Month: December 2008

Reloading Windows

What is the hardest part about reloading MS Windows? I say its the drivers. Collecting all the drivers and updating to make sure you have the latest and greatest. This great article over at digital inspiration has a great article on the steps to make reinstalling a no brainier. One key here as they point out is collecting the drivers. This great tool called DriverMax takes all the leg work out of this for you. It checks drivers for updates, backs them up even has a web interface to track your drivers and configurations. It’s pretty slick. I just love google reader for finding all these tasty tidbits…

Running on Empty


I’m on a kick today and its not good… Let me set the stage for you.

We have this support issue with one of our trusted vendors. They have this system that we use and they support it remotely. Well it’s not just a system, its our huge workflow system here at the plant and throughout the whole org. In the old days they used to support it via 56K modems and this was way too slow. They kicked up their support offerings a notch and now they can access all their installed machines via something I like to call the world wide web. Faster, better, SUPER!! Well this is true for all the 4000 other systems they have ever sold except for the systems that are installed here at the little place I like to call work!! Why is that you ask? Well for some reason our technology staff does not like something about the way the remote connection software works. They say it goes against SOX rules and it rubs the “governance” people the wrong way. What the? Do they have any clue how much longer support takes at 56K vs T-1 or T-3 speeds? Certainly all the “governance” people do not use dial up at home do they?

So thinking I was so smart, I took a stab at this and called some lower level tech guy to see what the “H” was the matter with him. I was respectful and tactful but this guy was not hearing anything I had to say. It was going in one ear and out the other. All I heard was “back of the hand”, this rule, that rule, this wall, that wall… nothing doing! I really felt like John Candy in Uncle Buck as he talked to his girlfriend on the phone. The vid quality stinks, but you get the idea of how the conversation went. I could not get in a word edgewise at all.

“Okay, that didn’t go well!” as I hear my boss routinely say after a thrashing of a conference call.

How can these people run on empty like this and hide behind all these rules? I’m not trying to cause trouble, I just want to do what an honest EDUCATED answer to my inquiries. I’m just asking the question… a few “Why'”s and then I’m be on my way. Why can they not answer me in a civilize manner, instead hide behind PDF files and corporate websites. I know, they have no clue and this is the only way to get me off their back..is that it?

We have a preferred vendor we spend millions upon millions of dollars with, plus we trust basically our entire workflow to them, BUT we do not trust them enough to have high speed internet access to their servers? I just do not get it at all. I feel like i’m banging my head against a wall when I talk to these people. Is it just me?

Little red car

After my Mission I had one dear Rochester friend that was truly amazing. She really inspired me and I feel it necessary to share….sorry again for the nostalgia post, I just can’t help it. Growing up we lived a few miles apart and never saw each other as we each attended different LDS congregations and only saw each other for regional activities. I’m not sure how we actually became friends, I’m betting the LDS Hill Cumorah Pageant held each year had something to do with it.

She had a boyfriend who I worked with at a local gas and sip establishment and I hung out with them from time to time. She was my age but he was a few years my senior so it was cool to hang with one of the older crowd. He was a tech geek and that didn’t hurt either, even though we both got mocked for liking technology… nothing seems to change now does it. It really never amounted to much, we just enjoyed each others company and could hang out. Heather as she liked to be called at that time, drove a Dodge Colt, red. It went everywhere. She was really into sign language and also moon lighted, my words not her’s, as a nanny, or maybe it was the other way around..not a big point. Either way she was so amazing to me. Amazing why you ask? She not only took care of 2 girls as a full time nanny, but she watched over and cared for her mother who had failing health… oh and was one of my best friends too. Some people use their job or situations as a crutch to get out of social interaction, not Heather. It made her stronger and a better friend. She always seemed to put others first before herself. Case in point, the sign language. People who sign are helping others do something they can’t do for themselves…hear. Signing is a skill that takes years and years to learn and frankly Heather is one of the best around. In the Deaf community, she may be considered the best. Heather always put others first. I remember her always coming way across town to pick me up and we could go to dinner or hang out… always in her red colt. She would drive and I would sit along side and we would just talk and talk and talk. Catch up from the days events and really talk about nothing, but we were both so happy to enjoy our friendship together. Heather and Scott had one of those off again, on again relationships, but in the back of my mind, I always knew they would be together. Sometimes I felt she really wanted me… but that would have ruined a good friendship :)~ While driving,  Heather would tell me of the ups and downs between her and Scott and I would tell her of the downs in my love life, which at that time, seemed the biggest topic. Sometimes friends just need time together and the rest of the conversation takes care of itself. I like that about friends.

Fast forward to January 1990. I was out at BYU and Heather decided to drive the red Colt out west for what reason, not quite sure. I just can’t remember. At that time, Scott had not yet made his way out there. So it was Heather and I to hang out and do whatever. Dinner, dancing, hanging out and mostly reckless abandonment for school and all things studying were the order of the evening..most evenings in fact. I would always look for reasons to get out of school work to hang out. Heather was a teacher at the Missionary Training Center, teaching, what else Sign Language. As I remember it, she was the first, and probably only, teacher in the MTC to have never served a full time mission. But they needed good ASL teachers and she was the best. Here is yet another example how she put others first. Teachers always seem to put others first. There’s a pattern here…can you see it?

Heather and I were the closest of friends. I was with her when she got married to Scott in the Toronto LDS temple. What a wonderful milestone in her life and one I will never forget. As a married couple, they indulged me when they both moved back to Utah to finish college, but a 3rd wheel sometimes isn’t the best option when you are a newly wed… wink wink. I would still ask to borrow the red car from time to time as I met new people and worked on my own dating prospects. Once I started my family, I lost touch for some time but things seem to be back in swing, not full swing due to proximity, but its better. Heather and Scott have an great family together. One that is amazing to me.

Heathers undying love and service to everyone she came in contact with will be a lesson I will never forget. I think we should all take a lesson from Heather and see how our life can be blessed by taking  time to do things for others. The great Robert Wegman once said, “I have never given away more then I have received back. Words to live by in my book.

Sometimes I do long to say just one more time, “Hey Heather, can I take the red car tonight?”

“And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”