Category: work

Time to Upgrade?

On By JohnIn sysadmin, workLeave a comment

This was just fired across the bow at work:

“Heads up – I tossed your name out there as someone who might be a “qualified” candidate to help with this”

Followed by the request:

Here’s the specific problem re the Sun box in DN1

We can’t connect the network management port; it needs a 10Mb/s connection – the switches don’t support it. Therefore we need someone in DN1 on a laptop connected to the serial port for any work, until the server gets on the network.

I find myself lacking the words to effectively respond to them.

Life as a Telecommuter

On By JohnIn travel, workLeave a comment

Living in a tiny space has its benefits and its drawbacks. One drawback is that when the weather outside is somewhat cool or rainy or windy, spreading the living/working space to the outdoors becomes more challenging and we find that we’re cooped up in the house.

Sometimes, for days and days (or even weeks) at a time.

Today, it’s finally the perfect temperature outside with no wind and not a chance of rain for days, so I grab my chair and portable desk and set up my telecommuting workstation outdoors…

Then a bloke starts up a leaf blower for an hour…

And another 75 feet away starts up a power washer.

**sigh**

Another Successful Demo

On By JohnIn workLeave a comment

Part of our fortnightly Sprints is an end of Sprint demo, where we showcase our creations to the organization.

I usually need a few days to prepare for a good demo – a minimum of a full workday to come up with an outline, a script, slides, ensure configurations are in place, run through it two or three times and iron out any glitches.

But it seems the less prepared I am and the more improvised things are, the more the team likes them.

Next Sprint, I’m not preparing a thing.