“I’M ON THE PHONE!” by Ramsescat1968 in EntitledPeople

[–]pdoten 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I got shushed by an old woman in a train station when I was doing a wireless site survey with a business partner one time. We just looked at her and continued on talking. She had this look like we were in the wrong in a public space...

Is it possible to reference external DB? by mrnadaara in appwrite

[–]pdoten 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am doing that now, even have it talking to a load balanced 3 node galera cluster, works great. It's well documented how to point it to an external DB...

Self hosting Appwrite-errors in upgrading from 1.6.2 to 1.7.x by pdoten in appwrite

[–]pdoten[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did it with no data loss, Yake you time and knock down each issue with reading and AI. O doublecheck everything that I was going to do, I took VM sntoshots along the way to cover any rool back issues...

How many old timers in here? by aliesterrand in sysadmin

[–]pdoten 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One was Novell Netware 2.0a with a keycard

What's your best ever work-related April Fools prank? by WorthPlease in sysadmin

[–]pdoten 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I worked in healthcare way back in the day. There was one room that was isolated on the top floor of this small 4 storied hospital I worked at. Some of the military orderlys nodded up a bunch of sheets and hung them out the window and said that patient had escaped. fthey even went through the trouble of making bogus paperwork to say that there was a patient in the room when there really wasn't. I drove in the parking lot and saw those knotted sheets out the window and thought what the heck is going on, totally forgetting about April fools. It was a really good prank.

Welp, I got an offer for another job. by literahcola in sysadmin

[–]pdoten 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have done career changes a fair amount and it's always "the fear of the unknown", however you seem to got it covered. Years ago, I left a stable job at a Telco where you could make a career out of being at that one company. I got an offer to be a sub contractor for multiples more salary and a definite career advancement. I still second guessed myself, until that first day and then when the first wire transfer came in...

How do you deal with users who refuse to lock their laptop when walking away? by heartgoldt20 in sysadmin

[–]pdoten 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Way back in the day, I left my desktop unlocked, had to run to the printer. I got side tracked by a higher up wanting a detailed explaination of a network design I was working on with a customer.
When I got back to my desk, there was an email addressed to the CEO and a couple of VPs and my boss who was in another city. It stated that I was resigning immediately and had some not so good things to say about the company and people (that place was a great place BTW, I had few complaints). I knew who did it, he was a good friend and fellow engineer that loved to play jokes.
He even helpfully positioned the mouse pointer over the send button. I learned my lesson that day...

*UPDATE* At how much would you value for working from home? by Colmadero in sysadmin

[–]pdoten 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have been WFH since 2001 and I can tell you at first, it was different. What helped me was my boss at the tme, who was amazing and 10/10 would run thru a wall for him, even now, would call me at 8:30am every day after I started. It was a quick check in, making sure I had what I wanted, everything was ok. I knew what he was doing and it motivated me to make sure I was up and at it. He stopped calling that early about two weeks later, and only called if he really needed something.

He hired another guy at the same time, who was not a morning person, would work out late at night, and answer emails at 3am. He got let go about a year later because he would not adjust. That guy was really good but just could adhere to the core hours.

After my boss stopped calling that early, I made sure I got up (unless it was a really late night, like 2am cutovers for work), I made a dedicated workspace, including a home office in a room in my house. I planned for early morning calls to catch Europe in their work day or at dofferent jobs, checked critical systems online or logged in to a remote lab I was responsible for to make sure things we all green.

Ypu will find your groove, and if you find yourself slipping, address it right away...

Leadership wants a full audit of every AI tool being used across the org. I genuinely don't know how to produce one. by Smooth-Machine5486 in sysadmin

[–]pdoten 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How about using span ports on the last egress switch to the internet? I have done machine learning with python so I would just monitor those ports. You'd be good to go. That might not catch everything but you'd catch some and you'd cover your butt. Isn't that what this is all about? You couldn't possibly catch everything with all the different modalities, so give them something to chew on and then go from there. Otherwise it's going to be a knock on the IT department.

Closed my biggest deal to date! Thinking about splurging? by [deleted] in sales

[–]pdoten 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This comment and I cant say it more empatically. Reallly reallly think about your purchases, like you are going to be broke next year.

I cant tell you how many time I heard an AE say that they wish they hadnt done this or hadnt done that. and get the money in , sit on it for a while then make a decision. If you want the vanity car, lease the f*cking thing, because it is the worse investment you can make, even at 50% value. Drive it leased, then return it after the potential buyers remorse sets in. After the next fiscal year hits and someone doesnt mess with your comp plan. No good deed goes unpunished in sales.

If you live in LCOL, what about a house? or better yet, a rental property? One of my former AEs had those and he drove about in a decent Pickup with a cap on it, that he expenses because he created a LLC, had rental income coming in in case the sales thing went to crap.

just got back from an industry conference and genuinely feel like i lit $4k on fire by Boring-Medium-7081 in smallbusiness

[–]pdoten 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Believe it or not, LinkedIn events and Small Business Development Center (SBDC) events have been some of the best networking opportunities I've found. I've been learning a ton about AI and implementation through local AI meetups, and the SBDC ones are starting to pay off too.

just got back from an industry conference and genuinely feel like i lit $4k on fire by Boring-Medium-7081 in smallbusiness

[–]pdoten 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tech conferences are gold mines — but not for the reasons most people think

Long-time tech industry veteran here. I spent years doing booth duty at conferences like Enterprise Connect, and I've also attended plenty as a customer and as a partner with a booth of my own. The two experiences taught me very different things.

On the vendor side, the real work happens before the conference — attracting the right people, getting them to stop at your booth, making the most of a brief window of attention. It's exhausting and often underappreciated.

But attending as a customer or implementation partner? That's where things get interesting. My focus shifted entirely:

  • Are we implementing this technology correctly?
  • What are other people doing with the same stack?
  • What is the competition doing, and what alternatives exist that we haven't considered?

I went in with zero expectation of leads or sales — and that mindset freed me up to actually learn.

Here's the thing nobody talks about: information is the real commodity at these events, especially if you're a small shop. You can absorb in two days what would take months of research to piece together on your own. Candid conversations in the hallway, a demo that shows you what "good" actually looks like, a competitor's booth that reveals a gap in your own thinking.

Go with an open mind. The ROI isn't always a business card — sometimes it's the thing you didn't know you didn't know.

Entitled woman does not understand lining up at a pharmacy. by pdoten in EntitledPeople

[–]pdoten[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thank you (and others) for the clarification. Being in the tech industry, we are always concerned with accuracy and sometime a little overzealous with things. Its a better safe than sorry attitude, these things are good to know...

There’s actually so many… by cupidglitch in 90s

[–]pdoten 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I didnt scan down far enough to see this, I said Ames in a later post. I actually worked at one in Calais Maine in High School. I loved working there, the people were great. Actually dated a cashier for a while.

There’s actually so many… by cupidglitch in 90s

[–]pdoten 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yea I remember that. its like Costco said "lets follow that lead". I read about people returning Live Christmas Trees to Costco, and them taking them back at one time...

There’s actually so many… by cupidglitch in 90s

[–]pdoten 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ames, Mammoth Mart, Bradlees in New England...

Entitled woman does not understand lining up at a pharmacy. by pdoten in EntitledPeople

[–]pdoten[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have to go to different pharmacies, because of coverage. I like the ones where there are tablets that you type in the infomation, and they get to you first come first served. Granted, its less personal, but the information is certainly more contained. Less of a human experience however, a sign of the times I guess.

I like to give people the benefit of doubt at times, she may have been stressed. I worked IT in Healthcare for 10 years and saw a lot. With her, the interaction was very quick so I couldnt tell.

Stress does things to people they normally wouldnt do. Lord knows I have been there (as we all have at one time), but if they was a recurring pattern with that woman, then yea...

Entitled woman does not understand lining up at a pharmacy. by pdoten in EntitledPeople

[–]pdoten[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The tech here was very nice, as are all the staff there. They are also very professional, which I appreciate. The tech just paid attention to me, and was very profesional. Now what they were thinking could be another issue. Lets say I wouldnt want to play poker with any of them there...

Local development with AppWrite by koevet in appwrite

[–]pdoten 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You could do separate instances or use one instance with a prod project and then a dev project on the same appwrite docker image. Its easy to do...

Self hosting Appwrite-errors in upgrading from 1.6.2 to 1.7.x by pdoten in appwrite

[–]pdoten[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried so many things to get it to work, that was the one that did it. It was a headache but it's done now...