Cell-Capable Modems

[KRFinch at dstsystems.com]

They already have most of my team on a leash.  It's that 30 minute response
time.  Getting paged at odd hours (like this morning at 4:45) is just a
part of life at this job.  I might grumble a little, but overall, I like
what I do and I take pride in my work.  Things might be kinda crummy
sometimes, but at least it's better than having to work scheduled night and
weekend shifts.  There are also numerous advantages to having a paycheck at
all, as I'm sure most would agree.

The cellular dialup could make it a little more of a flexible leash.
Rather than having to plan my personal life around being able to find a
phone jack on short notice, I could have some more flexibility.  Having
that "what if I get paged and have to leave" voice in your head just makes
going out to dinner or to a movie a little less enjoyable.  Something like
that wouldn't get rid of all of the trips into downtown outside of work,
but it could eliminate many of them.

- Kevin

                                                                                                    
                
                    DCT Jared Smith                                                                 
                
                    <jared at dctkc.com>            To:     <kclug at kclug.org>                          
                
                    Sent by:                     cc:                                                
                
                    owner-kclug at marauder.i       Subject:     RE: Cell-Capable Modems               
                
                    lliana.net                                                                      
                
                                                                                                    
                
                                                                                                    
                
                    08/16/2002 11:11 AM                                                             
                
                                                                                                    
                
                                                                                                    
                

So you have less freedom, it sounds. Is this for more
or less money? The question is rhetorical. I'm with
Brian on this. Turn off the cellphone and enjoy the game.

Strange how cool gadgets can evolve into leashes, once
the coolness wears off. I wouldn't use a cell-phone or a
pager, unless my job is something like delivery, where it
is a tool, not a 'convenience' or a leash.

Of course, the other solution would be to realize the gravity
of your responsibility to DST, and ALWAYS immediately
leave every ballgame whenever you are paged. This would
give you a very high work ethic, and soon DST would stop
paging you for trivial matters, because they would see that
you really care about your work. Hard to do in this world,
where all 'important people' play golf all afternoon.

>If only it were that simple.  :)  I used to be able to do that, but that
>was before this job.
>
>DST has IT response times that they are contractually obligated to uphold.
>If something goes awry, most of the time, some type of response is
required
>in under 30 minutes.  Depending on the severity, this timeframe can be
>tightened even further.  Realistically, half the time you can talk your
way
>through it without dialing in.  But those other times...
>
>- Kevin

>>Usually when that happens to me. I turn off my cell phone, so
>>when the inevitable call comes half an hour later, I don't answer it.
>>I then proceed to finish what I'm doing, blowing off the page and all
>>subsequent pages, and then go home and dial in and fix the problem.
>>Finally I turn the phone back on and retrieve my messages, call in and
>>tell them everything is fixed. End of problem.
>>
>>my $0.02,
>>Brian