So at AUS, CLE, and BOS today the announcements seemed extra excited about the ORANGE security color, advising travelers to be extra cautious about suspicious items and people. What does orange mean? Is that worse than red? or is it worse than yellow? Fuck if I know. As Alex says, they need a numbering system, “today’s threat level is 3” on a scale 1-10 is much more useful. But, I wouldn’t know what it was yesterday… today it’s 3! did it go up or down?!
TSA warnings, what?
Mar 6th, 2008 by bwann
Departing employee
Mar 5th, 2008 by bwann
From: Data Foundry Intranet Subject: [PERSONNEL #165496] Departing Employee - Bryan Wann [bryan][e254596] Date: March 5, 2008 4:18:07 PM CST To: undisclosed-recipients; Reply-To: personnel Employee Record Inactive. Data Foundry Intranet access disabled.
It is done. Goodbye Giganews, it’s been fun.
Hello CentOS
Mar 5th, 2008 by bwann
So far the move from Fedora Core 6 to CentOS has been pretty painless. Aside from having to remember how to change selinux contexts on directories, all seems well. If you’re seeing this, you’re gold!
New virtual home
Mar 4th, 2008 by bwann
My colo is disappearing tomorrow, so you won’t be reading this for a day or two until I get my new home sorted.
No more on-call! thrilled! excited! hurray!
Mar 3rd, 2008 by bwann
HARRRRRRRRRR, last stint of on-call coverage finished! No more on-call ever ever ever ever ever ever! Hello every third weekend, I’ve missed you!
Copper thief, extra crispy
Mar 2nd, 2008 by bwann
The other day we noticed our lights at the office flicker and the facilities people at the datacenter logged a brief voltage sag. It turns out there was a guy in east Austin who broke into an Austin Energy substation to steal copper wiring. Several articles report he got into live conductors, was hit with 80,000 volts and was engulfed in flame. Amazingly, the bastard survived (for now) with 100% burns to his body and he was flown to the burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
Feb 25th, 2008 by bwann
In a fit of boredom I cleaned off my desk in my bedroom and migrated the Mac from the kitchen counter to it. While I’m still sitting here squandering life away, it feels a lot more productive. I think this is because this is how I started off spending my 20s, sitting at a desk in my bedroom until the very wee hours of the morning building my empire. I spent a LOT of time there. Shortly before I moved here, I had migrated to the diningroom table so I could watch TV. After moving, my Powerbook took over the kitchen counter. It didn’t get any more convienient than that, coming and going, perched on my stool, pecking away. Eventually I’d put a leg to sleep, then move to my chair. Here, the 120+ F degree heat would eventually roast my legs and I’d migrate to the floor or back to the kitchen counter. Suffice to say, that’s not a way to stay productive for long hours.
So here I am once again sitting in my old task chair and old desk, listening to old techno, all which served me well for many years. I feel ready to produce and I’m looking for something to do. I do miss having my spacious 20″ monitor, so I need to craigslist one.
I finally did it, I turned in my resignation today. It’s been a hard decision to make, I hope I’m doing the right thing. I’m giving up on over three years of familiarity and going to somewhere new to do different things. I vowed a couple months ago this would be my last year there, I just didn’t anticipate this new job coming up so soon. I think it’s going to be better for me, so I’m feeling better about it and a bit more relieved.
Feb 19th, 2008 by bwann
Thirty minutes in Mopac traffic this morning gave me more time to think than my eight hour roadtrip to Del Rio on Sunday afternoon.
I’m still alive. I was working in Amsterdam all last week. The weekend before I thought it would be a really good idea to stay up all night Saturday night (or was it Friday too?), sleep a few hours Sunday afternoon, then stay up all night Sunday night to get on Amsterdam time. For the most part it worked, I slept on a good chunk of the flight over and was ready to go when I landed.
The trip sucked. I worked long hours moving servers around all week which wore me out and built up a sleep deficit. By the end of the week I was pretty cranky, just wanted to curl up and sleep. Saturday was supposed to be my extra day off, but the schedule slipped enough to where I was working most of the day. I promptly went back to the hotel and slept until it was time to come home. Looking at my passport, I was there a year ago to the day. It was then and now cold, windy and rainy. One day I actually saw the sun!
I didn’t rent a car this time, I purely rode the intercity train, trams, and busses. I figured out the #40 bus line that will take me from Middenweg to Sciencepark, which took 1.5 km each way of walking out. By 22:00, buses only ran every 30 minutes so I wound up walking to the tram station every night anyways.
Friday and Saturday night I had to go to work early for maintenance, before the trams started running. The first taxi ride was pretty uneventful. The ride on Saturday was pretty annoying; when I got in, the driver told me he accepted credit cards. fine. Then he didn’t know where Sciencepark nor Kruislaan was, nor did his nav unit. Finally drew a little map and mentioned Middenweg which got the point across. When we arrived, he discovered he could only accept AmEx and Mastercard when I only had wallet full of Visa cards, no Euro, and only $100. He finally relented (what choice did he have?) and took me to an ATM in Middenweg. Good thing I knew the area.
One evening I had Indonesian food at Bojo’s, it was every bit delicious as I remember. I got in so late every night I didn’t want to burn two hours to eat, so the rest of my meals were New York Pizza and fries. I stayed at the Hotel Eden at Rembrandplein, really nice place; I highly recommend it. I booked some winter special and it was a good deal at like EUR 120/night. For work it was perfect since it was right on the #9 tram line. Otherwise, I didn’t make it outside of the square. Note for next time, a couple stops up at Praetoriustraat in Watergrafsmeer is a number of eetcafes. I’d gladly take pizza over schwarmarolls for lunch.
Full disclosure: I broke my nine month soda-free spree. At Telecity they only have a coffee machine and a Coca-cola machine. I failed to visit AlbertHein beforehand to smuggle in bottled water. I was so parched I gave in and bought a Coke (try chugging a hot coffee or tea, doesn’t work). I’m so disappointed that the counter reset. I only had one can and I’m back on the no-soda wagon.
