the boredom of ramfree17

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And it is not meant to be funny.

Tags: Work by Erin
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Installing RTC 2.0 client on the Win2003 machine provided by our customer is proving to be a challenge of patience and futility. I spent the better half of the day trying everything I can think of but:

– Using the bundled launchpad doesnt do anything: everything just quits without any warning or error.
– Invoking the launchpad using the parameters in the autorun.inf file () doesnt work.
– Invoking launchpad\launchpad.bat terminates with a wrong variable expansion.
– Invoking the various installer executable inside the win32 sub-directory produces a “Missing file install.xml” error and then will show the Installation Manager window. Unfortunately it cannot install anything even if the preference shows the repository to the RTC 2.0 extracted files are detected as “connected”.

I know the installer works because we have installed it fine on our WinXP workstations. The md5sum of the file in the Win2003 machine matches the one in our XP workstations.

Ready to give up and log a RTC bug, I did some more fiddling to gather more information and tried to download the web install even if it is going to be painful installing RTC on a slow and erratic connection. I got the same results.

Then I noticed that there were lots of files named install-[something].xml in the win32 directory but no install.xml file. An idea hit me and created a copy of the “install-client.xml” and renamed it to “install.xml”. I then executed the win32\install.exe and everything installed as expected.

And that concludes a whole-day wrangling on getting RTC 2.0 installed in the Win2003 server. Sometimes the best solutions are really those that hide under our noses.

ciao!

Tags: Work by Erin
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– The car owners from Green Ridge who turns left too early and hog the opposite lane of the Barkadahan bridge. I hope you have a worst day than I have today and for the rest of your $DEITY forsaken lives while you are inside any vehicle.
– The 3.5 hours commute to the office. We left at 5:10AM and arrived at 8:40AM.
– The Pasig rainforest route is still submerged in flood water. We can still see the water from the west bank of the floodway road.
– The cyclist who almost let himself get run over by a tricycle when he made an abrupt left to cross the street.The reason: some street vagrants are having an early morning drinking binge and they offered him a shot of Red Horse Beer.
– Pasig Blue Boys (traffic enforcers) who opened a counter-flow west bound but made sure those those came from under the Jenny’s avenue bridge would not be able to use it and get stuck in horrible traffic.
– Jeepneys, FX taxis and buses plying the Ortigas route who insists on weaving through the traffic and loading/unloading people in the middle of the road.
– Inconsiderate pricks who keeps on ejecting their sputum and saliva on the side of the overpass that I am using such that their bodily fluids are always aligned with my line of sight.
– The other inconsiderate prick who blew his/her breakfast on the landing of the said overpass.
– The bus driver from hell who drives pedal to the metal as soon as the last passenger steps on or off the bus. I know there are hand-rails but human beings are not designed to be standing upright when their inertia shifts from 0 to 40kph. Sideways.
– The $#@%# building administration who insists that sauna treatments are good for your health by making sure their ground floor hallways and elevators are a couple of degrees above the comfortable temperature.

And my work hours has only just started…

Tags: Garbage, Work by Erin
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Right now my leg muscles hurt. Every single one. The last time I felt something similar to this was when we watched the E’heads concert. My lower back also hurts but that is something to be expected. The bedroom now stinks from the menthol-laced oil that I applied to ease the pain.

The reason for the pain was I had to stand up most of the day during the Agile methodology introduction that I co-facilitated. My physique is really not something that can tolerate standing up most of the time. Now I realize that aside from the time that I had willingly sacrificed for the training session, I now have to unwittingly sacrifice some more to the pain.

In retrospect I can say that I regret being the primary facilitator for the training. I don’t like speaking engagements because I am not confident enough to put into words what I am thinking, much less in my non-native language. Thankfully the audience today was very forgiving and the mood was relatively light. Jon who co-facilitated the training with me has me enthralled in his public speaking prowess. He seems very at ease in handling the audience and that is something that I would like to possess someday.

I am looking forward in seeing the feedback as I know this impromptu shepherd has lost some sheep along the day’s journey. But for now I would settle in looking forward to some reprieve from the pain.

Sleep, my mistress, I bid you to claim me tonight in your bosom and provide some relief. Please don’t let that mischievous Cramps worm his way into our union as he will definitely wreck havoc for tomorrow if he gets his way…

ciao!

Tags: Garbage, Work by Erin
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Or your money back!

Sounds like a pitch for snake oil medicines.

Tonight I opened my company mail and I found a curious memo about a new guideline about backing up data on company owned machines. The first though that entered my mind was “WTF, another roadblock for doing backups?”

Reading the memo, it made some sense if you apply some common sense. And then I tried reading it from a “Security Expert slash Manager extraordinaire” perspective who follows everything by the book and then my world shrunk by a magnitude of ten. The phrasing combined with current practices is enough to give me the shivers if I think about embarking in a simple task of performing backups.

In line with the company’s commitment to protecting client data, effective immediately we are implementing the following process for backing up data on company-owned machines (desktops or laptops):

You may not back up any sensitive data residing on a company-owned computer (Laptop or Desktop) without permission of the IT Support team and obtaining a signed form. Only encrypted back ups are allowed, including copying files to flash media or CD.

Not bad eh? Not until you read that you need a very high approver before you can even think of performing a backup. If you need an analogy then think of the company as ruled by a god and you need the approval of the high priests. That approval is now on top of soaking one’s self in gasoline, rolling in live coals, and dancing a cha-cha number on top of broken blades and glasses.

To top it all, the last sentence was like adding insult to injury:

Further details will be released this week, as the IT Support team mobilizes to handle this task.

Yeah, I am brimming with confidence that the over-worked and ticket-closing trigger happy support team is able to take on this new task while spreading cheer and world peace. I am saying goodbye to backups then. I think it is easier to just slaughter some chicken and offer it to my anito to protect the company data that I am working on from sudden glitches and electronic crashes.

ciao!

Tags: Rubbish, Work by Erin
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