Month: May 2003

How lazy can we get?

by

Ok so I tried out this fresh direct. It actually was really good. They came within a half an hour of when they said they would. And they apologized for being late! I even cooked up a steak I ordered from them. it was good. This begs to question how lazy can we (i) get? I don’t even have to goto the grocery store if I don’t want to. Is that a good or bad thing? Food shopping is ok to miss out on. But what about regular shopping? I spent about 2 hours with my dad today shopping at best buy. he wanted to look for DVD’s. Waiting on line all I could think about was how we could have just gotten DVD’s off amazon. The scary thing is that he would have probably gotten 50 times the selection off amazon also. So do we shop because we need stuff, or do we shop because it is a social thing and we need stuff? I am getting philosophical, but I took a class in college that focused on post WWII American culture. One aspect we covered was the mall culture. People actually spend the day at the mall, buying things is optional. Is the mall culture dead? Is the online buying culture alive and well? Probably not yet, but I have narrowed down the number of things I need to goto a physical store for by allot. I think there are less things I need to go out to a store for than there are that I can order and have shipped to me. Don’t get me wrong. I like to shop if it is for the write stuff. I actually liked spending time with my dad shopping. I don’t get to spend that much time with him so it was cool, but I avoid the mall now a days. I used to go just to go. Weird world we live in where I changed my entire perspective on something in less than 3 years.

I think I decided on what apartment to get. I will probably pick the first one I saw. The second one looked nicer, but I just had a not so good feeling about it. Even though the real-estate agent is expensive, it is not much more than doing it myself. The guy I would deal directly with wanted me to kick back his friend. The amount he wanted didn’t save me anything, since his rent would be higher than the other apartment.

Softball hurts

by

I ended up playing softball friday. It was very cold and slightly rainy. I only hit, I didn’t feel up to fielding. I am way out of shape after all. Turns out I did ok. I had 2 hits, and got out on a pop fly. I had one run. As Gus pointed out I did better than Keith who is athletic allot more than I am!

We went to some japanese bar after the game. It was nice. I hurt really bad this morning. Not used to any sport recently. Running in doc martin shoes is not a good idea either.

Some people were going to a karaoke bar after the first bar. I ended up taking off then. I don’t need to pay a cover to hear bad singers sing to me.

Poker plans for today were canceled. Not sure why, but John said he is trying to get a game with his brother and some guys next weekend. I told him I was in if he could get a game going.

I ended up working a bit today. I also slept late. that is always nice on a weekend. I went over to my parents for dinner. My aunt gale was over. I haven’t seen her in ages, probably since my sister’s wedding. Also my sister and morgan were over. Morgan is a cranky baby. I think she is just gassy. I got to feed her. it went well. I rate not getting puked on as a passing grade. She makes the funniest faces when she is sleeping. Every time I see her napping I think of the Barenaked ladies song “when you dream”. it is about what does a baby actually think about when they sleep. It is so funny, but true. You should give it a listen.

My dad wants to goto bestbuy tomorrow. That will be a loss of money for me. I always buy something when I go to that place. he needs to return a DVD or something.

I ordered from an online food delivery service called Freshdirect. A few people told me about it. Dan at work used it and thinks it is great. I got $50 in free steaks and they will deliver on sunday night. I will let you know how it goes. Still a few things I need to get at the regular grocery store that I couldn’t get online. But this seems like a great first step to no more food shopping.

Vmware & System changes

by

So I had this novel idea about VMware. what if I installed windows 2000 pro, or XP as a virtual client. Then put all the dangerous software in that client. That way if Kaza or limewire screwed up my install it would only mess up the virtual client and not my computer. I could have my own downloading system, within my normal system. It sounds good. I am trying it out on my desktop at home. I put windows 2000 pro in a virtual machine. I will see if things work out ok.

Keith had to rebuild Gus’ desktop server yesterday. Not sure what happened to it, but it got fried. We also had some problems with 2 rackable systems servers. They are these really small rack servers with IDE RAID. we got 4 servers in a bundle used for like $800. The worked fine for like 8 months but now we had 2 issues with one box, and 1 issue with another box. We are probibly going to take them out of production.

Our new DBA is kicking ass. He is forcing sweet security changes to our DB design. I think it is great. Besides fixing a lingering problem we have had, it also fixes a mind set. That is more important to me. It gets developers to realize that things are not done for their convience, but for best performance and security of the production systems. If someone is upset about stricter rules in handleing prodction code, there is no debate, they have to deal with it. It is a breath of fresh air for me. Gus has been pushing for this for as long as he has been here. We have seen great strides in this “production is more important that people” pheonominon in the past 3 months. It is no longer me being a pain in the ass to everyone. It is a bunch of us being a pain in the ass to everyone.

Softball anyone?

by

Today is my company’s 4th softball game. They are really bad. Or the have not won a game yet, and 2 of them were called since they were loosing by so much. Of course winning is not everything, and they did have fun playing. The first 3 games I had things going on that I could not make a game. Now today I can actually go. I forgot however that we had a game until about 10 minutes ago. That means that I did not dress for a game. Not that I wanted to play, but it would be interesting. I am debating on going and seeing the game instead of playing. I am not sure what I am going to do yet.

I got up today normal time and didn’t do anything that different than any other day, but I missed my normal train. Not sure why. Maybe I was just slower today than yesterday.

A bad sign is that my hands are hurting more first thing in the morning. I have been having issues with repetitive stress due to using the mouse alot. I am a righty, but use my left hand for moving the mouse most of the time now. The pain happens when I type, like now. It comes and goes. I need to have it looked at.

Tons of people from work went to see the matrix II last night. I now need to find someone who didn’t go so I can see it. My friend rich is in a wait and see mode with that movie. He is not a fan of the first one, so he isn’t running out to see this one. I hope someone hasn’t seen it so I can go with someone. With harry potter I didn’t see it in the theatures since everyone saw it when I finally got around to wanting to go.

So I took a small step to getting the 1 bedroom apartment I spoke about in my previous blog. In theory we have an understanding for a lease. I put a $100 down for a deposit, and I go back to look at the place with my parents on monday. I need my mom to check cosmetic things, since I don’t pick up on that stuff. My dad is just around to “supervise”. If they give the seal of approval, I go do a lease that day. This will actually be the first apartment I do that with my parents. the other ones were on my own. My first apt in NY was a mess, so having mommy look before I sign anything is a good thing.

Konfabusomthing

by

I use an Apple powerbook as my main personal computer. Well this week I do at least. But I digress. I have a Powerbook that is cool. I got this neet program called Konfabulator on it. It is like the old microsoft active desktop, but it actually works. I just downloaded a few neat “widgets” apps that run in Konfabulator. Yeah, they call them widgets, not me making stuff up. One of them is an offline blogging tool. Not sure if it better than Kun-Log, the program that I currently use. Tons of other useless but fun tools also. My favorate is the iTunes remote control and the magic 8 ball…

Gus gave me a bunch of other cool mac software to look at but I have not had time to look at it. I am still messing with VMWare.

Poker finally

by

So I have been waiting since december to do poker with friends at work. Still nothing going on with that. So I was surprised when my friend John IM’d me today asking if I wanted to play poker this weekend. I think I just spoke about him. He just moved back from New Orleans after only living down there since january. I haven’t played in a while, but I used to play in high school so I told him I was in.

Speaking of New Orleans friends, I spoke with jayson like 3 times last week, and then he disappears again. I left 2 voice messages for him and no response. This reminds me of most of college for me. I would go years without speaking to him and then he would show up. On the weird disappearing friend front, I don’t know what is up with Jori either. Not sure if she actually was moving or not. I need to call her. I feel bad that I missed her birthday party in april. I didn’t speak about that in the blog yet. Jori is a long story. I will talk about it at some point, but not right now.

My dentist appointment went ok I guess. he only drilled 2 teeth. He will do more in 2 weeks. My dentist also said that he won’t even fill some cavities. All of them are so small that he claims wont get much worse in 2 years. So why drill now when he doesn’t have to. I trust him so I wait. I just wished he did all 4 teeth that he wanted to work on in one procedure. Now I need to go back. I hate not feeling my face for 4 hours after he is done. The not being able to talk is also bad.

Standards, Standards, Standards

by

So today and tomorrow we deal with standards. Our hardware standard, the basis for how we buy and configure our Database Servers has been in place for just over a year. I have been getting complaints about no space, and some speed issues from others. I have called the brains together to get what is required for a standard over the next 12 months. That way I can buy them what they want and then tell them to shut up when they complain about it. Well, not exactly. But we need a blue print for how we do things for the next several months.

Also tomorrow I am meeting with our development people (well some of them anyway) to discuss our build standards for web servers. Same concept as hardware standards, but we talk about how to configure the OS on our web box’s. Once done we will refresh our web servers and set them up fresh.

As I left the office yesterday we had a problem with an apache web box we are using for a small project. turns out that this is considered important to our call center management. Now we need to fix the problem, and then take this applicaiton and make it redundant. We probibly will need to put it on 2 linux machines and place them behind our local directors. A local director is a device that splits the load of a web site amount multiple servers. Cool device.

On another front I have tons of outstanding quotes to get approved. Hardware requests just pile up. What is crazy is most of this stuff is not even related to our new office build. This is just normal office stuff that needs to be taken care of.

I haven’t yet found someone to run our new office’s helpdesk. Most applicants are not from the region. We need someone near by. Also most don’t have the skills. People do not read online job postings. They apply for jobs that don’t meat their qualifications at all. It is just a waste of time for everyone.

We spoke with our Project Manager and team for our phone system build out. The hardware is almost all in. We are sending them some network diagrams and stuff. Then we stage the system. I am excited. This will be awsome if it works out well. I think it will. Brand new systems can be designed without having to factor in old problems. We shall see… In the tunnel now. More later.

Apartment hunting more

by

Well after a flurry of posts 2 weeks ago I have been a little slower on the posts recently. I have not had my laptop every day on the train, and I have not always been able to write on every trip. Oh well.

I am sort of apartment hunting (see earlier blog entries). I think I found an apartment that I like. The only problem is that it is vacent now. That means that the land lord wants it filled by july 1. My lease runs out september 1. I would have to pay overlapping rent for 2 months as a worst case. I wanted to look at living in the city (manhattan for all you non NYC people). I looked online last night and could not find a building as nice as mine for my price range. My range is the same 1 beedroom apartment but costing no more than $300 more than what I am looking for in Queens. The dollar value I came up with is about is about what I pay to get to work for a month. The Railroad is expencive. No buildings I saw that had pools, and other conviences that I have at my building were in that price range. Yes, I don’t always goto the pool but I like knowing it is there. I also have used it in the past. The 1 hour commute is not great, but at least I get to sit and do work. 30 minute subway ride I will stand in a crowded subway. That would be bad.

Ok, so those are the facts. I am writting htem out because I want to describe my delema. Also I am trying to make sure I am doing the correct thing. I think I am, but if I have to write a big check no matter how correct I think I am, I will be crazy and second guess myself. That is just the way it is.

The other bad thing is that if I get this apartment and move on July 1, it will come right around when we are building out our new office. You can’t win when planning things like this.

Apartment hunting & doctors

by

One of the concierge’s in my building has been keeping an eye out for a one bedroom for me. I rent a studio now. Apartments in NYC are expensive even if you don’t live in manhattan. I want more space and my lease is up in a few months so I am shopping around. he came across a 1 bedroom in my price range. I called the lady who posted the notice. Hopefully it is what I want and I can agree on terms. I don’t want to have to deal with a broker. The guy I used for my current place was cool, but I don’t want to pay 1 1/2 months rent as a fee. That is just a waste of money.

My dad called and said he wants to shop around for a new computer. I need to get him to set a price so I can go shopping for him.

I need to make plans to see the matrix 2 this week. Hopefully Rich will be free. Rich is my movie buff friend from High School. Neither of us have been to the movies as much as we used to. Some movies like the matrix you make an exception. Of course I just remembered he hates kiano rieves. I know I can’t spell. I will call him later to check.

So I have a dentist appointment thursday. I am not sure how much this is going to cost me. I need 5 fillings. They say they are all minor, but when you drill into me it is NEVER minor. I need to see if this is going to cost allot or if Richard will be cool about the cost.

I also have an eye doctor apt for when I get back from barbados. it is make sure I am not falling apart season. If you knew me you would know I have had eye problems since I was born. I have had glasses since I was like 4, so the eye checkup is a holly thing for me. I am also hoping that my doctor will say the la-sic surgery is good enough for me to have now. Because of the shape of my eye I was not a candidate for the la-sic so far. I was told like 3 years ago to wait a bit. So it has been a bit, I will ask.

Home from chicago, back to work

by

So I am back home from my chicago visit. I just updated my blog with the entries I wrote while I was out on the road.

CDW was cool. Our sales rep was no different in person than over the phone! I almost walked past him when we were at the meet and great. My blindness shows in situations like that! Dinner was ok. The drinks were free so thus good. They had some tech guy turned comedian also perform. It was actually funny. I never like laughing at geeky humor, but it was funny.

We saw a few booths of items that we will look at once I get back to the office. I found a multi port, com port network device that I need for our data center and our office. We also saw some new headsets we could use when buying for our new call center. What fun, the things we think are cool. Also saw a new HP desktop using AMD chips. I am a fan of AMD, and they are cheap. I am going to look at that closely for our next purchase.

We were bored with allot of the stuff we heard. I can’t stand some conferences. Other parts were good, when you learn about the new tech stuff coming out.

All in all, a productive trip.

We got to the airport really early and caught a early flight. I got home around 4:40pm. Problems at work prevented me from taking a nap. Turns out one of our Development servers had a drive fail. Some people over reacted, but Keith calmed them down. The thing didn’t crash, just make noise that it had a problem. Keith will swap out the bad drive tomorrow with a spare we had on hand. We have a good backup of the data, so no harm done. That is why you build redundancy into things. I only wish we had a hot spare in that box. What can I say, when we built it we were cheap:)