The even randomer thread

[SwampD]

3 hours ago, Tondas said:

Anyone try these off-ice skates?  Maybe they've been around for a while, but  I haven't seen the rocking feature on other "rollerblade" type skates.  Looks like they've developed a real "on ice" motion.  Check the "How it Works" tab.  

https://www.marsblade.com/off-ice

Cool. Wonder if you can adjust the rocker or you just get what you get.

[Taro T]

Was in a meeting that got Zoom bombed.

The organizers had taken precautions earlier this week to prevent it from happening but as this was a recurring meeting that had been set up a few weeks back, apparently (well, obviously) nobody noticed that they needed to reset the meeting notice and details.

Won't get into the details of what we were zoom bombed with, but let's just say there are some sick mofo's out there.  And now also understand how people get as enraged at merely hearing about certain depravities as they do.

[spndnchz]

3 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Was in a meeting that got Zoom bombed.

The organizers had taken precautions earlier this week to prevent it from happening but as this was a recurring meeting that had been set up a few weeks back, apparently (well, obviously) nobody noticed that they needed to reset the meeting notice and details.

Won't get into the details of what we were zoom bombed with, but let's just say there are some sick mofo's out there.  And now also understand how people get as enraged at merely hearing about certain depravities as they do.

We’re only allowed Skype for business. I can only imagine someone at home with nothing to with a dozen friends that want to ‘enjoy’ themselves.

[Taro T]

31 minutes ago, spndnchz said:

We’re only allowed Skype for business. I can only imagine someone at home with nothing to with a dozen friends that want to ‘enjoy’ themselves.

This goes waaaaaaayyyy beyond some kids pranking a meeting.  You're right, that that is the likely source of the zoom bomb.  But the content was way beyond that.

Nobody died and nobody depicted was physically injured for life (probably, not positive that's accurate) but for the people that did that, hanging really is far too kind a demise.

 

[Eleven]

4 minutes ago, Taro T said:

This goes waaaaaaayyyy beyond some kids pranking a meeting.  You're right, that that is the likely source of the zoom bomb.  But the content was way beyond that.

Nobody died and nobody depicted was physically injured for life (probably, not positive that's accurate) but for the people that did that, hanging really is far too kind a demise.

 

If we weren't begging to know what happened after your first post, we certainly are now.

[Taro T]

Just now, Eleven said:

If we weren't begging to know what happened after your first post, we certainly are now.

You don't want to know.  Some things once seen can never be unseen.

And that is now the 2nd truly disturbing thing I've seen since this crisis began.  (The other dealt with animal abuse.)  Really hoping the "things come in 3's" isn't the case with this because regardless of whatever that 3rd thing would be, am positive it is better to just have it in the imagination and not on the retinas.

[SwampD]

3 minutes ago, Taro T said:

You don't want to know.  Some things once seen can never be unseen.

And that is now the 2nd truly disturbing thing I've seen since this crisis began.  (The other dealt with animal abuse.)  Really hoping the "things come in 3's" isn't the case with this because regardless of whatever that 3rd thing would be, am positive it is better to just have it in the imagination and not on the retinas.

And both things happened on a Zoom conference?

[Taro T]

Just now, SwampD said:

And both things happened on a Zoom conference?

Nope.  The 1st was actually posted on a message board.

This, was on zoom.

A few tips for zoom:

ALWAYS require passwords. 

ALWAYS change meeting IDs.

Require registration (if applicable) and use waiting rooms.

DO NOT let participants share their screen without explicit host authorization.

Those are all settings configurable when the meeting is set up.

Also, realize that just because you don't authorize screen capture, doesn't mean somebody else isn't capturing the screen.

[SwampD]

11 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Nope.  The 1st was actually posted on a message board.

This, was on zoom.

A few tips for zoom:

ALWAYS require passwords. 

ALWAYS change meeting IDs.

Require registration (if applicable) and use waiting rooms.

DO NOT let participants share their screen without explicit host authorization.

Those are all settings configurable when the meeting is set up.

Also, realize that just because you don't authorize screen capture, doesn't mean somebody else isn't capturing the screen.

Cool. I just passed this along to my brother who uses it a lot. He was grateful for the info.

[Taro T]

26 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Cool. I just passed this along to my brother who uses it a lot. He was grateful for the info.

One other thing to do for meetings that have a set invitee list is for the to host "lock" the meeting once all the expected invitees have entered the meeting.  That will prevent ANYONE else from entering the meeting while it is ongoing/locked.  (Even if the host leaves, which is an option - the host can leave and let somebody else run the meeting, they won't be able to get back into the meeting.)

[#freejame]

4 hours ago, Taro T said:

This goes waaaaaaayyyy beyond some kids pranking a meeting.  You're right, that that is the likely source of the zoom bomb.  But the content was way beyond that.

Nobody died and nobody depicted was physically injured for life (probably, not positive that's accurate) but for the people that did that, hanging really is far too kind a demise.

 

Sounds to me mike you caught yourself a bit of the ol’ pain Olympics videos. Not for the faint of heart and pretty *****. To your later posts, I’m a bit of a privacy wonk, but this all is very, very simple things that they should have been doing out of common sense. The person responsible for setting up the chat bears some of the blame for their negligence. 

[shrader]

Some teenage kid getting a driving lesson just did a little accidental off-roading. It takes a lot of talent to run over a fire hydrant on the right side of the road with you front driver side tire. Thank god no one was on that sidewalk, which just happens to be the most walked area in the neighborhood. 

[shrader]

@New Scotland (NS), I saw a guy at the hardware store wearing a Mooseheads shirt. Those have to be pretty rare around here. 

[Taro T]

21 hours ago, #freejame said:

Sounds to me mike you caught yourself a bit of the ol’ pain Olympics videos. Not for the faint of heart and pretty *****. To your later posts, I’m a bit of a privacy wonk, but this all is very, very simple things that they should have been doing out of common sense. The person responsible for setting up the chat bears some of the blame for their negligence. 

No.  Not pain Olympics (hadn't heard that term before, but quite certain this isn't what it was).

The person that set up the meeting did feel very bad about this and is in the process of personally apologizing to each person that was in the meeting.  Which IMHO is quite impressively taking ownership of the problem.  Something that is increasingly rare in our society / world.

[Wyldnwoody44]

I was at Wal mart earlier in Cheektowaga, I needed molasses for a recipe, the place is terrible and busy (also there is A drive up Covid testing area in the front, that was a madhouse) 

I see no molasses on the shelf, empty where the price tag says it should be, ok, I go up to the employee/associate and ask if there are any left in the back.... She looks at me blankly, and in nice English say "I can't speak English" 

I get that not everyone will be a scholar, or have even the best English, but if you're employed by a big store such as Wal mart and have an employee working on the floor, don't you think they would speak English?? 

This isn't the poor girl's fault, she needs a Job, but it just caught me way off guard. 

[Eleven]

57 minutes ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I was at Wal mart earlier in Cheektowaga, I needed molasses for a recipe, the place is terrible and busy (also there is A drive up Covid testing area in the front, that was a madhouse) 

I see no molasses on the shelf, empty where the price tag says it should be, ok, I go up to the employee/associate and ask if there are any left in the back.... She looks at me blankly, and in nice English say "I can't speak English" 

I get that not everyone will be a scholar, or have even the best English, but if you're employed by a big store such as Wal mart and have an employee working on the floor, don't you think they would speak English?? 

This isn't the poor girl's fault, she needs a Job, but it just caught me way off guard. 

Wall-Mart gets what it pays for.  Agreed that it isn't the girl's fault.  But people with more appropriate language abilities are not going to settle for how Wall-Mart treats and pays its employees if they can find better jobs.

[Indabuff]

On 4/17/2020 at 5:34 PM, #freejame said:

Sounds to me mike you caught yourself a bit of the ol’ pain Olympics videos. 

Sweet baby Jesus.  My Google search of this lasted about four seconds.

[Wyldnwoody44]

1 hour ago, Eleven said:

Wall-Mart gets what it pays for.  Agreed that it isn't the girl's fault.  But people with more appropriate language abilities are not going to settle for how Wall-Mart treats and pays its employees if they can find better jobs.

I know when I treat patient that work there, a doctor note doesn't do anything for them, they get "points" regardless of the cause for missing time, I always found that strange. 

I'm unfamiliar with how they are to employees otherwise. 

[ubkev]

2 hours ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I know when I treat patient that work there, a doctor note doesn't do anything for them, they get "points" regardless of the cause for missing time, I always found that strange. 

I'm unfamiliar with how they are to employees otherwise. 

My employer has a "no fault attendance policy" you can miss work for a medical procedure or because you wanted to go golfing. Still 1 point. 10 points in 12 months is the limit. So you get 9 call-ins and between 160 and 240 hours of PTO per year. 

I don't know if that's good or bad. But it seems to be an industry standard in my line of work. 

[LTS]

10 hours ago, ubkev said:

My employer has a "no fault attendance policy" you can miss work for a medical procedure or because you wanted to go golfing. Still 1 point. 10 points in 12 months is the limit. So you get 9 call-ins and between 160 and 240 hours of PTO per year. 

I don't know if that's good or bad. But it seems to be an industry standard in my line of work. 

It simplifies things. For example, we have sick days. They are not accrued. You don't use them, you lose them. In theory only the sick take them. Of course those who don't generate up to 7 days more work than those who do (all things being equal). There is no reward for not using them, despite the fact that those who don't benefit the company more. So, in order to keep people from using them you then generate a policy that says, the company has a right to request medical documentation should you be sick more than X days in a row, etc.

So, why bother with that.  You got with blank PTO.  Of course then the question is, is it accrued or not and can you carry it over?  All of that accounting that weighs on the books, etc. 

In the end.. it's overhead. It makes far more sense to just judge people on their output and not worry if or when they are at work (with certain guidelines of course). Those who are more efficient would be able to have more time off than those who are not.  In school, if you can do A level work in half the time as someone else then you effectively have more free time. 

Ahh well, it's all theory.

[Weave]

11 minutes ago, LTS said:

It simplifies things. For example, we have sick days. They are not accrued. You don't use them, you lose them. In theory only the sick take them. Of course those who don't generate up to 7 days more work than those who do (all things being equal). There is no reward for not using them, despite the fact that those who don't benefit the company more. So, in order to keep people from using them you then generate a policy that says, the company has a right to request medical documentation should you be sick more than X days in a row, etc.

So, why bother with that.  You got with blank PTO.  Of course then the question is, is it accrued or not and can you carry it over?  All of that accounting that weighs on the books, etc. 

In the end.. it's overhead. It makes far more sense to just judge people on their output and not worry if or when they are at work (with certain guidelines of course). Those who are more efficient would be able to have more time off than those who are not.  In school, if you can do A level work in half the time as someone else then you effectively have more free time. 

Ahh well, it's all theory.

This system doesn't work in alot of manufacturing type positions where X output per day/hour/whatever is required.  You can be 20% more efficient than the next guy, but if you aren't there on Tuesday, Operations has to adjust to make that up. 

It sucks that most places enact policies to manage it that effectively de-incentivizes the use of sick time.

[ubkev]

16 minutes ago, LTS said:

It simplifies things. For example, we have sick days. They are not accrued. You don't use them, you lose them. In theory only the sick take them. Of course those who don't generate up to 7 days more work than those who do (all things being equal). There is no reward for not using them, despite the fact that those who don't benefit the company more. So, in order to keep people from using them you then generate a policy that says, the company has a right to request medical documentation should you be sick more than X days in a row, etc.

So, why bother with that.  You got with blank PTO.  Of course then the question is, is it accrued or not and can you carry it over?  All of that accounting that weighs on the books, etc. 

In the end.. it's overhead. It makes far more sense to just judge people on their output and not worry if or when they are at work (with certain guidelines of course). Those who are more efficient would be able to have more time off than those who are not.  In school, if you can do A level work in half the time as someone else then you effectively have more free time. 

Ahh well, it's all theory.

I like your theory in theory. I am in a position that I don't get points. But as for the people under me, I damn sure know who I'd fight to keep if they accumulated too many points and who I wouldn't. 

[ubkev]

8 minutes ago, Weave said:

This system doesn't work in alot of manufacturing type positions where X output per day/hour/whatever is required.  You can be 20% more efficient than the next guy, but if you aren't there on Tuesday, Operations has to adjust to make that up. 

It sucks that most places enact policies to manage it that effectively de-incentivizes the use of sick time.

Ain't that the truth. And I am "operations". Adjusting to fix everything or at least keep it running.

[LTS]

On 4/19/2020 at 10:27 AM, Weave said:

This system doesn't work in alot of manufacturing type positions where X output per day/hour/whatever is required.  You can be 20% more efficient than the next guy, but if you aren't there on Tuesday, Operations has to adjust to make that up. 

It sucks that most places enact policies to manage it that effectively de-incentivizes the use of sick time.

Great point. It really doesn't apply to anyone paid hourly really.

[Weave]

6 minutes ago, LTS said:

Great point. It really doesn't apply to anyone paid hourly really.

More than just hourly employees.  Manufacturing Engineers tied to day to day operations come to mind as well.