The IT Guys Blog

So after a couple month break from writing on the blog I’m back!  I’ve received several e-mails wondering why I took a break and the main reason was really a tough work and school schedule that didn’t allow me the time I’d like to devote to this site.  This week should be exciting I’m attending a CISSP boot camp in Ft. Lauderdale that I’ll be reviewing in the middle of the week and a follow-up after I hopefully pass my CISSP exam in a week.

Look forward to

• Long term Kindle Test
• Sirius Stiletto  2 Review/ Long term test
• Intense School CISSP boot camp review

Look for updates in the next few days!

-The IT Guy.

This is the IT Guys Blog so I don’t want to bore anybody with this, but occasionally something comes along that needs to be shared with the public.

As any logical thinking person should, I tend to invest some of my savings in the stock market. Usually I use a full service brokerage firm like Schwab, but for some reason I decided to test out the highly hyped Zecco Trading. Zecco apparently offers “free trading”, which interested me so I filled out all the paper work, waited a week, and presto it’s all setup. I transferred in a hundred bucks or so just to get the feeling of the trading interface. I wanted to buy a few shares of my favorite stock and test out the fill times, etc. Thus, I setup a trade, execute it, and Zecco spits back an error. It’s not very descriptive it just says “Only trades that liquidate positions are allowed.” Since I didn’t even own any stocks through Zecco I thought that kind of odd . I e-mailed support and waited 3 days for them to tell me I have pending account paper work, which I then filled out and e-mailed back. I waited a week, tried again and the same thing happened, no go. Once again I e-mailed support and they said the same thing, so once again I filled out paper work, this time I chose to mail it in. I waited another week, same thing. At this point I’m tired of playing games with these guys and I just want my hundred bucks back, so I try to transfer it out. Of course that didn’t work and they e-mail me a message saying they wont allow me to transfer the money out since I haven’t finished all of my paper work. Now I can’t even get my little test money back. I’ve been trying to get them to close the account and mail me a check for over a month. I may have to file a lawsuit if I ever want to see my money again. This is the most ridiculous brokerage firm I’ve ever seen. Anybody who considers using Zecco Trading beware!

Read the rest of this entry »

Green is all the rage these days but should you consider going green in your data center? Well, that depends on a few things.

• Age of your data center - If it was built recently than you will probably have to find reasons rather than money to upgrade. I.E. Moral Obligations, Company Image, etc.
• Size of the data center. - If your data center is only a few servers you wont see a huge decrease in cost by going green.
• A/C is the number one cost in data centers these days but that doesn’t necessarily mean that replacing your HVAC system with an energy efficient model will fix all your energy troubles. A lot of times the issue is with the design of the data center itself. Re-designing the layout of your data center usually costs more than just replacing an old HVAC unit. You’ll want to consult a company familiar with data center design to help identify the trouble spots.
• New Equipment isn’t always greener. - Blades and other high density products are terrible to cool. Often companies will stuff two or more blade centers in a single rack which creates an HVAC nightmare. Believe it or not traditional servers actually are the best bet to stay green, not packing a rack full helps too.
• New Equipment - You should absolutely consider energy concerns when purchasing new equipment not only is it better for the environment it’s better for business. Energy costs have a tendency to fluctuate. The new racks of servers you are purchasing that cost $600 a month in power might be $1200 a month in a year.
• If you can’t find a better reason to do it. Remember green is the new black. It’s in style to conserve energy and resources. It makes your company look good and your employees feel like they are doing their part by working at a compnay that recognizes environmental issues.

All the things you should never bother your IT Guy with.

• Small office electronics (Personal Printers, Calculators, Lamps, iPods or other home electronics) - It’s not their job to look at why your iPod doesn’t work right with your work computer. It could also land you in trouble with your boss.
• Home Computer Questions - This has to be the number one complaint amongst IT Guys. Just because somebody is an IT Guy doesn’t mean they enjoy answering your home computer questions. If your IT Guy over hears you discussing something and chimes in that’s one thing, but don’t bring in your laundry list of questions and problems. It is not your company’s job to bank roll your IT mishaps- go pay the Geek Squad like everybody else.
• Pressuring your IT Guy into “doing work on the side.” First off it may violate his or her contract of employment and could wind up getting them in trouble or fired. Secondly, this ones a secret, IT Guys don’t like dealing with home computer BS. We’re very sorry your five year old computer you bought at Sam’s club doesn’t work right and “things keep popping up.” -Again take it to a computer repair shop or find somebody who fixes home computers for a living. We choose to work at a nice big company so we don’t have to go house to house and fix personal computer issues, deal with it.
• While your IT Guy at work may seem like the god of all things digital, IT Guy’s actually have job descriptions. If your company has an official help desk, take your problem to them first. Just because you know Mark in tier 5 server support knows how to fix your problem don’t bypass the system. Don’t ask the programmer to help with your e-mail issue or the network guy why your program doesn’t work. If you have a doubt about who to go to and you have a serious issue take it up with the higher ups. They get paid enough to deal with your lack of tech savvy and they can help you get in touch with the right person.
• Don’t be a nuisance. Unless the building is on fire don’t call your IT Guy repeatedly and e-mail him snotty e-mails. Contrary to popular opinion your IT Guy isn’t avoiding you, he’s prioritizing. That’s what IT Guy’s do. Your little e-mail issue is not a big deal when a server is down and thousands of people are without a resource. Personally I put my phone on DND(do not disturb) if I start getting an influx of calls. You can’t solve issues if you can’t get off the phone.
• Don’t tell your IT Guy a twenty minute long story. Tell him what you think is most pertinent to the issue at hand and nothing more. If your IT Guy wants more info he’ll inquire with you through call backs or e-mail.
• Don’t forget to get your IT Guy or Girl an awesome gift for the holidays. - If it wasn’t for the IT Guys of the world you wouldn’t have a job.

Verizon Business is the division you are placed in if you spend a good chunk of change with verizon. I’m not sure of the exact level required, but it’s enough to push you above and beyond their small and medium business depts, which I’m sure are just as bad. There’s a few reasons why they are so terrible. Read the rest of this entry »

Ask any IT Guy, any real IT Guy what he hates the most and he will undoubtedly list documentation. Documentation isn’t fun for anybody, when you think about it you are retracing everything you’ve already done and nobody likes to re-do things. You may not realize it but it’s something your employer also expects you to do. IT Guys tend to switch jobs more often than most employees and they want records of things when you leave. There are some ways to make documentation easier of course. Read the rest of this entry »

As far as I’m concerned you have three options as an IT Guy.

• Red Bull/Energy Drinks
• Coffee
• Others

Red Bull is great except that after you chug your third or fourth one down your stomach will feel like a washing machine on spin cycle.

Coffee is a great choice, for some reason even though it contains less caffeine than some of the other options it has great eye opening abilities.

Other choices I’ve seen used range from fruit juice to sugary breakfast snacks like donuts.

The real IT Guy trick is just to keep a steady sleep cycle. If you like to go to sleep at 2 A.M. and wake up at 7 A.M. that’s fine, but don’t vary it. If you go to bed earlier your body will take advantage and except the extra sleep every day. Why do you think so many people claim they need 8-10 hours a night yet so many others get by fine on 5-7?

Contrary to popular opinion IT Guy’s actually have lives outside of their digital worlds. It’s scary, I know, to think that the guy who fixes your PC at work also manages to maintain a few hobbies on the side. Most IT Guys I know (and I know a lot) have hobbies that don’t involve computers. Personally I enjoy anything with a lot of horsepower. Which is probably why I have a 200 mph motorcycle, a Mustang on N20, and a turbo awd daily driver. Computers are something I typically avoid outside of work. My PC at home (yeah, I only have 1 at home.. I know you were thinking I had a server farm in my living room) is your run of the mill dell dimension. It’s not some home built super computer that causes half the block to go dark when I turn it on. Other IT Guy’s I know are into OffRoading their trucks, motorcycles, golf, and hiking. I will admit I know a few that play a game or two on their home computer too but the biggest geeks I know aren’t IT Guys!

Most IT Guys sit down and think about security in terms of firewalls and service packs and all the geeky stuff that they learned in that neat seminar on arp cache poisoning. So it’s no surprise that from a purely digital stand point, most companies are fairly secure

The little followed rule in enterprise is that security must scale evenly across all fronts. Think about it in terms of a mansion you just bought with your lottery winnings. You buy the best security system in the world. It features infrared cameras and perimeter sensors capable of detecting a pin drop. Only you know the code to the alarm. But you don’t even bother to lock your front door. The alarm may go off but it’s probably too late. You may even have video of the thieves but a lot of times they don’t care. In security just like in a fight the most committed wins. There is always somebody more committed to breaking in than you are to keeping them out. The trick is to put enough hurdles in front of these people that they move on to easier prey. Read the rest of this entry »

What happened to just being the IT guy? Now we have more names for IT personnel than jobs for them to do. Undoubtedly you’ve heard the basic Systems Administrator, Network Administrator, Programmer, and Director of IT but what about the CIO, CITO, CISO, Computer Operator, Data Architect, Enterprise Operations Director, Add your acronym or funny title here… The sad part is that these names actually dictate the likelihood you will or wont get hired at your next job. By the way if your applying for a “Computer Operator” job, don’t be surprised when the job turns out to be working the deep fryer at Burger King! — You’ve been warned.

List your funny IT titles!