Tim Rettig's Blog

I was reviewing my travel itinerary for next week .  On Monday I fly out of Cincinnati in the evening, layover in Seattle, and then arrive in Anchorage just before midnight Alaska time.  I then fly out of Anchorage on Tuesday afternoon, layover in Fairbanks, then onto Barrow.  I arrive in Barrow Tuesday evening.

So I am missing a hotel Monday night in Anchorage.  I have almost 16 hours between flights.  I sent an e-mail to find out what the plan is.  Hopefully it isn’t to sleep in the airport.  I have done that before in a snow storm, and it is no fun!  I don’t remember sleeping in an airport being listed on the release I signed?  http://blog.timrettig.com/2009/06/07/scariest-release-form-yet/

The weather stations in Alaska are going to be uploading their data with a static filename based on the station identification number.  Since the filename is always the same, if the satelite link back to UC is down, the files will start to get overwritten, and data will be lost.  So we needed a way to rename the files to a unique name.  We found this great little article and batch file on the PC Magazines website:  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1386947,00.asp

It was actually for renaming picture files from cameras, but will work for our purposes.  Nice and simple one line batch file.

We shipped the two servers from Cincinnati, Ohio to Barrow, Alaska on Friday.  They were sent ground, and it cost about $750 for the shipment, in case you were wondering.  The shipment consisted of two 75 pound boxes.  They are scheduled to arrive this Wednesday, which is faster than some shipments that I have sent to California.  Even though they were sent “ground”, I bet they actually wind up being transported by plane for most of the trip.

I received the release form for my upcoming Barrow, Alaska trip.  This is the most interesting form I’ve yet to sign for work.  I’ve signed some more involved release forms for racing cars, driving offroad, and doing some adventure tours.  But for work, this takes the cake.  Here are some samples:

“I understand that this event involves the following activities:  Air travel to and from research sites in Alaska, includes, but is not limited to, transport by large and small aircraft including helicopters, boats, all-terrain vehicles, motor vehicles, snow machines, and on foot….Living arrangements will range from Read the rest of this entry »