Archive for the 'Technology' Category
“We’re not paid to work…”
As a “computer guy”, one of the worst calls you can get after hours is a call from your companies’ monitoring center calling to let you know your equipment has failed, and someone needs to go fix it. I dread those phone calls, but at the same time…I love them! Before you peg me as a nutjob, let me explain.
Managing an aging system know for its reliability, security, and stability has its draw backs. Patches are far and few between, and unexpected failures are almost non-existent. This makes learning the crucial ins and out of a system a bit more difficult, since you really have no need to be poking around in it. Super powerful commands and tools available on the system remain unused for years at a time! Knowledge of these commands is slowly pushed into the darker nether regions making it harder and harder to remember. Even worse, the “new guy” is hired and the senior staff member doesn’t feel the need to cover certain commands or tools simply because they are rarely used, or even because he himself doesn’t recall them. The senior staff member leaves, and the “new guy” suddenly finds himself as the senior member. This is why some employees aren’t quite up to par on the workings of the system I work with. I dread the feeling of being just a person filling a chair so the company can get paid. If I’m there to maintain and manage a system, I want to truly learn the ins and outs of that system.
Once I get that phone call, I’m finally able to use some of these commands and tools to get the job done. Even better, sometimes I might not have any idea what needs to be done! Thats great, because the company has “Tier 3″ support available 24/7. Speaking to these fine people is a real pleasure since most of them have been working with this system for years, and deal with all kinds of emergencies almost daily by walking site personnel step by step over the phone through all kinds of procedures. I always learn something new when speaking with someone at Tier 3. A new command, a new feature, a new method of doing something, or even a better understanding of a current toolset. Imagine my surprise when this “new guy” suddenly started getting phone calls and e-mails from other site personnel in my district asking ME for help on something. Thats a good feeling, and one that I truly love.
A good friend of mine once told me something about IT work like ours, “We’re not paid to work, we’re paid to be there just in case.” Its in those “just in case” moments where I truly thrive and enjoy my line of work. You can keep the internet surfing time for yourselves, give me a system failure any day!
No commentsUpdate for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems (KB937287)
After turning on my computer this afternoon, the Windows Vista Update notice popped up. Despite what others have advised me, I’ve been pretty good about installing Vista Updates the day they come out. If anything, I believe I’m proficient enough with Windows now a days that I can solve most issues that might occur.
After the mandatory reboot, I was greeted once again with the Windows Update notice. I installed the only update on the list and went about my business online. A few minutes later, the same update pops up again…this was odd indeed. After poking around with my system and reinstalling the update a few more times, I decided to go straight to Microsoft itself and download the update, which is available here.
I’ve installed the update manually, which I’ve never had to do before with Windows Vista, and the problem seems to have gone away. I kept Googling the issue to see if I was the only one and found a few other people having been experiencing the same problem. Some have used the same method of manually installing to solve this minor annoyance. Seeing as how others seem to have encountered this issue, I decided to post it on here to make it easier for my fellow Vista 64 users to fix this.
No commentsWhat is Net Neutrality?
Information is a valuable resource these days, companies and governments go to great lengths to collect, control, and even sell information. Whom ever has control of the information is in a great position of power. The internet has become the largest single source of information, and its available to almost everyone! If you control the entire internet, then you may just be the most powerful person/company in the world. Let me borrow a line from my favorite comic book uncle, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” This has never been more truer in anything during my lifetime than the current debate on ‘Net Neutrality.’
What is net neutrality? Net neutrality is the basic principle of allowing all users to access any website, content, use any kind of device, and use any kind of communication, without any restrictions or degrade in quality by your ISP. This is how most of us roam the internet, no restrictions!
Most of the major communication companies expressed an interest in creating a tiered internet in order to guarantee the timely delivery of certain customer’s network traffic. In other words, they want to charge content providers, like Google, a few extra bucks to “make sure” their website loads just as fast as their competitors. If Google or other content providers don’t pay the telecommunications company this extra fee, then they might find their website loading extra slow. To make matters worse, most of the telecom companies proposing this tiered internet system are content providers themselves, ensuring that their own products and websites load just as fast, if not, faster than their competitors! This doesn’t just mean telecom companies are getting a little extra cash, it also means that us as users are going to suffer. If Google is taking ‘forever’ to load, then we’ll just start using Yahoo! or other search engines. Telecom companies will control the websites we access by ensuring some are faster than the others, in essence, they want to herd us to their own products or supporters instead of their competition.
A tiered internet system will not only affect large businesses and large content providers, but it will also have an effect on the little guys. Start up websites will eventually get smothered by larger websites since they just don’t have the money to ensure their speed and net presence. We’re already paying money to use the information superhighway, why must we pay more money to ensure our traffic is getting there in a timely manner?
This past year (2007) was filled with all kinds debates, talks, and finally, a decision by the government. It was a small victory for net neutrality, but still only the first steps in the long road to ensure the protection of the internet. The net neutrality issue is still a very hot topic among our current presidential candidates, everyone currently in the running has addressed it at one point or another.
In the coming years, as more and more services and products begin to come online, we must continue to support net neutrality and ensure that corporations like Comcast, AT&T, and TimeWarner don’t become the sole masters of the internet. What can you do to help? Check out SaveTheInternet.com to stay up to date on the latest happenings.
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