What I actually do

Both Chiho and Chiho's mom have been asking for some sort of short description of what it is I actually do at work. When someone asks them "so, what kind of job did Matt take in Tokyo" they can't actually answer. All technology workers have probably come across this problem because it doesn't distill into a single word like "lawyer" or "architect". I suppose if I was a programmer, I could come a lot closer to a single word description.

My group is called the Collaboration Engineering Group (CEG) and we make sure that e-mail, chat, and SharePoint systems are up and running. What I do is broken into these parts:

• Respond to problems that people are having with e-mail, chat, or SharePoint
• Maintain, backup, test, and patch the 30+ servers that run those systems
• Plan for improvements and major changes in these systems

It is probably a 20%/30%/50% split at the moment between those parts.

I thought I would be able to write more often...

I am definately not posting enough on this thing. I'll try to get better at posting but I'm still not completely adjusted to the fact that I don't get home from work until 7:30 or 8:00pm and basically go immediately to sleep. It's odd how long it takes for your body and mind to get back in rythm.

Chiho's flying out to Japan today and will be staying for about ten days. We should be able to finalize the apartment arrangements on this trip and she's already scheduled a couple of evenings out with old friends. There is also a national holiday in Japan next Thursday so we can goof off somewhere then, too. She annouced to the office that she's leaving the company on April 4th and we've picked April 17th as the day to start the official pack-out. Still lots of stuff to deal with before the pack out. After the pack out, too. I have a feeling that we'll still have things left after the final move that we'll need help dealing with.

We haven't got much traffic on selling the house so it's out on the rental market now. We're using the RPM/RPA guys and if you know anyone who wants to rent, pass around this website address: http://www.rentseattle.com/RentDetail.aspx?ID=1009

I'll try to write more in the morning about the job and other stuff but I'm starting to zone out for now...

Furniture for sale

Prior to leaving Seattle, we have a bunch of stuff to sell. Most of it is posted on Craig's List and I'll be putting the rest up when I get pictures:

• Angel table $135
• Small angel side table $15
• Small vanity table with mirror $150
• White storage Bench $135
• Blue china hutch $135
• Blue, tall, skinny chest of drawer $175
• Very large black mirror $200
• Dark wood hall table/sofa-table $70
• Green padded bench $40 - we sold this one
• Magnavox 27" TV $40
• Stereo Sony $60
• Antique-finished white cabinet $60
• Aluminum outdoor furniture set (tables, four padded chairs, and umbrella) $175
• Outdoor chaise lounge $150
• 48" round, center-post table $500
• White curio cabinet $175 - we sold this one

Two weeks in and things are going well

I just wrapped up the second week of the new job and things are going well. I'm pretty much up to speed on current systems and procedures and am starting to get going on things. They are doing a really big Microsoft Office SharePoint Server roll out for the organization and I think I can help out there the soonest. I'm still getting use to the differences in size, though. Also, the office tends to be start-late/run-late kind of office where most of the work happens late into the evening and I've been an early morning person for a while. It seems unusual to get to the office 9am and only 10% of the office is in. I think it's a natural reaction to coordinating things with the Paris HQ since they only overlap Tokyo in the late afternoon.

The commute to work isn't bad. I experimented with a couple of different routes and I picked the one that is a little slower but less crowded. Part of the trip is on the Yurikamome ゆりかもめ line that most people think of as a "toy" train to get to the Odaiba お台場 area. It's a little slow but I can sit the whole time. Door to door, the trip takes about an hour if I hurry, but most of time I sit at Toyosu 豊洲 for coffee and take some time to study Japanese.

The company offers free Japanese lessons so I've started taking a Tuesday & Thursday class at lunch time. My current skill is in between their current classes so I'm taking the higher level one which is really, really, tough.

Simple photo that describes the limit of the Mac AIR

Check on the picture at http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/03/airlegance.html. That is probably the simplest description of the one big limitation of the Air...

Train shut down to wind? That's new...

We made a trip to Roppongi Hills and Ginza and there was a strong enough wind to close the trian line we take back to Makuhari. We had to take an alternate train line (along with thousands of others) and get as close as possible. Since the station wasn't in walking distance, we had to wait for a taxi home.

Having it be closed for wind is a new one for me. I have train lines interupted for snow or accidents on the tracks but this is a first.

Immigration and arrival in Japan

Now that we’re living in Japan and have worked through a lot of the immigration process, I figured that I should summarize what we did. Prior to starting the process, we did a lot of research and all the websites outlined a lot of difficulties that we simply didn’t have.
We came to Japan on a spouse visa from the United States and the process was very simple.

There appears to be two main ways to obtain the visa:

• Obtain a Certificate of Eligibility first: It seems that the Japanese government really wants you use this centrally controlled process for applying for a visa. You fill out a fairly lengthy, highly detailed description of you, your job, and your marriage and then apply at one of the immigration bureaus in Japan. If you call and ask, the immigration service will tell you that you have to use this method.
• Apply via the Consulate: There is an alternate method available at most of the Consulate General offices in America. You apply for a spouse visa with a much simpler application form and they have the discretion to approve or deny your application at the consular level without a full Certificate of Eligibility.

Using a spouse visa, the big stuff that you need to provide are the following items:

• Proof of Marriage: We provided a certified copy of the American marriage certificate and proof that the marriage was registered in Japan. My wife did not take my last name but my name is mentioned on her passport and other documents and it seems to help the process.
• Family Register (Kanseki Tohon): You’ll need to get a copy from Japan as proof of the spouse’s Japanese citizenship. It will also show that the marriage is registered.
• Letter of Sponsorship: You will need a letter from someone from Japan that is going to support you once you get there. In addition to being on the hook for you, they have to promise that they will represent you in legal action and can afford to send you home if needed. They will need to provide a statement that shows that they are wealthy enough for that, too.

In addition to that, you will need some photos that are sized for a Japanese passport and some other minor things.

We applied at the consulate and were asked to provide a statement of personal income after the first couple of days they were reviewing it. Right at the two-week mark, we received our visa. This is significantly faster than any of our research hinted it would take. All of the horror stories we read online were talking about four or five months of waiting. It appears that coming from America is easier than coming from other countries. Or, the fact that we had been married for over 12 years could have been a factor in making our visa process easier.

We're Here

We landed in Japan yesterday and I am now permanently stuck here in Japan. The flight was pretty empty and a little early so there was no line at immigration. It was shocking how quick we got through everything - 45 minutes from touch down to out the airport. There was no hang ups with the immigration paperwork or anything, which was nice.

This now makes the title of this blog pretty ironic...

Address in Japan

Until we get our place settled, if you need to send anything to us, here's the address:

Tsutao Maekawa
Beach Terrace #606
3-1-1 Mihama-ku Utase
Chiba-shi 261-0013
Japan

or

〒261-0013

千葉市美浜区打瀬３－１－１　

幕張ビーチテラス６０６号

JAPAN

前川美紀子

Recommendations for the design of the physical plant

Consultants are often placed in a position to provide advice to a client that is moving into a new space or planning major changes to their facilities. Architects, mechanical engineers, and telecom providers do not provide enough guidance to steer our clients in the best way. Whenever you find out that one of your clients is planning a move or major redesign, you must get involved as quickly as possible. We must provide advice that will keep the long term goals of our clients in mind.

Cabling

In Cabling: The Complete Guide to Network Wiring, 3rd Edition (ISBN-10: 0782143318 and ISBN-13: 978-0782143317), the authors outline some of the “Golden Rules” of network design. The ones that are most important when advising our clients are:

• Networks will never become smaller and less complicated
• Build one cabling system that will accommodate voice and data
• Always install more cabling than you currently require

Installation of cable during the initial build out of an office space is always going to be the cheapest time to install cable. If the installation is taking place before drywall is installed, the cost of cable runs is even cheaper. Prior to moving into a space, the cable installers have full run of the space, meaning that they can take down tiles, drill holes, and string cable very quickly and easily. After the space is in use, they have to work on the weekends, move furniture, cover equipment, and work around other inconveniences and that doubles, triples, or quadruples the cost of stringing cables during the build out.

This makes the cost of changing your mind later extremely expensive compared to running additional cable. It may be wise to use a rough rule of “you need 2 so install 3” for all wall jacks and cabling runs.

Make sure that every cable drop – phone or data – is a CAT-5e or CAT-6 cable terminated to a female RJ-45 jack at the wall and a female RJ-45 jack in an industry standard, rack mounted patch panel.

You must stringently resist any deviation from this standard arrangement. The only exception you should allow is using smaller patch panels or patch panels mounted in small swing out wall mounts. In no case should allow CAT-3 cable to be run to workstations.

Note: the cabling book referenced here is an excellent source of information about cabling systems.

PBX systems

At one point in time, the installation of a PBX was almost completely irrelevant to the most consultants. However, there have been too many situations where the company specifying, supplying, and installing the PBX has interfered with networks.

Traditional digital PBXs run off of CAT-3 cable and RJ-11 plugs and have done so since the first PBXs were manufactured. In a traditional installation, the PBX is installed on the wall, cables are run into nearby W blocks, and those W blocks are hard wired to a CAT-3 line that runs to the office floor. That hardwires a particular place on the floor to the PBX system. If you want to change the extension, you go into the PBX software and change it.

It works fine that way but there are some problems. That CAT-3 line running out into the office cannot be used for anything else. There is no modern network protocol that can run on CAT-3 so you can’t hook up a phone. Also, the software for modifying a PBX is normally a proprietary, hard to install, and hard to learn software so any changes normally require a PBX technician. At one client, each desk move or extension change requires a $150 PBX support call.

There is so much history and industry inertia built up that installation model that you will practically have to threaten force to handle it differently. For all of our clients going forward, you should ensure that the PBX “output” is connected to a patch panel. Then you can patch the extensions to the floor just like any other patch panel. RJ-11 male connectors will fit in RJ-45 female connections so that the cable running to the office is irrelevant to the phone system.

Wiring the office this way turns every wall jack in the office into a multi-purpose jack. Also, desk moves require a simple swap of patch cables.

Cooling

Servers are very sensitive to heat problems but the upfront cost for dedicated cooling can often be daunting for our clients to pay for. However, we have several clients where overheating has lead to thousands in troubleshooting costs because problems caused by heat are intermittent, hard to diagnose, and are often camouflaged by other issues. The long, drawn-out, multi-crash server failure I dealt with was probably related to heat issues but that can’t be proven – even after spending over ten thousand dollars trying to figure out the failure and recover from it.

All servers require 24x7x365 cooling of some sort. During the design and planning stages, we should always push for dedicated air conditioning for any self contained server room. Cost of installation prior to people moving in is always going to be cheaper than after the office is up and running. Only if the client can truly not afford cooling, should we accept a dedicated, always on, direct vent to the outside extraction fan.

Each server puts out about 1.5 to 1.75 the amount of heat as one person so if the client has two servers in a small closet, it can get quite toasty in a very short period of time. If the client has more than three servers in an enclosed room, we should insist on dedicated air conditioning. Even the best extraction fan will move enough air for three servers in an enclosed room.

Please note the word DEDICATED. Typical office air conditioning will turn off over night and on the weekends and will often be programmed to provide heat during the winter. A dedicated zone programmed to always provide cooling is the only way to adequately support servers.

I have an Excel spreadsheet with a heat load calculator that uses the wattage of the power supplies to estimate the BTU usage. That BTU figure can be used by a mechanical engineer or HVAC contractor to design the correctly sized system.

Panasonic produces a line of very efficient, very quiet extractor fans that work well in a typical office environment.

Racks

We should always recommend rack enclosures to clients with more than three servers or clients that are planning growth. The primary benefits are:

Earthquake Protection: Racks can be bolted down or otherwise “corralled” to prevent them from tipping over in an earthquake. It also provides protection from items falling on top of the rack.

• Theft Protection: The majority of theft from offices will be laptops and other items that are easy to grab quickly. Any item screwed into a rack will take several minutes to unscrew and pull out and will definitely limit the chances of someone taking things. Rack enclosures can also be locked.
• Standardized Equipment: There is a wide variety of equipment that is designed to fit into racks which gives you great flexibility in the future
• Ease of Maintenance: A rack or enclosure can have slide out shelves and other equipment that makes routine maintenance easier.

Power

Servers do not consume as much power as they used to but there needs to be some care taken when a client moves into a new space or plans a remodel. All server rooms will require at least one dedicated circuit and perhaps several for larger installations. Actual size of the circuit will depend on the APC UPS you are trying to install. APC’s website has detailed descriptions of the power connections that the APC is expecting. It provides both a NEMA code and a shows a small picture of the exact connection.

Only the APC Smart-UPS 1500 and smaller can use a regular socket. Every UPS larger than that will have some sort of special connection. Make sure that you provide those detailed specifications to the electrician early in the planning process.

What a weekend

Getting a house prepped for it to be professionally photographed is very, very tiring. I can't believe how long it took just to pressure wash the moss off the patio. That stuff really grips. Well, time for my last two days at ISOutsource. Still feels kind of weird.

10 days...

We are selling the house

We talked to the CPA firm and a local realator and we have decided to sell the house. We're going to give it a couple of months and see what we can get for it. We're listing it almost right at our minimum sales floor so who knows if we'll get any takers.

Let me know if anyone wants a home in Mukilteo.

Time to go back to bed....

The way my day started, I think I should go back to bed. We got downtown nice and early (about an hour earlier than usual) and I stopped into a Starbucks to get a coffee and start working. After all, I didn't have an appointment until 9:30 so I figured I should get some work done. So, I got my coffee, sat down, and spilled the damn thing all over the laptop. First time I have ever done that - four days before I give the laptop back to ISO. I was able to clean everything up after I drove to ISO but it looks like I fried the battery. What a start to the day...

14 days until the flight out.

Last week at ISOutsource

This is my last full week at ISOutsource and it feels a little odd. Of course, starting it out with three inches of snow on the ground makes just about any day a little wierder. I've only been as ISO for about three and half years but in a lot of ways, it seems longer. I guess it's because I've been so busy that seems longer. I'm going to working this week to write down some of the SOP and normal things I have running around in my head. Hopefully, it will help the guys who are hanging around.

17 days and counting...

Crunch time

My wife and I have been plowing through the list of all of the things we need to do over the next three weeks and it's kind of daunting. Even though she will be coming back to Seattle and staying for a couple of months, there is still so much to do. I'm below the two week mark at ISOutsource, too so there's even more to do at there. I really want to make the transition as easy as possible for everyone involved and that's kind of tough.

No one called on the PT Cruiser. There is a guy at ISOutsource that is interested, though so hopefully I can sell this quickly. Something else to worry about....

22 days until the flight out...

Anyone need a car?

http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/car/546994381.html

I have my 2003 PT Cruiser up for sale and I need to find a buyer soon. If you know anyone looking, have them call or e-mail me at matthew.damp@sbworks.com.

23 days... and counting...

It's official - I got the visa

I picked up the visa from the Japanese consultate this afternoon. Everything is on track for my departure on February 14th. I've got to say that when I picked "late February" back in November, it felt a lot farther away. Now I've got a ton of stuff to do in the next three weeks.

27 days...

Visa is being a little slow

Assuming that the visa clears... 31 days to flight out.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard from the consulate yet and I was supposed to today. It's always unsettling when a governmental organization doesn't call you back when they were supposed to. Makes you wonder what's broken...

Is SharePoint really ready for prime time?

Assuming that the visa clears... 34 days to flight out.

I spent a lot of time today arm wrestling with a SharePoint installation today and it struck me again how main pieces seem to have to work together to have the site function correctly. The site was running on a domain controller and the system was having AD problems so I had to demote the box and move the site. Even before I could move the site I had to change:

• Modify the local security policies to allow the SharePoint service account to logon as a service and batch job
• Re-enter the passwords for the applications pools in IIS
• Re-assign the SSL certs (Why? What does that have to do with being a DC?)
• Logon to the administration website and re-designate the search server for the site

That's a lot of moving parts that can break. A lot of this was not really covered in Microsoft articles or Microsoft KBs. I had to dig through a lot of generic ASP and .NET 2.0 articles and try to figure out if they would actually apply to SharePoint.

I hope that there isn't a radical difference between the current v3.0 SharePoint and whatever comes with Windows 2008 so that 3rd party documentation can keep up with it.

The countdown starts

I have 35 calendar days to go until I hop on a flight to Japan. Boy, I've got a lot to do.