Sheep Guarding Llama

Eric worked out of my office today. We actually got work done too. We didn’t play any video games all day. In fact, I have been working solid since 7:45 this morning and it is 9:13 now. I am just heading downstairs with Min to watch A Fine Romance with Judy Dench in it to take a break from all of the work. Tons of work was done on IthacaPortal today. The site is really coming along, I added tons of new links to it. I can’t believe how many there are now.

I went out to OfficeMax with Eric today and I picked up some ink for my old HP Deskjet printer (I was given a nice DeskJet 722c in 1998 that I have never once used so I decided that I should finally get some use out of it before it turns to dust) and an APC battery back up system for my computer. I figured that with all of the problems that we have with the power around here, it would be smart to have a UPS on my main computer. I really should have gotten three of them because all of my computers need to have one. I already have a large UPS system on the routers, switches and other networking hardware in the basement.

Well, it took three trips to Best Buy but after trying two SanDisk SD memory cards, I finally have my Zaurus working with a PNY SD card. It is very cool. Now I have a ton of storage for games and applications that I am able to use while the CF slot is busy being my internet connection or my Ogg Vorbis repository. The Zaurus is SO much more useful now. I have downloaded a ton of new software for the Zaurus. I even got cool software that lets me monitor the quality of my wireless signal. It is pretty neat.

People are starting to ask about pictures from the New Year’s Eve party. Well, we just don’t have any. We are waiting for people to get some for us. None of us took any pictures and the digital camera turned out to be all blurry so we are out of luck there as well. So, if you have any pictures from the party, scan them and email them to me!

I am leaving for DC today. We have new equipment that needs installed there and I might as well get to it. I did go out and buy an SD memory card for my Zaurus today – it is only 64MB but it should help out immensly with making that more useful. However, it doesn’t appear to be working. The Zaurus recognizes that it is there but it just won’t use it. So that isn’t good. I will probably have to return it. The KVM that I am supposed to install is shown by FedEx as having arrived this morning at the office in DC but no one has seen it yet. If it isn’t there, there isn’t much for me to do.

Early this morning (8:00) I did two hours of work over at Ward’s Auto Damage. They needed a new computer installed so I worked on that for them. Everything went really smoothly and the morning started off pretty well. They even had a dog for me to play with while I was working.

Well, the KVM never arrived in DC so it is a good thing that I didn’t go yesterday because I would have really had nothing to do since I can’t work on the new servers until the KVM is installed. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another. So I am planning on going down on Sunday now and being down for a whole week. Hopefully we will have tracked down the package by then. I hate it when these things disappear. That is an expensive piece of equipment too!

I spent a large portion of the day, today, building and rebuilding computers. I am trying to get some equipment ready to go to DC but no sooner do I get a machine together than it doesn’t work and I have to take things apart and work on another machine. I am getting very frustrated. I want to have at least one machine prepared before I go to DC tomorrow but it just doesn’t look like that is going to happen.

I was originially going to go to DC today but I decided to take a two hour job in the morning tomorrow. I need the money so that works out. I didn’t really need to be in DC tomorrow until late at night anyway so it works out pretty well. Tomorrow will be my twentieth job in the IT field (twenty jobs just in IT – I must have topped thirty total jobs by now!!) I remember when I was in college and someone asked how many jobs I had had and it was something like seventeen (including all of the silly stuff that I used to work during high school.) So, I might be even pushing forty by now. Wow, that is a lot of work. No wonder I feel like I am always working.

Today is the three year anniversary of the Waste Watcher’s first contract. It was Jan. 13, 2000, early in the morning, when Loopy and I got the call from John, who was in Hawaii, telling us that Pittsburgh had decided to use us for their waste tracking solution. We were so excited. Me more than Loopy. He didn’t decide that he was going to work on the project for another month. But today was a big day in Waste Watcher history. It is exciting to see the project last this long. Hopefully, we will have a lot more time to work on it.

I managed to find cheap Internet access in Geneseo that might allow us to move the Waste Watcher system to New York and allow me to do a lot more work from home instead of having to drive to DC to work on the system. Having the system in my home would do a ton to make my life easier. So we are very excited about moving to Geneseo, which is much cheaper than Ithaca, even though none of us were really looking to move back home. Min will even have to live in the town that she went to college in. And I will be living practically within site of my parent’s house. Loopy will be just ten minutes or so from his parents (until they move to some place more interesting.) It will be nice to be back in the Rochester area, though, because we have so many friends back there (not that we don’t have a lot in Ithaca) and we know the area well and things are really cheap (REALLY CHEAP!) Plus, Loopy will be closer to his Miranda (by almost two hours) and Natalie will only be about two hours away.

I got my good computer moved over to its new case which seems to be working a little better than the old one. I think that it is quieter and I think that the processor is a little bit cooler. It is really hard to tell, though. Loopy agrees that it is at least quiet. The new case has two additional fans too!

I am planning on heading to DC tomorrow evening. We have a new KVM switch arriving that I need to get installed. That will allow us to do a bit of expansion there. We are currently limited to four servers running at a time but we already have seven in place and one more planned in the next two months. The KVM switch allows us to use multiple machines on a single keyboard, monitor and mouse. The old KVM only accommodated four devices but the new one will allow us to use sixteen. We don’t plan to use sixteen right away but if we move the operations to New York, we will definitely be expanding to take advantage of those capabilities. For now, however, seven machines in place is enough for me to be dealing with.