It is curious to tell people I was in an I.T. Role for many years and there first question is "So, you are good with computers." This is rather an insulting comment as it detracts from the skill sets. I wasn't a computer technician but somewhere down the road all computer skill sets are lumped in with IT.

Computers are information tools, so while I am good with them that is like saying to an electrician "So, you are good with a meter," to a plumber "So, you are good with a wrench," or to a builder "So, you are good with a hammer." In my many years at the Depot, people aren't asking me about how to use the tool but how to complete the project and, spite my training, more than a few times I've had to turn the question over to an expert in that field.

While I have lots of experience repairing them, troubleshooting them, and using them in a wide range of activities, it all boils down to the information. I work with the business process or client goals and create solutions to reduce redundancy and improve accuracy of information. Even if the end goal is to improve application performance I take into account how the system processes information. My results are not because I am "good with a tool" but because "I am good with information."
Zachary Johnson "Zaclicalicious" Thirsty - 10 years, 8 months, 11 days ago

My friends shouldn't be allowed on the Internet... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnN-8euE5yA&feature=youtu.be

Thanks guys... I think...
Zachary Johnson "Zaclicalicious" Thirsty - 11 years, 7 months, 7 days ago

So, the past 8 years now, all I wanted was college. I grew up poor and my parents always tried to forge their own way in this world and it was expected of many of us to help with the family business. It caused a lot of snags in trying to get into college. I left the family business in 2009 and started college in 2012. This has been my excuse for EVERYTHING for the past couple years. Now, I have to give up college to find a second job and a new place to stay... and here I was thinking my mom would be so proud of me.
Zachary Johnson "Zaclicalicious" Thirsty - 11 years, 7 months, 19 days ago

I return!

So, it is computer maintenance time. I do most of my major work about 4 times a year. I take time to get up-to-date on software and enhance my understanding of basic processes. I am not done but I have a LOT of homework left to do. So, as I stretch and get woken up to tackle it, I figured I'd post here.

So, last night I ran a defrag on my OS hard-drive (C drive) from safe mode. In this, I was pushing files that were most used to the edge of the disc. And 17 hours later I moved from around 18% fragmentation to about 9.5%. Now, I am unhappy with the amount of fragmentation but I am happy with the other part (see attached rant).

So, any suggestions on new boot discs that are out there that will help me unlock the disc to defrag? My current ones don't seem to work in the new systems.


****RANT****
Like a person, a computer reads/writes information like a book. Left to right, top to bottom or if you manga readers out there rather, in order. But since the information is stored digitally instead of physically the data isn't static. It is written, rewritten, and written some more. However, since computers know that they have a preset amount of space for them to write their story, and they can not simply add pages they use all the space they can get. Now, this can lead to fragmentation. Now, without straying too much, a computer can sort this information because of index files, but it takes time. So, this rant would be considered fragmented. The purpose of defragmenting a disk is so that the computer doesn't have to flip through so many pages and look at so much stuff before it finds what it is being sought.

Now, since you always read the first page of a book first, so does a computer. So, in this book of short stories, I put the one you read most often in the front and the ones read least often in the back.

For those who want a visual of what this looks like

Page one 1 2 3 4 is data names.
11111222222333333444444
Page one when 1 and 3 update get updated.
11100222222330333444444113
Now we install 5
111552222223353334444441135555
Now, you used 2 to save a file
11155222222335333444444113555522
Now, imagine if I was to tell you to find me 5, it is much harder here and we are talking 4 bytes of data, not even a kilobyte and we are dealing with data staggering into terabytes. Imagine that but we are using 1,000,000,000,000 places. A TRILLION PLACES! It boggles the mind a bit to think you could be asked to find that 5 among a trillion locations, I'd rather find the needle.

I have 98,700,000,000 places that are not in an optimal order (9.87%)

Now, this isn't to say that one should defrag their discs constantly. The data is more important than the speed of the data and frequent defragging will make the ability to recover lost data impossible. Which is a rant for another time.
*****End rant*****
Zachary Johnson "Zaclicalicious" Thirsty - 11 years, 9 months, 3 days ago

So, here is a fucked up thought.

I became a "sales specialist" officially 4 months ago. When I started working for this company, a sales specialist would make an average of $15/hr starting out. When I was told I am to be the new sales specialist (making $10.01 at the time) I was also told I would not even see a penny raise for taking on this higher value higher stress job. So, despite the fact that I was achieving sales more than two times the year before and crushing my plans, my efforts would be for not. This changed shortly after I made a life-time customer who spent over 4 million dollars and is expecting to spend no less than 750,000 a year that specifically relates to us. Keep in mind 750,000 is more money than we see in 10 weeks and 4 million is more than we make in 2.5 years; they finally gave me a raise and a finders fee. Yup, I received $50 and am now making $10.76/hr.

If this was another website I'd end it with FML.
Zachary Johnson "Zaclicalicious" Thirsty - 11 years, 9 months, 5 days ago