A day at my work

Walked in at 07:30 or so. Swapped muddy boots for not muddy shoes.

Started work by going through email and reviewing my notes for the day. If I didn't keep meticulous notes, I would realize that I have been suffering mental break down for years.

Downloaded RHEL 4.8 for a test machine. I tried to get the cds we already had, yesterday evening, but 18:45 is not the easiest time to find the correct people to nail down that sort of thing around my work. So, I started a download first thing.

Fixed a link that should have been just fine last night, but was not.

Listened to "News from Lake Woebegone" While working at my machine.

For some reason Windows would not copy the file from the hard drive to my flash card. In the process of trying it corrupted both files. Thanks Windows. Now I get to start over again. It would not let me delete the corrupted file in Windows and I do not have the privilege of fixing my flash drive on our internet machine. Back to linux where I have the power of a super user at my disposal. It cracks me up how much of my day is spent fixing crap like this.

When you copy a large file to a flash drive in Windows it doesn't give you a progress bar. This is a 2.3 GB file so it takes a while to sho up. The only way I have to tell something is going on is to watch the light blink on the thumb drive. This is the thumb drive that has been through the washer. Works like a champ.

Then I do not have any blank DVDs. The guy who keeps the $0.25 blank DVDs will not be in for a while. It would be faster to run across the street to Target and buy some. I'll end up waiting on the guy I was supposed to get the CDs from yesterday to get in.

I messed around for an hour trying to figure out why svn revision numbers come out messed up on some of your builds. It is because svn always reports the highest svn revision number of a project in a branch or tag regardless of the path you check it out from. This requires you to enter an svn revision number when checking out the project to get that svn number in the rpm name and elsewhere. I figured out what was going on and ten different ways to fix it. Now to decide which way to go. This is what is referred to in the industry as a pain in the ass.

I then connected a computer that has been a bane to the entire IT department. It is an old database box that just refuses to cooperate with anything we throw at it. This is the fourth time I've messed with the same box at the same steps. Now to install the backup software for the third time on this box.

Then I installed the Netbackup software. This would have been painless except for the fact that I forgot one of the files and the nine step process of copying from the windows to linux network was killing me.

Now it just needs the DB installed. Whole new can of worms.

Then, I set up a RAID system on a linux box that didn't work. I had to hunt down some help. That killed quite a while because the OS installed just fine. It just wouldn't boot. Details details.

Got the expert, the guy who has done this twice before, in there to help me and it seems he set the thing up the exact same way I did. Still didn't work.

Went over to a friend's place for lunch. We had homemade blue cheese burgers, fresh brewed tea and watermelon. How awesome is that. Only an hour and ten minutes Adam makes a mean lunch and doesn't drag ass about it. He did forget the damn cin8imon buns. four otu of five. Not shabby. It took me half the afternoon to recover.

Tried to use a separate boot patrician on the RAID box. It came up and seems to be working, but that may be an issue when one of the drives goes down. This doesn't seem to be a problem with later versions of Red Hat.

There was a computer in one of the labs with a history of a bad hard drive. I turned on the computer and it did not come up even in the bios. I thought for a moment. That only happens when the drive is not getting power or is not plugged in. Even when drives have all kinds of surface problems or other errors, something shows up in the bios. I swapped cables on the power and it came up. We planned on leaving it for a while, but it died. New drive and OS install regardless. Thought I had one there. Chris popped the new drive on the board (literally a piece of plywood) for me. Heck of a guy that Chris. I kicked off the install before I left.

The five o'clock thump of the auxiliary AC hits and I am informed that what I've just gotten to work will not work and they want to do it a different way. I choose the wall in the stairwell because it will be more effective when I bang my head against it.

No RC or nightly build this evening. Outstanding issue make it moot.

It has been raining all day. We need it. Nat was kind enough to come get me. I need to find a cheep pare of tennis shoes for work. The shoes I use now are too small.  Put on the muddy boots and went home.

It just doesn't sound like I got anything done today when I read this back. It is a pile of crap that equals Kelly's day at work. Nothing interesting happened. I did learn some things. I had an awesome lunch. Where did the then hours go?