Dreaming with My Eyes Open
Friday, June 10, 2005
 

Today, I love IBM


I do not normally 'like' a company. In fact, when it comes to IT related companies I very rarely have anything nice to say. Not because I'm a mean evil person, just because so many companies seem to dislike their customers. I don't know why... they just do.


Today I called for a replacement Hard Drive for one of our blades. Normally, when it comes to warranty work, you have to jump through 50 hoops just to be able to send it in and have them "look" at it. Today, as before (I have had the same experience about 2 years ago), I called, they asked what the problem was, and sent me out a new hard drive overnight. I'm back up almost instantly. Not a single hoop.. and I was prepared, I had all my evidence lined up and ready to e-mail to them. The guy on the phone said "If you think it's the Hard Drive, then we'll send you out another." The whole process was just that easy.


Yes, the bladecenter and the blades are VERY expensive. But in this instance, you get what you pay for. They are, by far, the nicest pieces of equipment I have EVER worked on. And that says a lot for 14 Years of consulting. Every time I call, they are more than courteous. I have never had a problem with them or their equipment. Oh, and when I called, I was connected to Atlanta, GA NOT India (god I love hearing English.) So, in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, Here's to you IBM. Keep this up and you'll always have my business.
Picture Courtesy of International Business Machines Corporation. Unauthorized use not permitted.



Thursday, March 24, 2005
 

Sorry, Just text today. There are a few things going on that I want to write. First, a family thing. My cousin/sister Brandy is now only a cousin. To make matters worse, she is making false accusations against my father. To our family this is a very big deal. Yes, my father is a big guy. However, if you know him, you would know that he respects women, and would never hurt family. Which means Brandy is telling some of the worst lies she ever has.


Other than that, I've been working my butt off trying to get everything working properly and solidly at IPTech. Along with Designing sites and doing consulting.


Lastly, I heard on the radio that some high-schools in California have banned handshakes after soccer games. Having played soccer when I was younger this really makes me mad. I always thought that the shaking of hands to be nice. It shows respect for your opponent and a battle well fought. They have banned it because of brawls, and poor sportsmanship. I think that banning it is the worse thing to do. That sends a message that one should not have respect for their opponent. It is a hard but true lesson that even though a person is your enemy in the field of battle, that they are still a person, and deserve treatment as such. My solution, if a person is breaking the rules/displaying poor sportsmanship, do not allow them to play. Kick them off the team. Maybe give them a warning or something of the sort first. Truthfully, who would want to play against someone who cannot even have the decency to shake hands. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I believe in respecting others. Just my 2 cents I guess.


Thursday, February 10, 2005
 

hey, Great news.... Ghimli (my hampster) has finally figured out how to climb tubes... (it only took him a year.) I am a little worried about him because his eyes are cloudy... But I've heard that that happens when they get old.....

On a happier note, things are looking up. Business is at an all time high... I'm drowning in work and appointments.. (I'm not complaining... I'm estatic.) Plus the g/f just bought a PS/2 game called kingdom hearts.... it's pretty good, but she absolutly loves it....so she's pretty happy.

Well, Back to work!




Monday, December 13, 2004
 

Howdy everyone, I've updated my website a little bit. :) Just thought I'd let everyone know. I'm happy that I've had the mindset to do it. That's the real reason I'm such a slacker at certain things. I really want to do it, but my mind just isn't into it for one reason or another. So, I tend to get done those things that are in my mindset. If your wondering, I'm listening to Ophelia's Dream right now, it's pretty good, I've listened to quite a bit of just... well... BAD music lately, and this is pretty good. I like it.

On other notes, Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat, but my wallet is pretty thin. Oh well, Tis the season I guess. I do have tons of work though, which is good. The Lab link is kinda cool on my webpage, it show what I'm working on... Some people wonder. (And no, that's not everything I'm working on.) Just a few things that are far from being live... (some farther than others.)

I'm off to actually work now so Merry X-Mas if I don't write again before the 24th.



Sunday, December 05, 2004
 



I was reading some commentary on the fusion of technology and nature. It disturbed me a little bit. In my life everything is natural. We simply change it's form we move it around, that's it. I'm typing on a computer, but I fail to see any part of it that is not natural. Every single material came from nature.

But your missing the point I'm told, I don't think that I am. I understand that a laptop would not "grow" in nature without man. It is far from a "simple" tool. But humans "grew" in nature. We are an extension of mother earth. I guess I find it inane to say that something we create is "fundamentally different" then that which is grown. Machines are developed, they "grow".


The idea that bugged me was that initially machines were very close to nature, and now they are moving back in that direction. WHAT!??! At what point were they not. Seriously, most machines are simply imitations of natural processes. We as humans have learned "logic" and "math" from nature. Why do we use certain numbers over and over, because that has been learned. Our inspiration is everything around us, including our own bodies. We learn all the time, but NATURE allows us to do that. It's all nature. Think I'm wrong? Good, because I might be. But if I'm wrong then I'd like to see a machine built without using natural material and without using ideas based off of phenomena observed in nature.


Ahh, the beauty of a rant.

Sunday, October 10, 2004
 



Well, by the request of my good friend and customer Deb, I’m writing a blog update. The post-cookieshop era is going pretty well. There was minimal fallout. I am keeping busy with IPTech , specifically customers at IPTech. We recently got the cart server up, so I’ve been very busy building storefronts. Neither are done yet, but the 4abundant health one is looking really nice (Deb is excellent at designing these things.) The second one gifts-n-more is a little bit behind 4abundant health, but that’s understandable considering that it has at present 2.5k items. (Makes the designing part a little bit harder. Not to mention multiple distributors.)

Oh, and here’s a shameless plug for EMC That’s a friends of mine, If you need solar panels en-bulk then he’s your guy (crawl webspiders crawl.)

Other than work I haven’t been up to much. I did apply for a position at the giant known as ADP. It would be a very nice opportunity for me if I got it. It would also meld well with IPTech, witch is a big plus. Oh, and for fun I’m playing with Anarchy-Online again…. One of the few games I still find fun (those guys on the other side of the lake really know how to get you playing.)

Until next time…


Monday, August 23, 2004
 


I am deeply saddened today, I have logged off of some of my own servers... for good. It deeply saddens me. I didn't realize it would have this much of an effect, but it does. Over two years I have grown and developed on these servers.

But now I log off of them for the last time.

They are as a child who I will no longer see. I must say goodbye. It sounds silly. They are just computers. But when you've brought these computers up from childhood to full working systems it no longer feels like "just" a computer. There is nothing to do but copy some data and see if someday a portion of that servers data will give birth to a new system, or just die away.