Monday, October 15, 2001 Moving ever closer to hosting this site from the house. I need to do a few more administrative things on my server (a Sun Ultra 1), then move my domain name to my proxy server. More details in This Old Sparc. muttered around 8:07 AM

Thursday, October 11, 2001 slow cold superatom: a good name for a band. muttered around 1:28 PM

Wednesday, October 10, 2001 The riding season is coming to a close. The weather is tending toward cool, windy, and cloudy. Currently it's around 40 degress, and partly cloudy: just the kind of day to reflect on the past season. Here's a chart that documents my monthly mileages for the past two seasons: I've put in quite a few more miles this season than I had this time last year: 2570 vs. 1940. A few rides ago, I passed 2000 miles on the Trek 5200 I purchased at the end of May, making an average of 500 miles per month on that bike (the chart includes mileage from other bikes, so don't try to make my figures balance). muttered around 9:36 AM

Monday, October 08, 2001 The supply of beautiful fall days is dwindling. Today was perfect - 75 and a light north wind. Even though I rode pretty hard and long yesterday, I went for a ride again today just to take advantage of the weather, which I know is turning less than perfect tomorrow. It'll be a major accomplishment for me to break 400 miles this month, though I've made it a goal. We'll see. muttered around 5:38 PM

Tuesday, October 02, 2001 What you've always wanted to know: about the O'Reilly animals. muttered around 3:51 PM

Monday, October 01, 2001 Finally got DSL up and running. Not without a typical Qwest torture-test, however: Aug 5, 2001 Ordered DSL. Was informed that it would be delivered "sometime in late September". Aug 8, 2001 Received ISP account set-up notification. Wow! This is happening fast! Aug 10, 2001 Received ISP another account set-up notification. Wow! This is happening a lot! Aug 15, 2001 Received DSL modem. Went ahead and installed it, not expecting it to work. I was right. Sept 5, 2001 Hadn't heard a damn thing about when my service would actually be set up, so I called. After waiting thru the very lengthy code-red virus info (which didn't have a thing to do with my call, I finally talked to a human. Target date: Sept 29th. Sept 25, 2001 Got a call from a chirpy person wanting to survey me on my satisfaction with the DSL service. Uh, hello? No one told me that it's set-up yet. Thought I might as well give dialing in a shot - no dice: Error 650. Called support and was told that I was actually scheduled for the 27th. Sept 27, 2001 Tried again. Error 650. Called support. Was taken on torture tour by support: uninstall/reinstall modem, uninstall/reinstall dial-up-networking, reboot approximately 238,384 times. No dice. Forwarded to MOC (maintenance ops center). Guy came on during hold music and said "I'll fix you up Mike, bye". Held, confused, for 10 more minutes until ear was sweaty and sore. Hung up. Sept 28, 2001 Called support again. Guy couldn't bring up case from before, so had to relate whole story again. Gave me direct MOC number. Decided to call them in the morning. Sept 29, 2001 Called MOC. Scheduled on-site visit for next day (Sunday!). Sept 30, 2001 Field guys show up. Hack away on outside line and say "it trains!", and prepare to leave. I ask them to test at my computer. We get down there, and discover there's no dial-tone (good thing we checked that, eh?). They hack around some more and get the DT back. They test at my computer, with special test hardware and declare it "trained". Sept 30, 2001 Yeah, but I still can't dial in. Error 650. Field guys say it must be a .net problem. Sept 30, 2001 Talk to .net folks (Qwest's ISP). (I admit, my notes are a bit fuzzy here, due to frustration). They say that before they dispatch field support again, we're going to have to try uninstalling/reinstalling the dial-up networking. I say "over my dead body". They mumble something about BIOS and VIA chipsets. I ignore it. When they find out that I have a network they say that they can't support that configuration, only "stand alone". I scream "cop-out!". They finally agree to send field guys out to do a "laptop test", that is, dial in with a DSL modem and log in with the customer's ID and password. They promise to schedule with field folks. Sept 30, 2001 Get call from one of the field guys, sounding pissed. "We trained at your site, it's not our problem." I say, "the .net people say you should do a laptop test". He says, "they must not have your ID/pwd set up". I say, "go argue with them then." Sept 30, 2001 I get a call from field super. She says that her man says he trained at my site. I say, "but he didn't do a laptop test". She says "I'll have to ask him." I say, "I was there -- it wasn't a laptop". She says "I'll ask him." Sept 30, 2001 She calls back: "His laptop was broken. I'll send someone." We arrange for an 8-12am arrival. Oct 1, 2001 1:00pm and no one has shown or called. I call MOC, very pissed, and ask them what they're going to do about it. They can't find person I talked to yesterday. They agree to dispatch someone ASAP. Oct 1, 2001 Get call from field guy on the job. He says, "I'll be there in about 10 minutes, but I think I see what the problem is". I say, "don't bother coming here -- call me when you think it's fixed". He says, "great!". Calls back in 5 minutes. I try my connection - success!!! I say "what was it?" He says, "Very simple - wrong port was connected. They should have caught this yesterday." muttered around 10:56 PM

It's looking very much like I'll be returning to Qwest. I'll be working for a Director who's also recently returned, and has taken back his old team in addition to my old team and some other teams. I'll be the architect for the projects under his direction. With my return to Qwest, I've got to find a way to ride both ways when I commute. When I used to work there, I took my bike in on the bus, and rode home. This would be more of a pain now because I won't be taking the same bus to work due to construction on I25. The stop for the bus I will take, however, is a couple of miles away. It would be pain to ride to that stop in cold weather, because historically, I didn't normally ride to my stop in cycling clothes, but rather in my street clothes. That was OK when the stop was only a two-minute ride, but really inconvenient on a longer ride. The other inconvenience is that a commuting day involved two modes of transportation, and planning for both. When I was at Oppenheimer, I perfected the process of riding both ways, and it was much more convenient. There was only one mode of transportation for the day - either bike or car. To me, that simplified the process of preparing. I just left a few changes of work clothes and shower stuff at work. On cycling days I'd just hop on the bike in full cycling gear. At work I'd shower and change into my work clothes, leaving the cycling clothes to hang dry in the locker, awaiting my cycling trip home. I'd take my dirty work clothes home every couple days. All that being said, Qwest doesn't offer its employees shower facilities, so I'm afraid I'd have to pay an exhorbitant amount for a health club membership just to get a shower in the morning. Oh well, we'll see. muttered around 7:28 AM