Archive for the ‘ Work ’ Category

tomorrow i am strapping squirrels to my feet and riding them up a goddamn tree

i realize a lot of people have problems.

i also realize a lot of their problems become my problems.

this is a problem.

the past few weeks have been one shitfest after another.  let me expound a little story for you (using a specific example that really happened just today)

a ticket comes in to the help desk from person X a couple of weeks ago, it says something like “hey i need these forum lectures recorded.  they are from 9am – 430pm on these two days”

i respond “no problem. we will get it setup and record the forums”

845am:  i go to the room and help the presenter get their laptop hooked up to the projectors, sound, etc.  show them how to use the mic.  everything is copacetic.  i even talk to person X and tell them we are all set for recording the lecture.

noon: email comes in from person X.  ”hey just wanted to check if you recorded the lecture so far.  we’re on lunch break so if you didn’t could you record the rest of the lecture please?”  snarky reply in my head: “OH NO WAS I SUPPOSED TO RECORD THAT THIS MORNING WHEN I TOLD YOU I WAS ALL SET TO RECORD?  SHIT”

the best part about it is, the recording software is utter shit, so i can’t schedule it to record certain times, stop/start, or anything useful.  best i can do is start it when it needs to start and tell it to go for a certain amount of time.  so not only am i recording their stupid shit this morning, i’m also recording an empty room for an hour while everyone is at lunch.  person X will not find this out until they watch the video i give them on dvd later (if they even do.  i have doubts that anything i record ever gets watched again)

5pm:  i bump into person X in the hall outside the classroom i’ve been recording all day.  they say “so i’ll just call you tomorrow morning at 9?”  i am this || close to choking them out.  this is now the 3rd fucking time you are confirming this with me.  i am not an idiot.  i am not 7 years old.  i am a professional IT person.  please please PLEASE call me tomorrow morning to remind me.

my boss hears this exchange.  on my way out the door i ask him to call me in the morning to remind to me come in to work, as i might forget.

2010
03/18
CATEGORY
Work
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don’t have an iphone/windows mobile/other fancy phone…

…but still want to do something neat like update your exchange calendar?  well, i’ve figured out how, using the all powerfull GOOGLE and my POS lg rumor.  don’t take this as a recommendation for the rumor… b/c this phone fucking sucks and i want something else badly.

first off, some caveats about this whole thing.  for one, you have to keep the google calendar sync application running with outlook open on a pc somewhere.  if you work in any kind of enterprise/corporate environment, you most likely already leave your pc on, logged in (and hopefully LOCKED) at all times.  if you do, this will work great.  if not, you won’t get the full advantage of this little system, but it could still be useful for updating your work calendar on weekends, as it would sync anything new when you started up your pc the next time.  secondly, the google sms features of the calendar are only available to US customers (sorry canada! :P)

so with that said, here’s what you need to do.  first, sign up for a google calendar account at http://calendar.google.com (of course your gmail account will work!)  once you have that, download the google calendar sync app (double check that you have a version of outlook and windows that is supported) and install it.  make sure you set it up for two way updates (so anything you add in either google calendar or outlook will show up in each).

now open up your google calendar account and click the settings link in the upper right corner.  go to the mobile setup tab and enter your phone number and mobile provider.  be aware that by doing this you are going to use text messages, so if you don’t have unlimited texting this could end up costing you A LOT!  once you do that google will send you a special code to put into the verification box.

google calendar sms settings

so now you have your google calendar ready to receive new events via text and it should be syncing to your pc and outlook.

now for the really cool part (IMO)!  you can now text your calendar by sending a message to 48368 (GVENT) and have it either reply to you with your current days events (text message of “day”) or the next days events (“nday”) OR, and this is the best, you can have it add a new event to your calendar by texting it in plain english!  what does that mean exactly?  say, for example, you want to add a new appointment for next tuesday at 3pm with someone.  all you have to do is text GVENT and in the message say “meeting with my mom at 3pm tuesday.”  the system will figure out what you mean and add the event (by default for one hour, but you can go ahead and tell it “meeting with my mom at 3pm tuesday for 2 hours” and it’ll make a 2 hour appointment instead).

i’ve played with this system and it is pretty smart, you can give it dates and times basically any way you want and it will figure it out.  i even had it set a full day appointment by telling it “all day.”  one thing that did not work however was giving it a fraction for the time, so saying “2.5 hours” will really have it make a 5 hour appointment with “2.” as part of the subject.

so there you go, no need to get a fancy windows mobile phone to view/update your exchange calendar! (i’ll still be getting rid of this goddamn piece of crap rumor ASAP tho)

2008
08/20
CATEGORY
Geek
Work
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let’s get it going

ah, the end of summer. working where i do, it’s always an interesting time. more people come. the renewal of fall begins. it’s a strange difference given the fact that fall is when nature starts to die for the winter, but yet this place starts to grow.

so this is my umpteenth attempt at a blog, but whatever. i’ll try it again and see if it doesn’t get any more enjoyable. maybe because this one is on my own site i’ll feel more inclined to write about whatever. (i’ve imported all my old blog posts from livejournal below, btw)

there’s a big weekend ahead for me. saturday has the first buckeye game of the season, which due to circumstances out of my control *COUGH*GODDAMN BIG TEN ASSRAPE NETWORK*COUGH* i’ll have to travel to a friends house to watch the game. then i have a birthday party for my 7 year old cousin, and finally there’s a good show at ruby tuesday on campus saturday night.

speaking of which, you should go!

then of course, there’s sunday. i believe a party is in the works at dr. jones house. and monday is a holiday. i have to pick up K at the airport at some point. the world traveler returns!

so yeah, the world comes and the world goes and norb lives on.

2007
08/30
CATEGORY
Life
Work
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