Been busy at work, came to 170+ messages here.

I've been busy closing down my company's office. What was supposed to be a two-month leadtime project ended up being a "get out in 10 days" scramble - e-wasting a ton of equipment, hauling out an inordinate amount of trash, and decomissioning a server room with 4 ESXi servers, 2 cisco switches, SD-WAN device and firewall.

There goes my 600/600 downloads...I used to download all of my ISOs from
work.

We had to vMotion 9 of the servers to a datacenter halfway across the
country, and 7 of them went without hitch. The last two, of course the most important two wouldn't vmotion over, looks like there's some corruption in
the .vmdk file - although the guest is running fine.

I ended up trying several times, then giving up and shipping a backup I took from the guest OS, copying to external, and overnighting it to the new data center. Looks like everything is back to normal now.

All that's left is to palletize everything and ship it back - that's
happening tomorrow, while the new tenant is moving into the space.

I guess I'm fully remote now, even though I've been going in once a week
since 2020. It still feels odd. My parent company is in Paris, the US office is in Houston, and my boss is in Boston. Many of the IT people are
distributed in other offices or remote.

I have a nice setup at home, though - finally figured out the multi-PC setup by using Logitech MX series peripherals - they can switch back and forth between 3 devices. 2 HDMI inputs on the monitor, one to each device. To switch, I press the input switch on the monitor, then press a button on the mouse and keyboard. Once I'm in work mode, I usually remote into my desktop for any non-work tasks.


... Onward, to meatspace!
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I guess I'm fully remote now, even though I've been going in once a week since 2020. It still feels odd. My parent company is in Paris, the US office is in Houston, and my boss is in Boston. Many of the IT people are distributed in other offices or remote.

I have a nice setup at home, though - finally figured out the multi-PC setup by using Logitech MX series peripherals - they can switch back and forth between 3 devices. 2 HDMI inputs on the monitor, one to each
device. To switch, I press the input switch on the monitor, then press a button on the mouse and keyboard. Once I'm in work mode, I usually remote into my desktop for any non-work tasks.

Sounds similar to my work setup these days. I have a touchdown office that is basically hoteling space if I happen to be in the office for something, but that is very rare. I only go int once a month or so to pickup monthly bills that I have to approve and send to AP.

I use my main personal PC for work using VDI. I have (3) of my displays on my work VDI, and (2) that I reserve for everything else. I use my work laptop for video calls/meetings, and the bluetooth headset (which is my own personal one) can do (2) connections at the same time, so I am on both for audio. I also have a Blue Yeti professional microphone on a boom so I sound like a radio broadcaster when on calls. :)

- Mark
ÿÿÿ
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (21:1/132.0)

Weatherman wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

so I am on both for audio. I also have a Blue Yeti professional microphone on a boom so I sound like a radio broadcaster when on calls.

I'd thought about getting a USB microphone, they're getting pretty good now.


... All those updates, and still imperfect!
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
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Weatherman wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

Sounds similar to my work setup these days. I have a touchdown office that is basically hoteling space if I happen to be in the office for something, but that is very rare. I only go int once a month or so to pickup monthly bills that I have to approve and send to AP.

I had tried to work with our management to build a hoteling office. We all have laptops, but even before Covid the offices were 100% staffed maybe a
day every other week. It'd make more sense to hot-desk, but people have
their own little spaces with their potted plant, picture of their cat,
"their" printer, etc.

One person out of the 20 refused to hot-desk, and it sort of fizzled out.
Any time you introduce exceptions like that things fall apart fast. We've since gotten rid of the space and gone all remote.

I have a dedicated office in my house, with the ultrawide monitor and
wireless peripherals I described elsewhere, with room for a homelab, a skylight, and an outdoor patio through french doors behind me. I'm going to have a hard time going back to any office.



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On 11/6/2022 9:04 AM, Poindexter Fortran wrote to Weatherman:

One person out of the 20 refused to hot-desk, and it sort of fizzled out. Any time you introduce exceptions like that things fall apart fast. We've since gotten rid of the space and gone all remote.

I have a dedicated office in my house, with the ultrawide monitor and wireless peripherals I described elsewhere, with room for a homelab, a skylight, and an outdoor patio through french doors behind me. I'm going to have a hard time going back to any office.

I don't want to telework. I get even more easily distracted if I teleworked.

--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
* Origin: Inland Utopia BBS * Ontario, California (21:4/108)

*** Quoting poindexter FORTRAN from a message to Weatherman ***

I have a dedicated office in my house, with the ultrawide monitor and wireless peripherals I described elsewhere, with room for a homelab,
a skylight, and an outdoor patio through french doors behind me. I'm
going to have a hard time going back to any office.

I'm have a similar setup at home now, but need to work on the lab space.

My boss reciently left the company which leaves me as the entire IT
department for the moment, we were planning a desktop refresh for all 10 of our locations, so I just got 120 PCs delivered to my house that I have to image. I would have prefered to pay to have them delivered pre-imaged, but that "wasn't in the budget". *shrugs*


Side note: Two sikds of desktops looks a hell of a lot bigger at home in your garage than it does on a loading dock.


Jay

... Anything can be made to work if you fiddle with it long enough!

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I'd thought about getting a USB microphone, they're getting pretty good now.

I used to use the USB microphones, but didn't want to be tied to the PC. With the awesome Sony bluetooth noise canceling headset I have, I can walk around the house and still be on a call. Perfect if you have to use the rest room in the middle of a meeting. :)

- Mark
ÿÿÿ
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (21:1/132.0)

Re: Re: Catching up again...
By: Matthew Munson to Poindexter Fortran on Sun Nov 06 2022 11:34 am

I don't want to telework. I get even more easily distracted if I teleworked.

I was just in an office with 5 people and was ready to scream. I had one person on a speakerphone, another wanting to chat from across the room, and a ramen slurper.

I'd neglected to bring headphones, because I'm usually in the office alone.

I like my home office just fine - at least during school hours. :)
--- SBBSecho 3.15-Win32
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I have a dedicated office in my house, with the ultrawide monitor and wireless peripherals I described elsewhere, with room for a homelab, a skylight, and an outdoor patio through french doors behind me. I'm going
to have a hard time going back to any office.

Same here. Dedicated home office, 5 displays, several UPS units to keep things going in the event of brown outs. Professional microphone, headset, etc. My home office is better equipped than my work office ever was.

We are perm work remote, so will never be in the office full time again. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't have it any other way at this point in time. There is no point in driving in each day to sit at a desk - and I have zero interest in ever doing that again.

- Mark
ÿÿÿ
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (21:1/132.0)

I don't want to telework. I get even more easily distracted if I teleworked.

Everyone is different in that respect. I know others that say the same thing. For me, I work much better remote and actually get more work done than when I was in the office. I don't constantly get interrupted by people walking in my office, etc. I can stay focused and get lots done.

Not to mention, I find myself working through lunch way more than I should. I'm one that is far more productive while working remote.

- Mark
ÿÿÿ
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (21:1/132.0)

I'm have a similar setup at home now, but need to work on the lab space.

My boss reciently left the company which leaves me as the entire IT department for the moment, we were planning a desktop refresh for all 10
of our locations, so I just got 120 PCs delivered to my house that I have
to image. I would have prefered to pay to have them delivered pre-imaged, but that "wasn't in the budget".
*shrugs*

Side note: Two sikds of desktops looks a hell of a lot bigger at home in your
garage than it does on a loading dock.

Nice! Probably not great if you don't have the phyical space at home for all that stuff, but nice you can do all that at home.

The core Cisco Nexus switches that are used in our data centers at work were all shipped to my house years ago and I configured all of them here at home.

Once I had the entire infrastructure architected as designed, it was just a matter of bringing them into the data centers and racking/stacking them.

I actually had a hard time parting with the gear. I wanted them for my home network, but it would have been overkill. Still cool, non-the-less. It isn't like I don't already have other high end Cisco switches at home and 10G fiber connections in the house. All my servers are connected 10G fiber. Actually (2) 10G each. One for regular data and the other for iSCSI.

- Mark
ÿÿÿ
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (21:1/132.0)

I was just in an office with 5 people and was ready to scream. I had one person on a speakerphone, another wanting to chat from across the room,
and a ramen slurper.

Exactly! That is why the home office is way better, too. We used to have a guy that would constantly clear his throat and spit in his trash can when he had allergies. No more dealing directly with that type of crap.

We also had one guy that was hard of hearing and would talk so incredible loud you could hear him on the other side of the entire office. Not to mention he would talk about things that should have been private and not for the entire office to hear.

- Mark
ÿÿÿ
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (21:1/132.0)

Warpslide wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

*** Quoting poindexter FORTRAN from a message to Weatherman ***

My boss reciently left the company which leaves me as the entire IT department for the moment, we were planning a desktop refresh for all
10 of our locations, so I just got 120 PCs delivered to my house that I have to image. I would have prefered to pay to have them delivered pre-imaged, but that "wasn't in the budget". *shrugs*

That's a new one to me - I provided remote desktop support for my company in 2020, but hardware was handled out of a home office. I would cross-ship loaners from home, but that was the extent of it.



... What do you think management's real interests are?
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Weatherman wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

I'd thought about getting a USB microphone, they're getting pretty good now.

I used to use the USB microphones, but didn't want to be tied to the
PC. With the awesome Sony bluetooth noise canceling headset I have, I
can walk around the house and still be on a call. Perfect if you have
to use the rest room in the middle of a meeting. :)

I bought a Jabra Elite 45h a while ago, love being able to get a refill on
my coffee when I'm on a call.


... What do you think management's real interests are?
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Weatherman wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

We are perm work remote, so will never be in the office full time
again. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't have it any other way at this point in time. There is no point in driving in each day to sit at a
desk - and I have zero interest in ever doing that again.

Congratulations to you -- my boss is in Boston and my parent company is in Houston and Paris, so I don't think an office is in my future. The nearest
one is 45 miles away in Oakland, CA. I'm trying to make a niche for myself
by supporting the west coast sites and letting the east coast guys go home
at a normal time.

I end up getting up early to walk dogs, get my daughter to school, so being online at 6am isn't an issue - when I'm not driving in.


... What do you think management's real interests are?
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
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Weatherman wrote to Matthew Munson <=-

Everyone is different in that respect. I know others that say the same thing. For me, I work much better remote and actually get more work
done than when I was in the office. I don't constantly get interrupted
by people walking in my office, etc. I can stay focused and get lots done.

Not to mention, I find myself working through lunch way more than I should. I'm one that is far more productive while working remote.

My plan for the next few weeks is to spend one day a week working out of a coffee shop, and I've set my fitbit to tell me to get up and walk if I
haven't walked more than 250 steps that hour. And to take lunch outside.


... Listen in total darkness, very quietly
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Weatherman wrote to Warpslide <=-

The core Cisco Nexus switches that are used in our data centers at work were all shipped to my house years ago and I configured all of them
here at home.

Do you have a couple of 208v twistlock outlets in your garage? :)


... Listen in total darkness, very quietly
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
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*** Quoting poindexter FORTRAN from a message to Weatherman ***

I used to use the USB microphones, but didn't want to be tied to the
PC. With the awesome Sony bluetooth noise canceling headset I have,I
can walk around the house and still be on a call. Perfect if you have
to use the rest room in the middle of a meeting. :)

I bought a Jabra Elite 45h a while ago, love being able to get a
refill on my coffee when I'm on a call.

I got the Poly (formerly Plantronics) Voyager 4310 awhile back and enjoy the freedom to pace around while on another (usually) pointless call. I have it paired to my laptop & phone and am already impressed with the range.

I'm often reminded when I forget to turn the headset off at the end of the
day when I'm not getting audio on my phone because it's playing through the headset at the other end of the house.


Jay

... Why did the M&M go to school? It wanted to be a Smartie

--- Telegard v3.09.g2-sp4/mL
* Origin: Northern Realms | tg.nrbbs.net | 289-424-5180 (21:3/110.1)

I bought a Jabra Elite 45h a while ago, love being able to get a refill
on my coffee when I'm on a call.

That was one of the headsets that I was considering, too. After lots of testing, research, and endless investigations I landed with the Sony WH-1000XM4 headset.

No complaints here, I use it almost all day long for work and pleasure. Great sound canceling and the sound quality is awesome. I can cut the lawn listening to tunes and can hardly hear the mower at all.

- Mark
ÿÿÿ
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (21:1/132.0)

Congratulations to you -- my boss is in Boston and my parent company is
in Houston and Paris, so I don't think an office is in my future. The nearest one is 45 miles away in Oakland, CA. I'm trying to make a niche
for myself by supporting the west coast sites and letting the east coast guys go home at a normal time.

I end up getting up early to walk dogs, get my daughter to school, so
being online at 6am isn't an issue - when I'm not driving in.

Our corporate headquarters is around an hour and 10 minutes away. Pretty much any of our sites are around an hour or so away from me other than the vast amount of small clinical sites we have all over the general region.

Everything is in the same state, so no real travel which is a major plus for me. I don't fly and have no interest in any job that requires that type of travel.

- Mark
ÿÿÿ
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (21:1/132.0)

My plan for the next few weeks is to spend one day a week working out of
a coffee shop, and I've set my fitbit to tell me to get up and walk if I haven't walked more than 250 steps that hour. And to take lunch outside.

Often, I will take walks at lunch with my wife around the neighborhood during the work week. It is also a good way to shed some work related stress.

Every month or so I try to catch up with work friends or venders at a local resaurants. Just to change things up a bit from time to time.

- Mark
ÿÿÿ
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (21:1/132.0)

Re: Re: Catching up again...
By: Weatherman to Poindexter Fortran on Tue Nov 08 2022 05:29 pm

Everything is in the same state, so no real travel which is a major plus for me. I don't fly and have no interest in any job that requires that type of travel.

I may be doing some travel to the western Canadian provinces and a trip down the California coast to Santa Barbara - and a trip to Texas. That should be the extent of my travels.
--- SBBSecho 3.15-Win32
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Do you have a couple of 208v twistlock outlets in your garage? :)

No, but I had considered running 220 30amp to both my garage and basement. That is a nice to have for many reasons. It gives you more options for air compressors, as well. Most of the larger air compressors require 220 power. It also gives you the option to get a single 5000 watt APC UPS.

- Mark
ÿÿÿ
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (21:1/132.0)