I recently had to clean out my laptop bag… not from some desire to actually clean, although it’s been getting heavier and heavier every year so it was probably well over due. After almost 17 years at at Main Line Health I resigned my position as Technical Architect. It was well past time for a change and new challenges. I really enjoyed my time at Main Line Health and I had the opportunity to work with some really talented and dedicated individuals who I will sincerely miss.
Next week I’ll start my new career path as the Sr. Manager for Technical Services at Urban Outfitters in Philadelphia, PA.
It’s been a very long time since I played in the retail vertical. I was third-key for a Shoe-Town store in Paramas, NJ during my high-school and college days so I have a little background in retail. In any case I’m hoping to become a valuable asset to my new employer, and I’m looking forward to all the new challenges I’m sure to face.
Now what was really in my laptop bag?
- RJ45 Crossover/Rollover Adapters
- USB to DB9 Serial Adapter
- 10’/25′ CAT5e Patch Cables
- T1/PRI loopback tail
- CAT5e loopback tail (Ethernet)
- MTRJ Loopback Plug (yes we used MTRJs for awhile)
- LC-LC Loopback Plug
- LC-LC Multimode 50um Fiber Patch
- SC-LC Singlemode 9um Fiber Patch
- RJ45-DB9 Adapters (DCE/DTE)
- USB Flash Drive (8GB)
- USB External Battery Pack
- USB to Mini Cable
- USB to Micro Cable
- ST-ST barrel coupler
- LC-LC coupler
- SC-SC coupler
- RJ45-RJ45 coupler
- 2dB/5dB LC Attenuator
- Microsoft Mobile Wireless Mouse (USB)
- Cisco/Linksys USB Wireless Adapter (Dual Band)
- Velcro (cable management done right)
- Small Flashlight
- Small Screwdriver
- Small Wire Cutters
- Sharpie Permanent Marker
- Yellow Highlighter
- DBAN DVD (Disk of Death)
- CentOS 6.1 DVD
- Ubuntu 12.04 DVD
- Windows XP CD
- Windows 7 DVD
- Windows 2008 R2 SP1 DVD
I’ll be trading in my HP Elitebook 8740p (Windows 7 32-bit, 4GB) for a Lenovo Think Pad T430 (Windows 7 64-bit, 12GB). While I was offered a MacBook I decided that I already had enough challenges in front of me… I’ll stick with Windows and Android for now thanks!
That’s one New Year’s resolution down… plenty more to go!
Cheers!
Image Credit: Ben Franklin Bridge Philadelphia, PA by Tom Lava
Congrats on the new job! I doubt you will be working as much with the Avaya/Nortel gear. Probably a blessing for you, but a bit of a curse for me!
I’ve really enjoyed your site and swear by the resources you’ve loaded into it!
Any ways, here’s to you! I’ll have a cold one for ya!
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the kinds words… your probably correct with respect to the Avaya/Nortel equipment, although there’s a possibility that I’ll still be working with their voice products, I don’t believe I’ll be working with their data products any longer. I was always disappointed with Avaya/Nortel for their lack of engagement. You think they would have reached out to me… offered to sponsor some ads, offered to provide some lab equipment, offered deep dives into their product roadmap, etc. I know from my logs that on average more than 20% of the traffic to my blog was generated by Avaya/Nortel employees. And I’ve had more than one Avaya/Nortel service engineer ask me for advice regarding how to resolve a customer’s specific problem.
Once I get settled I’ll probably discuss (in a later blog post) in some detail what the job change will mean for my blogging.
Thanks again!
Mike, congrats and good luck. BTW I always thought I was engaged with you when I was at Nortel, could even assist you more now if you decided Juniper is a good fit for you ;)
Take care and good luck, Rich
Hi Rich,
I should clarify… from a customer support perspective yourself and the local sales team were very attentive to my needs as a customer.
As a blogger and someone who was trying to enlighten users how to best utilize the value in their equipment I got very little interaction with Avaya/Nortel. I say very little because there were a few people that reached out (outside of me being a direct customer) to me including yourself and a few others. The few that come to mind include the following; Gord (Avaya IP Telephony) did reach out to me and was very helpful on a number of circumstances in my endeavors to understand how IP telephony worked, and Chi Peng (Avaya EMA) did engage with me and even provided an iPad as a giveaway for my readers/followers.
So as an Avaya customer I was satisfied… but as a technology blogger trying to educate customers on how to best use their equipment they purchased and dispel some of the FUD I was less than excited with Avaya’s response.
There are quite a few former Avaya/Nortel employees now at Juniper that I know… I should offer a thank you to Juniper for providing the vouchers that enabled me to attain my JNCIA and JNCIS certifications – Thank You!
You never know what the future might bring…
Thanks for the comment!
Michael,
Congrats on your new job. You make me to do an inventory of my bag. Mine are as bad as yours, so I found many items to discard. I am surprise you did not have a mirror. No it is not for looking at your hair after working in switch closet, but those Avaya 5500s with a little base switch, sometime only a mirror can tell if that switch was set correctly.
Best wish on your future,
Peter.
Thanks Peter!
Unfortunately I have yet to get glasses… and my eyes aren’t that good anymore so I usually use my smartphone to take a picture and then use the zoom feature while viewing the picture.
Thanks for the comment!
MIKE, no wonder why your back is so messed up. :) You need to travel lighter.
day to date, my laptop bag usually has the following.
laptop
power cable
micro travel mouse
iPhone cable and power cube
15m Ethernet cable
Nortel console cable
Cisco console cable
usb-serial adapter
collection of gender benders and serial x-over adapters
USB hub for reading CF cards.
PCMCIA-to-CF adapter
collection of PCMCIA and CF cards loaded with several versions of 4.1,5.1, and 7.2 code
collection of USB sticks
10 year old hardcover notebook of hand written cheat sheets and CLI commands
Pen, mechanical pencil, highlighter.
Empty zip-lock bags.
Toothbrush, tooth paste and dental floss ( I have a thing about oral hygiene)
But in the trunk of my car I keep a metal suit case that consists of the following.
Can of compressed air
Mini Ratchet and screw driver set with varying bits and socket sizes for IT gear.
Precision screw driver set.
flash light.
Vice grips
Pliers
Needle nose pliers
side cutters
Zip ties
Roll of Velcro
Multi-tool (thing) that has a few saws, blades, and cutters.
backup console cables.
backup USB-serial adapter
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Thanks Michael, good luck in your new job, thanks for all your contributions over all this time, it was always great to have your contributions to the common good of all engineers in this branch!
Congratulations ….
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Thanks for the kind words!