The Empirical Manifesto

Today marks my one-year anniversary with this client.

drax0r: Please visit the memorial out front for me. Thanks.

There is the outside chance that I may get to leave sometime today. If that indeed happens, I will dance the cha-cha like a sissy girl in my hotel room just prior to packing.

Finally had time to install Notes this morning on my travel laptop, and after it brought down 200+ emails, I wish I hadn't.



Here's my boss and Bill astride a mortar at Watervliet


Me, modeling the 16-inch Naval gun barrells outside the cast-iron museum


Hmmm. I don't get to leave today. We've restored 100% of the data we had, but some of the data was corrupted. Unfortunately we didn't have access to the full application which could read this outside of working directly with the client. I discovered that Irfanview has a plugin for this specific file-type, and was able to parse what we thought were corrupted headers, pointing possibly to a database and/or app issue! I was very excited. We all started in on the errant files. Alas, a random sampling verified that though we could now view our own files, some were indeed corrupted. High's and low's today.

High's and low's...

Having dinner tonight with the Regional CIO.

Have only been getting a couple of hours of sleep a night. This gets very old, very fast. Our 14-hour days usually bleed over into a late dinner and discussing the project at the hotel. Speaking of hotels, we checked out Friday and moved next door to a hotel with very comfortable king-size beds. This has helped greatly. I actually slept something like seven hours last night. And tomorrow, we're not going in. I plan to sleep most of the day.

About Amsterdam...Several weeks ago there was a double-disc RAID failure and data was lost. Some corrupted files were retained in a dump, and because of the high visibility of this particular incident (which involved the State Authorities), one of the Division Presidents decided to send in some very expensive data-recovery professionals to asses the situation. After two days, the professionals exclaimed, "The data is lost and cannot be recovered." After they left, my boss began manipulating the file header info, and was able to un-corrupt the data. Unfortunately, there were 17,000 files lost across a four-month period of time. With nothing now to lose, the Division President agreed that we could make our attempt to recover the data. I think we've now done that. We should know for sure Monday after the apps guys get in and we get them to run some tests. Not just some of the data. All of the data. This will resound greatly for us, my company, and our client.

Not only am I having fun troubleshooting again and working with unix (well, cygwin in this case), but the people here are happy to see us. They appreciate the long hours we are putting in. They see that we are accomplishing things they were told was impossible. They think we are working miracles, and are thankful for us being here. This is so very different from working back home where my clients are never satisfied with any of the work we do for them, and constantly point out our shortcomings as to how we're not supporting them to their expectations. Its very frustrating, especially since we work our fingers to the bone for these people and they don't care, they just want more.

Special thanks to drax0r who is a brilliant shell scripter and, for the first time since I've known him, awoke to answer the phone because he saw that I was calling and probably needed help. What a guy!

Picked up a Logitech MX-400 laser mouse today.

Ate at the NY 'Panchos' again.

Snatched from oxy_irony:

My Personality

Neuroticism	0
Extraversion	70
Openness To Experience	3
Agreeableness	33
Conscientiousness	98

Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report MySpace Surveys, Bebo and MySpace Codes by Pulseware Survey Software

Wouldn't you know I couldn't sleep past 0600? I sat down to surf the web while my coffee was brewing, but my access code to the wireless network had expired. No big deal. I called the front desk by dialing '0.' I let it ring about 30 times. No answer. Hmmmm. I checked the phone: Front Desk...........0. I call again, and let it ring about 40 times. No answer. I'm trying to find some sort of reasoning behind this in my head. What exactly is going on down there? I make one more 20-ring attempt. Nothing. I get dressed and march downstairs to the front desk. There's a gentleman there. The weekend manager "Good morning." I said. "I tried to call."
He looks at the phone, and at me. Twice. "The phone hasn't rang all morning."
"Zero?" I ask. "To reach you?"
He stares at me for an uncomfortably long amount of time before saying, "I don't have any idea what you are trying to say."
I change my words, "I would dial zero from my room to get the front desk?"
More staring. Its as if I'm speaking another language. We move on. He tells me, "The phone here has not rang, sir. Look, there's the houseman." He points to the houseman. I turn to see the houseman. We're both now looking at the houseman. Somehow, looking at the houseman comforts this man, because now that he's pointed him out to me, we don't have to talk any more. The houseman sees us staring, and approaches. The manager asks the houseman, "The phone hasn't been ringing has it?"
The houseman replies, "Non-stop since about six. I paged you twice." Now that we've received input from the houseman, I feel we can get to the heart of the matter. I explain my dilemma and discover that the access codes roll over at 0100 on Sunday, and receive a new one.

[End 'Freak Show' scene one.]

Exit Stage Left.

First time I've slipped on a pair of jeans in a year.

Spent $2 on a 'cup' of coffee so I could have something to spit in while waiting to board the plane (first scooby-snack of the day).

Once, I had a half hour layover in Detroit. I was out of Skoal. I exited the airport, showed a taxi driver a $20 and said, "All I need is a can of Skoal, if you can get me to a gas station and back in 15 minutes, it's yours." He did. The most expensive can I ever bought. And this was pre-9/11. I wouldn't attempt that stunt in this day and age.

Chatted with a Master Sergeant on his way to Korea. He'd never been before. I encouraged him with good stories.

Hour and a half layover in Atlanta. At a Wendy's burger.

Visited with a man who did 21-years in the Navy.

So I have this smokeless tobacco thing down to science when flying - I've been doing it for years. Order a coffee, and a water. Drink your coffee, put your napkin in your empty styrofoam cup, and use that as your receptacle. Drink your water when you're finished, put your empty water bottle in your coffee cup to hide any evidence. Ta-friggin-da. So, I let the smokeless tobacco chewing 21-year Navy vet in on this plan, as he hasn't flown in 17 years and we're about to embark on our second flight together. We board the aircraft and they announce, "As you know there is no smoking onboard any ASA flight..." And then something I had never before heard, "...and the use of smokeless tobacco is also prohibited with a steep fine." WTF? Since when? And more importantly, why? What bullshit is this? Well - they didn't say that on the first leg of my flight, so I enjoyed a scoob on the plane. This trip is an hour longer. I packed my empty water bottle away in my backpack for use on the drive in the rental. Maybe Bill will drive?

We got a Chevy HHR. With a 4-cylinder engine. It kinda sucks. Bill drove.

Met up with my boss and three other guys. The six of us went to Staples to get stuff to set up a wireless network in my boss's room/conference room. Everyone stared at us. Three groups of people stopped to stare. One made a comment, "Looks like Reservoir Dogs. Why do I have to be Mr. Pink?" It was quite odd. The most unsettling thing so far, was getting off the plane and making my way to baggage collection to meet Bill. It looked exactly like Manchester, New Hampshire! This made me think of my Andover trip all over again...I was there for three months! The hotel is set up for 10/Half. The wireless router couldn't negotiate that.

I see a lot of good stuff on my friends page - I'll have to try to get around to that tomorrow; provided my partner and I don't start 12-hour overnight shifts. Our boss is already talking about working through the night the next few nights, and over the weekend as well.

We have to be where we have to be tomorrow at 0730. It's an hour away in Amsterdam. Our hotel is in Albany. It's 2230. I bought a coffee travel mug and a pound of coffee at Duncan Donuts. I'm going to die now. Goodnight.