scott

Wireless, Wireless, World

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I was busy Tuesday. At work I had issues with our Wifi setup. Gus has complained about it for years, but I never find anything wrong with it. On monday I did notice that it was just not working at all. I took my old 802.11b wifi point from home into work to troubleshoot. The point I had at home is the same type we use at the office. Back in the day it was top of the line. Now, not so much. Turns out both points at work are bad. The Wifi cards are fried. We are running off of my old point for now. I want it back so I can ebay it, but I will keep it at work until we can purchase new ones.

At home I had wifi issues of my own. I wanted a new 802.11g point at my house for a while. Ever since I got my VPN firewall I have been without high speed wireless. So since work got my old B point (that I should have sold long ago) I finally went to Best Buy and got a new Linksys 802.11G point. I set that up in no time. My problems started when I tried to configure the Wireless Bridge (802.11b if you were wondering) I had lying around. After hours of messing with it, I finally got it to work correctly. Right now it is plugged into my VOIP phone so I could put the phone in my bedroom without pulling any cables. it is neat. My eventual goal is to plug the bridge into my Tivo so I don’t have a cable running from my router to my TV wall unit.

I like the bridge so much I may get another one and keep the phone where it is. I have all the components to go totally wireless. I have a 802.11g card for my desktop. The only down side of wireless is if I want to transfer large files, which I do sometimes. For now everything works!!!

Scott Math

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Ask Jayson, I have a weird way of justifying buying stuff. It is a combination of impulse buying, ebay selling, and sometimes disposable income to throw around. Of course having a girlfriend that sucked down the disposable income didn’t really slow me down much. That is something to think about later.

I buy stuff, use it for a while and the sell it. By selling stuff, I can justify buying newer versions of said stuff, or different stuff. Take my computer I just got. I didn’t go out and blow a ton of money on a computer (well I did, but read on). I had half the purchase price set aside in what I like to call my Tech/Vacation slush fund. it is for impulse buys and such. I put gift money, cash earned from selling gear, etc into that account. When I want a big ticket item I go there to spend it. So I paid for half of the computer with that money. Then I decided to sell a bunch of other stuff on ebay to pay for the rest of the computer. When all is said and done, I would not have spent any money out of pocket for the computer. Jayson laugh’s at my theory. My friend rich scratches his head with confusion, but it works. All I know is that I get new gear with little or no expense out of pocket. Soon I will sell my powerbook and pick up a new one. Only having spent a few hundred dollars on the difference between the used computer sale price and the new machine.

That my friends is how you can keep up on the new technology. Of course I only do this for some items. Much of my crap is not recycled allot. I have the same 4 year old tv I have had. my stereo is not getting any newer, etc. But how good a stereo do you need in an apartment?

If you are reading this post going, "hey that makes sence, how can I do that also"? You are crazy. If you are reading this post going "man Scott is crazy". You would be correct. I am not normal. I never said I was. All I can say is eBay is addictive…

Firemen Climbing, and Me Watching

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The other night on my way home from work I decided to get off at the stop before my apartment and get some takeout and walk home. On the way back to my place there was a bunch of fire trucks and ambulances. I noticed people standing around and watching. I had no idea what they were looking at. Then I noticed firemen climbing up ladders and scaffolding into a building. I stopped for a minute and though, weird. then I continued on my trek home. What was really weird about the situation was that allot of people were standing around watching this happen long before I got there, and probably long after I left. Is it that you don’t have much else to do, or do people really like to watch guys climb buildings? I think it is the flashing red lights. it attracts people.

A Dark Day

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Today was a dark day for me. My boss and friend Gus announced he was leaving my company for good at the end of the month. On many levels this was upsetting and of concern to me. Firstly my boss is leaving. I have to hope (pray) that the next guy that comes in is not a dumb-ass. I have had enough fun with crazy boss’s in the past (ie Kenny). Other work related reasons for concern for me are that Gus has been one of my biggest supporters at work. I am confident in my track record, but it is always good to have a fan in the person you report to.

On a personal level, it will be weird going to the office every day and not having him around. He was someone I worked for, but I consider him a friend. We talked and did tons of stuff outside of work. It will take allot of getting used to, with him not around.

In the interim Bob will be taking over the day to day role Gus played. I like Bob, and I think I get along well with him, so I am not worried. It just won’t be the same as with Gus. On the flip side, not having Gus around may actually decrease my stress level a bit. We won’t know that until December.

What I am wondering about is why do people at work think I have tons of information regarding gossip items like Gus leaving? Even if I did, where do people get these ideas? Just because I am in the Information Systems department does not mean I have all the information.

What will happen in our department? It is an open book right now. It is way to early to tell right now. That is what worries me. I am all for change. It is good and bad. I know people usually hate change. Sometimes I like it. Unfortunately when some things change, you just worry. You might do it for no real rational reason, but you do it anyway…

Thanksgiving Plan’s And Planning

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I do no planning for Thanksgiving. I am “that guy” that shows up, eats (not very much) watches the game and goes home. We always goto my parent’s best friends house for Thanksgiving. It usually is a big turn out. I don’t have to travel to it. It is only in Queens. I guess that is some travel. I don’t need to plan on anything. Everything is taken care of.

it is not the most glamorous night of the year. We are probably the average Thanksgiving Day “family”. The only thing out of the ordinary we do is, we don’t have a formal sit down meal. It is usually buffet. There are allot of us.

Other planning news is I hope to take off Wednesday. I need a day off, and this way if I take Wednesday off I get a whopping 5 days off in a row. that will be nice. I won’t know what to do with myself. Really, I have no idea what to do with that much time off and no travel.

Handouts

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Why is it that there are so many people giving away “free” stuff near the subway entrances in NYC? As of today I am offered a free Metro, & AM NY. Also I get people giving me information about saving some (fill in name of oppressed, abused or unjustly treated foreigners here) group in some foreign country. There is another group handing out stuff, but I don’t know what it is for. I haven’t stopped long enough to find out.

At first I thought this was a problem near Penn station when I got off the LIRR. Then it started happening in Union Square. Now for months I have getting pestered up by my apartment.

Whose idea was it to place annoying low paid people at the bottleneck point of an exit/entrance to subway stations? I know it is a high traffic area, but come on. I am barely making it to work on auto-pilot half awake as it is. Having people mess up the routine is not good.

This is a down side of living in a crowded city I guess. To me is just annoying.

Halo 2 Day

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I was sitting around on a Saturday afternoon like I normally do, and the funniest thing happened. I got calls from 2 people to have plans. Now I like having friday to unwind. I usually go out friday night, so Saturday is the day of rest for me. I have been going on Sunday’s, so I relax Saturday. Well jayson wanted to go shopping. I was all set to do that when John called and wanted me to play Halo. I decided to let Jay and Gretchen go shopping and I would frag (really get fragged) by John, Dave, and one of John’s friends.

We played Halo 2 for like 5 or 6 hours. it was fun. I get tunnel vision head aches when I play, but I still have fun. John has a 42″ plasma that we play on. I suck at first person shooters. I used to be good at Half Live but that was back in 2000. Even then Jay and John could still wipe the floor with me.

All around a geeky day, but I had fun. We ordered in and hung out. We were all going to head back to the city and goto a bar, but when we got to the door everyone realized that it was raining out. Fearing melting everyone bailed out of the trip, so I just went home. Everyone else went back in to play some more. I headed back to Manhattan since the subway run’s less frequently later at night, especially on the weekends.

Saw The Razr Today

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Wednesday Jayson and I went to the Cingular store to check out the new Motorola Razr. It was really cool. Super slim, and all metal. The screen was almost as big as my Treo’s. The downside, it was $500 with a contract. I have been pondering moving to Cingular, but that price was way too much for me right now. Without a contract it was $600. If the price came down to $300 maybe I would check it out. I wasn’t going to buy a plane old phone that is more than what I paid for my PDA/Phone. that is just crazy.

Gus was upset that I didn’t wait to goto the store with him. He seemed jealous that I went with Jayson. I told him if he was a good boy I would goto the store with him too!!!

Ebay is Adictive

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I finally got around to putting up on ebay a bunch of items that I need to get rid of. I put up a cell phone from Verizon that I have not used in over a year, a linksys router that I cannot use, even though I still want to keep it, and my old HP iPaq 1945. I don’t use that anymore, even though I want to. I am just too lazy to use it, so I carry my Treo. I will miss the 1945’s nice color screen.

Hopefully I will get decent amounts for all that stuff. The proceeds of these auctions will go to pay for my new desktop computer I just bought. I like to ebay stuff so I can buy or pay for other electronic stuff I buy. it is the circle of life so to speak.

Update: I shipped out the iPaq and my old router today. I am still waiting for the cell phone to sell…

Cisco Executive Briefing

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It sounds fancier than it was. Gus, Dave, Kai, and I went up to Cisco Systems Executive Briefing Center outside of Boston. We were getting the overview of their IPCC product from all the product managers and engineers working on the system. First off I will say I think the trip was worth it. I think there were some issues still unresolved by some of our team, that I think Cisco was able to handle.

We got up to Boston by noonish. Our account manager and his boss picked Gus and I up from the train and we drove the 40 minutes to the site. it is a nice new campus. We ate lunch, which was surprisingly good. Normally this sort of stuff is not what I consider good food. They had nice chicken dish with stuffing and potatoes. I was stuffed for hours after that. We meet a VP of sales or something who came down to make sure we were getting treated right. I am not sure what Gus said to whoever at Cisco but around August they started treating us really nice. Far better than I would expect from a company our size. Granted we do some advanced stuff for a company our size, but it is weird when the #3 guy or so at Cisco stops by your office for a meeting. I will say that Cisco is very responsive to questions or problems. Some of my / Gus’ comments have reached high levels. it showed with the presentation.

We got a really good overview of their IPCC product. I think Dave was pleased with what he saw. I was. I also got to see some nice warez from them. We checked out the color VOIP phone. Gus and I also test drove the video conference functionality of Call Manager 4.1. I even got to see the long rumored VOIP WiFi cordless phone. It was so cool. I want one for my house, but a practical deployment of it would be for the supervisors in the call center when we have 2 floors to cover. Check out the MOB for some of the really cool tech we saw. No pictures of the video conference system we used. Just trust me that it was way cool.

We had a long fact filled day. Then we rushed off to catch a late train. We made it to the station with 15 minutes to spare. I decided to upgrade to First Class. I figured I wanted good service one time, and I would pay for it out of my own pocket. I am on the train now. The seats are bigger. There are less people in the First Class car. I also got dinner and free drinks. The food is MUCH better than Biz class. I had a steak with potato’s, with chrem brule. I cannot spell it. I was not a fan of the desert anyway. I am sitting at a conference table for 4 by myself. It is roomy. I was hoping to take a nap, but I haven’t written a detailed blog entry for a while so I decided to take the time now. So was the upgrade worth the money? Probably not, but it is nice to get waited on and just relax sometimes. Amtrak for the money has the best upgrades. And that is saying allot since the Biz class on the Acela Express is nice as it is. Right now this is my favorite form of travel.