(no subject)

[growler_south]

Hint: when attending outdoor funeral after it's been raining, and happy doggies are present, wear BROWN pants, not black. Muddy doggy footprints are a bitch to wash off- though I didnt mind in the slightest. Saffy seemed happy to see her Uncle Grant...


Me in a shirt and tie. Try not to be too shocked.

I'm proud to have been invited to Mrs C's funeral, which was simple and moving. It had rained in the morning but the sun came out bang on time, and stayed out the whole afternoon. Speeches were heartfelt and brief, and no-one fell into the grave (though Dyna looked like she might at one stage- probably looking for the giant rabbit that had dug such a big hole) Rick and Mo were calm and collected the whole day: I was so proud of them for running things with such dignity. Though, as smoothly as it went, I'd prefer if I never have to go to a funeral for someone I like and respect ever again.

I had to drive back to Auckland to complete a job that was technically due today, but when I was halfway back Esther called to let me know that the client was still trying to make their mind up... unfortunately I was already halfway along the motorway, stuck in traffic, otherwise I would have stayed in TeAroha for longer.

We took Odran to the airport, he was very brave and didnt wail too loudly as he half sprinted, half skipped to the gate. I'm going to miss the fuzzy wee bugger- my bed's a lot colder without him, and I'll miss his evil sense of humour. I'll stay in touch...


The weather was fantastic. Pity about the occasion :-(

(GEEK ALERT)Back at work today, troubleshooting networking issues (damn wireless router breaks the network when it's switched on: it works, but the rest of the network runs really slowly. Grrr...) I'm also going to convince Glenn to let me fix our broken internet access: we've got 5000Kb/sec DSL, but it costs $.17/Mb! last month's bill was $1500. I'm thinking of getting another modem on one of our other phone lines and setting it up on a $49.95/month 256k flat rate plan, and setting everyone's computer to look at that as a default gateway, and setting the reception PC to look to the fast modem- to be used for monster downloads (like the 1.2Gb I needed last week, which took 25 minutes...)(/GEEK ALERT)

Comments

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

But why have the reception PC the only one to access the fast link when you (in the case you cite) are the one who needs to do a big download? Compared to what your company's already spending on the fast link, we're not talking about a lot of money for hardware....

Ah well, you're the one who has to deal with it. Heaven forbid I force something easy and convenient on someone else. ;)

[growler-south.livejournal.com]

Everyone needs to do big downloads every now and again- maybe one a month per person. Faced with a big download, in my system they have 2 options:

-Walk over to the reception PC and download there, or
-change their default gateway to the fast modem's IP (and change it back once the download's done, of course...)

no-one needs fast internet all the time...

[growler-south.livejournal.com]

Actually Reception PC is ideal- we already go there for printouts, faxes, beer and job bags. Reception has a 40Mb mailbox, whereas we only have 12Mb- if someone's emailing a large attachment it gets sent to Reception.

It also helps with billing: we charge for large emails, and when one arrives we're supposed to go to reception and note it in the big book of stuff to charge for. Same with big downloads: at the moment though, everyone forgets to write it down. If we had to walk to reception to start the download it would be easier to remember to write it down...

I could do as Colitis suggests and have a PC oversee which traffic goes through which modem, but it would mean forever updating its list of sites- we download from many places, and none consistently. With my way the guys' own inertia decides whats big enough to go through the fast modem: if its big enough, they'll get off their arse to download it... Technology plus psychology makes my job a bit easier ;-)

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Ah, well - if you're supposed to track such things for billing purposes, I can see why you'd set it up that way.

I'm in the process of setting up an FTP server at work, so I can turn the whole thing around and the clients have to UPload to us, rather than us having to mess about trying to DOWNload from them. ;)

[growler-south.livejournal.com]

We have an FTP server for just that reason, but its with a hosting company, not in-house. So we still end up paying for the bandwidth. The clients do like being able to control their own folders though :-)

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Control?!

*BWA* HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Silly growler, clients get no control over MY FTP box!

[growler-south.livejournal.com]

*grin*
I dont doubt it... our clients get to log in, upload, download, and delete items in their FTP account- it makes them feel like they're working with something a bit more advanced than faxes and couriers :-)