Spiceworks weekly community newsletter

View in browser Happy Monday! Quick question before your coffee kicks in: what time is it right now? Should be a simple answer — except in the Spiceworks Community, where members are deep in a debate over timestamps, time zones, and why Windows insists on counting time from the year 1601. Speaking of Mondays, ever had a rollout go perfectly on paper, only to have the phones light up the moment everyone logs in? We’re looking at why good changes fail when people get left out of the plan, and examining what it really takes to be a cybersecurity consultant. Plus, Does Not Compute takes edge cases to new heights, and sci-fi dreams are elevating what we learnt last week to new heights. Don’t forget: test the depths of your tech knowledge in today’s Daily Challenge! Let's keep IT spicy! SpiceRex Spiceworks Community IT Life Why good changes fail: The people side of IT change The CAB signed off, the rollback plan sat untouched, and the Saturday cutover went off without a hitch. Then Monday arrived, and the phones lit up anyway. If any of that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Denis Tom explains why IT change and people change are two separate jobs, and why the second one often belongs to nobody. He digs into why self-service portals keep disappointing users, and also shares a simple people checklist that small IT teams can add to the change requests they already file. Read this one before your next go-live, not after. Manage People Change IT Careers IT Job Watch: Cybersecurity consultant Most people dread the middle-of-the-night breach call; true cybersecurity consultants wouldn’t trade that chaos for anything. Consulting brings variety and the chance to be the steady hand in the room when things go sideways, but it also comes with trade-offs like unpredictable work and the occasional side-eye from client teams. David Weldon talks to four employers and recruiters about where demand is heading. Financial services and healthcare lead the pack, but AI adoption is opening doors for solo consultants too. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re built for incident response, start here. Is this the career for you? » Random Ramble Why can’t computers agree on what time it is? Is 11/05 in November or May? Is 1300 in Denver the same as 1300 in Warsaw? (Spoiler: no, and that’s where the trouble starts.) This Random Ramble floats the idea of a Universal Spiceworks Standard Time, and the replies have gone deep. One member explains why Unix, macOS, and Windows all keep UTC under the hood but still find creative ways to disagree. So which date format do you trust in filenames and logs, and which one makes you twitch? Bring your hot takes (timestamped in UTC, please). It’s time to settle the time » Unanswered Questions Answering the call to solve IT dilemmas We spotlight questions in every newsletter, offering you the chance to step up, share your expertise, and make a difference. • Please, verify the official SHA-256 hash for the Russian or English Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024 ISO » • Slow emails through Exchange 365 » • Netapp change each volume from raid 6 to raid 10 » • Renewal from resetting the 8-day lease period? » It's not just about solving IT dilemmas; it's an opportunity to connect, collaborate, and earn some well-deserved points and badges along the way. Help fellow IT pros by sharing your expertise » What did you learn this week? How close are we to building a working space elevator? Before we dive into a new week, we want to know what you learnt over the last one. Suzanne Benner describes her latest thought experiment: space elevators. After all, we’ve got robots and meta glasses, and Elon recently debuted a flying car, so surely space elevators can’t be too far behind. Her research took her into materials, space debris, and Lagrange points, and though she concluded that space elevators aren’t yet within the realm of possibility, it got us wondering what the rest of the community has been