Give us the cheat codes to your industry/place of work!
Software Engineer:
Make a junk email for junk signups and accounts, if you can. Don’t accept the cookies. If the product you’re using is free, the information you enter is what’s being sold to someone else.
Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the tab you just accidentally closed.
I just started using Proton mail’s aliases for that and love it. If I see a bunch of spam coming to one particular alias, I’ll just delete it and make a new one. So far, it’s been great
Adding onto this, either have a temp mail addon, or have one such site bookmarked on your browser.
Concerts, the rooms are always tuned visually and sonically for about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way back on the floor. If you care about audio or visuals this is where you go. If you can’t afford the floor, anywhere in the center will still be a good experience, avoid the sides unless you don’t care about visuals or audio. We literally call those the bone seats, because they have no substance to them.
If they’ve got a control booth in the middle of the venue, that’s usually where I want to hang out. Best audio/visuals right where the guy engineering it is listening to it
Corporate IT: I see nearly everything you do on your computer. I can see exactly how long what application is open. If I ask you to restart your computer, you don’t, and you somehow get me in front of it, restarting it better not fix it or your next ticket is gonna be low priority no matter what. If you want in with IT, always open a ticket and include as much info as you can clearly convey. Snacks and bribes won’t always work with those of us who are very antisocial.
Snacks and bribes won’t always work with those of us who are very antisocial.
Always ask the person you are trying to bribe what they like to be bribed with.
Can you hijack the camera and see us too?
No and if I found a way I would file a report against any other IT agent who did. That’s invasion of privacy IMO. Microsoft can tho, remember the Kinect?
Yes, of course. Though your camera light would alert you of the usage, unless of course, your IT guy ordered a camera that can deactivate the light via software (or simply opened the camera and yanked the light)
I’ve dealt with my share of PC issues and apart from digging in and writing scripts, I’m an advanced end user. One time le tired IT guy needed to remote in for some issue I didn’t have appropriate access to deal with. He seemed rather startled when I opened notepad and said “Hi!”
I also swear I began to get more difficult to recognize fake phishing attempts shortly after.
Dave, if you’re reading this you never caught me with one! Gotta try harder!
or your next ticket is gonna be low priority no matter what.
That’s childish and won’t ever cause a change in their behavior.
Bonus points if they show management the ticket that’s stalling a project from progressing and has been sitting on your desk for 2 weeks.Stalling a ticket here means a day, not two weeks. I have 72 hours to respond at a maximum before I get penalized. We are worked so fast here the skin flies off your bones.
I’m a philosopher, nothing matters, so stop worrying about it and live your life the way you want to live it.
HVAC: Don’t shut your air vents to give you better heating or cooling in certain rooms/floors. You’re adding pressure to your system and reducing its life. If it’s AC then you’re turning it into a freezer. That’s why doing so freezes the coil, not enough air flow to move the cold air out and keep it from freezing. For heat it literally can overheat the control board frying it since the blower also helps cool the electronics. If you have hot and/or cold rooms (this is normal per floors) ask about adding dampers. Most of the time it’s not possible without major drywall rework and it isn’t cheap. Your builder sucks (basically). A lot of companies won’t quote the work because it can’t be guaranteed. You’re essentially stuck with the crappy design the builder got approved. One potential is minisplits. Again, not cheap per room and not pretty but they will fix your issue.
I looked up dampers, and I’m confused about how they are functionally different than closing/opening the vent? I’m sure I’m not understanding though. Is it just about the location?
They don’t operate differently. Also he is assuming your ducts are designed and balanced properly to begin with. Most in residential homes aren’t.
While shutting off a lot of vents can cause problems. Shutting off an unused room isn’t going to hurt anything. Or partially closing a vent because a room gets too warm/cold. Because like I said they do fuck to balance systems in residential homes.
Proper dampers redirect airflow, not eliminate it. Again, see, your house builder sucks.
HVAC: mini splits
black mold forms and causes breathing problems. Clean aircons (air conditioner) every 6 months - 1 year.
If water is dripping from the outside unit, your aircon is lacking gas. Making it into a giant fan.
A mini-split is chosen to meet the needs for one room. Some folks, and can’t be convinced otherwise, think an aircon can cover the entire universe. And to prove it, they leave all the doors open.
This is proof we live in the matrix. It’s completely unsolvable issue without self closing doors
Rethinking so many life choices.
Tertiary education: university professor.
LPT: Talk to your professor and ask questions!!
I have so many students that don’t perform well because they didn’t understand some material. I’m seriously getting paid to help you understand it, but I can’t present it in a way that works perfectly for every student since they all have their own learning styles. I also wont know if they aren’t getting it of no one speaks out.
I want:
- to help
- everyone to learn the material
- to talk about science because I’m a super nerd
- what is and isn’t working for you in class
- students to show up to office hours
I don’t:
- expect anyone to already know something they haven’t learned about
- care if you ask me a million questions
- want you to perform poorly
- want you do go to the field unprepared
- like it when students treat me like they are bothering me
- grade papers that are ridiculously wrong because students didn’t try to ask me for help
The vast majority of university professors are obsessed with what they teach, so much so, that they made a career out of talking about it. Asking then about it would make their day. If you go up to one that seems like they’re being bothered, then that’s the exception. Don’t let that one stop you from engaging with all of the others.
Note: This is true for almost all courses. However, there are some courses in certain universities that are considered “weed out classes”. These classes, typically taken in the first 2 years, are informally designed to have lower performing students fail before they advance too far into the major and find out later that they don’t have what it takes to be successful in the field. The professors of those classes are more commonly not helpful at all. Don’t give me shit about it because I didn’t design this system nor do I teach those classes.
I was going to say I had the polar opposite experience until your last paragraph.
Lecturers were very rarely excited about the material they taught, left as soon as they could and were far more concerned with their research than helping students.
That was EE so probably a mix of weed-out and the fact that they were all socially awkward mega nerds.
I completely agree.
Back when I was taking GEs I had an ancient history class that I just couldn’t get. One visit to the professors office hours and he basically guaranteed me a decent passing grade as long as I did the final essay.
His job was to teach and help students pass. He knew his subject wasn’t everyone’s passion and was super chill about it.
One caveat of this, is in my experience it was younger TAs running 100 level classes that were the strictest. They for whatever reason didn’t have the experience or self-awareness to know that their teaching method didn’t align with every student.
Tertiary education: IT (software developer)
Same theme for my LPT, different area. Are you having a problem? Housing? Tuition? Health issue? Ask about it! Likely you’re one of many and we (support staff) have systems in place to point you in the right direction. If you’re the first to run into a problem, we need to know so we can fix it. Don’t worry about bothering us, that’s what we’re there for. Many students wait until they have no other choice but to get in contact when it would have been easier for everyone if they had brought it up sooner. I totally understand the impulse, I’ve been that kid.
I work in information security.
Don’t use biometrics to secure your devices. Biometrics are a convenience feature to make it easier to access your device. Biometrics are NOT security. You can be compelled to unlock your device by having it pointed at your face or your finger forced onto the reader. Don’t do it.
Use 2FA/MFA everywhere you can. If it’s an option, turn it on.
Use a password manager that generates strong passwords and use a different password for every service you use.
Update, update, update. Allow your devices, OSes, and software/applications to update automatically.
Talk to your parents about safe surfing. Tell them that their bank won’t send them an email or text asking them to send personal information. Set a password with your family to identify them if they are in trouble and need help. Tell parents and grandparent not to send you bail money to get you out of jail in Morocco.
Teach your kids that everything they post on the internet is public and permanent. Teach them that if they do something that they think will get them in trouble and someone is blackmailing them that it’s better to tell you and ask for help than to give in to the blackmailers.
Regarding biometrics, I’ve felt that one advantage is that if I’m in a public space, I don’t have to worry about someone watching me enter my password over my shoulder. If I got into a situation where someone is physically overpowering me to get my finger onto my device against my will, I’m probably going to give them whatever password they want so I don’t get a beat down.
That’s a threat and risk assessment. You’ve decided you’re willing to accept the risk of anyone being able to unlock your phone. For me, I’m not really worried about someone in the street strong arming me. I’m more worried about a state actor, border guard, police officer, etc demanding that I unlock my phone. They can physically compel you to unlock your phone by pointing it at your face or putting your finger on the pad but they cannot compel you to give them your password.
I definitely see your perspective, but mostly wanted to make sure I wasn’t overlooking some obvious downside in my risk assessment.
I figure my chances are low that I will get into the situation where an authority demands access to my phone but I also don’t have the opportunity to lock out biometrics. Like if I get pulled over I just hold power and volume up buttons for three seconds and biometrics is off. That said, it certainly doesn’t eliminate my risk completely, and I wouldn’t consider anyone crazy for just opting out completely.
The other problem with biometrics is you can’t change them. With the OPM breach a few years ago they lost 5.6 million finger prints. Those finger prints are now useless since they are in the wild and can’t be changed. Not a problem for your average phone user but in my world that’s a really big deal. In my world biometrics are a convenience and convenience is bad for security.
As long as you’ve considered and accepted the risks you’re good.
I’m probably preaching to the choir, but for those who don’t know, at least on an iPhone and I’m sure android has something similar, if you foresee the situation coming you can just hold the sleep/wake button for a few seconds (even while your phone is in your pocket) and it will require the passcode and not allow biometrics.
Edit: my memory, it’s the sleep/wake button and volume down. Similar to android as per the below.
For android it’s power+volume up to bring up the power options menu (shutdown, restart, etc) and there is a “lock down” option that disables biometric unlock.
Wish I could do it with one hand, but good to know it’s there.
Allowing apps to update automatically often means that advertising and feature removal or nerfing, etc., can happen. Checking manually has saved me a lot of grief.
That’s my expert opinion. Take it or leave it. It’s your device.
I finally let my phone do some app updates the other week, my banking app now displays full screen ads for their credit cards, conveniently right as you go to click the transfer button.
I don’t update shit anymore. I update my OS and apps on my desktop, but my phone is now being actively neglected in regards to app updates. Every single app update breaks something, removes a feature, or brings ads into the picture.
I’m a waitress. It never hurts to say it’s your birthday or better yet, anniversary. Birthdays get free dessert most places but anniversaries get free bubbles. It costs me nothing to give it to you.
Just make sure to tip on the pre-discount amount and it’s all good.
Even if my wife and I get our meal fully comped because the kitchen messed up or it took a long time (has happened a few times, college town. We never complain or get upset, the managers just come over and apologize then comp it), we qt least tip as if it wasn’t comped, if we liked our server and/or the food a lot (both, most of the time) then we tip the full amount of the comped meal. Without fail the servers have been surprised that we tip at all when that happens
You can freeze chips/crisps indefinitely. I used to work for Frito Lay. Just thaw them when you get close to snack time. Of course I never do this because I just eat the chips I have at home.
Can’t give specifics, but regarding enforcement work: We know who’s breaking the rules, but we let them get away to prevent exposing our methods.
Mall cops recording video in the washrooms. I knew it.
Cybersecurity
If you have anything worthwhile on your PC, you should really buy your own router instead of using the one provided by your ISP.
currently my only option for internet is by tethering my phone mobile data. i do it with a usb hotspot. i have a wifi router but it seems unnecessary, complicated and slower than usb, so it is not currently in use. it’s an android phone and a linux computer but i don’t feel i know enough about either device or networking in general. should i be worried or do things different? i don’t have much that’s important. i still fear i might be doing things wrong.
I always have a firewall inside the ISP device. I also have segmented network with the devices I mostly control on one network and the devices that the manufacturer mostly controls on another.
Can’t imagine this is relevant to a lot of folks here, but corporate event audio visual:
Don’t use the audio visual company that’s “in house” at a hotel. They’re paying nearly 50% commission for the privilege of being there and getting business shunted to them, so only half of what you pay is going to goods or services.
That said, make sure your hotel contract leaves you free to bring in an outside vendor without having to pay too many fees. Cross out any lines related to things like “load in/out liaison,” paying for polytak floor covering, or paying some percentage of your outside AV bill to the in house company. It might help to include a proactive clause like “client will not be charged any fees for bringing in our own audio visual partner”. Include a line that you won’t be required to pay surcharges like “event technical support” which is just a “we’re charging you a fee” fee.
You will still have to pay the in-house AV vendor for any power, internet and rigging. For internet, confirm what your rate will be before signing the contract. We see a lot of cases where they’ll say “the meeting room wifi is discounted (free) if you use us for AV too, but if you don’t it’s $20k” (actual number, and could be even higher) Once you sign without negotiating they’ve got you over a barrel.
If you already have a contract you may be able to mitigate these issues by leaning on your hotel salesperson. Trying to negotiate with the in house AV rep will usually be ineffective (sometimes they’re cool). The hotel is the in-house AV vendor’s number one customer, so if the hotel says they need to do something, they’ll do it. Usually leaning on your hotel salesperson after signing a contract only works if you have some leverage like potential for future business.
And to add to that an outside vendor will almost always provide a better result because they actually have to work for their jobs, rather than their jobs being given to them. They also have to work in more venues so they are more flexible and able to customize your AV to meet your specific needs. Many of these in house crews have only a couple setups that they will do for a room and if your setup doesn’t fit that preset, tough.
The only downside is, because their shop is not on site, last minute add ons are difficult if not impossible to do. So make sure you account for everything that is happening and communicate it with your AV company so they can spares for any last minute add ons you may want.
Good points! I know my last couple jobs have had “partner” companies that were similar to us in each major metropolitan area. So if we had a pop up request beyond the backup gear we packed, we could still get it from a warehouse less than an hour away. (And there’s always the wholesale rental houses like Rentex)
Yeah, the main company for most hotels literally got the exclusive contract by bribing the hell out of all of the hotel owners/executives. And they were so notoriously shitty that they bought a smaller company a few years ago, just so they could change their name to the smaller company’s name and attempt to sidestep lots of the bad reputation.
Self-storage. Try not to start rental during the summer/spring, prices are way higher than winters. If you’re storing short term with items that are easily bought new, I would suggest just getting rid of them and buying new. I see a ton of people who store thinking they’ll be out in 3 months and end up staying a year and spending way more than the items were ever worth. This is especially true for home renovations, those take up at least 50% more time than you think they will. If you smell something funky throughout a large part of the floor, don’t store on that floor. It’s most likely caused by mouse issues. Try to store in an elevator access unit instead of ground level. They’re usually more secure, tend to not have mouse issues, and end up cleaner because they’re lower traffic.
I hate that just throwing out all your shit is more cost effective
… Also would be pretty true for long moves.
HVAC, most maintenance check ups are scams. Very little in residential air conditioner/heat pumps needs any up keep. All the motors are sealed and you’re better off not putting gauges on a system unless there’s an actual issue.
Change the air filter every three months, and in the spring shut off the outside unit, and hose off the coil fins of any debris trying not to spray anything electrical looking. Wait a couple hours and turn it back on. YouTube probably has videos.
Can I pester you with a question? Feel free to tell me to get bent because I know your time is worth money and this is just the internet. We have a new Trane system that was flawless when it was first put in, but over the past five months the blower has started making louder and louder vibration noises. Almost like it’s slightly off balance. If it was an older system I wouldn’t think twice, but it was dead quiet at first, just the sound of moving air pretty much.
Part of me wants to open up the cabinet and just see if there’s some sort of vibration pad that’s gotten loose, but I also don’t want to to void a warranty, or something. It seems so trivial a thing. We live in the boonies and a service call is pretty onerous for a tech. I thought maybe there could be balancing weights, like a car wheel or a lawnmower blade, but your comment about motors being sealed is making me think twice.
Opening up the panel to the blower area won’t void the warranty. ( not that I would tell anyone you opened it, because disreputable companies will make a stink even though its legal.)
It’s possible a mounting bolt came loose (simple fix). There isn’t anything to balance on any of the blowers I’ve ever worked on. So that leaves a bearing going bad in the motor. Or the set-up being out of balance and it destroyed the bearing. Either way, you should put in a call to a company that is authorized to do warranty work on Trane. If your not sure call their 1-800 number and ask them to recommend someone in your area.
Now, if they recommend only replacing the motor I would ABSOLUTELY make them show you the blower running after they replace the motor. So you can see for yourself that the blower isn’t out of balance. I’ve known way to many lazy mechanics that would just replace the motor, because replacing the whole cage is a royal PITA.
Thank you. It’s a new construction and the builder seems to generally pick really good subs, and I’m pretty sure whoever installed it did the entire house, so they should be familiar with it. I’ll give them a call.
Edit: Update to this. I cut the circuit breaker and opened the unit and something was clearly wrong with the blower motor. Mountings and bushings etc all looked fine, but rotating the blower manually was rocky. It seems like a bad bearing or something but I’m no expert. The tech came out and confirmed in about 15 minutes the blower motor needs warranty replacement. Unit is less than 8 months old, he said it’s rare but he’s seen it before. I kind of want to do a teardown but not enough to buy it. Tech said it was OK to run, and I did that up until yesterday when it sounded so bad I was afraid it was going to grenade the whole box and stopped using AC. Temps close to 100F so hopefully he gets to it soon. I’ll be sure to have him run it before he leaves. Thanks again.
IT
Scripting menial tasks isn’t that hard. You can learn basic shit pretty easy. It’s a nice little dopamine hit when you get even something small that works. Make your computer work for you, not against you.
Also, Excel. If you have to use Excel at all in your job, learn the basics of formulas, formatting, and tables. It will take you maybe a day, and your excel shit will look 100x nicer, and work 100x better than whatever the fuck you are doing now.
I found out last year there’s an entire Microsoft Excel World Championship and my mind was blown.
