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Novell's iKnee Solution (TM)

My wife called me a while ago. As suspected she has some serious knee damage. Several sprains in areas of her knee that I couldn't spell. The term used here to desribe the damage is "sprain". She has about five of them ranging from medium to severe. Sprain aparently means "wrecked and broken stuff" in the context of an Orthopedist. To boot, her knee has filled with gooshy fluid which probably adds to the inflamation and overall pain. Funny how when she went into the ER, the doctor bent her knee around, shrugged, and sent her home on crutches. It took a family doctor, and three appointments to get an MRI and see what was really wrong. I hate the medical field. It's almost as backward and inefficient as the IT field.

Today I am sitting in a Novell and IBM sponsored Linux seminar. The seminar is hosted by my employer, but enrollments came through Novell. Those fools at Novell wrote a bad web-based enrollment process which allowed too many students to sign up. Instead of stopping at 25, 60+ students enrolled. This caused the class to be moved to a larger facility called Platform Labs. This place is so nice. I would love to work here. The building is very high (about 30 feet). And inside, is a bunch of smaller little "cottage" style houses. It's all built with cinder block and tin roofing. Very industrial looking. Inside these little cottages are all sorts of "technically oriented" companies who are developing new products, or just leasing out cheap space. The proprieter of this place tells me that this whole joint is non-profit. The rental and lease charges just pay to keep the facility open, and buy more hardware. So they rented this room for a flat fee of $200. Not bad at all.

I was pretty interested in this material until I learned that Novells new NLS (Novell Linux Services) was not being given away at this seminar. You have to go fill out a shitload of surverys and they will send you an e-mail address, with a link to the ISO. And even then, it's an evaluation. For that matter, they don't even give you a Student CD. You have to download and burn it yourself. I think this seminar was supposed to be hands on, where students install their own servers. But, with 60 people, it became a "sit down and watch me install it" seminar. People seem bored with it.

Stephanie (my co-worker who is teaching this material) wanted me to check out a URL for her, and so I went hunting for an access point. I didn't expect to find one in this building. The companies under this roof are technically 'with it', and probably wouldn't take a risk. Shows what I know. I start up MacStumbler, and strike a handful.

Picture #1

So I have been attached to one of these open access points ever since. Initially to get the URL, and also to message my wife. I was worried about calling her, and causing her to miss a call from her doctor. We haven't had call waiting in about 5 years now (and don't miss it either).

Now we are nearing 3 o'clock. Hopefully this seminar will wrap up in about an hour. I need to drive back to the office, and pick up my materials to teach tomorrow. I should probably go through them before I try and teach this photoshop class. It's a good idea to look at the books before you teach from them. Thats why they pay me the big bucks.

Current Mood: I'm trying to smile.
Musical Inspiration: With all these sleepy students, a lullaby would be nice.