Updates that I may or may not have already shared

It sucks sometimes having multiple blogs and an interface that connects you to all of them. I originally posted this last night. Unfortunately, it was to my server updates page.

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My new computer components arrived Monday July 3. As far as I know, FedEx still doesn't know where the box is. The new system is up and running. I don't think I've forgotten to transfer anything but the old system is still connected and functional so I still have access to it.

Oh, I just remembered - I didn't transfer my Outlook Express data file... the part I usually forget. That's one reason I still have the old system together.

One of the reasons I wanted to upgrade my computer was so I could play Doom 3. Yep, I've been dying to play it since the day it came out but I was well under the minimum requirements (1.4GHz processor - I only had 866MHz). Almost as soon as I got the computer up and running, I went and bought the game. The good thing was it was only $20 instead of its original $50 when it was released 2 years ago (yes, it's been out for 2 years). I spent most of the weekend playing it and have been playing it at least a little bit most nights since then. For those of you that know the game, I've been to Hell and I'm on my way back. And yes, I cheat. I don't care about playing fair or improving my skill - I just want to blow shit up.

I also received a new computer at work. We had a new employee come in and another that needed an upgrade. Dell was running some specials so instead of getting them brand new systems, us two power users in IT got new Latitude D820 laptops and will be shuffling our D610s to other users. This thing is sweet. It has a 15" widescreen LCD, dual core CPU, 2 gigabytes of RAM and a battery that won't quit. They should do for a while and the others who are getting our 610s will find they have more power than they know what to do with.

On the home front, my personal laptop (that my wife has been using extensively lately) popped a key last night. The up arrow cap broke off the keyboard. The good news is that I think the keyboard on the laptop I got at the auction is the same keyboard. If it is, it won't be difficult to replace - I just have to find the time.

I'm getting ready to hire another member of the IT team at work. With all of the projects on the horizon, I tried to convince them to let me hire two but it's only one for now.

On the subject of work, I'm trying to get a trouble ticket system up and running. There's an open source solution called OTRS that, while it runs on Windows, will not integrate with our mail system on that platform. Enter linux. I have some experience with Fedora Core but not enough to make this an easy task. After finding some information on the web and having difficulty with the add/remove packages function in FC5, I finally decided to reinstall the OS and start over this afternoon. I figured my best bet was to run a simple mail server on the linux box instead of trying to read from our existing mail system. A couple of the steps in the setup docs I have did not go exactly as outlined but I'm hoping it works just the same. I'm also going to try running 2 sites on the same server. I've already figured out how to get the system to grab a second, virtual IP and I figure that's half the battle (probably the easy half with my luck).

We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean this weekend. For some reason, Entertainment Weekly hated it. They gave it a D+ but I LOVED it. There was action, humor, danger, intrigue, backstabbing and swordplay... what more can you ask for?

A couple of years ago, I used to agree almost 100% with the reviews in EW. Lately, though, they just seem to trash any movie that doesn't fit in their narrow field of view. It's either great or it sucks. Then, they keep slamming the ones they hate. They really didn't like The Lake House and would take jabs at it in subsequent reviews in later issues. Frankly, I liked the movie and don't really want to hear how much they hated it for three weeks straight.

I could probably go on (it's been a while since I've done this, hasn't it?) but Leno is on and I need to get some rest.

Y'all have a good week!