Month: July 2003

Construction And The Kingston Project!

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I took some construction photos of our new office. The place is really shaping up. I will be up there on Tuesday turning on our Internet T-1’s and testing our first voice T-1. I should have some nice pictures then. The carpet should be done by then.

Everyone is stressing about our new huge project, but they are not talking about Kingston. Our business folks and our development team are freaking out over another project that is taking up all of there time. It is huge, and can be a massive success if we finish it on time and as advertised. I am freaking out because I have things to deliver for this other project, and I have to complete everything for Kingston. I am starting to worry if I will finish everything in time.

Our racks are not ordered yet because until tuesday I have no place to put them. I need power strips for the dam telecom room, but I cannot use them until the electrical is done. They are special plugs that you cannot just go out and buy at the hardware store. I have our initial batch of 25 computers waiting to ship. I got 3 to play with, and Joe is working on building a standard for them.

I have 1 of the 2 main Domain Controllers for the network built, but no security setup yet. I built a test domain so I can see if what I want to do will work without messing up my new production system.

I just ordered our tape drive unit. that should arrive this week. I then have to replace it with my current office’s system and setup the old one for kingston.

I haven’t even bought the hardware or software for anti virus and ghosting yet. Plus I need to setup network monitoring on a network that doesn’t even exist yet.

On top of that, Keith has to get me working Pix firewall’s by August 4th. I am also waiting for a revised network configuration for our Data Center that has to go out no later than the 7th of next month. Once that is done daniel can finish the new FTP server system we are deploying. I just ordered the hardware for that.

And if all that isn’t enough I have to make more room in the call center for more rep’s since we will need them before kingston is online. There is probably more that I am not even remembering right now.

Oh and don’t forget the Verizon strike scheduled for next Saturday.

The Best News Of The Summer!

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And most importantly the AC in my new apartment actually works. I am not hot most of the time like I was at the old place. Knock on wood. I leave the living room one on during the day, and the bed room one on at night and the place is perfect. I like it nice when I get home so I don’t mind paying to leave the 1 unit on when I am not home.

Now all they have to do is get the AC to work at my office. I bug Dan about it all the time, but so does everyone else. I know he hates it but whenever our website goes down he bugs me even though I don’t control everything about it. It is a vicious circle.

Wireless Woes

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Still having AT&T wireless issues. They want me to get a new SIM card. So I went to the store. They were out. How they can sell phones without the card, I have no idea. I guess they use extra ones for replacements. I called customer care again and they are sending one, after I argued with them on why I won’t be charged $25.00 to get one. Why a SIM card will cause the dam phone not to work in my apartment is beyond me, but weirder things have happened.

Howard is looking to see if he has his old Treo 180 around that I can borrow for a bit. I am debating on if I want to get a Treo again. Now I am thinking if I can use his black and white 180, and live with it I may just get one of those till november and get the new Treo 600 when it comes out. That will save me from buying the color model that is like $300 and then want to upgrade it 3 months later. The black and white Treo 180 goes for like $130 on ebay. That is allot cheaper. I will see. If he doen’t have it I may just get it and take the risk on the $130.

On the plus side my new T-40 is great. And I got my cannon scanner to work with Mac OS 10.2 without a problem.

Cute Morgan

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I got home just in time to get a call from my sister about going to dinner with her and my parents. We went to the local deli. The highlight was playing with my niece Morgan. She is so cute. I threw someone out of my office today who commented on my computer background by saying “oh a cute boy”. The pink didn’t give away she was a girl, I don’t know what to say.

My family ended up at my place since my sister needed to feed the baby before she drove home. Morgan was not in any mood to wait to eat. My parents are still using my place to shower while they redecorate. I showed my mom how to use Tivo tonight. That means it will be all screwed up tomorrow when I get home.

Queue This

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So the more I work in the technology field, the more I realize what I don’t know. I learned about a totally new type of product last night. Now I need to become an expert in how it is tied into Windows 2000 Active Directory. The product is MSMQ or Microsoft something or other messaging queue. it is really interesting stuff, but I never dealt with it before. This is one of the many new projects I am learning about.

I am knee deep in setup stuff for our new Kingston office. I have the Active Directory model set. Now I have to build it. I ordered the first batch of 25 desktops today. They wont ship till August but we locked the price and model in. We are waiting on some better deals for flat panels before we order them.

Our cable guy’s finally called us back today. Joe is going to kingston on thursday to meet with them and make sure the plan is set and the work begins and finishes on time. I am still waiting for an install date on our long distance T-1’s. We keep getting the run around from our carrier. I am freaking out that the LEC verizon goes on strike in August. And yes, they will strike. both sides of that argument are no where near an agreement. That will get messy.

Family Visit’s

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My parents are getting there kitchen and bathroom redone over the next 2 weeks. For some reason they don’t want to move out during that time. I live the closest to them so they were over here tonight to use my shower. My mom is going to hang out at my place tomorrow I think. I just have to remember to clean up before I goto work. It was nice seeing them since I haven’t seen them all last week since work was crazy.

AT&T Wireless Officially Sucks

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Yes they do. So I bought a cheap used unlocked GSM phone on ebay. It is a Ericsson T-28w. I had one years ago. They are ok, but it was dirt cheap and unlocked. That means I can plug any GSM card into it and it will work. So I put my AT&T Wireless card in and the calls sucked just as bad as they did with my top of the line Sony Ericsson T-68i. I put my T-Mobile SIM in and the thing worked fine. It even worked decent at work, where T-Mobile with a T-68 never worked well. I was about to cancel T-Mobile last week and something told me to hold onto it for a while. I have gotten everyone to use the new number for like 3 months now, but I figured I should keep it around. Good thing I did. Now I don’t know if I am going to get rid of T-Mobile or AT&T. One has to go. AT&T, I love my phone number but that is about it. At this stage in my contract I am just thinking of keeping it and putting myself on the $19.95 plan and not use it. That is cheaper than canceling the thing. Then in November, I can keep that number and move it somewhere else. November is when phone number portability comes to cell phones!!! Finally. On the plus side the T-Mobile account is really cheap for allot of minutes. I get like 600 min with unlimited nights and weekends for under $40.00.

I am going to use both for a while, and see what happens. Thankfully I have my verizon phone still. Yes I have 3. I am only supposed to have 2, but I can’t seem to get rid of T-Mobile. I am really a techie.

Long Lost Friends

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This week was a week of communicating with people who I have not spoken to in ages. I got an unexpected reply to my change of address email from my friend from college Marty Snyder. I haven’t spoken to him in like 3 years. He is married and expecting a kid. Wow, we are getting old.

I also IM’d my friend Steve. He is buying a house up in Albany. I am need to let him know when I am doing Kingston so I can see him and Jenn (his wife, and also a friend from school) when I am up there.

And I previously mentioned talking to Sean on MSN. For some reason he can use that at work, but not AIM.

I am also sending a really late wedding card to my friend lonnie. So hopefully we can get in touch also. I wasn’t planning on speaking with all these people, but it is a pleasant surprise.

new blog server

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Ok after all the work I did fixing my moveabletype server, I have moved my blog to Gus’ server. He was kind enough to let me run my blog on that box so I can free up my server to continue my linux education. I was afraid of damaging my blog while I messed with linux. The new blog looks the same as the old one, it is just on a different server. I just ordered a new style sheet for the blog, but wont have that for a day or so. Blogstyle’s is a great site, but I hate having to pay for stuff.

I have to say the import/export features on Moveable-type are fantastic. getting the data from one blog server to another took like 10 minutes total. Setting up the server took longer than the actual import. It was great. Exporting is also a great way to backup your blog entries. I will do that on regular intervals now.

Now I am off to play with exchange 2003. News on that later, if I get it working correctly.