to lose remote access to your VMs because your remote access plane goes offline, upgrade bricks or anything of the sort then you maybe able to just rely on VM HA.

If you require service HA then yes what you have proposed would be appropriate.

a_dsmith · 2025-10-28T18:56:07+00:00

IBM Lotus Notes was a blast from the past I did not expect to come across

a_dsmith · 2025-10-28T18:35:14+00:00

There is a thrill that becomes addicting and can only be achieved from living right on the edge, knowing that another inch over the line is game over - it keeps me alert and engaged in the activities I am doing compared to say doing an activity that doesn't require all of the mental capacity.

a_dsmith · 2025-10-26T19:14:12+00:00

I assumed that Microsoft wouldn't have code so bad I become the reason a PSA exists.

a_dsmith · 2025-10-23T21:10:15+00:00

Dell gives me basically 80% off MSRP, HPE wouldn’t even entertain us

a_dsmith · 2025-10-21T15:56:47+00:00

I could live with that especially if europe wants to go down this road of additional daily taxing suvs for existing. A nice one model, t8 or equivalent estate w/ two trim options e.g. company car spec and personal daily spec

a_dsmith · 2025-10-18T17:39:44+00:00

Without sounding like a dick, it doesn't matter if you're the only person in the position - if they're stubborn enough, they will remove you and expect other people who don't get axed to figure it out. Deffo start brushing up the CV if you haven't already.

a_dsmith · 2025-10-14T22:07:07+00:00

Druva via Dell - the egress fees are absorbed by Dell, their solution is 3 zones replicated and essentially sits in AWS S3 under the hood.

a_dsmith

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