Month: April 2004

Jayson At Work

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Jayson will be in New York Monday night. He is going to do some contract work for my company for a few weeks while we search for a helpdesk person. I have a bunch of projects he is going to help me on. If all goes well we will improve our data center allot!!!

I am a bit nervous about him coming up. Not sure why. He is very professional and works fast. I am a bit rattled by Keith leaving, and Jay is another person I know coming to work. I vouched for him, so I am a bit nervous. I don’t think he will let me down, but I worry anyway. It will be interesting to work with him again. The last time we did was back in 1999 when we were in Baton Rouge.

It will be weird having one of my oldest friends working for me, even temporarily. On the plus side is we get along so well, and he is no nonsense like me. We should get allot done.

On the flip side I have a guy starting monday that will be our Release Manager. He will also work with our production systems providing support. He seems pretty sharp, so I am hoping for the best. Lots of change recently. Change is good, but it can be scary.

This blog entry was written while listening to Wherever You Will Go by The Calling

Vacation?

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I need one. I want one. I have a willing travel companion. Why can’t I think of where to go?

I am not going anywhere so soon. Work is a bit crazy right now. I need to fill a position in our NYC office. I also have a new guy that is starting that needs to get broken in. Also Gus will be away for several weeks in May. Hopefully I can think of something to do in May and go in July or something. Of course the tropical islands is not the place to go during the summer. I have to think about this a bit.

I will ponder now and hopefully come up with something soon. I better do it soon. I have maxed out my time off. I need to use it or I cannot generate any more.

This blog entry was written while listening to Crash and Burn from the album “Affirmation” by Savage Garden

Printing

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I am (sort of) on the market for a new printer. My old (new) printer is an HP laser jet 1000 printer. it is great except it won’t work on my mac. It just wont work. I checked everywhere. I want a laser printer that will work with my mac. I bought the HP before I got into Mac’s and thought that printer would last me years. My first (and only other printer I have bought) was a HP desk-jet 300 portable printer. it lasted me like 7 years before I got a free upgrade from my dad.

I may sell the printer on ebay and buy a new one that will do what I want. Now I am thinking that I should look for a bluetooth enabled printer to work with my Mac? that way I can keep it away from my desk. Maybe hide it in my wall unit. That would be cool. I am still researching the options. I am also looking for the extra cash to pay for this:)

This blog entry was written while listening to Superman from the album “America Town” by Five for Fighting

Saturday With Friends

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I tried to catch up on some work this morning. I had the time. I got up at 10AM. Still cannot sleep, but I refuse to take something unless I am sick. So no drugs for that for me right now.

I meet up with Alison and friends in the afternoon. She had friends from college come up from New Jersey and wanted me to meet them. By the afternoon I was feeling a bit out of it from a potential headache but I knew it meant allot to her for me to go. I met them at the Cheese Cake Factory. I had a light lunch/dinner. Her friends were cool. I had a good time, and I think they did also.

We walked around the mall for a while (see the MOB for some pictures) and then went to this new ice cream place. It was really good. They mash the toppings right into the ice cream as you stand there. It was the first time I went to the cheese cake factory and didn’t get cheese cake. The desert was good anyway. I wasn’t that hungry from the the headache. I barely ate my meal and had half the ice cream. it was still good.

We all went to Jillian’s to try and play some bowling. Don’t ask, it wasn’t my idea. They were having a party so we couldn’t play there. We then went to another bowling place by Alison’s apartment. That place also was busy for hours. Turns out people play leagues of bowling during the early evening on Saturday. Information that you don’t need to know.

We ended up at a bar and just hung out for a while. It was fun. we called it a night early because 4 of them had to drive back to jersey. Alison and her friend Alison went to the movies. I didn’t want to push the headache thing with going to a loud movie so I passed. Sean called from work when we were at the bar so I had something I had to do for work anyway.

End of day. FYI it is warm in my apartment right now. I hope for AC soon!!!

This blog entry was written while listening to Bent from the album “Beneath These Fireworks” by Matt Nathanson

Migraine Update

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When I started this blog I told myself it would server a small personal function to document when I had migraines and when I took medication. Not anything anyone needs to know about, but it saves me from having to keep it in a spread sheet. I write about my day in this blog anyway, so it just made sense. And yes I said I would otherwise have to keep this record in a spread sheet. The doctors tell you to do that so you know when you had one.

Well this week I have taken medication for my Migraines 3 days. Thursday I had to leave early because the drugs weren’t working and I didn’t think I was going to make it through the rest of the day. I left a little after 2PM. I went home and slept all afternoon and night.

Today I felt like I was getting one and then it never really took hold. That is good, but I felt down most of the day.

Why am I getting them? I think I know myself to know this by now. 3 reasons. 1, stress. If you know me you know what is going on at work right now. Short term bad stress, longer term things will be good. Second lack of sleep due to the stress. And lastly the one thing I cannot control; the weather. I actually get migraines from the weather change from cold to hot or vice versa. Lack of AC at work and at home is not helping. Work AC is an unknown right now. I don’t know how I can goto the office if we don’t have AC in May. As for my apartment it will get turned on when the wether gets and stays warm, or May 15. Which ever comes first. The good news is that my building has turned it on as early as April 4, 2 years ago.

This blog entry was written while listening to Hidden Track from the album “Retro Active” by Def Leppard

Blackberry Pagers

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My company uses several blackberry 950 pagers for our on call staff. People carry them and get automated emails when a server is having an issue. We get allot of them sometimes. Originally when we got pagers we used Skytel. They were good. Then we switched to Motient. They are good also. The coverage is great, but they just changed their pricing.

It used to be that you got unlimited email’s for $49.99 a month. Now that gives you 1 meg of downloads. You pay for everything over that. We have been going way over our quota. Our bills are upwards of $250 per pager. I have been looking for a solution for a few weeks, but my CEO asked about the bill yesterday. he was like how many pagers do I have? I explained the situation, and he agreed that a new solution should be out there.

So far all I can think of is buying Cingular or T-Mobile Blackberry phones and using their unlimited data plans for our paging. I am going to replace 1 pager with a bigger blackberry and see how it works out. It is just going to take a little time to get that setup.

This blog entry was written while listening to Mandolin Rain from the album “The Way It Is” by Bruce Hornsby

Bluetooth, Powerbook, And A T610 = Awesome

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I have had a new Sony Ericsson T610 for a little over a week now. Actually I am on my second one. The first one’s camera stopped working on day 2, so T-Mobile gave me a new one. So far this one seems fine.

This phone is nice, but the best feature is the bluetooth. I can sync with my Powerbook while the phone is in my bag. No more entering contact information into the phone. I know I could have (and have) done this on other phones, but the sync software on the pc and the usb or ir methods sucked. This is a breeze. Setup on the powerbook was easy too. I also got GPRS dial up to work. Now I can use my T610 as a modem anywhere I get good signal while using my Powerbook. I was just checking my mail on the rail road. The phone was still in my bag. Now that is technology that works.

The only kink is that the GPRS is slow, and on the train the signal is sometimes spotty. When I get good signal the connection rocks.

Projects

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I am now short handed in NYC. Ironically I fill a slot in one location a slot opens up in another locoation. The hunt is on for a new support guy. Until that happens allot of projects are being put on hold. Or at least their completion date is on hold. Yesterday’s workload was not bad, but it was the calm before the storm.

I finally got my server to build the new FTP system. That is on hold until I can find the time to work on it.

Our upgrade to the notification system is on hold since I won’t have time to do the documentation or the work on it for the short term. The list goes on and on.

This blog entry was written while listening to Bed of roses from the album “Keep The Faith” by Bon Jovi

Turnover

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The past few days have been some of the most difficult I can ever remember at work. At an company you always have turnover. People come and go. Some stay for a short time, and others it is hard to remember the office without them.

The other day someone I considered a friend departed. It was not easy for me. It was probably one of the hardest things I ever had to do in my professional career. It is always hard when someone leaves that you like, but this time was especially difficult.

There is so much more I want to say, but due to the public nature of a blog I cannot. Maybe I will write it all down, and post it in a year? I cannot harp on the past. The only thing I can do is move on to the next thing…

Documentation

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I have written about it before (i think) but in a technical job you never can have enough documentation. We take it for granted. In a smaller company you also know everyone who did work, so you just go ask the source of information for help. That is not a good way to do things.

My department has been attempting to write documentation for most day to day issues, and some more routine server / network issues.

The next step is to put that in a database of some kind. Gus likes Wiki’s. Not sure if what we want to do will be perfect for that software or not. There are tons of other forum or idea posting systems that we can use on linux.

For now I am content with just getting everything as a word document and worry about putting a UI on it later. Right now I need content. This process is really two separate ones with the same goal, but different content. What I mean is I am gathering how to’s from the support department at the same time as I am building a FAQ so to speak for the company at large. One will be very technical and for my departments use only. The other will be for everyone’s use and will answer simple questions about where or who to goto for information or how something is done in the company. Both projects are related because it is information gathering. Putting down on paper what has only been in peoples heads for so long.

Documentation is a slow difficult process. Unfortunately most technical documentation is not that good!