consultant

Travels of a Linux consultant - Day 2

We’re working a minimum of 10 hours which turn into usually turn into 12 on this project. These hours make it hard to find time to write. Anyway onward to Day 2.

As you may remember from the last post I finally arrived at my hotel about 2200 CST. Being tired and all from the trip I decided to hit the sack and check email and what have you the next morning.

I get up the next morning and get ready to go. Everything is looking good as far as arrival time. I am supposed to be at my destination around noon.

I sit down to check my email. No wireless internet. Like most of us the first thing that I look for is internet before I decide on a hotel/motel. These folks advertised wireless. Now I’ve been out of touch with everyone for almost 24 hours. This isn’t good.

A quick search around the room reveals a data jack. Ok cool. I have a patch cable with me. I plug in my patch cable and Voila!..nothing. Did I change something before I left and I’ve forgotten about it? I check all of my settings and everything is correct. I make another run at wired and wireless. No go.

Somewhat aggravated I go ahead and check out. While doing so I complain at the front desk. You advertised it and I need it for business. This is why I chose your motel. The lady that is on duty can’t do anything I know. But she promises to tell the manager and see if she can get me a comp stay or something. Later that afternoon she calls and they have knocked $20 off of the bill.

So I arrive at my destination and go in and meet everyone. I sit down at the table, open my laptop and boot ready to get to work. No X windows. I reboot. Still nothing. This is bordering on the ridiculous.

I try resetting X with the tools provided by CentOS. It says everything is installed and ready. Still no X. Ok I’ll boot to runlevel 3 and check for an update, check my history, look at the xorg.conf and check the logs. Nothing shows as wrong and the networking won’t even start. Now it’s even more ridiculous.

I know what you’re thinking. This DODO actually had internet at the hotel. No I didn’t. I wasn’t the only one to complain about there not being any internet.

Ok I’m on a SLES project. On of the resident engineers has an openSuSE 11.1 disk. I install this and get to work.

I live to regret this decision though. After I get to my hotel I install and fire up Skype. I setup my webcam and call my wife. No webcam and no microphone. But that’s another story.

So much for Day 2. I’m concluding my travel days here. Work goes well and the webcam and the mic continue to be a hassle. More the mic than the webcam but who’s counting…

-j

Travels of a Linux consultant - Day 1

It’s been a few days since I’ve had a chance to write so I want to catch up.

I recently accepted a 3-5 week consulting job about 400 miles from where I live. I had to leave in the late afternoon because I had an interview for another job, this one closer to home and about 60 miles in the wrong direction. This meant that I wouldn’t actually be on the road until 1500 EST or later.

After the interview off I went. About 90 miles into the drive my truck started missing so badly that it was shaking as I drove and the “Service Engine Soon” light came on.

I called my wife and asked her to locate an auto parts store in the town that was coming up, Champaign, IL. 60 miles of a teeth rattling miss in my engine. This was fun. She called back with directions to a store that was about 10 minutes off of the highway.

I arrived there about 1700 CST. If you’ve ever been in the midwest in January you know that it starts getting dark between 1730-1800. I had them put a tester on the truck and sure enough the Coil on Plug 3 was bad. To top off everything it was 10 degrees F outside.

I had somewhat expected something like this as my truck had been acting up for the last few days. With that in mind I had brought along enough tools to pull a spark plug which meant I had the necessary tools to remove the coil.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been under the hood of an F150 4 wheel drive but some of the plugs and coils can be difficult to reach. It is also high enough that it is helpful if you have a step stool of some sort. Fortunately the coil/plug 3 is not under the firewall so it wasn’t too bad. I did have to crawl up onto the grill housing to get to the coil though.

I bought the coil and went to work. It took me about 10 or 15 minutes to get the old coil off and another 20-30 to get the new one on. By now I’m working by the light of the auto parts store and the temperature is dropping. Cold, very cold. I’m glad the wind wasn’t blowing or it would have almost been unbearable.

The rest of the drive was uneventful although driving through St. Louis wasn’t much fun. Finally I reach the hotel in Rolla, MO about 2200 CST. This puts me about 4-5 hours from my destination. Ahh, I say to myself, the hotel has wireless and breakfast so I’ll just hit the sack and check email and what have you tomorrow morning.

So much for day 1.

-j