Month: April 2004

Backlog

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When you work in a real support environment you know about a backlog. The art of being so far behind you have a list or several lists to keep track of how old problems are. We use a ticketing system to track all outstanding issues. Each support request is considered a ticket. A ticket goes into a Queue. A queue is like requests such as all helpdesk tickets go in one queue. All production tickets go into one queue. You get the picture.

Yesterday at one point we had over 35+ open tickets between 4 people. Not sure if that is a record for us, but it was busy. Monday’s are like that.

The problem with the system is people. People are supposed to input requests into the system and we will prioritize it, and then put it in queue. Well people think they will get faster response if they go over to us and say “i have so and so problem”. It doesn’t work very often, but people still do it. Then we get the people who come over and are like “i put a ticket in 2 seconds ago but want to see when you would work on it, or here is more information than I wrote in my 2 line request.” Come on people, you are not going to get faster help if you bother us.

Long, Crappy Day

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Today was crappy. it was wet. I thought I lost my wallet, and ended up going to the subway and realized I didn’t have it. I went back to the office in the rain to find it on my desk. I never do that, so I was not happy with myself.

That was the end of the day. I am not on the Rail Road home. I am slowly unwinding from the day. Writing the blog actually helps me relax a bit.

I can sum up my problems today with one word. Frustrating. I cannot go into it, but it is something that is ongoing and it is just frustrating. Even more so since I cannot talk about it here. Read whatever you want into that statement. I am just saying sometimes work is frustrating.

I have to build a new FTP server that supports SFTP by friday. I still don’t have the hardware to run it on yet. That should hopefully arrive tomorrow or Wednesday.

The tech guys in Kingston may or may not meet some deadlines for new projects to complete. They are working on new user profile security. A major due date is Friday, and then the following friday.

Keith and I have to figure out how to rebuild the old call center in NYC. that will take some outside help. I need to move the remaining call center people to their new home, and then do some restructuring. That will be fun.

I want to go home and order some food and forget about everything in front of the TV. Not sure if that will happen yet.

Jury Duty

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I thought they forgot about me, but I have been asked (really sort of told) that my Government (City/State Government that is) needs me as a Jury alternate. I have to start calling some week in May. I postponed this last year, and they were supposed to call me to come in back in November. I guess they forgot or didn’t need me. Now I got the post card. Not too happy about it.

At least I am an alternate and I hopefully can get away with not showing up to the courthouse for a few days, and then HOPEFULLY spend only one day there. it is so boring to do.

Ironically my mom got called for the same week and status as me. She is also an alternate. Makes some sense. We have the same first initial and same last name. She also lives relatively nearby me. I wonder if we will get called to the same courthouse? Never know.

OS X & It’s BSD Root

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Every time I talk to a hard core computer guy (or girl) and tell them I am into Mac’s now, they say “cool, have you done anything with the terminal?” Or something like that. Meaning have I used the BSD commands in it? Until today, not really. I finally had a project I wanted to do, and it required me to play with config files. I wanted to do something with Samba that would allow me to share other files besides my home folder on the network. I played around and got Swat to work. Swat is a web GUI based configurator for Samba. I know I could have just edited the smb.conf file, but I wanted to play with swat also.

Next up is playing with apatche a bit, and maybe try moveable type on a Mac. it has been done, and a mac is after all built on BSD!!!

Saturday Recovery

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Saturday I took it easy. I was semi recovering from Friday, and I had stuff I wanted to do around the house.

Even though I wanted to keep my desk area clear of extra cables, I broke out the KVM so I could build a new desktop machine. I had two in the closet. I had my Dad’s old Dell Dimension XPS 600r, and my old P-4 800 that I still had lying around. The P-4 is a better box, but I had problems with it the last time I was building a computer. I couldn’t remember what was up with it, but I still cannot get an OS to build on it. I ended up using my Dad’s old dell to put Suse 9.0 on it. I want to start using Linux again at home. My website still runs on a Windows 2003 server, but I don’t feel like a real tech guy if I let Gus host my blog on his moveable type setup. I at least want to try and get the system to work. If I don’t use it, I am cool with that.

Other than that I did some quick grocery shopping. I love fresh direct, but sometimes you want small stuff that doesn’t make using the service worth while. Also they don’t have everything so I still have to goto the grocery store every so often. I do need to make another fresh direct order this week. I am running out of food at home.

Friday Softball

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Friday was my companies first softball game. We got cool new jersey’s this season. I am again my lucky #3. It was an interesting game. I of course didn’t play, but I went to watch. If last year is any indication, in the beginning everyone wants to play softball. After a few games you get less and less people showing up. I think the sign up sheet had almost 40 people wanting to play. With that kind of turn out I don’t want to play. Not that into it, and I figure I would let others play that wanted to. I got a jersey in case they need players later when everyone doesn’t want to go to games. Either way it is fun to watch. We won 16 to 15. It was an interesting game.

Before the game Cari, Dari, & I went to dan’s to give him a gift basket. He has been out due to back surgery so he welcomed the company, even if it was for 5 minutes. We surprised him at his apartment. It wasn’t a good idea. He couldn’t get up to buzz us in, and his dad (who is staying with him after surgery) was out walking the dog. We had to wait till his dad got back before we could get into the apartment.

After the game we went to a bar near the field. We had a few drinks and pizza on Glenn our CEO. He played first base. It was cool of him to treat us.

Stuff To Do

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I wasted most of this evening already. My mom is out of town on vacation with some friends, so my dad is all alone. We went out to dinner tonight. After dinner I got home and checked my mail and did the usual reading the news sites, etc.

I then fixed my problem with my Powerbook & Bluetooth dialing the internet on my new Sony Ericsson T610 phone. Not sure that I did anything differently from yesterday but when I started over for the 3rd time it worked. More on that later.

I know I have other things I have to do. I need to probably do food shopping. Tons of work beckons me from the office. I also need some clothes that I have to buy off of some websites. One or two other things I think I have to take care of, yet what they are escapes me as I sit here and write. I am in my comfy chair listening to music and writing. All is right with the universe. If my doctor saw how I was sitting right now he would laugh and tell me “no wonder you get back pains”. I am just so comfy right now I don’t want to move.

I started taking my allergy medication again 2 days ago. I take Zertec. Today I finally noticed it working. My sinus’s are killing me. I was so stuffed up for so long it is weird how good it is to feel them clearing out. Man I never knew how much mucus a person can produce. Enough nasty thoughts for you tonight.

Now I a lullaby song came on and I am more tired than I was before. Great song but I need sleep. Maybe more writing tomorrow.

This blog entry was written while listening to When You Dream from the album “Stunt” by Barenaked Ladies

Bluetooth Gear

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I talk allot about the technology gear that I use. To me recently, the holey grail of technology gadgets is wireless interaction between devices. Ussually that means Wifi. Wifi is out there and it works great, when it works. For me the big thing is getting good Bluetooth devices that work well together. I have been trying for this goal for over 2 years.

I had a good setup with my T68i and my motorola bluetooth headset about a year or so ago. The problem was that I broke the headset one day when I dropped my backpack. The T68i, with headset and my Powerbook made an unbeatable combination. Now I have a T610, a different powerbook, and I plan on getting another bluetooth headset. Hopefully everything will work as advertised and I will have a complete portable wireless setup. Is it a pipe dream? Maybe, but I am going to try to get it to work.

As I mentioned earlier today the next step for this solution is to get GPRS to work on my Powerbook via the T610 over bluetooth. If I get it to work, I may even suck it up and buy a new PCMCIA Bluetooth card for my thinkpad. I have a Xircom Realport2 Bluetooth card, but it doesn’t have resident XP drivers, and I am finding it doesn’t work 100% correctly. The cards have come down in price so I will see how much they are.

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

Productive Day

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I had a really productive day in Kingston. Kai, Brian, and I met and got some due dates on a few projects done. I got a new project from Gus regarding upgrading our FTP system also. Fixed some issues in both offices, and answered a few trouble tickets.

It was one of those days where I worked and got allot out of the way, but it feels like I didn’t do very much. I know it is that way because I was in meetings and other planning sessions, but I still feel like I got no projects closer to completion.

I took Kai, & Brian out to an early dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s. Not many other places to go up there that will be good for most people. That is why we go there every time. I like the food so I don’t mind. It is no angelo & maxi’s or Outback for that matter, but it is ok. I am on the 5PM train out of Kingston (RHI) but it was an hour late so it left at 6PM. I was supposed to be on the 6PM train but it was also late. I didn’t want to wait so I got on whatever train showed up first going to NYC.

It will be a long day today. I won’t get into my apartment until 8:45PM the earliest if I am luck. Lets hope this train shows up when scheduled (7:40) so I can catch the 7:49 train to my apartment. The jury is still out on that one.

I was active (either physically or mentally) all day, so I was awake. Now sitting on the train I am finally getting tired from the work and allergy medication.

This blog entry was written while listening to Washin’ and Wonderin from the album “Nasty Little Thoughts” by Stroke 9

Powerbook Ram Boost

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After using my new 12″ 1Ghz Powerbook for a while I realized that I can’t live with the on board 256megs of ram. I tried since it isn’t my main computer and I use it for light work most of the time. I realized that when I use it in the office (even though it is my personal computer) I need the extra ram boost. I went out and got a 512 meg upgrade giving me a total of 768megs of ram.

So far the boost in ram is working. I haven’t seen the powerbook lag when opening a program.

I also got another mini DVI to VGA adapter just in case I want to use the laptop at home on my flat panel.

This blog entry was written while listening to Father of Mine – ACOUSTIC from the album “So Much for the Afterglow” by Everclear