It’s been a long time.

Monday, March 28th, 2022

Part of the problem with being unemployed is to stay motivated. It’s also easier to get depressed and stop doing the things you do. After my…well…it’s a large number of resume submits and ignores; it quickly turned into “why bother?” The so called worker shortage is nothing more then a shortage of 20 somethings. It’s easier to complain as you can see. Don’t want to do that anymore.

I decided to get back into things and re-discover some old. The facebook thing was never resolved. Could not get any support from them. They simply just don’t care so I started a new account and found I really wasn’t motivated for it. I have yet to fill out the profile and do pictures. I will get around to it when I update my linkedin. Linkedin does offer an interesting question. If ageism is freely practiced, does it make sense to install a picture? Anyway.

I did get some advice on returning to something. I played D&D a long time ago. Before the rules had level numbers. I was chatting with a guy on another game and after hearing my stories and my talking about my finest dungeon design; he suggested I return and look into hosting games. It seems most players these days simply want to play and not be a dungeon master. Possibilities? I did pick up a few of the rule books as things really changed. Who would have thought 10 foot poles would be a thing.

I am still looking at Python. I was studying for an exam and let it drop. I am going to pick that up again and then see about the professional exam.

I do need to pick up on the cloud stuff again. It’s easy to get rusty.

Anyway a post to get started again.

Facebook Account taken over

Friday, February 19th, 2021

I recently lost my facebook account. I was suprised at Facebooks security response. It doesn’t exist.

There is the password change email message which could have saved my account. If you miss that, you are doomed as the link has a limited life span.

Don’t bother with the suggestions for handling a hacked account. They only work if the attacker doesn’t change anything. Just about all of them understand to change the email and the recovery options. Once that happens; their tools fail BADLY. If you go through the process you will end up with a message of we have no way to verify it’s you and it ends.

I am not sure why they think the personal accounts have no value. Example; I have been pondering setting up a business. Why would I use the Facebook business accounts if my own personal account is ignored?

I have tried contacting them several times. I filed reports. I even reached out to an ex-coworker. Nothing. No response.

One fascinating thing is they will respond to the community board posts. I replied to one guy who was complaining. It was deleted. I posted my own story and asked for help. It was deleted.

I did see a few of their people respond they take security seriously. The problem? They really don’t.

I haven’t given up yet. I would hate to loose what I had. So far it’s not looking good as I think FB is needed and they…..well….really don’t seem to care about it.

Use water to clean an iWatch?

Wednesday, December 30th, 2020

I have an iWatch version 2. Overtime; the digital crown became stiff and I really had to press hard to bring up the screen.

The question was how to clean it?

I checked the supportnotes and the direction was to hold it on a stream of water. Kind of a surprise considering it’s a computer.

I shut off the iWatch and at the sink; enabled a tiny stream of lukewarm water. I made sure only the digital crown was under the water. The iWatch was watch face up and the digital crown was pointing downward at a 45 degree or so angle (I didn’t measure).

I gently turned the digital crown. It slowly loosened. However, it was still kind of rough. The technote said for on 10-15 seconds. I decided to continue (roughly 30 seconds). At one point; it felt like it like a blockage had been removed and the digital crown turned like it did when it was new.

I used a lint free cloth to dry the iWatch and even let it sit for a little while.

I powered it up and everything was fine.

Job Hunt Tip: Watch for depression

Thursday, May 14th, 2020

It’s easy to get discouraged especially with Covid killing opportunities. Personally; I am up to five jobs being closed due to Covid.

Get outside! Finish the “honeydo” list (if you have one). Learn something new.

I am currently working towards Azure certification, Python, Linux certification and re-acquainting myself with Powershell and leaning gethub.

Do re-read areas you know. It’s easy to forget things when you are not using them. I have even had instances were I would get a textbook question and I could see the console screen in my head and I could not remember the options.

Also, pick something new! Variety helps keep the mind fresh. It’s easy to get lazy on reading and training especially when you are job hunting.

I am cooking more. Going to do each recipe in one of Jet Tila’s books. He is a cool guy. Even answered a question I sent him!

I am also taking up Nordic Runes. Did the binge on the Vikings series and became a interested. We shall see how that goes. Wonder if their is a rune layout 😀

Do stay engaged and watch for depression sneaking in. Keep at it and eventually something will appear.

iWatch 6.2 “An error occurred…”

Friday, March 27th, 2020

I wanted to upgrade my iWatch to 6.2. It did the download and the verify and yet when it came time to install; it would error off with the nondescript “An error occurred while…..”

I checked the space and the network connections and everything was fine. While checking the settings on the watch; I happened on the System Update and decided to click “install” It did a quick verify and the installation began. Of course it needed to have power. Strange…..

Job Hunt Tip: Make sure your camera is covered

Wednesday, February 26th, 2020

There are interviews which are simply just not meant to be.

Such was the case for me and a certain storage company. I have an old Dell laptop and needed to do an interview. No problem! Just install webex.

Righhhhht. When the webex started; I forgot the defaults were in play so up popped my camera. Luckily I had cleaned up.

However, I decided to use my “man cave” and that’s were things went bad. I wondered why the manager (a female) said I was echoing and needed to kill my camera.

Later, on I did a simple check and found the issues. I am a fan of anime; on the back wall was a couple cloth posters of anime girls. Add in my weapons (a couple swords, axe and a Highland targe and rounded off with a large stack of books.

After that I figured the interview was toast. Didn’t even get a thank you but no thank you rejection.

The dumb things we do.

Job hunt tip: Don’t forget to keep practicing your skills.

Saturday, January 18th, 2020

There is all this talk of an exploding economy and yet it’s no simple matter finding a job especially if you are a system administrator. That classification seems to be getting devalued.

One thing I have noticed is more “text book” quiz questions and if you aren’t frequently using commands and you draw a blank for the answer, it registers as you really don’t know what you said you have done. Case and point. Applied for a Citrix job and failed the interview. Quizzed over a config issue with the console. I get see the screen but could not remember the option. This has been from being out of work for five months.

I am learning AWS and I will have to set up a small Citrix setup to refresh.

At least I have found one recruiter who isn’t just a resume forwarder. He told me I answered the hard questions fast and even answered ones people tended to miss. I missed the textbook questions. “What is the name of this process” He explained that is the mark of experience as people tend to forget the textbook and remember what parts do what in a system.

I am hopeful on that front.

List users with passwordlastset as null

Sunday, December 22nd, 2019

Another test from the month of lunches book was to list out user account with passwordlastset as null.

get-aduser -filter * -properties passwordlastset | where {$_.passwordlastset -eq $null} | ft Name,PasswordLastSet

get-service show startup automatic and stopped

Sunday, December 22nd, 2019

Going through the learn powershell in 30 days. One test question was to display services with automattic startup and are stopped:

Get-Service | Select-Object -Property Name,Status,StartType | where-object {$_.Status -eq “Stopped” -and $_.StartType -eq “Automatic”}

Get-EventLog does not display retention dates

Monday, December 16th, 2019

A simple issue of trying to print the retention days for the logfiles.

The problem is the date does not print with the standard output column name.

You have to use the property MinimumRetentionDays

Lesson of the day? Always use the GM option.