Working in IT 3.0: xp_cmdshell

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Working in IT 3.0: xp_cmdshell

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Suitchat: I just got out of an interview (thanks, ConfusedUs!) where I walked in in a nice pair of chinos and a nice navy blazer, and I may have been the most formally-dressed person in the office. The only reason I didn't suit the hell out for the interview was because I had to fly in from out of town, and thankfully they told me business casual before hand.

EDIT: JUST chinos and blazer. Gonna get the job with my impressive chest hair and more-impressive hobbit feet.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2014 22:44

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 09:33

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Misogynist posted:

Does anyone in here have Verizon FiOS? Can you do me a favor and ping rabb.it a few hundred times and let me know the packet loss, and what city you're in? It looks like they have issues to us-east-1 on EC2, we're launching a product from us-east-1 in a couple of hours, and we need to know how bad the situation is.

Feel free to PM if you don't want to clutter the thread.

Report from the front:

On Verizon FIOS in Syracuse, NY.

Ping statistics for 54.88.186.38:
Packets: Sent = 500, Received = 498, Lost = 2 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 51ms, Maximum = 136ms, Average = 111ms

Testing from Powershell, which was pulling both 54.88.186.38 and 54.208.230.151, the results were similar, with three dropped packets to .38.

From where I'm sitting in Upstate New York, the situation isn't that bad.

Drop me a PM if you need any other tests from here.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2014 02:23

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Inspector_666 posted:

But maybe it's a test...

Yes, a test to see if you can think like a user. You'll have to submit a ticket (by phone, or, better yet, flagging down some passing student in the hallway and having him/her do it for you) to the wrong help desk (in this case, I suggest facilities or a backup team, if your school has one), with something not only wrong, but offensively wrong.

"User Jomothy called in to report that Student Sambatha said that Instructor Robecka is having minor issues with the scanner in classroom 127x. Plz do the revertful."

# ¿ Sep 2, 2014 17:52

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Sepist posted:

No I'm a network engineer but everyone knows I know how to code because I have made a few mobile games and another work relevant app for them. No one put a gun to my head to make it, we're just in a project lull and we always joke that this should be a thing so I whipped it together

You realize you're going to have to support this Mission Critical Application until the day you quit now, right? In five years, after you've moved on, and Dunkin Donuts changes their website, someone's going to come into the 2019 version of this thread and bitch about you.

And how nobody told them they could get coffee

e: should have done it in Access.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2014 22:05

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

I default to Bing, mostly because I don't like Google. But I also use a Windows Phone and actually like Windows 8, so :v:

# ¿ Dec 16, 2014 18:12

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

incoherent posted:

Make him earn that 20k: hide change orders deep into nested emails

This is why they're charging so much: dealing with assholes who bottompost.

Hell, if you're going to be charged an rear end in a top hat tax, might as well use it!

# ¿ Jan 21, 2015 01:51

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

FaintlyQuaint posted:

He worked in IT for several years as a DBA of some sort and he approves all of our orders for any hardware. He also did the job that I have now for around a year on top of his current job, and only hired me because his son was born and he wanted to spend time at home in the afternoon.

From what I understand the vendor handles all of our licensing needs and I get regular audit reports every 4 weeks for any changes in licensing that we need to pay for/approve.

Just because he was a DBA doesn't mean he has any idea what hardware costs. Also, he may want/expect any support contracts to be up-front (as opposed to monthly) so they can be written off as cap-ex instead of op-ex.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2015 23:20

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

TWBalls posted:

Sadly, I recently posted something similar to this on FB because multiple people on the C-level exec team ended up with infections from email poo poo. The CFO has a bunch of files that look like they may be cryptolocker related. Even lovely McAfee found over 1600 infected files. I scanned it with Nod32 afterward and still found infected files. She won't give up her drat laptop. My boss is already aware and has spoken to her, so if anything happens, it's on her.

Still though, the amount of people that fall for this poo poo is just staggering.

It'd be a real shame if her laptop lost its connection to the domain, or her VPN account got locked out in such a way that you needed her laptop to troubleshoot it for a couple hours.

Yep. A cryin' shame.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2015 03:31

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

This is more a question for Dark Helmut, but I figured the rest of the thread might derive some synergistic leverages or provide paradigm-shifting advice.

I just got a call from Recruiter Mary*, and she was pitching the same position that I talked to Recruiter Cynthia* about last week. After reviewing the position with Cynthia, I asked her to submit me last week. I was up-front with Mary that I had already talked to Cynthia about this, and asked Cynthia to submit me. It didn't suck all the energy out of Mary, but it was definitely noticeable. I have not talked to Cynthia yet. Should I mention this contact to #2?

I think someone, probably Dark Helmut, mentioned how it was bad to be submitted by two agencies for the same job. I am remembering that right, right?

I told Mary that I was definitely interested in other positions, both here and around the country, and it took two hours to get the email she promised. Should I forward over my current resume, or this bridge already burned by honesty? I'd worked with her coworker about two years ago, and I've changed positions since then.

_{*Names changed to confound the witnesses}

# ¿ Feb 16, 2015 23:59

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

psydude posted:

This is kind of a silly question, but we could probably use one to break up all of the serious discussion. My boss has been out of town all week and won't be back until Monday, so I haven't had the opportunity to hand in my resignation. I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and formally resign to his boss (our PM) tomorrow and call him, or wait until Monday (which would technically be inside the two weeks) so I can do it in person.

I'd save it until Monday morning too. Don't ruin his weekend/end of his vacation. Not first thing Monday, but before lunch definitely.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2015 02:44

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

psydude posted:

Man if there's one thing I've learned both from reading this thread and from my own personal experience, it's that how much you make has nothing to do with how qualified you are, or how long you've worked in the field. It's about how much you project and believe that you're worth that much. If you only ever think you'll be worth $30k, then that's all you'll ever actually be worth. And if you don't actually think you're worth that much, then fake it. False confidence is almost as good as real confidence.

False confidence might be even better. If you're good enough at acting that people can't tell the confidence is false, you can stretch that into false contrition, shame, and a whole host of other normal human emotions.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2015 02:03

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

22 Eargesplitten posted:

I was trying to avoid using sick days. It's probably a dumb worry, but I was concerned that companies down the line might want to know how often I called in sick. So far I've only been sick two days in almost ten months, not counting a month out after emergency surgery, which is different from calling in sick.

I'll probably just say I have an appointment. I go to various doctors a lot, and most doctors don't take stuff after normal business hours.

I wouldn't be surprised if my boss figures out that I'm looking for a new job. In the past 2 and a half months we've had 50% turnover, not including me.

Any company concerned about how much sick-time you've used its probably not a company you want to work for. If they bring it up during the interview process, that's a bad sign.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2015 18:19

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

What do you guys think of doing some part time work as an adjunct professor? I got an email from one of my teachers a while back asking me if I'd be interested.

I think that'd look good on a r�sum�.

I've done a semester of this. It was really rewarding and challenging. It's really, really outside the stereotypical IT-type's skill-set, but at the same time if you can do it (and do it well), the experiences are invaluable. It will look good on the r�sum�, but be ready to talk about the time. Your interviewer might be confused, so you could spend more time on that then other positions.

Absolutely know the subject material inside out and upside down. You'll get questions that are formed from assumptions/understandings that are completely disconnected from reality. You need to step back and figure out what the student is really asking. Remember, the folks you'll be talking to are (supposedly) there to LEARN, not just do their job and clock out.

If you can fit it in your schedule, and you're not afraid to stand in front of a bunch of bored people for a couple of hours, absolutely do it.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2015 03:30

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

22 Eargesplitten posted:

Watch as it turns out to be an introductory class for freshmen explaining why you don't give out your password over email to people claiming to be from amazon.

That'd still be good, I think. Before you can teach something, you have to have a very deep understanding of it. If you're lucky, you'll have one or two students who keep asking "Why?" until they get to a base they can understand. And remember, for every student that asks that question, there will be five more who won't have the guts to raise their hand.

Also, a "basic" class is great for getting the skills of TEACHING down. There's designing lesson plans, writing quizzes and test, grading homework and papers, and being able to think on your feet when there are two dozen sets of eyes on you. If you've never done it before, a basic subject matter you know up and down means you can focus on the things you don't know.

ETA: Dr. Arbitrary, feel free to drop me a PM if you have any specific questions. Good luck!

# ¿ Mar 12, 2015 06:01

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Don't forget the fringe benefits are negotiable, too. They may say "everyone starts with a week's vacation", but you can up that, if you position it like you're willing to accept a SMALL amount less in salary. Eventually you should get to a point in your career where you want the time to spend with the toys you bought with your well-negotiated salary :v:

Or negotiate for training/certs, or attending a conference, or (extra) work-from-home, or whatever else relevant you can think of.

It's a negotiation, not family dinner. Don't leave anything on the table.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2015 20:40

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

In smaller environments, it's incredibly common to be both sysadmin and help desk simultaneously. You might tackle configuring some Exchange calendar stuff in the morning, then show your coworker/CEO how to invite people to a meeting in the afternoon.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2015 18:06

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

As long as I'm not busy, I love telemarketers. Start asking them questions like "I'm sorry, who are you?" "And where are you calling from?" "And where did you get my info?" "No, you got my information from somewhere. Where?" "I don't recall authorizing contact with your organization. What authorization do you have in file?"

You're gonna try to make my day tough? Gonna give the favor right back, buddy. My personal goal is to make telemarketing unprofitable, one phone call at a time.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2015 20:26

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Just got word that the recruiter's client declined to continue the interview process because the want someone with more experience. Despite the fact that they're paying 25% less that I'm making now. I was only considering it because it had some good benefits.

Eh. Not considering that a great loss. Happy Monday!

# ¿ Apr 13, 2015 15:22

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Dr. Arbitrary posted:

Just as a heads up to any powershell newbies, you should not run this command.

Get-ADComputer * -Filter 'operatingsystem -like "*7*"' | get-random | invoke-command -ComputerName $_ -command 'get-process | where {$_.id -gt 1000} | get-random | stop-process'

I never actually tested that, but it's close enough :v:

I found get-random during a practical interview last year, and I think it may be my favorite thing.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2015 15:29

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Gothmog1065 posted:

I'm going to be in this boat soon, and if I do powershell in a month of lunches, I may be the only person who knows powershell save our Network Analyst.

Seriously. Learn loving PowerShell. It will be how you manage Windows in the future. Hell, it's practically how you manage Windows now. I'd you do anything more than color code Excel spreadsheets, learn loving PowerShell.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2015 20:25

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

I have an interview next week with a hospital. On a color scale of chartreuse to aquamarine, how bad an idea is this?

# ¿ Apr 29, 2015 22:43

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

mayodreams posted:

I need to scan my server subnets to find out what versions and quantities of Windows Server we have running. Anyone know of any free tools that can do this? I have probably 90% accounted for because VMware will tell me, but I've tried the trial of LanDesk and it only differentiates between Server 2003 and XP, with the rest being just Windows Server.

A simple PowerShell script: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/0592f4f0-629f-42c7-a985-2da6a081a6fe/view/Discussions

(I am not the author)

# ¿ May 1, 2015 15:57

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Tab8715 posted:

Is there any reason not to use the Powershell ISE over the console 99% of the time?

I think the console might be slightly faster?

I dunno, I only use the ISE :v:

# ¿ May 4, 2015 19:54

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Verbally accepted a :yotj:

Going out to my car after lunch to find a spare gently caress to give.

# ¿ May 8, 2015 17:43

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

mayodreams posted:

I like my coworker's summation of GP: "Group policy is great when it works and terrifying when it doesn't"

Group policy is a six-shooter loaded with seven foot-seeking bullets.

# ¿ May 12, 2015 21:27

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Tab8715 posted:

What's the general rule of thumb for how much of a house I can afford?

Despite all the $100k Bay Area salaries the real estate market looks scary.

The quick math is your housing should be between 25% and 33% of your take-home. I can say on my mortgage, the taxes and insurance are roughly half the total monthly payment. The value of my house is slightly less than my gross annual pay. Of course, when I financed the house (at the bottom of the market), I was making about half what I am now. There's a lot of wiggle-room.

# ¿ May 14, 2015 19:02

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

psydude posted:

You must live some place with an incredibly low cost of living, or are very well off. If my income matched the value of a normal SFH around here I'd be posting from my yacht off the coast of Mallorca.

Yes, the cost of living where I am is a healthy percentage below average, and the IT market here is relatively strong.

Also, I was talking about the price of the house when we bought it, four years ago. The market was pretty bottomed out. Zillow's estimate is that our house's value has gone up by about 30% since we bought it. Of course the house across the street is very similar, and has been on the market at the higher price for over a year now :v:

# ¿ May 14, 2015 19:13

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Swink posted:

So should I just pick the biggest/most recognizable firm? There's a national one that has an office in my area. I guess I just need to walk in the door.

If it's Robert Half, save yourself the time and frustration.

Seriously, though, if you've got some experience, get your LinkedIn public and up to date. I've had multiple recruiters coming to me about open positions. LinkedIn was so much more effective than trolling Monster or Indeed, and it didn't require hundreds of silent rejections!

# ¿ May 15, 2015 13:46

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

myron cope posted:

This is going to sound like a dumb question, but can anyone run a get-mailbox? Is that added by something exchange? That sounds like it would be useful even for someone like me, a non-admin. Or at least interesting.

Before you can run get-mailbox, you have to have PowerShell installed, the Exchange module for PowerShell loaded, and connected to the Exchange server. In not sure what permissions are required for actually reading mailbox objects.

Installing and loading modules are probably the thing that's least-explained when using PowerShell. Run "get-help module" to get going on it.

# ¿ May 18, 2015 20:42

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

KERNOD WEL posted:

Is it a good or bad sign that i've already had a phone interview and we have scheduled an in-person interview without any mention of salary yet? I have found that companies that pay like poo poo are often weirdly, proudly upfront about it:

"Sole, jack-of-all-trades "IT guy" for an office of over 200 Mac and PC users in a major metro area? Yeah we can go as high as 58k and thats on the real high end....."

That's a good sign. Let them bring up money first, and let them bring it up after they've decided to make you an offer. If they make you an offer, that means they want you, and likely have some room to go up. Don't be afraid to exploit sunk-cost fallacies on their end, and if the numbers aren't there, don't feel bad about walking away.

# ¿ May 20, 2015 01:24

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

'd out to a new cube farm.

Despite having all my paperwork in over a week ago, won't have a PC login this week :v:

# ¿ May 26, 2015 18:56

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

myron cope posted:

They made an offer which is...45% or so more money than I'm making now, and that's not counting benefits. I was worried about leaving my current job, but once I heard the offer that pretty much went away.

The only things I'm worried about now are being out of my league and it being a contract job. I'm not worried that I'll never know how to do it, but that it will take me too long. I'll have to learn basically everything, as this is server stuff and I don't really have server experience. Even with AD I only have minimal experience (I've never created an AD account, for instance).

I have one question. I'm going on vacation on the 7th (Sunday). I didn't get the offer yet (probably tomorrow or the next day, it's officially coming from the firm I'll be a contractor for) and then once I accept it, they're doing a background check. That's going to take a week or two. Is is dickish to put in two weeks notice on Friday the 5th, take a vacation for a week and then have my last day be the 19th? A week of that two weeks I wouldn't even be there. This vacation has been planned for 5 or so months already, the job thing happened within the last month. The new job is pretty flexible about start time--they want me in there asap, but they told me I can give whatever notice I need to, no need to burn bridges on their account.

Congrats!

I'd make the effort to have a full two weeks of working and off-loading, but that depends on your load/tasks and how likely they are to say "Oh, that's your two-week notice? Give me your badge, there's the door, you can pick up your paycheck at the front desk tomorrow morning" or something like that.

Somebody gave me the advice to quit on a Monday morning, as to not potentially ruin someone's weekend. Do it in the morning, after they've gotten in and dealt with the first pile of email, so they can make the phone calls/emails/meetings they need to do to discuss your impending separation. At the same time, I'd be very communicative with your new place. "I'm going to put in my two-week on date X, but since I have access to sensitive information, there's the possibility they'll walk me out that day. I'll let you know."

# ¿ Jun 2, 2015 03:30

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Zero VGS posted:

Right, so I mean if it turns out we're not getting litigated, I should look into a short email retention time, and prevent archiving? For purposes of conserving local storage and bandwidth, of course.

You should talk to a lawyer who knows what they're talking about, and find the legal minimum retention time. This is something you absolutely need backing from the CEO/President/Owner/God from. When people ask, tell them the new policy is to limit liability. Which is true.

If it involves the threat of a lawsuit, get a lawyer. If it's something you don't know, get a lawyer. If it's something your in-house lawyer doesn't know, either you or they need to find someone who does.

It may not be the case right now, but lawsuits can absolutely be end-of-the-world situations for companies. Do you want it to be YOUR fault when the company goes under? No? Talk to a lawyer.

ETA: I want to say best-practice is no more than 7 years of retention. I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. Consult a lawyer.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2015 00:29

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

adorai posted:

It is really going to depend on your business. Do you think a bank only retains the documentation (which includes communication via email) of a 30 year mortgage for 7 years? There is too much potential for loss if you do not retain every document possible for the life of the note.

Yup, the 7 years was only meant as a general/best-practices discussion. One place I worked several years back had to keep certain records for at least 60 years for certain civil projects, if it related to design or construction.

If you're not sure, talk to a lawyer.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2015 04:04

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

KennyTheFish posted:

if you are sure, talk to the lawyer anyway.

Yea, in this case when I say "sure", I mean in Inspector_666's sense: A mimeographed policy produced by a lawyer.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2015 12:31

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

If you aren't on LinkedIn, change that. Get your keyword salad up there, get your experience up there. I had probably half a dozen recruiters come to ME over the last nine months, because I had a full profile and responded to their inmail blurbs. The position I ultimately accepted was a complete cold-call from LinkedIn. If I want to move in the next few years, I've got a lot more options from my LinkedIn recruiter connections. Come to think of it, the contract I was on before that was a cold-email from LinkedIn, too.

Seriously, I never even bothered with Monster or Indeed or Craigslist. I'm not in a major metropolitan market, and I can't imagine anywhere in NJ/NYC area is over-saturated with competent tech folk.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2015 00:30

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

I was on a one-year contract that was about to convert, but the numbers were looking like a 50% drop in pay, and lovely, lovely benefits. So I :yotj:

'd out to a new place that offered me the pay I was making on contract AND better benefits.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2015 06:35

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Japanese Dating Sim posted:

Did you do anything special on your LinkedIn to generate responses? I keep mine updated and have all my certs listed, but I don't get a ton of traffic.

Make connections with recruiters. Make connections with former coworkers. Make connections with people you barely know. Make sure your profile is public. Make sure there's a word-salad of skills somewhere, so random searches will pop you up. Make small changes regularly. I'm torn on "broadcast activity", but that will definitely pop you on recruiters more often. I personally don't make LinkedIn connections to coworkers until after I leave, so they don't realize how much I'm moving around when I'm doing it.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2015 21:25

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

22 Eargesplitten posted:

Creating AD and Exchange accounts is a pretty normal T1 job, right? Or is that just password resets?

It could be, but I'd rather see that responsibility in either a security team or HR. At the very least, the paperwork should come from or be approved by HR. Not just a random ticket from Joe Manager.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2015 20:28

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 09:33

Wizard of the Deep: Sep 25, 2005; Another productive workday

Depending on the company size, it really should be a mostly-automated process that lives with either HR directly or a security team that gets information from HR.

If you're a smaller company, it can fall at the bottom of the totem pole, with the folk(s) who do T1 tasks in addition to more advanced stuff. You should still have a detailed checklist of that's the case. And automate as much as you can. If it's automated, it should be repeatable and reliable. (key word: Should)

# ¿ Aug 3, 2015 20:53

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