Time to pivot (again)

Posted by jack1776 11 months, 2 weeks ago to Business
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In January of 2023 I received word that my position was being eliminated, I was getting shitcanned. Fortunately, the division this corporation was shitcanning had subscribers, upwards of 2500 businesses; this led the corporation to keep us around to keep the “lights on” while these people transitioned off. This triggered an opportunity for me to pivot from technology to café owner, to allow my wife to chase her dream. One year later, she has two locations and a third opening next month in downtown Boise, ID.

I also created a technology consulting business at the beginning of this year; I specialize in desktop as a service automation. My customers are Independent Software Vendors (ISV) that would like to sell their products in a managed environment and Managed Service Provider (MSP) which manage cloud environments for multiple businesses. I’ve had some success… But…

I see the writing on the wall, we are headed for dark times as it is ordained by the people with the strings. Search where I suggest that most of this craziness is deliberate, from the fentanyl crises to the genital confusion to the wars and the vaccine. It’s all ordained, I think hard times will happen.

So, I’m considering pivoting once again to market independence in technology. I want to assist businesses that want to get out of the cloud, reduce or eliminate the eavesdropping that big tech does on your data, own their data once again. Since this is a new untapped segment as I don’t know anyone anymore promoting on-premises private clouds solutions besides maybe Hillery Clinton and her e-mail server. This is the portfolio I’m thinking about:

-- Virtualization technology solutions besides cloud provides and VMware/Citrix/Microsoft.
-- Desktop operating system alternatives besides Microsoft Windows and Office.
-- Data storage solutions besides cloud providers and NetApp.
-- Firewall solutions not utilizing expensive Cisco products.
-- Enterprise software solutions for data, e-mail and web not utilizing big tech.
-- Cell phones not using Google Android or Apple IOS.
-- And finally, automation of these platforms.

All the above is accomplished with open-source software, most of it is freely available.

My target market will be business owners who themselves are preppers or at least wish they had the time themselves to prep and want to help protect their business from the pending tyranny.

I’m using this a quasi-market research, the question to the fellow Galt’s Gulch members that have business, is this something on your mind? Have you considered regaining control of your business data?

Jack

All Comments

  • Posted by freedomforall 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    Buying on eBay is ok.
    Selling has become an expensive nightmare for electronics unless you list them as "parts only".
    eBay protects buyers at the expense of individual sellers.
    Unscrupulous buyers take advantage, by returning things at the seller's expense after they
    change their minds about the purchase (and sometimes intentionally cause damages to do so.)
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  • Posted by jack1776 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    I’d recommend storing the master replicate locally then replicating a backup copy to a cloud service. If you have more than a single location, you can do a multi-master replication technology to keep everything in sync between locations.
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  • Posted by tutor-turtle 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    My old employer instructed us to make two backups, one stored locally, one stored off-site (in case of fire).
    Hard Drives are dirt cheap these days.
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  • Posted by mhubb 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    also, for a PC, get a copy of VM-Ware
    that allows you to build Virtual Machines on newer hardware.

    i have Windows 10 as the host, i just built a VM of Windows 98, works fine. they only issue is that games run too fast as they were designed for older, slower processors. my host has dual Xeon 2.67ghz processors

    you can get a cheap VM Host (on eBay)
    HP Workstations, Z600, Z800, Z640, Z840, HP Z6 G4, all can run VM-Ware and and would have enough drive space and power for multiple VMs
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  • Posted by mhubb 11 months, 2 weeks ago
    the hospital system i work for keep moving stuff outside of their walls.

    months ago, a Microsoft Service went down, people could not get their jobs done

    the reason, they think it saves money to turn more and more control over to Microsoft.

    wait till there is an issue and they are back to using paper, too much stuff now exists outside the walls of the company, bad idea
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  • Posted by mhubb 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    i keep saying similar things

    in the past, people could take care of themselves, outside of the cities

    that is no longer the case.....
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  • Posted by mhubb 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    eBay is a good source of old hardware

    yup, i know....eBay

    i just finished remaking a Windows 98 box and a VM. old games won't run on the new Windows crap
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  • Posted by mhubb 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    eBay has copies of a product called
    Norton Uninstall Delux

    on Windows, it allows you to remove applications, making a copy of the uninstall as a new install
    it was forced off the market years ago for obvious reason (no longer allowed to make backup copies)

    you might want to use a drive cloning app to make a copy of the hard drive in that computer, that way you can try and find the same hardware from eBay is that one dies
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  • Posted by tutor-turtle 11 months, 2 weeks ago
    My wife bought the Adobe Suite when she was teaching at University.
    Now the programs won't work on the new machines (> OSX 10.11.6).
    Available as cloud based only service at many $100's/per month.
    That is not the worst of it.
    Having all you designs and work on their servers means your work can and will be stolen, with no way of you knowing or being able to trace the thieves to hold them to account.
    This is so wrong.
    The only recourse she has, is if I can keep her legacy computers up and running.
    I can and will to the best of my ability. But after a time, lack of parts availability and software incompatibly issues will eventually encircle us.
    Back when I was doing military IT, they wanted their legacy systems up and running. Forever.
    That meant keeping hardware like IBM PC's from the early 1980's functional.
    While totally impractical, it was not impossible.
    New hardware was designed and built to run the Legacy software, in some cases we used a Raspberry PI.
    Being air-gaped from the outside world negated any comparability issues.
    I think this is where folks like us will eventually end up.
    Isolated from outside threats, only limited, dedicated machines to do simple searches and mailing functions.
    All our real work will necessarily have to be air-gapped from prying eyes.
    This may not be the answer you were hoping for Jack, but I see little practical alternatives once AI is fully on-line.
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    I'm not an expert in this, but Synology is a quality company. They well-manage the software for it, with regular updates, quality HW. I forget the whole analysis I did when I bought it.
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  • Posted by alunde 11 months, 2 weeks ago
    Jack,

    I've been on a similar path as you and am in the progress of pulling things back onto my premise.

    Would love to compare notes. If inclined, let's trade emails. -Andrew
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  • Posted by term2 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    I think its natural for people to interact and trade with each other. In our present environment, however, one can lose far more than one might gain by being in business. The government can simply take it away from you because you are politically incorrect, or you lose it through our legal system even though you haven't hurt anyone (think TRUMP's current problems).

    One of the advantages of going GALT is that you free yourself from a lot of the current disadvantages of engaging in public businesses.
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  • Posted by $ TomB666 11 months, 2 weeks ago
    Some Dentists are storing all of our information 'in the cloud'. I had an appointment but the cloud wasn't working so they couldn't see me because they had NO ACCESS to any of their records. If you are planning to help businesses keep all their records in their own facility on computers not connected to 'the cloud' I think you'll have a lot of business if those businesses understand how dependent they are on outsiders. Those dentists lost a whole days worth of business and I have no idea how many customers (like me ) changed to another firm. Good Luck :-)
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  • Posted by jack1776 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    All true, I agree that we are all in way too deep…. Could you imagine if last week’s solar storm took out transformers and anything electronic, we would be in a world of hurt right now. If your data and infrastructure is with big tech, kiss your data and your ass goodbye, your not getting it anytime soon because many other are much more important companies will get theirs first.

    The other aspect to this that has gone 100% unreported is the weakening of our magnetic fields due to the higher rate of moment of our magnetic poles. It protects us from these solar mass ejections and even though this was a stronger CME, we still shouldn’t have seen aurora in Arizona. This was due to our weak magnetic fields.
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  • Posted by jack1776 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    Have not looked at Synology NAS, what does it have compared to TrueNAS? Really happy with TrueNAS and how I’m using it for both VM storage and docker volumes over NFS.
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  • Posted by jack1776 11 months, 2 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    This is a concern, it’s part education than sales in my opinion. I agree with you in the fact that if you don’t know you need it, do you really need it? I really don’t think business owners know the peril they are putting their business in.

    The other aspect to this is to discuss the reoccurring license model, paying monthly for the privilege to use is horrible. Switching all or part of their licensed software could save money, now that it’s a monthly fee. Switching to a hosted AD infrastructure with Linux Mint clients joined to a AD domain on Samba with remote access through a RDP connection is zero cost for software. Throw LibreOffice in for a desktop office suite and the business could save a considerable chunk of money.

    The technology stack I’m using for this solution in XCP-NG, TrueNAS, pfSense, and Docker, among other automation tools.

    Thanks for your input…
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 11 months, 2 weeks ago
    GREAT Idea! Great. I can imagine many people endorsing this. However, you better get cameras and body guards. If Google or Amazon see you getting traction, or the Government sees you offering a solution to their ridiculous 4th Amendment violations, You stand a good chance of disappearing.

    I absolutely love it. Would invest.
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  • Posted by term2 11 months, 2 weeks ago
    I dont like the "cloud", the electric grid, and a lot of the things we have gotten ourselves too dependent on. The supply chain shortages are just the tip of the iceberg. There are just a few main roads into Las vegas where I live- take them out and this town would turn into riot central. Let there be damage to one gasoline pipeline from California and there were near riots at the gas stations here literally within a few hours of the information leaking out.

    A depression with big shortages would result in havoc because people are so dependent on each other to maintain our current lifestyle.

    This is NOT like 1930's where you basically could live on your farm and have basic needs met. Today, you cant live in your apartment and get food and even water if there is an electrical interruption of more than a few hours.
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