Travel

VMworld

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My boss never ceases to surprise me. At the last minute Jayson suggested someone be allowed to goto VMworld, since the number of servers we operate are more and more virtual. He thought it was a good idea, and we got last minute approval. I leave on Monday, and I just got my travel arrangements done. Sean suggested I fly directly into LAX since it could be a bitch of a drive from Long beach where Jetblue flies into. Turns out I got a Delta ticket for the same amount as Jetblue would have been.

The problem with this conference is that there are too many things I want to do, and not enough time. It doesn’t help that I registered late and some of the good seminars are already booked. I ended up picking a mix of high availability and enterprise management of VM’s classes, as well as some on VDI (Vitrual Desktop Stuff). They are the two basic things we are currently working on. Hopefully I will learn a bunch of cool stuff that we can apply at work. I am also hoping to see the VMware Workstation for the Mac in action. Updates next week.

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Cisco Networkers 2006

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It is weird, for months you are preparing yourself (mentally if not physically) for some event. And then it is over and it is like OK what now? I am back from Las Vegas. I had a great time, and I learned allot at Networkers. And now it is like what’s next? I know that answer but it is just a bit different with this big event over with.

In the short term I have to focus on my office move, and a few other issues. The next few weeks will probably be a bit hectic while we transition into the new place.

As for what I took away from Networkers, I learned allot. I got insight on what’s next for IPCC (UCC I guess now). Upgrade options for Call Manager, and a ton of great disaster recovery and disaster resiliency ideas. I have to start laying the ground work for going to California for Networkers 2007!

Bite

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Last night we went to the show Bite at the Stratosphere. Joe did nothing but talk about this show for months before we came to Vegas. He was all into the fact that there was topless dancing, but in a tasteful way. So we all decided to give the show a try. It was interesting. It was a vampire theme thing, and there was allot of topless dancing and biting. The songs they danced to where really good and the dancers where great so the show overall turned out to be really good.

The only down side was the really long walk from the monorail station to the Stratosphere. We ended up taking a cab back to the hotel after the show because we didn’t want to walk that trip again at 1AM.

I was just glad that I made the show at all. I got a migraine from sitting in the sun all day, and ended up skipping the buffet dinner everyone else went to. I took a Butabital and went back to the hotel room to rest for a while before the show. Thankfully the medication kicked in and I was fine for the show.

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Sunday Resting

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The convention doesn’t really start until tomorrow, so today is resting. We headed over to Joe’s hotel (Flamingo Grand Vacation something or other) to hang in his pool. We relaxed and hung out. I got really hot and tried to nap in the nice shade area with the misting system. Man those things rock. Not much went on today besides lying at the pool. It is nice to relax before the hectic week of juggling conferences and staying on top of work at the office begins.

Jayson and Gretchen also moved into their own room for most of the remaining week. We share a room again on Friday when the convention is over for one more night! At least I don’t have to wait for the bathroom for a few more days!

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Vegas Baby, Again!

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I am off to one of my favorate spots right now, Las Vegas. I am on my way to Cisco Networkers. I personally can’t stand conventions but because of what I do and my personal interests Networks is not like other conventions. I had a great time last year so I am going back. This year Jayson is coming with me, and we are meeting our friend Joe there. Right now I am on my Jetblue flight out there. I like jetblue. They have yet to do something to piss me off. I have my 36 channels of TV with nothing on, so I write a bit.

We will get to Vegas and check into the hotel and then meet up with Joe and Karen for dinner. By the time we land we will be able to go straight to the hotel. I don’t know if I will gamble much, but I will try do it a little. I want to work on my tan a bit tomorrow. I am going to Vegas for work, but the reason I am heading out a bit early is to get some recreation in also!

Right now we are over Missouri and I have already set my watch to Vegas time. I am going to sit back and relax a bit.

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Custom Order!

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Are you a custom order guy? Or gal? You know the person who orders something off the menu, then changes like 5 things about it. Lets say extra crispy this, hold the that, not allot of this, and cut the crusts off. And then you get upset with staff when they mess up your order that NASA scientists would mess up? If so, get over it. Don’t be like my mom, or Danny and get upset about it. What did you expect?

I have a theory, and it is usually accurate. Well usually. It goes like this, you can make ONE change to any order. After that you are asking for it to be messed up. You want no lettuce and no mayo, ask for no mayo because you can pull lettuce off something. if you ask for both removed you will get both. This theory is except if it is Kai going to BK for me at the drive through! Then no matter how small the change is, they will mess it up. But I digress.

Why I am going off about food order changes? Tonight I have learned (well I knew it already but I let myself believe it was not true) change requests no matter what industry you are talking about cause chaos. Why you may ask? It goes to another theory I have. Well make it a law, it is that certain. It goes like this. 95% of the people out there are stupid. They are. I am not pessimistic. Prove me wrong! Really I want you to!

Today I flew home from Portland. I got to the airport really early so I asked to see if I can fly standby on the earlier flight. They (US Airways) said the earlier flight was booked but they would put me on standby. Boarding time comes around for the early flight and I am in luck, there are extra seats. As they give me my boarding card I ask for the second time “will my luggage get on this flight ok”? I am reasured by the gate agent that she is calling the luggage people right now and it will be taken care of. There was 20+ minutes to departure so no issues. Sure enough we waited on the ground for a while. I figure, plenty of time to put my bag on.

I get to NYC and proceed to get my bag. Well it doesn’t come off the carousel. Why you may ask? Well change is the answer. A simple change like modifying someone’s flight to an earlier one caused the system to be messed up. It was a simple change, one that you would think happens all the time, but it got messed up anyway. You may be saying “Scott, it was just one bag. Maybe they made an honest mistake”. That is a good theory. It gets flushed down the toilet when I tell you a lady with 2 missing bags (and a 2 year old) also lost 2 bags on the same flight for the same reason. The US Airways people called it a communication issue in Portland. I laughed and told them I can’t understand that because the gate agent said they were going to call right as I asked. So either one person is retarded or someone didn’t do their job.

The moral of this story. If I is food or flights, change is just a way of asking for your plans to be messed up.

Oh, and on another note. I do technology for a call center. We go to great lengths to make sure the customer always has choices, and can always get to a live person. it is possible to operate a Call Center like that, so NO ONE should tell me it is ok to have an IVR that does not have any way to get to a live agent. US Airways, a bit of a heads up. If I press 0, I better get a f–king live agent. if I press 0 several times I better get an agent, not an automated response telling me to try back later when I have my proper information. I am going to goto sleep tonight knowing that you are in chapter 11 for a good reason!!!

Yes I am pissed. But the agent at LGA was at least halfway decent, and I did get my luggage 7 hours later. I did however miss returning my Tux, and will have to pay the late fee when I return it.

Flight Blogging

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Off to Maine for the weekend. So far the flight so good. LGA (can’t spell it out, so there) is actually not that busy Saturday mornings at 7AM. I did not need to get to the airport 2 hours early. I am early almost to a point of neurosis. Rich picks me up from the airport in a bit when I land. Then it is off to the inn. Hopefully there will be more to do, or less time to do nothing than I originally thought.

On the plus side the place I am staying says they actually have free WIFI. I will see if it works when I get there.

I’m Back Home

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I got home late last night, actually by the time I got to my apartment it was today. The flight home was uneventful. Jetblue is still aces in my book. I listened to music on my Powerbook for about 30 minutes and spent the rest of the flight watching the History & Sci-Fi channels. Mind numbing TV to calm the masses on long flights, hmm why didn’t anyone else think of that? Man it worked. I got ticked off every time the interrupted the TV to make an announcement. Who cares if we hit some chop, or a wing fell off, etc. I want to get back to my modern marvel’s, and this week in history!

I got to the airport early enough to catch some food. I like a flight when everything goes according to plan, and you have time to relax and not rush. I even caught a cab with less than 5 minutes wait to and from the airport. Why can’t all travel be like this.

I even unpacked already. That is a feat for me, since I normally leave the luggage sitting around for days (weeks) before I put it away and do laundry. I am so proud of myself!

Cisco Networkers 2005

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Today was the first full day of Cisco Networkers. Allot of cool stuff going on. Way too much for me to go into too much detail. In a recap yesterday I learned what will be happening in the new version of IPCC. Some cool stuff there. I ate not enough food at the expo Cisco threw. I wasn’t hungry for that kind of fare, but it was awesome stuff. I got some information on some products I was interested in. I got some follow up reading to do. Then I got some answers from some engineers at Cisco about some products. I also got some free software that I need to try out. I could have used it a few weeks ago, but what can you do?

After that I meet up with my friend Joe. he is also out in Vegas for the same conference. We met up with his girlfriend and parents (they all came out to hang while he did his conference thing). They wanted to do the Star Trek Experience in the Hilton, but thankfully we just browsed the gift shop. They ended up eating the buffet at the hilton instead of eating at the Star Trek Theme restaurant. I ended up at a little cafe in the Paris. I am not a Vegas buffet person. I NEVER get my moneys worth at one of those. I don’t eat enough. Money wasn’t the reason I didn’t go though. I just don’t like those things. Even the nicest ones seem skeevy to me. Maybe it is memories of the Circus Circus buffet when I was 14?

Today’s keynote by John Chambers was good. He is a really good speaker. This was the second time I got the opportunity to hear him speak.

The first session I went to was overkill for me. They were talking about really high end network design of Data Centers. Cool to be sure, but I won’t be needing to apply those theories for a while. The next 2 sessions were on IPCC. What you can do with VOIP is amazing. I already drank the cool-ade on that stuff a while ago, but it is truly amazing what you can do with VOIP. Video, Soft-phone, Call Routing, Etc.

Tomorrow hopefully I will learn some other cool network stuff. I get to do a class on SNMP. I use it a bit now, but a better understanding of it would be very helpful.

Cisco Networkers

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I am off to the Cisco Networkers conference in Las Vegas. I plan on doing allot of reading, watching and learning of new networking “stuff”. I also plan on meeting up with with Joe and Karen for a while. Joe is out in Vegas for the same conference. And yes since it is Vegas I will be relaxing a bit also.

My first stop (even before the hotel) is to Sean’s house. I will get to see baby Scott, and hang with Sean and Kelly for a while. I think we are going to BBQ, but I am not sure.

I am staying at a new hotel (for me), the Paris. I heard it was nice, and I got a decent deal. From what I hear I can take the monorail from the hotel right to the convention center. I will see how things go tomorrow. I hope the hotel has WIFI, but from what I hear the conference will have it everywhere.

More news as the trip develops.