Working remote for a few days

Personal

In April of 2001 I moved to TN and kept my job with a software Company in IL. I officially started telecommuting then and have done so since. So working remotely is almost old hat these days but over the weekend my cable went out. That left the house without TV and internet which would not be a big deal accept Comcast could not get there till Tuesday.

So off to the local coffee shop I go to keep from falling behind. The tuff thing about that is for work I need to us Windows® and that is a desktop at the house. My laptop is Linux, Ubuntu, so that presents some unique challenges. Of course the only true problem, as I’ve commented in previous posts about using Linux with work, is with the call tracking software we use. The web front end is not enabled so no access from the outside. I can use VPNC to get in but would then need to remote access a pc. Of course none of this is old technology and I’ve done it before in a pinch but us remote workers are very few and I don’t blame IT for not wanting to cover some of our access problems. So I’ll struggle for a few days.

I will say, knock on wood, Comcast has been very reliable in the five years I’ve used them… only a couple outages. This latest one just came at a bad time, with the weekend and MLK day falling after the outages.

Where do your online products come from, physically.

Personal,

I am an avid internet shopper for some things like, hockey gear, computer equipment and clothes. My expierence has been good and have never been duped or felt like I was taken advantage of. I always shop a quality retailers and if their online store looks cheezy then I don’t bother. Last week however was one of the few times that physically going to the store would have been a better choice, or so it seems.

I ordered a few items from Sports Authority and only received half the order. A few days later what I thought was the other half showed up but after opening the package what I got was someone elses order from a different company. This was very strange, the shipping label on the outside of the package was addressed to me and came direct from the manufacture. What was inside the package on the packing slip was not my order. The product matched the packing slip but the was shipped to the wrong place.

The order I received was from the Sports Chalet for someone in CA. When checking both web sites for Return Information they referenced:

7601 Trade Port Drive
Louisville, KY 40258

.. so that would be it. The same warehouse is used for more than one online store, not a novel concept but still does not explain the total mixup. So I called customer service and what is in common between our two orders is the first five characters of the email address, brian, that’s it. Customer service verified the UPS tracking label on my package was documented on the other persons order, where checking my order online did not show a shipment at the time. So the products were switched.

Customer Service issued me a call back number and said an email would come in 24 to 48 hours with an RMA# and label. Well I have yet to see it. It was a Thursday afternoon when I called so maybe the weekend has something to do with it, I’m not sure. None the less I’ll send it back with a note and hope my other half ships correctly soon, if not I’ll be calling again.

Out with bBlog and in with WordPress

Personal,

After a year with bBlog I found myself looking for more options and flexability and decided to move to WordPress. After a scary moment this morning when I lost all the templating things are back to normal. I was not able to convert, using the rss import function, all the previous posts so I just moved them manually. I’m sure it was something I was doing wrong as my php skills are not that polished. A quick google reminded me that I needed to make a change in setup for where the blog pointed to and after doing that everything was back to normal.

So just don’t assume moving files should work, check docs first

Ringing in the new year

Personal

Not sure if it’s a sign of getting older or just that it’s really another day when it all comes down to it. Heading out to catch an early movie the wife and I drove by the liquor store and it was standing room only. By the time we made it to the fireworks tents they were the same. Either we are just no fun at all or people are desparate for entertainment. After the movie and dinner they were no different jam packed with customers.

Of course up till about 1:00am everyone in the neighborhood was using the fireworks and sitting outside with the dogs, well lets just say it was not an ordinary night. I find it comical at times where roscoe, our six year old black lab, freeks out at the fireworks but does not care about other dogs in the neighborhood. Where cooper, our one and half year old golden and german shepard mix, is just the opposite. Guess that’s what makes them unique or at least it seems that way.

So no late night parties for us but it was still a happy new year.

Plone CMF being used by BMC

Consulting

I read an interesting article this afternoon at IT Managers Journal where again Plone was being utilized in enterprize business. The site is TalkBMC if you don’t want to find it in the article. For me one of the more visable deployments of Plone is with Ubuntu. A great distribution and one I currently use.

It’s always nice to know sometimes the ideas one has is also seen by others in the IT world. In a previous post I commented how Plone helped me create a proof of concept intranet in 2001. It is still used today all be it not adopted or supported by the company… such a rebel I am !!! But that’s ok their are many choices in the content management application arena and it is only one.

See the entire list at Plone Sites.