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Read-Only Friday

Read-Only Friday December 9, 2022

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I wasn’t going to do this for today, but decided to change it up and do it anyways. What are your thoughts on ChatGPT? I’ve seen strong opinions both ways on this, but curious on your feelings on it. One point I see it being a very useful TOOL that a person can have in their toolbox, but if it is too heavily relied on or trusted, the person can lose some important skill sets such as learning how to learn and putting your own spin on something. Also if the person is looking up completely new information, ChatGPT could make a great case with false information and the person wouldn’t know until they are called out. As long as the person is still verifying the I’m good with ChatGPT and isn’t using it as their only source of research. Then again, I’m aging myself here, people use to site wikipedia which again could be manipulated.

Also right now ChatGPT is free, who knows 6 months down the road if that will be the case. And if it has become a habit for the person, they will pay the money because  “they can’t live without it.” I do really love this type of technology and seeing how it has progressed so much over the years. It will only keep on getting better, and yes bad actors will abuse to too, but that is always the case with any type of technology or process.

And for a quick example, I had it write a “Read-Only Friday” post for me.

“In today’s fast-paced, always-connected business world, it can be hard to step away from our screens and disconnect from technology. But taking a break from technology, even for just one day a week, can have numerous benefits for our mental health, productivity, and overall well-being. That’s why many people are adopting the practice of “read-only Friday,” where they disconnect from technology and spend the day away from screens.

The effects of technology on our mental health and well-being are well-documented. Constant notifications, distractions, and the pressure to always be available can lead to increased stress, anxiety, and even burnout. In fact, a recent study found that excessive screen time can even change the structure of our brains, leading to decreased concentration and problem-solving abilities.

By taking a break from technology and disconnecting from screens, we give our brains a much-needed rest and allow ourselves to recharge and refocus. This can lead to increased productivity, improved mental clarity, and better overall health.

But disconnecting from technology doesn’t have to mean being unproductive at work. In fact, read-only Friday can be a great opportunity to focus on tasks that require deep concentration and focus, such as brainstorming, strategic planning, or creative problem-solving. You could also use the time to catch up on reading, attend a training or learning session, or even just take a long lunch break to recharge and refocus.

To make the most of your read-only Friday, plan ahead and decide what you want to do with your day. This could include scheduling specific tasks or setting aside time for relaxation and self-care. You could also try setting boundaries for yourself, such as turning off notifications on your phone or limiting your access to certain apps or websites.

Overall, read-only Friday is a great way to disconnect from technology and give your mind and body a much-needed break. So why not encourage your team to try it out and see how it impacts their productivity and well-being? You might be surprised by the benefits.”

That took a matter of seconds…

Project Site:

ChatGPT

Read-Only Friday November 18, 2022

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It’s coming to the end of the year and only a handful more ROF for this year, which can also mean agreements and renewals for a lot of people. How do you manage them? Do you have dedicated software, excel, sharepoint, SQL, or something else?

Do you have any automation built in for reminders to bring up to management, reminders for yourself, and/or request quotes from vendors? And yes I said for yourself, who enjoys renewing software then realizing you didn’t put in the new license and everything stops..

Going a little deeper, what about  cost wise? Do you have it so you can see upcoming costs and expected costs for the year. I know not all organizations are lucky enough to have enterprise grade software and/or dedicated departments to manage all of this. For smaller organizations, it can easily start out as an excel/sharepoint/google sheet and grow into local/cloud SQL or other scaleable solution. If you start now though, you’ll know what you want and don’t want which will make selecting solutions much easier. And from my years in the industry I can tell you that even with enterprise grade software you will still need to do some custom integrations, just a lot less of them.

Read-Only Friday Nov 11, 2022

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With today being a holiday, and more holidays coming up in the last days of the year, send out reminders to your users to keep be extra careful when clicking on links. Attacks have been more minor so far this year, which makes me feel it’s going to ramp up shortly. For the parents, think of it when your child is quiet for too long by themselves… it usually means they are planning something or doing something they shouldn’t be doing. That’s how I feel about bad actors currently.

  • A few things to remind them:
    • Do you normally get emails from that company service? (ie UPS, FedEx, PayPal, etc)
      • If not, don’t open it, and definitely don’t click on links or download an attachment
    • Does that person normally send you links to click on? If they do, are they the type the current email is asking you to open?
      • I’ve seen it before when a company you normally work with gets compromised so spam/virus/malware protection doesn’t pick it up as it is coming from a real email, but the bad actor over took that users account and is sending links/attachments from it.
    • Is the email the real identities email?
      • I know the name says it’s your president or CFO, but what is the real email sending it? It can be tougher seeing it quickly on a mobile device, but have them double check. Have them check those headers.
    • Don’t respond to the email
      • When responding, you are showing them that the account is live, and they will keep on attempting to compromise that email address.
    • If it looks real, contact the person/company from known number
      • If the email looks mostly real, but they don’t normally send you links, call the person/company from a known number. Nothing from that current email. If you normally contact them check previous emails or ask a coworker if they have a direct number. I would say check their website, but that could be compromised as well, so not always the best spot to get their number.

I’m sure all of these are pretty common, but it’s a great reminder for your users, especially with the end of the year rush starts happening.

What are some tips you would give to your end users?

Read-Only Friday November 4, 2022

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It’s Friday, and today I have some great resources to keep you from doing any major unplanned changes to your network today.

Have you heard of Matthew Dowst? I hadn’t until I listened to the PowerShell Podcast on Monday. He is the man behind PS Weekly. If you haven’t heard of it, check it out in the links below. It’s a weekly recap of great PowerShell finds that he has put together.

And even better, he has a book out now(in MEAP form) that will be finished in 2023, called Practical Automation with PowerShell. I’ve already taken a quick look at it, and will be picking it up too.

Definitely check out both as well as the PowerShell Podcast if you haven’t already

PSWeekly:
PowerShell Weekly

Practical Automation with PowerShell:
Practical Automation with PowerShell

PowerShell Podcast:
PowerShell Podcast

Read-Only Friday October 28, 2022

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It’s Friday and the day for no major unplanned changes to your infrastructure.

How does your team share documentation between each other? Is it all in GitHub, Teams, Sharepoint, OneNote, Notion, ConnectWise, BookStack, etc? Or is it simple as word docs on a network share? Would you recommend the current way you are doing it?

If you use a combination, I’d love to hear the process of how you have it setup. If you prefer, you can message me, and I’ll do a summary of what everyone is using.

I know I have friends in all different size companies, curious to see how some of the solutions scale.

Read-Only Friday October 21, 2022

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It’s Friday, so you know what that means!

I like todays, because it’s another one of those it’s easy, but we either forget to check or believe it’s working but it may not be.

What is it? Event logging and dashboards. I’ll admit the dashboard part isn’t easy, but the event logging is. And I’m not just talking about your scripts(which you should be adding event logging to them when possible), I’m talking about any of your infrastructure that you manage. Even if you have alerting on, how do you know the alerting is actually working? Maybe your script or application you are using to go through the logs has an update but you don’t see it since you haven’t checked it in a month thinking it just works?

It’s always better to be proactive than reactive. Also while going through the logs you may find something else you want to start alerting for. Maybe you adding a new feature to your firewall or you added a print server and you want to setup alerting for those?

Hope you take out some time today and go through your logs, and if you’ve done that, do you have dashboards and/or alerting in place? If so, check those as well, and see if there is anyway you could improve it.

What scripts/modules/applications do you use to manage your event logs and/or create dashboards with?