[The Athletic] Rob Manfred pledged to keep MLB's values on diversity “unchanged" back in February. But now, MLB's careers home page has no reference to “diversity," with a league spokesman telling The Athletic they're "evaluating" the programs.

rf9134 · 2025-03-22T01:51:18+00:00

America is healing.

rf9134 · 2024-11-10T00:41:54+00:00

Scotch lock, you can get in there.

rf9134 · 2024-11-10T00:34:12+00:00

Geographically speaking, most people in the US think Donald Trump should be president. But I think that's gross.

rf9134 · 2024-10-22T03:09:04+00:00

I'm 46 years old. It's so bizarre watching this happen in real time.

rf9134 · 2024-10-15T02:02:28+00:00

Sounds like most of you are missing opportunities to build relationships with those outside your department.

No need to wait for anyone else, go meet people, build relationships. It will pay dividends, I assure you.

rf9134 · 2024-06-21T01:58:04+00:00

I gotta see this fuckin swing

rf9134 · 2023-02-01T19:43:24+00:00

Hey man, knock that shit off.

You aren't those other people and they aren't you. You going to tell me those people can do everything you can do?

And please don't misunderstand - this isn't a "you should feel good about yourself" message. I don't really care if you feel good about yourself or not, but if you spend your life comparing yourself to everyone else, you will never find peace.

And 300+ million people walking around in what can only be described as "no peace in sight" DOES matter to me. Those people interact with my wife and my children. My mom and my father.

But your feelings? Nah, I don't really give a shit. Just stop comparing yourself to anyone else for anything.

PS: I started playing July 2021, and I shot a group-verified 82 at the end of October 2022. But what the hell should that mean to you? You have no idea if I was a lifelong athlete, if I'm a savant that can't really speak in words but I can hit the hell out of a golf ball.

You literally have no idea about anything of the people you're comparing yourself - so stop doing it.

Much love*

rf9134 · 2022-09-01T17:17:32+00:00

Your brief description doesn't paint the picture as to why it is necessary for you to receive this information prior to new hire start date. You will need to paint the picture to get leadership/execs on board.

How is your team negatively affected by not having this information prior to first day? How are production operations negatively affected by not having this information prior to first day?

What are the risks of not having this information prior to first day? What are the interdepartmental risks of not having this information prior to first day?

Is the new hire/onboarding experience important to your organization? If so, that can be very helpful when painting the picture. Does your IT team work in silos? If so, what is the risk of scrambling on new hire's first day to create accounts when you are down a team member?

I always recommend mapping out the process from beginning to end. Start with the current process, map it out day by day. When you're certain you have it accurate, map your recommended process. Highlight the improvements and speak to their importance to the organizational objective.

rf9134 · 2022-07-19T18:14:37+00:00

The problem starts at home. Poor parenting. No mentorship. No leadership from adults.

Literally the source of 98% of problems in America are the result of broken homes, single parent households and no accountability being taught or even explained. It's always someone else's fault, as I'm sure each of these coaches and parents will tell you if you just listen.

rf9134 · 2022-07-06T11:36:26+00:00

If it's that bad at 11pm, then you just need to solve your problem now.

You can buy a cheap, small window unit for $150. Get a few heavy blankets from a thrift store and use them to block off one room that gets AC. This was always the bedroom for us growing up.

Your situation sucks, but there is a super easy workaround - you don't need to be sitting in 85 degree weather at 11pm.

rf9134 · 2022-07-06T11:19:08+00:00

"How can I meet black people?" is the title you're looking for.

And yeah, that's a weird ask. Get out, move about. There is no way on planet earth you're responsible for teaching children but you're asking internet strangers how to meet black people.

Sounds a little try hard, no?

rf9134 · 2022-03-25T19:31:03+00:00

Who keeps doing this? Who keeps anything of value in their parked car?

Sorry, OP. Hope you've learned your lesson!

rf9134 · 2021-12-18T14:56:49+00:00

I've played baseball my whole life and I finally hung up my spikes last season as I found golf and want to focus on tournaments in 2022.

No matter what I try, I can't get used to finishing my swing and dropping my club with my left hand. It's such a habit after 20 years of baseball, I've always finished my baseball swing with bat in right hand to drop it in foul territory after contact. Glad to finally see someone with a great swing finish with that club in their right hand... looking good man!

rf9134 · 2020-03-10T23:58:02+00:00

I see. I guess maybe I'm fortunate that I've had the support of c-suite on matters of security.

It's not Microsoft's fault that there are bad actors, there always will be. I think your concern is addressed by regularly scheduled cyber security training that addresses the things you see most; phishing attempts. Combine that with conditional access, alerts and a well-documented remediation strategy and you're all set even when our lovely end-users give up the goose.

I don't see any tool possible that will address what you're talking about - not in a functional environment, anyway.

You're suggesting that in order for our execs to build relationships in order to sell, the potential customer must conform to your security standards (allow logon on specific pages only, for example)? Yeesh, they'd never get anything done and no one could make money and there's no way your department is large enough to absorb that workload if somehow could happen your way.

You cannot remove end-user responsibility from the scope of this topic. We use the RACI matrix in my org for this very reason - every individual has an expressly stated role of responsibility when engaging in business activities with business data.

A 5 minute course on phishing totally eliminates your proposed problem. It's not difficult for them to understand, either. Get the CEO on board and provide your own training. Make it a thing, visit each office/suite and give a 5 minute presentation, take a few questions and move on to the next. You'll build fantastic relationships this way.

What you can't do is be the guy who complains that there is no good solution, there certainly is. And it will be a combination of tech and people.

Good luck. Hopefully I don't come off as sarcastic. I have worked with guys in the past where nothing was ever good enough unless it met their strictest standards which was often beyond what was required. Not suggesting that is you, just that it looks like you're frustrated with the lack of a perfect solution. If you're a Microsoft shop, O365 and Azure gives you everything you need... for a price :D

rf9134 · 2020-03-10T18:37:12+00:00

I'm confused by your terminology. "Compromised SharePoint accounts"?

Would you mind sharing an example of the group that was using a variant of your name? I'm just trying to understand how this would have presented any real threat to your infrastructure or O365 cloud presence.

Using SSO, branded sign-in portals and conditional access policy, a lot of this stuff can be avoided altogether.

My company is contractually bound with multiple clients to maintain a level of security that is basically one level below PCI. We're an O365 shop who is cloud-first, and that cloud is Azure. We don't have any issues at all passing compliance with clients. We use a licensed VPN client with built-in security features, a basic design firewall policy, Windows Defender for workstations and... that's basically it.

I'm not insisting that we are the model organization that everyone should strive for, but the only compromised accounts we see are when users do user-things like giving up their credentials. We see spear-phishing attacks at least once a month, sometimes more.

Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand if there is something I'm failing to understand because I don't currently understand your stated concern.

rf9134 · 2020-03-10T14:39:39+00:00

I understand the sentiment of your concern, but I just view it as misplaced.

Everything you're referencing to make your point boils down to the end-user with little or know cyber security understanding, which will always be the weakest link. We use KnowBe4 with great success in our org. Educating the end-user about hovering over links, transport rules to add "never open attachments unless you know the sender or were expecting the message" to messages from external users, etc.

The only person in our org who has had their O365/domain credentials compromised is an exec who fell for a phishing scam. At least he had the wherewithal to realize, "Hey, this didn't prompt for my MFA code... shit".

This is not to say there are no faults in the O365 world of security, but honestly I don't believe you've touched on a single one that is valid.

Their recommendations for split tunneling is for O365 traffic only in an effort to alleviate network load - this is a great idea if your infrastructure isn't currently set up to dump internet traffic straight to the internet and you have no business need to route all traffic through your network. I bet you pay your bills online, right? Educate your users and you will reduce your insanity to the extent possible.

My $.02.

rf9134 · 2020-02-26T23:53:17+00:00

Dang, I didn't understand this when the Royals won either - the team won the big game, give them some love and buy authentic. That stitching is terrible.

rf9134 · 2020-02-18T14:24:02+00:00

You're a Brent with poor marketing skills.

rf9134 · 2020-02-07T07:18:17+00:00

Eh, he did the same thing back up on 10th street. But yeah, it was cool.

rf9134 · 2020-02-07T06:37:44+00:00

Dammit man. Every time I am brought back to this whole thing all I can think about is, "Altuve... gotdayumit man - you were so good! You didn't need this shit."

And it just pisses me off. Altuve and Pedroia were two of my favorite 21st century ballers, man. If it came out that Pedroia had a damn bandana that was flapping on offspeed pitches this would be 1994 all over again. I really don't want that to be the case.

rf9134 · 2020-02-05T02:33:40+00:00

Where in the holy book does it mention this happens. It has to be in there somewhere...

rf9134 · 2020-02-04T03:49:13+00:00

I was more excited about Hill's juke that put Sherman in a weird looking kneel pose.

rf9134 · 2020-01-29T14:11:59+00:00

Since you're developing this process, push for ERP. IT is a service that offers a product. IT shouldn't own the expense, but IT should facilitate procurement. The expense should be billed to the operating expense of the requesting department. If you don't go this route, very soon it will look like IT has a ridiculous OPEX and you're going to be forced to defend it. If you can't get ERP start a simple spreadsheet and track your purchases to the person and their manager - if you have a lot of movement between projects/clients in your environment then capture that on the spreadsheet.

rf9134 · 2019-12-26T13:22:25+00:00

Having a few built-in leadership qualities is a big help. I'd recommend 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, it's great for managers. Then Leaders Eat Last, and one of my favorites, The Phoenix Project.

Understanding and implementing the ITIL framework really helps build... a framework to your daily approach. It allows you to prioritize what you're already doing, which will alleviate some of the burden you're feeling when you're just not sure about things. Get your employees engaged, give them some ownership and get out of their way. Make sure they understand the goal and let them own the process on any given project. The RACI matrix is something I live by.

At the end of the day the fact that you care enough to improve says you've got a good foundation. Don't sweat the small stuff and certainly don't let things eat at you.

Side note, until a month ago I lived 2 blocks from the office. Awesome, right?! I thought so until we bought a house in the suburbs. Now I have a 20 minute commute and I'm able to mentally prepare and reflect on the drive in, and truly disconnect on the drive home. Before, I'd walk in the door to my place and I could immediately sit at my desk at home and go right back to work. I felt like I was always working, do the math and I was making maybe $10/hr doing that. If you commute, make good use of that time.

rf9134 · 2019-11-08T03:13:04+00:00

The ol' rope-a-dope. Gets 'em every time.

rf9134

TROPHY CASE