I have asked this question before and I will ask it again: Is Barack Obama "black" enough to win the support of black "leaders"? The reason I ask this question again is due to the recent comments by Al Sharpton who accused Obama of trying to "grandstand in front of white people." And you can't overlook the recent comments by Barack's former minister, Jeremiah Wright, that seemed to suggest the U.S. government might be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community and his equation of some American wartime efforts with terrorism.
On one hand you have Sharpton who is basically accusing Obama of selling out his race to try to become president. That is to be expected. I will followup on this one at the end. On the other hand you have a deranged lunatic in Wright who is using Obama's celebrity to try to further a crazy agenda that has long been spread by conspiracy theorists. Long have people been attempting to accuse the American government for drugs/AIDS/poverty, etc., as a means of genocide. Obama has rightfully attempted to distance himself from these divisive comments but I think the damage has been done. Wright has been on a non-stop media crusade to sell his brand of crazy and some can't help but think Obama may agree with some of these views. Not I, but some.
While Wright's comments may scare away the white populace, Sharpton's comments dig at the heart of Obama's campaign by scaring black voters. As is typical for the Sharpton's, Jackson's, Farakhan's, etc., of the world, they most maintain the status quo of American racism. If there is ever the belief that a majority of Americans are not racist, then the Sharpon's become irrelevant. If minority Americans ever believe they can play on the same level playing field as white Americans, then there is no need for Sharpton to spew forth his hate-filled rhetoric.
I am not blind. Yes, there remains some forms of racism in America. But the fact is that most Americans no longer look to color first and foremost. Some of the most powerful people in the world (Condoleeza Rice, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell) are of African descent and no one bats an eye at that. But because these people aren't "black" enough for Sharpton their success is ignored. Barack Obama is perhaps a month from becoming the nominee for the President of the United States. A black president would most assuredly undermine Sharpton's goals of keeping racism in American viable so he begins tearing down Obama's "blackness" for his own personal ambitions.
It's really a shame because there truly are opportunities to continue the bridging of racial divides in this country thanks to Obama's historic run. But the likes of Sharpton cannot let there be any reconciliation less they become mere asides in today's world. Look for Sharpton to quickly embrace Obama should he lose either the Democratic primary or general election because it will become yet another chapter in America holding down the black man. But should Obama win this presidency, expect Sharpton to categorize him in the same manner as Rice, Powell and Thomas because the success of blacks in today's society cannot be tolerated. Not by a majority of Americans but by those who claims to stand for black America. Those like Sharpton.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Oh My Vista
From comical to frustrating to infuriating back to comical. Moving to Vista has turned into a mighty fiasco that continues everyday, without end. Products work one minute, not the next. I'm trying to work with an application right now that is supposedly Vista-compliant and yet it will only run as the Domain Administrator. And even though the user who installed it is an administrator with administrative privileges on the local PC, she receives debugging errors on every attempt to run the program. I have installed, reinstalled, uninstalled, installed agian all with the same results. And yet this same program will work on another machine without problem.
That is a mere microcosm of the daily frustrations Vista is giving us. One day everything seems to run pretty smoothly. The next day everything falls apart. An application works seamlessly today...throws errors tomorrow. And there's no rhyme or reason to these problems. They mysteriously appear...and, just as mysteriously, disappear. At least when you have consistent issues, you can troubleshoot. These phantom issues are the worst.
Oh well...only another week of rollouts at the home base and then it's off to Martinsburg or Wheeling for some rollouts there. Five more weeks and we'll have 450 unsatisfied uses on Microsoft's debacle of an operating system. Some will work without problems, some will work around their problems and some will just blow up. My concerns until June is that they have a machine that turns on and logs in to the domain. Once June rolls around though, a whole new set of issues will fall into my lap as we try to figure out what we have done and try to actually make it work correctly. Oh, and that should be fun too...
That is a mere microcosm of the daily frustrations Vista is giving us. One day everything seems to run pretty smoothly. The next day everything falls apart. An application works seamlessly today...throws errors tomorrow. And there's no rhyme or reason to these problems. They mysteriously appear...and, just as mysteriously, disappear. At least when you have consistent issues, you can troubleshoot. These phantom issues are the worst.
Oh well...only another week of rollouts at the home base and then it's off to Martinsburg or Wheeling for some rollouts there. Five more weeks and we'll have 450 unsatisfied uses on Microsoft's debacle of an operating system. Some will work without problems, some will work around their problems and some will just blow up. My concerns until June is that they have a machine that turns on and logs in to the domain. Once June rolls around though, a whole new set of issues will fall into my lap as we try to figure out what we have done and try to actually make it work correctly. Oh, and that should be fun too...
Sunday, April 27, 2008
The Fight Continues
I said at the beginning that I thought Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee for President. I have hedged since that but I'm starting to come back around to Clinton. Slowly, but surely, she has clawed her way back into the race. Sure, she's behind in delegates but the media has been turning on Obama and Hillary is starting to rack up some wins. If Clinton can win Indiana, keep North Carolina relatively close and have a blowout win in Kentucky, she could take over the lead in the popular vote. Throw in the "disenfranchised" Florida and Michigan, and Hillary could have quite an argument for the Superdelegates.
I msut admit that I'm starting to actually root for Hillary. She will never, ever get my vote but her tenacity has been nothing short of remarkable. She is Rocky, taking the fight to everyone who will spar with her. Obama is the exact opposite, running from any confrontation in hopes of keeping his "nice guy" label. Well, if Obama doesn't take off the gloves soon and deliver a knockout blow to the Clinton campaign, he may end up laying on the canvas in the most stunning collapse in politics I can remember. The next month should be amazing. Oh, and John McCain has to be loving this...
In case you don't get the Times-West Virginian, the Marion County BOE is making their push to get their school bond passed. Everyday there is another front page article about what this bond is going to give to every segment of the Marion County population. I haven't seen any polling data yet (because I don't really read the paper...) but, just from my gut feeling, I don't see this bond passing. I hope I'm wrong but this is probably too much to ask for considering the state of the current economy. And, given the penchant of Marion County to fail bonds, getting this bond passed is a major uphill battle.
Lastly, why is this Rich Rodriguez stuff still going on? It's amazing to read or listen to Rich whine about West Virginia and the problems he is having. If he would have just paid the $4 million that he agreed to pay if he left WVU before his contract expired, everyone could have moved on. But now he continues to cry and whine about everying, including a booster to whom he may or may not have offered a job. Yes, WVU is taking a hit for this but I have to believe that Rodriguez's reputation is taking a bigger hit. I really, really hope he finishes 0-12 this year at Michigan. Beilein was close to that...
I msut admit that I'm starting to actually root for Hillary. She will never, ever get my vote but her tenacity has been nothing short of remarkable. She is Rocky, taking the fight to everyone who will spar with her. Obama is the exact opposite, running from any confrontation in hopes of keeping his "nice guy" label. Well, if Obama doesn't take off the gloves soon and deliver a knockout blow to the Clinton campaign, he may end up laying on the canvas in the most stunning collapse in politics I can remember. The next month should be amazing. Oh, and John McCain has to be loving this...
In case you don't get the Times-West Virginian, the Marion County BOE is making their push to get their school bond passed. Everyday there is another front page article about what this bond is going to give to every segment of the Marion County population. I haven't seen any polling data yet (because I don't really read the paper...) but, just from my gut feeling, I don't see this bond passing. I hope I'm wrong but this is probably too much to ask for considering the state of the current economy. And, given the penchant of Marion County to fail bonds, getting this bond passed is a major uphill battle.
Lastly, why is this Rich Rodriguez stuff still going on? It's amazing to read or listen to Rich whine about West Virginia and the problems he is having. If he would have just paid the $4 million that he agreed to pay if he left WVU before his contract expired, everyone could have moved on. But now he continues to cry and whine about everying, including a booster to whom he may or may not have offered a job. Yes, WVU is taking a hit for this but I have to believe that Rodriguez's reputation is taking a bigger hit. I really, really hope he finishes 0-12 this year at Michigan. Beilein was close to that...
Monday, April 21, 2008
Food Shortages?
Is America going to run out of food? Is Japan already running out of food? There's an increasing alarm in the media that the world faces food shortages due to increased population, decreased production and increase in food for other uses, such as biofuels. Countries in Southeast Asia are quickly stopping rice exports due to shortages. Food prices are quickly rising as a result of shortages. And it appears many are not necessarily addressing the problem.
There aren't many things that will scare people like food shortages. Haiti, Bangladesh and Egypt have already reportedly had food riots. And there's a feeling that the riots may expand if food prices continue to soar. Obviously, the fuel v. food argument is rearing it's head since nearly one-third of all corn production in America is going to go to ethanol. Something to keep an eye on this summer...especially if there's a major drought or other natural phenomenon that could hamper food production.
On another note, I was watching the Today Show this morning and Ann Curry never ceases to amaze me with her interviews of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. She is probably the worst interviewer ever. She literally sits there in awe when these people talk. I'm not sure she's paying attention really...she just sits there slack-jawed and throws softball questions. She needs to stick behind the news desk and report the news and not try to perform hard-hitting interview...because she really can't. It is painful to watch every single time.
Lastly, just want to mention that Jimmy Carter has once again proved himself as the worst president ever as he once again shows his anti-American favor by meeting with America's enemies abroad. Despite State Department pleas, Carter decided to visit Hamas leaders to sell-out Israel. Way to go, Jimmy. Way to go.
There aren't many things that will scare people like food shortages. Haiti, Bangladesh and Egypt have already reportedly had food riots. And there's a feeling that the riots may expand if food prices continue to soar. Obviously, the fuel v. food argument is rearing it's head since nearly one-third of all corn production in America is going to go to ethanol. Something to keep an eye on this summer...especially if there's a major drought or other natural phenomenon that could hamper food production.
On another note, I was watching the Today Show this morning and Ann Curry never ceases to amaze me with her interviews of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. She is probably the worst interviewer ever. She literally sits there in awe when these people talk. I'm not sure she's paying attention really...she just sits there slack-jawed and throws softball questions. She needs to stick behind the news desk and report the news and not try to perform hard-hitting interview...because she really can't. It is painful to watch every single time.
Lastly, just want to mention that Jimmy Carter has once again proved himself as the worst president ever as he once again shows his anti-American favor by meeting with America's enemies abroad. Despite State Department pleas, Carter decided to visit Hamas leaders to sell-out Israel. Way to go, Jimmy. Way to go.
Gold/Blue Game
Went up and saw the Gold - Blue Game on Saturday anticipating something at least somewhat entertaining. Unfortunately, I was mighty disappointed in expecting something entertaining because the Gold - Blue Game was anything but.
First, there was not even a mention of the Fiesta Bowl victory. At least in the past they would show a highlight video of the previous year's achievements. But not even a highlight from 2007 or the 2008 Fiesta Bowl. The game started with little fanfare as the Blue and Gold teams took the field and just started. No attempt to explain the rules...not attempt to educate the fans. They just started. Sometimes the offense would start at the 20. Sometimes at midefield. Sometimes at the 3 yard line. No rhyme or reason...that's just how it was.
Before you knew it, the offensive team had some huge, insurmountable lead and it appeared completely unfair to the defense. The final score was 65-15. Does that sound fair? It shouldn't because it wasn't.
And it was rather warm. And the concessions were not prepared for the 18,000+ in attendance. The lines for the concession ran from the stand all the way to the seating. You couldn't even get in line...that's how long the lines were. Did I mention the game wasn't entertaining? The best thing I saw was a lone Event Staffer attempting to single-handedly keep the crowd from going to the non-press box side of the field. She made a valient effort...chasing people, yelling at people, gesturing to people but to no success. Eventually, everyone just ignored her and she completely gave up. But bravo to her on her attempt. She was truly heroic.
I understand that it was just another practice for the team but considering the amount that showed up, you think they would try to do something to entertain the crowd. I mean, come on, even Dwight Yoakam would have been better than what I saw. And, for the record, I have no idea how good the team is going to be because what I saw out there was more confusing than educational. But, hey, the season starts in just a few short months. Let's Go Mountaineers.
First, there was not even a mention of the Fiesta Bowl victory. At least in the past they would show a highlight video of the previous year's achievements. But not even a highlight from 2007 or the 2008 Fiesta Bowl. The game started with little fanfare as the Blue and Gold teams took the field and just started. No attempt to explain the rules...not attempt to educate the fans. They just started. Sometimes the offense would start at the 20. Sometimes at midefield. Sometimes at the 3 yard line. No rhyme or reason...that's just how it was.
Before you knew it, the offensive team had some huge, insurmountable lead and it appeared completely unfair to the defense. The final score was 65-15. Does that sound fair? It shouldn't because it wasn't.
And it was rather warm. And the concessions were not prepared for the 18,000+ in attendance. The lines for the concession ran from the stand all the way to the seating. You couldn't even get in line...that's how long the lines were. Did I mention the game wasn't entertaining? The best thing I saw was a lone Event Staffer attempting to single-handedly keep the crowd from going to the non-press box side of the field. She made a valient effort...chasing people, yelling at people, gesturing to people but to no success. Eventually, everyone just ignored her and she completely gave up. But bravo to her on her attempt. She was truly heroic.
I understand that it was just another practice for the team but considering the amount that showed up, you think they would try to do something to entertain the crowd. I mean, come on, even Dwight Yoakam would have been better than what I saw. And, for the record, I have no idea how good the team is going to be because what I saw out there was more confusing than educational. But, hey, the season starts in just a few short months. Let's Go Mountaineers.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
It's the Pope
In case you didn't hear, Pope Benedict XVI showed up in Washington today. Judging from the reception, it looks as though it wasn't a surprise visit but rather expected. President Bush even gave him an airport pickup, the first time he has done so since becoming President. This is only the 2nd visit for a Pope to the White House, which is kinda remarkable really. The Pope is going to hang around the states for a few days before heading back to the Vatican to do Pope-like things.
Want to hear something scary: Vitamins may shorten your life. The study says that vitamin supplements may not actually do any good at all. And that they may actually do harm. Obviously the vitamin supplement lobby will be busy at work to discredit this report. If more study proves this to be true...well, I can only imagine the lawsuits.
I'm going to start sanding and painting the front porch. That should be very interesting. I'm not the most handy person in the world so I will be counting the days until I lose a finger or toe. Probably start on Saturday or Sunday so we'll start the disfiguring injury count at that time.
Six weeks of deployments remaining at weeks. Or maybe it's seven weeks. Either way, there is light at the end of the tunnel. But, again, I have to take over because, again, our help deployed over a machine that we did not have a backup of and I had repeatedly requested them not deploy. Things occassionally get ugly...
And that's about it for an update. Gold-blue/Blue-gold game this weekend. Pat White for Heisman, anyone? Other than that, not too much going on other than work.
Want to hear something scary: Vitamins may shorten your life. The study says that vitamin supplements may not actually do any good at all. And that they may actually do harm. Obviously the vitamin supplement lobby will be busy at work to discredit this report. If more study proves this to be true...well, I can only imagine the lawsuits.
I'm going to start sanding and painting the front porch. That should be very interesting. I'm not the most handy person in the world so I will be counting the days until I lose a finger or toe. Probably start on Saturday or Sunday so we'll start the disfiguring injury count at that time.
Six weeks of deployments remaining at weeks. Or maybe it's seven weeks. Either way, there is light at the end of the tunnel. But, again, I have to take over because, again, our help deployed over a machine that we did not have a backup of and I had repeatedly requested them not deploy. Things occassionally get ugly...
And that's about it for an update. Gold-blue/Blue-gold game this weekend. Pat White for Heisman, anyone? Other than that, not too much going on other than work.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
There's Still An Election?
Wow...I was amazed this morning to find out that the Democratic primary continues. Clinton still has conceded defeat and Obama won't agree to be her vice presidential running mate. And it appears there's a big vote coming up in Pennsylvania in a week. If Clinton wins by 20-points, the campaigns continue. If Clinton wins by 5-points, well, I'm guessing the campaign will still continue. Clinton can't concede defeat at this point. And you have the feeling the momentum of the Obama camp has died a bit. But, really, is anyone even paying attention at this point?
Food prices are rising at a dramatic pace. This is true. Population boom and increased standards of living around the world have put a strain on farmers to produce enough food. And the increased use of ethanol (which is not a viable alternative to oil) has really put a pinch on the world's food production. Throw in the record prices for oil and gas and you have a real recipe for some serious disaster. Does anyone really want to be president at this point?
Speaking of gas, John McCain wants a summer "gas tax holiday." Essentially, the federal government would drop tax on gas for the summer months. That would save just about 20-cents per gallon. I guess the question is whether a 20-cent saving per gallon would really help people or if it would just increase the amount of gas consumption and therefore raise the price of gas to cover that 20-cents and then, after the holiday is over, raise the price of gas even more because of the over-consumption. Something to think about...
Lastly, the push to pass the bond in Marion County has picked up steam finally. The BOE is making an all-out push in the local paper to try to get people on-board with this $60 million bond. I'm afraid it could be too late though. Given the current economic climate, it will be very, very difficult to get people to pass such a large bond. I would be very surprised if this vote is even close. I hope it passes...but I just don't see it.
Food prices are rising at a dramatic pace. This is true. Population boom and increased standards of living around the world have put a strain on farmers to produce enough food. And the increased use of ethanol (which is not a viable alternative to oil) has really put a pinch on the world's food production. Throw in the record prices for oil and gas and you have a real recipe for some serious disaster. Does anyone really want to be president at this point?
Speaking of gas, John McCain wants a summer "gas tax holiday." Essentially, the federal government would drop tax on gas for the summer months. That would save just about 20-cents per gallon. I guess the question is whether a 20-cent saving per gallon would really help people or if it would just increase the amount of gas consumption and therefore raise the price of gas to cover that 20-cents and then, after the holiday is over, raise the price of gas even more because of the over-consumption. Something to think about...
Lastly, the push to pass the bond in Marion County has picked up steam finally. The BOE is making an all-out push in the local paper to try to get people on-board with this $60 million bond. I'm afraid it could be too late though. Given the current economic climate, it will be very, very difficult to get people to pass such a large bond. I would be very surprised if this vote is even close. I hope it passes...but I just don't see it.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
A Night at the Old Ballgame
Headed up Pittsburgh way last evening to check out the 2008 edition of the Pittsburgh Pirates. And, believe it or not, they won the game. By sweeping the Reds on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the Pirates are at .500 a full 12-games into the season. I'm not sure that sets any records but that's not bad considering it is, you know, the Pirates. And the Pirates have, to put it nicely, struggled in recent years. Matter of fact, if the Bucs are not able to put together a winning season this year, they will tie the Philadelphia Phillies for the longest streak of losing seasons in Major League Baseball at 16. Not a record you really want to tie or surpass.
Anyway, I digress. Other than the cold weather, the game was entertaining. The heart attack special at Primanti's was excellent, as always. Despite the fact I forgot the tickets in the car and we had to make a quick trek back there, we actually made it to the game still in the first inning. I also had to stop and give money to a few street beggars. Just can't help it. We missed the top of the 1st but that was because of a sweatshirt purchase due to the cold weather that prevailed Saturday evening.
The crowd was small (18,000+) and not all that enthusiastic. One gentleman behind us was pretty adamant about how the Pirates should handle every situation and he wasn't overly pleased when they didn't follow his advice. Despite all this, the Pirates eeked out a 4-3 win over the Reds. No homeruns...nothing overly spectacular. Ken Griffey, Jr. did make a pretty impressive catch that I thought broke him but he continued on through the pain. Overall, a decent evening.
I have not written about nor do I intend to discuss the NCAA tournament from this point forward. Let me just say things didn't work out the way I had hoped and we can just leave it at that. Seriously...I don't want to talk about it.
Lastly, I will try to update. I think we have a system now at work that will allow this deployment to proceed in a fashion that won't require me to live at work. I've essentially taken over the deployment process for our office which means I can handle it however I want and I believe I can knock out machines at a good enough pace to allow a little free time. And that would include a few minutes to write something here. Maybe. We'll see how it goes Monday...
Anyway, I digress. Other than the cold weather, the game was entertaining. The heart attack special at Primanti's was excellent, as always. Despite the fact I forgot the tickets in the car and we had to make a quick trek back there, we actually made it to the game still in the first inning. I also had to stop and give money to a few street beggars. Just can't help it. We missed the top of the 1st but that was because of a sweatshirt purchase due to the cold weather that prevailed Saturday evening.
The crowd was small (18,000+) and not all that enthusiastic. One gentleman behind us was pretty adamant about how the Pirates should handle every situation and he wasn't overly pleased when they didn't follow his advice. Despite all this, the Pirates eeked out a 4-3 win over the Reds. No homeruns...nothing overly spectacular. Ken Griffey, Jr. did make a pretty impressive catch that I thought broke him but he continued on through the pain. Overall, a decent evening.
I have not written about nor do I intend to discuss the NCAA tournament from this point forward. Let me just say things didn't work out the way I had hoped and we can just leave it at that. Seriously...I don't want to talk about it.
Lastly, I will try to update. I think we have a system now at work that will allow this deployment to proceed in a fashion that won't require me to live at work. I've essentially taken over the deployment process for our office which means I can handle it however I want and I believe I can knock out machines at a good enough pace to allow a little free time. And that would include a few minutes to write something here. Maybe. We'll see how it goes Monday...
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Been A Little Busy
Yes, it has been over a week since I last updated. I don't recall the last time I went 10 days without at least checking in. Don't feel bad...I haven't read e-mail, haven't been online at all...I am so far behind on the news that it isn't even funny. Shoot, gas shot up 27-cents and I still have no idea why. It has been that busy...
Obviously, the nuisance is mostly work. So, where to begin? The deployment of Vista throughout the firm has been a bit rocky. The applications are working for the most part...the support calls are slowly becoming manageable. But the actual deployment and migration of PCs turned ugly about Thursday of last week. And I mean really, really ugly.
We have a third-party company who was handling deployments. Which, to us, meant THEY were handling deployments. It was taking them until 1:00 a.m. or 2:00 a.m. in the morning to complete a 6-8 user deployment in Clarksburg but that wasn't my problem as long as they were done. The problem begins with the company only sending one deployment guy who works from them and sub-contracting the other two deployers. And the other two turned out to be bums.
On Wednesday, our Charleston office was scheduled to move over 7 users. The deployment "expert" (sub-contractor) was on-site and did the deployment. On Thursday morning everything hit the fan. The migrated Charleston users were in various states...none of them complete. Despite the fact the deployer signed off that the migration was complete most Charleston users were nowhere close to done. At a minimum, printers weren't installed, applications weren't installed and the users were unable to work. There was even at least one machine that was not even finished deploying the OS. It was ridiculous. I spent my entire Thursday morning remoted into different Charleston machines attempting to complete the deployment.
Then, Thursday afternoon rolled around. I received an e-mail from the deployer in Clarksburg stating that he forgot to save a laptop user's settings. So, I said no problem...I would go back to the user's original harddrive and pull the settings (My Documents, Internet Favorites, etc.) from the original drive. He brought me the laptop and another harddrive with it. I booted from the harddrive and got Vista. So, I swapped harddrives and got Vista. Ummm...well, that's bad because his laptop had XP. So, after a brief investigation, I determined that Vista was deployed over his original harddrive without any backup whatsoever. He lost everything. Case information. Personal information. Gone. No backup. Bad news.
That obviously caused a lost of heat on Friday. I made the decision to perform backups on all laptops (like we're doing with desktops) in addition to pulling the original harddrive. The fight continued through the weekend and on Monday I went down to visit with the president of the company we hired. That meeting went well and we came up with a new strategy that involved more of our employees taking control of the deployment and using the third-party as additional resources instead of vice-versa. That has worked well this week. Instead of being there until 2:00 in the morning, I was able to complete by myself an entire day worth of deployments by 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. The deployment help arrived at 11:00 a.m. and I sent her home. And I have been out of the office by 7:30 every evening this week which is very nice. I actually was out by 6:00 yesterday which is amazing.
So, after a very, very busy and heated week, this week looks more promising. The users are optimistic about the new system and like some of the features. Once the IT staff is more comfortable and the deployment is under control, I think we'll be ok. I know after performing 2-days worth of deployments solo, I feel better about the process because I believe we can handle the full deployment without additional resources but we can use them because of the amount of support we still have to do. The next couple weeks will really tell the tale but, if I survive them, it's all downhill after that. By the end of April, we will be slowing down the number of workstations we are moving over every week. The next 3 weeks are the busiest. Should be interesting.
But, anyway, that's why I haven't updated. I didn't kill anyone...and, surprisingly, no one killed me but I wouldn't have blamed a couple people if they had. It's a good thing Bill Gates hasn't been around because I don't think he would have survived. Matter of fact, I guarantee he wouldn't have...
Obviously, the nuisance is mostly work. So, where to begin? The deployment of Vista throughout the firm has been a bit rocky. The applications are working for the most part...the support calls are slowly becoming manageable. But the actual deployment and migration of PCs turned ugly about Thursday of last week. And I mean really, really ugly.
We have a third-party company who was handling deployments. Which, to us, meant THEY were handling deployments. It was taking them until 1:00 a.m. or 2:00 a.m. in the morning to complete a 6-8 user deployment in Clarksburg but that wasn't my problem as long as they were done. The problem begins with the company only sending one deployment guy who works from them and sub-contracting the other two deployers. And the other two turned out to be bums.
On Wednesday, our Charleston office was scheduled to move over 7 users. The deployment "expert" (sub-contractor) was on-site and did the deployment. On Thursday morning everything hit the fan. The migrated Charleston users were in various states...none of them complete. Despite the fact the deployer signed off that the migration was complete most Charleston users were nowhere close to done. At a minimum, printers weren't installed, applications weren't installed and the users were unable to work. There was even at least one machine that was not even finished deploying the OS. It was ridiculous. I spent my entire Thursday morning remoted into different Charleston machines attempting to complete the deployment.
Then, Thursday afternoon rolled around. I received an e-mail from the deployer in Clarksburg stating that he forgot to save a laptop user's settings. So, I said no problem...I would go back to the user's original harddrive and pull the settings (My Documents, Internet Favorites, etc.) from the original drive. He brought me the laptop and another harddrive with it. I booted from the harddrive and got Vista. So, I swapped harddrives and got Vista. Ummm...well, that's bad because his laptop had XP. So, after a brief investigation, I determined that Vista was deployed over his original harddrive without any backup whatsoever. He lost everything. Case information. Personal information. Gone. No backup. Bad news.
That obviously caused a lost of heat on Friday. I made the decision to perform backups on all laptops (like we're doing with desktops) in addition to pulling the original harddrive. The fight continued through the weekend and on Monday I went down to visit with the president of the company we hired. That meeting went well and we came up with a new strategy that involved more of our employees taking control of the deployment and using the third-party as additional resources instead of vice-versa. That has worked well this week. Instead of being there until 2:00 in the morning, I was able to complete by myself an entire day worth of deployments by 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. The deployment help arrived at 11:00 a.m. and I sent her home. And I have been out of the office by 7:30 every evening this week which is very nice. I actually was out by 6:00 yesterday which is amazing.
So, after a very, very busy and heated week, this week looks more promising. The users are optimistic about the new system and like some of the features. Once the IT staff is more comfortable and the deployment is under control, I think we'll be ok. I know after performing 2-days worth of deployments solo, I feel better about the process because I believe we can handle the full deployment without additional resources but we can use them because of the amount of support we still have to do. The next couple weeks will really tell the tale but, if I survive them, it's all downhill after that. By the end of April, we will be slowing down the number of workstations we are moving over every week. The next 3 weeks are the busiest. Should be interesting.
But, anyway, that's why I haven't updated. I didn't kill anyone...and, surprisingly, no one killed me but I wouldn't have blamed a couple people if they had. It's a good thing Bill Gates hasn't been around because I don't think he would have survived. Matter of fact, I guarantee he wouldn't have...
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