Well, it does make sense

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Mike

A ran across this on Twitter and thought it was too funny:

So long to my bat belt

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Mike

This past week, I turned in my BlackBerry. At work, we’ve been starting to use Good for Enterprise by Good Technology. That’s an app that runs on iOS (iPhone or iPad) or Android devices and allows me to check mail from my iPhone. The end result is that I no longer need to carry a separate device to have access to work email. That’s great, but I’ve been wearing a BlackBerry on my belt for over six years. It’s going to take some time before I stop thinking I lost something.

Motherships

Posted on May 7, 2011 by Mike

This week my boss heads to London for a meeting of the combined IT groups from the three primary PlayStation divisions. It’s the same trip I went to last year that resulted in my extended stay. This time, however, I am unable to go as I had already made plans to attend Maker Faire with my family.

While thinking about that trip, I realized that while I don’t travel too often, I have had the opportunity through work to visit quite a few ‘motherships.’ Since I’m a geek by profession, they’re ones most people wouldn’t care about but some might find the list interesting:

Sony Computer Entertainment America (my employer) – Foster City, CA
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe – London, UK
Sony City – Shinagawa, Japan
NetApp (storage vendor) – Sunnyvale, CA
EMC (storage vendor) – Hopkinton, MA
Apple – Cupertino, CA

I have a love/hate relationship with traveling. I like the experience, but can’t say that I wish to do more. I can’t think of any upcoming additions to the list but who knows what the future has in store.

IRC: Our IT secret weapon

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Mike

While I’ve be using this Internet thing for many (many) years, I never really got into the whole IRC chat. When I transferred into the IT group almost six years ago, I was introduced into the internal IRC server that they used regularly.

For the unfamiliar, IRC is a chat server and protocol developed in 1988 that enables standard text chat rooms. It’s nothing special but utility items rarely are. It’s how you use it that makes it work.

Did You Know? Our original IRC service we hosted was on a racked-up PlayStation 2 in one of our data centers?

Six years ago, the IT group I joined was relatively small and we were all in the same hallway. As a result, coordinating and collaborating wasn’t a challenge. Our IRC server was in use back then but was mostly for color commentary on recent events or sharing other geeky tidbits (this was before Facebook and Twitter). As our group grew, however, we became more spread out and IRC started taking on a more tactical vibe. That trend continued as we spread out and more people were still working together on projects. Worst yet, it was becoming more commonplace that you didn’t even know who the right individual might be regarding a particular service or skill.

Today, our IRC server has over a dozen different channels with fun and more business-like exchanges happening every day in each. The real strength, however, is when something has gone sideways. If a system has gone down and our NOC pages one or more admins to work on something, our IRC server becomes exceedingly useful so that status and collaboration can be easily done. Transcripts are often utilized for updating tickets or producing root cause analysis (RCA) documents.

Did You Know? I have the fortune of working with ‘Dalvenjah’ of DALnet fame?

Having not used IRC before I joined the team, I have since grown to truly feel badly for any IT shop that doesn’t use it or something similar. I can only imagine how worse-off we would be if it wasn’t available.

I still like my iPhone, but…

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Mike

Very creative and very beautiful.

We’re back online

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Mike

Wow, that was an experience I’d like to avoid in the future. Yesterday, I was able to successfully connect our router to the new DSL circuit and get the house fully transitioned over. That makes the final count of ‘days without broadband’ 10. Granted, I was able to utilize a borrowed MiFi but that provided what was essentially minimal connectivity. Things would have been quite ugly if that wasn’t available.

The two heros to come out of the experience are Xochitl who is a customer service supervisor for DSL Extreme. And Mike, a field technician for Verizon. Both of them were genuinely interested in working through the problem and each were essential in getting to a resolution.

Now I need to figure out what to do with a considerable amount of Verizon FiOS equipment (router, UPS, Optical Network Terminal, etc.). I wonder if there’s an aftermarket for it? I’ll likely just leave it all in place. Hey, maybe there’s a chance I’ll be able to go back to FiOS?

Surfing like it’s 1999

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Mike

I’ve been a DSL Extreme customer for years starting back in the modem days. When they made FiOS-based service available in my area, I was quite excited about moving from 3000/768 to 20000/20000 and jumped at the chance.

Unfortunately, Verizon changed their policies and decided to no longer allow independent ISPs access to their circuits. As a result, I was given a choice; move my FiOS service directly to Verizon (become a Verizon customer) or drop FiOS. Fortunately, when the fibre optic cable was run to my house they did so without removing my copper-pair phone line (they usually do) so I am able to go back to DSL. That is the direction I chose to take due to my desire to continue to host my server (the one you’re reading this on) which would be a violation of their terms of service. An order was placed for 7100/768 DSL last week and I confirmed that both circuits would be up for me to transition.

Then this past Tuesday, a Verizon service worker came by to install a dry-loop circuit for the new DSL service. Since I only have a single pair providing the phone service, we both agreed that disconnecting that to install the new circuit would be bad and canceled the work order so that it could be re-submitted correctly. The problem was, it still somehow got communicated/interpreted by DSL Extreme as a success so they requested the disconnect of FiOS (which they said they weren’t going to do, btw).

Now, I’m 5-7 days out from having DSL, have FiOS that is dark and cannot be re-instated without a request for new service which doesn’t fly (I was moving away from them, remember?). My only viable fall-back was to borrow a MiFi and get minimal functionality working so that essential services are available. That’s why the site is slow as you read this.

Next step, talk to DSL Extreme customer support management to let them know their business practice is busted. Oh, a credit to the account would be appropriate, too.

How do you do a parenthetical smile?

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Mike

Smileys are a decent way to express emotion when communicating in emails or instant messages. However, what do you do when you want to use one in a parenthetical statement? This doesn’t work: (you know what I mean? ;-)) Square brackets? [kinda awkward, huh? :-)] Curley braces? {silly 8^)}.

I’ve ended up using the rather old-school and relatively-unknown <g> because that at-least works (for me, anyway <g>).

What do you do?

Goodbye, Mocha

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Mike

Becky gave me a call today at work to let me know that one of our cats, Mocha, was behaving very oddly and had himself ‘stuck’ in a corner, crying, panting, and not terribly responsive to any interactions. Fortunately, I had already addressed the most important things to accomplish at work, so I was able to come home early. By the time I arrived, he was clearly not going to rebound so we said our goodbye’s and waited for the inevitable.

He was our first ‘child’ with us adopting him the Summer of ’94 shortly after we got married. He was a member of the family even before there was a family. Both kids grew up with him and we all have fond memories of his endearing style of aloofness. A few years ago, we joked that due to the relative ages, all four of our pets then might die somewhat close together. With our dog, Casey, dying last year on Brian’s birthday, it’s not so funny.

So now, we’re down to two. The big dog is healing and bounding around more than I would be if I had stitches in my butt just a few days ago. The other cat, Bella, is probably happy that there’s less competition.

Thanks, Mocha, for the memories. I’m glad he was able to enjoy one last Christmas (he always loved the tree).