@scottalanmiller said:

Not surprising.
@Joyfano

...and not professional.

It has been often questioned when getting new employees: Should the hiring manager,

• Get the one with the best technical skills?
• Get the one with the best temperament?

"Skills" looks attractive, but "temperament" wins. There is a caveat in the person needs be willing and able to develop their own skills within and outside the company & within and outside the job description.

After all, that issues of all types arise is expected, what is important is how they are handled. Even in "bad situations", not resolving can be (somewhat) okay if the inability or delay in resolving is communicated expeditiously and effectively.

Better fortune with the next person!

With all the résumé (& cover letter) talk, am interested in how the HR applicant tracking systems target auto-filtering and how well HR departments do it.

Certainly inexpensive.

Thought iFixIt might have had a take-apart guide for it. Alas, not yet—

• https://www.ifixit.com/Device/HP_Netbook
• Other HP models may have insight to the process

There are rsync shells for Windows.

SyncToy and xcopy are deprecated in the wake of mature robocopy. Check its options, and get familiar with it (such as, /r, /w, /.mir, and its incremental job nature). More immediately, it handles larger jobs, longer paths, and a few other points which trip up the other two mentions. Been part of Windows Server since~2003 in the resource kit, and standard on Win7 (even Vista?). Can be stop gap until something else.

Robocopy is slick for the Windows world, but not a match for the venerable *nix program rsync.

Jump on the HOL material—

• http://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/
• http://blogs.vmware.com/hol/

To accommodate time constraints and workload, first understand your peak learning time. Carve that time out and make it sacred.

@scottalanmiller

Ah, secretses. Has lots of secretses in his pocketses, he does!

Good list.

SpaceSniffer is one of many disk space analyzers (WinDirStat is the venerable, well-known one).

AutoRuns and ProcExplorer are cool mentions. Part of the larger SysInternals Suite Microsoft now freely disseminates to those that look for it.

@Joyfano

It is good to have the person open up, if slowly, about outside issues.

There is a demarcation between work life and home life. HR may have coping options or counseling options for the home life items. (In the U.S. this isn't uncommon, but not necessarily greatly helpful.)

Meet with the person (& maybe have a HR person present, too). Reiterate the job's priorities. Inquire how the the person can meet the expectations of the job and the team. (May help to pre-plan with HR the meeting's agenda and exact "talk items".) Have the person commit to the proposed plan of action. Continue to meet frequently to not let issues be unresolved. Don't judge, rather let the person speak fully and hear everything (....repeat what has been said at proper points to show you have heard and understand what the person has said).

Thought they would have been in a landfill in New Mexico by now.

They killed Santa!

It was so easy to find them given the map! Geez—

( yes way overstated )

@azedas101 said:

I was once attending classes on the above. Please is the language still in vogue?

If the real question is, "What programming language to learn?" Then try Python.

BASIC was long ago and now far away.

@RAM. said:

All People Seem To Need Data People
.... OSI!!!!

"Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away"

@Carnival-Boy If by "good thing" you mean insane, such as asking a automobile mechanic, "what repairs do you want tot do on my car? Feel free, anything s money is clearly not a concern."

Do question them for service clarity, claim specificity, and provide documentation for offers, products, and services? Yes, can be a starting point for vetting.

@lance Security != convenience

Funny about that.

Recalled a story circa 2006 of David Beckham having not one, but two, high end BMW X5s stolen. One turned up to be driven by Macedonian government minister—

• http://www.nbcnews.com/id/13507939/ns/business-autos/t/high-tech-thieves-use-laptops-steal-cars/
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6548033.stm
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-448158/Becks-stolen-BMW-used-Macedonian-Government-minister.html
• etc

@Nic said:

Too many monitors and you don't notice stuff anymore. More than two and it's too far in my peripheral vision.

Pfft! Lightweight. Learn to manage it, or get better eyes!

Have had 2 x 24" for years. Added a couple 19" for ancillary task monitoring. Synergy is helpful to switch back/forth on one of the 19", as needed. Typically have 2-3 computers for various things (physical or RDC), as well.

Still like this one—

• http://www.wired.com/2012/10/ff-inside-google-data-center/
  

Walk through it using StreetView:

• Front door, http://goo.gl/q1bh8
• Datacenter floor, http://goo.gl/w03sJ
• Exterior, http://goo.gl/syUx8

( tip of the hat to Tom Limoncelli for the streetview links )

Came up on an infographic site—

• Source, http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/the-depth-of-the-problem/931/?tid=sm_fb