I woke up in the middle of the night and had trouble getting back to sleep. By the time I was comphy and sleeping well it was time to get up. So I've been tried all damn day.
Tomorrow is Friday. Yay.
I love my job. I like doing what I do. I however dislike dealing with some of the agents that need help to do their jobs. Most of them are fine to work with. A few are not so great to work with. Today I got to deal with a particularly pushy, rude, condesending, bossy, arrogant dbag of a person.
He insisted I try something that I didn't want to attempt. I eventually tried it just to get the asshole out of my face. All it did was demonstrate that he was incapable of doing his job. Which really is not a suprise considering the situation. He was hired at the same time as me and we went through the training at the same time. Most everyone from my 11 person group of new hires has moved on to another department or high in the support organization. Infact I can't think of anyone who hasn't except for him...
This doesn't make me really thrilled. I don't mind going to the snow but I'd prefer the snow stay out of my valley. I don't really relish the idea of driving in the snow. Well I wouldn't mind driving in this so much if I had the roads all to my self. Also living on a hill with a fairly steep incline makes it less appealing as well.
I woke up to my key chain vibrating and beeping which it does when my car thinks something is wrong. Usually it's just a cat or overly loud big truck passing by. I looked out the window at my car to be sure it was just a cat or something harmless that caused my key-chain to go nuts. By chance I checked the time it was 6:11 meaning I had over slept. Not by much but I'd over slept. Which if it had not been for my car I would have slept in much much later.
So a couple of months ago Chris and I faced a sad reality. We are nearly helpless with out our technology to augment us. The following is a recount of my fall into digital dependency and the realization that it's a problem
Super Watch
For me it started in my freshman year of high school. I had purchased a Timex Data-Link watch. It could store: names, numbers, memos, appointments, and had a few alarms, no chronograph not water resistant. But It was the first of my digital crutches. I used it to store names and corresponding phone numbers, peoples locker combinations, and had considered using it to store test answers as well, as nobody would suspect the watch. Later I would upgrade to the Ironman version of the watch which had a chronograph and was water resistant. The watch was really ideal it was ubiquitous. It was there with me at all times I never gave it a thought unless I needed information from it which was easy to retrieve.
The downside to the watch was syncing the watch at a regular basis to keep all the information current. Or to trim information to make room for new information but none of that took very long or much work.
The watch had saved me once or twice though. A friend and I were going on a short road-trip one summer to Southern Oregon. We visited his grandmother and his uncle in Medford before we set off to go camping near the Illinois river. Well the camping area wasn't what it had been now in our brief time in the area we witnessed people getting into fights and others looking for stuff that had been stolen from them. So once we got back into town and to a Pay Phone I looked up my Uncle Randy on my watch called him and arranged to hang out there for our remaining night or two of the trip.
Later I would lose the same watch on another camping trip near the Rouge River whiles running around in the woods of the trails. However the band was broken and the watch was partly hanging out of a pouch on my backpack I should have put it in my pocket.
The Palms
Later I would get a Palm IIIe for something like $50. This was uber. I could enter people and their numbers, addresses, email addresses etc directly into the the device and sync them later, whereas with the watches they had to be in the computer first then sent to the watch. Not to mention the calender and the to-do list and memos also done by the palms. Also the Palm could run applications and those could do things like control TVs, VCRs, Etc. The palms could also send data to other devices and other Palm devices which a couple of my friends had so we could simply beam contact information, memos, and games to each other. While the device was still fairly small it was a bit more work to use. You either used the crappy on screen keyboard or learned the special shorthand writing style to input data so data entry could be cumbersome.
The data input wasn't the only cumbersome thing about owning a hand-held. Here we have a device thats small enough to fit in to most pockets but it's made of plastic, glass, bits of metal and a couple batteries. If it were to fall out of said pocket and the batteries were to pop out for more than a couple seconds all your data was gone hopefully you had a synced it with your PC recently. There was a rigid plastic cover for the screen on the IIIe. It didn't protect the screen from the all 165ish pounds of me sitting on it and destroying the screen rendering the device utterly useless.
For a while I carried the Palm and my watch. This became especially difficult to keep both information stores consistent as the programs did not share a database and the palm had much more storage space and many more fields for contact information than the watch. So often the watch had a number the palm didn't cause I it was already in the watch and I just never put it in the palm and vise versa. After I lost the watch I just carried a Palm until I got a cellphone then I carried both.
The Phone and Palm Era
After I graduated and got my first job, at hell, I got a phone. I had one briefly a year or more prior to this but I kept breaking them and as I didn't have a job I couldn't afford to keep replacing them. Anyways my phone was the Nokia 6190 at the time it was one of the nicest phones voice-stream offered (now t-mobile). It had a calendar, phone book and alarms. But data entry was even more of a pain than the Palm IIIe because it all had to be done with the stupid keypad on the phone.
Again I ran into the problem of not having some data in the palm that was in the phone and vise versa. Not a new problem and as long as I had the data I didn't care much.
But now is when I really started to decline and become helpless. The numbers that were in the phone were only entered once by me or maybe even someone else. With the watches and the palms I still had to dial a regular phone from time to time to make the call so I'd sometimes memorize a number of a frequently called friend. No longer was this the case once they called me I had their number I no longer had to even input the number I'd just save it and attach a name to it. I recall making someone's name DO NOT ANSWER who exactly I don't recall but I've got a pretty good idea of who it was.
By the time I was working for the community college in Salem the phone tended to store the numbers friends and the Palm kept work contacts and information like passwords, schedules, etc as well as a few games and a mobile offline browser called avantgo. So the Palm was also for entertainment when whatever games on the phone I currently had wouldn't cut it.
I went though several phones and palms. Most of which were voluntary upgrades, rather than "oops! Guess I'm gonna have to get a new one".
Currently
I have a converged device. It does everything. Internet, email, contact list, memos, to-do, etc etc. While this is the ultimate in digital crutches I can just look at it and know what I'm doing tomorrow and it beeps to remind me when I'm due for a meeting or something else and it syncs with outlook so all my stuff can be in one place and usable/accessible in the office or at home or on my phone. Very handy and convenient. Not as cumbersome as carrying two devices I just keep it on my hip and try not to lose the stylus or break the screen. So far I've managed to not break the screen or lose the stylus. It has a slide out keyboard so data input is easy.
The Realization
Chris and I had have both spoken of how dependent we are on our devices and how we use them to augment our own memories and such. Chris' story is similar to mine he had a watch like mine, he has had a couple palm devices too, and also now on a converged device. We knew we were dependent but never had a problem with it until a couple months ago.
A couple months ago Chris invited me to go scuba diving at Edmonds Underwater park with him, his Dad, and his Brother. So I went. Chris and I left our phones in his car. Chris left his key's in the back of his Dad's truck. We had planned for 2 dives that day. But Chris' Dad and Brother were on a time constraint so Chris and I went down for our 2nd dive and we had been told that everyone would still be at the park when we were finished with our dive. We surfaced and swam to shore. No truck... No keys.
Here we have our problem. Chris doesn't know his Dad's cellphone number. So even if we could get to a phone it wouldn't matter, because we don't know the number. After five or so minutes of searching around the car for the keys and not finding them we start to worry, dare I say start to panic. I suggested Chris go to the dive shop where his dad rented some gear prior to the dive and get the number from them as they collect that kind of thing when you rent gear. So Chris goes and calls his dad from the shop. He told us where the keys were, which we had already checked the particular spot but just not well enough apparently cause they were right there where he said.
It was scary. Stranded in Washington with our money, phones, and belongings locked in Chris' car. All we had was our wet wetsuits and some scuba gear. Had Chris' dad not rented gear and left the keys we may have had bigger problems.
Have we done anything about this problem? No.
I've come up with a few possible solutions.
- Commit a few numbers to memory. But I haven't committed any number to memory in a long time the ones I do know are 1) my dad's home number as it was my number for years. 2) my work and cellphone numbers...
- Another super watch
- Print some numbers out and laminate them and keep them in my wet suit when I dive or wallet when I'm not diving/swimming.
It's not a huge accomplishment or challenge it's just kinda cool to have a highly portable setup. It's installed to a image thats only 256Mb in size. I could have installed to the entire thumbdrive and then had a bootable thumb drive which could be great for recovery and such, maybe later. I do have a 2nd 2gig thumb drive thats still in its packaging. Perhaps I will set it up to do something more uber.
Geeking with the extra day off. Went to best buy got a 250gb drive to replace the 200gb one that has been dying in my server for $60. I also got two 2gig thumb drives I've already loaded one with portable apps. I've still got to configure the portable apps to do things like proxy through putty by default and what not.
Today is Thanksgiving. Rather than just speak of the things and people you are thankful for thank the people you are thankful for. Tell them why you are thankful for them. Make today mean something more than just good food and lip service.
Slept pretty good last night once I did get to sleep. Although I would have been perfectly content just to stay in bed and sleep more.
Didn't sign up for the blood drive thing and couldn't find the blood drive people at work so a) i was wrong about the day b) they came and left already c) other.
I was sitting at my desk doing the stuff that I do while I sit at my desk. And I noticed I had an uneasy almost nervous type energy/feeling going on and for no good damn reason. Maybe something is about to go down? Maybe I've gone just a little more crazy...
It's a short work week this week and a long weekend. Gonna head to Nitmayrs later this evening and watch a movie. Not sure which one.
Thrusday I'm goin' to Salem for Thanksgivin'. Aside from that no plans so far.
The blood van may be at work tomorrow I may go give blood just to do it again and maybe save some lives too.
I want a satellite phone. A phone can be had for only $750 and plans as low as $50 a month. Which is less than my current plan costs me. True the number of minutes and features are far less than what I have now but I wouldn't want to be replacing my current cell phone with a sat phone.
I like gadgets and a little redundancy isn't a bad idea. I doubt I will be getting one anytime soon.
Last night while getting nachos at Burrito Boy on Broadway I was witness to something that made me embarrassed to be a male.
This particular little restaurant is located very near campus (UofO) and has really good food, it's a fast food joint but puts taco bell and time and all the rest to shame and is owned and run locally. Tonight was also the last home game for the local college team (The Ducks). There was a group of four middle aged guys who appeared to have come from the game. At least one if not 3 of them seemed to have been drinking or drunk. They made a fairly larger order in the neighborhood of $100 if I heard correctly and they tossed something like 50 cents into the tip jar. Then soon after I ordered they decided they needed more one dollar bills than they had. So they proceded to try to get the cute girl at the counter to break 20s or whatever they could get her to break for ones, I think they just got 5. Durring this transaction the drunkest of the bunch and the guy who is starting to go grey asks her what she is doing later. She handled rather well if you ask me. She took a step back from the counter and appolgized in the thats sweet and I dont want to sound like a bitch but no kind of way and said she had a boyfriend and girlfriend (maybe that she was a girlfriend?) either way shes telling them shes taken.
The red-nosed drunk and 2 of his other friends sit back down and wait for their HUGE order of food. One leaves the resturant nearly unoticed. I kind of gave the counter girl a look of amusement and pitty and she said soemething about them and what happened. I said to the affect of I feel like "I should applozige" a few moments later she confessed this isn't the worst it's been and that it somtimes happens while she is at the bus stop, this really didn't suprise me as the girl really is quite pretty.
Anyways some customers have left and she now has leave the saftey of the area behind the counter to reset the tables and wipe them down. Each time she passed the greying preditor he extended his arm to highfive or shake hands. She calmy dodged him and went around to her job. After the 2nd time the drunk said something and she says she doesn't shake hands with drunks. To which he protested he was not, he infact was. She then confested to me that she was going to beat him. I told her I didn't think anyone would really mind. Around now the member who had left nearly unnoticed showed up outside with a cigaret and a large stack of ones and everyone inside reacting to that.
After 10 or so minuetes their food was ready. They all took a bag or two and walked it to their Subaru. Except the red-nosed greying man. He returned to the counter and proceeded to attempt to charm the cute young lady simply attemping to do her job. He did not appolgize he did not offer a tip or money. He thanked her for taking care of them. She said something of the affect that she didn't do much and asked him to leave with his friends. He then asked why shes so mean. She said she doesn't like that he was flirting with her, a 16 year old. He was taken back by the 16 year old bit for a moment and pondered it. I don't think it sunk in that she was only tring to do her job. He asked again why she was so mean and she reitereated that she doesnt like him flirting with her and asked him to leave, he then said she was acting like a bitch and she again backed up said excuse me and proceeded enaged the bitch voice pointed to the door and said you need to leave and thats all she would say to him again.
A few moments later I got my food. I told her to have a better night and she wished me a good night as well.
I don't care if the guy was drunk or middle aged and thought she was hot nubile young flesh. She, girls, women don't need that kind of shit at all. Especialy when they are doing their job for my guess is minimum wage and super shity tips at a fast food joint. I'm not claming to be a saint but I know I don't and won't do that kind of thing even if I am drunk. Honestly I was suprised I was even saying anything to her half the time at work I can't/don't say anything to the girls who work the counter at my work even the cute ones. I think it's guys like that who make me even more affraid to talk to girls. Cause I don't want to be just another ass like that dude.
Good movie. Enjoyed much more than I expected to. Blew the last several out of the water if not all previous ones out of the water. See it.
Bond is tonight. I think I'm gonna catch it in Vancouver at the HD theater with Chris and maybe Cat too.
I've got over a 140 hours of personal time off. I haven't really taken any time off this year for a vacation. I've taken a day here and there to get stuff done or extend the weekend for various reasons like getting my scuba certification. But no real vacation. I'm thinking I need to find something to do and some people to that with.
I also think I need a hair cut.
Been a pretty uneventful week.
Washed my car a couple days ago.
Bond opens tomorrow. I'm gonna be there.
Chris in town tonight. New UPS device for me tonight from Chris. May head to Vancouver to watch Bond in HD.
I'm getting used to the silence. It's kinda nice...
Bond is Friday. YAY!
I moved the servers into the storage area behind the closet. Things are much much more quite now. Now the loudest things in my place are the digital picture frame, the xbox and sometimes the fridge.
The xbox seems to be more magical now that the storage/media isn't sitting whirring away right behind me as it did before.
I did have to move the cable modem and router and for the time being my desktop is with out internet connection until another super long cat 5 cable shows up. Just as well as I don't use the desktop that often.
Defrosted the fridge today. Lame fridge, I know. While it isn't a full sized fridge it keeps the drinks cold. Sometimes there is some food in there but not often.
Went to Home depot and bought some carpet padding to attempt to quite down the vmware server. I found a couple reports of people having sucess with carpet padding to help reduce the noise of a computer. I'll know better tonight when I try to sleep with the server and its virtual machines running as well. I'm also hoping I didn't reduce cooling by too much... I'm also still thinking of ways to rearange the place to also help isolate the noise.
I also upgraded the ram in the badcommand server. It even came back online after the first attempt. Which I had some concern about.
Replaced the homepage of junknstuff.net. I had not updated it in many months and frankly I hardly do anything with this site anymore. It's mostly just for this blog, storage, and it's also my primary email address. So I though't I'd change things up a bit. All the content is still in place but home page is gone.
While my VMware server is much much quiter than it once was it's still a bit loud for my liking. I don't mind the humm of it running so much as the drive access clicks and chatter from the 10,000 PRM SCSI harddrives reading and writing. I spent part of the night attempting to figure out how to minimize or mask the sound coming from both my servers to make it more quite in my little stuido.
- I hatched a serveral ideas.
- Build a large box with sound baffels and a door for the computers.
- Some sort of sound dappening material in the cases like dynamat or carpet padding.
- Some arrangement of funriture to block/iso late the boxes a bit more.
- Move them into super secret area in behind the closet.
- Move into a place with 2 bedrooms and dedicate one room to computers.
Tonight was game night at Nathan's place. Good times. Got my ass handed to me over and over in bomberman. But 7 player bomberman is insane.
Went to dinner with a bunch of coworkers. Good times.
Stopped in downtown and took a few pics on my way home. A bunch were way out of focus so thats kinda sad I may go reshoot them some time soonish.
Today is marks a momentous occasion. The culmination of many events and purchases. The server I bought in June is up and alive and ready for use. The EPS12V to ATX12V converter from RackMount showed up today. I also managed to hack the vmware web interface to listen on the standard https port (443) rather than the 8333 that it was listening on and annoying the crap out of me.
Somehow it got to 75+ in my place last night. Sometime around midnight I woke up too warm and proceeded to try to make adjustments to the covers to try to get back to sleep. I eventually ended up opening a window and making further adjustments to the cover situation. So I didn't sleep real great but I'm feeling awake and aware right now.
It was somewhere 65 outside last night where as the past couple weeks it had been more like 35. It's November! why is it 65 out!
The weekend is coming to an end. I wish weekends were longer with out affecting my pay or better yet some how increasing my pay with out me actually doing any work...
Reinstalled the OS on the server that lives with Chris. That part was done in record time. I then just moved the old conf files back inplace and installed a few packages then began to troubleshoot the things that didn't work as expected. It still took a couple hours total but it's been known to take a day or so to do it all. We are getting much better at it, mostly me though as I do all the software stuff, Chris moves the drives around but I do the rest.
I may have to practice and see about futher streamlining and configuring the setup process for the future.
Work was pretty normal durring the morning then the afternoon was super slow it was painful.
Tomorrow gonna head to Vancouver and hopefuly finish the work that was started on the server that lives with Chris that was started a month or so ago.
Nothing really eventful or all that interesting to mention. I'm really just attemping to kill more time in my day with this post. It's been a really uneventful day. Well the weather was really bad...