Tech versus non-tech terms

There are times that when you are listening to a group of people have a discussion you may think that they are talking a foreign language, but they are speaking English, just that they are using terms that don’t seem to make sense in the conversation. In some of these cases, it isn’t the word or term that they are using, it’s how it is understood by everyone that is part of the conversation. I do know that a lot of technical people have what seems to be a secret language that they speak, and it can be very confusion for those that are not directly related to a particular expertise.

I have decided to try and decode some of the words that I have been hearing and how they can be misunderstood by those around us. Now let’s have some fun and see how one acronym or term can mean a lot of different things, and it all depends on who is listening to the conversation.

DC

• Direct current
• District of Columbia
• Domain controller
• Data centre

Backup

• Extra help or support
• Copy of a file
• A situation in which something is not moving
• Music that accompanies the main singer or tune

SAN

• Storage Area Network
• SANS institute

Farm

• A plot of land that grows crops and livestock
• A group of computer systems in one or more cabinets.

These are just four examples of how a word or acronym can have more than one meaning and when you are in a conversation with a bunch of people it can be very confusing to listen to a conversation. One important thing to remember is when you are writing an email, or a document, and you use any of these terms it is important to ensure that everyone that may read the email or document understands the correct meaning of the term. Be careful of prejudging what "Everyone" knows.

It is very important to know the audience that you are writing something because even if they are in a different area of Technology, they may have an entirely different meaning for the same term. So, a term can have a lot of different meanings, and understanding how to communicate to the various people in an organization is very important. It is the translating infosec into regular IT and IT into regular business terms that is vital for good communication.

Facebook

Have you ever looked for something that was a friend on your friend list and suddenly, they aren’t there, and you don’t know why. Well, this recently happened to me, and I am not certain why this person has now blocked me from seeing any of their posts.

On Facebook, there are different ways that you can deal with someone that seems to be sending out all posts. It is nice that there are options on what you see when everyone that you are friends with.

Unfollow

This feature is when you want to still be friends with someone, but you don’t want to see all their posts. I know that I have used this for a couple of friends that were just posting random things, and it was filling up my feed with nothing that was meaningful. You can also use this feature if a person has a different opinion on things than you do and just need a bit of a break from seeing that feed.

Unfriend

Here is the next step, and that is when you no longer want to see anything that this person posts, and you don’t consider them a friend any longer. If you change your mind and want to friend this person again, it is relatively easy as you just send them a friend request again. This is a normal way of handling when you don’t want to be friends with someone any longer.

Block

Here is the final thing that you can do and that is to block a person and by doing this they cannot message you, and they cannot see anything that you post at all. Normally I only use this when someone has done something, and I don’t want them to try and contact me through Facebook again.

 

For some people, I think they use the block too quickly when just unfriending someone is all that is needed to be done. If you have your Facebook set up that only friends can see your posts, then simply unfriending someone is all you need to do. If you happen to block someone, and you may be able to unblock them if you go into your settings and activity log and connections. You look under friends, there is an area for blocked and that will show you who you have blocked and when.

Having lots of friends on Facebook can be a bit of a challenge but remember you don’t have to live on Facebook all the time and no one should expect you to immediately see their posts in your feed or immediately answer a message that they send you.

I still miss you

There are times when no matter how long after you lost someone, you will still think of them and miss them. It has been over three years since I lost my stepfather (popsy) and there are times when it still feels like it was just yesterday. Of course, some people are going to tell you that you just need to move forward and forget, but you can’t forget. When you lose someone that was important in your life, there is always going to be a part of you that remembers them and wishes that you have that little bit more time when them.

There are days on a calendar that make it a little harder to manage the grief, or these are little sounds or images that bring back memories again about that person. Sure, you can always remember the good times that you shared with that person, but then there are those times that the hurt of losing that person seems to be a little harder. No matter what we do, there are going to be times that we will have to deal with the thought of that person not being around to share something with. It can be little, simple things or bigger joys that you wanted to share with them, but you have to manage how to share them in other ways.

Knowing that you have loved someone and have lost that person can be a challenge, but at least you know that they are always going to be there in your heart, and no one can take that away from you. Some people may not understand what you are feeling, but if you know that you are remembering that person in a way that helps you, that is what is important. That person is always going to be a part of you and yes you are going to miss them no matter what and understanding how to manage that feeling is what you must do.

Missing someone that is no longer here because they have passed away doesn’t mean that you won’t miss them. It just means that you are going to miss sharing those personal times together like you did, but you can always remember that there are in your thoughts no matter what. Sure, it’s been over three years and I do miss popsy, but I know that no matter what I have the memories that we shared when he was alive and those memories will always be in my heart.

Apartment life - major renovation

After writing the original post, I have edited it with what else happened in italic.

There are always things that are good and bad about living in an apartment building, and something that is hard to deal with is when there is a major renovation that needs to be completed. The latest in our building is they are replacing the pipes in the various risers in the building. It is something that doesn’t happen very often so that is good but when it does, it can mean some major impact on how you do things, especially when you work from home.

Here are the steps that are involved in replacing the pipes in our riser and the estimated length of time is between 2 and 3 weeks, so yes lots of noise and dust.

1. Remove all the items from around the sinks and from underneath each of them. For us, we have the kitchen sink, and two bathroom sinks, so lots of stuff that needs to find a new home until the work has been completed.
2. Someone will come into your unit and break the wall in each of these cabinets so that the plumbers can have access to the pipes. This means big open holes that let dust and other things into the unit. Our super recommended that we tape bags over these three openings, so that is what we are doing.
1. the building had to shut off the water for the entire building (Wednesday) to replace a value which was a connection to the city water, and it was scheduled from 8-5 or until work was completed. Well, this didn't go as planned, and we ended up being without water for around 20 hours, which wasn't good.
2.  Friday afternoon (around 12:30 pm) there is a knock on the door, and we are notified that there has been a flood in the main bathroom on the 18th floor, and we are on the 10th floor. We clean up the water on the floor and move the rug from the hall, but again not bad, or at least that is what we thought. Well, the water besides coming out the opening of the cabinet also went through the wall and into the closet behind the bathroom which is our main walk-in closet. This results in the water in the closet and getting stuff wet there, and then it goes into the bedroom and soaks our area rug, which we had to move. This issue was discovered around 11 pm when we were getting ready to go to bed. We had to move all the stuff off the floor in our closet and even a few things in our bedroom. We spent some of the weekend cleaning up and trying to figure out if we had lost anything, but after two days of going through stuff, we think we only lost one paperback book.
   
3. The plumber will come into your unit and work on replacing the pipes and shut off valves
1. This was scheduled for the following Tuesday, and it meant that we would have people coming and going for most of the day, which we sort of figured out. Well the water pipes in our kitchen were connected directly to the main line so that meant that they had to also replace our kitchen facet. This was not something that we knew was going to happen, but at least now the facet shouldn't leak.
   
4. After the plumber is finished, someone else will come in and repair the drywall.
1. This work is over two days, so it has been a challenge to get things done with people coming and going for four days straight.
2. The drywall and painting were supposed to happen on a Thursday and a Friday but they informed us on the Thursday that they might not be able to do the paining on Friday so it would happen on the Monday.
   
5. Finally, be able to put everything back under the sinks and clean up all the dust and stuff that has been left behind.
1. After lots of vacuuming and mopping we were able to start to put things back into the cabinets which is good. One thing that I did notice that the space in the cabinet under the sink in the bathrooms has gotten a little smaller because they put an additional layer of drywall on it.
    

So those are the steps that need to be taken to get the new pipes into all the units and besides that it means that given they are working on the pipes there is no hot or cold water on these lines from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm each day until the work is done. We have normal water on the weekends which is good but ensuring we have water to drink is something that we have to remember.

This is something that each of the risers in the building are going to be dealing with, so that means that there is going to be lots of dust and noise involved. At least once our riser is done, we can get everything put back where it belongs and not have to worry about it again, or at least we hope we don’t. So yes, there can be challenges of living in an apartment building, but when things work it is great, and I don’t mind when there are these repairs because it means that the building management cares, and they want to fix something before it becomes a major issue.