ken’s blog

Why is change control so hard? Why can’t people think before they release? I understand if you are in heavy development, Alpha or Beta phases even. But, in a production environment with customers depending on you… why would you deploy changes that simply break the way people do business?

At my job, we have a vendor, an ASP that provides an “API” for us to access our data. This “API” is really just an xml output from a web server, but it does the job. We suck data down and import it into our system nightly. This vendor, periodically, makes changes that break this “API” without even thinking about the consequences.

Change control really isn’t hard, but it just must not be human nature…

I think this is a common problem in IT, but not other industries. Imagine if a team working on a pipeline in Alaska didn’t follow proper change contol guidelines? Or an F-15 mechanic? If they can do it, we can do it!

Ok, I am done ranting for now…

Don’t buy one! I picked one up early this year, figured it would be handy to have on hand for when I needed to get a box without functioning wireless on my wireless network. Sounds simple, it is a bridge from wired ethernet to wireless. Driver independant, system independant, and is supposed to just work. Well, I have never gotten it to work consistently. Until last night, I never really spent much time on it because I really didn’t have a big need to have it… it was more of a “for when I need it” item.

So, last night I tried to setup the G4 I picked up off eBay and figured this was a good thing to use the game adapter for. Of course it didn’t work… so, my first step was to upgrade the firmware on the game adapter and the Dlink wireless router. The firmware upgrade went sore on the router… and brought my home network down
Lots of headaches… tried to reset the router which did seem to get it back up and running again. Then I couldn’t login to it, I had forgotten the default password and the manuals were long since tossed (or in a box, not sure). And, of course I didn’t have a number for Dlink. Couldn’t get online to look it up… etc… Called 800 directory assistance and they said they didn’t a listing… Crap! So, I dug thru a box of old CDs to find the original CD that came with it. Whew… got things back up and running pretty quickly then.

Long story short, the Linksys game adapter is crap… and I wouldn’t recommend buying one. Now I guess I need to buy an airport extreme for the G4. The big question, is there a linux driver for it… I need to do some research today.