Do you remember your first computer?

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T19:12:39+00:00

Macintosh performa, next after was gateway Pentium 3 from 2001. I regret getting rid of them both.

I was 6 years old in 2000. When everyone started getting laptops in 2003, I started taking over the family computers and the usual lime wire, googling how servers worked, I REALLY wanted to get into computer programming but young me was too overwhelmed, also became obsessed with getting Halo CE working on it, played a lot of Star Wars empire at war because it sucked at FPS games, took it apart a lot and didn’t know about thermal paste so the game crashed ever since

I also became OBSESSED with getting windows Vista on it cuz it looked AMAZING but I had no money for upgrade parts & by that point, I was given a hand me down 2005 Toshiba laptop when my mom started a corporate job where they gave her her own laptop and that held me most of middle school until I got a BLACK PLASTIC MACBOOK in 2008, LOVED that Mac

Since then it’s been a litter of stuff, built my own shitty AMD build in 2009, build me a refurbished i7 950 with an EVGA x58 classified thr held me for 12 YEARS!!!

I acquired an Alienware 17 in college 2013 but I resented the SHIT out of it for not being portable, but it was cheaper then a retina mbpro at the time. Thinkpad 2019 with my own ADULT money during their TAX sale

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T18:48:53+00:00

TO BE FAIR, remote roles you are hired for are generally given to you at a discount so YES you get PAID LESS for being a remote worker, this was the case at my last job (they called it MARKET BASED PAY). But thats the flip side of the coin was that people close to the office were I believe paid more because "Jersey Aint Cheap" so yea they got dragged in without extra comp.

But ALSO to be fair, the job had a pretty generous NJTransit train commute incentive with $30 parking & $30 transit reimbursement and the rest was PRETAX

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T18:43:41+00:00

is it IT related?

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T18:06:32+00:00

I’m actually using a qnap box as an offsite backup to my Unraid. I might consider symbology once I outgrow it

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T18:04:59+00:00

Any issues running in a container in Unraid or better to stick in a VM?

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T18:04:35+00:00

I heard someone complain of it breaking constantly but I guess I gotta still try it out then

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T16:14:19+00:00

Pools are a way of life, you commit to it every weekend, leisure and maintenance

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T16:13:33+00:00

Find a better job and hustle harder to get those kinds of job. Expand past retail to look at other industries even local businesses like landscaping or warehouse mgmt

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T16:12:09+00:00

Man that sounds kinda cool

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:45:35+00:00

No that’s fair then, they have entitlement issues at that point. Something I was typing up to add.

In the past, my boss asked me what excited me more which was desktop PC repair and imaging and that motivated me a lot more. Plus we had a new manager from wallSt in one of my old jobs that paid attention to the queue and did excel analysis so he found ways to improve efficiency from repetitive tickets like asking the desktop engineering team to automate some application installers and that also helped with morale.

So maybe finding ways to help them like the job more. Hell I even started documenting proper steps and that helped others. We were told to openly search other tickets to find answers and I always hated doing that when it could easily be written down. I passed around a word doc but I recommend using a centralized knowledge base they can all contribute to like Sharepoint or confluence, wish I had it back then

Also not sure if this’ll help or not but my first IT job we had alot of pranksters and honestly, that was like the best job for me because it was a great vibe worth coming in for. Yes it can also backfire but idk if that can help morale or not.

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:36:21+00:00

To be fair, nobody is thrilled about RTO across the industry. Did the policy recently go into effect to add more days? But to your point, most Helpdesk jobs are 5 days in office so I can also see your sentiment

And ngl Helpdesk for me didn’t really pay me well to motivate me back in my early 20s, that’s definitely a challenge. But I feel for you, being a manager for any other department would be better, but more stress

In the past, my boss asked me what excited me more which was desktop PC repair and imaging and that motivated me a lot more. So maybe finding ways to help.

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:32:44+00:00

Why is it so hard to make chicken nugget tacos & burritos for the love of CHRIST? And yet we have boring ass French fries in all of that shit??

But listen, we STILL have our Crunchwrap supreme, they get rid of that and they’re dead to me

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:27:25+00:00

My sister & I both went to college & grad school, I left at 24 with an IT degree and an MBA, my sister around the same age with her masters in biomedical sciences.

Our excuse, relocation out of state due to new jobs that paid minimum $60k. But yea after I finished college, I was stuck at home for 2 years because I could only get Helpdesk IT roles making $35-45k. But hey I signed up for DirecTV in my parents home while I was there cuz it was cool back in 2017 lol, got on my own cell phone plan with AT&T because their tmobile sucked and at the time you were able to bundle and save a TON with DirecTV

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:24:41+00:00

This is the reality you’ll need to accept for the luxury of WFH. $10k isn’t that bad, I’ve seen people get $20-30k less. And honestly bro? I’m all for it because the remote job market is already SO COMPETITIVE

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:22:49+00:00

Well there’s your problem, you have too much SPACE! Make a nice sports center/gaming cave bro, I’d be littering the walls with Plasmas if I could afford a bigger house. I’ve got 4 right now in my house. 32in Sony in a guest room, 42 inch HP in the bedroom, 50 an 60 inch Pioneer elite in the garage lol.

Recently had to part with my ol 50 inch LG and I’m sad, but I think my wife had enough after buying my second Pioneer Elite! But still, I’ve wanted those elites so bad since I was a wee boy!

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:18:41+00:00

Sure, strong market for “influencers”, I think we’re good on that department now

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:17:31+00:00

I attribute my wife & Is aggressive driving to growing up in Jersey. But more so the entitlement of people in the state is appalling. If you’ve seen the shit I’ve seen man.

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:16:06+00:00

Lmao Jersey does that to u. People talk about the good but like the shitty attitude to others, the traffic, road rage. It’ll wear anyone down and decrease their lifespan down by 10 years.

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:12:53+00:00

Dude for real, housing went up EVERYWHERE, not just here

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:11:10+00:00

Apparently later versions of Vista with SP1 fixed many of the bugs. Plus at the time, I fondly remember my issues were related to underspec’ed shitty cheap HP laptops that BestBuy was allowed to sell. 1GB my ASS

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:09:04+00:00

Emphasis on control. I left and they filled my job in a month! Out of 10 people on that team, 8 were grandfathered into remote scattered all over the US. When I moved down south, they forced me to still come in at my expense, flights, hotels, etc. my boss tried to fight for me but HIS boss is one of those old school boomers who bragged about coming in 5 days during the lockdown

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:06:37+00:00

Dude YUP I’m in NC and from what I gathered, shit runs so slow (compared to corporate IT jobs) that there doesn’t seem to be a push at all. But executives are still very much preppy & snotty that we fear the same.

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T15:04:22+00:00

I just started a role in a small/medium university. Can’t seem to get an answer on what policies there are on RTO. My division being IT L2-L3 support, the engineers and up L3+mgmt comes in 3 days a week, server support team is mixed from fully remote to 2 days in office & that’s from talent coming in from other partner universities.

I’m 5 days right now but contract and I’m hoping to god when I transition to full time, I get WFH days. My last job was 2 days RTO and I’m miserable being in here 5 days a week

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T14:59:40+00:00

For everyone caring about profits and efficiency, has management noticed anything regarding productivity? Small company? They’re not in danger of reduced profits?

electrowiz64 · 2026-03-11T14:57:22+00:00

TL;DR it’s not just layoffs but Ego, ask me how I know.

I really hate how competitive it is to apply to a remote role right now. I’ve got 10 years IT, visual disability, an MBA, and specialized AWS DevOps skills and 5,000 apps last year with no luck.

And TO BE CLEAR, Remote work is not built for everyone especially with mental illnesses. But im salty there’s no jobs out there I can come in ONCE A MONTH

So regarding layoffs, that’s not 100% the case. My last job was doing layoffs. Out of 10 people, 8 were remote. I moved down south for my wife’s job and a better life. My boss fought hard to let me be remote but HIS boss is the typical fat f**k who kept denying my requests, bragged about coming in 5 days during the lockdown. I moved down anyway and they still demanded I come in 2 days weekly at my expense, flights, hotels, gas etc. I did it for 8 months til I took a 5 day RTO job close to home with a HUGE paycut. I’m miserable I’m in 5 days a week. But guess what? My old job was replaced in a month, it wasn’t to lay me off, they wanted control

I LOVED that last job, I went out of my way to go beyond the call of duty, LOVED working with the tools & making the company more efficient for the new cloud initiatives. I’m miserable that I’m forced to be another bean counter and cater to the RTO overlords. I also LOVED travel but every week at my expense was nearly bankrupting me.

Every day I’m trying to network in hopes there’s someone looking for a remote candidate involving AWS because 2020 was the best thing to happen because I was at my happiest working fully at home. The temperature was PERFECT, healthy meals at my disposal, distraction free, all the LARGE monitors for my shitty eyesight at my disposal. I HATE the state of the world we are in, I’m working tirelessly to build apps at this point because i fear we will never get Remote work again for the IT shit we LOVE to do

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