Just bought 20

[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by ratflinger

The company (Philips) I just retired from moved to Salesforce a couple of years ago. What a POS, so I assume you didn't implement it for them.

Salesforce is only as good as the asshats who implement it. There are a LOT of non-talented people in this ecosystem building solutions for clients. Case in point the project I'm currently on, and now leaving by proxy because I gave my notice at my employer. WORST SCOPED project ever, and I thought Panasonic was bad.

[DAB]

for us primitive type, what is Salesforce? is it like Space Force, but with credit cards?

never heard of it outside your mentions.

[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by DAB

for us primitive type, what is Salesforce? is it like Space Force, but with credit cards?

never heard of it outside your mentions.

Salesforce is the 800# gorilla in the cloud software space for extremely large clients. Mostly like Fortune 500 companies. It's expensive, but it's a platform that allows you to build custom solutions for clients, around starting points, like CRM, or Financial Services, or CPQ. There are nearly 77k certified professionals worldwide currently.

[MadInNc]

Originally Posted by datawiz

More machines means more heat in the office. I went from what you suggested, to what I have many years ago and it's worked out great. All of those retired machines now live on my moster as fully working VM's. I have working copies of my last 3 laptops in VMWare.

I routinely swap out the storage drives on a regular basis. Every time, I get bigger and bigger drives, and the fully functioning drives to be replaced go on a shelf. Capacity keeps getting larger and larger, and I don't really store much on the OS drive. I only need my programs on it, and it's imaged nightly via Acronis True Image.

I also use a shit ton of VM's, in particular the one I do all of my programming with. It's portable and frequently moves back and forth between the tower and the mobile workstation. If the computer fails for any reason, I'm perfectly capable of working from the laptop.

This is just a backup directory from 1 of the 9 drives. Clearly one drive is the OS drive, but I have a VMWare backups folder on the other 8 drives. I routinely back up my primary vm machines. In this screenshot, each copy of the highlighted backup is 500GB.

And yes, that 500 GB easily fits on my mobile workstation, because it has 3 hard drives all by itself.

I'll bet your internet connection is 1Mb/s DSL and your email is hosted by AOL

[the new me]

Originally Posted by datawiz

More machines means more heat in the office. I went from what you suggested, to what I have many years ago and it's worked out great. All of those retired machines now live on my moster as fully working VM's. I have working copies of my last 3 laptops in VMWare.

I routinely swap out the storage drives on a regular basis. Every time, I get bigger and bigger drives, and the fully functioning drives to be replaced go on a shelf. Capacity keeps getting larger and larger, and I don't really store much on the OS drive. I only need my programs on it, and it's imaged nightly via Acronis True Image.

I also use a shit ton of VM's, in particular the one I do all of my programming with. It's portable and frequently moves back and forth between the tower and the mobile workstation. If the computer fails for any reason, I'm perfectly capable of working from the laptop.

This is just a backup directory from 1 of the 9 drives. Clearly one drive is the OS drive, but I have a VMWare backups folder on the other 8 drives. I routinely back up my primary vm machines. In this screenshot, each copy of the highlighted backup is 500GB.

And yes, that 500 GB easily fits on my mobile workstation, because it has 3 hard drives all by itself.

Thanks for all the great info.

Is your host OS Windows 10? Or Server 2019? Or?

Is each VM assigned to one monitor or more than one monitor? Are your old laptop OS's still in use as VMs or are they purely archival?

And would you mind providing more info on your mobile workstation?


Part of my own strategy in addition to having redundant physical servers is that all of the "real" servers are virtual. It's such a hassle to set up the complicated environments that I need, that my plan is to eliminate obsolescence by using VM servers. For the day when the hardware needs to be replaced, it would seem that for the foreseeable future any Windows Server OS will support Server 2019 VMs, so all I have to do when getting new hardware is load the host OS, copy the exported VMs to the new machine and voila I'm back in business.

[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by the new me

Thanks for all the great info.

Is your host OS Windows 10? Or Server 2019? Or?

Is each VM assigned to one monitor or more than one monitor? Are your old laptop OS's still in use as VMs or are they purely archival?

And would you mind providing more info on your mobile workstation?


Part of my own strategy in addition to having redundant physical servers is that all of the "real" servers are virtual. It's such a hassle to set up the complicated environments that I need, that my plan is to eliminate obsolescence by using VM servers. For the day when the hardware needs to be replaced, it would seem that for the foreseeable future any Windows Server OS will support Server 2019 VMs, so all I have to do when getting new hardware is load the host OS, copy the exported VMs to the new machine and voila I'm back in business.

Windows 10 Pro. I have multiple Windows Server VM's on my equipment. I don't have to be a server to host a server. My notebook is a Xeon processor with 64GB of ERROR CORRECTING memory. My tower is a consumer processor with 128GB of NON error correcting memory. That was a mistake. In the next 12 months I'll likely gut and rebuild the tower with the latest and greatest, and likely 256GB+, all error correcting.

Already priced what I'd do, and when you factor in the 14k for the monitor/video card setup, the new investment in this box will be close to $40k for a single computer.

Again, this is not bragging rights. Yes, to lay people it seems so over the top, but to a true techie, and more specifically to ME, these types of investments have made my situation where I can command the amount of compensation I make. 40K on a computer is nothing compared to where I'm at now, and more importantly where I'm going in the next 15 years.

I share this crap because I get the same reaction to every single person who joins a zoom conference and sees this setup on camera. It's fascinating for the uninitiated, and makes for a great ice breaker....and interesting content for VBOT.

I'll reply about the mobile workstation more in a bit. Cocktail hour with the wife, and cooking dinner.

And yes, the old notebook clone VM's are still in use. Windows keeps moving forward, and those old programs won't run on Windows 10, but they DO run on their original operating systems, just fine on a VM. Hell, I have DOS, Linux, and a bunch of other VM's. Virtualization is the way of the future. Hence my gorilla in a tuxedo computer.

[DAB]

Originally Posted by datawiz

Salesforce is the 800# gorilla in the cloud software space for extremely large clients. Mostly like Fortune 500 companies. It's expensive, but it's a platform that allows you to build custom solutions for clients, around starting points, like CRM, or Financial Services, or CPQ. There are nearly 77k certified professionals worldwide currently.

solutions to what problems?
CRM?
CPQ?

what does it do? is this why my bill from Century Link always shows up on time in my inbox each month, and for the correct amount?

[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by DAB

solutions to what problems?
CRM?
CPQ?

what does it do? is this why my bill from Century Link always shows up on time in my inbox each month, and for the correct amount?

I was told there would be no acronyms.

[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by DAB

solutions to what problems?
CRM?
CPQ?

what does it do? is this why my bill from Century Link always shows up on time in my inbox each month, and for the correct amount?

On a different platform, with the identical paradigm to Salesforce, I built an information system that runs a $30 million concrete company. It performs the very first business task, down to the very last task, and makes people obsolete. 2022, they will have been a client of mine for 30 years. I perfect businesses through software. Nowadays, I perfect business through Salesforce software. Same concept, just different platform. There is no limit to what you can improve for a company on this platform.

BUT, give two different people a box of 64 crayons, and a blank piece of paper, you'll end up with vastly different pictures. Some will be masterpieces, and others will be stick figures.

[04 commemorative]

Do you control the world

[DAB]

Originally Posted by datawiz

On a different platform, with the identical paradigm to Salesforce, I built an information system that runs a $30 million concrete company. It performs the very first business task, down to the very last task, and makes people obsolete. 2022, they will have been a client of mine for 30 years. I perfect businesses through software. Nowadays, I perfect business through Salesforce software. Same concept, just different platform. There is no limit to what you can improve for a company on this platform.

BUT, give two different people a box of 64 crayons, and a blank piece of paper, you'll end up with vastly different pictures. Some will be masterpieces, and others will be stick figures.

so basically, this is the precursor to SkyNet.

I'll be back....

[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by MadInNc

I'll bet your internet connection is 1Mb/s DSL and your email is hosted by AOL

My internet bill is $300/mo. Pro-grade with fixed IP's.

[DAB]

i still don't understand what you do, but i'm glad you do it well and are paid well for doing it.

i'm going to raise butterflies and train them to fly in formation and spell out words. i'm patient.....

[DAB]

on a related note, don't spend all day at the office/computer working for money

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/ma...-linkedin-post

[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by the new me

Thanks for all the great info.

Is your host OS Windows 10? Or Server 2019? Or?

Is each VM assigned to one monitor or more than one monitor? Are your old laptop OS's still in use as VMs or are they purely archival?

And would you mind providing more info on your mobile workstation?


Part of my own strategy in addition to having redundant physical servers is that all of the "real" servers are virtual. It's such a hassle to set up the complicated environments that I need, that my plan is to eliminate obsolescence by using VM servers. For the day when the hardware needs to be replaced, it would seem that for the foreseeable future any Windows Server OS will support Server 2019 VMs, so all I have to do when getting new hardware is load the host OS, copy the exported VMs to the new machine and voila I'm back in business.

OK, I have time to answer each question individually, even though I've answered a few in prior responses.

1. Yes, the host is Windows 10 Pro on an 8 physical (16 virtual) core Intel chip. Tower is already over 4 years old and still is a beast.
2. Yes, when I run more than one VM, each gets its own monitor, and in some cases, I assign more than 1 monitor to a single VM. My programming language VM will oftentimes take 6 contiguous screens. Inside of that VM, I'll be running SQL Server managment Studio, Visual Studio, Google Postman, MuleSoft developer studio, Salesforce, Delphi, and Excel, all at the same time, hence the need to spread out.
3. I also remote desktop my laptop computer and a client's server most days, and each of those get a separate screen.
4. The mobile workstation is a Dell Precision Mobile Workstation, an M7720. The last one they sold with interchangeable batteries. I have 3 batteries and can go over 8 hours without charge. I bought it about 18 months ago, it has a 5 year bumper-to-bumper warranty, next day onsite warranty. As stated, it's the fastest Xeon processor they sold at the time, 64 GB of the fastest error correcting ram they sold then, the most powerful video card, 4k display, and 3 hard drives. Drives 1 and 2 are the highest class M.2 chip drives, both 1 TB, and the 3rd drive is a 2 TB SATA drive. I will be upgrading that drive soon for more capacity. Out of the box, this machine was VR ready. It's a beast.
5. As for your environment, the best thing in the world about VM's is the ability to snapshot them at different points in time, hence my robust backup schedule. They are portable, and if a physical machine fails, you can move vm's around and use a different host. Like I said, I can host any server operating system on my Windows 10 machine. The days of physical machines are long gone.

And DAB, yes, I understand not a single word of the above makes any sense to you, but that's OK. It went over the heads of a large majority of the people here, but if a techie wants to talk shop, I don't mind sharing the gory details.

[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by DAB

on a related note, don't spend all day at the office/computer working for money

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/ma...-linkedin-post

I would die if I didn't work. My brain doesn't know what to do with down time. Creating, inventing, and working at light speed is all my brain knows. You've heard the stories of people who die shortly after they retire. I don't want to be that guy. GWiz is the same person. She cannot not be going all of the time. It's in her DNA.

Having these qualities is what it is, but being able to enjoy the financial spoils that come with being this person, is not a bad deal either. There are worse problems to have.

[dvarapala]

Originally Posted by datawiz

I would die if I didn't work. My brain doesn't know what to do with down time.

Hobbies?

[Datawiz]

Originally Posted by dvarapala

Hobbies?

Cars, cars, and more cars. Racing, racing, and more racing. 2021 C8 here in about 6 weeks. New 700 HP engine for the '08Z here for fall installation. (too hot to do now that we are entering summer).

I'm the epitome of work hard, play hard.

But, also being the wiser, older me, my level of play (and spending on computers) is tempered. Yes, spending $14k on monitors and video cards is still tempered. Cash, Cash, Cash and savings is #1 in my household now. While I would never retire, I wish to ensure that my cash, via passive income, gives me the ability to wake up one morning and say "I'm gonna sleep all day today." I'm in that mode where everything is about establishing that financial independence.

Then I can choose what to create or invent, and whether to get paid for said inventions, or to give it away just to keep myself busy. I will go to my grave creating something new.

[snide]

Originally Posted by dvarapala

You are correct - you would need 9 8K monitors to achieve the pixel area I quoted.

But the ability to double-click and expand to only a single monitor is a big plus.

I NEVER run any application full screen, unless it is a video. And it pisses me off when a help desk wanker gets on my computer, grabs an open application, maximizes it, then closes it.

Don't know how many times these wankers have maximized my open Explorer window, closed it, then selected "My Computer" to find something. Idiots.

[snide]

Originally Posted by 04 commemorative

Do you control the world

No, but that monster computer set up is in his mom's basement.