Month: December 2003

iTunes Rocks

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So I bought some more music on the iTunes store. I am not a huge fan of buying music, but getting it online from apple is flexible (i can burn to disk and use the files anywhere I want, unlike other services) and it is cheaper than buying a CD. I got Barenaked Ladies latest CD. You may have seen some of the songs listed as what I was listening to when writing this blog. It is a decent album. I found 2 songs I liked, but I think there last one (or was it 2 albums ago) was better. They are a band I would like to see in concert. Their music is funny, and they make good music.

This entry was written while listening to California from the album “Rip It Off” by Stroke 9

Lazy Day And Hardware Upgrades

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Today was a lazy day. I caught up on what I had on the Tivo. I also did some email and just hung out. I did some food shopping since they say it may snow tomorrow. I had no food left, so I figured it was a good time to do that.

I also installed 512 more megs in my new 20″ iMac. Now I have 768 megs in it. I can put a full gig in it, but apple decided to only include 256 with them machine. If I want to get a full gig, I need to remove that 256 and put a 512 meg chip in its place. The only problem is you cannot get to that memory without going to an authorized repair center. It is sealed within the machine. The other slot is not. So for now I am at 768 megs, it should be enough for now. I also put my airport extreme card into the mac. I don’t have the laptop anymore so I figured I would use it. Since my server is in the closet on wireless, I get no extra speed by leaving the mac wired to my 100megabit switch. I cannot transfer files between the desktop and server any faster than the wifi anyway. Now I just have 1 less wire plugged into the iMac.

In my free time I also imported most of my online photo album into iPhoto. Photos imported allot faster on the iMac then they did on either of my Powerbooks. I need to get photos from my parents to scan and increase my album a bit.

Also today I watched some DVD’s. I just got 2 more shows on DVD. I got Firefly on DVD. It was a scifi show that didn’t last too long on tv. It was actually very good, and I was surprised when it came out on DVD. I didn’t watch too many of them, so I decided to buy it. I also got Buffy season 5. I mocked that show for years, and then Rich gave me season 1 to watch and I actually liked it. Go figure.

This entry was written while listening to Maybe Katie from the album “Everything to Everyone” by Barenaked Ladies

Friday

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Friday was a good day. Work was crazy since justin isn’t around, but Keith and I got by. We had to move 5 people’s desks to get ready for a new guy starting monday. We got 3 of them done, and will do the rest Monday. Keith got the brunt of the grunt work. I had to deal with some Kingston issues, 2 meetings, admin work, and I had to free up disk space on our main file server. All while trying to build a new desktop for the new hire and help keith with some of the moves. It was a busy day.

Friday night the president of our company had a holiday party at his house in Jersey. I didn’t go. It is a really long trip, and I had other plans. Last year I got stuck setting up a wireless network in his house.

I ended up going to a pretty decent italian restaurant for dinner. It was nice. Didn’t know what to do after dinner, so we ended up bowling of all things. It turned out to be a load of fun.

If I thought I Was Busy Before

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If I thought I was busy at work before, I am in way over my head now. One of the guys on my team left yesterday. We are now short handed. The big problem is the small issues now slowing down getting the bigger projects done.

I have 1 Windows 2003 Server with Active directory done for our nyc office. it is already in production. I need to finish moving stuff off one other server and then move the AD roles to the 2k3 server. Then I can rebuild the other box, and move on in the upgrade cycle.

A major web site for a customer of ours is launching tonight. Thankfully it didn’t require too much time on my teams part, but it ate up resources.

As I mentioned before I am also trying to merge our mail systems for 1 department. I have 2 call centers who are supposed to interact with each other, but they are on 2 different mail systems. We are going to merge our NYC call center people with our Kingston mail system, since the kingston system is newer and it is cheaper to maintain. Then when that is done we will have all our call center people on one mail system and the remainder of the company on another. The good news is the new mail system (Imail 8.0) is awesome. I have been a fan of Imail for years, since like version 5.0 I think. I never used it at work, but have at home or when I hosted my site with someone. So far I am very happy with it.

Been Sick Again

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Every year I get 1 or two colds and that is it. 2 weeks out of the year I take Nyquil and complain allot. Then I am fine except for allergies and migraines the rest of the year. This year is not going according to my normal plan. I had a cold in AuGust. I got the flue for two weeks in October and a cold. Now I have another cold this week. I am not pleased. I took yesterday off to try and kick the cold. It helped a little, but I still feel it.

I went from the soar throat phase monday and tuesday to the ears and nose problems Wednesday and thursday. Then today I have the nose and cough going on. What fun.

Upgrades Galore

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Over the past few days I have completed building my first Windows 2003 Domain Controller for our NYC office. Last night I moved a few DHCP scopes onto it. I will finish that this weekend. I also moved our callcenter mail server to our data center. It completes my migration to IMail 8.0. It is a nice little mail program. Next up is moving NYC call center people to this mail server. That requires changing their email address’. No one will be happy about that. I am working on a migration plan now.

I also need to learn more about rsync. We are going to use it for some new things starting soon.

T-Zones

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So the cell number switch looks like it is done and working. Besides having my voice mail reset and loosing my T-Zones internet access everything worked. I had to call to have the internet setup again and then I was off and running. Lets see if my bill is screwed up because of this. I was not under contract and hope to remain that way. I like keeping my options open.

Still enjoying my Treo 270, but the battery keeps dying at night if I use it all day. Still waiting for the 600…….. and waiting, and waiting…….

This entry was written while listening to Stacies Mom from the album “Welcome Interstate Managers” by Fountains of Wayne

Number Portability Complete

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After waiting years for the rules to take affect, and 6 days from when I made my request I finally got the SMS message telling me my cell number had transfered from AT&T to T-Mobile. It actually worked. I was beginning to doubt it for a while. But it is done. I had to setup my voicemail over again, but other than that everything seems to be working fine.

I am not sure if I need to cancel AT&T service of if it is done automatically. I hope I have to call, that way I can delay for 20 days and not pay the contract cancelation fee.

Now all that is left is waiting for Handspring to release the Treo 600 for T-Mobile!!! That and letting everyone know my number changed back to the old one again. People don’t like me doing that allot!!!

This entry was written while listening to Make It Last from the album “Nasty Little Thoughts” by Stroke 9