Frozen!

We are getting closer to having our fiber network installed. For the last week we have seen many AT&T trucks around our Grayslake campus pulling fiber optics up and down the highway. The fiber finally arrived yesterday but there was one big problem that prevented it from being connected.

ICE!

We had rushed to get the conduit on our property run this fall so that we wouldn't hold up the project. We found out yesterday that that conduit had filled with water over the last two months! The record low temperatures we have had over the past month had caused a small portion of our underground conduit to freeze! Now we had to figure out how to clear it out. Hopefully without digging it up.

This is what we tried:

1. (Prayer)
2. Fish tape. Nope
3. Bigger fish tape. Nope.
4. Power rodder (for sewer pipes). Nope.
5. Garden hose run down the pipe to the blockage and hot water turned on. Success!

After leaving the hose on for about 30 minutes we had melted though the 2' section of ice and the pipe was clear. We pumped and vacuumed the water out and sucked a new rope though. Later today, AT&T came back and pulled the fiber.

Hopefully soon our fiber will be done and we can communicate at the speed of light!

Windows 7 Beta on Lenovo X61 Tablet

These are my first thoughts of Windows 7 Beta on my Lenovo X61 Tablet

• Install was great. Was able to get online right away with installed drivers.
• It seams faster than the preloaded Vista Business that I had.
• Biometric scanner was not installed but Upek has a driver for Windows 7.
• Touch screen and pen not working yet.
• Have to run some sites in "Compatibility Mode" in IE8. Mostly, they show up with real small font that the zoom doesn't help or have some overlap of controls.
• Bottom task bar is nicer with more animation.
• The new "Show Desktop" button on the right of the task bar doesn't make much sense.
• No "Quick Launch"? The new "Pin to Taskbar" feature seams to have replaced the Quick Launch.

More to come with pictures as I continue to test.

New Domain Name!

So I decided to no longer be a cheap-skate and get an actual domain name! In the next few days my blog will be switching to http://jeremygood.net . Hopefully I can get everything from Blogger to moved over. I registered the domain with Google Apps which in turn registered it with GoDaddy.com.

I'm hoping that because Blogger is by Google and I registered with Google for my domain name it will be an easy switch.