July 2, 2000

May 1, 2000

Ug, I'm bad about updating my pages. :) Just a quick update, everything is going well for me. Still loving life at AOL, only wish I'd came here about a year earlier so I could be basking in really plump stock options right now, but heck, I love the job and what I've got is plenty nice. :)

Main reason for this update is to put this link up: www.tp.org/jay/downloads/Clinton_Dinner.rm I have to admit I didn't really have a lot of respect for Clinton before I saw this on ABC News last night, but after this... I at least think he has a good sense of humor. In case you are wondering, they prepared this for his speech at the last Whitehouse Correspondence Dinner at the Whitehouse over the weekend. I guess he figured since he's a lame duck, he might as well have some fun. Quite funny!

October 10, 1999

I got tired of the other colors and such, so a new look. Gee, it's kinda drab. Oh well, I like it those colors make me happy. Will try and work some garnet and other dark red colors in here and then we'll have my current set of favorite colors. Carolina blue has been my favorite color for nearly all my life, I wonder how come I've started to like the little bit deeper shade of it added in with kaki/browns and dark reds. Hmmm. Oh well, I don't mind.

Not much else is going on with me right now, work is going well, albeit busy. I don't think I made it out of the office before 9pm but one night last week, and that was to go to a business dinner until after 10pm. But it is fun, playing with some new stuff which is always interesting.

Ordered my DSL service for the apartment last week. Takes 4-6 weeks to get installed though which really makes no sense to me. Unfortunately the only thing I could get was IDSL at 144k up and 144k down. Basically it runs on top of ISDN, but binds both B and the D channels together for pure data. Is rather expensive as well, but I couldn't put up with this modem any longer!

Oh yeah, always meant to link this, check it out! :)

Welp, WAY past my bedtime, g'night!

September 18, 1999

Okay, really short update. Things are great! The love of my life is back in my life which is just plain awesome. :) Things at AOL are going good as well, we've been reorganizing the reporting structure to actually bring things into a normal CIO -> IS Functions format. It should help get things aligned really well.

I've spent a bit of time out in Silicon Valley in the past couple of months, actually spent almost all of August there in Sunnyvale/Mountain View working out at the Netscape campus. I'll be going back out there in a bit. I looked around at apartments and such and as I thought, it'll take about $2300/month to have the same apartment I have here for $1240 (dang apartment complex raised my rent when I renewed for another year, *grumble*.) So, no plans for me to move out to SV anytime soon, though I do wanna live there at some point, it's really awesome.

June 5, 1999

I know, I know... it has been forever since I last updated this. Welp. Can't really blame me, I've been extremely busy over the last half of a year. I'll try and pick up where I left off. Williams Communications was a fun experience it lasted until Feb. 16th, 1999. I finally decided to leave after much contemplation. Mostly it just wasn't focused on Data Communications enough for my taste. The other reason was that I found an even more incredible place to work...

America Online is really, really, really cool to work at. :) Not only is everyone (cept for the other new guy) on my team already paper millionaires thanks to their stock options, the environment is really cool too. I wish I'd had came straight from Perot to here in November. If I had, I would already be closing in on paper millionairhood myself. But, hindsight is always 20/20. I am one of the six member Network Architecture and Engineering team at AOL. I'm a Senior Network Engineer dedicated to the design of the Internal Computing network architecture at AOL. It is a really awesome network, and a really awesome group of folks who I work with.

Obviously I can't say much about the actual architecture, but lets just say that it is EXTREMELY fast. I regularly get 800Kbs transfers (vs. 56k modems getting 5Kbs for comparison) when I'm FTPing or downloading things. We have a whole LOT of bandwidth to support the 17 million users we have, the side benefit is of course working there with a direct connection to it. :) They're also really cool about the tools to use. I have four computers including my 3 pound laptop to be sure I can do all the work I need to do. They're in my first office as opposed to the cubes I've always had in the past, can't beat having a door at work!

Other than work not a whole heck of a lot has been going on. It is nice to finally be nearby to really close friends and get to hang out and eat great sushi with. Also went out to San Francisco last weekend with a couple of friends which was a real blast. Course, it also is sickening when you think about the apartment I have here in DC for $1160 a month would be like $2300/month there... Then of course the gallon of gas here that costs $1.15 is a $1.90 there... Have to plan on paying taxes on my retirement income there as well (when I retire even)... That state is just screwed up. But hey, it keeps their population down cause otherwise everyone would wanna live there thanks to the beautiful weather and even prettier landscape.

Okay, enough of a rant about California. What else has been going on... thanks to actually having trees and hills here, unlike Texas, I'm getting interested in hiking and backpacking again. I was planning on heading out to the Shannandoa (spelling?) valley today, but haven't quite made it yet, next weekend for sure.

I've also been reading "Executive Orders" by Tom Clancy for the last couple of weeks. A good book but he could have wrote it in 1000 pages instead of 1400. Very unlike him, he has been repeating himself on certain little things three and four times which is very annoying. Hopefully he won't get paid by the page/word for his next one. A couple of Clancy books that I recommend everyone read are 1. Without Remorse, 2. Debt of Honor, and of course the classics: Hunt for Red October, The Cardinal in the Kremlin, Clear & Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears, Red Storm Rising.... Um... you should read them in order actually, but that is the order of my favorites.

As for the area here, I really love it. I'm dreading the summer though. I hear humidity is quite high here, but heck that is what air conditioning is for, and the fall, winter, and spring MORE than make up for it. Dallas couldn't say that, none of the other "seasons" could possibly make up for the summers there. Fall here is nearly perfect, upstate New York or Mass or Vermont would be the only better fall seasons in my opinion. Can't wait for fall once summer really starts with its sweaty vengence that is coming so soon.

Well, I guess that is enough for now. As always if you're reading this, take care and have fun! Talk to you soon!

November 2, 1998

My first day at Williams Communications, and also my first entry from Fairfax, VA which is where my new home is at. First day at work went really well, I can't believe there was only a week between jobs to get moved up here, all happened so VERY fast. That is good though, no wasted time! I was able to dig right in on some work too which was good, took a look at a weird spanning tree problem. Went through 35 tracefiles narrowing down an incorrect root bridge of the tree. Speaking of spanning tree, here is a poem by Radia Perlman (no not from Cheers, she's one of my network nerd heros):

Algorhyme
---------
I think that I shall never see
A graph more lovely than a tree.

A tree whose crucial property
Is loop-free connectivity.

A tree that must be sure to span
So packets can reach every LAN.

First, the root must be selected.
By ID, it is elected.

Least cost paths from root are traced.
In the tree, these paths are placed.

A mesh is made by folks like me,
Then bridges find a spanning tree.

Thanks Radia for a wonderful little poem! Anyways, as is brought out in the 4th verse a root must be selected. Well, in this case it would seem that there was only one candidate running for election on his part of the network, I identified the part, but more analysis would need to be made to correct the problem. I also got my other assignment which is reviewing the tools we need to have in our arsenal and our engagement strategy for using them.

I guess that is about it, I'm also living in the same city as a couple of my best friends Dan & Suz. That's really nice to have close friends who are also close by for a change. Also am only an hour (by way of air shuttle) to NYC and Lisa my other really good friend. Another good friend, Eric lives in PA which is only a few hours a way, and my oldest best friend, Mark lives in NC right near my family. So, DC is a good place for having my people nearby. Guess that is it for now, oh cept that there are lots of repeaters for my HAM Radio hobby here. Haven't had much of a chance to talk to anyone yet, still haven't finished uppacking everything yet.

October 25, 1998

Welp, this is my last entry while in Dallas. I've been packing most of the day, and have friends from work coming over at 3pm tomorrow to help me move all the boxes and stuff into the truck. Then I'll spend my last night here in my empty apartment and leave Monday morning after rush hour dies down.

I can't wait to get to the DC area and get settled. Really can't wait for the moving of the boxes and furniture to the 3rd floor to be DONE and OVER with. I have to see if I can find some laborers up there to carry the stuff from the truck to the 3rd floor for me, I'm really dreading it.

Well, not only is this my last entry from Dallas, also my last entry with ISDN. Haven't found out the status of Cable Modems there yet, or xDSL, so who knows what I'm gonna end up with. Hopefully they'll have Cable Modems since the apartment complex was just built this year, just have to wait and see.

Only one thing left to say I guess.... "Good-bye Dallas, it was a blast!"

October 19, 1998

Woo hoo!

September 29, 1998

This mpeg movie has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen!!! I laughed for a good 2 minutes solid today when I saw this and then kept on getting a chuckle thinking about it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

A couple of very quick updates. The NYC network design has been cancelled, so I'll not get to go there and play with the cool 622mb OC-12 link like I was looking forward to. And I'll also not get to visit a very dear friend I was looking even more forward to seeing again. At Perot I'm working on a Year 2000 project at the moment and will be heading to San Loius Obispo next week which will be quite nice after Dallas' summer. I'm also speaking to three or four companies in regards to other positions in the NorthEast, and one in San Mateo which is between San Jose and San Francisco. Most likely will know something in the next couple weeks as to where I'm going to be by the end of the year. Is exciting considering this is the first time in my career I've approached other companies. Frye Regional Medical Center asked me to come work for them while I was working onsite there from Eastern Data. Perot Systems asked me to come work for them while a couple of engineers were onsite at Frye working. So, I've never really went looking for a career change before, they've always just found me.

September 20, 1998

User Friendly has to be one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. A great little comic strip, for the geeks of the world. It's written about some tech support guys at an ISP and of course is quite accurate. I like todays, it was nothing more than an ad for the iWhack. Read yesterdays for more details.

Also, another place I hang out to keep up to date on information is /. (That's slashdot.org for the geekspeak impaired. :)) It's motto is "News for nerds. Stuff that matters."

Not much else going on right now, I've been contacted by recruiters about a few different firms that I'm awaiting phone interviews with. Two are in the NorthEast is where I want to be, the salaries will have to be 20% more before the Cost of Living increases which is a bit more than I'm currently making, but we'll have to wait and see. The others are all in California, which could be nice too, don't want to move there as much as the NorthEast, but I'll have to look at each company. I'm just glad I've worked as hard as I have over the last ten years to have choices. Perot Systems has been an awesome company to work for and if they had a need for me in the NorthEast I'd definately be staying there.

Course there is always the option of becoming an independant consultant. My friend Dan is. He even has a wife, a son, and another child on the way. That would freak me out to not have a company behind me. If the market took a massive dive of say 3000 points, and the economy went into an upheaval, I feel relatively safe at Perot Systems. Hospital Networks aren't suddenly going to no longer need to be taken care of. But if I was a contractor... Jeesh, I watch the hospitals using the contractors and they're gone in a heartbeat when the new budget year comes out. If it's really bad, they'll let the employees go and then hire them back as contractors, but the "contractor only" are history. I prefer to have an ethical company behind me. But that's just me and my chickeness. :) Takes risk to make lots and lots of money I guess. I'll stick to just making more than enough money for a while longer.

I did help out with the Plano Balloon Festival last night, and will again tonight probably. The Plano Amateur Radio Club takes care of radio communications for the event, and chases balloons to be sure that everyone knows where they all are, when they touch down, if the crew is with them and the like. There are over 80 ballons from all over the place in town. Quite a wonderous site to see them all up at once. I think in a few years I might like to start getting involved in ballooning, not the around the world kind, but the recreational "let's have breakfast in the air honey" kind. :)

Well next week at work will be fun, going to be working as the project manager for a Year 2000 SWAT Team. Bascially we'll be identifying every piece of date-dependent hardware in a facility and creating a project plan for future facilities that we need to do this for. Should be done by the beginning of October. Don't know what is next on my plate, we still haven't heard about the large imaging network in NYC. Hopefully that is what it'll be. Have a good week everyone!

September 4, 1998

A funny from the office.

September 1, 1998

Woah, can't believe I've been at Perot Systems for three years now. Doesn't seem that long! Oh well, quick little entry to post my little excursion into fantasy... :) Computer fantasy that is. Check out what my dream computer is here. That's all the parts and I'd build it myself. The 18gig drives would be set up for RAID0 which is data striping for even more speed. The Ultra2 SCSI controller built on the motherboard does 80mbs. Course, there are dual PII-450s, a gig of ECC RAM, an Obsidian Dual Voodoo2 game graphics board with it's own 19" monitor, and a SUPER high end 21" monitor for my main system monitor being driven at 1800x1440 by the G200.

Oh well, I doubt I'll ever have everything listed, but my next computer will be based upon this. Just put it together for the fun of it, to see what was the top of the line stuff out and about right now in the personal computer world, I used to keep much more up to date than I do these days. Now I keep up more on network hardware instead of computer hardware. Have fun!

August 23, 1998

Welp, spent my day cleaning the apartment and trying to figure out what to do with Spiffy my main home Linux box. Played around with AfterStep customization a bit with tips from themes.org. Most of that is just eye candy though. Also, tried to figure out what the problem with FTPing is through my Symplex Communications ISDN router here at the house. It isn't translating the IP address with NAT like it's supposed to in FTP so the host box gets a command to open to my private class A address I'm using here at the house, 10.10.10.10 for Spiffy. NAT should take that address and substitute the one from my ISP.

I did get an X-Windows CD Utility that connects to the CDDB servers to get track title information for CD's when you insert them. Ended up using XfreeCD which is a nifty little Tk/Tcl application for X. Listening to Eric Clapton at the moment, and thinking back on High School for some reason. Was just remembering a bunch of pictures I took and thinking about setting up a slide show with music of my pictures and slides from then. If you didn't know, I was the school newspaper photographer and part-time year photographer as well, so I still have some slides and pics from then. Hard to believe that was ten years ago.

Started re-reading "Without Remorse" by Tom Clancy. Been a couple of years since I've read any Clancy, and this one has to be one of my favorites. Even gave my mom a copy of "The Cardinal in the Kremlin" to read while she was out. I'd say Clancy is tied for my favorite authors the other being Robert Jordon and his Wheel of Time series.

I've really got to start redoing this page, don't like it much anymore. Next weekend I'll pick back up where I left off. Have a good week!

August 22, 1998

Real quick entry, check this prediction out... It will come to be!!!

Linux Apocolypse

August 13, 1998

The time finally came for me to retire from Turning Point MUD. I guess I finally gave up on the ability of our players to actually want to meet the goals that I'd set out for it. Took two years and ten months of my life, but it couldn't be done. No one really understands what roleplaying is all about. Oh well, it was a neat experiment while it lasted, guess my hypothesis was wrong though. Oh well, we'll try again with TP4 codebase. Hopefully we can focus on other aspects of the game and draw better players from that fact.

As for the other subjects I've introduced within this online diary of sorts, the ham radio hobby is slowly picking up for me. I met several of the other HAMs here in the Plano area for their Saturday morning breakfast that they have over at Parker Station, a nice bunch of folks. All of them are quite community minded and really pitch in with their hobby. I still plan on getting the new rig sometime soon, this will allow me to expand my communication over the whole world with other HAM radio operators. Most of my friends ask why, because of the Internet it is often thought that we can communicate worldwide already. I guess this is true in a large regard, but it must be remembered there are many countries without Internet Access yet, or with a population that is lacking in funds to support the needed infrastructure. With Amatatuer Radio, there are lots of possibilties though. I do have to start learning Morse Code in order to be licensed on the lower frequency bands that travel worldwide though. Time for me to start learning the beeps! ... --- ... = SOS, all I know so far. :)

Well, I've spoken of work a bit in this journal, and haven't given an update in a little while. It is going really well. The past two weeks have been VERY busy with several new business proposals being worked on all at once. I really enjoy staying busy with everything, is very satisfying to see so many pieces of work come out all at once. My coding project is done on my part except for the documentation which I really have to find time to do, but that is about impossible these days with all of the other things going on, soon though. Take a look at it under the "Our Physcians" link and "Search for a Physician" link at Tenet's homepage.

I should also be in the New York City area in the next week or two which I am looking quite forward to. There is a hospital there that I will be designing a new high-speed network for. I can't wait to get back to NYC and see a very dear friend again! As for my search for a new part of the country goes on I'm wondering more and more if I'll be able to stay at Perot Systems. I think that I'd like to send my resume to NASDAQ and NYSE and start courting them for a job. I think it would be an AWESOME challenge and of course, it'd be quite financially beneficial. :) I actually talked to a couple of their guys while I was in a class in Boston a couple of years ago, it really does sound like the place I want to work, and of course, it's in the city I want to work in too!

I also sent my resume and phone interviewed with Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC a couple of months back as well. Unfortunately they didn't have an opening at the moment for what I'd want to do. They have several jobs I could do, but I had to turn them down on all of them. Mostly it was just SysAdmin work, which doesn't quite hold my interest anymore. I enjoy the design and architecture aspects of network engineering these days, and extreme level problem solving of course! This month marks my tenth anniversary in the industry. My third anniversary with Perot Systems is coming up on Sept. 1 as well. Can't believe it has been as long as it has, time flies by.

The last three years that I've been in Dallas seem more like a year to me, but as I reflect on all that has happened it starts to take a more stretched form. A lot has happened... Being this far away from everyone that I've been close with my entire life has really created new aspects to myself, but I guess there were lot's of factors in that.

Well, I guess I'll close for tonight, I need to get some sleep. Take care and Have fun!

July 15, 1998

Well the new hobby is going well and I'm having lots of fun with it. I'm saving my pennies and my next radio is going to the be the FT-100 from Yaesu. That link is over seas but it has a nice picture of the front and back, all the specs, and a link to the ATAS-100 which is the Atenna I plan on getting for 160 to 6 meters. It theoretically automatically tunes itself for any of those, and I think it'll work ok here at the apartment even though it appears to be for the car.

Speaking of the apartment. I bought a Cushcraft AR-270 Dual Band 2m/70cm Base Antenna today. I also invented a new indoor/balcany mounting system which I'll be patenting as the JTLM. That would stand for "Jay's Torch Lamp Mount". It would seem that the $19.95 Halogen Torch Lamps that you buy make excellent mounting points for your antennas. Just be sure to take the top piece of pipe off, cut the wire and remove it and you'll be all set. I had a torch lamp that had died on me, and if you didn't know it the halogen bulbs for these things are like $16, so might as well just get another one and find uses like this for the ones that have went out. I'll mount the ATAS-100 on another one of these when I get the new FT100. I really, really can't wait for that rig to come out. I'm going to go pre-order one at Texas Towers probably so I can be sure to get one as soon as possible.

July 14, 1998

A new entry, and a new hobby! I'm now a Ham Radio Operator, callsign: KD5ETH. I need to get back to work real quick, but I'll post more on the new hobby later. I have a QSO log here if you'd like to see any entries that I thought I should keep track of. My first QSO occured this morning at 8:40am with John Scanlan, KA5HJB.

June 21, 1998

First day of summer and of course it was over 100 degrees here in Dallas like it is every day it would seem. I still have yet to decide if I want to stay in Dallas for many more years or not. The weather is awfully hot, but I do like the area other than the heat. The humidity is generally below 40% so it actully feels cool than most of those 95 degree days back in North Carolina where the humidity was always 99%. The area and the people though are very nice. I enjoy the folks I work with, and the friends in the area that I am slowly making.

To stay in Dallas or not, a tough question that I often find myself asking. One thing to consider is the fact that I want to stay at Perot Systems until there is no advancement left there. It is an awesome place to work, and I have great peers there. It really isn't as large of a deterrent from moving as I tend to think though. We have offices all around the world and there are lots of opportunities. I could make a great deal more money as a Contract Consultant, but that type of job doesn't appeal to me. I prefer having a company behind me that will take of things if the need ever should arise.

So, where would I go if I moved from Dallas. Well, It definately would not be California. I do not care for 99% of the CA population. I want to live in NYC at some point in my life, mainly to give it a try and see if I like it. I don't think a person could really decide if NYC is for them or not unless they truly lived there for a couple of yaers. I know I would like to live anywhere north of New York. The NE has to be one of my favorite parts of the country. I also would like to be in a position where I could live in Alaska for a while. If I lived there it would have to be a job where I could disappear for a few days at a time and it not matter, or I'll have to be in a position where I don't have to work and can do as I please. So, really, I guess it comes down to me wanting to live in the NE US.

Not much is going on other than my ponderings here. I went to see X-Files again this morning with some friends, it's a movie that you really can see a few times if you're into the series. Only picked a couple of new things up this time, but I think I may have to give it at least one more shot and see if there is anything else I missed.

I'm working on a new home page design, I think I've mentioned it before in here, so be on the lookout for it in the next couple of months. It will be much brighter and colorful. I hope it comes out ok and doesn't look silly. Just have to wait and see.

June 19, 1998

Well, it would appear that I've started only updating this every couple of months. Oh well, not what I had originally planned, but I guess we'll all just have to live with it. Check out the new pictures by following the link behind my picture in the upper left. Not much has been going as of late, it looks like that I will finally be able to get off of the programming project soon. Lot's of good insight for me as I continue on my path throughout my career. This hasn't been much of an update, but I'm sure I'll have some more things to discuss in the future. I'll put a link to the white papers I shall be writing for Healthcare Technology Uses as I write them. Only other thing to say, is go see the X-Files Movie!

April 26, 1998

Oops, it has been a couple of months since my last entry it looks like. Time sure flies when your busy. For a work update, I'm still working on the new doctor locator site. We had a few database problems and such, so that pushed the live date back a couple of months. Shouldn't be much longer now though. I'll be attending NetWorld+InterOp in Las vegas May 5-7, if you're going to be there too, drop me an email and we'll get together.

On the fun fronts, I got a Monster II 8Mb version... then I sent it back. :) I then ordered a 12mb version, then after reading the latest info at Tom's Hardware I cancelled that order. It seems that Quake 3 will just be average on the Voodoo2 cards, but there are unannounced cards coming out this summer that are really gonna ROCK! So, I'll be suffering through with my Matrox Millenium II 16mb for 3D stuff. (It's an AWESOME 2D card though).

Turning Point MUD is going well, we're firming up what features we want for v3.5 to be released this fall. There won't be too many changes but it should tide us over until 2000 when TP4 is due. TP4 is a COMPELTE rewrite, Tyorl the real coder behind the operation has already started work on the basics of it. It'll be really cool. We'll be using a SQL database for ALL data. No flat files anywhere! A long ways off, but I can't wait! Welp, that is all for now, have fun!

February 22, 1998

Ok, even though the CyberMan2 is discontinued and most stores have returned them to the vendor, Addison CompUSA doesn't know what their own product codes mean, (RTV21 - Return To Vendor within 21 days). So, I was able to get another CyberMan2. I hope this one doens't break before the CyberMan3 comes out, I can't go without Quake2 again. I hopped right back into the action I am happy to say, not dying and keeping my frag count up there while playing against others on the net. My Monster II (Voodoo2 Chipset) will be here in the first week of March, I can't wait to plop that into the machine as well, then it really is time to rock and roll.

At work I've learned the truth about me and programming. I SUCK at it. I'll never fool myself again and try to program for a living. I'm glad that Perot Systems is such an awesome company and let me give it a shot, but I truly wasn't cut out for programming. Hopefully within two weeks it will all be behind me. Then it is off to Consulting. It will be a new team for us, and I think it will work out quite well. Myself and another team member will be reviewing and presenting new technologies to our customers as well as working on pre-sales technology advice and design. I'll be very glad to leave the programming behind. Keep an eye out for my work though, it will be at locator.tenethealth.com. I didn't do the great layout and graphics, but the functionality of finding a doctor and such is what I implemented.

February 21, 1998

Wow!!! Check the downloads section and get all the updates and cool stuff for Quake2. I can hardly play without my Cyberman2, so I'm going to go out and buy one if I can find it, don't care if they are recalled and break all the time, I HAVE to have one. If I can't find one, I'm going to get a trackball and see if that is better for me than the mouse. I just HAVE to play!!!

The Official Q2CTF is AWESOME to say the least, since I couldn't play, they have a chase cam and so I followed a few players around and watched them play last night. Incredible is all I have to say. I got the guys at work playing Hot Potato as well, that looks cool too I think, not as awesome as CTF though. Be sure and get the Point Release 3.12, without it you won't be playing Q2 on the net. Well, I'm off, I'll post some other updates sometime soon.

January 28, 1998

Not a whole lot has been going on the past few days. Been pretty busy at work, but mostly it has been kinda boring just trying to get my vendor to supply some assistance with the database product I am using for work. On the fun fronts, the mud and Quake2, nothing is going on either. So I guess this wasn't much of an update, but you know, sometimes it is just like that!

January 19, 1998

Pretty busy weekend, I was able to get some new options put into TP the MUD, so that was good. I didn't really get to do much else development wise though. I had to take TPQ2 down for my machine's neighbors good feeling. It looks like it is eating up all of the processor time even though nothing really slows down on the machine. I've requested pricing on a dedicated machine instead of the partnership machine that I currently am running on. We'll see how the pricing looks and go from there.

At work, things aren't going good at all. Everyone who works for our customer, Tenet Healthsystems, is off today for MLK day, so I'm not sure when they will have thier database updated so that I can get a new copy of the database and continue on with my development. Oh well, such is life.

January 16, 1998

Oh well, I'm bummed. Loki never even got back to me in email. I went to his web site, and within an hour after he posted asking someone to port LMCTF he had the Linux version posted already. So, my first big deal for Q2 didn't even get to happen. I have an idea for a little mod to page/email you whenever certain people logon to your server, I'll probably start fleshing it out soon. Of course, it'll only be for Linux, someone else will have to port it to WIN32.

Work ended up going badly this week. The vendor I am relying on to provide me with the basis of my project decided that the customer has to be on the latest version of their software for the interface to work. So everything I was planning on having done this week is now falling behind schedule. HOPEFULLY next week they will have their database up the new rev and I can get back to work on the project. I'll be VERY glad when this is over. Programming other peoples ideas isn't very much fun.

January 15, 1998

Well as you can see, my homepage has a new look and feel. I haven't decided how I feel about it yet, so look for more changes coming soon. I'm thinking of a neo-southwestern look, I'll play around with some images and see if I can make anything look good enough to actually start incorporating. Have fun!

I've put in to do the port of Loki's CTF to Linux. Haven't heard back from him yet, but hopefully he'll let me port it. Not bad for a Quake newbie I'd say! Three weeks of Quake2 and programming in C for the game already. I'm also planning on forming a clan, most likely from people that I work with. If interested, let me know. jay+OLDNEWS@tp.org

January 12, 1998

Turning Point Q2CTF is now up and running. I won't advertise it because I don't want my server bogged down, but if you are reading this feel free to come join us at tp.org:27910. Right now Vanilla CTF 0.3beta is providing us with a capture the flag scenario. Hopefully I'll be able to find Loki's CTF source code or a compiled version for Linux, if and when I do it will be up.

I'm also looking for a few other mods that I have seen in the past three weeks since I started playing Q2, such as the Frags per Hour and other statistics on your screen. Also going to add in the various power-ups that can be found. I am amazed at how addicted I am to this game, but better than crack I'm sure!

Augustine and Tyorl were able to get TP MUD up and spiffy even though I did get completely addicted to Quake2 and was no help at all. If you would like some thought provoking roleplaying telnet to tp.org:9999. I'm not sure what my continuing role will be at Turning Point, but I'll always be Morgath and I'll also always pay their bills. :P

In the real world I am busy at work, way busy. I have an entire doctor/hospital locating system to get onto the web by mid-Feb. For those of you that don't know about me, I'm really a Sr. Network Engineer, I've became a Jr. Web Developer for this project though. I am rather sure I prefer my routers, switches, and hubs to programming and development work.

The site will be able to be found at locator.tenethealth.com, which will be accessed primarily through www.tenethealth.com. Fortunately I don't have to mess with the main site! I did get to order my first T-1 directly to the Internet with this project though. I've ordered many private circuits before, but this was the first time I did a deal to the net. UU.NET made the process quite painless. You would be a nut to go anywhere besides UU.NET for a provider.

When my web devolpment project is finished I'm not sure what I am going to do. I guess I will wait a little longer to see how this is going. I will finish up our teams (Healthcare Network Services for Perot Systems) webpage, but then, who knows...