May 3, 2009: Walking Around Peekskill

Thanks to Francis for turning me on to JoshBlog’s Logic Gate Simulator.  Simple and tons of fun and it teaches about logic gates!  Can’t go wrong.  This is pretty much as good as those electronic kits that you get for kids but with less mess and free.  Every kid should play with this to learn about logic gates.  Adults really should as well.  Good stuff.

Today ended up being a really awesome day.  There wasn’t so much work as to keep me buried and for the first time in a long time I was actually able to make real progress and to really feel like I was being productive.  I got right to work building that Window Server 2003 machine that was such a problem yesterday.  I had a good plan for it today and was able to go pretty quickly with this fresh attempt.  The secret for this type of install is to have Server Pack 2 downloaded as an ISO file so that you can mount it up to the virtual machine and get it installed before ever even configuring Internet access.

I spent the whole day working but unlike a lot of days where I work and work and end up just spinning my wheels and getting exhausted I actually got a ton accomplished today.  That felt really good.

After work tonight I decided that I really needed to take some time and get some exercise.  It was too cold for Liesl to go out for a walk because it was raining.  So I just went on my own.  I walked downtown looking for coffee.  Of course, being in the New York Metro area, there was no coffee to be found.  The New York area is the sleepiest area I have ever known.  Everything closes so early around here.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  I am so not used to how laid-back life is down here.  It is very frustrating as an Upstater to come down here and have to deal with how slowly everything moves.

There was a lot of activity going on downtown so I walked around and found the Cinco de Mayo celebration underway.  They had the downtown streets blocked off and live music and stuff.  Had we been down there early in the day there had been a lot of food.  But, of course, it was all gone by the time that I was even ready for afternoon coffee let alone dinner.

Since I was already out and walkingI walked all the way across town, went up North Division Street to Highland to Constant Ave.  then crossed over and came back via North Division and took Cortlandt over to Broad and came back home that way.  About three and a half miles in total according to Google Maps.

It was a good walk and the hills definitely make it a challenge.  I listend to IT Conversations while I walked.  It is one of the few times when I get a chance to catch up on my listening and I really appreciate it.

After my walk we actually got some time to just relax as a family.  I am so glad that I was able to complete that server build today.  I did not need that hanging over my head for another day.

May 2, 2009: Road Trip to Denny’s in Connecticut

For a nice change I managed to sleep in this weekend.  It has been a long time since I had a Saturday morning that did not require me to get up extra early and work even before I would be working on a weekday.  So today I slept in until almost ten.  Of course, sleeping in until almost ten means that the total time from when I went upstairs to go to bed until I was up was less than eight hours and it was full of the regular interruptions so it still was nothing like a full night’s sleep but it was better than it often is.

Dominica really wanted to go to Denny’s for breakfast this morning but there really was not any time.  Just because I didn’t have to work early didn’t mean that I didn’t have to work.  I didn’t receive my Saturday task list until really late.  Normally I get it on Friday evening but today it didn’t come until eleven this morning.  So it gave me an excuse to sleep in late and relax but left me scrambling to get my work done this afternoon.

I worked until mid-afternoon.  We skipped breakfast and lunch because Dominica really, really wanted to go to Denny’s in Connecticut for their pancake puppies.  So the moment that I was done working we jumped into the car and hit the road for Danbury.  Yes, a rather long drive to go to a Denny’s but it is our nearest location.  The next closest is in Newburgh on the west side of the Hudson.  It is surprising that there isn’t a single Denny’s in Westchester or Putnam Counties.

Lunch was delicious.  Dominica got the tilapia ranchero with southwestern mashed potatoes and pico de gallo.  I got breakfast.  We split the pancake puppies.

After lunch Dominica and I both really wanted to get ice cream at Friendly’s which is pretty much right across the street.  So we decided to use all of our spare Weight Watchers points today and just do it.  So we drove across the street for Reese’s Pieces sundays.  Yummy.

Then back to Peekskill.  Just as we were arriving home we spotted a loose pit bull puppy running around in the middle of the street chasing a woman who was walking her dog.  The loose puppy had a very long chain being dragged behind it so there was obviously something very wrong going on.  So we drove over and helped.  By the time that we arrived the puppy had gotten caught on a stop sign and was choking because of a choke collar she was wearing.  She was a very sweet dog and quite obviously very scared.

Some neighbours came down and took the dog to its owners who didn’t really care at all, it seemed, that she was missing.  The neighbours who helped told us that the poor dog was left outside all of the time and just tied up.  She gets loose regularly.  She had no tags or collar.  She was very sweet and was healthy, from the look of her.  But it is so sad to see a dog that is neglected and mistreated.  And she could have very easily died playing in a busy street with a choke collar and a really long chain hooked to her.  It is amazing that we were able to get to her in time.

It really was irresponsible to take her back.  She had no collar and we had every right to seize her then and there.  But she is known to be dog aggressive – but we suspect that is only because she wants to play and is always tied up.  She was not visibly aggressive to the other dog that we saw – just very playful and completely loose.  It is just so horrible to know that she is going back to a family that doesn’t love her at all when so many people would be so willing to take her in and care for her.

Shortly after we got back home the sun was starting to get low so we packed up Liesl and Oreo and went for a walk around the complex.  We really needed to get exercise today after all of that bad food that we ate.  We got in a good walk before Liesl got fussy so that worked out well.

After our walk it was time for me to get back to building the Elastix server that I started the other day.  I had completed the base build of Red Hat 5.3 and just needed to install Elastix on top of it.  The directions from Elastix on this process turned out not to be completely accurate but they were close enough that the differences were not a big deal.  Part of the issue is likely caused by the fact that all of the directions and all of the testing are done using the 32-bit version of the software and I am using the 64-bit version as well as installing it directly into a Xen virtual machine rather than to bare hardware.

Dominica came down to the basement and used her laptop for a long time so at least we got to spend the evening together.  I am so backed up on work that not sitting at my desk really is not a wise option.  Next week is going to be one of the busiest weeks ever so wasting any time is a very bad idea.

Next week we have nothing scheduled on Monday or Tuesday.  Then on Wednesday I am spending the day working out of Warren, New Jersey.  After work I am going to Morristown, NJ for the very first SpiceCorp NY meeting!  We are very excited about that and if you are a SpiceWorks user reading SGL then let me know and I will get you the information so that you can join us for drinks and networking in three days.

Then on Thursday originally we were going to travel but instead I am going to get as much work done as possible and then get up a little early on Friday and take part of the morning off so that we can drive from Peekskill to Frankfort first thing in the morning.  Then I will work the rest of the day from Frankfort.

Saturday morning I have to work and do everything that I can to finish by eleven thirty in the morning because at that time we are going to leave Frankfort and drive to Albany to go to Dominica’s brother Joe and Brit’s graduation ceremony from the Albany College of Pharmacy.  Then out to dinner and then off to Pavilion after we are all done there.

We will stay with my dad on Sunday night through Tuesday.  Then on Tuesday night we will drive back to Frankfort and spend the night there.  On Wednesday I will work from Frankfort during the day at that evening I have the professional advisory board meeting for Onondaga Community College’s computer science and computer information systems programs in Syracuse.

After the OCC meeting I will drive back to Frankfort, pick up the family and drive back down to Peekskill so that we can get back to our normal routines on Thursday morning.  And that is just the beginning.  We are booked to be out of town every weekend for the next two months, I believe, except for the weekend that the Ralstons are coming here before flying out to the Congo.  I am starting to be terrified by our upcoming schedule.  There is less and less chance for me to sleep being built into the plans while more and more driving keeps getting added.

Dominica started work on a Liesl blog tonight that you can check out at www.LieslLee.com.

I had to get a Windows Server 2003 machine installed tonight – no excuses.  So after everything else was done I got to work on that.  It was about one in the morning when the installation began.  Yikes.

Going out to Connecticut today was definitely a very bad idea.  I just have far too much work to do to even think about doing anything extra like that for the next few months.  There is no spare time.  Zero.  None.  Zilch.  Everything that I do that doesn’t involve work or sleep has to come out of either my work or sleep schedule and since work is very much deadline driven it pretty much comes out of my sleep which mostly just leaves my health left to give.

I got the Windows Server install done just to discover that the box was hacked so quickly that I wasn’t even able to log in before it was toast.  What a pain.  This is one of the hazards of needing to deploy to a remote virtual machine on a public connection – there is no way to apply the necessary patches before going out to get the patches.  And Microsoft blocks a lot of text-based web browsers from navigating the Microsoft web pages so getting copies of critical security files without a Windows machine working is nearly impossible.

I ended up working until after four in the morning!  What a long day.  I am expecting to be in bed by a quarter after four.  But we will see.

May 1, 2009: Finally a Free Weekend

Well I reached the basement, turned on the computer and… it worked.  Must be a fluke, I assume.  But maybe I was working on it too late last night for it to have triggered the failure condition that I have been seeing.  The only thing that happens at night is that the SpiceWorks server sends out a Wake on LAN packet in the middle of the night so that all of the machines are scanned and on and ready in the morning.  It is this startup process that consistently finds the machine having failed.  But since the WoL system is simply a “power on” initiated by the NIC it seems to be such a distant impossibility that it is actually connected to the start up problem which is lost data on the drive that it does not even seem to be worth considering.

Anyway it is working today so I guess I should count my blessings.  It doesn’t die while I am working on it, only during startup so it will make it through today.  I am writing today’s post on it, in fact.  I am going to give it the weekend to see how it does.  If it makes it until Monday then I will attempt to not worry about it.

As Timothy noted in yesterday’s comments, it seems like I should just replace the thing and be done with it.  I would.  I want to.  But I hate “throwing out” such a good machine in general.  It just doesn’t sit well with me.  And I really have been trying to resist buying any new computer until Windows 7 releases.  It isn’t that I am one of these fanatic anti-Vista people.  I think that Vista is fine.  But Microsoft consistently bounces between long term operating systems and short term hold overs.  Windows NT 4 lasted for a very long time, then Windows 2000 was a flash in the pan, then XP broke NT 4’s record, then Vista came and went and XP still rules the roost.  Now 7 is set to release with XP far too old to hang around long and Vista having barely gotten a foot hold.  It isn’t about the technology its just abou the business cycles and investing in Windows 7 is very likely a good, long term investment.  And since my machines tend to have extremely long lifecycles as they get redeployed in any number of scenarios over the years it is very important to keep things like this in mind.  Windows 7 is now slated to have the awesome new feature of including a Windows XP virtualization license with it giving me, sort of, two boxes in one if I can wait that long.

Work was busy.  Big surprise there.  Dominica got up this morning and left Liesl with me and ran to Dunkin Donuts because she really wanted to get a cafe latte.  We are on a water shortage at home because of a water main break on Maple last night that has left us with less than attractive water today.  So we are on limited amounts of bottled water at the moment.  So she picked up coffee and breakfast sandwiches while she was out.

I worked all day.  The usual.  Nothing really worth mentioning.  Today was a really productive day, though.  Much moreso than the rest of the week has been.  Park of this is, obviously, because today was the first day that I was not working on rebuilding any computer at all at any point during the day.  Nor was I installing a new printer.

I did get a chance to build a new Red Hat Linux 5.3 server today which I have been needing to do all week.  I only managed to complete the base build but tomorrow morning my plan is to get Elastix installed so that I can test out the VoIP services available on that platform.  It has been a while since I had an Asterisk installation up and running and I am anxious to get one working again.

This afternoon Dominica went out and did grocery shopping and hit Dunkin Donuts again for another round of coffee.  She is getting addicted to their cafe lattes.

This evening, once work was finally done and Liesl had gone to bed, Dominica and I watched Quantum of Solace on BluRay that we got from NetFlix.  That was definitely really good and the best James Bond film that I have seen in a long time.  Possibly the best Bond film yet.  They have really taken a turn for the serious and are making the series into a real story and not just a bunch of disjointed movies.  This makes me want to go back and read the books to see if this is the series that Flemming had always meant to have made.

Oreo decided to be Mr. Snuggles tonight and he spent the entire movie snuggling with me on the big recliner.  I didn’t want to give up puppy snuggles so we decided to watch another movie.  It has been a long time since I have had a chance to relax at all.  So we looked on NetFlix and decided to watch Change of Habit which is the final Elvis Presley movie.  Made in 1969 it stars Elvis (pre drugs peanut butter and bananas) playing an inner city doctor at a free clinic and Mary Tyler Moore (pre-face melting alien) playing a nun / nurse / speech therapist.

The movie was mostly bad but then they have a seen where they torture an autistic girl that was one of the most offensive movie moments ever.  The “stupid” nurse tries for two minutes to show “love and affection” to an autistic girl.  (They also claim that parents leaving their children at a young age makes them autistic – not that it is a nearological difference.)  When the girl throws a block rather than putting it into the shape on the puzzle board – after about fifteen seconds of the nurse working with her, not after months of therapy – the wise, kind, knowledgable male doctor takes the girl away from the nurse – who was only allowed to try the block thing to patronize her – and squeezes her causing immense tactile discomfort, complete torture to an autistic child.  He does this without stopping for what they seem to imply is hours.  The foolish nurse holds her feet causing more pain.

They just hurt her and hurt her while repeating “we love you” over and over again like a cult.  After several hours of nothing but physical pain and torture the girl is magically cured and is happy, healthy and able to communicate normally.  Just a normal, every day girl.  Horribly, horribly offensive.  I can only imagine that one of the movie writers had someone in the family who was autistic and needed special attention and that they were jealous or something and wanted to make people think that autism was a cry for attention and wrote this to lash out at a group of people that he didn’t understand.  Or just someone who hates anyone who is different.

And all of that doesn’t even begin to address the massive sexism and racism in the film.  This was 1969, not 1949.  Mary Tyler Moore films and shows really stand out as being anti-women throughout her career.  When compared against other shows the same eras hers really show women consistently as being trivial and pointless.

The good part of the movie was that Ed Asner was in it.  This must have been the movie where he and Mary Tyler Moore met because it was only a year later that Asner was playing MTM’s boss in the MTM Show.

Before going to bed I went down to the basement to check my messages.  It is a good thing that I did.  I had a note from Danielle that they had a bit of a pickle.  When they were at our house they had had a laptop start to die and so had decided to go buy a new laptop so that they would have working machines in the Congo next month.  They really can’t be going to the Congo without working laptops.

In the switch over from the old laptop to the new their Congo presentations had not been transferred and now they are in Miami with nothing but their laptops and no presentations!  The Lord was totally watching over them because, when they were here, Danielle had made a DVD with the PowerPoint presentations on it that we didn’t really need for anything because we watched the presentations off of the laptops.  Then the disc was left here for no particular reason.  It was a very “should we leave this disc here”, “yeah, why not” kind of thing.

So Danielle emailed tonight knowing that we had the only accessible copies of the presentation!  They are too big to send via email and none of those media upload sites work at all.  I tried a few of them and they all error out one way or another.  QuikFiles failed on upload.  MediaFire (which I think is a scam – they show phishing advertising and use questionable tactics to raise money) took the files but doesn’t make them available for download.  Chris and I had tried working with them before using a paid-for Pro account and that didn’t work at all either.  I am pretty sure that they are not a real business but literally an Internet scam business.  I’ve spent quite literally hours working with unable to transfer a single file.

In the end we got the files posted onto the web site so that anyway can grab them now whenever they are needed.  So it was after two in the morning when I was finally able to head off to bed.

April 30, 2009: More Desktop Rebuilds

I have been so busy now for so long that the days really are all blending in together.  It is getting increasingly difficult for me to determine what day it is currently and when the weekends are.  Every day seems so much like all of the others.

The thing that has really been killing me this week is that my main desktop has died several times.  I am not sure what the problem is but I keep installing it fresh, it works great and then the next morning I come down to the office and it is completely dead!

That does not make Scott happy.

This morning was no different.  So I made some additional hardware changes to the machine and began, yet another, installation.  This is really wearing on me at this point.  This is at least the fourth time that I have completely reinstalled this machine, from scratch, this week!  This is not worth it at all.

If this final try ends up going sour on me my next call is to HP to get myself a new desktop.  I checked and this particular unit is three weeks out of warranty.  Argh.  A three year warranty and it really did run out two weeks before the machine stopped working on me.  Figures.

So a large portion of my day was taken up with that – again.  It seems that this is just about all that I have been working on all week.  Because of these desktop issues I am just getting farther and farther behind on everything else because all of the time that I could possibly have allotted for other things is swallowed up in desktop rebuilds.

I also set up and installed our new HP PhotoJet printer.  We are pretty excited to have a printer again.  It is networked and should make our lives a whole lot easier.  It was super simple to set up and I was very impressed when I discovered that it had its own web page!  Now that is a cool idea.  Very easy to use remotely and it has a bit of features of which I was not aware previously – like automatic document scanning.  Not that I need anything like that but once you have it, well, you aren’t about to go back to manually putting paper on a scanner!  No sir.

The Ralstons arrived in Miami this evening.  The car, apparently, made it down without any additional problems.  I bet that they are tired of being in the car!

I talked to Antoni for an hour or two on the phone tonight.  It is nice to be on the phone just because it gives me a chance to not sit at my desk for hour after hour.

It was a long day of work but I was able to head off to bed around midnight.  Dominica went to bed at eleven.  My “new” desktop is up and running so there is some small chance that it will still be working in the morning when I go down to the basement to check on it.

One strange thing about this new printer is that it “does stuff” from time to time without any warning.  It doesn’t print or anything like that.  It just shuffles its internal components around for several minutes, runs its motors, gets all weird and then, eventually, stops and goes silent for many hours.  Very weird.