Technology does not get a day off. In fact, people rely on it more on their days off. Can you deny that you won’t be on the internet, posting pictures from your smartphone, or anything like that over your holiday break? Can you possibly live without Facebook to share those special moments with family that … Continue reading No Holiday for Tech or it’s Workers! →
Technology does not get a day off. In fact, people rely on it more on their days off. Can you deny that you won’t be on the internet, posting pictures from your smartphone, or anything like that over your holiday break? Can you possibly live without Facebook to share those special moments with family that couldn’t be there when your kids open that gift? Maybe when they put on that outfit someone in another state bought so they get to see the excitement, or gloom, in the kid’s eyes when they try it on for the first time.
Most people that use their technology have no idea how hard it is to make changes are upgrades when the fewest number of people are using it. This could be the holidays or overnight. Most engineers, installers, and even climbers have worked these shifts.
I worked many holidays back in the day! It is part of the job description when you do any public safety or carrier work. It’s business as usual. Upgrades, repairs, emergencies, and anything else that may have needed to be done. I have also got called out for useless things that someone thought was important, although we know it wasn’t, you know what I mean. Stupid stuff that could have waited. It’s all part of the job, which is really a lifestyle when you think about it.
Memories! I was called out on New Year’s Eve back when I was in paging because we all thought that the year 200 GPS roll over was going to crash systems, remember Y2K? I do, I worked that New
Year’s Eve as did all our teams to make sure the paging terminals, controllers and microwave uplinks would not crash. Fun times? No, but the team was awesome! They did a great job and didn’t complain, too much.
I was called out on Christmas when a system crashed, and a hospital needed to stay in touch. It was a quick fix that only took 6 hours or so, but it was back on the air when I was finished.
I once left a Thanksgiving because a modem was locked up. I drove 60 miles to reboot a modem so people could connect. All this at midnight so it would work the first thing in the morning.
I once had to repair a terrestrial link that died the day my oldest son was born. It failed because someone in the office changed something they shouldn’t have, and it crashed. Things happen, people do stupid things, and this is what happens. I don’t judge because I do stupid things. Sometimes the timing could be better, that’s all. Because the company didn’t want to pay for a contractor to come, they called me. They didn’t seem to know I was up all night in the hospital watching my oldest son come into this world. My son is doing great by the way.
Enough about me, let’s hear a great story about a big venue! The Las Vegas Convention Center is impressive, full of Wi-Fi and carriers. Cox manages most of the wireless there and they do a great job. The team there has done an outstanding job building up the Wi-Fi and managing the wireless carriers throughout the center. I am impressed with all that they have done.
However, the Cox team has a tough job. They look at holidays, even Christmas, as a prime time to upgrade their system. I was out at IWCE a few years back and I got to talk to the team that manages the wireless systems. They were a great bunch of guys. There is one guy managing almost all the wireless. His main responsibility was the Wi-Fi, but he also would oversee the DAS and carrier work inside the convention center.
You see, for the convention center to deal with all the carriers and the Wi-Fi vendors is a headache for them. After all,