SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

Part #34

What time is it?

[This message edited by WornDown at 3:39 PM, October 24th (Thursday)]

What time is it?

Aw, man, I missed it.....

I remember working on Y2K code at work while listening to Napster.

Aaaaaannnnnnd that was the impetus that drove me away from coding into networks. Spent month after month after month going through three quarters of a million lines of database code expanding all the date fields to four digits...... I left that job in September of '99 for the wide wonderful world of telco and service provider networking. Apparently it went well...... Or at least well enough that nothing burned down no one went without their grades and attendance.

Loukas, I'm afraid I don't get most of your references.... But then I am extremely unhip. That's why I wear a belt.

I'm too young to be a boomer, and too old to be a Gen[X|Y|Z|whatever] -- I'm stuck in a limbo without a name or label.

Hey! You kids! Get off my lawn! I've been practicing. I figure it'll come in handy some day soon.

To be the man, you have to beat the man.

And the crab cakes were phenomenal.

Glad someone turned the lights back on.

I didn't understand any of your post Loukas. But, I'm a boomer.

I wonder if that's some sort of record about the time it took to get to 50 in Betrayed Menz.

Sadly, I think the one before it took even longer, Steady.

Our new clock is tripping me out...

Aww shit, part 34!

Was putting straps on the bottom of my mattress to hold the fitted sheet tight. Leaned against the headboard and pushed on the box spring, and the leg just cracked all to hell.

I've got clamps, I've got wood glue, and I have a piece of plywood. Gonna repair it myself. Wish me luck.

I've got clamps, I've got wood glue, and I have a piece of plywood. Gonna repair it myself. Wish me luck.

I was part of a conversion from a BUNCH system to IBM in the early '90s. The company's programming guru recommended changing the programming to allow for dates after 12/31/1999. Management asked how much it would cost. The guru estimated $5,000 (he was writing a code conversion program, which is why it was so little). Management said, 'No.' I still can't believe it....

No 12/31/99, I was at a party with some IT folks for a local company. At midnight, the lights flickered. For half an hour, this couple kept looking at their pagers. They lucked out, but the flickering was because someone actually blew up a Com Ed substation.

That didn't make the news....

The music that moves me to nostalgia is mid-'50s, early '60s rock and roll. Little Richard. Jerry Lee Lewis. Eddie Cochrane. Carl Perkins. Sirius XM's '50s channel. 1000 stars in the sky. Will you still love me tomorrow. Long tall Sally, she built sweet. Saturday night and I just got paid. That stuff gets my testosterone flowing. Hmmm....

Funny - I used to hate the Everly Brothers - known to my friends and me as the Everly Sisters - because of their focus on love and loss. But they wrote and sang some great songs for BSes.

'Love Hurts' - Everlys or Roy Orbison (not latecomers Nazareth) - pure heartbreak.

[This message edited by sisoon at 1:51 PM, October 25th (Friday)]

I left that job in September of '99 for the wide wonderful world of telco and service provider networking.

Nice. I've got some experience in telco as well. Currently running an IVR system on a dms100 network. All old-school ISDN stuff. It's going to be decommissioned before too long, and I'm sure replaced with some sort of SIP system.

I was part of a conversion from a BUNCH system to IBM in the early '90s. The company's programming guru recommended changing the programming to allow for dates after 12/31/1999. Management asked how much it would cost. The guru estimated $5,000 (he was writing a code conversion program, which is why it was so little). Management said, 'No.' I still can't believe it....

That's crazy, sisoon! In '97 I was working in software license management for a large corporation, and the 10's of millions of dollars for Y2K software being spent was unreal. I remember having to transport physical software and hardware from one facility to the other, and being so nervous, as I had roughly $17M worth of assets in the back of my pickup truck. This was a combo of CD ROMs and dongles that attached to the back of the PC that counted the lines of COBOL that were being processed. Ah, memories.

Jeez, Incarnate. You've been single for how long, and you've already caused that much damage to your bed? Hat's off to you. Hope the reconstruction went well.

Sisoon - We listen to very different genres of music, but you have great taste! Nostalgia... hmmm... first thing that comes to my mind is Slayer.

Happy Friday, Gents!

you've already caused that much damage to your bed? Hat's off to you.

I had to get a new bed after D-Day, as the old one was, shall we say, defiled. It is currently not broken. Hell, it's not even been broken in

The company's programming guru recommended changing the programming to allow for dates after 12/31/1999. Management asked how much it would cost

The funny thing was that our software was technically Y2K compliant. Internally, dates were represented with an actual data type of "date" (which was really handy when you wanted to do things like "timespan := date1 - date2" or "loop until date == today") but on the screen it usually only showed the last two digits. so really all we had to do was re-do data entry screen and reformat reports. It was just that the better part of a million lines of code takes a tediously LONG time to go through.

Currently running an IVR system on a dms100 network.

"Agent. Agent! No! Agent, damn it!"

I worked purely on the data side of the house. But I had to work closely with the telco side every day. The company had been built through a series of acquisitions over the years, so there was quite a mix of DMS (10, 100 and 500), 5ESS and even Siemens DCO.

All old-school ISDN stuff.

Man, I sure do wish ISDN had caught on more in this country. I had a BRI installed in the apartment I lived in at the time. I think it was the one and only the local telco had even put in a residential install. And I sure did like using PRI for my dial-ups a lot more that CT1. Being able to watch the D-channel sure made debugging call setup problems a lot easier....

It's going to be decommissioned before too long, and I'm sure replaced with some sort of SIP system.

Sigh, yes probably. When I got cut they were in the middle of a multi-year effort replacing all their voice switches with soft switches. Went from row after row of cabinets that filled a room, to one rack with a couple computers in it..... And they always got pissed when I said "we're rebooting the routers tonight." The way of the future, I guess.

[This message edited by tbkjcn at 7:49 PM, October 25th (Friday)]

Jeez, Incarnate. You've been single for how long, and you've already caused that much damage to your bed? Hat's off to you. Hope the reconstruction went well.

Maaaaaaaaan, IF ONLY that were the reason! Nope, it's just because it was beaten up, was cheaply made, and had already been stressed. I made a picture series on the repair and put it up as one of my repairing tutorials on another site I go on. I wish I could share the link here, but the process of getting links approved is... arduous, and I have a feeling that if I went around that by describing the link, I'd earn myself a reprimand, lol.

I'm going to build a new headboard at some point, something solid and heavy-duty. I'll have to make a matching footboard, and probably new rails, so...

I'm going to build my own bed. Yeah, why not. I'm going to cover it in carvings, stained and sealed and so on and so forth. I'll make it my big winter project this year, I think. Something like this, but with runes instead of the zodiac symbols.

I'll make the legs out of Redwood 4x4s or 6x6s, sand them baby smooth, and carve vines wrapping around them. Design some complementary bindrunes to have front and center on it. Make a good ol' fashioned Viking bed. I've wanted one for a long time.

[This message edited by Incarnate at 10:25 PM, October 25th (Friday)]

Drafted up a simple design for the headboard I want to make in Sketchup. I suppose i should design the rest of the bed now.

Did the rest of the bed design before going to sleep... around 2:30-3:00.

In about 7 hours, power shuts off for... however long. Maybe one day. Maybe two. Maybe four. Maybe more. This will completely butcher my ability to work, and I know it'll set my cover designer back even further. I'm already a month behind schedule for the launch of my latest novel. It's just... sitting there, nothing happening with it. It's done, but it has no cover. It's like a hot chick with her makeup on, legs shaved, hair done... and no clothes to put on to go out with. Meanwhile, I'm waiting in the livingroom, we're already late for dinner, but if I say anything, then there's a freakout about laundry.

Ugh.

Halloween parties have been canceled for the kids, which they're bummed about, and so am I; I was looking forward to seeing my mom again. It's been over a month since I've been around family other than my kids, and I think I needed the recharge time. Yeah, they have a tendency to feed the anger echochamber, but honestly I miss being around people that I know love and care for me.

Hopefully power isn't off for too long. I need to be able to buy one of those in-home UA tests to see if the THC is suitably out of my system yet, then contact my old boss to let him know that I can pass, get hired, and then if I feel like smoking again, I can. It's not a huge drive, but honestly, having someone tell me in a legal state that I can't do something sort of makes it a little more appealing. Maybe I'm just an asshole like that.

"Agent. Agent! No! Agent, damn it!"

My IVR is speech reco, and I do have fairly robust grammars built in. If you say, "I don't want to talk to a fucking machine", you'll get to a rep.

I worked purely on the data side of the house. But I had to work closely with the telco side every day. The company had been built through a series of acquisitions over the years, so there was quite a mix of DMS (10, 100 and 500), 5ESS and even Siemens DCO.

That is cool as hell. I am mostly a programmer, but have had to dabble on the data side of things as well. In all honesty, the networking stuff makes almost no sense to me. I'm glad there are guys like you around that understand it.

Man, I sure do wish ISDN had caught on more in this country. I had a BRI installed in the apartment I lived in at the time.

I bet that cost a pretty penny!

Sigh, yes probably. When I got cut they were in the middle of a multi-year effort replacing all their voice switches with soft switches. Went from row after row of cabinets that filled a room, to one rack with a couple computers in it..... And they always got pissed when I said "we're rebooting the routers tonight." The way of the future, I guess.

Yep. Definitely a different ball game these days. Even though my IVR uses ISDN and telephony cards, the vendor that supports the telephony software uses SIP in the background. It's crazy. There is an ethernet connection to the telephony card that does SIP and MRCP communications for the card to the box that it resides in. It would make your head spin, tbk. That shit should never have to go over the network, since the card is already inside of the server! But what do I know?

The new group I'm working with is all Avaya and Genesys. We'll see where that goes, as far as my role is concerned. There are some newer things on the horizon that are looking kind of exciting to work with that involves other technology.

Headboard design looks great, Incarnate! That sucks about the power outage. Knowing that you have five girls in the house, just seeing the word "laundry" makes me feel for ya man.

Definitely keep focus with the novel as much as you can. Also, good luck with the UA test!

My gig is coming up in six days and I am having some severe technical issues with my guitar. It's the same guitar I've gigged with ever since '93. It needs some long overdue TLC. Unfortunately I am probably going to have to use a guitar STBX got me. I was really hoping to avoid that, but it is a really good guitar and maybe this will be my chance to claim it as my own. It just kind of feels like taking another bite out of the shit sandwich. Pulling out my years of cognitive behavioral therapy toolbox, and trying to reframe this in a positive manner.