Family Visit’s

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My parents are getting there kitchen and bathroom redone over the next 2 weeks. For some reason they don’t want to move out during that time. I live the closest to them so they were over here tonight to use my shower. My mom is going to hang out at my place tomorrow I think. I just have to remember to clean up before I goto work. It was nice seeing them since I haven’t seen them all last week since work was crazy.

AT&T Wireless Officially Sucks

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Yes they do. So I bought a cheap used unlocked GSM phone on ebay. It is a Ericsson T-28w. I had one years ago. They are ok, but it was dirt cheap and unlocked. That means I can plug any GSM card into it and it will work. So I put my AT&T Wireless card in and the calls sucked just as bad as they did with my top of the line Sony Ericsson T-68i. I put my T-Mobile SIM in and the thing worked fine. It even worked decent at work, where T-Mobile with a T-68 never worked well. I was about to cancel T-Mobile last week and something told me to hold onto it for a while. I have gotten everyone to use the new number for like 3 months now, but I figured I should keep it around. Good thing I did. Now I don’t know if I am going to get rid of T-Mobile or AT&T. One has to go. AT&T, I love my phone number but that is about it. At this stage in my contract I am just thinking of keeping it and putting myself on the $19.95 plan and not use it. That is cheaper than canceling the thing. Then in November, I can keep that number and move it somewhere else. November is when phone number portability comes to cell phones!!! Finally. On the plus side the T-Mobile account is really cheap for allot of minutes. I get like 600 min with unlimited nights and weekends for under $40.00.

I am going to use both for a while, and see what happens. Thankfully I have my verizon phone still. Yes I have 3. I am only supposed to have 2, but I can’t seem to get rid of T-Mobile. I am really a techie.

Long Lost Friends

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This week was a week of communicating with people who I have not spoken to in ages. I got an unexpected reply to my change of address email from my friend from college Marty Snyder. I haven’t spoken to him in like 3 years. He is married and expecting a kid. Wow, we are getting old.

I also IM’d my friend Steve. He is buying a house up in Albany. I am need to let him know when I am doing Kingston so I can see him and Jenn (his wife, and also a friend from school) when I am up there.

And I previously mentioned talking to Sean on MSN. For some reason he can use that at work, but not AIM.

I am also sending a really late wedding card to my friend lonnie. So hopefully we can get in touch also. I wasn’t planning on speaking with all these people, but it is a pleasant surprise.

new blog server

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Ok after all the work I did fixing my moveabletype server, I have moved my blog to Gus’ server. He was kind enough to let me run my blog on that box so I can free up my server to continue my linux education. I was afraid of damaging my blog while I messed with linux. The new blog looks the same as the old one, it is just on a different server. I just ordered a new style sheet for the blog, but wont have that for a day or so. Blogstyle’s is a great site, but I hate having to pay for stuff.

I have to say the import/export features on Moveable-type are fantastic. getting the data from one blog server to another took like 10 minutes total. Setting up the server took longer than the actual import. It was great. Exporting is also a great way to backup your blog entries. I will do that on regular intervals now.

Now I am off to play with exchange 2003. News on that later, if I get it working correctly.

Sitting around in the “good chair”

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So I was extremely lazy today. I did very little. I am still recovering from my all nighter. I always had trouble with those things. This one was actually not so bad, but I remain tired afterward. I am sitting up now watching a little tv, typing away on my new IBM Thinkpad T40 in my comfy Pier One Papasan Chair .

I have the chair in my living room until I get my couch. My mom called this week and actually wants me to take it soon, because they are doing work on the apartment and want to clear space out. I need to go and get it. Until I do I have the chair. I really do like writing in this thing. The funny thing is this chair is probably so bad for my back. Oh well.

The T40 is totally awesome. Looking at the T30 and T40 side by side, they look almost identical. The thing is the little bit of thickness that they took off really makes the difference. So far the battery life is good, but I have not completely tested it. I have spent my free time over the last 3 days installing everything on this new machine. I have allot done, but getting it customized the way I like it will take a while.

I did get some stuff done today. I updated my photo web site. I also made some changes on the blog. I have gotten the blog to work properly while pointing all my web traffic to my IIS web server and redirecting certain sites and directories to my apache box. I had issues with it before but figured out the security problems I was having. The blog’s new address is http://blog.Scott.ac/ The old address will continue to work, and redirect to the new address.

Other good news regarding the new T40 is that I was able to get installed and working. For some reason that offline blogging software never would work on my T30. Now I can write my blog while not on the internet using my windows laptop. As much as I like my Powerbook, I am going to try and commute more with the thinkpad.

the little things

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I am sitting here on my laptop typing and I can’t help smiling at my new background image. I have a new picture of my niece morgan from our trip to barbados. Every time I see a picture of her I just want to give her a big hug. She is so cute. I am not just saying that, but judge for yourself. This is the photo I currently use as my windows background. Funny how the little things like a picture of someone you love will make you stop and think for a second. The funnier thing is after a while, you don’t over look it. Morgan is 4+ months old and I still stop every time I see a picture of her and wonder what we will do the next time I see her.

late night

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So here we are at work at 9 Pm. We are waiting until midnight to run our network upgrade. I am fed and waiting for the work to begin. We are trying to watch a movie soon. I am not sure if we will get to it.

So we never got to watch that movie. I ended up not being able to write a blog entry, and I am finally sitting down and able to do so two days later. Depending on how you look at our schedule we could say things were successful, or not. We got most of what we wanted to do completed. one big peace was not done, but I think we were a bit agressive with what we thought we could do in one night, so I am happy with our results. We had some problems allong the way, but we were able to pull through and get the project complete.

The whole thing took almost 6 hours. We (keith and i) started at midnight and didn’t leave our Data Center until almost 6-am. The rest of the team was at our office.

I was able to go home around 8AM. We waited until our call center opened and things were working normally.

The crazy thing was I didn’t go right home to sleep. I had 2 dunkin donuts on the train and went to get a hair cut. I grabbed a quick shower and then fell asleep till like 5:30PM. I was too tired after that to do anything. Hopefully my sleep cycle is not totally screwed up. Time will tell.

Busy at work

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I am tired and don’t want to write allot, but I have allot to talk about. So I will be brief.

Went to kingston today. Got there late, and didn’t leave till late. Was very productive with Dan & Joe. We got 2 POTS lines installed and our local Verizon voice T-1 installed.

AT&T had a massive outage out west that caused us all sorts of havoc while I was out. We had issues reaching sites on the west coast. Still no RFO (reason for outage). I am waiting on that.

Also I was just told that we hired 2 more developers that start on monday. I need to order computers and stuff for them. That will be fun since we are doing a late night (overnight) tomorrow.

And lastly the above mentioned overnight tomorrow. I need more sleep and we are doing an overnight install. that will be interesting. Because of the overnight I may not be doing any blog entries for a few days. if I do they may not post right away. It depends on how tired I am thursday and friday. More later…

The DMV

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So I just moved on July 1, 2003. if you read this blog you already know that. Well I sent away for a new drivers license with my new address on it. Since the old one was going to expire on my birthday early next year I figured I would renew it at the same time (to save money and avoid an eye doctor visit). As luck would have it I went to the eye doctor in June and he gave me an eye test so I didn’t need to goto the DMV for one. Just filled out the form and attached it to the renewal form and mailed it in with my $45 check for a license. The internet is awesome since I got all the information I needed off the DMV website for NY state. So I get the license in the mail today and it doesn’t expire till my birthday in 2012. Currently the picture on it is from like 10 years ago, and now I don’t need to renew it for another 9 years. That will be almost 2 decades of no new picture. I hope I look as young as I do in the picture in 9 years, but chances are I wont. How weird will that be handing that license to someone then. Will they even think it is valid? Who knows. At least I don’t need to pay another fee for 9 years unless I move again.