Life, Kids, Technology & that move to another continent
I sent in the new Powerbook for repair today. I should hopefully get it back by the end of next week. Still rather pissed that a laptop that was broken out of the box is not replaced, but I have to wait a week to get it fixed. Even with all the leverage I get because of how much business my company gives our hardware vendor I still have to get it repaired.
I eagerly await the return of the computer!!!
Yesterday Handspring (PalmOne) finally started taking pre orders of the Treo 600 for T-Mobile. I finally placed an order for mine. I got it for the discount price but I now have to wait at least a month until it actually ships. They won’t ship till early march. Who knows when that will be. hopefully I will have it by my birthday.
It was about time too. My Treo 270’s battery doesn’t hold a charge as long as it used to. it still lasts an entire day with usage, but since I am using the data services, I am sucking down the juice.
In the interum I got my old T-68i unlocked. I just got it in the mail today. It now works with my T-Mobile SIM. I can use that instead of my Treo until the new Treo arrives.
So knowing I was getting a tax return I went out and ordered myself a new 12″ Powerbook. I probibly didn’t “need” it, but I wanted one. It is in addition to my iMac. I wanted the Powerbook for the commute, and around the house. I find that I do like to write away from my desk. Since I had “found” money I splerged and got the new 1gighertz Powerbook. It is almost like the one I had before but faster. I also think it runs a bit cooler. that was a problem with the old one.
I didn’t get the DVD burner since I have the super drive on my imac.
The only problem is that out of the box the dam hindge that locks the screen in place when you close it is broken. Apple wont exchange it for a new one, so I have to get it fixed. That may mean up to a week of not having the laptop. I am not happy, but lets just hope they fix it. I am hoping to take it to the apple store in SoHo and see if they can fix it onsite.
More on my support issues as they develop.
Spoke to my friend Jayson today. he is planing on coming into NYC for a week in february. He is going to take a Cisco Voice Over IP class. I think he is a punk for needing to take a class in it, but he owns his own buisness. In order to get clients he needs to not just prove he knows the stuff, he needs certification in it.
He may stay by me while he is up here. I don’t see him much so I think it would be fun. I need to get down to New Orleans and hang with him, joe and gretchen soon also.
I told him he should come to work with me and see a Cisco Call Manager in action. He was at the our "parent" company office when Jeff & Dave where there, but hasn’t ever made it to our current office.
Hopefully that will be a fun visit. I look forward to it.
I am having problems with my iMac. it keeps crashing on me almost once a day. My Powerbook never did that on me. It started happening after I put in the Airport Extreme 802.11g WiFi card and my extra 512 megs of ram. At this point I honestly don’t know if either of them is causing this problem. I took out the Airport card. I don’t use it that much since the mac sits on a desk with a switch right on the floor. If it keeps crashing I will take out the ram. if it still is having problems I may just wipe the hard drive and configure it from scratch. I did just open up out of the box and started using it:)
I am still waiting for the Treo 600 to become available for T-Mobile. No end in sight for that. I called handspring to buy an unlocked version of the phone. They said they had unlocked Cingular branded (but it would work with T-Mobile). the only problem was that it is backordered for 2-4 weeks. No one else has them in stock either. I can get an AT&T version, but it is locked. Been there, and done that. I can also get a sprint one from anywhere, but I want a GSM version. T-Mobile has been good to me for most of the time since September 2000. I don’t count that period of 4 months after 9/11/2001 but we did have issues with service in NYC. Handspring wanted $700 for me to wait 2-4 weeks. I decided to wait a bit longer. I don’t want to order the phone and then be able to order my T-Mobile version for $399, and not be able to because I already had an order in. If/when they can ship my order same day or next day I may get it. I am not happy!!!
This entry was written while listening to Wherever You Will Go by The Calling
i got to use some really cool tech today. I have been using Net Newswire on my mac for almost a year. it is a fantastic program. I use it to see if my favorite blogs have been updated. I just started using it to see the latest news stories from my favorite news sites. it makes browsing the web so simple. I just launch the program and it tells me if each site has a new story. I can see what I want to read and then I just click on the link and it brings me to the site. this is nothing new. RSS has been around for a little while, but it is starting to go more mainstream. Yahoo now has RSS news feeds for their news sites.
I just finished adding a bunch of RSS feeds to Net News Wire for sites I visit often. My internet browsing will be cut by like 60% by having all these sites together. Now what will I do with all that free time???
This entry has been edited to remove WORK content.
This entry was written while listening to Another Postcard from the album "Everything to Everyone" by Barenaked Ladies
After several false starts I was finally able to cancel my AT&T Wireless account yesterday. It was just over a year so I didn’t pay the dam early termination fee. Thankfully everything worked out. I got my number over to T-Mobile, and I don’t have that dam AT&T service anymore. They asked why I was leaving and I just laughed at them. I told them for one thing the estimated 10 minute hold I was told about was 45 minutes. I am just thankful that I am not using them anymore. Now it is time to Ebay my T-68i.
Finally put into service our first Windows 2003 Active Directory server. I demoted an old 2000 box and transfered its roles to the new server.
Started redirecting call center users in NYC to our new mail server we are using for our Kingston office. The end goal is to have the entire call center on that mail system. Once I get all the alias’s and accounts done I can just delete the old mail accounts and tell everyone they have a new email address. It is a slow process since I need to edit everyones profile when they are not at work. I did about 10 people in 2 days. this rate it will take me a month to get everyone cut over.
We upgrade our Pix firewalls next tuesday to enable us to use a VPN tunnel to send large amounts of VOIP calls between offices. when I mean large amounts I mean more than the 2-3 we can now. Probably like 20 at a time on a dedicated internet T-1.
Other things going on are the guys in Kingston are working on Cisco Softphone setup’s to allow remote agents for our call center. Or to allow us to use the phones from outside the office on our laptops. Also in the works is the ability to move your phone number between desk phones if you need to.
So I bought some more music on the iTunes store. I am not a huge fan of buying music, but getting it online from apple is flexible (i can burn to disk and use the files anywhere I want, unlike other services) and it is cheaper than buying a CD. I got Barenaked Ladies latest CD. You may have seen some of the songs listed as what I was listening to when writing this blog. It is a decent album. I found 2 songs I liked, but I think there last one (or was it 2 albums ago) was better. They are a band I would like to see in concert. Their music is funny, and they make good music.
This entry was written while listening to California from the album “Rip It Off” by Stroke 9
Today was a lazy day. I caught up on what I had on the Tivo. I also did some email and just hung out. I did some food shopping since they say it may snow tomorrow. I had no food left, so I figured it was a good time to do that.
I also installed 512 more megs in my new 20″ iMac. Now I have 768 megs in it. I can put a full gig in it, but apple decided to only include 256 with them machine. If I want to get a full gig, I need to remove that 256 and put a 512 meg chip in its place. The only problem is you cannot get to that memory without going to an authorized repair center. It is sealed within the machine. The other slot is not. So for now I am at 768 megs, it should be enough for now. I also put my airport extreme card into the mac. I don’t have the laptop anymore so I figured I would use it. Since my server is in the closet on wireless, I get no extra speed by leaving the mac wired to my 100megabit switch. I cannot transfer files between the desktop and server any faster than the wifi anyway. Now I just have 1 less wire plugged into the iMac.
In my free time I also imported most of my online photo album into iPhoto. Photos imported allot faster on the iMac then they did on either of my Powerbooks. I need to get photos from my parents to scan and increase my album a bit.
Also today I watched some DVD’s. I just got 2 more shows on DVD. I got Firefly on DVD. It was a scifi show that didn’t last too long on tv. It was actually very good, and I was surprised when it came out on DVD. I didn’t watch too many of them, so I decided to buy it. I also got Buffy season 5. I mocked that show for years, and then Rich gave me season 1 to watch and I actually liked it. Go figure.
This entry was written while listening to Maybe Katie from the album “Everything to Everyone” by Barenaked Ladies