hectic day!

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Work was crazy today. I have a ton of people coming in tomorrow for interviews. On top of that I was working like crazy to set in stone our hardware config’s for the new office. Keith got the 2 Cisco Pix 515 firewalls we will use in Kingston so he is going to start configuring that. I finally ordered a replacement web server, and a disk storage array. I had approval for this stuff for over a month but I didn’t have the time in the schedule to deploy it. Now we need to get it done.

T-1 install dates still haunt me. 1 circuit was supposed to go in today and I have no word on its status. I still don’t have dates for my 3 long distance circuits. I hate having no power to do anything with these moron’s at the phone companies.

Computer equipment swapping

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Gus and I went down to the Apple store again yesterday. He needed a case for his new ipod, and I needed a scanner. I had a great scanner that did slides and everything but it did not work with my Powerbook in OS X. Thanks HP! So I got a Cannon USB scanner that is supposed to work with OS X. I am not sure if it does yet. I have not tried it out. The guy at the store was trying to sell me a more expensive one going the expensive one will definitly work with OS X. Dam sales guys.

My sister now gets my old scanner and a new hard drive I just ordered for her. She is taking so many pictures of the baby that the 8 gig hard drive they currently have is getting maxed out

Reading and Harry Potter

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So I finished the new Harry Potter book # 5 tuesday night. It was good, if not sort of predictable. Maybe I am getting old, or to critical but I think rowing is getting to stereotypical in her characters. I do get that the kids associate better that way so I am not critical of her. I still think she writes a great story. I am upset that I read the book in 3 days and now I probably have to wait 3 years for a new one. Besides my one criticism of the portrayal of some charicters I would say it was a good book. I will wait for the next one.

Wednsday again

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The middle of the week is almost as bad as Monday’s. Today is the day my division has its weekly staff meeting. We all get together to discuss the important events and status of projects. After that meeting we have a technology management meeting where we go over the same basically the same stuff and a different level of focus. It keeps everyone up to date on what is going on, but both of these meetings end up taking away the morning. That is what happens when you have such complex stuff going on, the update meetings take a long time because things get complex.

Daniel our new linux admin just finished a prototype build for Red Hat 9.0 for us. It looked good so far. He put MRTG on it and is now customizing it for us. We need the network stats from our LAN again. It is a hugely helpful tool. Their is so much to do with Linux. Hopefully we can do all we want to.

On the flip side I am waiting for the chance to do a Windows 2003 server. The latest servers I have built have been application servers that run multiple applications on them. Not all of these app’s would work with Windows 2003, or their status was questionable. So I am waiting.

Buying and selling

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So I am selling some old (and not so old) stuff on ebay. I sold 2 of the 3 items already. I have some more to sell later this week. I sold an external DVD player for a laptop that I don’t need anymore now that I have DVD built into my Powerbook. I haven’t used it in a while so it is time to go. I also sold an older enterprise class 802.11b access point.

Still on auction is my Palm T (can’t spell it out) running OS 5. And now that the new HP iPaq’s just came out I will probably sell my current one and get one with bluetooth. I am pissed about that decision, but see my previous posts on my handheld’s.

I also just got my sister a new 80 gig hard drive. I need to go over and install that for her sometime soon. I am also giving her my scanner. She will scan all our baby pictures on slides for my dad. It works out ok since my scanner rocks, but does not work with OS 10 on my mac. It gives me a reason to go out and get a Mac compatible scanner. I only wanted the slide scanner attachment to do the baby slides anyway. If she will do them she can have the scanner.

Interviewing

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Recently I thought interviewing was the worst thing in the world (besides speaking to phone companies) and then I started thinking. I came to the conclusion that yes interviewing sucks. We did find a nice group of perspective candidates for a support job we have had open for a while. I will see if anyone is good enough when we bring them in. That is all I can say on the internet on that subject. Lets just say that this topic preoccupies me allot recently. I have been on the phone with people for allot of the past 2 days.

Working in a support role means your day is never done. Case in point tonight as I sat down to do a blog I got a page about a website of my companies not performing well enough. I check it out and it looks fine. I then get a page telling me everything is back to normal. What happened, no one can tell. All I know it sucked time out of my night. I am actually not complaining, because I really like what I do, but work is never done.

I am still in the process of narrowing down our hardware selection for servers and desktops in our new office. Bargain hunting takes time.

Our new sysadmin is doing all sorts of cool stuff. I am just hounding him to document everything so us less linux inclined can figure out what he did. Turns out his documentation so far has been awesome.

Key’s and baby’s

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I actually left work early today. I was as amazed as the readers must be. I needed to go and get my keys for my new apartment. I am actually moving next week. It is cool and a pain. I want to move and the new place is great, but I feel like I just got everything where I like it in the current apartment. I need to go over to the new place and check out the paint job.

Being home early had an added benifit. My sister and the baby were at my parents house so I went over and we all went out to dinner. Morgan was being fussy so we didn’t get to actually eat till after 8, but we were trying from 6 PM on. She is so cute. It drives me crazy when she cries because she puts on this really cute pouty face and gets all upset. Everyone will have their hands full with her when she grows up!

Cebit, TechNY, PCExpo and whatever else it was called

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Every June I want to goto the big tech trade show in NYC. This year it is called Cebit, last year it was TechNY. It used to be called PC Expo. Last year we just moved offices and I couldn’t go. The year before that was the same problem. In 2000, and 1999 I was traveling and unable to go. I haven’t been in years and always want to go. This year I got the free invite I always get (everyone in the tech industry probably gets them) and I just didn’t feel like going. Last year I heard it wasn’t that great. I had missed the boat on the last great big expo’s in NY. Turns out I am glad I didn’t go. Howard went and said it wasn’t that good at all.

I would like to goto CES, but my position at my current job doesn’t require it. Others go, and it sounded cool the past 2 years. On the flip side, whenever I goto those shows I hate getting bombarded by sales pitches. Can nothing please me? 🙂

I will not buy a new ipod

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My ipod is less than 6 months old, and I will not buy a new one. Gus‘ ipod is awsome. And now Howard is thinking of getting one. I said that I would buy his 20 gig ipod that is like mine, but now I am having second thoughts. I may be running out of space on mine, but I can free some up by filtering what I put on it. I am trying to cut back on what I buy. I have a really new mp3 player, I don’t need another one even if I can sell mine. I am trying to be good about it!

Got the new Harry Potter book

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My new (and very heavy) copy of Harry Potter arrived today. I pre ordered it and forgot all about it. I get my books and other stuff from Amazon. They are really good. I got an overnight Saturday delivery upgrade. They did this the last time a Harry Potter book came out also. It is a smart marketing gimmick. People may not order the book online if they have to wait for it to get to them, so amazon gives you overnight shipping for the price of ground and then puts all over the box “DELIVER ON JUNE 21, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DELIVER BEFORE JUNE 21!” That was a direct quote. It is kinda funny. I am going to start reading it tomorrow, or maybe start the first chapter before I goto bed.

Word of warning, be careful of Amazon’s one click pre ordering. I have already gone through like $175 of book and DVD charges this month because I pre ordered a bunch of stuff in March. I wanted everything but never did the math on getting things billed all at the same time. That Amazon.com does their job way too well…

Gus gave me a book by Vince Flynn, called the Third Option. He say’s it is like a Tom Clancy novel, and he knows I love Clancy. It has been sitting on my desk at home since I got back from vacation. it will wait a bit longer while I try to push through Harry Potter.

I have not read a new book in ages. I have been busy and most of my reading is consisting of magazines and the news. I haven’t seen anything good I have wanted to read and now I have 2 books on deck. That is always the way it happens, drought and flood!!!