Dru’s New World

I will try to do anything to keep from Failure.  I will make sure I do not fail at something I do.  However when you work for other people that do not understand certain things about the new world of Technology sometime it feels like a set up for Failure.

Todays Project:

I am in charge of Network Security, we do have a help desk but for some reason they want me to set this laptop up for a special project.  The requirements: Windows XP, Office 2007, and Network Connection.

Laptop: Dell Inspiron 3800.

Well I am not a Master at any field but let me say this one thing.  I was curious so I did a quick Google search on this type of laptop to quickly find a review.  The review was written in August 2000…  Now I have this Machine that was around to see the twin towers get taken down, This computer was used by someone to watch the Summit meeting held by George Bush and Tony Blair for the summit meeting at Lajes Field in Portugal.  For all I know this laptop could have helped tally the Vote for George Bush’s Re-Election.  This laptop is older than my youngest daughter and my oldest wasn’t even in School yet.  This laptop probably had Windows NT 4.0, Office 98 and ran great… 

Now I am suppose to get this thing running secure with Windows XP, Office 2007 and Symantec Antivirus?

I am doing the live update for Anti Virus that has not been done since April 2007 and it comes up with - “Not enough Hard Drive Space”  I am trying to add the user account for the person, “Not enough Hard Drive Space”

So, I go to my boss and say, “Can I sent this laptop to the Smithsonian?”

“GET IT TO WORK” is his reply…

I am in the Market for a new job. When I was a manager I learned that the more fun your Team has the better quality of work you get out of them.
My Current Position is very Old School and all my fellow team members keep warning me every time I smile. Well seeing the lack of enjoyment in my position my Girlfriend sent me a Job she found. This is a company I have watched for a few months just because I stumbled on the Founders Blog and liked what I saw and then realized he was local to me.
Just a couple of statements from the position.
First what draws me to this - “We’re seeking bright, talented, Internet-savvy people who are gung-ho about learning the art of Internet marketing” - I am bright and Internet Savvy. Talented in what I have time to practice… My current Job doesn’t give me much time to read up on Internet Marketing but Those from Whiteseasons will remember how excited I was when I saw a Google Pagerank of 3.
“you do NOT need to know web design or programming” - This is good because I usually find the code I want and then manipulate for my needs. Why create something new when there is so many open source programs out there?
When I was a Manager I would notice that when I stopped all work in the middle of the day to throw a game of Darts, Those that participated would work harder after the game was over. This lead to my supervisor yelling at me a lot but we never stopped because every time we did this the project would beat the deadline. So this leads me to the last statement and the best statement, “There’s free ice cream at the office, we pay your monthly parking, we have pizza days, a ping pong table, and more.
Food and Ping Pong!!!! How in the world could it get better than that? Free Icecream - I may get fat but I would be one Fat, Happy employee… Hmmm… If I was to get a job like this somewhere I think my suggestion would be Weekly Dart tournament - The winner gets a free Ice Cream Cone.
Did I apply? OF COURSE…
Will I get the Job??? Probably won’t even get a call but it does give me hope that there are places out there like this.

There is not a single person out there that knows how to do everything and is a master of all. Except maybe Thinker. The one thing I realized is you are only as good as the Professionals that you hire. Yesterday I went to court again for Child Support. Again nothing happened. I will admit the my financial status is really hurting because of the amount of money I pour out and the lack of funds coming in. This is why there are so many advertisements on this site.

After court, My Lawyer who has been great and although reminds me I haven’t payed him in a long time, said to me, “Can I buy you a cup of coffee.”

After sitting in the Coffee Shop with my Lawyer for an hour and him paying for my coffee the whole time talking about everything from the current legal status to the hot girl I have been dating, I realized something. Life can get difficult and everyone needs to have a support system. This includes those of us that need to pay professionals for things that you do not have the knowledge about.

I then looked at my life right now. I am currently working full time and raising two daughters on my own. On top of that I am looking into and own investment property. I am not that knowledgable about certain things like Real estate Market and property values and stuff like that. So I have a Real Estate Agent that I hired. She has been great. Not only has she got me into a great investment property she is great at advising me with more investments and getting me in with the right people to make this a profitable business. The reason she is so great: Because she seams to care about me and my Girls and realizes that if she can get me in the position to make a profit I will be in the position to make her more money.

I have a Lawyer I have had for almost two years. Why is this a great person to hire although he charges more than most other lawyers? The whole fact that he has stuck to the feeling from the beginning, “You are a great man, Dru. You are a great Father. I will not let you get the wrong end of the Stick.”

This whole situation with my lawyer taking me out for Coffee was the proof of that. He saw that I have been depressed and wanted to talk to me as a person that knows that if I get the best work from him I will always require a Lawyer around to get my life in a better place. He also knows that if He provides the best service to me he will get me what I need so I can pay him.

This is why I always say that if you have something that you need but you are not an expert in that field hire for how they are not how much they are. My Investment Property will get me a $2000 a month Profit once i get tenants that will pay the rent. For this I have a great Lawyer that will help me get the wrong people out and the right people in.

Thanks Demo and Holli for being the best people you are.

As some of my readers know my job title is Information blah blah blah… I am in Network Security.
Anyway the other day I was doing some Wardriving with a new fun toy Work just got.
I work in a very secured area with some national interest shown here. So our Security is suppose to be high importance. I decided to walk the perimmiter of the Fence and see what I could find. When professionals set up Wireless Routers they usually Name the SSID to something unguessable (Is that a word) and then turn off Broadcasting so people can’t say, “ohhh I have wireless connection, its from Jim next door because the SSID is named JimNextDoor” But then there are those professionals that also leave everything security free so that ummm lets say… ummm all their tenants can have access to the internet. (I can’t think of anyone that does this)
Well I am reminded of a post from another IT Nerds Blog that was about what people will search google.
I am not that good at make lists like that so I will put the couple I saw on my perimeter walk:
ilovecock
cantguessthis
and the best
Dadisass

Now I can see the last one - “Son(or Daughter) I know I caught you smoking dope so I grounded you off the internet for the next 3 weeks, but I just got this Linksys router. It has wireless, can you hook it up for me?”
“Dad, Can I use it for my computer in my room?”
“In three weeks you can”

I have been really lucky in the past, I have never accepted a job because of money I have always taken the job that would give me the experience I wanted and (as far as I could tell) would be a good environment.  My resume reads really good and I have only had one job interview that I have not received an offer from.  I have done almost every aspect of IT work and have been a Master at none of them.  I have climb into manholes to lay Fiber, I have answered phone calls on a help desk, I have automated pain in the ass tasks by creating a database with a bi-lingual front end, I have Lead a team of IT people to control all communications on a military installation from the Domain Controllers to the Land-Mobile Radio’s in Vehicles.  The Job I had previously was the most exciting, mentally tasking, and rewarding position I have ever held.  This position had me pretending I am an employee to see how secure the end users were in a department.  This position had me write a Confiscated Data policy and handled a surprise data collection for fraud that was actually used in court.  (My organization made the news on this one).  I have only had one position where I didn’t receive a bonus or a promotion within six months.  Shit in one position within a year the person that hired me was working for me.  I have a big ego when it comes to my jobs, and rightfully so…

This current position is the first one that I took due to money.  My previous position was a lot of fun and I would have done that for the rest of my life if it paid enough to put food on the table.  But this position was SOLD to me and the money was a lot better.  After 8 months at this position I am still in the situation that everyone knows more than I do, at least they think.

About two weeks ago I found a vulnerability on about 20% of the systems on this network.  The System Administrator could not fix them so he called it a “False Positive.”  Well I will admit that Eeye Retina is known for a lot of False Positives. I told him before I make a fool out of myself by calling the Tech Support I want to do a little troubleshooting. I came up with a little patch released by Microsoft that was suppose to fix the issue. His responce to me sending the link to him, “I am not going to fucking do it because Retina tells me it is vulnerable.” I went to my supervisor and explained the situation. My supervisor said, “Its a false Positive and it needs remedied at the Tech Support level.”
Of course my response was, “It is not a false positive and I don’t want to look like an idiot when I go to tech support.” but after threats I ended up sending this workorder to the companies tech support.
Here it is 2 weeks later, that is two weeks tech support for the company of the scanning software took on this issue. What is their fix for the issue???
You guessed it, the EXACT same link I sent out two weeks ago. Does it fix the problem???
YES IT DOES!!!
I should have decided on eating Ramen Noodles for the rest of my life…