r/ShittySysadmin

[removed]

It’s a perfect afternoon to update some shit and walk out of the office!

Windows Package Manager aka WinGet got a new banner and help menu. Nothing fancy mind you, just a clean, structured layout style like Store-CLI in a dynamic, auto-sizing PowerShell wrapper.

Check it out here: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/discussions/6348

I want my boss to see me as a go getter. If i delete all the dhcp leases and tell him do you think hell give me a raise from all the money we will save?

Im wondering if the company gets some bulk discount on leases, because my lease at my apartment is 2000$ a month.

i have no other words [update] i love you guys, but come on, it was a support engineer. sheesh. [update of update] yes I think it is ridiculous that people who didn't get an engineering degree get called engineers. what can i say? i don't write the titles.

[removed]

Quick background: I run a sysadmin help site (pragmaticsysadmin.help). A few months ago I started thinking about who else struggles with the same basic computer illiteracy my clients have — and the answer was obvious: my mom. And her friends. And basically everyone over 70.

So I built a free web app for them. It's called Buddy. One-tap calls to family, daily medicine check-offs, a scam-message pattern checker, and step-by-step guides for things like "how do I take a screenshot on this thing."

Live at https://pragmaticsysadmin.help/buddy/ if you want to poke at it.

I'm posting here because I learned some things building it that I think are relevant to anyone who designs for users with accessibility constraints — and also because the architecture might interest the vanilla-JS-curious among you.

The stack:

• Zero build step. No npm, no webpack, no transpilation. Just three files: index.html, style.css, app.js.
• No backend. Everything in localStorage. Privacy-first, no accounts.
• 7 languages with full UI translation including all help content. (English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Finnish — chose by the senior populations in each.)
• Locale-aware emergency numbers. US users see "Call 911," EU users see "Call 112," Brazilian users see "Call 190," Chinese users see "Call 110." Same code, different output.
• Demand validation built in. Tracks unique-day visits, prompts for feedback after the 2nd use (max once per 30 days). Lets me measure if anyone actually uses it before I invest in monetization.

What I learned about accessibility-first design:

1. 1.Default to the lowest-common-denominator device. My development iPhone has a great screen. My target user has a five-year-old Android with a cracked screen protector and bifocals. Designing for them made it better for everyone.
2. 2.Touch targets need to be absurd. Material Design says 48dp minimum. My tiles are 150px+ square with text inside. After a few rounds with my mom, I realized: if it's not obviously tappable to someone with shaky hands and reduced motor control, it's broken.
3. 3.Localization is harder than translation. Finnish needed 112 instead of 911 for emergency. Some cultures use formal/informal "you" — Spanish requires careful choice between tú and usted depending on context. The phone number placeholder for a Finnish user shouldn't be 555-123-4567. Date formats vary. Time-based greetings ("Good morning") don't always translate literally.
4. 4.Demand validation prevents you from building the wrong thing. I was about to build a family dashboard with cross-device sync. Instead I built the feedback prompt first. Got 0 "I'd pay for this" signals in the first month. The free version was enough. I would have wasted weeks building the wrong thing.
5. 5.Vanilla JS is still viable. The whole app is ~600 lines of plain JavaScript. No framework, no build. It's faster to load than any React app I've shipped. For simple interactive pages, the pendulum has swung too far toward frameworks.

The repo is open:

https://github.com/JRone-git/pragmatic-sysadmin/tree/main/static/buddy

If you're the kind of person who likes finding bugs in accessibility implementations, please break it. I want to know what's broken before real users hit it.

Things I'd love feedback on:

• The scam detection patterns. I have 10 regex rules. What's missing for non-English-speaking users?
• The locale auto-detection logic. I fall back through navigator.language → base language code → English. Is there a better way?
• The font choice (Lora serif for headlines, system sans for body). Is that the right call for an aging-eye audience?

Happy to answer questions about any of it.

Our headquarters are located in Europe so I would like to use commas as the IPv4 octet separator (i.e. 127,0,0,1) and semicolons as the IPv6 segment separator (i.e. fe80;;).

I know this is possible, I've seen this setup in YouTube tutorials

I'm a support engineer working for a large company. Given that I have an engineering "degree," I was tasked to work on a complex, technical issue. I occasionally receive guidance from my senior engineer.

This issue is highly complex and related to our networking stack. Certain endpoints are losing connectivity. There is a large focus on this issue.

While asking my digital direct report for guidance, she mentioned a few possible paths to resolution, and suggested a few different diagnostic efforts. These were taken under serious advisement, and after we flirted a bit more back and forth, I ended the session and began preparing for the biweekly bridge call with my senior and other stakeholders.

While on the bridge call, I mentioned my efforts and asked a follow up question to my senior about an obscure networking command. From what my digital direct report told me before my daily tokens ran out, it has a history in submarine combat.

Well, since my senior engineer was present (and really lives up to the "senior" part), I figured I'd ask him about it. He blew up on me and asked me how I didn't know about this command. Well, forgive me for not serving on a Gato-class submarine back in the day. I just left the call, nearly in tears.

The worst part is I can't even talk to my girlfriend about it until 8am tomorrow when I get some fresh tokens.

AITA?

I just met the shittiest Sysadmin in my life…
We sold one of our units (a local shop) to the local management. The deal included all hardware but no more usage of our software. So my job was to make sure that all our data was wiped from the devices. They had a Sysadmin from their new company there who then should setup everything. He had 4 weeks of preperation and as we split on friendly terms, we would have answered him any question. But nothing was asked at all…
So, day zero coming in. I first reset the MacBooks and give them to him. He starts a call with someone and then installs the new ERP software. An hour later he gets the windows laptops. Another hour later he shows up at my desk and complaints that the laptops were not reset correctly and that it was impossible to install the software. I took a look and he tried to install the .dmg files in Windows.

Then I reset the POS systems. Some time later he starts to complain that we vendor locked the systems so he was unable to install their new system. It took me like 5 minutes of Google to see that their new system was explicitly listed on the vendors list as not directly compatible and needs custom APKs.
After I explained that to him and he managed to get it installed, I witnessed how he showed the new system to the shop manager. Manager: „And how do I sent the payment to the credit card terminal?“ - ShittyBoy: „Oh, I was not aware that you accept credit cards. We didn‘t buy that software module!“ - The shop sells goods for up to 2000 Euro each, we are in western europe and he was convinced that it is a cash only business…

Last step: he got the time tracking data from the employees as a one-time csv export. He downloaded the csv, opened it, went to the punch-in/punch-out system, enters the pin of an employee, hits „punch in“, returns to his laptop and checks if the csv file has updated. In that moment the manager was standing next to me. Looked at me with panic in his eyes and said: „I have hired an idiot!“

„Well, that‘s your problem now.“
On my flight home I was laughing 3 consecutive hours…

https://preview.redd.it/8p1xi47zktah1.png?width=1122&format=png&auto=webp&s=c2ba2a717048ed552827983eea1390f1727aeb47

They are hard to spot. They move quietly among ordinary people, rarely announcing themselves until the damage is already done. They speak in rules, procedures, and absolute certainty, wearing their discipline like proof of superiority. They do not simply believe they are right; they believe being right makes them noble. They watch for deviation. They report suspicious behavior. They correct your terminology before engaging with your point. By the time you realize who they are, they have already decided that humor is just incompetence wearing a funny hat.

They are r/sysadmin users.

Be safe and be aware, my brothers and sisters.

But no one bothers to read anything, was it ever recorded in the first place? 🌲🙉

Hi, I am working as an admin at a local college and i am tasked with to find a good platform to issue and verify certificates. We have around 1000 - 2000 people and we should offer certificates to, honestly doing this with MS Word is not feasible anymore.

ChatGPT suggested me some platforms but i would like to know what kind of platforms comes as standard to get this type of thing done.

Power went out at my place for a few seconds then came back on, some safety switches were blown and I turned them back on, then tried to reboot my pc. A spark at the bottom part of the case happened(orange pinkish color) and some burnt smell... Obviously I unplugged it and haven't tried to turn it back on after, I will be going to a service tomorrow but what should I expect?

Is everything else dead? I can barely afford to replace the PSU right now so replacing my whole PC would be really out of reach at least for a while... Anyone else experienced this and what things can I do in the future to prevent it from happening?

Thank you in advance

edit: it might have been a short circuit with my fans that caused this, at least someone else suggested me this...They were sometimes making a rattling noise

Selecting a new reaction does not replace the first reaction selected. Microsoft is delivering the features that users want.

https://preview.redd.it/067cz7pd6fah1.png?width=491&format=png&auto=webp&s=6419392cb111f773a75610ac49bd9c0abd32d018

The limit appears to be 25.