Well, I haven’t had much to write recently…or at least I couldn’t write a few things. However, I wanted to do a quickly update and let everyone (all 2 of you) know what has changed with me. As of 7/1/08 I am no longer employed by Helio. With the merger of Virgin Mobile and Helio it was time for me to move on from my capacity managing all the technology related to Member Care. I really appreciated my time there, and being able to work for my really good friend, Dennis, made it even better.
So now what…where do I go? Well, needless to say I am blessed in that I have just a few contacts in this industry and I’ve taken a new job with O’Currance Teleservices. They are a smaller call center in Salt Lake City, specializing in inbound telesales and the at-home model. I’ve taken the position of VP of Information Technology. I am working with people I have worked with in the past and, while there will be a lot of challenges, I see it as a great opportunity.
Anyway…just the quick update.
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So I just got my new toy…a shiny new MacBook Pro, 2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo with 4 GB of RAM. Love it. But here is the really cool thing…one more reason I love Macs and am glad I made the switch a little over two years ago. I had an older MacBook Pro that had all my applications, documents, music, pictures, etc… I was concerned about how I would get all that stuff over. My past experience with changing laptops was an arduous task of burning all my documents to DVDs or putting them on an external drive. Then I’d have to round up all my product keys and install files for all the applications I use. I needed to make a list of all the apps I’ve downloaded and then re-download. I needed to reconfigure everything. Just an absolute pain in the butt. So I was a bit concerned with the upcoming transition to the new MBP.
However, it couldn’ have been easier. When I pulled out my new MBP, I turned it on for the first time, chose the language and keyboard layout. It then asked if I had data on another laptop I wanted to transfer. I said I did. I connected my new laptop and the old one via a Firewire cable. I then rebooted the old one holding down “T”. It was recognized as a target disc. About an hour later, all my docs, photos, music, AND applications had been transferred to the new machine. Absolutely beautiful!!! It couldn’t have been easier. On a Windows machine that never would have been possible. Again, people ask me on a regular basis why I would recommend a Mac. My answer is always the same…”It just works.” This is another example of how well it works.
It’s been good for my boys to see my wife’s side of the family as well. They talk to them from time to time on the phone, but they rarely get to see them and spend time with them. I enjoy my wife’s family. They are caring people that enjoy my kids and wife. That is important to me. It’s just unfortunate that we can’t live in a place where both families are closer. With family in Utah and New York, I don’t think a place like that exists. 
We are just very fortunate to have been blessed with enough means to come and visit when we want to for the most part. We took some good pictures so I’m sure Jennifer will do a blog post with them. You’ll be able to see them on the Family blog. They aren’t there yet, but check in the next few days.
So now it is back to Utah, back to work (on Monday) and back to school. I’ve got a mid-term exam on Friday in my MBA coursework. The class is Business Information Systems, which, funny enough, is my career. However, I will probably get the worst grade so far in this class, and it is my field of work. It’s just comical that we are reading a text book (2 years old minimum) to learn about technology that changes so rapidly. Anyway…done complaining. I’m
Yesterday I boarded a plane to come to LA for my monthly trip. I got off the plane, picked up the car and had to turn on the Air Conditioning. It was 90 degrees. Crazy… I had been in Montana on Thursday and Friday where it had been 31 and snowing. It was just funny to be in such different extremes over such a short period of time. I’m pretty sure there will be no such thing as Spring this year. The boys’ baseball games are going to be getting hot quickly.
Speaking of baseball…Big J lost his game today. According to my wife, the coaches once again didn’t do much to help the boys. They then had the balls to pull the parents together and blame them for not bringing the boys to practice last Thursday when it was snowing. I’m sorry, but it gets very frustrating when coaches don’t know what they are doing.
I understand these are typically dads or moms that are volunteering their time to help our kids. However, they need to take some time to teach the kids basic fundamentals and how to play as a team. Big J’s coach gets frustrated with the kids inability to throw and catch, so rather than coach the kids and teach them the principles he yells to them to just field the ball and run to the base or tag the kid. I get so frustrated, that I have to bite my tongue to not start yelling at the coach. I know it can be frustrating for a coach to watch the kids not do the basics. I help coach all the teams and get frustrated, but teaching a kid to just field and run kills their ability to learn. It’s giving up and not putting forth the effort to teach in my opinion.
The other thing that drives me nuts is the inability to teach kids to hit. In this league they are using a pitching machine. So, for the most part the machine is pretty consistent. The best thing to do, in my opinion and based upon my experience coaching this league, is to adjust the kids to the pitching machine. If you fumble with the machine after each pitch you screw up the rhythm of the game and the kids. Get the machine to pitch a decent pitch, and then move the kids up or back in the box to adjust the height of the pitch to the kid. However, Big J’s coach has some very different ideas and doesn’t teach the kids to hit the ball. Last game I helped coach the kids at the plate, and did what I could to keep the game moving. Strangely enough, every single one of the kids hit. I’m not attributing the hitting to me, but it kept the game going and helped the kids see the pitch. It worked.
Anyway, I’m ranting and I’ll shut up now. However, based upon my experience this year, I’ll be coaching next year. I can’t complain and not do anything to help. So we’ll see.
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For the last 2 weeks I’ve been trying to get serious about setting up a file server for my home. My wife and I are both on Macs, and I want us to have a single files server to store family pictures, videos, music, financials, etc… That way I have a single location to back up instead of trying to create backup schedules for each machine. Also, with the move to Leopard, I could use Timemachine for each of us.
I’ve used Ubuntu in the past, and I think it is a good choice. So I’ve installed Ubuntu Server and have been trying to partition and share drives, but it has been painful. There is plenty of documentation for setting up Samba shares, but why would I want to use a system for facilitating windows file sharing connections? I could go with NFS, but that has been especially painful. I found Netatalk, which utilizes AFP, which is native on the mac. However, now I can’t see all the drives…and don’t know why.
I just don’t understand why it has to be so difficult. Linux and open-source are great resources. I embrace them, but it needs to be easier. The distribution needs to come with an installed file sharing implementation and cleaner instructions. I’m pretty techno-savvy, and I’m having a hard time setting this up. If a typical home user decided to do this, I can’t seen them getting past the first day. It’s just frustrating…
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So, really quick because a Utah Jazz game is starting soon. I just launched this new site. I’ve split my other blog in two. I’ll keep my personal ramblings and rants here, whereas I’m trying to get a bit more business specific on the other site. My personal information is here as well. So, anyway, just a new update.
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