Thank goodness for Cisco Linksys routers, and to the devil with Netgear. Our Netgear cable modem/router theoretically has wireless support, but as comments on Newegg indicated when I looked up our model, it seems to develop problems after about a year randomly dropping wireless connections and so on. So, I now have my Linksys WRT54GC acting as the AP, with a piece of CAT5 to the Netgear, and damned if it doesn’t just WORK! And for good measure, I’ve got a charming 7 dB gain antenna now too. Networking bliss… Here’s a backpost from a previous date explaining just how frustrating it all was:
8-28-06
Well, I’m pissed. I wrote a very nice blog post, but then I tried to upload it to save without knowing my wireless connection had died, and I lost the whole thing along with about a half hour of very precious time. I’m very pissed now.
The day went well otherwise. People are good and I picked it all up pretty fast, and work hours are flexy. I wasn’t exhausted by the end of the day either, and was able to cook in good order. No food begging from roomies, and they help keep the place neat. No complaints. I’ve got a cubicle, and it’s nice although it was pillaged of office supplies. That’s OK; I got more. Anyhow, work is a good place.
Again, sorry this is so disjointed, but I lost the very excellent quality blog post and I’m too pissed to reproduce it. Maybe some other time. Perhaps I can recover it in the cache…?
Nope. I’ll remake it.
First day at work plus general life
My first day today went rather well. I arrived on time at 08:00, and everyone I worked with was great. My job is in the Home Building division of the company, working with CAD. Basically, we get plats, which are maps of the corners of the subdivision, and then we put draw the houses that are to go on them. If we’re lucky, we get an electronic plat, drawn by our company, and we can just copy and paste what we need before putting a house on. If we’re unlucky, which is much more often the case, we get a paper plat from some other company, and we have to draw out each individual plot of land along with supporting details such as right-of-way, proposed sewage, etc., at the correct bearings and distances, and then put the houses in. I spent the morning with Randy, a fellow coworker, in an intense learning session. By the afternoon, I’d done my first prep of a lot under supervision, and by 15:00 I’d moved onto another lot with a curve in it. By 17:00, it was three quarters done, with progress slow because I’d never done this sort of thing before, and kept spotting and correcting mistakes I’d made. Jennine, my supervisor, told me if the deal with hours: flexible, as long as you make your nine a day. She and my two coworkers in our division typically worked 07:00 to 16:00, and I was welcome to as well, or stick with the 08:00 to 17:00 schedule.
And if you haven’t guessed it yet, I’ll tell you: I have a cubicle! Yes, I have made it to Cubeville, dear reader. This is a big thing for me; all previous jobs and community service projects I’ve participated in had no air conditioning and seemed to occur in the summer or in summer-like conditions in Florida. I was in AC all day… And life was good. I got home and wasn’t exhausted; I cooked dinner and did dishes for myself without feeling like dropping dead as I would in a field job. I could even do a run before dinner immediately after work I think; it’s good to be well compensated and not be exhausted at the end of the day, and this was an intense day with a big learning curve. Roomies are great, no one begged for food; everyone does their part to keep the place reasonably clean. Quiet too.
Anyway, about the cube: It’s got a Dell tower of some kind, but it’s a bit funny in not taking keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl C for copy. I need to figure if this is a Windows or AutoCAD thing. I also need to move the monitor and keyboard to a more comfy spot, but it’s great because the cube is mine! It was quite funny when I first got it; holding true to the Dilbert world, it had a tacky handwritten sign saying it was reserved, and it had been utterly pillaged of office supplies. Not even the chair had escaped unscathed: it had a somewhat loose backrest. I’m sure in my own mind someone swapped that one in on me, reasoning that they’d be better off with a chair without a backrest that might go out on them. Shucks, it’s what I’d do. I found this all rather humorous rather than dismaying, because quite frankly, that’s the kind of perverted sense of humor I have. That and I was allowed to hit up the office supply cabinet for some stuff to get started with. 
Anyhow, life is good, with the exception of Internet, as the above attests. My signal alternates between GroundControl, a cloaked D-Link gaming router that I discovered with Kismet (thanks JC!) and our router, a crappy Netgear that connects directly to the cable ISP. My main system, Trouble, gets no ‘Net access, and so I do everything on Sky for now. Hopefully, I’ll have all components necessary for consistent connection to the ‘Net by the weekend. And I’ll have to do something about the Netgear; the damn thing runs screaming its SSID with open access and the default password. I’ll fix it tomorrow; I’ve decided if no one cares about this thing and I’m apparently the only one who uses the wireless, I’ll lock it down myself. And that includes altering the router password so I’m the only one allowed in, because it’s becoming more and more obvious that no one maintains anything about it or cares.