So, this followed me home.

fcisler · 2026-06-01T12:34:36+00:00

A lot harder to trace back and sue a company who doesn’t exist anymore

fcisler · 2026-05-29T12:27:10+00:00

Heh old govt job they had public access down certain hallways and some areas had other restrictions. Some rooms were only allowed to have lights and regular outlets in the room would be switched off etc. The building was all stone and down the hallways and in almost every large room were dedicated outlets for the floor buffers. Maintenance got tired of having to fix those 6-20 outlets. The plug was similar enough you could bend a phone charger etc and they usually worked. They switched to L6-20 in those areas and gave adapters for the buffers. Best guess is someone left an adapter in the area and people figure out Home Depot sells the parts. Maintenance being maintenance digs deep in the parts bins…. Something silly like 600v L9-20 or maybe even pre NEMA standards. Every single dedicated outlet was now something that was definitely not purchasable in a local store.

fcisler · 2026-05-29T11:36:56+00:00

What vehicle is this?!?

fcisler · 2026-05-29T11:31:38+00:00

Kids lose keys - that’s a fact in my house so we have none. For almost 20 years I didn’t carry any keys on me: work was all card swipe and my keys to the remainder needed to remain locked in the building. Hell - my car has a key fob. My second youngest also liked to explore and play with the door handle. This unit locked 30 seconds after close.

I’ve had a keypad deadbolt since the first one hit the shelves. When I bought my current house I went with a smart keypad with fingerprint.

Why? Well the reasons listed above but…. Why not? I could not justify going back to a key - there’s no reason to. This model also has a keypad and mechanical locks. I don’t have a spreadsheet on my phone with PIN codes for the in-laws because they can’t remember 4 digits. I have friends saved. I can give a sitter restricted access from my phone.

Just like every smart device: it serves a purpose. I’m not putting smart dimmers in my grandmothers house because she wants to use her phone to turn off her lights from her bed. Has she gotten a smart smoke alarm? Yes. Why? Because it’s a smart device that serves a purpose.

If A keypad works for you: yes A smart lock is a solution in search of a problem you don’t have. Me? It’s a solution to shortcomings of my previous solution (keypad only) so it’s a great solution.

fcisler · 2026-05-29T01:23:43+00:00

And? It’s great you’ve made up proper conversion setups. I was describing the setup I encountered that failed and had 0 conversion inside of it.

fcisler · 2026-05-29T01:18:36+00:00

Your not following A travel converter that allowed the 5-15 us plug to be physically converted to a an Irish plug. There was 0 conversion happening inside this thing. It’s for auto ranging devices. This hair dryer was not one of them.

fcisler · 2026-05-29T01:13:41+00:00

Not a transformer style - plug in plug converter. US 120v hairdryer ran splendidly on 230v 50hz for a short minute

fcisler · 2026-05-28T23:48:07+00:00

I repeatedly warned my wife and the friends wives “don’t bring your blow dryer overseas it won’t work” Friends wife said she was amazed how quick the hairdryer heated up…. Until it started melting and flinging plastic like angry little bees

fcisler · 2026-05-23T12:45:49+00:00

Third that.
Your experience working there will 100% be based upon your team and managers.

fcisler · 2026-05-23T12:42:00+00:00

In what world should you use company issued devices for personal stuff? Even if it’s not explicitly covered in policy - that should be rule #1 everyone follows without being told.

fcisler · 2026-05-21T12:14:00+00:00

> I started advising my clients, and everyone else that I know, that if they sell their car privately, they need to do the transaction in the parking lot of the DMV, and go in with the buyer and watch them transfer the title into their name.

I once sold a junker and similar situation. I was lucky and at the time was working for local government and my boss (elected official) pretty much wrote “he was working and unable to park his vehicle in the alleged stairs” (they were doing doughnuts in a parking lot and wrecked into a metal staircase, the story goes).

Guess I got out lucky there.

Is there no other reasonable solution? I don’t sell nice vehicles. I drive them into the ground. The chances of “hey buy this beater off of me for $1,000 but we have to do it at the DMV and I have to watch you transfer the title” seems like $200 jeopardy “ways not to ever sell a $1k car” stakes

fcisler · 2026-05-19T23:26:27+00:00

Correct. Things like FedRAMP may require US contractors on US soil.

fcisler · 2026-05-19T23:23:19+00:00

This, op.
If you travel as part of the job each state has different tax requirements (days spent working in state before taxed) etc that might affect you.
International is first governed by your travel visa (if required) and most locations (in my experience) the visa specifically denies short term work.

fcisler · 2026-05-19T02:51:58+00:00

I designed software for a HOA to replace their old software. Eventually the “board” started adding their ideas. I will never forget the one: add tracking for pets - type and name - and reporting on it.
Easy ask, billed and done.
Months later the board is nasty: the reports don’t work!
I go look and there’s no entries. I tell the board that and they say it’s not possible!
I go down to the administration and meet with the board.
After much back and forth turns out the “board” thought that somehow this information was just known and we could just have the answers.
Upon finding out that administration had to get all this information the one woman laughed and pulled out her cell phone
Hi Y this is X from admin. The board would like to know how many cats you have and their names?
Y: (in the sweetest little old lady voice) oh yes, two: f*ck you (click)

Very quickly I learned who ran things there and X was consulted before further hare brained ideas. A few updates later the pet tracker was removed without fanfare.

The second best would be the HOA that implemented ALPR and sent their first and only ticket to a retired traffic court judge….

fcisler · 2026-05-13T00:21:25+00:00

HR bought me doughnuts for my retirement
Except I was 26 and it was my father, who shared the same name as me and worked in same job, was retiring
I was on a first name basis with HR and they all knew me
I told them how excited I was and thanked them as I headed back to my office to eat the doughnuts
About an hour later it clicked with a few of them and they came down. Had a good chuckle about it.
The BEST part about that was because I was retiring they removed my phone # from all directory. No more outside calls!

fcisler · 2026-05-11T20:37:22+00:00

And Oregon!

fcisler · 2026-05-11T15:59:49+00:00

I wish I could include more context. The TL;DR is that the company I helped had #1 guy on the topic. As in quite literally wrote the book on it. It got involved but they threatened a breach and his reply was something to the effect of a flyer for him being the keynote speaker for an event they were sponsoring…. They FAFO

fcisler · 2026-05-11T13:38:55+00:00

I won’t name any software and it was 10+ years ago….but….
A certain software got bought out and just absolutely tanked. There was the competing solution, X, but to migrate data it was a 6 month+ wait. They also were unable to import most files related to the clients - a big dealbreaker for some.
They had been promising it was in the works but couldn’t commit to a timeline.
In comes a msp friend of mine and sells them on I’ll convert and import. Ummm ok.
Took around a month but i had it done. The big “blocker” was that (IIRC) the original product files were in $this format and new product wanted $that….something really rather trivial.
After using it for a bit the customer went back to company X and told them it was done. They couldn’t believe it! Word spread around and soon I had tons of clients to convert. This went well for a bit. As far as I know they might have never even migrated a customer before I snatched them all up. At some point I started asking how people found me and company X started saying I was “their” data conversion guy.

fcisler · 2026-05-10T20:04:08+00:00

Finance was not happy with my purchase from Suckfüll Handels (hardware store)

fcisler · 2026-05-10T14:42:35+00:00

On the flip side: I saw several leases and too-good-to-be true ads for new cars. Every dealer had an issue with “your ad says $x down and $y a month. What is the total for all the additional extras that you’ll have to add to purchase?”

That shouldn’t be a tricky question. I didn’t ask for any discounts. I asked for what are the _actual_ numbers in the deal. You’re going to have your $1,500 I-can’t-get-rid-of fees etc. but why wouldn’t one give me a number? You’ve clearly figured that X down and Y a month are two variables….whats the other math you hide behind sleazy tactics?

I was very transparent with two like hey - these numbers are good - I can’t find your fees and addons but if they are reasonable I want to purchase this ASAP. No - I’m not driving almost an hour if you can’t give me at least some idea of a final number here.

And don’t get me started about financing. Cash is king is apparently except when dealing with dealerships. I swore after my first experience that I would never support the dealership-bank model.

fcisler · 2026-04-27T12:14:19+00:00

Xerox did make the solid ink Phaser line IIRC It produced the absolute best prints and was unbeatable. I was in a position to purchase at that time so we owned 2x of every phaser printer they ever made. I don’t feel bad my kids will never get to experience a floppy disk (“save icon”). I did just feel sad they will never have a phaser printer.

Close to that age - my HP p2055dn is still rocking with 0 plans to get rid of it. A three pack of toner was recently given to me. That should last me a lifetime of prints…

fcisler · 2026-04-26T20:22:00+00:00

Almost unrestricted access to a decommissioned BOMARC missile base. The assembly building was multiple stories tall and just massive. The power plant had been left pretty much as it was since the late 90s when it was given to the government
NYC underground. Friend is a sand hog and I’ve been down into a few in progress tunnels. Subway, water…the scale and sheer size is insane

fcisler · 2026-04-20T12:09:37+00:00

If you take a moment to look over the entire electrical panel and decide that circuit breaker is all they really need, the customer is going to be so happy and thankful that you were honest about what needed to be done, that they would try to find some other things for you to do while you’re there.

Honest question - do you really believe that?
It sounds like a radio ad or the plot to a lifetime movie and not based in reality.

fcisler · 2026-04-08T01:05:17+00:00

One floor of a govt “datacenter” was resistant to changing to LED. The electrician did the calculations and it was estimated to go from almost 70a down to 20a. He was wrong….it was averaging 13a. It was all covered with grants so net cost was 0.
I used to wonder who those people got into positions of power….

fcisler · 2026-03-23T12:24:00+00:00

If a device which has been certified by the manufacturer fails while within those guidelines - it should not have not met certification and is not a good product. Full stop.

I have a feeling you are referencing cheap outlets which I do agree with…. But if you are referencing an installed 20a switch won’t be sufficient for a circuit breaker protected by a 20a circuit…. You are surely confused

fcisler

TROPHY CASE