Project And Other Servers

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Gus is getting me to start using project server. I got my account today, and I hope to add my quarterly project plan in a few days. it looks cool, but we need to get everyone to use it.

I got the RAID card in for the new machine we will build Subversion on. lets hope that Promise didn’t lie when they said this card supports Suse 9.0. I need to build that with Danny sometime in the next week or so. I then need a new box for Nagios. Danny (who is now our resident Linux expert besides Gus) is saying that Subversion and Nagios may be too CPU intensive to put on the same low end box. We will evaluate the situation and make a decision. We are using a Penguin Computing 1U server we picked up last September. They make decent low end box’s for linux. We are modifying the one of the 2 we have for use with this app.

Missing Sync Is Out

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OK, I am not going to bash Mark / Space or their product the Missing Sync. I actually like the product. I bought it for the Palm and Pocket PC. I am just having issues with limitations the mac has on PIM software. What I mean is that I like outlook. I really do. I use the catigories in the address book, tasks, and calender allot. The problem with that is the Mac equivelant software Address book, and ical does not do cagitories or does not do them in a way they are compatible with what I do in Outlook.

I use outlook at work. I go home to my mac and would like the work to carry over. Instead I get all my categories I do at work getting erased when I go home and sync with my mac. I had to spend 2 hours redoing all the categories on all my address book contacts on Saturday because of this.

For this reason I am on hold with using my mac as a PIM again. I still use the Missing Sync to update Avantogo on my iPaq, but that is it for now. Hopefully Markspace and apple inprove their products to allow me to do this. I don’t think it is a limitation on Mark Space’s side, but on the Apple PIM side. Either way I am not able to do what I want.

To me this is one of the last hurdles for me to get rid of my PC at home for all day to day tasks. The other things I need the PC for are all work related. Come on Apple, make a better PIM, that is compatible with it’s PC cousin’s!!!

Tuesday At Old Town

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Tuesday night Jayson, Cari, and I went to old town tavern for dinner. Jay and I of course cut out early to go home. That is a classic case of me needing to have an apartment in the city. I really think that if I did, I would be able to stay out later. No rushing to catch a railroad train home every night.

My luck no one will want to go out anymore when I am in manhattan:)

It was a fun night. No drinking for me since I have a cold, but still fun.

User Quota’s

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As I have mentioned in previous posts we are bringing down a file server at work. We need to wipe the OS and do some firmware updates on it and then we will bring it back online. Since we ran out of space on it, we needed a replacement box. We got that machine and have already deployed it. Now what we will do is spread out the corporate data onto two machines as soon as the old one is rebuilt.

Once this is done I have decided to impose disk quota’s to users. We are having issues where everyone is using tons of space, and not caring. If I keep my user and group data on different file servers I can quota the user data server. That way I can force people to consolidate their outlook files. I have over a dozen people who are hitting the 2gig limit on outlook pst files. No one knows how to delete stuff.

Right before we put out the new server we will instruct everyone how to compact their outlook files. That way they can compact them on their own.

This will be a very unpopular policy, but I haven’t found a policy we have that users do like.

June First

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It is June first already. Where has the year gone? I keep thinking 2005 is so far away, but it is only 7 months away.

Today marks the first day that Jayson is full time with us (at work obviously). if you asked me a year ago if I would ever imagine Jayson moving back to NYC and taking a job working for me I would tell you that it was crazy. But that is exactly what happened. I never believed that my company would bring on another more senior guy either. The universe has ways of surprising you.

Now that he is officially moving to New York, he is on the hunt for an apartment. We are both looking for apartments. I hopefully will go looking again this week again. Jayson went today. We are looking in the same areas of the city, but what we want is so totally different it is funny.

I am trying to get in touch with my friend Jeff who lived in a complex near my office. I want his opinion of the place before I go looking. I will continue to track him down tomorrow.

In other news Jim confirmed that he and his wife want to take the scuba class I was talking about. Jay and Cari are maybe’s so we have a few people that can go together. Now all we need is the schedule and pick a date. Gus is still down with a bermuda trip to get our certification dives. I am getting excited about doing this. It will be fun.

My cold continues to bother me. not taking me totally out of commission but I feel like crap. I just bought Tylenol Cold and I am looking for Tylenol PM so I can sleep tonight. The dam CVS by the office had 8 different kinds of Tylenol but didn’t have PM. I may just go out when I get home and get some. I think I will really need it tonight.

In The Pool Monday, And Some Work

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Monday Jayson came over and we moved lots of data around at work. We finished moving all user data off of a file server. To do this we had to replicate it to another server. I did that earlier in the week. Then we had to disable all network accounts so we could, refresh any files that have been changed since. To do this we needed no one logged into the system so we didn’t get any files locked. Once that was done we manually went in and changed each users home and roaming profile directories. Once that was changed we tested the changes and enabled all the accounts.

We will keep the old data and the old file server around for a week or so in order to make sure we have no issues with the change over. We have been using the new server for a few weeks with other data on it, so I am not that worried. You can’t be too careful with other people’s data.

Once the work was done, John and Dave came over and we all went to the pool in my building. We hung out there for a while and then went out to eat at the outback. Mmm, Outback. I haven’t gone there two days in a row in ages. Can’t do that too often, but once in a while is nice. I didn’t even order a meal. I got stuffed on appetizers. It was great.

Dave, John, & Jayson went back to John’s to play halo. I had to do my laundry and my cold was making me feel like crap so I stayed away from a late night of blowing stuff up.

Monday was productive and fun at the same time. Well not at the same time, but it was productive for some of the day and fun the other part:)

On The Beach Sunday

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Sunday we went to the beach. Jayson, Gretchen, Alison and I went to my parents beach club. It was a fun day. It was nice for the first few hours. we lied out near the ocean and hung out. Then after lunch it got really windy. We still stayed out on the sand for a while. By the time I started chewing the sand I decided I had enough.

We went back to Jayson’s dad’s place for a little while so jay and gretchen could change. They were having a BBQ. From there we went to my place so I could change. After that we were off to the Outback. Mmm, outback. We all stuffed ourselves as is the custom at the outback and called it a night. It was a really fun day…

The downside of this day is I think the wind may have given me a cold. Being out in a bathing suit when it was really windy and cold gave me a soar throat. I am suffering through that now.

Sitting Around Saturday

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Saturday was the lazy day. I always like to have one each weekend. This weekend was Saturday. I watched a bunch of DVD’s and hung out. I ordered in Pizza and didn’t go out all day.

I was king of glad I didn’t go out since I was feeling not so great most of the day. I didn’t have to take a migraine drug, but it felt like I would need to all day.

Holiday Weekend

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It is a holiday weekend coming up and I don’t have any plans. it is not from not wanting plans, or not having anything to do. It is just my friends and are are last minute plan makers. Alison on the other hand is a planner. She doesn’t like the last minute approach to doing things.

So far we most likely will hang out with Jayson and Gretchen. What we do is anyone’s guess. More news when I get it.