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<title>RSS Feed</title><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/index.html</link><description>News&#x21;</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2011 Kevin W. Eaches</dc:rights><dc:date>2011-11-18T12:02:25-05:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:21:41 -0500</lastBuildDate><item><title>Telephonic moronic.</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-11-18T12:02:25-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/be5acdf5785f0a18c91a3df614a53a3c-17.html#unique-entry-id-17</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/be5acdf5785f0a18c91a3df614a53a3c-17.html#unique-entry-id-17</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Although I can see this dude sitting right in front of me, I'm calling him on the phone anyway! 


In fact, I'm so freaking cool and busy, I'm even putting him on speaker so I can keep my hands free and be more productive!"


...I can hear both you and the guy on the other end normally, but I can also hear the amplified response a few milliseconds later via your freaking speaker-phone.  

...This is just freaking AWESOME as now it sounds like four people are echoing back and forth, a few seconds out of sync. 


...To make matters worse, he actually seems annoyed when I tell him "This is f-ing stupid", hang up, and walk over to where he is so we can speak normally. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>RIP Steve Jobs</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-10-05T20:12:49-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/014ee766ee185981f2b01d59fe251629-16.html#unique-entry-id-16</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/014ee766ee185981f2b01d59fe251629-16.html#unique-entry-id-16</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Rest in peace, Steve Jobs.


You made a difference.


What more could anyone want?
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Half-assed epiphany</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-10-03T19:57:23-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/dd0cfd3cd04648e990fc689d451bafed-15.html#unique-entry-id-15</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/dd0cfd3cd04648e990fc689d451bafed-15.html#unique-entry-id-15</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[We're discussing how a few of the older, stand alone, applications need work.


It's mentioned that things were implemented by our predecessors "half-assed" and they'll probably just have someone half-ass them again, instead of doing it right, to save some money.


...If you half-ass something twice, do the two half-assed jobs add up to a complete, no longer half-assed solution?


Or is it now a completely and totally assed-up?


Just wanted to throw that out there...
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Spy vs. Why</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-10-03T19:27:41-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/1e41e5bd0c54efb8bcb102439699ba0b-14.html#unique-entry-id-14</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/1e41e5bd0c54efb8bcb102439699ba0b-14.html#unique-entry-id-14</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[As I mentioned earlier, my company is in the process of changing ownership, and everyone (well, the REAL workers, not the execs who get a nice payout even if they sucked at their jobs)  is understandably paranoid.


...The monitoring systems we have in place are more to protect the company from getting our asses sued off because you sent someone&rsquo;s personal data, or confidential company information, out insecurely.


We block certain sites in order to protect us from a virus wreaking havoc on our systems because you got bored, or actually believed that Prince Nazeem in Nigeria really does need your help in getting his $100,100,000 out of the country.


...Now I can&rsquo;t speak for everyone &mdash; there very well may be some perv out there abusing his IT access privileges, digging through your browser history or emails, because he&rsquo;s got the hots for you. 


...Even if it&rsquo;s not, when you do, those policies for your work machine most likely apply to yours now as well, as you&rsquo;re now on our network.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>HTML email - Just plain evil.</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-09-30T10:39:59-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/71f96dd487828c0986ccdc99bd64ca0b-13.html#unique-entry-id-13</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/71f96dd487828c0986ccdc99bd64ca0b-13.html#unique-entry-id-13</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Now, I&rsquo;m not talking the &ldquo;hidden tracking pixel&rdquo; trick, or the potential to slip in an external link to other bad things out there on the big, nasty, Internet (but this in certainly evil indeed).


...I actually received an email from someone awhile back that had a line of animated dancing freakin' leprechauns across the bottom.


...What concerns me most is that someone actually took the time to hunt down an animated GIF of a dancing leprechaun.


...If we're having an office party, I'll get the hint if you title the message "Office Party this Friday". 


...At least the old, annoying Office assistant paperclip character was a misguided (and failed) attempt to try to get people to use the integrated help features.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The most evil invention.. EVER.</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-09-30T10:25:10-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/b7b8ab610b7bbbd09c12786b0f03237d-11.html#unique-entry-id-11</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/b7b8ab610b7bbbd09c12786b0f03237d-11.html#unique-entry-id-11</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Its convenience and ease of use practically begs those less geeky to ring us up and accuse us of messing with their login accounts every morning vice taking the time to check the damned Caps Lock key.


...Nay, we choose to spend 90% of our lives interacting with machines basically due to the fact that they DO NOT ask stupid questions (There are exceptions - I&rsquo;m looking at you Windows). 


...Most of us took that initial &ldquo;phone support gig from hell&rdquo; as an &ldquo;in&rdquo; to get our careers started and we all planned on moving on up and &ldquo;Getting the hell off the phone&rdquo;.


...However, through a recent series of unfortunate and unforeseen events, and also thanks another particularly evil thing called an H1B visa, I have managed to once again become a slave to this device from Hell.


...I am cranky, getting older and lazier by the day, and I&rsquo;m the only person left that you can call for support that speaks fluent English.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>No&#x2c; it&#x2019;s not YOUR computer.</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-09-30T09:50:06-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/7788d3704b7a6c500ff7f5fe4682bb48-10.html#unique-entry-id-10</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/7788d3704b7a6c500ff7f5fe4682bb48-10.html#unique-entry-id-10</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[If there&rsquo;s something you need, just have your manager request it , and as long as it's an approved application, I&rsquo;ll take care of it right away.  

...Its to protect us from someone installing something that could cause problems with their machine; prevent them from maybe catching a virus or installing a trojan &mdash; all kinds of good reasons. 

...&ldquo;Yeah, I don&rsquo;t know where you worked last, but here, I can pretty much guarantee that&rsquo;s not gonna happen. 

...One - you can&rsquo;t go sending those tacky emails around the business, and two - I can tell ya there&rsquo;s absolutely no way in hell you&rsquo;re going to get a peer to peer  file sharing app installed. 

...Giving someone shit about not letting you break your machine isn&rsquo;t going to make you any friends in the IT staff.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>IT Marketing - Buzzword Bingo</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-09-29T23:29:32-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/3defcbfed30a570985600d1eaeca5323-9.html#unique-entry-id-9</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/3defcbfed30a570985600d1eaeca5323-9.html#unique-entry-id-9</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[At any given meeting that I attend (against my will), I can usually complete this card.


...Listen to yourself during a typical conversation at work tomorrow.


If you find yourself routinely using any of these in a sentence, you are a complete tool and it may already be too late for you.


...If you don&rsquo;t &ldquo;get&rdquo; it, you&rsquo;re too far gone already.


Best bet is to go &ldquo;off the grid&rdquo; and detox in your Unabomber-style shack in the woods.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Geek Cred - You have to earn it.</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-09-29T22:56:42-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/8b6e2ef78670359a37a2887c5b5fd698-8.html#unique-entry-id-8</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/8b6e2ef78670359a37a2887c5b5fd698-8.html#unique-entry-id-8</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I needed a project to get my mind off the whoe work thing, so I&rsquo;ve been build a tube amp to hook up to my PC for better audio.


...I'm miffed at all these kids who seem to believe they have earned their geek card jsut  because they can Google a few lines of code, 


...In my day (Here I go, sounding like my father- "When I was your age we walked to school, carrying coal that we used to heat the schoolhouse,barefoot, in winter, uphill - both ways...." ) you earned your nerd skills the REAL way.


...The only reason I even HAD a television in my room was because it was the display for the Commodore VIC-20 that I spent a solid year begging my parents for.


...I ran the output of our cable box in the living room through a splitter into this thing and I could gat a perfectly viewable, if fuzzy,  image on the little set in my &nbsp;room. 
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Passwordica Erotica Stupidica</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-09-29T22:29:52-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/2137a5ef052aec77a12e25a85c8fb199-7.html#unique-entry-id-7</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/2137a5ef052aec77a12e25a85c8fb199-7.html#unique-entry-id-7</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[In performing some basic functions of my job, I routinely have to ask users to verify their login credentials.


Any help desk person who&rsquo;s been in the business for awhile has probably come across a few doozies.


I believe you can tell a lot about a person by the passwords they choose and I always know something good is coming when I ask someone to provide their password and I get the &ldquo;uncomfortable silent pause&rdquo;.


I had this happen yet again today, so I&rsquo;ve decided to post some of the more amusing examples I&rsquo;ve come across over the years. 


...Yes, we both know that, as an admin, I could just reset their password from my end.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>IT Guy&#x27;s Life - Pr0N&#x21;</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-09-28T22:35:01-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/0179ff7be19c55e0535b447e3ca2d9b1-6.html#unique-entry-id-6</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/0179ff7be19c55e0535b447e3ca2d9b1-6.html#unique-entry-id-6</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[And despite what those guys at Best Buy have led you to believe, most of us aren&rsquo;t interested in finding out what a deviant freak you are. 


...But for now, just realize that forevermore I have to pretend I never saw those bukake pics you oh so cleverly &ldquo;hid&rdquo; in that folder labeled  &ldquo;Marketing Research 2010&rdquo; and have to act like we don&rsquo;t know you&rsquo;re one twisted puppy. 


...She had a folder full of pics of her with another chick and some dude during have what must have been an AWESOME evening.  


...&ldquo;Well the drive is pretty much thrashed, but I can get most of your files off of it, install the OS on a new one, and transfer everything over.&rdquo;       


...So, at that point,  I was the only guy in the office to know one of his kids was gay. 
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>IT Guy&#x27;s Life - How to Vacation</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><category>Work</category><dc:date>2011-09-28T22:03:39-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/4b747c3254a692d7c603d8557ec00f5c-5.html#unique-entry-id-5</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/4b747c3254a692d7c603d8557ec00f5c-5.html#unique-entry-id-5</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[He decides the beach is a great place to fire off a list of tasks that he feels I need the manage while he's away. 

...I can visualize him, checklist in hand, having the kids verify the daily vacation task list and telling them to submit request forms for any activites not currently scheduled.


...Do you want to look back on your life and think "Damn, I'm sure glad I kept up on those TPS reports." or 


...I did what I wanted to do, saw what I wanted to see, and had a good time doing it." 


...This lesson was fully reinforced by my father-in-law who, after years of working his *** off, promptly had a heart attack and died the freakin' day after he finally retired.&nbsp; 
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Life with a Geek... How to Earn a Geek&#x27;s Respect.&#xa;</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><category>Work</category><dc:date>2011-09-28T21:26:10-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/28abb26c0aef03098f0605c8c563eb95-4.html#unique-entry-id-4</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/28abb26c0aef03098f0605c8c563eb95-4.html#unique-entry-id-4</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[It is very easy to earn the respect of your local &ldquo;computer guys&rdquo; - just admit and respect that fact that, in this one particular area, (Technologuy : PC&rsquo;s, gadgets, phones, etc.) we&nbsp;DO&nbsp;know more than you.


...I&rsquo;ll readily admit that I know jack about corporate law, managing the financials of a million dollar company, marketing, and all that other&nbsp; business-type stuff that I don&rsquo;t really care (or want to care) about.


...While I can balance my checkbook, and make a pretty Excel sheet and all that other jazz, it doesn&rsquo;t mean I&rsquo;m going to come across with an attitude like I have even the slightest clue about how to do&nbsp;your&nbsp;job.


...Therefore, just because you have a Dell Inferioron at home that you&rsquo;ve managed to install Office on all by yourself and you know to periodically run Windows update, that does not mean you're even remotely qualified to offer your opinion on how I should maintain and manage your machine at work (correction - MY machine that you&rsquo;re borrowing).


...If you REALLY want to get on our good side, admit it when we ask you if you did something to hose your machine.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Sold&#x21;</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><category>Work</category><dc:date>2011-09-28T20:44:42-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/cda7e9b893064ac4699b7a245200d547-3.html#unique-entry-id-3</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/cda7e9b893064ac4699b7a245200d547-3.html#unique-entry-id-3</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Part of the process involved me interviewing FOR MY OWN JOB with five people.


Three barely spoke intelligible English, one  did not look old enough to drink, and one seemed she was  in WAAAAY over her head.


...They have promised to announce their decisions on who they plan on keeping, and who gets &ldquo;let go&rdquo; in the next few weeks.


...I see the potential excitement of getting to rework some things and there is the benefit of some actual


...Yet there is also the potential nightmare of staying and watching things fall or be torn apart.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Modern Problems..</title><dc:creator>kwe@trypluggingitin.com</dc:creator><dc:subject>Try Plugging It In</dc:subject><dc:date>2011-08-27T12:11:06-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/c81dbe04c5a10c0bcb8f757054f8cb64-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.trypluggingitin.com/files/c81dbe04c5a10c0bcb8f757054f8cb64-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[So, once again Apple has decided what&rsquo;s best for us.


As a result, I&rsquo;ve had to relocate to a new host and rework my site from scratch.


I built the old one in iWeb, like a noob, and am now paying for it.


I&rsquo;ve moved to yet another brain-dead-simple tool as I haven&rsquo;t gotten any less lazy.


Excuse the mess as I get back up and running.
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