Matt D's Blog

So I started on the 17th - the next day after my final day at Viewpoint. I will admit I was so excited to get out of there, I kinda just left. After the exit interview, I didn’t really say goodbye to anyone. I did come back a few days later after the dust had settled and said goodbye. On to the new job - it’s a small office, and a small set of people. I was the 11th person hired. By the second week there, we had an office manager, and a CFO, making 13 people hired, 10 people in the office (one salesperson left for a much better opportunity, and the old DB Admin & Sys Admin were fired.)
The job itself is kind of hectic. Since it’s such a small office, not only am I working on a datacenter infrastructure, I’m also in charge of the office network (not a problem), and desktop support (ie fixing people’s mistakes with their desktops and laptops), which is not one of my most favorite things to do. The problem is that the datacenter part has been made a very small part of my job, because quite frankly they don’t have the resources to build out an infrastructure right now, and therefore no wokring with SANs, or setting things up from scratch. Nope. All out-of-the-window for now. So in a way I feel deceived, but because of the amount I’m getting in comparison to what I’m doing, I’m not going to complain.
However, dealing with some of the people and problems can be annoying. From the moment I got there, there were issues with the email system, because they went for one of the cheapest hosts I’ve ever seen - it was a web hosting with thrown in email for like $5/month…That’s cheap. It was also garbage - and during my first week there it went down 3 times in 5 days…The CEO then proceeded to yell at me on the phone telling me to fix it. Now mind you, this was how it was when I got there. So I didn’t feel that was very professional, but I let it slide that time, because of frustration. So I put something together in the office to get things going, and the situation improved greatly.
Since then, I’ve been cleaning stuff up, moving things around, trying to get anti-virus standardized on the desktops, and evaluating email / groupware systems. I’ve looked at GroupWise, Kerio, Scalix, Zimbra, and of course the veteran MS Exchange. I like GroupWise personally, and if I didn’t need Mobile syncing, I’d go with Scalix. Both of them are very good products. Zimbra isn’t bad - but is comprised of 95% open-source stuff, so why should I pay a yearly fee (which doesn’t go down) to use it? That’s what kills it, is the pricing. The NotifyLink that everyone uses - Scalix, Zimbra, Kerio for BlackBerry and sometimes other devices is $300/year/user, which gets very expensive very fast. That kills them for mobile. Kerio didn’t impress me at all…Easy to set up, but security looked like it could be a problem - everything ran as threads, all running as root. MS Exchange is the other one that’s “ok” – If you’re not managing it. Hosted all the way for that one.

And so that’s been my life lately. Kinda annoying, LOL. Oh, and then the CEO says that integration to salesforce.com would be wonderful - guess what, nobody does it. Someone did do it for Exchange, then got bought out and the product disappeared. So I don’t know what the heck to do with that.

Hopefully things will start to move now that I have email mostly done. Just some tweaks to the recommendations doc, and then it’s out of my hands.

I think the company has the potential to move upward, but it may take a while. We shall see.

So, idea of working at CNBC didn’t pan out. However, my old boss, Sam, pulled through for me again, and told me about a promising company that is literally around the corner from my current job. I had a couple of meetings (nothing too formal - lunch, dinner, and a meeting with the CEO in Hale & Hearty Soups lol) and I’ve accepted the position. Pay is significantly enough higher, equity in the company, and being on the cutting edge are the high points of the job. Oh yeah, and I get to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes that my current company did…The down sides - healthcare is an HMO, but that should change in a few months, no 401(k) (again soon to change), and vacation accrues over the first year. :-/

I’m gonna start on the 17th or the 18th, I haven’t decided yet. My current boss would like me to stay for the last software deployment, I don’t feel I should have to. It’s not difficult, and he’s seen it before.

Much excitement lies ahead…

Quick entry:

Yes I’m still alive. We got the mortgage, and we’re in the renovation phase of the house. What a mess. It’s coming along though, and will be great when it’s done.

Car is still sort of on schedule. Need to find out some information. New suspension being put in Wednesday which will help out a lot. LiOn batteries planned from PHET. Much lighter then the NiMH (375 LBs vs 600 LBs) so less impact on suspension, handling, and Watt-Hour/mile.

Maybe a new job in the works. CNBC fell through, but this looks very promising. It’s a start up of a business that has the potential to really take off.

Later.

-Matt

As of today, the funds from the mortgage finally cleared and are available in my checking account.

Monday work starts on the front door.

On Friday I placed my first stock trades, that was pretty nerve-racking, but I made $4.36 at the end of the day. So things are looking up, and hopefully I can make enough in 6 months to make a dent in my student loans, and still have enough left over to finish up the car conversion.

The car goes in Thursday for the suspension repairs / upgrade, which is the first part of the process. I will then get battery size measurements, and measure the trunk to see if I’m going to be able to do the conversion without cutting in the trunk. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to. The idea is to do as little as necessary to modify the car, but I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do that. I’m worried about the transmission… I’m not sure whether or not to just do the conversion and wait till it breaks, buy a rebuilt one and then see if it breaks, or rebuild this one with upgraded parts, considering the last one will cost twice as much as a rebuild normal one. Or finally do a manual swap…Hmm.. Who knows.

My grandmother is not happy with thge amount of money we will have left over, but we’ll just deal with it.

On another note, the Electrolux has bitten the dust. More to repair then worth. So who knows with that either.

…things move very slowly. We’re working on getting the house re-financed so that we can start fixing it up. I also have an interesting prospect in terms of a job, but can’t do anything until the refinance is done. I have so much crap to do at work because I’m the one working on the datacenter stuff 80% of the time these days, so it’s not much time to do much else but work.

At home, things are ok at best…but I know I haven’t been home nearly as much as I should be…because…

I’m doing my best to keep Leon sane. He’s very depressed these days, and I feel powerless because it’s very hard to get him to be happy at all. I’ll do my best though…

So as of right now, the BlackJack is working again. I just needed to mess with it a little…Plugged it in the first time, screen glitched all over the place while charging…Hit power..Got light blue screen. Did it again at Leon’s house, but let it says Fully Charged..Hit power, started to boot…Removed power, phone shut off..Went to demo to coworker today..and..it stayed on! Messed with it some more to make sure, but it seems OK as of now…

My Blackjack has gone nuts.

Today it would no longer power up, period. Went to the store to get it fixed, and was told I must do an exchange by mail. Wonderful. Oh well, at least they warranty it for a year before having to go direct to Samsung. The idiot rep forgot to give me the # to call, so I have to call CS tomorrow to find out the number.

We also started the paperwork to join Leon and my account on Cingular so we could do a family plan.

Then we ran to Circuit City to get a LG Chocolate for Leon’s sister, but the ass there wouldn’t sell the phone without service, so she ended up going online and getting it for $40 cheaper.

We also looked for a phone for Leon, he found one, but Cingular didn’t have it in stock, and the full price was way too much anyway. EBay to the rescue.

Who’s there? Me, of course. It’s been a while, but thing have been kind of busy. I have been busy with work, family, and supporting Leon during this very hectic time period. My grandmother turned 70, Leon’s mom leased a Prius, the weather has been crazy, and work has been a blur.

I haven’t talked to my friends much, except for Rich who IMs me (hint, hint to everyone else), but I recently got ahold of Usman who is apparently back at MIT. Even more interesting is that he (lucky bastard) has a summer internship with Google in California. He’s been pretty good, and promises to write his yearly email soon (yeah, sure). I also talked to Mike, who’s been busy with work too…Nothing exciting he said…

Anyway, I’m writing this on my Blackjack, and I’m getting tired…

As of the 26th, my phone is working exactly the way it should be. However, for a while (until yesterday) I was arguing with Cingular’s tech support that it wasn’t qutie right. This was because of the TDMA / Analog roaming feature that I had which wasn’t working because I switched to that USIM. Well, I got the old style SIM back, and pu tht efeature back, but when I tested it in my house I got an error message. When I tested it at work, it didn’t allow me to make the call directly, but I could have made one using a credit card. Whatever. What it comes down to is that Cingular / AT&T is throwing people off their own network, but still allowing you to use others, so if you’re out of their coverage, you can go on others networks. So the next time I’m up in Poughkeepsie, I’ll have to test it, as thats where it worked the first time, before I got the Blackjack.

We realized yesterday that it was this way because we added the feature to another account and it worked exactly the same way. So all is well.

After my run-in with Verizon, I bought the Samsung Blackjack from Cingular. Nice phone, needs at least 1 piece of software to be useful - Facade from SBSH Software. Great little program. Anyway, they made me upgrade my SIM card to a 3G USIM saying it was necessary. This made me lose my ability to roam on the old TDMA and Analog networks with my Nokia. As it turns out, this information was wrong, at least for NY. 3G will authenticate the old GSM SIMs no problem. So now I have to find an old SIM and get things back in order, as the ones I had didn’t work. Ugh.

Things are a little better, but not by much. Leon’s dealing with everything he has to, including getting the business going again (which is causing the family much grief trying to find someone they can trust). Tons of legal crap, and he’s just exhausted. We got to see each other a few times, and I spent all of Sunday with him this week. We had dinner together a few times, so all is not bad. However, my aunt Liz’s father also died a week or so ago..so that caused my family some pain as well.

I’m still having trouble sleeping, I worry for Leon. It’s getting better though, I slept decent last night. I’ll be back to myself when things get a little better, and they will with enough time, I think.

On January 3rd, 2007, I received a call about 4 PM in the afternoon, with some seriously disturbing news. The call was from Leon, and he informed me that his father was dead. This was a complete and devistating shock. He was killed in his own home. I know what it’s like to lose a parent, but I had a lot of time to prepare for it, because my grandfather was slowly dying. This is totally different, and much, much worse. I can’t imagine what it’s like. Fast forward to Saturday, the 6th, and they finally had arrested someone, but they do not think this person acted alone. I went to the wake on Saturday, and there were a lot of people there…I was overcome with emotion, and I started crying not only for his father, but for Leon and his family…Everyone was quite shaken. The outporuing of emotion from his patients was unbelievable. I think there will be a lot of people who will miss him. Leon is leading the family and being strong for everyone. I feel so bad for him, and miss him so much. He’s still close, but so far because of the circumstances. They’re going to bury his father in the Dominican Republic, where he was from. I really wish I would have been able to know him, but life didn’t have that on the agenda.

Happy New Year.

It seems that everyone’s favorite wireless company and I do not get along. On December 29th, 2006, I finally had the last straw. First, some history:

The original reason I left Verizon a few years ago (2003/4?) was coverage at my house. The coverage overall was fine, as it was a dual-mode (digital and analog) phone…The POS Kyocera phone…Anyway, the problem was the coverage in my house was spotty, and even around my house outside was not the greatest.
Therefore, I made a smart move - I moved to Sprint. The only problem with Sprint was that if you sneezed wrong, they wanted you to extend your contract. So when they came out with Fair and Flexible, I was kinda pissed that I’d have to extend my contract just to change my rate plan. So I stuck with them for 2 years…No phone upgrade (Samsung VI-660), and while data was very usable, I just couldn’t give any more money to a company which I thought was downright terrible.
So my contract with Sprint was up, and I was able to get in a good deal with Cingular - no contract! I was quite happy at that idea, and had them for about 5-6 months. There was only one problem with Cingular - their data speeds were not speedy at all. I’m talking 2 - 5 KB/s, where I was getting 12 KB/s on Sprint. So painfully slow was not an understatement.

Once the CTO left, I needed to be able to get my email pretty much all of the time. This requires a good data plan.

Here is where I made my mistake. I ported back to Verizon. Verizon had very good data speeds, so it was a good thing, or so I thought. The unfortunate part was Cingular was not setting up 3G (3rd Gen, High speed data) stuff any time soon, so I didn’t really have a choice when it came to DATA. I tried T-Mobile, and while it was faster then Cingular, was nothing like Verizon.

Stupid, stupid, stupid me didn’t think of getting Verizon for DATA only…I moved everything to them. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID me. Leon said I didn’t sound as good, and within 2 days I was already experiencing ho-hum voice quality and reception in my house. The data worked ok, but not great (fast, but same reliability as voice). The phone I picked had a great keyboard (good for email), but it kept requiring restarts all the time - it ran Windows Mobile 2005. I evaluated the phone too long - more then 14 days, and I was stuck with it. Mistake number 2.

So, 5 - 6 months go by of 3+ time a day restarts of the phone, dropped calls all over the place (at least 2 a day), and just generally being annoyed, when I fianlly say enough and I get the bright idea of porting my number back to Cingular (which I never had a problem with voice service), and finish out my contract with Verizon using only a data plan. I was talking on the phone with Verizon support and I mentioned this, and they told me it should not be a problem to do that.

So I went to a Cingular store, and got my number ported. Unfortunately, do to some policy chnages, can’t do the no contract thing any more. So I signed a year contract. I went home and had dinner. By the middle of dinner, I get a text message saying port complete. Crap, that was too fast. So I run to a Verizon store, and explain the situation….Say I want to activate a new number to finish out my contract…I’m told that I can’t really do that, it’d be a new agreement no matter what. So I do a 1 year, and expect a $50 chargeback for the phone price difference. But, they tell me I need to deal with Customer Service for anything (early termination fee, and insurance, since I couldn’t add it on because I didn’t buy it right there….). Fine.

Timeline:

Jan 1, day off.

Jan 2. Oh boy. I call up Verizon customer service, and explain what’s going on. I am told:

1. ETF is valid.
   
2. No way to put insurance, it’s against the 3rd party insurance’s policy..Even though it was out of service for 2 hours.
   
   Needless to say, I’m not very happy at this point. I tell the guy, please ask your supervisor. We’re talking about $175, vs $60 a month in revenue, or a total of $720. He talks to the supervisor, and they say fine…We’ll give it back, if you stay at least 6 months. If you leave in 6 months, 2 ETFs instead of 1. I say this is fine, he says he needs final approval.
   
   Supervisor hands him a note saying because it was a 2 year contract, they’ll waive it only if I stay until the original end date. One year more of annoyance is not worth $175. One year more of annoyance is certainly not worth $50 in a phone price break. Therefore, the idiots lost $545 (they got my ETF), and made for one very pissed off customer, so in the end, screw you Verizon.
   
   I went to a Cingular store, bought the Samsung Blackjack, which is great so far - it’s not a PDA though…thats why I have the Dell Axim to do stuff like MS Money. The Blackjack is a phone, does E-Mail, Calendar, To-Do, and Music and video. That’s fine with me. I’ve got mobile to mobile minutes, so Leon and I can talk without a problem, and I just got mom a prepaid Cingular phone number, so I can also talk to her for as long as I’d like for a flat fee…
   
   
   
   Bottom line: Cingular rocks, Verizon does not.

Right now is a very crazy and exciting time. On Friday night I discovered the hard way that the leak in the cooling system on the LS was never fully fixed. I was going to Leon’s, and was about 3/4 of the way there when I started hearing the fan (it’s loud on full speed), and when I looked over the temperature gauge was quickly rising. Thankfully I was able to get some coolant from his friend Amin. The overflow contrainer was near empty. So one more thing to worry about.

The good news now….I have leads on both batteries, and a dual AC motor setup for use in the car. As long as I can get someone to help me couple the motors to the transmission, I’ll be really close to getting the conversion started.