scott

Still Loving VMware

by

It is rare for a week to go by that I don’t at some point think that VMware is not the best thing since sliced bread. We finally finished rolling out our first GSX server. It was barely up for a week when one of our developers needed another server for something that we never budgeted hardware for. Actually they specifically said we don’t need new hardware for this project. Instead of having to go looking for approval for a new database server, I just looked at our used resources on the virtual machine and allocated another VM. they were up and running in a day.

Restores are also fantastic. I have restored several dev VM’s since we brought this system online. I am already seeing where the box we built will be over loaded soon and we will need to get another one. I am also pushing the practical applications of another virtual machine in our production environment. it would save a ton of cash in the long term.

On the development and testing side next week I am going to setup a 3 server domain (totally virtual) to test the upgrade path from windows 2000 active directory to 2003. I have done this before, but it was almost 2 years ago. I want all the quirks fresh in my head. to do this with real hardware would have taken ages, and would have required me to put up a bunch of old desktops to do the job. this way I have one desktop at my desk that I just configure the way I want, run the test and then blow away the virtual machines when I am done.

Hotspots

by

Yesterday Jayson, Danny, & I took off to Starbucks to study (tech books), talk about work, etc. We have wanted to try that for a while but have been busy. We finally made it out. James joined us for a bit, but was busy and had to go. First, the starbucks in Union Square was noisy. Yes there are actually 2 Starbucks in Union Square but I assume the other one was as noisy as this one. Jayson says the one by his house is not as bad and he has gone to read and drink coffee for hours without problems. I felt like I was back in High School with two tables of extremly loud high school girls sitting rite by us. The place was packed. 4 of us sat at a table made for 2. Totally not the laid back experience we were looking for. not sure if I will suggest that again.

We did make productive use of our time while we were there. I tried out the T-Mobile Hotspots. I used it in Delta crown rooms before but I wanted to give it a shot at Starbucks. There were 3 free networks in range (or so the laptop said), but I couldn’t connect to any of them. So I paid. it is not cheap, but it works great. We ended up shopping for an LCD TV online. as I said in my post yesterday the specs I want are just too pricey right now.

Clean Up Day

by

Today I cleaned my apartment. I got rid of most of the clutter, did the floors, dusted, etc. I hate cleaning almost as much as I dislike doing the laundry. I need to do that also, but I may just have it done again this week.

Part of this cleaning was me backing up a bunch of CD-ROM’s I had lying around. They start to pile up. I backed up everything of value onto my computer and then stored the CD’s. I tossed the rest of the crap. With blank CD’s so cheap I find myself burning crap and then just tossing them in a few weeks when I don’t need them anymore.

Didn’t do very much else today. I tried to sleep in but couldn’t. I have not been sleeping well for weeks. I used to be able to sleep till noon on weekend’s now I can barely make it till 9AM without getting up at least once.

Website Work

by

I updated tons of photo pages on my photo album website. I have compressed down a ton of images to save space. I have also replaced allot of the old iPhoto generated pages with a newer style I am using. I am also creating new index pages so I can update the site easier. Fireworks was bad since links would be broken since it didn’t see the dynamic updates that frontpage did. Now I can move around the structure of my site without having to manually change hundreds of links.

TV Update

by

So I won’t be buying the winbook TV I was talking about. Turns out it only does 15:9 aspect ratio. DVD quality is 16:9, so I will pass. I knew it was too good to be true. The Dell & Gateway 30″ TV’s are still $1599. At that price I will wait a bit longer, or until Jayson talks me into buying it. I just can’t see paying $1600 for a friggen TV. My last TV (a sharp 27″ CRT) was like $500 in 2000 and I thought that was too much.

This is a purchase that will require much research. I am a tech person that considers myself at least moderately electronic savvy (probably a bit above moderate, but I am being modest), and I find myself being a bit confused by the options on these TV’s.

Road Trip & Softball Games

by

Went upstate on a road trip with Dan today. I had a bunch of things to take care of. Dan wanted to leave to head back to NYC by 3:30PM to make our first softball game. Being the realist I am I said we would never leave on time, and we would never make a 5:45PM game. I was right on both accounts. We didn’t leave until around 4PM. We missed all but 2 innings of the game.

We ended up getting lost getting to Roosevelt Island. Yahoo maps gave us the wrong exit name, and the stupid exit was not numbered. once we drove past it we knew we missed it, but it took tons of time to turn around. The rest of the directions were good though. Thanks to David for emailing them to me, and thanks to the Treo 650 and T-Mobile wireless data for bringing up the directions on my phone and actually working! Tech that works is priceless!

We lost by 1 run. It was tied until the last inning. At least it was not a blow out! Went out for a drink after the game and then headed to J & G’s for dinner.

All in all it was a good but busy and travel filled day.

Freedom Day

by

Today is the day I have been waiting for. It is the day that my mobile phone contract is up. I rely on my mobile all the time so since february I have been thinking what I would do when this day came. My issue was I have 2 phones on the same plan. One line was under contract and the other one has not had a contract in years. The one without the contract I wanted to keep, and drop the other one that the contract just ended on. The issue is you have to change price plans when you switch off the family share plan to a single phone plan with T-Mobile. I didn’t want to change the plan type on the phone I wanted to keep and then have to get into a contract since I was making a change. I am so against contracts for crap like a cell phone that I would have switched from T-Mobile and switched providers just to prove a point that a long time customer should not have to sign contracts!

Turns out T-Mobile was super cool with my situation. They offered me a regular 1000 minute plan with no contract, but I couldn’t get unlimited nights. For the price, and the fact that I still got unlimited weekends I took it. I can always get rid of it later if I have a problem.

So after my billing cycle changes (sometime this weekend I think) I will be down to one phone and no contract! Lets just hope that when I get my bill next month they didn’t f–k anything up.

Cari’s New Place

by

We went to check out Cari’s new pad. it is down in little italy. it is a nice place. Not my taste but she got a deal and can do allot with it. I will stick to the lazy living that I currently have, but of course will go hang out there due to its killer location.

We went for desert at a restaurant on Mulberry street. it was good. I had chocolate cake and a cappuccino. Since I think it is bitter normally I put like 4 sugars in it. Then it tastes great. The problem is we had desert around 9PM tonight. I am still wired from it and probably wont sleep right tonight. Not that I slept right last night and I didn’t have a coffee then!

I am going to lie down even though I know I wont fall asleep right away. I have to try! More tomorrow!

Messing With My Site

by

I have been playing with my website today. Really tinkering if you want to call it anything. Jayson messing with apache and other crap on his Linux box got me to mess with my site. I was not as hard core as he has been. I have been using a Windows 2003 box with IIS. I am modifying my site using Frontpage, Fireworks, & Dreamweaver.

The basis for the tinkering is that I want to add more photos to my site. The issue is two fold. One I want to secure some of the photo pages with a password. I am doing that now but each section has its own username and password. That is not effective. The other issue is the organization of the site and how it is presented to the viewer. Right now people enter my site and see a home page built with fireworks. It looks nice, but it is not super easy to update. I want something that can dynamically update as I add content, or change the links.

I still don’t know what I want to do. I want to use Fireworks, but I am having problems updating it. I am playing around with text and tables in Frontpage to have the same affect. it is not the same, but I am not sure if it will do. I will mess with it more later in the week.

A New TV?

by

Jayson found this $999 30″ LCD TV from Winbook. I have been eyeing it ever since. I have wanted a new TV since last year. HD ready plasma’s are still too expensive for my taste. And until recently the LCD TV’s I have seen have been too small. Now I find a 30″ LCD TV within my price range. I still don’t know if I should get it. Winbook does not make their own TV’s. I don’t know who makes them. I also am skeptical since their TV is like $600 cheaper than the nearest competitor that I know of. I believe you DO get what you pay for. I want a nice review of the TV from someone other than who Winbook says to check out reviews for.

I am not anti Winbook. I have actually been tempted to buy a laptop from them several times in the past. For whatever reason I never did, but I hear good things about them. I am waiting for more information on this TV before I make a decision. But it sure would look nice hanging on my wall in my living room!