Jim's Home Page

Russ, Katie, Wendy, and I went to the CIA Restaurant in Napa today for lunch. I rode down to their place and we drove out to the restaurant. What spectacular food! I could have stayed there for dinner as well.

Four months after I instigated a project to reorganize the fibrechannel fabrics at work, I finally got to complete the job today. It has been delay after delay (and a little reluctance on my part to do what I knew would be a very hard job).

I was certainly right about it being a hard job. When we originally put in the first fibrechannel switches, we only had five metre cables available. This meant that I had to locate the switch cabinet in a very weird location. The worst part of it was that the hole in the raised floor ended up right under the middle of the cabinet instead of at the front or the back. This makes getting cables in and out of this cab a nightmare.

As the fabric grew, there was no opportunity to rectify the situation. Now that we have two fabrics in two separate cabinets, I can shut down the old original cabinet and fix it. But today, to get to the two cabinets, it was no fun at all.

The last day of the conference. I flew out of St Louis on another MD-80 (argh) and got back home to Sacramento rather late. I just had time to read my e-mail and fall into bed.

Another long day absorbing information during the day. If you are really interested in this stuff, see the conference web site.

Lots of technical sessions today.

Into the full swing of sessions this morning. After the reception last night, the "leper colony", as Sue calls us (inside joke, so don't worry if you don't get it) hit Laclede's Landing, which is one of the large entertainment attractions in the city. The microbrewery we were heading for was, to our surprise, closed on Monday night, so we went to another bar. Good beer and a good time where had by all *grin*

Most of the first day's sessions where general business direction sessions and there were some interesting technical sessions later in the day. Additionally, the exhibition opened, showcasing the lastest and greatest hardware and (interestingly) some future software directions. One of the engineers had a demo of fibrechannel being used as a cluster interconnect. This support is not yet in the operating system, so I was rather surprised to see the demo.

The flight yesterday was uneventful. Unfortunately, my company is in full cost cutting mode and sent me via American Airlines instead of my preferred carrier, United. I flew on a Boeing MD-80, my first time on this type of aircraft. To put it bluntly, it sucked. The engines on the plane are attached to the fuselage at the back, and guess where yours truly was sitting. I was wishing for ear protection all the way.

Today I managed to get some time to have a closeup look at the Arch. Or more properly, The Gateway Arch. It's a pretty damn impressive monument. Also worth a look while you are there is the Museum of Westward Expansion.

The first event of the conference kicked off with a reception in the conference center. I met up with a bunch of people that I haven't seen since last year. And when it all comes down to it, this is what events like this are all about: personal networking.

This coming week, the old DECUS Symposium is on in St Louis Missouri. So today, I hopped on a plane and flew over. I have never been to the middle of the USA before. I have been told that the Arch is rather awesome. I doubt I will get much time to go sightseeing, though.

I got into the downtown St Louis and checked into the hotel, which is right next to the convention center. On the way into the city from the airport, the Arch was much in evidence. As it's over 600 feet tall, you can see it from a couple of miles away, and it's a pretty impressive structure.

I went hunting for some food and music, but there was not a lot happening on a Sunday night, so I grabbed a bite and sacked out.

A friend of mine's wife noticed Cooper's Sparkling Ale available while picking up some beer for her husband. She phoned him, and he told me, and we went and hit the place *grin*

Cooper's is, in my humble opinion, the best beer Australia produces. I am glad to see that someone is finally importing this great beer to the United States.

Needless to say, I drank one too many *grin*