To whet your appetite I'll quote Tommy Lee Jones from Men In Black - I'm going to get my gun back.
camp park.
After getting out, and thinking that the park won't be ready by Summer let alone next month, I went to the gate to get in. Well, I looked at it and decided sod that and went back to get on the bus. Here's why:
I reckon on a two hour queue to get through the checkpoint.
So to be more accurate, today folks have been testing what happens if there is a catastrophic failure and systems have to swap over. We did well mostly, one problem is that when both power supplies are disconnected from the VM rack, it doesn't work. Who'da thunk it?
Now we're sat in our ice-box and the alarms go off. We're used to this, we've had 'this is a test message' broadcast all morning. But this is slightly different as a man pops his head around the door and tells us that whilst every other alarm is a test, this one isn't and would we mind leaving. We didn't mind - to start - but the folk eating lunch, they weren't impressed.
We became less impressed when 'mind leaving' became 'mind going outside and standing in the rain' because today it was tipping it down. Big heavy raindrops that were hitting the scaffold and becoming even bigger and more rainy. At least I had a coat.
And that was when it struck me, we were near the security area where I had lost my belt - how hard can it be to go and get it back, or find if it is lost for ever?
You may remember the line that Kay says after getting his gun back:
Well, it's pretty much the same when you want your property back. It's not that it's bad, it's just you get surrounded by six security guards as they earnestly attempt to locate the belt. There are phone calls and discussions and an interpreter is called for and he explains I have to follow him.
We leave the hut and enter the main IBC, but at the front desk there they say we have to go to the front desk at the PRC - the printed word equivalent of the IBC. This involves walking past a dozen or so concessions that are slowly getting to ready to sell stuff in exchange for VISA payment and sod all else. And then in the middle is this:
And just down from there is a Coke stand. The Olympics is certainly coming.
At the Lost Property part of the Main Desk at the PRC the lady tells me they have about 20 belts lost in the scanners. She has a list and asks me to describe it. It's black and belty and goes round my waist is the best I can do. She goes one better and produces my lost belt. Woohoo, no more falling trousers. I'll probably leave it in security again tomorrow, they'll be back to panic stations again.
I make my way back past the McDonald's - you can pronounce it if you try, common words are good as you can learn the language, eventually - and back to the IBC and lunch. It strikes me that having 33 letters must make Hangman a bit harder in Russian. Not as hard as Kanji though: Egg? No. Doorknob? No. Button? No. Duvet? No. Yellow? No. I give up. My word was Empathy. Your turn... Not a game that caught on, I think.
In the afternoon we carry on testing until we have the double power out, and it takes a very long time to get the servers - especially the DHCP and NTP servers - back up. Whilst this is all going on, I install 13 devices in the Executive Area. They all have a system each so making it work becomes a bit more real. In the boardroom, there are two, by the way.
After installing and we get the servers back, I create some cron jobs to start a recording off. Well two recordings. We have offered to record the NFL Championship Games that aren't carried on NBC channels so we have no guide data for them - we have no guide data most of the time. I also modify the init scripts to ensure we don't accidentally delete the recordings if the boxes dip for a moment. They haven't yet, but you never know. And I set three devices off doing this. Let's hope, hey?
If the recordings are successful we'll play the games back tomorrow.
The best laid plans
I thought that today I would walk to the office, it wasn't raining much so whatever. However I got lost and ended up in Sochi Park, Russia which is a fun park - for a given value of fun. That cloppa castle I've mentioned is a hotel in the park. Security is less intense - come on in - and the workforce is having a Sunday fag mostly. Here are some shots of inside theAfter getting out, and thinking that the park won't be ready by Summer let alone next month, I went to the gate to get in. Well, I looked at it and decided sod that and went back to get on the bus. Here's why:
I reckon on a two hour queue to get through the checkpoint.
This is a test
In the office today was a day of failure. On purpose, I don't quite understand this one but it seems the failure has been successful, mostly, and there are only a few areas that need rework.So to be more accurate, today folks have been testing what happens if there is a catastrophic failure and systems have to swap over. We did well mostly, one problem is that when both power supplies are disconnected from the VM rack, it doesn't work. Who'da thunk it?
Now we're sat in our ice-box and the alarms go off. We're used to this, we've had 'this is a test message' broadcast all morning. But this is slightly different as a man pops his head around the door and tells us that whilst every other alarm is a test, this one isn't and would we mind leaving. We didn't mind - to start - but the folk eating lunch, they weren't impressed.
We became less impressed when 'mind leaving' became 'mind going outside and standing in the rain' because today it was tipping it down. Big heavy raindrops that were hitting the scaffold and becoming even bigger and more rainy. At least I had a coat.
And that was when it struck me, we were near the security area where I had lost my belt - how hard can it be to go and get it back, or find if it is lost for ever?
You may remember the line that Kay says after getting his gun back:
I've just been down the gullet of an interstellar cockroach. That's one of a hundred memories I don't want.
Well, it's pretty much the same when you want your property back. It's not that it's bad, it's just you get surrounded by six security guards as they earnestly attempt to locate the belt. There are phone calls and discussions and an interpreter is called for and he explains I have to follow him.
We leave the hut and enter the main IBC, but at the front desk there they say we have to go to the front desk at the PRC - the printed word equivalent of the IBC. This involves walking past a dozen or so concessions that are slowly getting to ready to sell stuff in exchange for VISA payment and sod all else. And then in the middle is this:
And just down from there is a Coke stand. The Olympics is certainly coming.
At the Lost Property part of the Main Desk at the PRC the lady tells me they have about 20 belts lost in the scanners. She has a list and asks me to describe it. It's black and belty and goes round my waist is the best I can do. She goes one better and produces my lost belt. Woohoo, no more falling trousers. I'll probably leave it in security again tomorrow, they'll be back to panic stations again.
I make my way back past the McDonald's - you can pronounce it if you try, common words are good as you can learn the language, eventually - and back to the IBC and lunch. It strikes me that having 33 letters must make Hangman a bit harder in Russian. Not as hard as Kanji though: Egg? No. Doorknob? No. Button? No. Duvet? No. Yellow? No. I give up. My word was Empathy. Your turn... Not a game that caught on, I think.
In the afternoon we carry on testing until we have the double power out, and it takes a very long time to get the servers - especially the DHCP and NTP servers - back up. Whilst this is all going on, I install 13 devices in the Executive Area. They all have a system each so making it work becomes a bit more real. In the boardroom, there are two, by the way.
After installing and we get the servers back, I create some cron jobs to start a recording off. Well two recordings. We have offered to record the NFL Championship Games that aren't carried on NBC channels so we have no guide data for them - we have no guide data most of the time. I also modify the init scripts to ensure we don't accidentally delete the recordings if the boxes dip for a moment. They haven't yet, but you never know. And I set three devices off doing this. Let's hope, hey?
If the recordings are successful we'll play the games back tomorrow.
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