tallyrich · Network Engineer Senior · ✭✭✭✭✭

We've all heard stories - good and bad - about certifications. Your's was interesting. The one I like to repeat: I was working for a state agency, won't say what agency or the state, let's just say there's sunshine involved. We had 12 "area offices" located around the state. The IT guy at one of the other offices had…

I do think this game would sell on the Thwack store - I don't know how much it would get played, but it certainly would appear at a lot of desks for decoration.

There is one of the "root" issues. For years things were built and published with the expectation that the "network" or the "perimeter" would provide security. That hasn't been the actual case for a long time, but things are still being built that way, people are still thinking that way and the "bad guys" are still smiling.

Good information and reminders. It's so important (and difficult) to keep bias out of our decisions, but when we are made aware of these attitudes we stand a better chance of making the best decisions.

Very good, security is such a forefront and yet this big area gets neglected so often.

Pretty much any area of life can be a learning experience. It's critical that we look beyond the events of the moment and see how it relates to other matters. For example it wasn't that long ago that "kids" were being criticized for playing video games - all the time. (not defending unlimited game time - kids need balance…

Very well written and interesting.

Traffic information in NetPath would be awesome - it would be great to see speed changes, jitter, loss, etc.

Hmm, you weren't lyin' about #2 being the main goal - look at the amount of content devoted to food. Very interesting article and sounds like a really good time. Thanks for sharing.

While I'm quite disappointed that I didn't win the Dr. Who stuff I have to say congratulations to the winners - Enjoy!! trf​ ahoover ​magicpercy​

I agree that a test version should be made available. A long eval doesn't address the issues that a test environment would. In standard software development there is always a "train." At one job they called it Dev - Model - Testing - Production The application is built in Dev - a limited environment for building purposes -…

Thanks for the updates. I appreciate the continuous improvements.

There was good information in this, in an area I don't touch a lot.

I've seen both. Personally I think the best compromise is to have specialists in various areas, but everyone is on a team and interacts. That's pretty rare. I'm fortunate to be working in a great team environment at the moment - however our leadership still believes that everyone should be able to do everything - servers,…

Just this morning I found a really, really compelling reason for having test licensing. One of my customers is using a different monitoring solution for their Extreme switches - you can infer what tool they are using. On Friday of last week I upgraded to the newest version. Immediately I noticed that it was faster and…

This was very interesting, especially how vocal people were on their picks.

To reward we must measure. This is true in all aspects work, home, government, etc. There are so many areas that just run on "autopilot" and aren't scrutinized as they should be. We should always have intended destinations in mind with any project, process or plan. Along with the destination there should be checkpoints or…

A new mission and new childish remarks - I'm sooo glad it's not just me.

Nice analogies for IT, but also for life in general. So often we just "go with the flow" and aren't proactive in what happens with our life. Things get so busy that it is often the easy route.

Pro has a lot of uses, depending upon who you are talking with. For me one of the biggest elements is the customer service aspect. There are a lot of people working in IT that enjoy the art but don't deal with people very well. That's not a pro in my book, that is a person that gets paid for his hobby. A pro knows that the…

Everyone believes that they are a great communicator because they understand what they are trying to say. That is not the standard. To be a great communicator you have to be able to reach your audience - no matter who, what skill level, etc.

Flowcharting is somewhat of a lost art to many. Personally, I'm pretty organized and like planning things out. Although I don't often use an actual flowchart, I do follow the principles. Great example.

Train, Tools and Tactics. (Sorry, had to illiterate) Training often gets neglected because staff is always learning by doing. I've always come out of training with a better understanding of the products studied and a renewed excitement to use that product. Tools are important in every job and the quality of the tool…

Nice I've got to find the set.

Congrats jokerfest and pcollins07​

Me too. wabbott​ will take care of us and get it straightened out.

I tend to trust most people until they give me a reason to not trust them. I like the example of a vase as once trust is broken it is very difficult for me to trust that person again. I have learned to be more trusting, but careful. If mistrust is your go to then (at least from my perspective) you are always "on guard." I…

The old phrase that a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link is so true in IT. Very few organizations sufficiently monitor what happens at the workstation - not only the weakest link, but often the root of many problems.

ThwackCamp is not unique in that it is normal for SolarWinds culture. It is unique, of course, in the sense that mainstream IT has very few community environments - and almost none with the participation, input and dare I say fellowship of Thwack.

Congrats pattic​