Tech support that everyone can do

I saw this and spurt hot coffee out of my nose.

Wow

Last week was an absolute nightmare. I was tasked at work with getting 3 pieces of hardware up and running. Unfortunately they needed to be updated to code that is still currently in development. the engineers that read this will appreciate that I must have pissed someone off to get this assignment. I started Tuesday, hit a couple of bumps…then Wednesday rolled around and the shit hit the proverbial fan at an alarming rate. I hit wall after wall, some of them were brick, some concrete, some even had spikes on them. I spent all day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday talking to every developer, tester, team lead, pet code monkey that I could find to try to get at least one system up and running. Friday afternoon came around and I was preparing myself for the worst, to work the weekend. At about 5:30 on Friday, all 3 machines updated successfully. I was amazed, but still wasn’t going to start breathing quite yet. I wanted to give them a day to settle. I was almost sure they would bomb out and then I would have to skip church on Saturday to go in and fix them again. But they seemed to be stable enough and so I called it good. Then Sunday came and I helped Josh and Katie move into their new house. A lot of people showed up to help and it was good because Josh’s minivan started acting up. Don was able to scrounge up some bolts to bolt something back on. Not sure what it was, but it’s fixed now. Here is a great pic of the moment.

I then stuck around and helped them unpack and get settled in their new place. It was a really long day but it was well worth it to see Josh and Katie and their kids in their new house. Even if it is all the way out past BFE.

Internet address crisis

Well, we knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Here is an article that goes through the IP address crisis that is approaching ever so fast. I think it is a little bit funny just because there are only a finite number of addresses available in the IPv4 format, so you would think they would have had plans in the works a long LONG time ago to expand this once the internet took off like it has.

Sad day in the world of gadgets

It’s a sad, sad day in the world of sometimes pointless gadgets. Sharper Image filed for bankruptcy, see an article here or here. While I have not bought too many things from them, they are an endless source of browsing pleasure. I spend whole minutes going through their new gadgets seeing what they have come up with next. Here are some of my absolute favorites:

R2-D2 Interactive Droid
Zero-Gravity Massage Chair
Smart Shopper Grocery List

I’ll be OK with this, cause I still have my ThinkGeek!!!!

First supersoakers…next human batteries for robots

I saw this article and couldn’t help but laugh. I would think the guy who invented supersoakers would have enough money that he wouldn’t need to invent anything else. If I were him, I would be filling up my supersoaker and soaking anyone who blinked at me. (I have to have a reason to shoot em, I’m not a jerk ya know!)

PC vs. Mac, the epic struggle…

Working in the computer industry opens me up to be the technical support person to my friends and family. While I usually do not mind this, as it usually involves a free meal or free beer, sometimes it can get a little frustrating.

The other day someone was asking me a question on how to do something on the computer. It involved something that I have no experience in. Because this was a dear friend of mine, I did try to figure it out, but in the end I just couldn’t. I don’t think that my friend was upset, as he shouldn’t be, but it made me start thinking. I know a lot about computers, but I don’t know everything. I don’t know all the software, I don’t know all the Windows shortcut keys, I don’t know how to do everything on the computer. Now another person I know keeps asking me Mac questions. While I can answer questions about some things, just cause they are the same no matter what computer you’re on, others I cannot. I do not know Macs, I have no desire to learn Macs, there is no reason to learn Macs.

I know that some people are PC lovers, or PC haters, or both depending on what day it is. I believe that both PCs and Macs have their uses. For me, PCs are better. I am the kind of guy that builds his own computers, who reloads the OS every once in a while, who dual-boots Winblows and Linux. I have been a PC guy all my life and am not going to change. Why do people assume just cause you work in the computer industry you know everything?

25 years of computing

It is hard to think that personal computers have been around a mere 25 years. But as this article from CNN tells us, they have been alive and frustrating their operators for a while. Personally, I have never really known a time when I didn’t have a computer. I started with an Apple II, then “upgraded” to a desktop PC. Since then I have been through many a laptop, desktop, etc. I usually try to get a new computer every 2-3 years. This may seem like a really fast turnaround, but I find that technology usually makes tremendous leaps every 6-8 months. It is funny to me that some people still run Windows 98. I was at a friends house yesterday, “fixing” their computer, and they had a desktop that was still running Windows 98. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. It took me a while to remember how to actually do what I needed to in such an old OS. I haven’t messed around with 98 since … 1998! Well, here’s to personal computers, may they continue to provide their users with an excuse to curse! GIGO!

New Domain!

Well I went for it. I bought spudsblog.com and have redirected to have my blog there. As you may have noticed, you entered the blogger.com address, but you ended up on spudsblog.com. That is no accident. you may have heard of the saying, “All roads lead to Rome.” well this is more like “All URLs lead to my blog.” Get it? I know…bad joke. But I thought it was hilarious.

Predictable?

So I was hangin’ out with Josh last night and he predicted that I was going to be “working” from home today. Well, I was going to go in to work today, I honestly was, but I got a call from a co-worker early this morning telling me that the freeway was closed at Craycroft. Well, I turned on the news and powered up the trusty laptop, but I was unable to see anything about the closure. I then made the decision…Why risk sitting in my car for an hour trying to get to work, when I could log in from home? So I am working from home today. And yes, I am actually working. I have been able to get quite a bit accomplished so far!

Also, if I had not been home, I would not have been here to get my Roomba from the front steps! It is a nifty little gadget. I can’t wait to see how it actually works!