Paging Dr Pager...Paging Dr Pager...

Well, for being an on-call System Administrator, you need a way for the problem reporting system to contact you. Now, most systems don't call you on your cell phone...although with Asterisk, the free telephony software, and any of the zillion of text-to-speech programs, they should be able to, but send you a text message. Most cell providers used to have an email to sms service...but many of them have been shut down. And if they do work, the time it takes can be anywhere from a few minutes, to a few hours. Some also offer the ability to receive email on your phone...but my service provider, Fido, can't seem to make it work on my phone. So, I needed to go and get a pager.

Everyone is getting out of the page busines it seems. I guess these days, only pimps and computer people on call use them.

So, off I got to Bayshore, where they have at least one of each type of wireless telecom company's representative. Fido doesn't have any pagers. I can't find a Telus booth. So I got to Rogers. After waiting about 5 minutes while the two salesmen talk to two different large breasted women, both with lowcut shirts on...I interrupt one and ask what info they have on pagers...they don't do pagers, you have to go over the The Source, where they sell Rogers pagers. So, off I went.

The Source only have one pager...and the salesman had to go and dig for it in the back room. And it was only numeric, and I need an alphanumeric one.

Now I am down to the bottom of the barrel...Bell.

Off to the upscalators I go, and enter the Bell Canada Store. They only have one...it's in the back, and the salesperson has to dig for it. It's only numeric. I figure, it's all I am going to get, and I buy it...but make sure that I can return it.

After spending a half hour trying to get out of Bayshore, I finally make it to the Queensway, and get Terry Fox drive, where their is another The Source. According to the Rogers catalogue, they do have alphanumeric pagers, and maybe this location will have one. So I go in, and yes, they have an alphanumeric pager. It's a tiny thing, all silver, and kind of cheaply put together. Runs on one AAA battery. So I buy that, and will return to the Bell Store, maybe after Christmas.

At work, I call up Rogers to activate the pager...and guess what? It's not alphanumeric! It displays both for set up and such, but it will not receive alphanumeric pages! So, I have a long talk with the rep from Rogers, and she can rent me a pager with all the features I need for about $25 a month...as I don't have to pay it (well, I do, but I get reimbused for the full cost), I think this is the best deal. That evening, I return the Rogers pager to The Source.

Monday, I am supposed to receive the pager at home.

As one person somewhere along the line suggested, I should have just have gotten a Blackberry!

ttyl

from "Ask a Pilot" on Salon.com

"What's up with those safety cards in the seat pockets? They are impossible to understand, and nobody looks at them anyway. Why are they there?

So you can fan yourself, obviously, on an overbooked flight baking on the Phoenix tarmac in July.

The fold-out cards are a supposed to be a graphic transcription of the speeches given by the flight attendants. They are a rather unimaginative nod to government regulations requiring their content and presence. The talent level of the artists speaks for itself, and the images appear to be a debased reinvention of Egyptian hieroglyphs. At the very least they ought to be cleaned up and simplified to show the basics: the location and operation of the flotation equipment, oxygen and exits."

Oh,dear...

Well, either I suddenly became allergic to my office cubicle, or I am coming down with a cold of some sort...I'm coughing, my nose is clogged, and my throat is sore.

This is not good!

I had plans!

I can't get sick!

[grumble]