For what it's worth, Circuit City had a cheap (Everex) laptop for $349
a few days ago. Why mess around with a small screen and keyboard on a
phone when you can just buy a laptop and have everything you need? :)
Travis
Microserv
Clint Ricker wrote:
Well, to chime in late and throw in my two cents...
Don't bother. Back when I was in that sort of deal, I went down this road a
few times and the reality is that it is not worth it. (I've done this on
about 6 different devices and none of them are really viable for anything
more than a simple service restart...which I've always been able to phone
in).
Few points, mostly around the screen
1. Do you really want to be editing access lists for BGP or complex config
files on a 2 inch screen with a micro keyboard? The reality is (from bad
experiences) is that typos are too easy to make with such keyboards and too
hard to catch with the screen...
2. Outage resolution? Doesn't work...this isn't the sort of environment you
want to be doing diagnostics in... Reading log files where it wraps 5 times
for each line and shows 3 lines at a time is an exercise in futility.
Switching between hosts is an exercise in futility in this environment.
Simple fact--diagnostics is just bad at worse...
Couple of points: network/system administration should not be done with both
arms tied behind your back--which is exactly the type of environments these
end up doing. At best, it is slow and frustrating and often involves
overlooking major problems. At worse, you cause more problems than you
create. There's not a single network engineer out there who would even
dream of editing BGP in such an environment...
Are you really telling us that things that you can do things on a two inch
screen displaying complex (and lots of!) text with a micro keyboard that
your staff can't do guided by phone? You may want to re-evaluate who you
hire :) In any case, doesn't that scare you that you are the only one in
the world who can possibly do this? Get a good network guy on retainer...
you wouldn't (well, shouldn't) tolerate a single point of failure in your
network; that applies to the administration as well...
At best, get a micro PC (like to OGO) and a cell PCMCIA-based...this doesn't
catch "I'm in the bathroom and someone just stole my car", but does cover
about 90% and gives you an environment that will let you get stuff done, not
screw yourself over.
-Clint Ricker
Kentnis Technologies
On 8/7/07, Matt Liotta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
David E. Smith wrote:
Ah, but I'm at the baseball game. At best, my laptop's in my car. (If
I felt like putting up with traffic, that means it's in a nearby
parking lot, ten or fifteen minutes away, plus however long it takes
me to find a wi-fi hotspot in an unfamiliar downtown area. Most of the
time, when I go to Cardinals games, I leave my car about 45 minutes
away and hop on a train. That still leaves the whole "no Internet
connection" problem in addition to waiting for a train, which often
adds another half hour.)
It's more likely that my laptop is at home, which under ideal driving
conditions is an hour and a half. Assuming I'm even fit to drive; it's
a baseball game, and I do like my overpriced watered-down beer. If I
were gonna drive that far, I'd just drive the extra six minutes it
takes to get to the office.
And no, I can't phone it in (so to speak...) and have someone else do
it. Discarding for the nonce the fact that I'm probably the only one
in the office that can even tell you what BGP means, I'm sure you're
well aware that, for this kind of troubleshooting, the ability to
actually SEE what's going on is amazingly valuable, and no amount of
"dude on the phone typing stuff in and reading what happens" can make
up for that.
(Disclaimer: I'm exaggerating a bit, for comic effect, but the point
remains. First-hand troubleshooting is almost always better than
second-hand troubleshooting IMO.)
Is it so comical though? You are suggesting that there is a situation
where there is a problem so important or complicated that only you can
fix it yet you want to be able to fix it remotely via a cell phone at a
baseball game. It would appear you are trying to solve the wrong problem.
Matt, you have some good ideas, but they're not good for me, or for my
network. I'd love to be able to build some super-duper do-it-all
widget in-house, but as I'm the only developer here (and that's
certainly not what it says on my business card), it's not gonna
happen. The odds of finding a developer who can do all this for less
than the cost of a handheld gizmo and a couple years of service for
said gizmo are very nearly zip.
You have convinced yourself of what you need and can't see anything that
could compare. The problem with your straw man is that no such device
exists.
If you've used one of the small portable devices I was asking about -
actual first-hand experience - and can comment on compatibility, let
me know.
Yes, I have a Motorola Q with EVDO that is a very effective device. I
have access to our web-based OSS as well as tons of web applications
built by the likes of Google et al. I can tell you quite specifically
that the whole experience is awful. Even with EVDO it takes 3 to 4 times
longer to get movie times, directions, etc than just making a phone
call. The device works great for phone calls, messaging, and simple
web-based tasks. I'd rather shoot myself than try and use SSH from it.
-Matt
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