scott

Wireless Broadband Woes

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This weekend I broke out the Verizon Wireless Broadband card I have for my work computer to test it to ensure that it worked for my trip. Turns out it didn’t. I spend about an hour reinstalling the software a few times and troubleshooting as best as I could. I ended up giving up and called Verizon on Monday for help. My knowledge on the subject and my volunteering all that I did got me right escalated to a level 2 guy and then a relatively quick answer for my problem when he was stumped also. It turns out when you actually know as much or more about the system you are calling about you tend to get the tech support guys to get you to someone higher up quick. Something (they didn’t say what) wasn’t provisioned on my account properly even though the card worked a week and a half ago when I used it last.

So far the card has been working for my trip. I do have to say (hopefully I won’t jinx myself) that the coverage and quality of service on Verizon is better than what I had with T-Mobile. I am just personally not a fan of the company and some of the customer service practices. Won’t go into them here, but you get the idea if you read past posts. In general the service is still great though.

I will blog about the details of the trip in other posts to come.

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70 Something Hours In LA

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Technically I started the mission timer at 77 hours and 5 minutes. Yes, I am actually counting down until my departure from LA on Thursday. Also a yes to the fact that the function on my watch calls it “mission clock”. I mean my Omega was designed for NASA, so the name makes sence. hold on, actually the function is CDT or count down time. There is a mission time function but that is just a term to refer to the GMT time function on the watch. My bad. Last year I started counting down trips to our other office or other short trips. Keeps things in perspective. No real reason for it, besides I was bored in the cab on the way to the airport.

LA is hotter than NYC. To be expected, but I was finally getting happy with the cooler weather in NYC and now I spend a few days in hot and sunny land. Lets face it, most of the time in LA will be spent indoors anyway.

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The Obligatory Airplane Blog

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As always (most of the time) when I fly, I like to write. I have time to think, and I really don’t have anything else to do. I am off to LA (California, not Louisiana) for a conference. It was all last minute. I didn’t have the approval to go until last week. I actually got a halfway decent deal with Delta. I have been hesitant to use them after my tour of nowhere 2 years ago with them. So far (and it is only halfway through the first flight) things are ok. The 757 I am on has been upgraded and they have TV’s in all the seats like Jetblue. The channel selection isn’t as good, but at least it is a start.

I got the last Aisle seat on the plane when I booked, so I am happy. There is a baby one row in front of me and thankfully he has been very good. I don’t want to jinx myself since as of this writing I have 2 more hours to go on the flight. I am tired and since it is warm on the plane I feel like I am borderline getting a headache.

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P2V

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Since we had such good luck with a P2V (physical to virtual server conversion) a few months ago, we decided to try again with another critical server that we would all feel better if it was on different hardware. it is another of those box’s that would be a nightmare to rebuild so virtualizing makes sense. the only problem is that after two attempts we have yet to complete the conversion. The issue at first was the CD drive was busted, and we couldn’t fix it before our maintenance window ended.

The second try also was a bust since we ran out of time to let the conversion to run. We are regrouping again and will try a different tool instead of the P2V assistant from VMware. We are going to take a look at the Platespin tool. We have been using it to do V2V (virtual to another virtual server) on another project and we love the fact that it requires almost no downtime during the conversion. We are investigating the different tool this week. Hopefully news soon.

Yes, allot of writing about virtual stuff. It is on my mind recently and we are doing allot with it. it is some amazing stuff.

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First Migraine in a While

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I had to take a Butabitol for the first time in a while for my migraines. I don’t think I would have made it through the day if I hadn’t. The Alive didn’t seem to work, and I didn’t have any Amerge. After what the Butabital did to me last year around my birthday I am not a fan of taking it, but you cannot argue with results. I just know I need to take that stuff in moderation.

I was feeling better enough to go out with people from work for a few drinks after work. I only had 2 and headed out early. I was afraid of causing the headache that the medication prevented earlier in the day. Turned out to be a decent day, but for a while I was worried.

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VMworld

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My boss never ceases to surprise me. At the last minute Jayson suggested someone be allowed to goto VMworld, since the number of servers we operate are more and more virtual. He thought it was a good idea, and we got last minute approval. I leave on Monday, and I just got my travel arrangements done. Sean suggested I fly directly into LAX since it could be a bitch of a drive from Long beach where Jetblue flies into. Turns out I got a Delta ticket for the same amount as Jetblue would have been.

The problem with this conference is that there are too many things I want to do, and not enough time. It doesn’t help that I registered late and some of the good seminars are already booked. I ended up picking a mix of high availability and enterprise management of VM’s classes, as well as some on VDI (Vitrual Desktop Stuff). They are the two basic things we are currently working on. Hopefully I will learn a bunch of cool stuff that we can apply at work. I am also hoping to see the VMware Workstation for the Mac in action. Updates next week.

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Steak Lunch

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A few of us had lunch with EMC today to talk about some stuff that is going on. And lets face it, we use enough of there stuff so lunch is not allot to ask for. Actually our rep who is pretty cool was the one that suggested it. Like Jayson and I, he likes to eat! Well at least eat at a halfway decent place! the problem with vendor lunch’s is that they take forever. We learned allot, so it wasn’t a waste.

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And The Kids Get A Computer

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I finally setup a day to goto my sisters and give my niece a computer. I took my dad’s old dell that I had and cleaned it up and put windows xp back on it. I gave her my 17″ flat pannel I wasn’t using, and also my altec lancing speaker set. It was my excuse to go out and buy Bose speakers for my computer set at home.

Surprisingly the setup was not that bad. Coping over some of Morgan’s music too the longest. The computer setup fine, and the router they already had (even though it wasn’t in use until today) remembered all its settings.

I also got to spend some time with my nephew Zachary. He is very playful for a 4 month old. he just doesn’t like to be put down. I don’t mind that he likes being held, but I guess that Carrie and Michael do. They think he is being spoiled.

Morgan and I also got to hang out. She was in a good mood, and playful. I like that since I get free hugs. you have to take them when you can with a 3 1/2 year old. Overall it was a fun day. I just hope I don’t have to deal with that much technical support on the new computer.

Playing with VOX

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I signed up for a free vox account. I am interested in the fact that I can apply security groups to posts and allow some people to see it. I am wondering if that would enable me to resume my (semi)public posting regarding work stuff? Not sure yet. I am still playing with the service. So far I am in no rush to cancel my Typepad account.

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Month Long Recap

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Yet again I have been bad at posting. Sean emailed me looking for an update since I haven’t written in a while. I know I have been bad recently with not posting. I will provide a quick update of what happened this month. Ok, get ready here it comes:

Last week I was plagued with migraines from Wednesday till this Monday. It is the weather. I always get sick when the weather starts changing. It is something about the stagnant warm weather, not hot or cold when the AC’s stop running and it is just warm. I am not the only one I know that is affected by this but like clockwork twice a year I have an issue. I am feeling somewhat better now.

Last weekend I stayed in trying to kill the head aches. I ended up having to miss a Halloween party my friends threw because I felt like crap. I did get out a bit on Sunday to help Lauren and Andrew setup there new Macbook Pro. The twins are really cute, but a bit loud for my head aching state I was in.

The week before that I had a cold all week. Thankfully it wasn’t that bad. I took cold eze. I can’t spell it but it works. I sounded allot worse than I felt all week. The Tylenol PM also helped. The weekend of the 14th and 15th I pretty much slept away since I had a cold. Come to think of it, this month has been allot of resting when I am not working. That is a sign that things are crazy busy in the office.

One night a few weeks ago (i can’t remember when anymore) a bunch of us finally got together for poker. Brian’s girlfriend Amy was the big winner. I was the only other person that broke even. I did ok, but no where near as well as Amy. I need to schedule another get together soon.

I did the Jewish holidays at the usual places. One holiday was at my parents best friends house and the other was at my parents place. My dad decided to make the first holiday interesting by getting sick. He ended up in the hospital for a day and half with the flu or something. I am learning that even something as typically normal as the flu can put a diabetic in the hospital. He is ok but it was an interesting few days.

The other holiday was uneventful. I didn’t fast. I really can’t, or shall I say I shouldn’t. Me, medication, and not eating is a bad thing. According to my dad (who after all is a reliable religious scholar:) it is ok to skip the fasting if you need to take meds. Who am I kidding anyway. I am not religious 364 days out of the year, so why should I be that one extra day?

Other stuff went on this month, but I can’t recall all the details right now. Heck, I almost forgot about the hospital thing so I bet I missed some other important piece of info.

Work was really hectic this month. Lost of projects going on right now. I will cover them in another post if I find the time. Hopefully this wont be the last post for another month!

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