Category: Help Desk

Is the 9 to 5 Work day obsolete or is it still in Demand?

Paul

Are you working 9 to 5?

That’s the real question right now for most people, I don’t say that lightly either.   I am seeing more and more Jobs that are either to0 popular or are wanting to only work part time.   This seems to be an ever evolving scenario.  I’ve been looking for jobs the last few weeks and it just seems daunting and that brings even more problems to finding a job.   Usually I don’t get to the interview process or I get to the first phone interview and have yet to get to the video interview where they want to ask even more questions that you can talk about what you know and what you’ve done to show them you have the qualifications to get the job.

GIG Economy

Is that really a thing, working as a freelancer or even someone who is only working for a certain amount of time?  That seems to be where I’m seeing more and more jobs being posted and people applying to those types of jobs and hoping they get some kind of income to help them pay jobs.   I’ve talked about this in previous blog posts but I am really curious as to what people are doing to bring in the money to pay bills and do what is needed to survive.  Is this just going to be more and more people being homeless or people taking any jobs they can to survive and get by with.

Are we 90 days away from a recession?

If interests rates start to show we are going into a recession than we may also show we are also going into a depression.   Even though United Kingdom has already stated they are in a recession and I can only imagine that Germany is going into the recession also.  Are we eating like we are in a depression era?  I am curious about that also are people eating foods that are cheap and trying to get as much out of the food than we used like Mac & cheese dinners and even Beanie Weenies, or even food that can be easily reheated and served multiple times that can help drag out the cost of the food in question.

Getting ahead of the Game

Even if we try to get ahead of this recession in the US it is bound to happen because of all that is going on.  I am sure Biden administration and others in the government are keeping this public due to the coming elections and we will see this continue all the way up and past the election to make it look like we aren’t having issues but I’ve see others say the same thing, that it will happen and we may already be in recession.  I can’t answer that right now but I do feel like I am trying to do what is needed but nothing seems to be happening as to finding a job.   Are you having the same issues as I am?  Finding a job is way harder than it used be the last few years.  Is there anything we can do about it?  Probably not no matter how hard we try or maybe we need to listen to more experts on how to get the job because they obviously know something we don’t know.   it all means the same thing we can’t just wait and see what others are doing to survive.   No matter what we are all here for the same reason to find a job and keep bringing in the money to support our family and ourselves.

Windows Batch Scripting for Beginners and how to use it.

Paul

What is a Batch file?

Most people will never really understanding what the extension .bat is in Windows or even DOS.  However it is something that is native to programmers around the world because it is the first thing most people who make programs or works with scripting start to use way before they do anything else.  It should be considered the first linguistic languages that is very powerful.  It is designed to be used in DOS but can also be used in Windows as a DOS command easily and effectively through Windows OS.   Some of these are what you should explore even more to learn how to program and create scripts even more.  However this blog post is just a introduction into doing it and how you can use this in your everyday IT Job.

According to Wikipedia:

A batch file is a script file in DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. It consists of a series of commands to be executed by the command-line interpreter, stored in a plain text file. A batch file may contain any command the interpreter accepts interactively and use constructs that enable conditional branching.

Understanding scripting is the first part in creating powerful scripts for everyday use.  However, I am one of the few to use the help command in DOS:

HELP [command]

This is a good tool for those who might want to explore the power of using a Batch to get your job done or to creating a batch file because you will need to know what you can use in the batch file.

Here are a few commands you might want to use in a batch file:

  • SET /P variable=[promptString]
  • Start of the batch file ECHO OFF and ECHO ON after the batch file is complete.
  • If and THEN (Wikipedia)
  • CALL filename.bat

Creating Batch files

I’m not going to go into much details about creating the batch in the way you might need but I will be talking about this in general about ways you can create a batch and which programs are good at helping you create a batch file.

First you need a program to create it.  You can always use Wordpad or Notepad but you could find it isnt’ a good as Notepad ++.   I have used it in the past for programming in many different programming languages such as Pascal, C++, COBOL, and SHELL Scripting.  I’ve talked about SHELL scripting in past for LINUX which you can use Notepad++ for it also to create Linux shell scripting.  I will say you can do a lot with the open-sourced program that is free to use.  So I always want to use this with anything I am doing because it shows you where you might have a problem in your scripting language and helps you identify how to fix it.  You’re best advice is to just try to think about what you want to accomplish with a batch file and start thinking logically about how you would do that.

You will need to make sure the .batextension is on the file name.  Make the filename something that you can easily run in DOS because you don’t want to make the batch file anything complicated because that might not work properly if you use a call command in another batch file.  So consider the naming convention of your batch file(s).

Trial and Error

After creating the batch file you will need to do some trial and error test to make sure it will work with what you need to use it for and also make sure there isn’t something unexpected.   This is what programmers do all the time by compiling  the program and running it on different systems to see what it will do in different Windows environments.

Finally, You will see that you can do so much more with a batch that you previously did and it can be a great asset in doing repetitive stuff at work or at home.   If you do this right it can even help speed up your life.   Here are a few Blog posts that I have talked about previous:

As you can see these will help you understanding scripting but also help you to figure out what you might want to do with a Batch and why you might need to create a batch file.  Even I know this is only a few blog post that will at least hopefully give you even more ideas on what will help you to create batch files.

Don’t forget to like and subscribe to my blog page for even more updates.   Do you have a favorite DOS command?  why not share it with others so they can learn even more.

Insanity Run Rampant — Antivirus Pro System (scareware)

Paul

Some of you would want to ask me why I am calling this title an usual title. In fact it is quite simple, I have been at the hospital since early this morning. While I was there I had some intriguing things happen. I was watching a person cruise the internet while they were at work. This is someone who is supposed to answer the phones and such. Then I see this POP UP, this draws my attention. “You SYSTEM Has Spyware”. This was my first thought, Scareware. The Popup said it was for “Antivirus Pro System”.
antivirus-system-pro

Since this was a Hospital computer, I couldn’t get a real screen shot of this but there are plenty examples out there, just like that one above.  Anyways what worries me is how System Admins are allowing employees to surf the web while at work on company time.   It also makes for a bad experience with their family.  It also concerns me about the fact that while that computer is infected some of the patients records could be leaked online.

[ad]If you have this Scareware program, Here is a good explanation on how to remove it.   Hospitals have a duty to protect peoples privacy.   Although I seriously this system had patient records it was being used to keep track of who was in surgery and where they were.

Hospitals should prevent their employees from using the internet and preventing patients or their family’s from using the internet.   While I was there I couldn’t do much but check my email and Maybe watch Twitter using Tweetdeck.   That was how bad the bandwidth was there.  According to some nurses they have a T1 Line.   So you know people are watching movies or other things through the internet.   I also heard from a doctor that people were streaming who were supposed to be at work.

That has been my day,  and am I tired.

I would also suggest people have a f[intlink id=”2205″ type=”page”]ree anti-virus software and a Good free Firewall[/intlink] to help prevent this type of scareware in the future.  Remember your the End User and that means only you can prevent this from happening in the first place.  Never go to suspicious sites or URLS that you don’t know where they go.   If you can prevent these types of attacks then you are much better off.