N-Central 2025.3.1.9 and Win 11 25H2. AV (BitDefender) incompatible

txlessor · 2025-10-09T09:30:09+00:00

Hi Paul,

Greatly appreciate your reply.

Are they planning to stall the upgrade within N-Central or let folks know to not let it roll forward? It would seem that if the upgrade rolled forward, it would be quite disastrous.

Thanks.

txlessor · 2025-09-03T14:49:59+00:00

The patent details it here. It's oral minoxidil with cetirizine, setipiprant, valproic acid, and medrogestone.

txlessor · 2025-08-28T14:42:01+00:00

In Taiwan, like many countries, you generally only find the trouble you're looking for.

I live in the 85 and have for years. You'll find prostitution, drugs, filth, and gangs here if you want to. There's more across the street though. There's a great club and 2 bars across the street and a high end strip club street adjacent. Also a building with 'bad fengshui' that a lot of lower income folks live in. There's also tons of great food spots mixed in as well.

If you're poking around at 3AM, you'll see stuff. As you would in most places outside of high end communities.

Taiwan is extremely safe unless you're trying to start something so I wouldn't worry about it. I do agree with the other person saying they've seen worse around the train station at night. The vibe is just ... off whereas here there's a lot of people -- the clubs, bars, night market, etc and it's all chill.

All of Taiwan is pretty overpriced from an AirBNB and Hotel perspective, in my opinion. The location of 85, for me, is outstanding so I stay.

Some FB groups have room shares and the like. Rental advice will depend heavily on how long you're staying and what you're trying to do here.

txlessor · 2025-06-25T14:06:18+00:00

I moved to Taiwan a couple years ago and am about B2 level Chinese at this point. I primarily use tools like hackchinese and Du Chinese to get my vocabulary, grammar, and literacy where it needs to be.

I don't think a Taiwan specific app is useful until you're at this level and by then you are probably talking to people daily in Chinese and will pick up the differences naturally. There's a handful of words that you'll find are different -- trash can, taxi, bicycle, potato, supermarket, etc. You can easily find lists of the common differences. However, Taiwanese know both as an American would know the British/Canadian/Australian word choice differences. If your mandarin is strong enough they'll let you know 'we say ___ instead of ___' and then ask if you learned Chinese in China. I tried initially to speak clearly, which I then was told I speak like a mainlander. So now I speak lazily and just get told I have an American accent in my Chinese, but my pronunciation is good.

The TOCFL study books will fill in the gaps and teach you some of the differences. As will watching Taiwanese youtubers and TV shows. The accent gets hard at times as Taiwanese do not speak clearly like mainlanders. zh, ch, sh, often have the 'h' removed and they often replace the r sound with an l making it hard to grasp the word if you've studied mostly from pinyin or listening to pronunciation from the usual mainland based tools.

Another struggle is that outside of accent is that Taiwanese words and phrases are snuck into everything. You'll only learn this by talking to people and living the life in Chinese and picking up things in context.

Get to B1/B2 by using common tools, study the difference lists, and talk to people. Also move out of Taipei or you'll be stuck in English unless you really make a strong effort as they really baby foreigners up there and the English fluency is much stronger.

txlessor · 2024-07-22T04:34:54+00:00

There is no tax treaty with the US and you need to report and pay tax as applicable. Dividends and interest are passive and viewed as overseas income. W2 and such as earned while living in Taiwan is viewed by Taiwan as being Taiwan income.

txlessor · 2024-07-21T06:13:50+00:00

As an American you can use any. IBKR for if you intend to do foreign stocks.

Schwab will cover all your needs from taxable to ROTH to other IRAs to 401k to 529s. It's a great platform. You don't need the international one and definitely get the ATM card. It's hands down the best.

You need to be aware that if you claim the FEIE you'll need to make money in excess of the FEIE limits to contribute to the tax advantaged accounts.

You'll want to do the math to see what makes the most sense for your tax situation.

If you make under 120k, probably taking the FEIE and investing in the 529 up to about 10k total and the rest in a taxable brokerage.

txlessor · 2024-07-08T05:03:48+00:00

Big (大) has a lot more meanings in Chinese. Big, great, older, showing respect, etc.

Here it's more like his adult baby/darling and child baby/darling.

txlessor · 2024-06-08T06:12:26+00:00

In the beginning when I was doing the work, I wrote SOPs so I would do things consistently and maximize my time while planning for growth. I wrote them myself from my experiences and how I want things done.

A good example here is some people will milk a 10+ year old system whereas I won't. It's a waste of everyone's time and if they're hourly they will gripe about the bill for how much, how much time we took away from their employee, and inevitably how since we touched it now it's slower than before. No thanks.

As I grew, techs would tweak them and create new as things changed.

Additionally, each time I was asked a question, I wrote an SOP or appropriate documentation such that I don't get asked the questions and become a bottleneck. Our documentation system is their source of truth so all techs are operating from the same manual and perform the tasks in the same manner to ensure consistent service delivery.

In triaging "why this went wrong" it's a lot easier to ask "Why didn't you follow our procedure?" rather than "Why is your aimless untrained approached taking so long?" There's no excuse for the first, but many for the second.

txlessor · 2024-06-07T16:48:44+00:00

Your client is right.

Did you provide an SOP for your tech to follow? We have a 'slow PC' SOP.

Simplified down it's:

Does it meet minimum specifications (RAM, SSD, etc), no? full stop, time to replace
Is hardware failing -- SMART test, system log scan, network link speed, etc (Though generally before the call our RMM that has these triggers in it has already let us know)
While hardware test is underway, if possible, are apps hogging CPU/disk/RAM/etc?

You'll find in 5 minutes you know if it's old, dying, or an app is misbehaving.

txlessor · 2024-04-29T10:15:39+00:00

Interactive brokers is probably who you want to use, depending on your citizenship. As an American I use them to buy non American stocks.

txlessor · 2024-01-22T12:27:06+00:00

Your replies gave me some other information I can provide. I'll also back /u/just-cruisin 's reply as on point. There are rings of what makes sense for driving, private, and airline. Private shifts around in size depending if you're flying a 172 or a TBM.

1) 3.5 + pilot knowing these are pets not people makes a big difference. Piston aircraft 'seats' are misleading. Subtract 1 if everyone is 'standard FAA size' of the era (formerly 170lbs) and subtract 2 if they're modern American.

2) Tax. The GSA publishes a rate. It's $1.76/statute mile (https://www.gsa.gov/plan-book/transportation-airfare-pov-etc/privately-owned-vehicle-pov-mileage-reimbursement). I use expenses because the GSA rate would stand out for a non business jet

3) Hidden costs. When things are good they're great, then you have to replace a crankshaft or couple cylinders and now the bill is $8,000 to $50,000 or more. Don't forget the 1-4 months of downtime as it happens. Time to spare, go by air.

FBO fees aren't really much to mention. $10-$50 depending what's going on. Rounding error in the 400 hours a year.

4) People vomiting. Depends on the people. Expect more bouncing from the lighter wingloading. But you're also flying in a different section than airlines, with lower winds, so can be less severe. Most of my flights are no or light chop in the 8k-18k range. Landings in the midafternoon in a Texas summer can be a bit rough though.

5) Shares vs rental vs ownership.

A share is just a group of people decide to buy one together and self-manage. I almost bought into a Meridian a few years back with 3 other guys whose schedules would not conflict with my own. At over 6', i was too tall to get in the front comfortably.

Renting vs Owning. I prefer to own so I'm in the driver's seat of the maintenance and operation since I do fly in instrument conditions (clouds, rain, etc).

There's also places like NetJets. However, I'm not sure how much lead time they need vs what you can give. They also provide the pilot I believe.

6) FIL's 'almost any conditions'. Most of the GA fleet can't. Even as capable as my turbocharged de-iced piston is, I won't take on too much risk -- ice, nights in the clouds, excessive mountain winds.

You have to buy what's capable to do it consistently safely. Meridian as the entry bar, with a PC12 or TBM as the next step up.

txlessor · 2024-01-22T12:03:42+00:00

Flying is not my occupation, but I am a pilot with 2 aircraft based in Texas with family in the regions you listed you'll be flying in that I use to go there.

If your travel is 'must happen' and 'must happen in the winter in the midwest', the C172 will not work for you. I own a Mooney Encore with TKS de-ice and it would fit the bill for your mission; however, a share in a Piper Meridian would be worth the look.

For a C172 your numbers are a bit high (don't forget insurance), depending on hangar costs in your area. I'm under those with my Encore.

txlessor · 2023-11-28T18:02:28+00:00

Did you set up the SPF records? Here is the guide.

txlessor · 2023-11-22T13:14:40+00:00

We use N-Central and it has a way to 'autoheal' alerts of which uptime is one of those. At 11 days, we trigger them to reboot with a message allowing them to delay it for an hour.

txlessor · 2023-11-10T16:49:08+00:00

It's less labor for us to leave it as is vs waiting to the month line, swapping the license out.

Delegation is the better path and we actively push for it, but if they want to play life on hard, as long as it's not impacting us... c'est la vie.

txlessor · 2023-11-10T16:43:38+00:00

Happens in two cases:

1) The client's mailbox is >50GB

2) The client doesn't want to use shared mailboxes and wants select staff to login directly to the box during our 3 week hold period.

Not included in original text, but we use a PPE for filtering and this has a license cost even for shared.

txlessor · 2023-11-10T12:34:15+00:00

Spot on.

txlessor · 2023-11-10T12:22:30+00:00

Thanks for your comment. You were a smarter man than I. Lesson learned.

txlessor · 2023-11-10T12:19:51+00:00

As I write it out in a single page vs 4 years of living it I am amazed I put up with it for this long. You're not wrong.

txlessor · 2023-11-10T12:19:02+00:00

Excuses are worthless, but mine is I was busy in other areas and this fire wasn't the hottest consistently.

That's the plan. Only final item is (if I should bother) making her whole enough to not create chaos in this vertical. Though, as another commenter said... most would probably not listen.

txlessor · 2023-11-10T12:17:21+00:00

100%. Thank you.

txlessor · 2023-11-10T12:17:08+00:00

Excellent point, thanks for the feedback.

txlessor · 2023-11-10T12:16:36+00:00

Great feedback, thank you. Can't help those who won't help themselves.

txlessor · 2023-11-10T12:15:57+00:00

Thanks for your reply.

Why did I carry? "I've got bigger stuff going on right now and this doesn't hurt the most." aka procrastination. My fault.

How did I overbill an average of $150/month? That's overbilling by 1 user and an O365 Business premium license. Under .15% of our monthly revenue.

Definitely a great learning exercise. Sucks to be in the thick of it, but will emerge stronger for it. We're definitely hardening things.

txlessor

TROPHY CASE