Unemployment on the Rescue List? (was RE: [rescue] FS: SGI

[Devin L. Ganger]

On Mon, Sep 29, 2003 at 09:59:13PM -0500, Phil Schilling wrote:
 
> Ok, if it is a laptop, more than likely Devin is shutting it down
> often.  That is the equivalent? of a reboot.  All of us that must
> endure the pain of M$ know that the reboot aleviates many issues. So
> sorry Devin, I must take your statement as, 'a grain of salt'. I feel
> your experience must be with poor OS if you consider that stable.

Actually, that particular laptop lives on a port replicator and stays on
in the office pretty much 24/7.  I was issued a second laptop that I use
from home to VPN in and and RDP to the first.

I use Virtual PC on it pretty heavily, as my job often includes having to
work on various machine images (I'm doing writing/analysis for a consulting
firm now).  We also regularly play Crimson Skies and Quake 3, and I'll
regularly have 20 or so apps running at once (not including apps running
in the task tray).

I honestly don't know *why* I have such good luck with Windows; I have a
couple of Windows boxes at home that are likewise stable.  I do know that
I tend to do as much stuff from the command line as I can, and try to
track down and troubleshoot errors that do pop up and fix them with service
restarts instead of reboots.  I know other techs who get all sorts of
errors, and I know non-geek power users who insist on loading Norton Utilities
and all the latest dreck and have to regularly wipe their drives and re-
install every 2 months.

Maybe having had two jobs where I had to run Windows in an ISP setting
helped me learn specific tricks to keep the uptime maximized; maybe I'm
supremely lucky.  All I know is that it is possible to keep Windows up
and running.  And I keep learning new things about Windows I didn't know
before, once I make up my mind to learn what it can do.  Having a boss
like Paul Robichaux makes for an interesting learning environment. :)

-- 
Devin L. Ganger <devin at thecabal.org>
"Aikido is based around the central precept of letting an attack take its
natural course.  You, of course, don't want to impede that natural flow
by being in its way." -- overheard on the PyraMOO