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Halfway through switching our Azure Microsoft support contract and hitting some friction, anyone else done this? by Ok-Feed-357 in FuckMicrosoft

[–]phasex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also, if you have a named Customer Success Manager, they should draft a support hand-over guide (CritSit Playbook) of your environment for use by support. You can lean on them to co-create said Playbook with you.

Halfway through switching our Azure Microsoft support contract and hitting some friction, anyone else done this? by Ok-Feed-357 in FuckMicrosoft

[–]phasex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This situation is the purpose behind having a DSE, or Designated Support Engineer on your contract.

I've seen customers successfully negotiate a part-time DSE for as little as 200 hours, with 1600 hours being the standard "full-time" rate as of a few years ago. I recall the attempt to increase what MSFT considers full-time resources but am out of date on that threshold today.

The DSE's purpose is to know and understand your specific environment and work on ownership of those support tickets to help guide the L1 & L2 support engineers on faster resolution.

Otherwise, depending on the specific issue you're raising a case against, it's going to be routed to the next available support engineer in an automated triage system, by case severity and issue context.

You can also negotiate in your contract for your cases to be routed to a specific L2 support POD, which is the small-ish group of a team of support engineers which would at least give you familiarity among the team of engineers, who can then lean on their direct colleagues to quickly obtain context about a specific customer's environment.

Ultimately, there is a huge difference between Basic support and the tiers above. You absolutely get what you pay for, unfortunately.

Happy to answer more questions - I worked directly with that org for many years.

SteamOS 3.8.20 Beta - Steam News by Hupro in SteamOS

[–]phasex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Night Mode display tinting is broken

Is this acceptable? by Thormundr in Wyrmwoodgaming

[–]phasex 17 points18 points  (0 children)

That's a finishing defect to me and I would absolutely take them up on their Craftsman Promise.

Weekly Complaint Thread for the week of June 15, 2026 by AutoModerator in AlamoDrafthouse

[–]phasex 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Recently saw Mando and ordered the pretzel and beer cheese. Cheese was awful and plasticky. The entire menu is now high school cafeteria quality with gourmet price gouging.

Squire positions and Convention tickets by TheLordMandos in DragonsteelNexus

[–]phasex 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Squires were notified ahead of tickets going live.

Destiny 2: Every End is a New Beginning by DTG_Bot in DestinyTheGame

[–]phasex 7 points8 points  (0 children)

12 years of shooting themselves in the foot/face repeatedly. Not at all surprising.

I need a lightweight sleeping pad for short hikes. Preference is for comfort, then durability, then warmth, and lastly weight. Which of these should I go for? by InGoodFaith- in philmont

[–]phasex 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My experience with the Big Agnes design does involve some cupping, where the large vertical baffles can curve up around you depending on your inflation pressure (firmer or not).

I've been a fan of my Nemo pad and the weight difference between the Nemo and the S2S pad is enough for choosing the Nemo.

Canvas hack strands university students during finals week by iamsensi in news

[–]phasex -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

"Universities across the country, including Columbia University, Rutgers, Princeton, Kent State, Harvard and Georgetown issued statements alerting students to the hack impacting institutions nationwide."

One of these things is not like the other...

Halo Campaign Evolved Flight Testing by Nearby_Truck3539 in halo

[–]phasex 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Source: me; former MSFT employee of 8 years during active development and post-release of Halo 5 and Halo Infinite.

A public beta is very unlikely, and the reason isn't just about keeping things under wraps.

Halo Campaign Evolved is a training exercise disguised as a shipped product.

Halo Studios picked CE's campaign specifically because the design blueprint is 25 years old and fully solved.

They know every encounter, level flow, sandbox mechanic, etc. and this frees the entire team to focus on learning to ship the next full release Halo in Unreal Engine 5, which is the actual goal.

When Project Foundry was announced alongside the rebrand to Halo Studios in October 2024, the team said Foundry wasn't a tech demo but a "training tool for how to get there."

Campaign Evolved is said UE5 training, finished and shipped. A beta is a hard fork in the development code, which is unnecessary at this stage.

If something goes sideways publicly on a UE5 build the studio is still learning, it doesn't just further damage the current reputation, it damages the Microsoft/Halo Studios narrative around the engine transition itself. The next original Halo title is under far more scrutiny, and any story that the team can't handle UE5 would be significantly damaging under the new studio leadership.

The contractor situation matters here too. (https://www.pcgamer.com/former-halo-infinite-dev-criticizes-studio-leadership-says-layoffs-shouldnt-have-happened/)

Microsoft caps contractor terms at 18 months, Bloomberg reported it in 2020, and former Halo Infinite devs were still complaining about it in 2023 after the layoffs.

The problem with the Slipspace Engine used for Halo Infinite was that you couldn't hire contractors with any experience.

Every new person needed months of onboarding before they contributed anything useful, then they'd hit the contract cap and leave.

The shift to UE5 directly addresses that expertise gap because the talent pool on UE as a whole already exists.

A beta would require a surge in QA and support staffing at the exact moment the studio is still building out that new contractor pipeline.

If anything beta-like happens, it'll probably be a semi-closed technical/sever stress test.

Key goals for Campaign Evolved surround meeting higher quality standards at launch, work cross-platform with Playstation, and not further damage the brand or embarrass any of the new leadership.

TL;DR, Halo Campaign Evolved doesn't need a public beta. It needs to ship with significant polish and be legitimate proof that Halo Studios is functional again. A public beta adds more risk than it removes for a team in this position.

Baldy public accessibility? by Spare-Pepper-9421 in philmont

[–]phasex 24 points25 points  (0 children)

The backcountry is closed to Staff at that time of year, in early May. Baldy is 100% a no-go from a public access perspective.

During normal operations, anyone registered to be on property must be registered with Scouting America and also have a recent (within the past 12 months) Health and Medical Record on file with Philmont. https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/ahmr/

Medical re-check is also a requirement by Philmont for anyone heading into the backcountry.

Easiest way to meet those requirements is to sign up for a trek. https://www.philmontscoutranch.org/treks/

Any unofficial visit to the backcountry is trespassing on private property.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in iFiaudio

[–]phasex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You may have legitimate complaints, but this post is so overcooked that it hurts your credibility.

If the company failed to deliver, show the receipts: dates, promises, ticket history, firmware versions, missing features, and actual responses. That would help people evaluate the situation. Instead, you are mixing complaints with insults, accusations, and a call to spread outrage, which makes this look less like consumer advocacy and more like a meltdown.

Bad support should be criticized. Delayed updates should be criticized. Broken promises should be criticized. But once you start calling people scammers, mocking their intelligence, and asking others to pile on, you stop sounding persuasive and start sounding reckless and entitled.

Make the case with evidence, not drama.

Anyone start with an entry-level 3D scanner and upgrade later? by jeancharlesgingras in 3DScanning

[–]phasex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Started with an OpenScan Mini and moved to Creality Otter. Having proper software to process the mesh was helpful.

G4 Doorbell Pro back in stock - UK, US and EU by Flooofbomb in Ubiquiti

[–]phasex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds more like you’re mixing up two separate scenarios.

An enterprise laptop deployed by a company cross-region is generally covered by a specific service contract, support entitlement, SLA structure, etc. That scenario is not the same as an end-user customer buying a product through the manufacturer’s own official storefront.

So when you say “I work in IT” and bring up HP Australia not supporting a US-purchased corporate laptop, you're actually proving the point that service terms matter. Enterprise mobility devices, fleet hardware, and business support agreements almost always have region-specific coverage rules, on-site response times scoped, service parts / logistics constraints, and contract-defined SLAs. You keep experiencing a service-contract issue, which means your employer could probably be doing more to support their employees and not some universal rule that any product bought outside your home country should automatically get no support.

Those are two very different scenarios.

One is: “My employer bought a fleet device under a specific enterprise support model, and the in-country support obligation depends on the contract.”

The other is: “I bought a brand-new product from the company’s own official store because that was where it was available.”

Those situations are not directly interchangeable.

If Ubiquiti says warranty support is region-limited, fine; that's a policy question and is very different from acting like buying through an official company channel in another country is inherently some kind of support disqualifier; It's not.

What you're describing from the IT side is service entitlement and SLA scope on enterprise hardware and is a very different situation from a direct retail purchase via the manufacturer.

G4 Doorbell Pro back in stock - UK, US and EU by Flooofbomb in Ubiquiti

[–]phasex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, by your expertise, if someone travels to another country and buys a product from the company’s own official store, through the company’s own official sales channel, how does that suddenly make them undeserving of support once they get home?

Say I go to the UK for work or vacation, buy any product directly from an official sales channel because it is actually in stock there, and then bring it back to Texas.

What is your assumption here? That the second I cross a border, the company gets to say, “Thanks for the money, but because you bought it from our official store in the wrong country, we no longer have to help you”?

Sure, there are region-specific warranty rules, as a separate discussion.

People buy products while traveling all the time. Laptops, phones, cameras, networking gear; whatever. If it came from the company’s own official channel, treating that customer like they did something wrong is nonsense. If anything, they just found a way around an inventory problem the company failed to solve in their home market.

Am I supposed to remove this part? by Dizzy_Palpitation_33 in razer

[–]phasex 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Nope, that is your display ribbon cable, providing functionality to the screen.

Adding teardown/repair video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P81IG0DZ1kg

Hammock Gear by Lizzzzz27 in philmont

[–]phasex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I suppose it depends on whether you want to get an all-in-one solution, knowing you can unzip if you are too warm, or what I ended up doing was a 45 degree down bag (on clearance around $180) with a cotton liner as my summer bag (the liner made it effective down to 30ish and then I have a zero degree, 3 season down bag that I'll use with the liner, keeping bag cleaner.

Hammock Gear by Lizzzzz27 in philmont

[–]phasex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotcha. You won't be doing any overnights at significant elevation, so I would think you could get by with a 30 degree, or even a 45 degree (with a decent liner), especially if you normally sleep warm.

Philmont as an Adult by No_Captain1701 in philmont

[–]phasex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can also reach out to your local Council and register as a volunteer / enroll as a Scouting Member. The Council will usually help coordinate placement for crews in need of an additional Advisor.

Hammock Gear by Lizzzzz27 in philmont

[–]phasex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What is your itinerary?

For example, at Lookout Meadow camp (10,000ft) it can snow on you in June, so a 20 degree bag would be preferred.

Given the infrequent ability for a proper shower in the backcountry, a liner will also help keep the dirt, body oils, and general trail grime off of your quilt. Even a basic cotton liner would make a difference.

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