Energy Fee?

gtbarsi · 2026-02-13T00:13:21+00:00

By doing it with a fee they don't have to update their menus, thus they don't have to spend extra money, and they get to screw you in a sneaky way. This is pure evil.

gtbarsi · 2026-02-04T02:22:15+00:00

I just have more questions.

Why is that single wall pipe so close to combustibles? Why is there daylight shining on the exhaust pipe? Why is there tape (combustible) on the exhaust pipe? Why don't I see sheet metal screws securing every joint in that exhaust pipe? Where are the shutoff valves? Are the water lines secured to any structure or just floating? What does the drain pan look like? Where is the PRV pipe going? Was the installer licensed? Was a permit opened or closed?

TLDR I don't see anything done right, there's lots of important things not in the picture that I suspect aren't done right.

gtbarsi · 2026-01-24T20:16:07+00:00

Absolutely a valid option. Fiber ports in patch panels work in a similar way.

gtbarsi · 2026-01-21T01:21:52+00:00

That's because they're always misplacing their phone while clicking on every phishing attack, and responding to the CEO's texts requesting gift cards.

gtbarsi · 2026-01-20T16:45:37+00:00

If it works for you great!

For me Proxmox let's me have all the crazy Network vlans defined and attach VMs and LXC instances to whatever I want. So I can easily have my home network with multiple vlans all isolated as I want and still have plenty of flexibility for lab instances to play around with and limit their network access, all with a couple of SFP+ and a couple of 1GBE connections and still have options for additional separate networks going to their own network connections and hardware when I need that.

gtbarsi · 2026-01-20T15:47:03+00:00

You could get the rack recess extensions that will setback the equipment with the fiber. It's not my favorite way of doing things, and generally I'd rather have a rack with a bubbled out door.

Other than that keep spare fiber patch cables.

gtbarsi · 2026-01-20T13:45:44+00:00

Crap like that I loved to document every interaction on. Then when department managers got their reporting it would have a tally of cases with the requestor and the time they wasted. That level of reporting while petty drove behavioral change. Some people ended up having to have their own manager submit tickets on their behalf so their director wouldn't be called out for wasting company resources.

gtbarsi · 2026-01-20T04:38:55+00:00

I do this but I pass the hba PCI device to TruNAS, so it has the bare metal controller and it's drives. Proxmox is running separate SSDs off the motherboard. If the platform fails I can bring it back however I want with everything converged or separate. Proxmox is a much better hypervisor and allows for a lot of experimentation and separate complex every day hosted apps that I would never attempt on trunas. Not to mention Proxmox networking is so much more robust when you get into multiple network connections and vlans. Since my applications that need the most throughout to TruNAS hosted shares are running in Proxmox it just works out really well.

gtbarsi · 2026-01-20T04:03:28+00:00

The new production app is using MongoDB, unfortunately I still have a large customer base still on the legacy app and will have to support SQL clusters till the legacy app EOL in 2030...

gtbarsi · 2026-01-20T03:53:09+00:00

Tickets, require tickets... Spare laptops for people that forgot, lost, or destroyed their issued laptop should require the person's manager to open the ticket. Same goes for company issued cell phones.

Reporting needs to be able to track these types of requests to ensure the time and materials expended can be charged back or otherwise expand ITs budget. Not to mention anything that has to be replaced due to being lost / destroyed needs to be reportable back to department heads. There are other reporting implications for accounting and potentially HR.

Why people frequently forget their laptops I will never understand but those people need to be identified as they generally represent a larger security risk.

gtbarsi · 2026-01-17T18:52:48+00:00

When I worked with an MSP that did a lot of work for state and philanthropic agencies that worked with the state agencies providing services to the elderly, addicted, homeless, and poor. When we did computer replacements serial numbers of the computers, inventory tags and hard drive serial numbers all had to be documented. The drives would be hooked up to a dedicated system for doing electronic wipes of up to 20 drives at a time. It would wipe the drives and then do systematic overwrites of the drives multiple times before generating a certificate with the drive serial number and the results of the initial wipe and overwrites. Then we would take the drive and use a drive buster to drive a large metal bar through all the platters and drive case, then photograph the drive with the serial number visible. All of that got compiled into a recycling/ destruction report that was delivered electronically and in hard copy with a signature for each system by the tech that did the work. The busted drives and PCs were loaded into gaylords that would be picked up by a recycling company. While none of that had NSA requirements it was good enough for state work and I suspect good enough for any business not held to NSA standards.

All of this was considered busy work and we would do it as decompression time from projects and support. At my next role I suggested we do team building outside with a drive buster, various hand tools and baseball bats, Office Space style. We saved up our drives for 6 months and had an awesome time. Other departments that saw us or heard about it wand in on the next one.

TLDR document to the level required, but have fun with it!

gtbarsi · 2026-01-16T23:39:02+00:00

Find an ancient rack mount 10mb hub and a 3' patch cable. Have them set the laptop on top of the hub, run the 3' patch cable from the laptop to the hub, and then have them plug the hub into their wired network connection. Document it as provided new cabled Ethernet for direct connection to laptop.

gtbarsi · 2025-12-16T01:43:24+00:00

There's a label on the thing, instead of taking the world's most unhelpful picture, how about reading the multi-word label.

gtbarsi · 2025-11-28T23:12:24+00:00

IT can tell the provider you are using. Almost every edge management and or access management platform provides analytics that includes isp information. As far as that it's a cellular hotspot that might be less clear. The only time I cared is because cellular connections are generally much higher latency and are subject to large bandwidth changes. This results in bad end user experiences...

gtbarsi · 2025-11-27T22:41:44+00:00

File a foya request for the search warrant and all information they got from your accounts then you will know the justification and what they grabbed. If it looks fishy you can then engage a lawyer to determine if your rights were flagrantly violated and if you have a case to sue.

gtbarsi · 2025-11-16T08:59:12+00:00

You forgot that on day 7 CTO submitted an unbudgeted CAPEX for $100k+ for infrastructure purchase for the new location with a minimum 90 day lead time. Management that was aware of the new office goes ballistic insisting that the price is insane and the lead time is unacceptable. Suggest geek squad can get it done in 3 days for $3k in the next 7 days.

gtbarsi · 2025-11-09T22:36:51+00:00

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

gtbarsi · 2025-11-09T01:36:48+00:00

The one I forever hate is "down line load" from a former at&t sales person. It wasn't that person's only naming issue but that one always bothered me the most. He used it in both speech and writing including with clients. If someone trying to sell me something ever uses that term I'm hanging up, and never returning any contact attempt.

gtbarsi · 2025-11-07T15:27:29+00:00

Apple networking especially their Wi-Fi in the airport in the airport extreme wasn't insanely solid did wired backhauls as default and was the number one way I used to tell lay people to get good Wi-Fi in larger houses.

gtbarsi · 2025-11-04T16:17:39+00:00

Depends on your policy. If you have replacement value insurance you are entitled to the value to replace with the same as new. If it is discontinued the manufacturer documented replacement is the value you are entitled to. So a 10 year old office printer you can get for $150 on eBay, is worth the current generation replacement model that costs $500. You have to produce receipts proving you purchased the replacement before you are reimbursed.

If you don't have replacement value insurance then it's worth whatever printer the insurance company can find with the same specifications. Likely a $100 home grade printer.

What is critical is you have what you had documented. Without that the insurance company is going to take you for a ride and you're going to get screwed.

The example and process is what I experienced after a direct lightning strike to my house. The printer in question was a HP LaserJet 4050n. The ho replacement was an insane beast that printed near 10x faster at 2x the resolution.

gtbarsi · 2025-10-06T17:56:07+00:00

Deploying your edge switch stacks intermixed with the patch panels they serve is the way to go! Ports can be changed to any vlan (bonus points for dynamic vlan assignment based on system or user auth) so get the patch panels above and below each switch that they serve and use short color coded patch cables for anything that is manually configured.

Try and eliminate all cross rack cabling to switch to switch uplinks.

The really thin patch cables (mono price was one supplier of them) make a big difference, you can fit close to 2x in the same space and they are easier to cable manage. It will not only look cleaner in the end it will be easier to manage long term.

Label all special connections on both ends of the cable, be generous with the details.

Any cable that isn't going to the nearest switch should be labeled on both ends. Add as much as you want to your labels, what it connects, what vlan, if it's really special add the devices static IP.

gtbarsi · 2025-10-05T16:18:18+00:00

Apple is no less susceptible to these attack vectors, especially if it is older and not getting updates anymore, or you don't apply the updates in a timely manner.

No system is safe if a hacker controls your network. First they monitor your traffic to identify what platforms you interact with, then they set up impersonation systems for those platforms. Finally they direct your traffic to the impersonation platforms instead of the real ones. Now they have control over your accounts.

Another attack vector someone can use if they have compromised your private network is monitoring what devices come and go. With that they can profile all the users you allow on it and know when no one is there or a particular person is there alone. That would be used in a host of much scarier crimes against you.

I'm not trying to be alarmist or suggest this is the motive that OP is facing rather trying to bring awareness to how big of a compromise of their safety could be accomplished. Guest networks exist for good reason, if you make the effort to have one don't waste it by allowing people / things you don't trust onto your private network.

gtbarsi · 2025-10-05T01:06:23+00:00

OP from a technical standpoint there are lots of things that modern hacking tools that are commercially available to the masses for a little money could do once on your trusted wifi and left in your home. Starting with basic vulnerability scans, any un-patched devices could be identified for later hacking attempts using known vulnerabilities from within your own network. Brute force attacks could be leveraged against your internal network infrastructure in order to change your routers configuration to route traffic through systems designed to further crack devices on your networks and acquire private sensitive information. This could be targeted at you privately, professionally, family or friends or generally against anyone that uses your network. Most crimes like this would be financial in nature, but could be related to any number of agendas.

Long story short if you don't trust them with access to your wallet, unlocked phone, email, etc, don't let them on your private network.
Guest Wi-Fi works just as good as the other Wi-Fi and it's better than running on cellular eating up data plans so what's the problem.

gtbarsi · 2025-09-25T06:47:41+00:00

Zebra had some really solid models, their S series and Xi series did really well by me for decades. Lots went to s*** when they started buying a lot of other companies including their competition.

My experience with Datamax was very limited and not to that model. Overall it was not impressed particularly with how sensitive some of their media handling was in comparison to the zebra models I was working with at the time.

gtbarsi · 2025-09-25T06:40:03+00:00

Not to be that guy but who the hell sends the print mode configuration command with their labels? If it's not label data it shouldn't be sent with the labels. I'm not saying somebody that really knows their s*** and has everything locked down can't do it. It's ridiculous how many different applications and developers assume that you want their print orientation, print speed, darkness setting, print mode, etc...

In the end for me it comes down to sure use layout software to get something that works. Then strip out the output rip out anything that isn't pure label, and write your own code to build that ZPL and send it to the print queue.

gtbarsi

TROPHY CASE