Traveling as of late

Personal,

The month of October met with a week and a half of travel, far more than normal. A consluting trip to San Antonio and then a week at our fall conference in St. Louis. Before leaving I preped the laptop with mail and documents that I’d need and also setup VPNC. If you recall from previous posts I’m running Ubuntu on my v2000.

I thought I’d have to get one of our Cisco guys to download a copy of Cisco’s VPN Client but was glad when VPNC did the trick. It’s hard to believe how much useful software is out there when you start looking. I keep finding more and more every day so from a consumer’s perspective it’s great.

Wireless or wired from the hotel’s was no problem and when it came time to work at conference rdesktop was there to access the Terminal Server. I minded the HelpDesk for the week which did not get much activity but sometimes that can be a good thing. Typically the HelpDesk is where the problems come to and if they come to you face to face with documentation sometimes it’s not pretty. But that was not the case this year so I’d say we are doing some things better.

Ethereal fitting in

Consulting

As I have mentioned a few times my current employer is a Microsoft shop so I was suprised a week ago when at our fall conference when I saw Ethereal on a big screen in the sales room. I thought to myself hummmmmm, isn’t that interesting. A laptop running KDE on Linux using Ethereal to provide a baseline for security discussions on secure and open networks. Now Ethereal does run on Windows but it struck me as just a little funny Linux was on the projector all week.

I’m glad to see we are open to alternatives.. ;)

Why I switched to Thunderbird

Personal

Since moving out of state from where our office is and working remotely back in 2001 some unique challenges came about. One of those was email as it seems we continue to use it as a way to communicate and store documentation. Since the company I work for is a Microsoft shop Outlook is the standard and for me it was causing problems. I never used the calendar feature much and did not like having more than one archive, not to mention needing one at all.

I’d guess in a company with a large number of employees this type of setup and the access Outlook brings might be a good setup but consistently having to go to archives to find old emails and documents was becoming a pain. Not to mention some internal IT situations which would cause headaches for those who kept a lot of email, archived or not. So now that I was remote and using my own equipment, supporting it and my network access I went looking for a new solution. Back in 1998 before we standardized on an email client I used Netscape and liked it very much so I went to Mozilla and grabbed Thunderbird. It was the right choice.

It has only been about a year ago that I switched and wished I would have done it sooner. The main reason I switched is the ability to find emails. Even though it is now 2005 much of what employees document from processes to fyi’s to “did you know” comes in the form of an email and in some instances attachments in the emails. Old habbits are hard to break I guess but because of this finding what was previously documented in email is common place. I store email’s by Department so regarless who it comes from it gets put in a group folder. If it is a Development generated email about a product it is put in the folder of the group that supports it, i.e. what kind of product it is. Today given a subject keyword or user who would have sent it I can find emails as far back as 1998 in less than 10 seconds. Outlooks archive structure prohibited me from having that kind of access.

Another reason for switching is I just don’t need the other non email features of Outlook. I don’t need to send meeting requests or reserve resources, if I do have a meeting it goes in the Zaurus as well as any tasks. Thunderbird’s customization features are excellent as well and make reviewing threads that much easier. Did I mention threads ??? Another big winner in my book is email threads and how they are handled. No more searching for other messages related to the one I’m looking for, one click and the entire thread is right there.

Last but not least is Thunderbird’s ability to operate on multiple operating systems. I need Windows XP for work but when traveling it is Ubuntu that is my workhorse. If I need email just copy the mail folder and I’m ready to go. When I get home copy it back to the Windoze box and I back to being current. I’d prefer not to use XP but enabling web versions of some applications are preventing this. I can live with that for now.

I am very pleased with Thunderbird and if all you need is email I’d recommend it. As the slogan says, “reclaim your inbox” !!!

A new phone

Personal

Earlier this week I turned my phone (SCP-6400) on to once again see the battery was dead. I’ve got a regular and extended life batter and this is happening with both. It seems like this happens after the phone is off for 8-12 hours. It is very strange and I dought there is anything wrong with the phone but seems like a good reason to get a new one.

It will be hard to top the 6400 as it has been rock solid with excellent reception and style. It is still the slimmist phone out there even though it is three years old. I’ve been shopping off and on and even plopped down $300 for an RL-7300 but took it back the next day. Sometimes you just know when a purchase was not right.

I’m glad I did cause the first of September Sprint offered two new Samsung phones, the PM-A840 and SPH-A560. The A560 is the low end model with the A840 being mid range. The nice features about both are a great UI and no external antenna. The A840 comes with a 640X480 camera, speaker phone, and a monochrome sub display. Some may think the black and white mini display is somewhat cheap but I think it make the phone more unique. Great styling in black and silver. I don’t need a camera but I liked the A840 a little better so I went with it.


You can see the monochrome display when the unit is closed and the black theme when it is open. I have not been a huge fan of flip phones but that seems to be the path many of the manufacutures have gone. It makes sense too since it provides the smallest form factor. Many of the Sanyo phones hinge differently, which i prefer but to sacrifice an antenna for a different hinge style I’m all about that. The way the black is carried on to the keypad is nice and will not show scratches as quickly as silver.

It has only been a few days and so far so good. Reception is just as good as the 6400 and battery life is as expected to date. A number of initial reviews are already out and each has their own opinion. For me I’m happy, it does the job and is a step up from what I had… only time will tell if it is just as good for the long haul like the 6400 was.

Hazards of mens league hockey

Personal

For those of you who know me ice hockey has become a passion and is my main source of excercise. Playing anywhere from two to four times a week it is a great substitute for a gym membership, althought I’m not sure if it’s saving me any money. A good example is last night, our scheduled game turned into pick up after the opposing team could not field five players and a goalie. So since we are all there we just through sticks and played for fun.

Unfortunately playing for fun can get you in just as much trouble as playing in a real game. I know this case I’ve badly sprained an ankle twice in pickup but have never really been hurt in a game. Last night added another noch on the belt when it comes to what bad things can happen on the ice. A puck off the ankle put me on the ice for a few minutes. Of course shots like that sting at first and then calm down. This one was the same accept I did not expect having trouble getting out of the truck when I got home. And now this morning it is getting bigger by the hour. I have not been to the doc yet but he doesn’t need to tell me, it’s broke.

I’ll vist him this afternoon and will know for sure. Looks like I’ll be on the bench for a few weeks, lets just hope it heals quickly.