Monday, December 7, 2009

Let me run it bayou again.



New Orleans, where do I start. Ah yes, how about here. It was pretty chilly when we got here, around 36 degrees and the wind was blowing. My light jacket was there for ascetics – it really wasn’t built to be a weather deterrent. At least the thought was there. The hotel was nice, the staff was friendly and the rooms were what you’d expect at a business-orientated establishment.

The hotel had some power issues in our conference room, the “engineers” were trying to figure out why only part of the room had power. Well, one bright fellow saw a large plug (220 volts to the 110-volt converter) in the wall which happened to be powering all my networking equipment, and apparently thought that if he unplugged it and plugged it back in magically it would somehow solve the power issue. Before I could pronounce the “F” in DON’T he pulled the socket and all you could hear was the faint “clicks” of the equipment powering off followed by the cooling fans spinning to a stop. I slowly inhaled and created a handmade fist. Standing straight up and still as a metal piece of mysterious art deco I glared at the “engineer” – he looked back at me holding the pin of the “oops grenade”. I wasn’t quite sure how to express my displeasure, all I got out was, “No.” He slowly grabbed his walkie-talkie clicked the transmitter creped it up to his face while keeping eye contact, then said “Where’s the food for the Poydras meeting room, they need beer and wine too – lot’s of it!” Placed his transmitter back on his shoulder and quietly walked out of the room. Being a fan of uncomfortably surreal moments I was impressed by how he made his get-a-way. Nonetheless, I had to make the call to his supervisor. Thankfully the equipment survived the spontaneous shutdown, they found out about the power issue and we were back in business. It’s been three days now and I still have not seen that “engineer”. Now I wonder if I can disable the motion sensor in this room. Every four minutes the lights turn off if they don’t sense any motion. So, I either flail my arms like a bird or get up and walk around a bit until the lights turn on. It’s one of the more frustrating exercises I’ve ever experienced.



Until Next Time.

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