Month: June 2007

My new job is great!

I’m really digging my new job. It’s nice to be at a company where things related to support, and customer service make sense, and they don’t necessarily feel like an afterthought, like I’m used to. Not only do all of the tech support tools make sense how they work, but the people that work in our support centers (internationally) know how to use them, too.

So far, I’ve just done a lot of learning, and sat in on a lot of meetings. My boss, Gary, has done a great job of showing me the ropes. As well as everyone else in the building. Everyone’s so friendly, and genuinely happy to be there. Again, something I’m completely not used to.

This is definitely a good thing, and a good place to be. We’re not sure when yet, but sometime in the next few months, Gary and I will be taking some international trips to our call centers, so I can get to meet everyone. When I say internationally, I mean Canada, India, and the Philippines. I’m excited about all the travel, but worried what I’m going to eat over there. After all, I am the world’s pickiest eater.

So, over the coming next week, I’ll be meeting with all sorts of directors and VPs of various departments, to get a feel for what they do, how they work, what types of projects they’re working on. It should be exciting.

For this week, I shared Gary’s office, since there’s no where to put me yet. Starting next week, there’s an empty desk on the other side of the floor (almost), that I’ll be sitting at, until we move. The company who subleased the other side of the floor from us, has moved out. So, we’re waiting for someone to come in (July 10th) and wire up our phone system, and internet so we can move over there. Once that happens, I won’t be the stray child off in another state.

That’s my update for this week. This weekend’s plans are: See Live Free of Die Hard in an hour and a half, when DNS propagation is done for a client’s domain name, I’ll be installing some CMS software for him, and testing it out, tonight Christine and I are heading into Boston to see a friend of ours in a play. I believe tomorrow is relaxing day, or as we like to call it “Horatio-ing”, which is basically us sitting around watching CSI: Miami on DVD, over and over again. Horation Caine is the man. Don’t deny.

Started my new job

I started my new job yesterday morning, for a company called Endurance International Group. It’s a web hosting company, similar to what some of the properties at Lycos did, in some ways.

Endurance owns roughly 30 web-hosting companies, or “brands” if you will. I’m psyched to be here, and learning all about the company, and what they do. Very interesting stuff, and tons to learn. After three years at Lycos, I knew all there was to know. Now, I’m here, and I’m totally green. I feel like it’s the first (or in today’s case, second) day of school, and I’m the new kid. More updates to come.

WordPress 2.2.1

I really like the new version of WordPress.   As with every version, they take everything that people ask for, and incorporate it into their software, which is amazing.

I just went through all the site that I run, that use WordPress as a backend, and upgraded all the different versions to the new 2.2.1

While I have no problem doing upgrades, it gets tedious to upgrade the same batch of files over and over again for each different domain.   I wonder if there’s a way to mass-upgrade all your WordPress sites at one time.   I’m off to find a solution!

New code written for MovieSnobs.net

I wrote  some new features for my pet project, MovieSnobs.net, that  I  implemented over the last few days.

  • New search results – The search engine for  the site was rewritten to include more results, and it’s more targeted to get more information  the searcher is  looking for.   Now, in addition to searching the reviews, the search will also give   results from our front-page posts, and our cast database.  
  • AJAX user ratings – Now, when viewing a review of a movie on our site,  users can add  their own vote, based on what they thought.   Along the left, in the “Review Info” box, there’s a “Your Vote?” section.   The information gets automatically saved, and remember it during your visit, in case you forget.   The average user rating will be displayed on the page, for others to see
  • Firefox/IE search plugin – I wrote a pretty basic Firefox/IE search plugin, to search  the site.   To install it, do the following (when on the website):
    • Firefox – simply click the down pointing arrow next to the Google G (the default search engine), and select “Add MovieSnobs Search”.   That’s it!
    • IE  – click the down arrow next to the magnifying glass, then select “Add Search Providers”, then pick “MovieSnobs Search”.     When the little window pops up, click the “Add Search Provider” button, and you’re done.

I’ve got some other plans in the works for other features.  

Systematic Chaos – Dream Theater

Christine  picked up the new Dream Theater disc for me last week (special edition, to boot), which is fantastic.   The special edition came with a “Making Of” DVD, which I watched before listening to the disc, and was great to watch.

You’re probably thinking “What’s a Dream Theater?”   Good question.   I think I was about 15 or so when I heard of Dream Theater.   They were featured in a drum magazine I frequently bought (Modern Drummer), and I thought the band name was interesting.   So, in a never ending quest to find a new band that was great, that my friend Dan hadn’t discovered already, I went out and picked up Falling Into Infinity, which to this day is still one of my all time favorite discs.

So, here we are 13 years later.   I think there’s over 25 Dream Theater discs in my collection now, not including half a dozen DVDs, and even a few VHS tapes.  

The new disc, titled Systematic Chaos is fantastic.   Dream Theater rarely disappoints their fans, at least not me.   Every album they put out is more impressive than the last.   When people ask me what Dream Theater is, I respond with this:

“The most talented collective group of musicians on the face of the earth.”

And I stand by that.   These guys are the epitome of what talent is.   Here’s a link  to their website.   If you like progressive, mind numbing, mathematically perfect rock music, give them a listen.   I guarantee you’ll enjoy them.

Summer television

There’s certain downsides to summer.   Mainly, all the bigtime tv shows are on hiatus during the summer months.   However, there’s a few of my favorite shows that start up in May-June, and that’s a good thing.   For example:

“Hell’s Kitchen” – a great reality show about a top level chef screaming at morons who can’t make entrees for his high end clients.
“Psych” – a relatively new show, only going into season two, but very funny.   Our main character’s not psychic, but he pretends to be, so he can work with the local police, of which is dad used to be one, to help solve crime.   Very funny.
“Rescue Me” – arguably one of the, if not the, best tv shows to come out in recent years.   Every previous show that Denis Leary’s done has gotten axed before its first season ended.   “Rescue Me” is now in its fourth season, and is highly regarded in the industry, and has won numerous awards across the board.   If you’ve never seen “Rescue Me”, crawl out from the rock you’re living under, and turn on FX Wednesday nights at 10PM EST.

While I miss the”Numb3rs”, “Law & Order: SVU”, “ER”, “The Office”, etc, of the regular season, the summer months have some benefits, as well.   Not only is it gorgeous in the Boston area, weatherwise, but tv isn’t completely terrible.

Music Page completed

I added some new text to the music  page, that was written up for me.   It covers  the past, present, and future of my music.   It also contains a variety of links to lyrics that I’ve written, and had published through BMI Music.   All lyrics, at this point are for sale.   Any offers from established bands will be considered.

I have plans to add more lyrics to the page.   I just need to type them up, and figure out a better way to display them. As it is, the list of them seems rather lengthy.