Uncategorized

Vlob: Recalling Applying for Retail at Apple Inc.

Clickford, Steven M.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSQ-5DO3VQo

this 26 minute Vlob woke me up to how bad the social economic world became, and how I got really spooked out at how people get hired in American jobs. It was in October of 2013, that I learned the hard way; how the un/der employment numbers were likely skewed the way employers like Apple did. This also followed the time where I did adult ed, and also applied for another retail job earlier that year. It was meant to be, but after this traumatic experience, would leave me chronically unemployed till the COVID pandemic where I saw an opportunity with how retail is so desperate for jobs.

Avaya and Steve Jobs (Revisited)

Clickford, Steven M.

Early on in one of my first projects “breaking the internet” with content was The Museum of Telephony which was wordpress-dot-com product until 2020 when it was moved on our hosting platform. I can speak freely again because the previous manager is no longer involved. Anyways 4 months into the endeavor, I had posted A Post on Apple and Avaya Together . Within a week, a Google Search referral (because in 2012 you could get this data, not so much – even on your own hosting platforms)  “Steve Jobs fan of AT&T Merlin phone” .

If the pic rings a bell, it was the inside picture in the hard cover of Walter Issacason’s bio of the said man.  (of which I should re-read.) I said at the time that it was a no-brainer. Steve Jobs was man of detail, including his preferred list of vendors, whether it was Apple, NeXT or Pixar. It was so blaintely obvious he was drawn by Ma Bell, and that AT&T Merlin phone in his home was another giveaway.

Despite the Merlin being made in the 1980s and discontinued by 1990, AT&T and later Lucent and Avaya was well known for continuing to market these systems as refurbished models well into the mid 2000s. Also, the 7400 series Digital “Voice Terminals” had the Merlin casing, but was used in the System 75/Definity Generic 3 PBX, of which was the PBX used at NeXT, Pixar and Apple, the infamous boxy 8400 Series Digital Voice Terminals did not come to market till 1994 and by 1995, these decade old sets would finally be End of Sale, but this 1980s look continued well into the 2000s because Lucent (and later Avaya) allowed it. Hence why my 7407 or 7102 sets are next to my Office of Yesteryear where my Color Classic sits. The thing is telephony and IT do not go hand in hand. A phone from the 1980s and a PC from the 1990s aren’t required to match, because telephony on the enterprise level was not part of MIS or IT for many businesses.

As a sidenote: though Apple did not refresh the desksets often, some of Apples earlier campuses still had the 1970s Multibutton Electronic Telephone of which AT&T wanted to nix by the time 1990 came along…. now I am going outside the scope of this post…

Would Steve Jobs still be a fan of Avaya? 

I am not sure. Avaya was in the process of acquiring Nortel, prior to his departure of the company and his life. In reality, while Avaya disconnected Nortel’s offerings, the management and many of their engineers was retained. A lot of Avaya from the Steve Jobs admiered era (the System 75/Definity G3/Merlin/etc) was kinda getting phased out with that infamous Aura experiment, and the botched IP Office offerings (the small end systems often found at Apple stores); and other oddball moonshot stuff that Avaya has done.

I am not sure if Jobs had opinions of vendors in the same way he did for the Apple products, since these would be operations and would be in Tim Cook’s old position. I would think he would say things like those damned B100 series of IP sets to “be full of shit”. Those gawd-awful 2-wire DCP 9500s to be “more shit” and probably would piss on the cost of having Avaya equipment in an enterprise like Apple.

It’s unclear if the new Apple campus is wired to Cisco or Avaya, I wouldn’t be surprised it’s on the former. Apple’s retail has slowly gone on to the KallStrangler bandwagon, and would Apple want to pay ridiculous contracts to finance internet trolls defending Fucking Kari’s Law? I certainly would hope ill of Avaya to declare Chapter 11… oh wait, they did didn’t they?!

#

Vlob: Are You Watching the Olympics?

Clickford, Steven M.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtWVjCK78lk

I’ve been pondering if I should watch the 2020 hangover year of the Summer Games in Tokyo. I also bring up if the International Olympic Committee needs to change their non profit business model; and if more changes are needed to make the Olympics relevant. The most leftie men piss on the Olympics (think of Dan Kennedy at WGBH and Bill Maher too.) I don’t think it should be a gender thing for myself.

Fact. The Google Search Engine Works. *In Theory*

Clickford, Steven M.

When I used to manage The Museum of Telephony from 2012 to late 2019; one of the surprising antidotes I can say is: the Google Search Engine works. Period.

I didn’t pay Google a dime! I am going to be honest, and say it was really weird to see my own work come up in first or second pages when I was gawd-honest trying to find present telephony stuff, that in way was commingled in my content.

Not to mention the self-reflection I would see. Sometimes I would cringe just seeing my own work. On the other hand, there was this need to be responsible, but things went haywire by 2020.

Now how did Google get this if I didn’t pay to play like some YouTube hack creators?

  1. Unintentional SEO. It was never intended to be a Search Engine Optimized site, it just coincidentally happened that way. One was alternate text and titles in the images. The alternate text was very descriptive, because I always wanted my content I create to be accessible for all persons. It wasn’t too detailed, but it gave the reader an overall summary of the picture
  2. The iTheme’s built in Tag cloud. Since the inception, the iTheme was the overall visual identity for TMOT. Like most WordPress sites, it too had the tag cloud. I used the tags liberally and with relevance as well. Not to mention the categories as well.
  3. Daring to share. In 2018, I made social media companions. I resisted as long as possible, but made a Facebook and Instagram page. With the linking on my YouTube (under my alternate name), this gave the algos likely a feedback loop.

So when I hear Google’s search is rigged, it cannot be always true. TMOT was not a non-comm platform per se, but it was not by any means making any financial gains to expand or what. When it moved over to our own hosts, the hits were not as strong, despite the clickford.net domain being in use for over 5 years, and was acting as a redirect for a couple of years, before moving onto an off-prem host in late 2019.

I do not take what I did lightly, I broke the Internet, and while I slowed down, others made their own.

It was a great time for me in the 2010s.

#

Now Hiring – Technical Support Specialist

Clickford, Steven M.

CliMS – On Site – Information Systems & Technology

THE ROLE

* Migrating to automation and scripting when needed

* Manages about 10 different microcomputer servers and workstations

* Manages about 3 mobile devices

* Oversees a 3-subnet LAN, with multiple various VLANs; VLANs exposed to the Internet, some have no routing.

* Supervises traffic amongst 50 to 70 known IP connections * Manages multiple different platforms (Windows, Macs and Linux)

* Managing operating systems primarily on virtualization (VirtualBox and VMware)

* Many of the systems are legacy (OS X, Windows 2008, Windows 7)

* Coordinating, planning, and ensuring security on the critical/production systems * handling training for users of the system

* Attempts to document and log systems

* Projects that take years because of day to day user bailouts.

*  Managing Voice over IP Telephony and Unified Communications platforms (VOIP and IPT)

* Specific Applications (IBM Lotus Domino, Apple’s File Maker Pro), and custom FMP code (ERP, customer database, video and media logs)

IDEAL SKILLS:

Previous experience of a small work environment with enterprise class technology (Netgear PROSAFE, Cisco IOS) and a working knowledge of streaming and media management is a plus. Ability to work with users and help desk skills is helpful.

REQUIREMENTS
A New Hampshire Drivers License, be willing to have a background check. An experience of 5 years in technology, preferably the same amount of time related to media production. The willingness of working in a startup environment. No group think mentality. Ability to multi task on multiple systems at once. Understanding QoS and packet prioritization is mandatory. Candidate is willing to work without benefits, and be able to be paid per hour on projects, and is willing to learn a startup’s own workflow. Must be a selfless professional.