Asa Jay's weblog

Change can be hard, and I’ll be the first to admit I resist change. When it comes to work, I get very comfortable in a job, sometimes too comfortable. Sometimes it’s time for change, sometimes because I’ve done what needed to be done and it’s time to find a new challenge, to move up in the corporate world, to force myself out of my comfort zone for a little while in order to make progress. Today, that change happened.

I have worked with Itron, Inc. for nearly 14 years. I had a year away from the company as I pursued other advancement opportunities but was able to come back when that didn’t pan out. Initially I worked in engineering as a technician. I had past experience in electronic production with Hewlett Packard and the step to a technician was the professional advancement I needed at the time.

As a technician I worked with electrical, mechanical and software engineers. I was exposed to sales and marketing, production and many other functions in between. During my time as a technician, I discovered I really didn’t want to be an engineer, I wanted to be a manager. I wanted to lead. This is what led me to completing my Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Management at Whitworth University.

Currently, I work in Customer Service with Itron. Upon my return I wasn’t able to get back into engineering, but that turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. My manager and I have had many conversations, one of which illustrates how the company is held up by three things, like three legs of a stool: Engineering which builds the products, Marketing and Sales which sell the products, and Customer Service which provides a conduit for customer feedback as well as help with products. I had engineering background and now over the last three years I had gained customer service background. My next logical step was into the marketing area.
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I had the hard drive in my Home Linux system crash a couple months ago. Since then it’s been an interesting experience getting things back together and “normalized” again. Fortunately I’m using removable drives via the front of the case -and- my previous system is still sitting on a functional drive. I was able to use the old hard drive in the system while I strategized on a plan going forward. That plan was executed, well, let’s just say “attempted” a little over week ago when I was on vacation.

Nobody usually starts a vacation by saying “hmm, I think I’ll get that Linux system upgraded and back to normal.” Nobody except me. What in the world was I thinking? It should have been simple, yes my last backup was a few months old but no matter. Let’s install the latest version of Ubuntu and just keep on trucking. That seemed to be my first mistake.

I’ve used Kubuntu in the past and I’m running Ubuntu Studio Edition for video and audio editing on another machine. The Ubuntu series of releases seem to be redefining ease of use for Linux users; bringing the idea there is a replacement for Windows into reality. So I start off by downloading an ISO for Ubuntu and then Kubuntu. I burn the CD’s and I’m ready.

The install takes a couple of tries to get started. Darn video thing again, need to shut off APIC or APCI or… I forget… anyway, I finally get the installer running. Now to configure things.

I worked on configuring the video, for hours. I could -not- get the default drivers in Kubuntu to properly display the Operating System on my NEC Multisync LCD 1850E. Kubuntu recommended a download from NVidia. Well… okay, I’ll bite… … Wrong answer.
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