Friday, October 27
Jokes for the day...
So,
Heard my old boss from the last job is going as a weasel for Halloween.
Guess he is too cheap to buy a costume...
And,
How many Carlos' does it take to change a light bulb?
One!
"Hey guys, the light bulb in here burned out, someone change it for me!" - Carlos
Heard my old boss from the last job is going as a weasel for Halloween.
Guess he is too cheap to buy a costume...
And,
How many Carlos' does it take to change a light bulb?
One!
"Hey guys, the light bulb in here burned out, someone change it for me!" - Carlos
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Life goes on brahhh....
It's been a crazy two weeks since I started at the bank. Active Directory (AD) replication was broken when I got here, DNS was hosed up, WINS was not working properly. There were also a lot more sites, servers and users than I initially had been told.
Fixed DNS, that exposed AD replication problems and shut down one site for most of a day. Fixed that and discovered that a domain that had been phased out is still lurking aroiund in DNS, and have been working on expunging it from the current domain and DNS. Fixed WINS everywhere. Things are running fairly smoothly.
Mapped out the WAN in an E-Sized Plot, showing our nearly 20 point-to-point T1 connections. Looks like we are going to convert to MPLS and Local Fiber. That should be a fun project next year.
Haven't made it out to many branches yet, just getting everything documented and waiting for a new branch roll-out that keeps getting delayed.
Been working with Microsoft Remote Installation Services (RIS) to get ready for roll outs. what a pain in the ass. Typical Microsoft, great idea, poor documentation. Have had to search through countless Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles, get help from friends and generally be exasperated when I keep getting errors about missing NIC drivers that I know are present.
I'll try to put up some RIS resources in another post once I get this crap all sorted out and working.
This job is great. Never liked one better. Only complaint is that the coffee here is horrible. Guess I'm going to have to get my own coffee maker and stash it in my cube somewhere.
It's been a crazy two weeks since I started at the bank. Active Directory (AD) replication was broken when I got here, DNS was hosed up, WINS was not working properly. There were also a lot more sites, servers and users than I initially had been told.
Fixed DNS, that exposed AD replication problems and shut down one site for most of a day. Fixed that and discovered that a domain that had been phased out is still lurking aroiund in DNS, and have been working on expunging it from the current domain and DNS. Fixed WINS everywhere. Things are running fairly smoothly.
Mapped out the WAN in an E-Sized Plot, showing our nearly 20 point-to-point T1 connections. Looks like we are going to convert to MPLS and Local Fiber. That should be a fun project next year.
Haven't made it out to many branches yet, just getting everything documented and waiting for a new branch roll-out that keeps getting delayed.
Been working with Microsoft Remote Installation Services (RIS) to get ready for roll outs. what a pain in the ass. Typical Microsoft, great idea, poor documentation. Have had to search through countless Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles, get help from friends and generally be exasperated when I keep getting errors about missing NIC drivers that I know are present.
I'll try to put up some RIS resources in another post once I get this crap all sorted out and working.
This job is great. Never liked one better. Only complaint is that the coffee here is horrible. Guess I'm going to have to get my own coffee maker and stash it in my cube somewhere.
Tuesday, October 17
More Awful Support
Ok, doing great at the new job. Get a support call for a Canon Laser Class 710 Fax Machine. Seems it is no longer printing a confirmatin page after sending.
Can't figure out the interface on the machine directly, so I go to the Canon web site to download a manual. Can't find it, so I call the 800 number for service. There is not a .pdf manual available, they do not offer them, but I can buy a paper copy of the manual.
Ok, not going to spend any money on this, so I ask for tech support, having dailed the nuber that gets referenced on the "Contact Us" choice from the web page below. But at that number, they "do not suppport any of our comercial products."
Wow, that is great. Thanks for selling us a really expensive product with no support.
Canon Laser Class 710 Support
Can't figure out the interface on the machine directly, so I go to the Canon web site to download a manual. Can't find it, so I call the 800 number for service. There is not a .pdf manual available, they do not offer them, but I can buy a paper copy of the manual.
Ok, not going to spend any money on this, so I ask for tech support, having dailed the nuber that gets referenced on the "Contact Us" choice from the web page below. But at that number, they "do not suppport any of our comercial products."
Wow, that is great. Thanks for selling us a really expensive product with no support.
Canon Laser Class 710 Support
Labels: bad support, canon, work
Monday, October 16
Flooded Commute
Ok, the drive home today was great, it is flooding all over the Houston area, so I took some video of my drive down the rivers of Houston this afternoon.
This video is in Friendswood, TX, on Bay Area Blvd on the way to Baybrook Mall.
This video is in Friendswood, TX, just outside the Friends Church on FM 518.
This video is in Friendswood, TX, on Bay Area Blvd on the way to Baybrook Mall.
This video is in Friendswood, TX, just outside the Friends Church on FM 518.
Labels: commute, flood, travel, work
Friday, October 13
Best Buy - You Suck
Ok, yesterday online I found this Best Buy Clearance Coupon.
It just so happens that my Home Theater amplifer went belly up on Tuesday, and I was in the market for a new amplifer.
Ok, so off I go to Best Buy. I find a Yamaha 5990 Open Box special for $849.99, a good price, minus 20% plus 8.25% for Tax works out to $649.49, a really great deal.
So I check with the sales guy, we find an acceptable remote control and I go to check out.
The coupon does not work. Tells me they system has changed how it works, and I will get a 20% Gift Card instead. So I had him call the manager, the manager says that they cannot honor their coupon.
Bastards.
I'm not buying a freaking $200+ gift card from you lying asses today. I left.
Here is a screen print, from today, of the coupon, still online. Going to call their 800 customer support # and see what I can find out about this attempted rip-off.
Called 1-888-237-8289, got connected to a "Specialist", Scott, he decided to put me on hold after I sent him the link above. He came back and was unclear, so I explained to him about how I didn't want to purchase a $170 gift card today, that I wanted the $170 discount that was offered with the coupon.
He had to go talk to a supervisor. He came back and said that Best Buy had changed this program over a month ago. I told him that they should change their web site then, as that is not the offer they are maknig to their customers.
Dumbases, guess I'll go to Tweeter or Fry's after work today.
Update 10-14-2006:
Ran by Tweeter last night after work and picked up a Yamaha RX-V2500 home theater amplifier that they have on close-out for $800 plus tax. A little more than I wanted to spend, but they didn't try to screw me on the deal. Took about 3 hours last night to remove the old Onkyo TX-DS787 amplifeir and put in the new Yamaha.
Now I'm working on programming this thing and getting my Phillips Pronto NG remote reprogrammed to work with the system. Should eat up most of my weekend. Wohoo!
It just so happens that my Home Theater amplifer went belly up on Tuesday, and I was in the market for a new amplifer.
Ok, so off I go to Best Buy. I find a Yamaha 5990 Open Box special for $849.99, a good price, minus 20% plus 8.25% for Tax works out to $649.49, a really great deal.
So I check with the sales guy, we find an acceptable remote control and I go to check out.
The coupon does not work. Tells me they system has changed how it works, and I will get a 20% Gift Card instead. So I had him call the manager, the manager says that they cannot honor their coupon.
Bastards.
I'm not buying a freaking $200+ gift card from you lying asses today. I left.
Here is a screen print, from today, of the coupon, still online. Going to call their 800 customer support # and see what I can find out about this attempted rip-off.
Called 1-888-237-8289, got connected to a "Specialist", Scott, he decided to put me on hold after I sent him the link above. He came back and was unclear, so I explained to him about how I didn't want to purchase a $170 gift card today, that I wanted the $170 discount that was offered with the coupon.
He had to go talk to a supervisor. He came back and said that Best Buy had changed this program over a month ago. I told him that they should change their web site then, as that is not the offer they are maknig to their customers.
Dumbases, guess I'll go to Tweeter or Fry's after work today.
Update 10-14-2006:
Ran by Tweeter last night after work and picked up a Yamaha RX-V2500 home theater amplifier that they have on close-out for $800 plus tax. A little more than I wanted to spend, but they didn't try to screw me on the deal. Took about 3 hours last night to remove the old Onkyo TX-DS787 amplifeir and put in the new Yamaha.
Now I'm working on programming this thing and getting my Phillips Pronto NG remote reprogrammed to work with the system. Should eat up most of my weekend. Wohoo!
Labels: bad support, best buy, home theater
New job update
New job is great.
Got to order a new HP laptop, got a massive monster of a system, 17" widescreen, Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB RAM, 100GB HDD. Thing rocks.
I'm in a temporary desk right now while my CUBE is being built out. Relearning the joys of cube living in a regular office. Heard one of those funny sentances start up just now over the wall:
"Back when I had my teeth..." started the conversation on the other side of the wall.
Yeah, this is going to be a blast!
I'm having fun getting to know the network here, getting reacquainted with some old friends and settling into a great job.
Oh, and the commute. My last job was 22 miles from home and took an hour and fifteen minutes in the morning on average and an hour and a half at night. The new job is 20 miles from home, and takes forty-five minutes in the morning and about forty-five minutes in the evening for a net time saved of about a hour a day. That's five hours a week. 250 hours a year saved with two weeks vacation figured into the mix. Wohoo!
Got to order a new HP laptop, got a massive monster of a system, 17" widescreen, Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB RAM, 100GB HDD. Thing rocks.
I'm in a temporary desk right now while my CUBE is being built out. Relearning the joys of cube living in a regular office. Heard one of those funny sentances start up just now over the wall:
"Back when I had my teeth..." started the conversation on the other side of the wall.
Yeah, this is going to be a blast!
I'm having fun getting to know the network here, getting reacquainted with some old friends and settling into a great job.
Oh, and the commute. My last job was 22 miles from home and took an hour and fifteen minutes in the morning on average and an hour and a half at night. The new job is 20 miles from home, and takes forty-five minutes in the morning and about forty-five minutes in the evening for a net time saved of about a hour a day. That's five hours a week. 250 hours a year saved with two weeks vacation figured into the mix. Wohoo!
Labels: commute, compaq, cubefarm, work
Saturday, October 7
Having a great day!
We took the little guy to Sea World today with my 'rents. There was virtually no line for the Steel Eel rollercoaster, so we rode it twice in quick secession, first in the rear seat, then in the front seat. My dad caught some video of the second ride on his digital camera, so I thought I would post it here.
This is a great steel out and back coaster. Lots of air time, a 150' drop. Hard to beat that for a good time.
This is a great steel out and back coaster. Lots of air time, a 150' drop. Hard to beat that for a good time.
Labels: family, san antonio, seaworld, travel
Tuesday, October 3
Winding Down
Lookie there, it's the Sanyo blimp!
Saw this out the window yesterday.
Not much to do at the old job.
Found out yesterday that the new job does not start till Tuesday. Banker's Holidays are gonna rock!
We're going to hit the road with the boy and go to Seaworld in San Antonio this weekend, do the River Walk, maybe run up to Kerrville on Friday.
Should be fun, enjoy the blimp!
Labels: san antonio, seaworld, travel, work
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