Grant's Rant

Career Change

2006-03-02T12:23:00.000+11:00

I've made a decision. I'm getting out of firefighting.
The last few weeks have been nightmarish and it's not the way I want to live my life. Steps are being put in place so that I can spend far more of my time enhancing our network instead of running around putting out fires.

1. Mail routing is no longer going to be through France.
This is a major one. The least of my problems is the multiple points of failure - the real problem is their inability to admit that they're wrong. I've given up asking them to check things because I ak them. I now include reams of detail from the logs to prove my point and say "THIS is why you should check what I'm asking you to."

2. DNS is no longer to be hosted by Ozemail.
These guys are jokers. You really have no idea the trouble I've had with them. Goodbye Ozemail, hello Rosser.
As an aside, Rosser are the guys who look after all our comms needs. Hardware, config - these guys rock. Good option for anyone out there who needs a solution.

3. Secondary mail storage.
Our inbound mails will shortly be going through Mailguard. AV, anti-spam, content filtering and on demand reports for $4.95 per month per user. Very workable for a company our size. The big benefit is that if our net connection, firewall or mail server goes down then this company will hold our mail for up to five days. When the connection comes back up it all forwards across.

These are the major ones. I'm also playing with vbscripts to monitor our server health, but I won't tell you about those until they're ready. Goodbye headaches, hello interesting stuff!

There's always a tradeoff

2006-02-15T16:48:00.000+11:00

Well, I've been enjoying this whole "being my own boss" thing at work quite a bit. Of course, there's always positives and negatives to everything and these last two weeks have been the negative. A DC that has random connectivity/authentication issues, mail server migration, a new site in Perth that requires setup and three new servers for our asset management system. Far too much to do and far too little time.
At any rate, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The DC has been fixed as of this morning (probably my biggest headache as this is a problem that is visible to everyone). The mail migration is complete on the back end, the only people who have not been reconfigured are those travelling overseas. Equipment has been ordered for Perth, and as I type this I am sitting at my desk installing 2003 server via a Remote Access card on server 2 of 3. Very nice. Now, if I can just get everyone at Prospect sorted tomorrow I can take Friday off to make up for the lost sleep.

Time to end another techy computer based post on my blog. One day I'll write about something more interesting.

QOTD

2006-02-07T16:04:00.000+11:00

"Like most IT people, I will happily spend six hours figuring out how to do a three hour job in ten minutes."

That is all.

ISPs are wankers

2006-01-27T12:23:00.000+11:00

Ok - flat out busy at work. In fact, the only reason I have time to post this while I'm at work is because the ISP who hosts our DNS has decided to purge our records. For the uninitiated, this means that we're getting no emails. Nada, none. Not good - especially since we were meant to be doing a Domino migration over the weekend.

Anyhow, this ISP maintains that we have no account with them. This is despite the fact that I can provide invoice numbers that they have sent us in the past. Since they are a bunch of wallies I've decided not to ask them to create us a new account, but have contacted the people who host our website. They are quite happy to do it, but of course the modification automatically emails me details that I require to get up and running. Feels very much like I'm going around in circles. Meh.

On the bright side, my swanky new laptop has arrived. 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, 256MB video card, 100GB HDD.... lots of goodness. We need to have a LAN party sometime soon - can't wait to see CS running on this thing.

Finally, a thought from a friend of mine - "the whole metro movement is about the feminization of men...and I am fighting for men to say no to becoming pussies". Very amusing.

Does my ass look big in this?

2006-01-23T09:15:00.000+11:00

Finally got my suit sorted for the wedding. Bring on the post Christmas sales - certainly makes an expensive purchase slightly less expensive.
After trying on quite a few suits, I've ended up picking one that I like. Thing is, it's European so their sizing is yet another thing. American, my pants are 34. Aussie, they're 87. European? 52. Seems like they get the centimetre measurement, take off the inches and that's their size. Ok, so it's probably a lot different to that but it's still confusing.

Anyhow, trying on the suits was a tiring affair. Tiring in the sense of being really painful to get things just right in one style, then have to stuff around doing it all again in another - and girls think this kind of stuff is fun? At any rate, turns out that I have an 87 (34, 50) waist but a 92 (36, 52) ass and legs. Kind of amusing to think I have a fat ass. Guess it must be from the riding - at least that's what I'm saying.

On the geeky side of things, I got RIS working with my answer file. Basically means I can plug a computer into the network, enter a user name and password and Windows will install itself under a specific set of parameters without me lifting another finger. Very nice, and just in time for the rollout here.

Spending other people's money

2006-01-18T17:10:00.000+11:00

So, since we're saving hard for the wedding I haven't had much of a chance to splurge which is very unlike me. To overcome this deficit I'm buying things for work using their money. To date I've spent around $120,000 this year. Not a bad start for half way through the first month. Anyhow, it takes the edge off wanting to go out buying things.

In other news, the server at Prospect went down on Monday. One of the channels on the RAID controller died which wasn't pretty... thought I was going to have a server to rebuild but thankfully it all came up when the replacement board went in.

Coffee news... nothing to report. Haven't been out riding in a while - the hobbies have been on the backburner while I try and get life done. Hopefully things slow down soonish. Oh, I haven't mentioned that we're moving back to the Hawkesbury. Looks like I'll have the opportunity to see more of people. Anyhow, I have a meeting to go to so I think I'll leave you with one final thought before I go - Quicquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

Getting on with it

2006-01-12T11:15:00.000+11:00

Well, 2006 is here and as of today there is four months until my wedding. Starting to get on top of things - I've picked out a suit, taking advantage of the sales to save myself $200. Liz is up in the Hunter today and tomorrow checking out florists, hairdressers and make up people (do they have a title?). She's also checking photographers... and I'm amazed at how much these people charge. Basic packages start from $2500 and just get more expensive as you want more things that any human would consider reasonable. Proofs of the photos in case people want to order? Sure, just add $500. Additional pages to your album begin at $150. I'm going to make sure my kid has at least a little bit of exposure to photography, looks like there is some serious money to be made if you can do it well, and you are in a prime location.

In other news, my coffee quest continues. Espressos are getting better, a doppio ristretto has become my drink of choice and sugar is only needed to cover a bad cup of coffee. It would be nice if someone rana coffee appreciation course so that you could learn the basics of cupping - much like they do for wine tasting. While I can taste differences between different beans, I can't actually enunciate those differences. Ah well, the quest continues.

Casuap?

2005-12-21T12:50:00.000+11:00

My phone has one of those predictive spelling gizmos for when you are texting people. Kinda useful once you get the hang of it, but occassionally you get a throwback. While trying to type the word "bastard" I noticed it had spelt "casuap?". Obviously not a word it's programmed to recognise. Comes in kind of useful for bypassing those stupid email filters though. I'm going to try and find some more of these to throw around... funny how the latest installment of the dictionary is being used just like the forst one - to find rude words. Got to love Blackadder.

Have a good Christmas - I doubt I'll post before next year.

So THIS is what the doghouse is like!

2005-12-15T09:56:00.000+11:00

Well, Liz is back. As a matter of fact she got home on Tuesday morning around 9am. Any of you with a SWMBO of your own would know it's nice to see them after an extended period without their company. The day started well, and took an unfortunate turn for the worse once we got home and she saw the new grinder sitting in the kitchen.
Now, this grinder came to me as a Christmas present from one of our suppliers (a gift that I chose) to say thankyou for our continuing support through the year. Freebie - bargain! Or so I thought.... what I didn't realise was that Liz's mum had bought me a grinder for Christmas.
Negotiations are currently under way, problem being that any discussion of the subject renders Liz cranky, and me cranky because she's cranky at me. Thankfully last night I think I saw a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyhow, small mental note not to acquire anything at all when leading up to Christmas and/or birthdays in the future.

The Western Palate

2005-12-12T13:12:00.000+11:00

I've been considering the types of food that we eat recently, and I'm rapidly approaching the need to make a sweeping generalisation.

The Western Palate is amazingly focused on the sweet end of the taste spectrum.

I've found that when we find a taste we aren't familiar with, one of three things happens.
1. We refuse to consume
2. We drown it in sugar
3. We drown it in salt

Bear in mind that this is by no means an attack. I love sugar on my corn flakes, salt on my chips and I refuse point blank to eat scallops (little bastards have made me vomit more than once).
I do think it's an interesting idea though. Where are the savoury drinks? Savoury desserts? Sure, chai lattes are meant to be spicy but we've Westernized this drink into a hot sugary cup of milk with some cinnamon waved over top of it. Unfortunately this misses the ginger, peppercorns and cardamom that you would otherwise find if you were to try a cup from somewhere other than Starbucks or Gloria Jean's. I see that I'm starting to move towards discussing the evils of fast foods outlets who sacrifice quality for turnover. I think I'll stop now so I can blog about that next time.

The Joy of New Toys

2005-12-09T14:54:00.000+11:00

Well, I've just picked up my new coffee grinder. Tonight will be a fun learning experience - how exactly it works and trying to get a decent espresso out of my machine. Lots of fun ahead, and hopefully I'll have it right by the time I head to Tam's birthday bash on Sunday.

In other news, Liz is coming back Tuesday morning. Not long now - but on the other hand, I also don't have long to get the place looking spick and span (does anyone know the origin of that?).

By way of farewell, something I've learned in this last week. It's best not to discuss money matters with friends as it seems to promote competitiveness and/or comparisons. At least it does over email.

PS. Yes, coffee is the new fad.

Rambling

2005-12-05T20:01:00.000+11:00

Well, another weekend down and back with my nose to the grind. Had a good breakfast with the boys at Nathan's place, discussing the war in Iraq, political systems and economic systems (hooray for intelligent discussion!). Funnily enough, after everyone agreeing that democracy was a far better system than an autocracy I have just finished reading a post on someone else's blog about how democracy can never work in the church because it promotes dissension! What an amazing thought. Does this mean the church in question actually supports dictatorship...? Slightly tic but something interesting to think about. I know Baptist churches use a voting system.

In other news I have a job review this week. My current postion as a newtwork admin will now include the roles of our IT Manager (my old boss) who has gone back to France for an internal transfer. After some input from my peers on salary recommendations - 55k (eek!) to 90k (yay!) - I'm going to aim for 80k, hope for 75k but be happy with 70k. When you take our bonus system into consideration that works out pretty well. Fingers are crossed so we'll see what happens.

Not much else to report, I suppose I should add that my grinder is definitely arriving this week. Tam, if you're reading this we'll be drinking some damn fine coffee at your place on Sunday. Hopefully something approaching this. Bring on the Monsooned Malabar!

The meals you used to go out for

2005-11-29T09:40:00.000+11:00

Well, last night was to be dedicated to writing a post for my blog. It was not to be however... Liz had her poster completed and wanted to drop it off to Kinkos so that they had time to print it before she leaves for the US.
I haven't mentioned that yet have I? Liz is off to the US to give a talk on her findings at some big conference (AGU for those who are interested). Pretty impressive stuff - and only five months until she finishes her degree! Yay for that.

Considering this meant a trip into the city, we decided to have ourselves some dessert and enjoy it a little. After dropping off the file to Kinkos, we meandered down the Circular Quay looking for a nice cafe to sit down at. We found one, waited quite a while to be seated and then waited an even longer period to be handed menus. Not the best of signs but I'm still willing to give the place a fair go - we'll see how the food is. My macchiato arrives and by this point I'm ready to leave. It was the most bitter shot I've had in a damn long time, with hard foam on top instead of creamy froth. That being said, there was still a nice atmosphere looking across the water to the Harbour Bridge and seeing the slightly crazy looking smile of Luna Park off in the distance.

The question this raised for me is why on earth would anyone want to go out when you can produce better quality meals at home? Should we eat crap at home just so we can appreciate "good" food when we go out? Obviously, eating at home is not like dropping in to Rockpool, Quay or Banc - but then it doesn't cost us $200 for the meal either.

Bloody Blogger Ate My Post!!!

2005-11-28T18:29:00.000+11:00

Well it did!
I'll write another when I can be bothered - probably later tonight.

News

2005-09-16T13:19:00.000+10:00

Here we are again, a long time since I last blogged.

A few pieces of news I suppose.... My wedding date is set - May 13th, 2006. Good to have that locked in. It took a while - and some pain - before we finally settled on a venue. Bimbadgen Estate in the Hunter Vally. Very us, very food and wine focused, and just generally very nice.

I also got my new bike together as you can see. Bloody impressive and rides like a dream. Now I'll just need to get some photos of me actually riding it.

Log Parser

2005-08-11T14:28:00.000+10:00

Back again - and with the latest fad.

Started experimenting with this today. I've had a brief play with it before and work even bought me a book on it, but I never realised exactly how useful it was going to be. Kind of scary to think I'm actually getting excited over something like this....

Fads

2005-08-02T09:03:00.000+10:00

Fads are a thing that frustrate me - in myself and others. You may wonder why this is bugging me right at this point in time.
Well, Liz has a house inspection coming up so decided to do a big spring clean last weekend. Of course, her dutiful fiancee was kind enough to help. We started in the living room, moving furniture so that the accumulated dust could be removed. While doing that, some of the DVDs in the cabinet fell over. Liz started vacuuming and I figured that I could restack the DVDs to keep myself occupied. Before going any further, let me state that these are her flatmate's (also her cousin) DVDs. Apart from the corny Hollywood flicks, there were also yoga, tae-bo, weight loss for dummies and more besides. Having those isn't a bad thing - in fact it's a good thing.... as long as you use them. I suppose it's even not that bad if you don't. But (and here we go) if you aren't using the old things in your fad arsenal, why get more?
She has done weight watchers (lasted one week), lite'n'easy (two weeks) and most recently she has bought the CSIRO dieting book. On the weekend I see her pulling a pizza out of the oven and drinking five or six of those chai latte that lipton make (basically sugar and milk). I guess what is killing me is the waste of money on stuff that is never going to be used - at least based on past experiences.

Not that I can talk of course - my current fad is mountain biking, thankfully I have people who do it with me so I don't just stop. What else have I fadded? - and yes I know it's not a word ;)
Riding (current)
Swimming
Go
Magic
Certifications (MCSE, CCNA and such)

At this point we're getting too far back, and I need to start work for the day. Anyhow I feel better having gotten that off my chest.

Another day at the office

2005-07-26T14:24:00.000+10:00

Well, considering my blog is now back up and running, I figured I should post about something.

I've just had my first play with Nessus - damn me it's good. One of those lovely apps that does a whole lot of hard work and then puts it into a pretty format that you can show management to make them think that you've done all the hard work. Think I'll submit a report explaining why we need to up the IT budget :)

I'll let you know how my diabolical plan to take over the budget goes.

Back again

2005-07-25T12:45:00.000+10:00

Well, it's been a while but I'm back in blogdom. Lost my password there for a bit and was too busy with work to really bother getting it reset.

I'm sure I had something useful to say, buggered if I can remember it though. Now that I have renewed access to my blog I'll try and post a little more regularly.

Working with crap

2005-05-19T14:58:00.000+10:00

Feeling somewhat distressed by the total lack of logic involved with the firewall at Prospect today. This box has two tunnels - both of which terminate at our office in Sydney. One of them stopped working this morning for an unknown reason. All my efforts to bring it back up just aren't working. On the bright side, we'll soon have Cisco everywhere and these kind of ridiculous problems with an effort to payoff ratio above 250:1 will be no more.

Self Improvement

2005-05-17T20:12:00.000+10:00

I remember long ago discussing the various compartments into which we can dissect our lives with a good friend of mine, Luke. We broke it down into the following categories:
1. Spiritual
2. Emotional
3. Intellectual
4. Physical
A fifth category "Collateral" could be included if you so desire. The accumulation of wealth or possessions.

I believe it was in Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" that I read an idea. It runs along the lines of "pick one thing that would have more impact upon your life than any other if you did it for twenty minutes each day - then do it".
Every now and then I feel motivated to try and improve myself, I'm certain that I'm not alone in this. As an aside, what do you think of the word "certain"? My wife to be seems to think that it's use indicates you don't really mean it. Am I alone in thinking that idea is somewhat wrong? Back on track. These fads come and go, generally when I'm trying to structure one of the four parts of my life mentioned above. At the moment it's physical. Let me digress for a moment.

As mentioned previously, I love good food. Being a decent height (5'11" - 178cm) being overweight isn't a massive issue. In fact, it wasn't really until the last two years that I really filled out. At any rate, being largely overweight isn't an issue I generally have to worry about, however I've noticed that a certain amount of my body fat has decided to locate itself around my middle.Nothing that a bit of regular exercise won't rectify of course, but something that requires some action. Focusing on the needs of one area generally makes me take a few steps back and examine myself from a wholistic point of view. Normally this results in a half assed effort to improve myself in every area at once and I succeed in none of them.

Those of my friends reading this will have heard the HCC method of goal setting. Find a goal, write it down and do it. Well, that's what I'm doing - and I'm doing it here so that you can all enjoy my pain and frustration, and even add to it by asking me in six months time what happened to that deleted post back there.

Fads... maybe that can be my next Blog entry. There have been a few of them. Some not around long enough to really be fads. Anyhow, more on those later.

1. Spiritual
So, how can I improve my spiritual life? I read my Bible regularly, pray a bit and go to church on a gradually improving basis. I guess to see a marked improvement I need to be putting in more time to prayer and trying to make some sense and life related discoveries in what I read. I think "Spiritual Thoughts #x" will become a permanent part of my Blog. Feel free to condemn those upcoming posts.

2. Emotional
Relationships.... man they are wonderful and crazy thing all wrapped up into one. I'm not only talking about Liz, but friends and family. My sister is somewhat deluded and seems to think that being in a family simply means that you do favours for her and she kicks mud in your face. Problem is, she's still my sister. Reconciling myself to that whole situation is not a task any of you should envy. From interacting with people at work, and others I know from outside the church, I begin to see that being in a church teaches you to be dependent on your friends. To expand - from a young-ish age you start seeing your friends at youth. Those same people are probably your social group so you see them of a weekend too. Then you go to church and see them there. As you get older you no longer see them at youth, however you feel the need to still see them - all of them. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I love all my friends but finding time to spend quality time with them all is quite difficult. Group things are always fun, and most time economical, but you don't get that connection - at least I don't feel I do. One of my closest friends I see maybe every three months for dinner, but that time is well worth it, and the gap between when I last saw him feels very small. Bugger me I ramble on. At any rate, from an emotional standpoint I'd like to spend more time in meaningful communication with my family and friends.

3. Intellectual
This one is kinda sucky. I mean, I work five days a week and then I need to spend time outside of that exercising my brain? Yes. That's the simple answer anyway. The more complicated answer would involve analysing exactly how I'm meant to improve in this. If it's work related then I can easily justify time spent at work to studay and learn - yay for cool bosses. Reading things that stretch my brain as opposed to just for fun is another option. What to read though? Bah. I think I'll just go with extending my knowledge of IT. Speaking of which - just how much is a sys admin of a smallish company meant to know? I've realised that it's far more difficult than being specialised in one technology and serving in a large IT team. Applications, auditing, security, maintenance, efficiency, training.... it goes on. A never ending task of self improvement right there. Thankfully I have a number of IT resources to turn to - in no particular order Mick, Nathan
Justin, Marcus, Joel, Aaron .

4. Physical
Yay for exercise. I love the feeling that you get coming down from exercise. The euphoric feeling as adrenaline exits your system leaving you feeling weary but satisfied.At the moment my main form of exercise comes from bike riding. Unfortunately I only do this once a week. So... I'm aiming to increase my exercise levels to an hour each night. Be it stretching, riding, calisthenics or other - one hour per night is dedicated to exercising. Bring on the gutbuster.

That's all for now... fads will be covered tomorrow.

Spiritual Thoughts #1

2005-05-17T10:05:00.000+10:00

I was reading a passage in Corinthians tonight where Paul is discussing his rights with the Corinthian church. Basically, he claims his right to be recognised as an apostle, and the right to be supported by them.
The funny thing is, that he is so emphatic about them and then at the end of the passage, he simply says "But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me".
So why does he write it? Perhaps as an example of how we should be acting as Christians. Aware of what our rights are, but willing to lay them down to serve God - because our rights are less important than the spreading of the gospel.
Perhaps the other reason he does not wish to be supported is because it would come between him and his reliance of God? I can't say I'm majorly reliant on God. I'm reliant on myself for most things. Why? Because they are under my control. Most would say I need to get out of my comfort zone and start doing things that mean I need to rely on God. Maybe it's simpler than that. Maybe I just need to be believing for things in my life. Simple things, little things. I don't really know.

Redneck values

2005-05-16T16:34:00.000+10:00

Well, I was reading through a few blogs today and realised that I haven't posted in a bit. Bring on the random thoughts!

We live in a role based society. While that is something which seems to be shifting with the advent of equal rights, we still live in a society which makes judgement upon things we do or things we have and label them. Who is it that defines what is masculine and what is feminine? What is cool and what is geeky?

I had a discussion with a friend of mine a while back regarding me selling my car. For those of you who don't know, I have a lovely black XR6 Turbo. Goes like the clappers and I absolutely love it. Unfortunately, to make getting married more affordable it has to go. A few reasons... monthly repayments, petrol costs and all the added incidentals. Getting back to the point, I was discussing getting a smaller car - four cylinder so it's lighter on the fuel. After mentioning a few options he responded with something along the lines of "but they're girl's cars. Needless to say I thought that was a croc of something best left unsaid.Reflecting on it later, I realised that Australia and America are really two of the only countries to draw masculinity from driving a V8 or something that does a sub 14 quarter in stock trim.

I like to cook. I draw satisfaction from the fact that I can identify rosemary from thyme, a filleting knife from a chef's knife, a semifreddo from a pannacotta. Call me gay or any other thing you like, when it comes down to it I like good food and I like making it. A good meal is the best way to start and finish a day. While the traditional role of the woman was in the kitchen, I have realised that amongst my friends a number of the guys can cook at least as well as their partners, if not better. One of them is even a chef. You should see what these guys can do with carrots! Does that make my entire group of friends gay? Not a chance. If you like something then get into it - I'm talking about interests not pants.

Who will join me in throwing of the shackles of an archaic social system to lead the charge towards a mindset that needs to be assimilated? Viva le resistance!

To think or not to think....? That is the question.

2005-05-04T06:49:00.000+10:00

Well, some two weeks after creating this I am finally enetering my first post. Within about five seconds of me creating my account blogspot went down.

Anyhow, I just got sufficiently riled enough that I wanted to winge to someone, and remembered I had this as an outlet. Huzzah! So, on with the rant.

Why oh why can people never learn the most simple things? Picture this - you are on holidays in the location of your choice, arriving in a beautifully set up hotel and you think "hey, this kicks ass. I want to call Jo and tell him how good this place is". You pick up the phone and there is no dial tone. What do you do? At this point I would think "ah, hotel! Bet they're on a pabx and I should dial 0 or 9 to get an outside line. In fact, I'll check this here sheet of paper beside the phone that tells me what I should do." Rational? So it would seem. Why then, can travelling executives never seem to follow this thought process when trying to use a dialup account from a hotel room? No matter how many times you go through it with them, you can almost guarantee that they will call you again two weeks later with the same problem.

I never realised frustration was a work hazard.