The Water Cooler, Scuttlebutt, Chit Chat Thread
03-08-18, 11:40 PM
#2676
Senior Member
Honestly CDR they probably were only mad at you because someone not doing their job got exposed and tried to twist it to take the heat off of them.
03-09-18, 05:48 AM
#2677
Senior Member
In related news, our store hours are now correct.
__________________
"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
03-09-18, 06:39 AM
#2678
Senior Member
03-09-18, 05:56 PM
#2679
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 4,449
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03-09-18, 09:31 PM
#2680
Senior Member
I'm not hacker level competent, although I suppose if I wanted to I could give it a go. Too risk averse, really. I don't want to break things to fix them, I'd rather work within the system. No Critical Mass rides for me, for example.
I got some positive feedback today. It was related to the fact that I'm always looking out for the company, I suppose it's the way I've been brought up. I pushed to improve our audit score (absolutely nothing to do with my own performance review), I pushed to increase recycling (per company mission statement but also personal beliefs), I pushed to get better and more complete information from customer vehicles (VIN, plates, etc). I made up little reminders on benefits of the company card and laminated and posted them on all the work stations. I organized a way to share the wealth with particular spiffs, and posted reminders on all work stations. I even brought in a shredder so we could shred some of our scrap paper for one of the employees that has a rabbit (shredded paper = bedding for rabbit) - the company won't buy a $200 office level shredder.
I did open three calls on system slowness today, trying to see if there is a switch issue or some other network/hardware issue causing the slowness. When a helpdesk call came in I took it, but the tech asked for the manager. That's when I learned the manager opened two calls for the same reason! And later the manager (a good guy) was on the phone with his boss (a good guy but the guy that got hammered because of me) saying that system performance was totally unacceptable and the only way to fix it was to install more RAM in our server. Currently we have 21 "workstations" connected to the server, a server that was designed for maybe 5 connections.
I'm tempted to stick 32GB or whatever RAM in our server but I know that would trigger alarms and
. Plus it may be a 32bit OS and be limited to 4 GB anyway. I actually suspect this is the case, else they'd have just bumped up the RAM.
So for now we're shutting down all unnecessary apps on the work stations, one significant app we're supposed to be running on 7 work stations (takes up 60% of server RAM), and apologizing to customers for the lag time (1-5 minutes to write up an order that should take 15-20 seconds).
We've also been warned that corporate bigwigs will be visiting in a few days. When they're here I'll be sure that all the workstations are running all the apps required per corporate policy. It'll be interesting to see their reaction when it will be literally impossible to read/open/create a work order. I have a feeling this will trigger some rapid response.
I got some positive feedback today. It was related to the fact that I'm always looking out for the company, I suppose it's the way I've been brought up. I pushed to improve our audit score (absolutely nothing to do with my own performance review), I pushed to increase recycling (per company mission statement but also personal beliefs), I pushed to get better and more complete information from customer vehicles (VIN, plates, etc). I made up little reminders on benefits of the company card and laminated and posted them on all the work stations. I organized a way to share the wealth with particular spiffs, and posted reminders on all work stations. I even brought in a shredder so we could shred some of our scrap paper for one of the employees that has a rabbit (shredded paper = bedding for rabbit) - the company won't buy a $200 office level shredder.
I did open three calls on system slowness today, trying to see if there is a switch issue or some other network/hardware issue causing the slowness. When a helpdesk call came in I took it, but the tech asked for the manager. That's when I learned the manager opened two calls for the same reason! And later the manager (a good guy) was on the phone with his boss (a good guy but the guy that got hammered because of me) saying that system performance was totally unacceptable and the only way to fix it was to install more RAM in our server. Currently we have 21 "workstations" connected to the server, a server that was designed for maybe 5 connections.
I'm tempted to stick 32GB or whatever RAM in our server but I know that would trigger alarms and
So for now we're shutting down all unnecessary apps on the work stations, one significant app we're supposed to be running on 7 work stations (takes up 60% of server RAM), and apologizing to customers for the lag time (1-5 minutes to write up an order that should take 15-20 seconds).
We've also been warned that corporate bigwigs will be visiting in a few days. When they're here I'll be sure that all the workstations are running all the apps required per corporate policy. It'll be interesting to see their reaction when it will be literally impossible to read/open/create a work order. I have a feeling this will trigger some rapid response.
__________________
"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
03-09-18, 09:47 PM
#2681
Cat 2
https://www.hackthissite.org/
03-11-18, 04:46 PM
#2682
No matches
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Eastern PA
Posts: 11,647
Bikes: two wheeled ones
Liked 444 Times
in
250 Posts
Why can't something just be vegetarian?
My wife really wants a vegetarian pot pie, which I finally found, but they have tofu. I feel like all vegetarian stuff has to have a meat substitute for some reason. I just want some vegetables sometimes, and sometimes I don't have time or energy to cook.
My wife really wants a vegetarian pot pie, which I finally found, but they have tofu. I feel like all vegetarian stuff has to have a meat substitute for some reason. I just want some vegetables sometimes, and sometimes I don't have time or energy to cook.
03-11-18, 05:09 PM
#2683
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Southern California, USA
Posts: 10,499
Bikes: 1979 Raleigh Team 753
Liked 380 Times
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259 Posts
Almost finished with my first week of new job. Weird to be W2 after 15 years.
I'm finding it hard to pull myself from work stuff to do BF posting (lucky y'all).
I'm finding it hard to pull myself from work stuff to do BF posting (lucky y'all).
03-11-18, 06:35 PM
#2684
Senior Member
If you ever want to learn, here is a good sandbox to play in. I've got to the 5th or so level without having to look up soloutions. After that I'm stumped. I should try again now that I know a bit more about web programming.
https://www.hackthissite.org/
https://www.hackthissite.org/
So the bigwigs are visiting this week, flying in from corporate. I asked the store manager what he wanted us to do with our point of sale system. The issue is that we don't have enough RAM and the server is in swap all the time. Since we've been tasked to use these tablets our server load went from 30% nominal to "over 90%" nominal. Once we hit swap it's game over. We have two options when the bigwigs are here:
1. Start up everything as we're supposed to, and bog the system down some ridiculous amount. We're talking a minute or two to bring up the screen where we type in a phone number to look up a customer. Normally it's as quick as you can click two buttons (half a second?), but when the system is lagging it can be agonizingly slow, like 2-3-4-5 minutes if not more. Starting an entire work order (customer, vehicle, work) can take many minutes, 10-20 minutes or more, and it should be maybe 60 seconds.
This would be incredibly embarrassing to the bigwigs but a tremendous wake up call. The store is paralyzed with its current IT hardware.
2. Run a stripped down version of everything, which is the only way we can operate with any kind of normalcy. We're constantly logging off and logging back on (takes maybe 90 seconds), we shut down everything that we're normally supposed to run (time clock app, the intranet page we're supposed to keep open, training pages, store email which is browser accessed, distribution center site, and select parts vendors). We can operate somewhat normally but we're not following corporate recommendations (like having email up all the time - have you heard of a business in this day and age that ignores its emails for hours at a time?).
This paints a better picture of the store but when the tablets get rolled out across the country (we're beta testers) it will cause many weeks of low sales and frustrated employees.
My vote was to run everything as we're supposed to, and basically wipe out a day of sales. It would be worth it if it lit a fire somewhere up higher. For now we're going to powwow on the visit days and decide what to do then.
__________________
"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
03-11-18, 06:52 PM
#2685
No matches
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Eastern PA
Posts: 11,647
Bikes: two wheeled ones
Liked 444 Times
in
250 Posts
One day I'll look, but I don't want to get sucked in
So the bigwigs are visiting this week, flying in from corporate. I asked the store manager what he wanted us to do with our point of sale system. The issue is that we don't have enough RAM and the server is in swap all the time. Since we've been tasked to use these tablets our server load went from 30% nominal to "over 90%" nominal. Once we hit swap it's game over. We have two options when the bigwigs are here:
1. Start up everything as we're supposed to, and bog the system down some ridiculous amount. We're talking a minute or two to bring up the screen where we type in a phone number to look up a customer. Normally it's as quick as you can click two buttons (half a second?), but when the system is lagging it can be agonizingly slow, like 2-3-4-5 minutes if not more. Starting an entire work order (customer, vehicle, work) can take many minutes, 10-20 minutes or more, and it should be maybe 60 seconds.
This would be incredibly embarrassing to the bigwigs but a tremendous wake up call. The store is paralyzed with its current IT hardware.
2. Run a stripped down version of everything, which is the only way we can operate with any kind of normalcy. We're constantly logging off and logging back on (takes maybe 90 seconds), we shut down everything that we're normally supposed to run (time clock app, the intranet page we're supposed to keep open, training pages, store email which is browser accessed, distribution center site, and select parts vendors). We can operate somewhat normally but we're not following corporate recommendations (like having email up all the time - have you heard of a business in this day and age that ignores its emails for hours at a time?).
This paints a better picture of the store but when the tablets get rolled out across the country (we're beta testers) it will cause many weeks of low sales and frustrated employees.
My vote was to run everything as we're supposed to, and basically wipe out a day of sales. It would be worth it if it lit a fire somewhere up higher. For now we're going to powwow on the visit days and decide what to do then.
So the bigwigs are visiting this week, flying in from corporate. I asked the store manager what he wanted us to do with our point of sale system. The issue is that we don't have enough RAM and the server is in swap all the time. Since we've been tasked to use these tablets our server load went from 30% nominal to "over 90%" nominal. Once we hit swap it's game over. We have two options when the bigwigs are here:
1. Start up everything as we're supposed to, and bog the system down some ridiculous amount. We're talking a minute or two to bring up the screen where we type in a phone number to look up a customer. Normally it's as quick as you can click two buttons (half a second?), but when the system is lagging it can be agonizingly slow, like 2-3-4-5 minutes if not more. Starting an entire work order (customer, vehicle, work) can take many minutes, 10-20 minutes or more, and it should be maybe 60 seconds.
This would be incredibly embarrassing to the bigwigs but a tremendous wake up call. The store is paralyzed with its current IT hardware.
2. Run a stripped down version of everything, which is the only way we can operate with any kind of normalcy. We're constantly logging off and logging back on (takes maybe 90 seconds), we shut down everything that we're normally supposed to run (time clock app, the intranet page we're supposed to keep open, training pages, store email which is browser accessed, distribution center site, and select parts vendors). We can operate somewhat normally but we're not following corporate recommendations (like having email up all the time - have you heard of a business in this day and age that ignores its emails for hours at a time?).
This paints a better picture of the store but when the tablets get rolled out across the country (we're beta testers) it will cause many weeks of low sales and frustrated employees.
My vote was to run everything as we're supposed to, and basically wipe out a day of sales. It would be worth it if it lit a fire somewhere up higher. For now we're going to powwow on the visit days and decide what to do then.
That way has the bonus of not getting in trouble for not following instructions.
03-12-18, 06:01 AM
#2686
Moved into my new cubicle today in our new building. The building is fine, but I hate my cube. I had two walls of windows before. Now I have a cube wall between me an the window - no reason to have this half wall here other than to block my view.
And I'm across from my boss, so I feel like a secretary.
And I'm across from my boss, so I feel like a secretary.
03-12-18, 06:58 AM
#2687
Senior Member
The answer is at 1:55:
(lyrics NSFW, but hopefully everyone knows that)
(lyrics NSFW, but hopefully everyone knows that)
03-12-18, 07:34 AM
#2688
So it is
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Westminster, CO
Posts: 21,863
Bikes: Luzerne, 684, Boreas, Wheelhouse, Alize©®, Bayamo, Cayo
Liked 5,277 Times
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3,009 Posts
One day I'll look, but I don't want to get sucked in
So the bigwigs are visiting this week, flying in from corporate. I asked the store manager what he wanted us to do with our point of sale system. The issue is that we don't have enough RAM and the server is in swap all the time. Since we've been tasked to use these tablets our server load went from 30% nominal to "over 90%" nominal. Once we hit swap it's game over. We have two options when the bigwigs are here:
1. Start up everything as we're supposed to, and bog the system down some ridiculous amount. We're talking a minute or two to bring up the screen where we type in a phone number to look up a customer. Normally it's as quick as you can click two buttons (half a second?), but when the system is lagging it can be agonizingly slow, like 2-3-4-5 minutes if not more. Starting an entire work order (customer, vehicle, work) can take many minutes, 10-20 minutes or more, and it should be maybe 60 seconds.
This would be incredibly embarrassing to the bigwigs but a tremendous wake up call. The store is paralyzed with its current IT hardware.
2. Run a stripped down version of everything, which is the only way we can operate with any kind of normalcy. We're constantly logging off and logging back on (takes maybe 90 seconds), we shut down everything that we're normally supposed to run (time clock app, the intranet page we're supposed to keep open, training pages, store email which is browser accessed, distribution center site, and select parts vendors). We can operate somewhat normally but we're not following corporate recommendations (like having email up all the time - have you heard of a business in this day and age that ignores its emails for hours at a time?).
This paints a better picture of the store but when the tablets get rolled out across the country (we're beta testers) it will cause many weeks of low sales and frustrated employees.
My vote was to run everything as we're supposed to, and basically wipe out a day of sales. It would be worth it if it lit a fire somewhere up higher. For now we're going to powwow on the visit days and decide what to do then.
So the bigwigs are visiting this week, flying in from corporate. I asked the store manager what he wanted us to do with our point of sale system. The issue is that we don't have enough RAM and the server is in swap all the time. Since we've been tasked to use these tablets our server load went from 30% nominal to "over 90%" nominal. Once we hit swap it's game over. We have two options when the bigwigs are here:
1. Start up everything as we're supposed to, and bog the system down some ridiculous amount. We're talking a minute or two to bring up the screen where we type in a phone number to look up a customer. Normally it's as quick as you can click two buttons (half a second?), but when the system is lagging it can be agonizingly slow, like 2-3-4-5 minutes if not more. Starting an entire work order (customer, vehicle, work) can take many minutes, 10-20 minutes or more, and it should be maybe 60 seconds.
This would be incredibly embarrassing to the bigwigs but a tremendous wake up call. The store is paralyzed with its current IT hardware.
2. Run a stripped down version of everything, which is the only way we can operate with any kind of normalcy. We're constantly logging off and logging back on (takes maybe 90 seconds), we shut down everything that we're normally supposed to run (time clock app, the intranet page we're supposed to keep open, training pages, store email which is browser accessed, distribution center site, and select parts vendors). We can operate somewhat normally but we're not following corporate recommendations (like having email up all the time - have you heard of a business in this day and age that ignores its emails for hours at a time?).
This paints a better picture of the store but when the tablets get rolled out across the country (we're beta testers) it will cause many weeks of low sales and frustrated employees.
My vote was to run everything as we're supposed to, and basically wipe out a day of sales. It would be worth it if it lit a fire somewhere up higher. For now we're going to powwow on the visit days and decide what to do then.
That's what a beta tester does. Uses the item in a real world situation, and finds the weak points, and strong points. The bigwigs need to see the the system in operation, in all its glory.
03-12-18, 08:53 AM
#2689
Senior Member
Pineapple Express inbound! Every day this week we have a chance of rain. There's a chance it could rain every day or not at all. This is basically our winter; which doesn't matter since we steal our water from NorCal (as my step dad reminds me) and Colorado.
I'm still not used to winters down here. Its not uncommon for us to get no rain until January, and no real storms until March or April.
I'm still not used to winters down here. Its not uncommon for us to get no rain until January, and no real storms until March or April.
03-12-18, 09:19 AM
#2690
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: In the foothills of Los Angeles County
Posts: 26,251
Liked 10,164 Times
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4,938 Posts
Or no real storms at all.
03-12-18, 09:22 AM
#2691
Senior Member
Pineapple Express inbound! Every day this week we have a chance of rain. There's a chance it could rain every day or not at all. This is basically our winter; which doesn't matter since we steal our water from NorCal (as my step dad reminds me) and Colorado.
I'm still not used to winters down here. Its not uncommon for us to get no rain until January, and no real storms until March or April.
I'm still not used to winters down here. Its not uncommon for us to get no rain until January, and no real storms until March or April.
03-12-18, 09:44 AM
#2692
Senior Member
I get the impression living in snow would be awesome for the first hour or so, until the reality of shoveling and driving kick in.
03-12-18, 09:56 AM
#2693
Senior Member
I can deal with the driving (Plus I work from home most days), it's the shoveling that sucks. I think I would find it less tedious if we had a garage for our cars. We got an electric snow thrower that is pretty good, but I'll have to be out regularly otherwise it'll struggle
03-12-18, 01:47 PM
#2694
One positive about my new cubicle is I have a motorized standing desk, so I can sit or stand. So, that's nice.
03-12-18, 01:51 PM
#2695
Senior Member
My coworker has one of those. Quite nice. I’ll be working from home full time starting next month. A lot of folks are already doing it, figured I’d get in on the action (it’s technically a pilot program still so they approve folks once a year). Commuting is easy for me (except for when weather affects the commuter rail) but I like the additional flexibilities associated with working at home
03-12-18, 01:53 PM
#2696
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Sacramento, California, USA
Posts: 40,863
Bikes: Specialized Tarmac, Canyon Exceed, Specialized Transition, Ellsworth Roots, Ridley Excalibur
Liked 3,111 Times
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1,418 Posts
I lived in snow one winter. That was enough. It was beautiful in December, a real winter wonderland. Still nice in January, but not quite wonderful. February it got old. By March I wanted to kill myself.
03-12-18, 02:01 PM
#2697
Senior Member
03-12-18, 02:54 PM
#2698
No matches
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Eastern PA
Posts: 11,647
Bikes: two wheeled ones
Liked 444 Times
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250 Posts
I don't have one, although many people in the office do. It's better for your back and joints and just for overall health. I think there's a decent body of literature that just the act of sitting all the time is pretty unhealthy, even with perfect sitting posture. The variation of both is good for you.
03-12-18, 03:25 PM
#2699
Senior Member
I think sitting burns 60 calories an hour and standing is 110, give or take. Sitting is also an unnatural position, which causes sciatica, tight hip adductors, uneven hips, among other things.....things that don't seem like a big deal until you get them.
03-12-18, 07:11 PM
#2700
Senior Member
I learned in the last storm that snow tires are generally optimized for heavy, wet snow, the kind that make awesome snowballs, snow forts, and shaped sled runs. With a RWD Suburban and studless snows I had to calm down and stay at 10 over the limit on local roads that weren't fully cleared, if at all (50-55 mph on one road, 45-50 on another, 35 on the unplowed ones) because it felt so planted I felt like I could go another 10 mph higher. Felt like mountain biking in firm dirt, incredible amounts of traction. I was at a light and a Subaru (AWD) went by on the main cross road (speed limit 50 mph). Light turned green, I turned left, caught up to the floundering Subaru within a few hundred yards, slowed to 35 as I passed it, then sped back up to about 50-55 as the plowed area ended. If the Subaru had snows it would have been fine, but you could see it dancing a bit even at just 30 mph so it had to have all seasons.
Snow tires don't work well on ice, to be fair, or ultra packed snow (which is like ice). I mean, okay, they work better than non-snows, but they don't feel super planted like they do on wet heavy snow.
In the heavy wet snow I did slow on our 10+ % downhill entering our housing complex (17 mph according to GPS on the dash cam), but I was okay on a few inches of wet snow on our 22% uphill driveway. I viewed the dashcam footage but it's all so boring because, frankly, it was. Nothing exciting. I even drove in the foot+ deep shoulder for a while just because I could.
Shoveling I could do without. Snowblower was a super useful investment.
__________________
"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
"...during the Lance years, being fit became the No. 1 thing. Totally the only thing. It’s a big part of what we do, but fitness is not the only thing. There’s skills, there’s tactics … there’s all kinds of stuff..." Tim Johnson
