January 2020 - iWatson Blog

Work is fun part 2.

The Quest Begins

I have a bit of an update on the Amazon fiasco I talked about in the “Work is Fun“.

We have been trying to get into that AWS Machine for sometime now. The client contacted Amazon, but they would only do so much unless you paid for a “Premium Plan“. He was on the Developer plan, but they wanted him to go to the Business or Enterprise. The Business price is pretty pricey and the Enterprise is even more! If you have some time, I would check it out. Looking at the Business plan, you can see how crazy your bill could get.

First Attempt

On Monday the Amazon support gave us a link to try, but I was too busy to try. The next day, Tuesday, I started attempting this fix.. Half way through the page, I came to the realization that this is exactly what I tried before and it wasn’t going to help much, but I was willing to give it a shot. I was sure they understood the problem and gave good advice.

I shut down the site and started copying the VM and doing as instructed. The whole process took about 2 hours to complete, due to a lot of paranoia and double checking. The client was contacted and he switch his account to the Business account and summoned someone from support to call me. Of course, when they called it said “SCAM LIKELY” so I was a little reluctant to answer.

Lets try and fix your problem

The person on the other end talked to me and was trying to understand our problem. He wanted me to try the process again, because the tech who send us that list must have known what he was talking about. The support guy even offered to READ it to me. Feeling a little annoyed, I said to him:

Me: “Sir, my goal here is to try and recover the admin password, right? Do you see anything in these instructions that will help me accomplish my goal?”

Support: “Oh.. You are right. Let me check something”

He later came back with nothing that could help. He did see that we were now on the Business plan, which allowed the case to be escalated to the people who have the technical skills to help. Come to find out, He explained that he was in accounting and he couldn’t help anymore than he already had. I had to wait for someone to call me.. .. Oh great.

Trying to sync up.

Tuesday night, We were getting the boy ready for bed and I looked down at my phone and noticed I was getting another call but it was from an “Unknown Number”, so I let it go to voicemail. The voicemail had some guy from amazon saying he was calling about our case. What the heck!? Why would they be calling me from an Unknown Number? That is ridiculous. I turned off all spam blocking on my phone and allowed all unknown numbers to come through. (read: ANNOYING)

The next day, Wednesday, I sat around waiting for another call. About 3 in the afternoon, I emailed the client asking if I should just be waiting for a call, or what was going to happen? He got on the site and summoned Amazon again and they called right away, from an “Scam Likely” number. Of course, I answered the phone. It was the same people in accounting. They looked over the case and said they would put in a note to have the tech call me during MY work hours (9am – 5pm), not theirs so we could hook up. They were informed that the number had to come from a legit number, or it wouldn’t get answered.

The call.

Thursday morning around 10:10am, I was sitting in a weekly call with a client going over some recent changes and I get a call and the caller Id read “2”. Just the number 2? That was pretty odd, but I had to answer the phone. The phone call was from Amazon and he wanted to work through the problem right then. The decision was made to do it right then and skip the other meeting, so we proceeded.

The guy wanted to send me a link so he could see my screen. I’ve heard this before, where they want to steal all your stuff after they take control, but this was Amazon calling and they wouldn’t do that right!? No, they wouldn’t, but the thought went through my mind.

I was sent a link through the AWS Console, attached to the case, and it was pretty safe and actually really cool! He could see my screen, but had no control. He had a pointer that would show up where he wanted me to click. It was quite cool. He guided me through each step to try.

Come to find out, I had found a video earlier that didn’t work, I had a few things set up from that video that helped us accomplish our goal. All we had to do was turn on some Management stuff and pull up a Powershell window and we were on the machine.

Changing the password

The first thing we tried was resetting the Administrator password, but that failed. It looks like the previous company had deleted the Administrator account, which I think is valid. It makes it harder for someone to break in.

The second thing we did was add a new user with Admin privileges. This was super easy and slick. After creating the account I was able to RDP into the machine without any problems!

The work begins

I was able to get in and the client was super excited when I reported back to him. The process of learning the system and making some important fixes begins now. It doesn’t help that I’m super swamped at work, but i’m going to do my best to try and make this client happy. It is a fun project that I’m excited to work on.

I’m super impressed with the amazon support. It may be expensive for support, but it seemed worth it. Especially since I wasn’t paying for it!

The Parking Lot

Back Story

We have the most interesting parking lot. I’ve tried to mark up the map, but it didn’t turn out the best, so bear with me! As you can see we have a big parking lot. We are located on the border of Orem City. If you go down the back hill you end up in Provo. There is a path that leads down the hill, where a ditch runs north to south. If you cross the ditch, you end up in the back of a house and onto a street in Provo. The path is frequently used by people that stop at the bus stop or …something. There is a pawn shop near by and various other places that some might frequent. We use to think it was just a shortcut that people used until we started noticing the same odd people hanging around.

The Fight

One day we noticed an individual, Jacob (I know his name, because one day I went out to question him), come up from the hill with a backpack on and he went out by the Bus Stop and took his shirt off, put deodorant on and put on another shirt. A nice mustang pulled up later and they chatted for a bit. Then the mustang left after giving him some groceries. It was an odd sequence of events, so we were curious what was down that hill. Jacob took his groceries back down the trail.

The Adventure

On April 8, 2019, we decided to go on an adventure for lunch. The spring rain made it hard to explore a ditch, so we had to pick a dry day. The trail down to the ditch was a little sketchy. The hill is steep and the dirt is compacted, but there is a chain link fence to hang on to. We crossed the ditch and were checking out the house (See “Meth House” on the Map). and some lady stuck her head out of the window and said “Can I help you”. We were a little shocked, so I just said “Yeah, where does this trail lead? “. She replied with “People take it to the Mall. You can go through our yard if you want”. It was interesting, but she was the one that we keep seeing on the trail and going to the “Bus Stop”.

Walking up the trail to the “Mall” seemed like the best way to go, and it required us to dodge twigs and puddles. There were several strange things we ran into, and a few are the reason why we call it the “Meth Trail”. We found some gloves, which we thought was very strange! Then we turned around and found a giant bottle of “Fernox Antifreeze Protector Alphi-11”, Bucket, and Broom. “What The!?!?!” It was an interesting find. We finished walking up the trail to find a big tunnel under the road, but decided not to follow it any longer. The tunnel was full of spider webs and bird nests. The mission had to be aborted, so we got out of the tunnel and took the road back to work. The whole trip was about 3 miles, so it turned out to be some good exercise! 🙂

Meth Route

We have put camera’s in our windows to try and watch the activity of these people and it has provided many hours of entertainment trying to figure out what is going on. The lady living in the house has pretty much stayed the same, but there are new guys walking back and forth with her. They tend to do shady stuff in the parking lot on the weekend. I know I’m convinced they are selling drugs and doing other stuff.

Nefarious Corner

We have the Meth Heads and over the summer we started noticing a guy that would pull into our parking lot and sit for hours in his car. Of course, we started getting curious and started watching him. We noticed that there was always a trail of water that would be flowing down the parking lot under his car. We would joke that he was using the bathroom on his tire, because he was sitting there so long. This guy has been coming round for about 6 months or so.

The Confrontation

On Tuesday, the guy was there from 9:30am until 5pm. We were watching him during a meeting. He gets out of his car and smokes and throws his empty pack of cigarettes on the ground. We tried to see if he was relieving himself out there and it looked like he was, but we couldn’t tell. We went to lunch and walked by the car and noticed a puddle, but was it snow? Who knows.

When we got back from lunch, we two down from his car. He was fast asleep in his car with his phone in his lap. Not the best place to take a nap. We were curious about his story!? Why is this guy sitting out here all day? Is he OK? What is going on?

I left work a little after 5pm. He had moved his car 2 spots away from mine and still in there. I was determined to knock on his window and find out if he was OK! As I approached, I noticed that his windows were a little foggy. Something you’d expect when someone was in their car for a long time. I didn’t think anything else. I did start my phone recording audio to see if I could catch anything interesting when we chatted.

When I reached the car, I noticed he was kicked back in his chair, hands on his crotch pleasuring himself!!!! I didn’t know what to do! I knocked on the car and told him we had noticed he was parked there all day and asked if he was ok. He said he was fine. Of course he was, but I had just interrupted him. I turned away and said “BTW. You shouldn’t do that here anymore”. He took off. I was super scared and you can tell in the recording. Here is the recording so you can hear the interaction.

The audio. Lots of dead air at the first due to walking to the car.

…

I don’t think we will be seeing this guy again in the near future. He probably thought he had the perfect spot and I had to go ruin it!

I’m looking forward to more adventures in the parking lot this summer. It’s been pretty slow lately, because it’s hard to get up and down the hill in mud and snow. When spring rolls around again, I bet it will pick up!

Weekly update.

Pixel bites the dust…

On October 5^th 2016, I ordered my Pixel 1 phone. It was announced on October 4^th. I was super excited! I’ve always been a fan of Google phones. I had the first G1 that I used forever! I’ve had a few Android phones before the Pixel. (HTC Sensation and Nexus 5). An iPhone was in there for a little while, which felt like I was cheating on Android. I even enjoyed it!

My Pixel 1 started experiencing screen issues a year ago. After calling support, they made me wipe my phone and it seemed to fix the issue until December when it returned. The screen would jump up (the bottom of the screen was jumping up and down). The screen would show snow and become unresponsive. Being a long-term user, I was way out of my warranty. The warranty was almost up the last time they had me wipe my device. Conveniently, it went out after doing all the trouble shooting.

Shopping

It is impossible for me to show up at a store and pick something out if I haven’t researched it a ton. It took almost a month of research and deciding what I wanted to do, before I could settle on a phone. I paid $750 for the Pixel 1 with all the bells and whistles. I was not going to do that again! The pixel 4 is out and the price tag on that was super high! It has horrible reviews!

The Pixel 3 has an epic camera and phone stats, but the price tag is still high! You can purchase refurbished on Amazon, but the reviews are kind of scary. The price is great, but who knows what you will get and what kind of warranty you get is questionable. I also had a hard time deciding if I wanted an XL or basic phone. The XL is big, but how hard is it to use with one hand? (This will be something I regret. My hands are stubby)

Insurance

Most companies offer a device protection plan. T-Mobile has one where you pay $10 a month. Best Buy has one where you pay anywhere from $8 – 10 a month. They cover a lot of stuff and there is a piece of mind there, but I don’t want to pay an extra $120 a year for 2 years of “Piece of Mind”. I want the protection though. The Google Store the phones for a good price and they only charge $89 for 2 years of protection after the MFG Warranty expires. That seemed like a pretty good deal to me. Google has been fast at replacing my phones in the past.

The Big Day!

On January 4^th, 2020, I ordered my Pixel 3A XL. The bigger screen was appealing to me and the consensus was 50/50 on how good it is. The order said it would take 5 days to get the phone! I was kind of sad, because I wanted the phone now! I checked my email everyday after it shipped. The phone ended up taking 4 days to get to me.

Anticlimactic.

The phone, case, and screen protector all came around the same time. Backing up the old device and installing the new phone was super easy! The phone is much faster and has some fancier specs than the Pixel 1, but the OS version is the same! Using the 3A is just like using the Pixel. Not much changed, so it wasn’t as exciting as when I switched from the Nexus 5 to the Pixel. I’m so glad that I purchased it though. The phone works, and the screen is snappy! I had the 128gb before, but this one only has 64gb. I’m hoping I can get use to it! 😊 This one is already 80% full and it’s giving me heartache! The first time I used the phone one handed, I found that my thumb had a hard time reaching the “back” button without dropping the phone! AAARGH!! So annoying, but I’m going to get use to it. The battery is the best part. It lasts 20h per charge with my normal use! I’m excited about the phone so far.

Work Update

Work has been busy this week. It was mostly boring until Saturday when I got a call from my boss saying the machines were “super loud” and the server room was HOT! The Air Conditioning stopped working. After shutting off the machines, He called the building maintenance and had them come look at it. When the maintenance guy showed up, he said his boss was up on the roof and noticed an AC was running (in the winter) and he shut it off! WHAT?

We have been in this building for 5+ years and the AC isn’t new! We were busy on Saturday night, out celebrating my Birthday, so Sunday was the only day I could go turn everything back on and get the Domain Controller, Firewall, etc all booted back up. IT work is not what I do on a day to day basis, but I understand a lot of the machines and software. The adventure took 2 hours to get everything working again. With Copious notes and trial and error, I have a better understanding of how things are put together in the server room. Everyone should be able to be up and running in the morning when they get to work.

Great times. More celebration needs to be had, because my birthday is January 13^th!

Happy New Year

The new year is here! We had a busy week ringing in the new year and enjoying time off not thinking about the inevitable. Going back to work and school!? I went back to work on Thursday. The boy goes back to school Monday, 6^th of January. I’m hoping it goes well for him. We have been bad about keeping up with reading and some other daily habits that he has been used to. This week hasn’t been that exciting so there isn’t much to report.

We rang in the new year at the Provo Recreational Center. They have a lot of family-friendly things to do from 7pm until Midnight. This is the second year we’ve been, and it is super fun! They have:

A Hypnotist
Bounce Houses
Dog Shows
Acrobatics
Karaoke
Face Painting
Comedy Show
Game Shows (Family Feud)
Dancing
Virtual Reality
Fireworks (One at 10pm and one at 12pm)

There is a lot to do. I may have left some out. It felt like the night flew by! We didn’t get home until 1am and then to sleep at 2am. Jacob and I both slept until 12pm! It was awesome!

He didn’t quite understand how to do it. I may be failing as a father!

One thing I wanted to talk about but I’m a big people watcher. I love the big city. There are a lot of people in a small place. I can sit on the corner and watch people shuffle by. I’ve always found it very interesting. In the past, I’ve been a pretty shy person, so it was always a good time to come out of my shell by talking to complete strangers.

I don’t live in the city or anywhere I can watch people. Where we live, we don’t have a lot of street traffic we can look at, so sitting out on your porch at night watching the world go by is hard. My office window at work faces a driveway into the back of the building. Behind our building, there is a path down into the neighborhood behind us. It is used by a few people during the summer. We are pretty sure there are some shady people using the path. They are fun to watch but not as exciting as the big city.

I have found a few cool live camera sites that are fun to watch while I’m at work. There is a very nice camera in New York, Time Square Cams, that is fun to watch It’s a pretty famous camera, so you see people stopping and waving at the camera. Their Grandparents or Parents are home watching on the camera. It’s fun to watch the interactions.

While watching on Friday, a mother and baby walking one way and another lading coming towards them. The baby tripped and fell. She picked herself up and the lady stopped and helped and showed concern for the baby. It’s a typical interaction you’d expect. Two complete strangers (as far as I know) interacting. Internally, this interaction I’m witnessing is playing out in my head. I find it very interesting. Another camera I watch a lot is in Hermosa Beach at a restaurant. You can see the beach, people waiting in line to go eat, or people exercising up and down the beach. Super fun.

MILLIONS of people live int this world, and we will never meet them all. There are some that you’ll never want to see again, but there are some you’ll want to keep in touch with. Personally, I find it fun to meet new people.

Here is a story about meeting random strangers. We were at Legoland several years ago, and Jacob randomly got on a ride with this girl. They HIT it off and wanted to ride the next ride together. It was just her and her mom and dad. We had to stand in line with Jacob, her, and her parents. The kids were treating each other like they knew each other before talking, laughing, and having a great time! We were trying to get to know her parents. It was slow at first, but we ended up spending the WHOLE day with them. We learned a ton about them, and they did the same with us. We were from two different worlds. We were the Mormons from Utah, and they were Catholics from California. Fortunately, that didn’t matter to anyone. We were all sharing a great experience riding rides and enjoying a theme park. It was great. We keep in touch with them on Facebook. It was a great experience and we never would have met them if it weren’t for two kids making friends.

Life is busy, and it’s hard to stop and talk to everyone you see. A smile, wave, or a quick “HI” are super easy! I’m not much of a “Goal” person. I think I’ll try it out this year and make it a point to meet new people and/or make someone smile. Everyone has a story or something to say. Give them a chance. You should stop and listen to that story sometime.