gareth.halfacree.co.uk

Well, I’ve been lax in updating this ‘ere site - but with good reason. My new job is keeping me extremely busy, and conspires with my commitments to bit-tech to keep me away from anything that might resemble free time.

Case in point - on Tuesday, I travelled to London to attend a training course on Adobe Connect - which, from Halifax, is a fair old train ride. The sales director at Frog, Paul Scott, was gracious enough to meet me in the Big Smoke and take me out for a drink and a meal while he had a meeting with a sales trainer he’s hoping to hire. Nice - especially as I didn’t have to put my hand in my pocket the entire evening - but it meant that I didn’t get to the hotel until around 2300, which is a long day when you start at 0630.

The next day involved interminable underground journeys and the course itself - free sandwiches, naturally - plus the train back. Which didn’t get in until 2100, meaning I didn’t get home until 2130 - at which point I had to write my articles for the next day. I’m not complaining, you understand - well, no: I am complaining, but I’d rather be busy than the alternative. I just hope that this 0830-1700 job doesn’t have too many 0630-2300 days included.

In other news, I’ve bagged myself a sweet new ‘phone, which has pretty much replaced my palmtop and MP3 player. More about that when I get a chance to do a proper update - probably this weekend.

Well, I’ve survived the first day of my new job.

Everyone seems really nice, and there’s certainly plenty to keep me busy. Between a full audit of software and hardware, the installation and configuration of an internal WSUS server, and sundry other tasks it looks like I’ll be kept out of trouble for the foreseeable future.

It’s a shame that the commute is as long - and expensive - as it is, though. That said, I’ve got Plucker to keep me company on the train. Speaking of which, I’ve managed to shoehorn RSS feeds onto it, too - when I get a chance I’ll write a longer post detailing how.

Now, if you’ll excuse me - my bit-tech articles are complete, and my bed is calling.

Eugh. If anyone ever tells you that Cat 6 UTP cabling is just as easy to work with as Cat 5e, tell them to bite your shiny metal ass.

Guess what //I’ve// been doing today. That’s right - crawling around a filthy loft space running cabling with a mind of its own. The rigid plastic guide inside the sheath might help keep the cable unkinked and ready for 10-Gig-E, but it certainly makes it a bugger to work with.

Still, it’ll all be worth it - 44 brand-spanking new Cat 6 network terminations going to a lovely dark blue wallmount rack with a couple of switches linked to a Gigabit fibre backbone back up to the main rack. Shame I’m not staying to enjoy the fruits of my labour, really.

My first change of career in six years. I’ve just had a ‘phone call from my friendly neighbourhood headhunter confirming that I am now (well, 4th August, anyway) employed by FrogTrade - a Halifax-based producer of magic Linux-based boxes that do everything a school could possibly ever want to do.

It’s a bit scary, but I’m looking forward to it all.

Now I’ve got to prepare my notice for my current job - I have a strange feeling that they’re not going to be particularly happy.