It was a good week here for me. My new job continues to be engaging and rewarding. One of my assignments was to oversee the creation of a network link between the client and a resource center outside of their network. Over the course of several weeks I managed to identify all the players at both ends of the proposed connection, and to get them all headed in the same direction. As of early last week we had a virtual private network (VPN) connection established between to the two firewalls, and work to configure the firewalls was underway. It turns out that this is the first time in the history of the client that such a connection has been successfully established. I guess it’s really true what they say about nothing being impossible if you don’t know what you are doing.
I also started working on a database for the local campaign I am assisting. I downloaded and installed MySQL on my PowerBook using the Server Logistics MySQL Package. It could not have been any easier. In less then 10 minutes I had MySQL installed and running. In less than an hour I had created a database and the necessary tables for my part in the campaign. Sometimes information technology is truly fun.
I’ve also tweaked the new site statistics page I’ve been using, ShortStat to not track hits from my IP address. As I get more into PHP I am finding it to be enjoyable and easy to work with.
Michele and I are being more social here than we’ve been in a long time. Last Sunday we had a wonderful couple of hours at the local Panera Bread with some people we’ve met through the campaign. We are repeating that outing this afternoon at another local coffee shop.