misc

Meh or Treat

Okay, so my Haloween time was rather… meh. I still haven’t replaced my busted glasses, but at least I found my last pair, which are working okay.

Work is hitting the doldrums times; support requests don’t really come in after the tenth week of the semester, and we surely aren’t going to apply any system updates until the winter break hits. We haven’t even had anyone threaten to blow up the campus in quite a while…

On the up side, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. For some reason I am really looking forward to decorating the house this year. (Of course I would never dream of putting up anything before Thanksgiving. That really should be a law somewhere…) I believe I will also put up some sort of decorations in the office; pics will just have to follow. (Hey, this will give me something “productive” to do, given that I have to work the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Huzzah!)

misc

I’m older than I’ve ever been…

…and now I’m even older.

It’s my birthday… gollum, gollum.

I can’t say I like the present I gave myself today though; while cleaning the lenses on my glasses the bridge snapped right in the center. Given that my optometrist doesn’t open until Monday… I’ll be living with the stereotypical geek cred of scotch-taped glasses for the weekend. (And, given the speed with which their glasses providers work, likely the next month.)

Fortunately I’ve got a good suply of Tylenol to help combat the inevitable headaches from malplaced lenses.

work

All Clear

Oh, so the dog doesn’t really need to check our building… the Campus Police visually inspected and didn’t see anything.

(Presumably there weren’t any large alarm-clocks hooked to dynamite or anything of the sort. Sheesh…)

Back to the office…

work

Another Bomb Threat

This time the threat caused an evac of my office on Palomar College… and just when I was getting ready to post a “ho-hum” nothing going on post.

“At approximately 10 a.m., the college received a call saying that a bomb had been placed in the area of the cafeteria. As a precaution, emergency measures are being taken. The cafeteria, Student Union, and Library are being evacuated and are off limits until further notice. Students in that area are being notified to the best of the college’s ability. People in other areas of the campus can remain where they are.”

From what I’m told the bomb-sniffing dog from San Diego Harbor Transit Authority is currently inspecting the buildings, although I don’t know if the dog is Polly, Shazaam, or Oscar.

Information handling is much better this time around…

work

Bomb, Redux.

Once again, a bomb threat was called in to campus. This week it’s in the “O” building, which is the gymnasium and other P.E. environs.

Once again, the way our department found out was by students asking the lab personnel if our lab would be closing due to the threat.

The San Diego Harbor Patrol bomb-sniffing dog is en route though… oh joy.

rant, work

Bomb?

Well, things are “interesting” (as in the Chinese proverb) right now on campus at Palomar College. There was a bomb threat called in, as reported by our campus newspaper. (Because of truly bad page design, you have to scroll down the page to see the article.)

Of course, much of the information in that article is incorrect. For example, campus has NOT been evacuated; rather some students were herded to evacuation points (while others in the building where I work, the Library) were not. Even those students were told, at alternate times that they could not leave, that they must leave (but as some parking lots were closed they couldn’t take their cars), and that they were free to leave but may not be allowed back on campus.

In all of this, the campus is not officially closed, and classes are not cancelled. (Some students and faculty were unable to attend, but… no, no, the class isn’t cancelled.) As a staff member, I was told NOT to leave – even for lunch – which has just made my day… great.

And, mind you, most of this information was discovered by either asking passing police officers and searching the Internet. Very little information has been officially released to employees by the college.

Oh, and can you guess just how much work is getting done in this environment? Yeah…

work

Easy Server Install

So, we’re adding an additional application server to the production Blackboard system at work. Physically installed the server in the rack today, and it went in like a dream.

The PowerEdge 2950, a 2U Dell server, was not too heavy to carry alone (although I did have someone else to help me mount the dang thing on the rails). Once in the rack, he set up the wire management… while I ran back to the office. The PE2950 does NOT have PS2 ports, which our KVM requires, so I had to rustle up a PS2-to-USB adapter.

So far, so good. Now comes the fun part: configuration.

rant

Second Verse

…same as the first, a little bit louder, a little bit worse.

Had a power outage at work yesterday, when I was thankfully not working. (My shift runs Wednesday through Saturday 6 am to 5pm, usually.) This is not too atypical, being in San Diego County where SDG&E both overcharges for power and has insufficient power distribution installed. However, yesterday the issue was due to an aged and insufficiently powerful transformer on campus. (Apparently when they added the new, three story, multi-million dollar building they opted not to upgrade the already old and over-stressed transformer.)

Now everyone is behaving as if we’ve never had such an occurance before, even though we average one a year.

Yes, no one had any idea how to find flashlights, no one knew who to contact for assistance (when elevators shut down mid-floor) or who to contact to find out if the campus was closing or not. But no one EVER knows these things.

Every time we have a power outage there is this flurry of emails, announcements, and resolutions to do better next time… And every time the “next time” rolls around, it’s all a little bit louder, a little bit worse.

Personally, I not only have a rechargeable flashlight plugged in right next to my desk, but… I “know where my towel is.” If only we could reach that level of preparedness on an institutional level… ah well, back to my lunch break.

kudos

Pride in Workmanship

Yesterday a cable installer from Time Warner did finally show up, to hook up two cable boxes in my home. He did a great job, both in the work done and in the manner he conducted himself.

Not only did the guy call when he arrived outside my house, he was immediately ready to work. (I compare this with the twenty minute prep time the first cable installer needed, and, of course, the lack of arrival of the appointment last week.) However, he took one look at the cable that was already installed for my cable modem and decried the work done as highly unprofessional.

Nice to hear my opinion confirmed, I guess.

This installer hooked up two new cable connections, one at either end of my house; and he firmly and cleanly tacked down all the cable. All this in less than half the time the original connection needed.

More importantly to me, he had a really good attitude while doing this, in spite of the triple-digit temperature outside and my four-year-old wanting to keep “helping” and asking questions about his tatoo. (Actually that part was cute… I doubt the guy expected my wife to come down on the side of “yeah, he can have a tatoo some day if he really wants one.”)

Anyway, I’ve got cable again, after over four years without. I wonder how long it will take before it dominates home life?

Musings of an Academic Tech SysAdmin