48 hours into Direct TV

Ok, I feel like an idiot. What was I thinking. Because this is AWESOME. Here is the experience so far:

Two men crew showed up at 10:30am Friday. Very professional guys, used to install for Time Warner. I ended paying them $60 to move the cable to keep Internet access. That was very well and in the end no problems. They were at the house for 2.5 hours. It went well and they left with all TVs in perfect shape.

The TV is so clear it was scary. Seriously, it is amazing and really beautiful. But the kicker is HD. HD is unreal how clear it is. It blew me away.

Also, the extras have been nice. I have four extra channels in HD of the Australian Open.

The only real miss is the local weather channels.

Updating the home computer network

As the kids get older, we need to add compute power to the household. So here is a project; add a new computer and migrate the rest. The roster:

• Sony Viao running XP in the playroom – crashed again- purchased as a factory refurb off uBid in 2003
• Dell in the study running XP media in the study – main computer – 2007 off eBay
• The router

The Plan

Take the Viao and turn it into a dedicated backup server in the study. Take the Dell and put into the playroom. And buy a new machine.  Add another printer.

Ubuntu and the Viao

I decided to put Linux on the Viao. It sounded like the perfect solution for the problem.  I choose Ubuntu client. I downloaded the ISO and created a CD.  Loaded into the Viao and away it went. I decided to nuke the machine with a complete fresh. It went perfect and I was very impressed by the product.  It has everything I think you need to run as client.  It it was relatively quick on the hardware we had.  Very impressed.

Backup up to Linux

The first task is to back up the machines to the new Linux client. Bunch of research later on Google, I started looking at rysnc. I t was very promising. However after two hours, I gave up. I think it is the right answer but I decided to use a hammer. So I have built a set of batch files that will wipe out the last update (remove the directory via rmdir), create the directory again, and finally xcopy the entire the directory into the directory. Crude but effective given I have  strong connections between machines. Took some trial and error (almost wiped out my hard drive on this laptop). But it works now and I can schedule this to run weekly via the Windows scheduler.  Problem solved for now.

New machine

I ordered a new AMD machine with 4Gig of RAM and 500G hard drive. The machine is mainly a email, web browser, Quicken type of machine. I did not need a very big video processor. Nice machine with lots of USB ports. I debated which OS to install. I have an MSDN subscription so I had some options. Thought about Windows 7 (too risky), Vista (why would I again) or XP home. I went with XP Home SP3. The machine is simply a brick with a BIOS.  Made the install, added the motherboard and video card driver (supplied) and set the machine up.  Nice box and everything appears to be working. Seller was allpczone. Good stuff

I had to hold a week before I could start moving machines around. Ruth’s science project was due and that needed to get done.

So now we have moved the old Dell to the playroom, added a wireless USB network controller and the new machine in its spot.  I moved Ginny’s files via the Linux machine and so far so good.

Payday Lenders

As part of a large bank, I think we have responsibility to the community for fairness in lending practices. part of that responsibility is to not take advantage of the poor.

As I took my daughter home tonight from Rock Hill, we came down Cherry Road to I-77. I was simply floored by the sheer number of payday and title lenders. Plus pawns shops. There must over 10 payday lenders and at least 6 title lenders.

We know this – when the state government steps and limits the amount that these lenders can charge in interest, they go away.  these guys are predators, entrapping the poor in more debt. The fact that South Carolina allows car title lending is even more troubling. 

Look, people are responsible for their actions. But the government must provide some sort of guidelines and protection when the strong injure the weak. Many that sound like a liberal thing to say

Moving to Direct TV

Time for another move for cost moves. Last time was moving to VOIP. So far Ok but not great.

Time to cut the cable. Three reasons:

1. costs- TTWC keeps adding costs each year; we keep cutting service but this is getting old.

2. Quality – I have had to turn so much hardware over time to TWC.

3. The most horrible customer service ever – I think because we are former Adelphia customer we are in some special category, but every time I make an account change they screw up our cable. And can not fix it.  Seriously, if my bank acted like TWS< we would be out of business.

I am not sure if it is because of the nature of the monopoly or what but TWC is really a bad company. They have increased the HD channels this year (I think as a reaction to Dish and Direct TV) but still.

So, I signed us up for Direct TV. And it was awesome. Here is why:

A good friend has Direct TV. As such, he referred me. In doing so, we b0th get a $50 off our bills. Pretty cool.  So I called in and walk through the deal of signing up. I ended up owning them $106 for a DVR receiver. Fine. The bill each month was still like $20 month cheaper than TWC plus we got back a box in the play room.

We had one up there with TWC  and turned it in to save $$, along with getting rid of HBO and Starz this fall.

So, we get more for less. hum, nice idea.

After that I am done, I have to call back in to get the reward set up. But something is amiss. so I get a hold of a rep and have to go through the process all again. But here is why this was better. First, she waived the fee for the DVR and refunded my money.  And I got a $10 discount for an entire year. And this was because of the hassle of having to call back in? Customer service? What’s this – So far so good. 

So it will cost like $35 less a month – nice and I am getting alot of sports channels – unlike the 10 channel sports pack from TWC – a real sports pack.

And we get HBO and Starz for the first three months for free – man it will be nice to be wanted again.

Dumb moves by major universities on College Football coaches

As a young man, I was official sports nut. Before the Web, I lived for SportsCenter and followed a ton of different sports. As I have gotten older, I have needed to whittle this list down.

College football remains probably my favorite sport. I watch others, like golf and NFL, but college football stirs the drink.  Heck, I started cooking dinner on Saturday as an excuse to watch football.  So, here is my diatribe.

2 dumb moves this year as it pertains to college football

1. Auburn – ok, I know you want to be a powerhouse. But firing Tuberville? He just came off beating Alabama six times in a row. They have wanted to “upgrade” for a while, flirting with Bobby Petrino. This move is really wrong and I truly hope Auburn enters purgatory. I can not wait for Auburn alums to pine for the good ole days of Tommy. And his replacement is no winner either.  They can thank Bill Lowder, the modern day king maker at Auburn.

2 Boston College - Athletic director Gene DeFilipp will fire Jeff Jagodzinski for talking to the Jets. Ok, I know you want to keep your coach and you can argue that Jagodzinski is still coaching O’brien’s kids. But he took a team which lost alot this year to the ACC championship. What kind of coach will you get who will live with these types of handcuffs?  BC is not a destination school for football coaches. Makes no sense and DeFilipp will ruin BC football.

Now for the sad. I agree that it was probably the time for Fulmer to leave at Tennessee. But as Vol fan, it was hard. I really like Fulmer and his time at UT will be remembered well. He won a national championship. I fear that Lane Kiffin is in over his head BUT he is assembling a great staff. Now can they recruit and grow the kids.

The Wells Fargo Wachovia Merger

I work as a senior IT Architect for Wachovia[Well, I did until today]. I have worked at Wachovia for the last 8 plus years. I have spent another almost 3 years as an employee  at then First Union before that. Plus another year as a contractor at First Union.  I have spent the majority of my career at what what was Wachovia. Big investment in my time.

I have been waiting to post this for a while, but waited until the merger was official.

Background

I left First Union as an employee in 1997. I left for a lots of reasons. I needed to grow up for sure and had let the job become too important to me. But one very concrete reason I left is that I thought First union and its management was greedy, and it did not think of its customers first. Frankly, I thought Ed Crutchfield was too big for his britches. I was partly right. I was gone for 3 years and in that time First Union went through really tough times. When I came back in 200, I had grown up, I needed a job and First Union had new leadership.

I hoped and truly believed that the new management under Ken Thompson had learned their lessons from the failures of the previous administration.  The approach to the Wachovia-First Union merger was unique to First Union, and we really put customer service in front of other priorities.  I really felt like the new Wachovia was going to be a great company to work for. 

When I joined my current area, I made a conscious decision in my mind to commit myself to my job.  As a result of leaving in 1997, I had treated my job is just that a job. My job at PMSC was a good one, but one that I could honestly do most weeks in 30 hours or less. My original job at First Union at CMG was doomed from the start, something I figured our very quickly. I stuck out out of loyalty to the person who hired me, but knew rather quickly that we as a group would at best make limited impact.

But my new job which I started in March of 2002 was very different, one that I knew could be special.  So I committed myself, allowed myself to be become emotionally engaged, to actually care deeply about the product and what I did for the first time in a while. And I have been glad that I did. Which has made the whole last few months so much harder for me at a personal level. I have been done this path but never with so much invested. Last time when PMSC/Mynd blew up, I was out the door and saw that coming.

Wachovia’s melt down – My opinion of the cause

Wachovia’s melt down to me comes down to two things really. First is greed. Ken Thompson, desperate to go out West and wanting some of the mortgage riches, bought the wrong company at the wrong time. And from what I know Wachovia did not do two things. It did do the proper due diligence on Golden West. If it had, some of the problems that have come up would have surfaced. Second, people in the line of business were ignored.  I truly hoped that Ken Thompson and the board had learned their lessons from the Corestates fiasco. But they did not.  They bought the wrong company for the wrong reasons. We are hearing rumors that Golden West hid from Wachovia at the time some of the issues. This is a serious case

The Second is that once we bought Golden West, the legacy Wachovia was not allowed to really run Golden West. If we had, we would have uncovered the mess earlier and maybe gotten ahead of some of this. But we were told to back off. The Sandersons keep saying that Golden West is not what brought Wachovia down. Well, if we do not but Golden West and Golden West beats Indy Mac and WAMU to the bankruptcy window. Golden West was the literal Trojan horse virus. 

My old boss, Joe Monk, left Wachovia, just over a year ago. I loved working for Joe. He was always challenging us to be better, to do better and to be leaders. He wanted us to be on the vanguard, taking the calculated risks to make Wachovia a better company. And when the whole Golden West deal, with him losing Mortgage to a new CIO, and then his own person not getting that job, pushed him out the door. It was a bad day for Wachovia.  I blame that or Martin. Totally.

The Meltdown

Wachovia’s meltdown will go down in history as a curious case study.  IMO, Bob Steele did the best he could, while holding lousy cards and apparently not in the right circles. I think it was criminal that the US government basically decided that Citi should succeed and Wachovia should not.  Not the market, but a couple of people in DC.

Could we have survived if we got the bailout? Probably but wounded.   But still, we could have survived.

The day it all went down, that week was just surreal. I woke up at 4am on Monday, well aware that Wachovia’s fate was on the hook. I watched the early new, put on a Wachovia shirt while we were still a company. By the time I got into work, the news that Citi was buying Wachovia was out. I ran into some colleagues in the cafeteria and we talked for an hour. I went upstairs, knowing that the day was shot.  The saga of the last three or so weeks had come to this. We start hearing some things, had a conference call with senior management. By 2, I was so emotionally exhausted that I went home and went to bed. The day was that overwhelming. I have never done that before BTW.

That week was just surreal. By Wednesday, we are hearing more about Citi and what it means. Friday I walk in and Wells is back in. And I see the same colleagues, same table in the cafeteria and we talk. the next few tow weeks we wait to see our fate.

I could not tell if we were the fairest at the ball that two suitors wanted or just the next fat piece of meat that two shoppers were arguing over who got it.

The aftermath

Wachovia has been bought. Pure and simple. We were on the other side of the coin. Everyone around was worried about our jobs. although Wells came into Charlotte with a great message, it was still up in the air.

Personally, I was tapped to work on a merger documents very early and was really busy in late October and November preparing architecture models for initial meetings between Wells and Wachovia. it was really good to be busy. From there, I have been paired up with tow Wells guys in Minnesota working on early SOA integration perspectives, while reconciling our two XML standards. They are really down to earth and easy to work with. We have a couple of rough patches but nothing that was impassible. We have shared openly and quickly developed a real working relationship.

But I believe that I was a real exception. The overall lack of information was appalling and frankly I felt really poorly lead by Enos and Davis. This is the time to over communicate, share what you are seeing, and be candid. We have gone many weeks with little or no information. plus the reality is that so far the vast majority of  leadership positions have gone Wells.  The IT org has Wells firmly in charge and I anticipate that I will be working for a Well CIO very soon.

The system selection is due in about three weeks and this will be the real telling point. If we select the core SORs from Wells, then I think much of the current org that I reside in will slowly disappear over time.  Many people will either retire or be let go.

Even so, much of the hard work I have done in the last 6 years is surely heading away. Hard to swallow but it is the truth.  I feel confident that many of the channel solutions that I have worked on in one fashion or another will be sunset.

The Future of banking in Charlotte and me

I decided in mid-November that I wanted to at least try on the Wells coat and see if it fits. It most likely means at minimum having a new boss in another city. Been there, done that and understand the challenges. There is both freedom in that (with a blackberry I can work just about anywhere) but many challenges (the ability to sit down casually and share ideas and concepts is not there).  I will have to work extra hard in the next two years to establish my credibility again all over. It is part of the deal, whenever you walk into a new situation you have to prove yourself all over,resume be damned.

But I have lived here 18 years, have deep roots in the area, my family is deeply engaged in the community. Would I move? Sure. My wife has already found a house in Minnesota she likes. But I really want to stay.

I will say this unequivocally: I am very hopeful for 2009, the first time I can say that in 2 to 3 years. I knew 2008 was going to be hard, and it was much harder than I could have ever guessed. But I think in many ways what legacy Wachovia needed was a kick in the pants. And we got that. The new Wells as a company may be well positioned to be a powerhouse.

I also believe this: with GMAC and Merrill Lynch both becoming banks, they will start up the retail operations in Charlotte, most likely in South Charlotte. I would suspect that in ten years Charlotte’s role as the retail banking center of the US may be enhanced. There is strong working capital in this city to do that, a continued pro-business climate, and relatively inexpensive wages.

Guest Blogger – Ginny Brown on Dating

So I have been married now for almost 15 years and I don’t date any more. Well, not in the same sense anyway. Dating is much more fun when you are married…you never have to define the relationship or put brakes on things physically…unless location is an issue..and that can be easily resolved.

But I find myself thinking quite a bit lately about dating, just the same. I guess because several people I know and love are dating…or rather not dating…or doing something that some might consider dating and others wouldn’t. Now don’t go and try to figure out if I’m talking about you. Actually, there are a lot of “you” out there, not just one or two.

I realize dating in every definition of the word has and is changing, which makes me feel old. But in the same vein human nature does not change. Men are still men, thinking and acting like men…and women are women, thinking and acting like women. And they still don’t think and act like one another. You see God really does have a sense of humor.

So this is the question I have been pondering: how, as brothers and sisters in Christ, do you date well…in a way that honor God first and foremost and other people as well. It has been challenging to consider. My first realization is that I have an opinion, that while good and maybe Godly, is just that…an opinion. The first step in truly thinking about this is to lay down some of my own reasoned thoughts…to consider others.

I have known many people who have dated “successfully” ( meaning they are now married). And no two stories are alike. Chris and I dated 6months and were engaged for 6months, going from first date to the altar all neatly within one year. My friends, Virginia and Mitch, were high school sweethearts…which means they dated a LONGGGGGG time. Karen and Billy were engaged within a month (and that might be stretching it a little). Tamarin and Scott dated during college and part of grad school, waiting to get somewhat on their feet…Jeff and Stuart got married before her junior year.

Some had long engagements, others not. My friend Holly didn’t tell Jeff she loved him until she new she was ready to marry him. Laura and Scott dated on and off (mostly on as they got older) but never lived in the same state, ore even close. David and Michele live next door to his parents….Brenda and Bob got married and since have never lived less than a days drive from any of their family.

All these people love the Lord passionately. They love God now and when they dated and tried/try to honor him through it all. If you spoke to any random couple I mentioned they could tell you things they may have done differently when dating. But they could also point you to things that were really good…that helped prepare them for marriage and uniquely strengthened their bond with one another and relationship with Christ.

So in all humility I affirm that there is no one Godly way to date. There are many, and they are as unique as the two individuals and the circumstances they live out. This makes it kind of tenuous as we seek to advise, mentor and hold others accountable in their dating relationships. Yet, I do think there is some sound advice that I would stand by regardless. And here it is…

1. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you need to only date others who share this belief. You need to be very distinct in how you characterize “belief”. Many people attend church and believe in God, and still many others believe in Jesus. But a belief that shapes your daily life, thoughts and decisions is distinctly different . If you share a common faith in Jesus, it should be a evident part of your dating relationship from the start. If you don’t share this, then you need to end the relationship/quit going out and talking on the phone rather quickly.

2. You need to have good communication…meaning each party needs to know “what’s going on”. Periodically, you need to have conversations that define and affirm what exactly is the nature of the relationship. It is more important that you both understand the nature of the relationship and AGREE about that nature, than whether you are dating or whatever.

3. Life is full of relationships where one party is interested only in friendship and the other party wants more. While the first party does sometimes come to change their desire and want more, I think it is more often likely that they do not. Attraction is unpredictable and often irrational thing; however, it cannot be willed. One cannot become attracted to someone simply because they think it makes good sense…or whatever other reason you think of. The longer you know someone and the closer you are the less likely these factors seem to change. If you desire more from someone who just wants to be your friend, you have two unpleasant/painful choices. You can continue to spend time together which will most likely flame your desire or you can begin to place some boundaries in the relationship that allows physical and emotional space for your heart to heal and become less attached. If you do not choose to step back, you will almost always be deeply hurt when your “friend” begins to date another. Yet it is very difficult to choose to step back as well. However, the hope is that if you do step back that you may be able to preserve your friendship. In essence, you are pulling back so that the relationship will once again be a “friendship” to both of you.

4. You must be brutally honest with yourself about what you desire in a relationship and how deeply you desire it. There is a BIG difference between a crush on a friend that might develop into more and an intimate friendship that you long to be more than a friendship. You set yourself up to be deeply hurt by ignoring your heart in this matter. Intimate friendships between the opposite sexes need to be clearly and defined and affirmed in order to avoid needless pain for one or both parties.

5. If you are in a serious dating relationship…

A. it is extremely advisable that you jointly and individually seek counsel of others. You need your friends to tell you what they think and to hold you accountable. You need mentors in your church body to walk alongside you as well.

B. You need to have a plan for how to preserve your purity. You two should discuss this as it is a most difficult tasks in our culture.

C. If you are too young to be thinking about marriage, then you need to rethink how serious this relationship should be and how to spend time together without becoming so deeply intimate with one another. You need to limit the amount of time you talk/text/im.etc. and choose to spend your time together mostly in groups and family settings.

D. Even if you don’t foresee marriage as an option in the near future, it should be part of the picture. The end goal of all serious dating should be to find and marry the love of your life. If this person is not it and is not like to become it, then you should consider moving on.