Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Oh Bell, will you ever get it right?

Ok so as a few people probably noticed I have an interesting Bell issue.

Back in May I got my phone line transfered from L to T. One would imagine that this is a simple process. That wasn't the case and there were many calls to Bell about getting the line transfered. This on it's own can be a rant but this would be 6 months too late so I won't bother. After it got transfered it turns out that the phone line in both locations then started to work. Again a few calls to Bell to try to get this straightened out was met with "Bell the wise" saying "We can't do that." Not sure what they ment but just kind of let it go. At least I got my phone line and I could make calls at will once again.

Last month I gave up Bell completely, mostly because of service like the above, one can only hear "Sorry we can't give you a phone line at that address even though you are calling from there." excuse so many times before you start to realize that the people that are are dealing with can't find their ass with both hands and a mirror.

Well Bell sent me a final bill to cover the disconnect and final long distance calling that I had done for the month. Fine all is good. I paid the bill and made the mistake that I would never hear from them again. On Monday I got another bill from Bell. First thought was "Oh the mailman didn't want to deliver this to the right address no problem. I'll just file under "R" for recycle....No wait. It has my name on it? This isn't right. I get inside the house and find out that I have now been charged for 4 month of long distance from a phone I don't own. I wouldn't mind this if it was only $2 because it wouldn't be enough to squable about but it is close to $150!

Anyway tomorrow I will call Bell and find out what kind of drugs they are on and ask if they are willing to share. I figure this way I can at least come half way to find out how I got charged for stuff I didn't do.

....Maybe if they don't agree with me I will invoice them for $200 for technical services rendered in repair of their.... um .... automatic banana pealer.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

So I have been bad

Ok first off I must admit that it has been a while since my last post. I have a good reason for it....Sort of.

I have been working with another company lately in my off hours helping them sort out some networking issues. It has taken a lot of time but I think I'm at the end of it all.

Not only has that been keeping me busy but I also had two more things to work on. I'm still working on doing some MP3ing for a friend's co-worker so that has been keeping me going but that is over for the time being because I have run out of CDs.

My Aunt's system had a few issues so I took some time out to also do that as well.

My actual job hasn't been keeping me very busy as it seems I have hit a recent low in overtime which is nice to see.

Hopefully I will now be able to get back to a little more stable posting.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Scripts

Before you start thinking too much I'm not speaking of VBScript or JavaScript. I am also not talking about play scripts....exactly.

It was brought up in my company that while the earnings cycle is going on that we should have extended support hours. I find this funny because the normal line around the office is that "earnings never ends" due to work load. So anyway we the IT staff now get to humor the rest of the staff. I figure that this was something fine and dandy as I could finally have my old shift back, 12:00 to 20:00. No such luck. I was told that right now the other admin that I am working with isn't completly up to speed. He still says "I don't know how Phalse did."

Now this is a problem. The new guy has been there since January/February so one would think that after actually working in a company at an Administrator level would actually understand the systems after eight or nine months later. Now this guy is from a big bank and his normal troubleshooting is through a simple script. If something falls outside of that script than it is the next level ups job to fix.

Now I know that some people have some experience with this, eg calling the telephone company or ISP, but does anyone work with someone like this outside of those groups? Have you seen situations where this caused problems with no way of going higher?

Monday, October 24, 2005

For those outside the know

I would just like to say that I'm now engaged to Bubbles as of last friday. (cheer)

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

At long last

I have finally got everything finished up with Look Communicaitons....Ok not completely they still have a couple of things to do but at least the billing end of things is now done.

Here is the story in it's long windedness.

Six years ago I ask them to take payments off my Visa and start invoicing me. They didn't so five years ago I called them and asked them to change it so I was. I figured a simple clerical error and it will now be fixed. Boy was I wrong! Fast forward with annual calls say "Please change your billing arrangement."

This year I got fed up and I asked Visa to not pay them. I only found this out after a while because Visa called me saying "Why haven't you payed your bill?". Only to find out that I forgot to inform them about my change of address. Anyway they wouldn't deal with it because of the age of the billing. I then called Look to yell at them saying pay off Visa because they are on my back. This at least had their attention. I asked them to take care of the problem and send me an invoice. It seems that I had too much trust, one would think I would learn, but anyway it wasn't done. Try again two months ago. No luck. Last month I just demanded to speak to a supervisor and someone who could actually work the accounting system. They told me that someone would contact me in 72 hours.

24 hours later no call.

48 hours later no call. So beings the weekend. At this point I don't care that it is the weekend.

72 hours later still no call.

I call in the morning on Monday saying "Where is my supervisor call?". It turns out that a bunch of the supervisors decided to go on vacation and leave it all on Alex's plate. To my delight I get a call at 5pm that day. I outline the situation to Alex and he confirms it on the system that they have there. Promises again are made. After the initial billing issue is sorted out it seems that Look Communications can't pay back Visa because it was more than six months ago. So I pay off Visa and make them happy.

It is now on record that IF anything like this happens again I will get free webhosting and dial up for a year until the problem is corrected.

Now if any of you are asking why I am still with Look after this issue I have actually been with them since .... 1989. Ya before the internet went commercial and a high speed connection was considered 14.4kbps and T1 backbones were considering screaming fast. However I can actually say that this has very much tainted my view on the company.

Is it really that hard to get a simple request filled?

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

That time of year

Ok it is that time of year when I find that people go funny. Some people are walking around in T-Shirts while others are walking around in deep freeze parkas with everything in between. I find this funny on so many levels and yet I think it is also a tribute to those who fail to see the truly unique nature in people. Right now I am running around in my trench coat but only because of the great amount of rain that is happening. I am sure otherwise I would be wearing a heavy sweater.

For those that are abroad are do you see the same thing? Will I be seeing the same thing next May?

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Servers and their joy

Ok I am helping a company move into a co-location here in town but because of some wacky settings that are going to be used I need to use the server in my office first. Nice and simple right. So I pick up the server and I go for about a 15 minute walk around down town.

Now someone in reason I think would at least stare at me odd with a 1U server under my arm but nothing. Not even either of the security guys batted an eye. Oh well at least it was fun walking around with a nice server in my hands....Even if it isn't mine.

Monday, October 03, 2005

New hardware

Ok this is priceless. Once I get the FTP server up and going AND stable I go out and get some new hardware to put in it. Of course this means I now have to down my system and get some new hardware to work with the system. Anyway I picked up a new DVD-Writer that is dual layer. As I'm sure no one will be surprised as to which manufacturer I chose.

Now I just need a few pieces of dual layer media to burn on.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

FTPServer

Ok everthing is now working fine. I managed to get the FTPServer so now I can start the joy of creating accounts. If anyone wants one drop me a line. In the mean time my IP is 72,56,5,245.

I'm also getting the Ventrilo server online so it isn't going right now. Give me a day or two.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

A new post coming soon!

Silly but that is me.

Anyway I'm still catching up with all my work from my week off so I will write about all the good stuff tonight when I get home.

So much to discuss. Wedding "A" which was S&D and wedding "B" which was T&I.

Stay tuned!

Thursday, September 01, 2005

FTP Server

Well it seems like life just took another setback. Last night I finished setting up most of the entertainment room and found a copule of issues.

It seems that the FTP Server I have suffered some kind of failure. I'm not sure what hte problem is but it won't be solved any time soon. Undoubtly this will trouble me to no end from now until I get it fixed. So right now I have to deal without the data stores and my Ventrilo server. This makes two systems I have lost in the past year. I just home this one I can recover from.

*sigh* Stupid flood.

(Still feeling luckier than those in New Orleans though)

Monday, August 29, 2005

Posting

Ok I haven't posted in a while. I have a good reason though....Well at least a simple reason.

As most of you know the appartment flooded in the rains that occured Friday the 19th. After a quick move out from the appartment with aid from the parents of both sides we managed to clear out for the new tile floor that was going to be put in. Since moving out has removed my ability to access the internet I can't very well post from home can I? Well most of the stuff is slowly getting back into place but this time it will be done with a little more care.

For the near future I will be helping the parents get ready for my brother's wedding. This is bound to be exciting because of everything going on.

Things will be interesting with all the stuff going on in life. I just don't know how to express it all.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Work

Well I guess I kind of did ask for this but here we go.

Since Bubbles and I will be spending some time out of town this weekend I showed up to work early in an attempt to leave work early. I was in at 7:15. Needless to say I'm surprised that there is light at that hour :P

Anyway it seems that we strike upon a bunch of network issues on a project that will be launched in 5 weeks where we are still trying to figure out what software to use.

So here I am sitting in my seat waiting for the world to turn right so I can leave at get home at a decent hour.

Well this now brings my total to 163 hours OT since year start.

Friday, July 29, 2005

The past week and future days

As I'm sure most of you know for the past week I have been otherwise occupied.

Last Wednesday my Grandmother passed away and I was taking a little timeout from the usual stuff and thought about stuff. Since the days have been busy I can say that I haven't been alone and I haven't just been sitting around wasting my time.

- Wednesday to Saturday I was actually thinking about my Grandmother and all the things that did over her life

- Sunday I just spent some time out and about getting things together and having fun with Bubbles

- Monday we were with Bubbles' family and celebrating her Mom's birthday

- Tuesday spent time with PM, MT playing Munchkin and feeling much better being in the company of friends

- Wednesday I spent with IB&TS having our dinner time get together and catch up. We too played Munchkin

- Thursday I headed back to work and realized that nothing was done on all the important things that needed doing

- Friday a small crowd of us will be headed to "Shakespear in the park" to see a play

So that is the past week in a nut shell. The long weekend will be fun as Bubbles and I will be headed up to the family cottage to spend some quality time together. Most of the JR brood will be up there too so it will add to a certain measure of fun. Nothing like a bunch of young kids, one who thrives off negative feedback it seems, and two dogs. We will be bringing a tent so we can sleep outside if need be.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

....Please stand by....

....Please stand by....
Life is currently being reorganized.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

The wonders of Google....

At first I thought that Google Maps was cool. Now there is this????



In other news things are going well and I really don't have much else to say. Work is keeping me busy, 9 new servers to deploy, the heat is just as bad as it was last week and I think will be the same tomorrow.



The good news for the day is that people at work are actually recognizing that we need more helpdesk/SysAdmin staff. I'm not holding my breath but it is nice to know that someone sees it.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Light cars *smirk*

Stumbled across this and thought someone here might enjoy it.
http://www.qsvt.ca

Responsibility

As promised here is my post on responsiblity.

Turns out that one of the employees here was good enough to have photos taken of our regional office's server rooms and have the images placed on the network. Then like a duitiful employee he informed everyone in the IT group out his efforts. This is very nice as I have only ever been to our Montreal office and don't even have a clue what the other ones look like.

After that another employee corrected him and told him where all the current images are for some of the other offices, Montreal, co-locate, and Toronto, and asked to have the images placed there. This too makes sense.

Where this all breaks down is when responsibility for moving said images from the wrong place to the right place was then deflected to me instead of the person who started all this.

Some days I just find people confusing. Why don't people finish what they start. It isn't like it takes too much effort most of the time. *sigh*

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Work....

Well it turns out that we had a virus get into the network yesterday. It kept me busy from 8am right until 3:15. The funny thing is that I was getting the car serviced so I didn't show up in the office until 9:30.

So it turns out that some of our beloved users was kind enough to introduce that. Since the virus went dormant it was hard to find and remove. But after much hard work by our department we found it.

That is the good side. The down side was that one of the team memebers in the morning went "Oh the computer was off so there is no virus." They never considered that the virus could morph or spoof it's address. Oh well lessons learned....I hope.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

A new post?

What simple requests. If you just wanted a new post to keep you happy this really will be a happy blog!

I have looked quickly into the colors but I just need to find the right shade of blue to be happy.

In other news my office is strange. First they complain that money is tight then they go off and buy up 12 new desktops and four new servers. Oh the conflicted thoughts. I will write a better entry later but first I want to be able to sit and relax. Being here in Bubbles' office doesn't really ring of relaxation.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

And so it begins....

Well here we go. This is the start of my blogging. As some know this started with me writing my own blog with ASP and SQL in the back ground. However after a little loss of a computer or two it kind of put things on hold.

Let's see where this goes and what happens in the near future.