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Hmm, been a while since updating. Well, last Christmas, the Sentiera operation stopped employing people, and I was let go. Great christmas present to be honest. Off jobhunting and dealing with the shit that the delay in a p45 and a delay in getting a letter for the bank for the bank loan for the new year. I got the head straightened out a bit as well, that was useful and necessary.

So I got an interview in NetIQ based in Galway, and I got the position as a high-level tech support person, in the Security space. Lots of training, and lots of hard work since! Been 4 and a bit months, and I'm starting to get a bit of headway into the requirements and getting trained up on lots of other stuff too like iSeries..

Well, I started my new position in the middle of March, to become a systems administrator/network engineer/staff support person in a company of 6 people.

The company builds a client/server product for media playback and central control. It's called Sentiera. http://www.sentiera.com/

It is good to be part of a company that is reasonably well established, stable and has a great product that customers want. It's really good to be involved in the R&D of the next version of the product, developed in-house too.

I've been having some pain and suffering with the previous employer, getting the holiday pay due, and getting the relevant end-of-employment documents as well. My god, but it is difficult to get my money out of them!

Overall I now have a life. I cycle to work most days, I have 3 hours a day of time that I am no longer spending commuting, and I am preparing for my summer holiday kayaking in the French Alps.

:)

Well it is looking like the end of the road with me and my current employer, I have just had enough of:

• The crap wages (E23k for a top-of-tree specialised technician/network admin/network specialist)
• Waiting to see if I get paid on the last workday of the month - every month..
• Seeing the MD have lots of 'expenses' where cheaper stuff would do fine.
• Knowing the co-owner brothers are taking about 9k a month out of the company, money that would be better served making sure I get paid..
• Hearing lots of noises about raises, proper pay review procedures, training, equipment budget - all in the past 18 months, with nothing to show in real life since
• Knowing the product works and works well, knowing that there are lots of customers out there for it, and seeing severe cashflow issues all the time. It makes no sense.

Well I have another interview for a better paying job with more fun involved this Thursday, keep your fingers crossed...

Nice to have my first story submitted onto the frontpage of /.
VM documentation.
Mel Gorman's VM work, caused 270k hits on orac (skynet.ie webserver) and loads to go to 140..
At least it did not fall over, and Mel has his fame.. :)