This is my third day in a row that I’ve been stuck working from home
over a 56kbps dial-up connection and a software VPN. This sucks ASS.
I’ve figured out that if I work entirely over Remote Desktop, then it
cuts down on my bandwidth problem - just RD into my workstation at work
and then let the bandwidth there do the walking - but working in 256
colors (to conserver bandwidth on my end) and waiting for connections to
establish is seriously killing me. I used to justify not getting a
cable modem because we never got online at home due to our computer
being too slow. Now that I’ve got a faster computer we seem to be on it
(and online) a lot more often.
In fact, I just finished with an IM chat with my boss (and good friend,
Greg) who provided a few helpful
recommendations, and I just bought me a Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G
Router so
I can network the cable modem service when I get it. He knows how to do
that (and secure it) and will help me out. Plus, at Amazon it was like
$17 cheaper than everywhere else, and had an additional $10 rebate.
Ordering it through my own site, I will get a 5% kickback on my own
purchase, and using my Yahoo! Visa card, I’ll get 1% back there. So,
like, a great deal. Now all I have to do is call
Comcast.
Jenn is stuck at home today, too, which really sucks since she’s not
getting paid and can’t work from home. No good a-tall.
I’m starting to get stir-crazy. I haven’t been outside the apartment in
three days and I need to go somewhere. I don’t know how my
grandparents do it - just sitting around their apartment day after day,
never really going anywhere or doing anything.
In other sort-of-work-related-news, I’ve almost finished writing a web
part for SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and/or Windows SharePoint
Services that will allow users to
display RSS feeds in a templated fashion. I was looking at using Tim
Heuer’s RSS Feed Reader web part,
but our requirements (i.e., my company’s requirements) necessitated a
few additional configuration abilities, so I ended up writing my own. I
think when I’ve got it up and running, I may open a GotDotNet
workspace for it and
release the source code. Maybe let the open source thing do a little
work for me - have people contribute to it or at least provide ideas for
enhancements. Might be fun.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I should probably split it off into its
own assembly. (I have other web parts in the same assembly right now.)
If that doesn’t make any sense to you, don’t worry about it.
Reading over what I’ve written so far, I realize that this is the sort
of thing that goes through my head a lot of the time - how to program or
configure things, how to solve problems in code, etc. - and that further
makes me realize that some (perhaps many) of the people coming in here
aren’t going to understand what any of that means or why it’s “cool.”
Or, at least, cool to me. I think I’ve written about that before -
that some of my geek-out moments are less accessible than my general
ramblings. Huh. Maybe I should start a second blog for my geekiness, or
at least add a new category like “Geek Moments” or something where I can
blast out crap that folks other than me don’t care about. Something to
chew on.
In the meantime, I should probably get to work. I’ve gotta write some
documentation for my RSS Reader web part and ping Microsoft Developer
Support for some code they’re supposed to have provided me but didn’t.
Or, more accurately, code they did provide me with that didn’t fulfill
the requirements I gave them. Plus I need some additional caffeine in my
bloodstream. I’m draggin’ this morning.