Final day with MLC, new day with Readify

Today is both a sad day and an exciting day. Today was my final day of employment with MLC (MLC is owned by the National Australia Bank).

I’ve had five years with MLC – far longer than any of my previous roles (< 2 years each at Deutsche Asset Management, Colonial, Bankers Trust and QANTAS IT). Many of MLC’s personnel policies (leave etc) are by far the best I have ever experienced. This, coupled with a great set of co-workers at MLC, makes today a sad day.

After around 10 years working solely in financial services organisations, the move to Readify is a significant shift out of my comfort zone. This is incredibly exciting (and petrifying at the same time).

I will be having three weeks ‘break’ before starting with Readify. One week of this will be a real holiday – the other two weeks will be personal study time to refresh with C# and get a head start on ASP.NET (my experience is predominantly WinForms and VB.NET). I am planning to work through Stephen Walther’s ASP.NET Unleashed 3.5, Dino Esposito’s Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET and possibly Andrew Parsons’ Professional Visual Studio 2005 before starting with Readify. As well as study, I will be attempting to fumble my way through the Readify induction process (organise SIM cards, configure Outlook, borrow a laptop, get software licences etc etc).

Thankfully a number of Readify staff have posted and sent me advice about the issues in my first blog post. I have decided on a 21GB plan for now (with no wireless 3G internet) – if its not enough I’ll bump it up to 60GB down the track. I don’t have to think about buying a laptop or phone for 3 months, so I’ll worry about them later. I’ve decided to go with the ASUS WL-500W (and might as well throw in those headphones I’ve been meaning to compare to the excellent PX100).

Given I have no actual valuable content to provide to you, here are some useful (?) tidbits about me you may find of interest:

• I have been married for 6.5 years and have three children – all boys (eldest is 4 years, youngest is 8 months).
• My current favourite piece of tech is my Zune 30 (if you listen to alot of podcasts, the Zune software and hardware is fantastic).
• I am a Christian (having been converted just after finishing uni), and currently attend Panania Anglican Church (our web site could really do with some work!).
• My eccentricities (well, those I am prepared to admit to) include:
  • a love for bargains,
  • a penchant for extolling the virtues of VoIP,
  • and a love of all things cold, black and caffeinated.

• I love to read, both online and books (although the Zune has reduced this somewhat, due to podcasts such as Hanselminutes).
• Most of my IT career has been in financial organisations, using predominantly Visual Basic (VB 3+) and SQL Server.
• I am technically still a MCSD (according to Microsoft), although I am not sure how useful those VB 5/6 and SQL Server 6.5/7 exams are now. (I really need to take advantage of Second Shot to finish off my MCAD or get moving on MCTS).

Obligatory first post – don’t expect Shakespeare

In preparation for my start with Readify in March 2008, now seemed as good a time as any to actually start my own blog.

While I read plenty (200+) of blogs, I’ve never really considered starting my own. But I figure with the shift to the virtual workforce, it might be worth playing around with the concept a little. At the very least it will give the rest of Readify an insight into my thoughts and what I have been up to. It remains to be seen whether this is a good or a bad thing.

This post is really more of a stream of consciousness for me to note down what I need to do in preparation for the move to Readify:

• Decide on any shift in internet plans. At this stage I am on Optus cable on the older ‘yes’ Sprint plan for about $36 a month – 2GB peak, 4GB offpeak (128kbps upload). This is currently fine for me – I only use the internet for light browsing and downloading podcasts for my Zune. But a shift to ‘yes’ Advantage for $45 a month may be in order – 7GB peak, 14GB offpeak (256kbps upload). That coupled with Vodafone’s 5GB mobile broadband for $39 a month is likely to cover most of my requirements (I think). Based on feedback I have been getting on the poor performance of Vodafone’s offering, I am leaning instead towards 20GB peak, 40GB offpeak with Optus cable, and no mobile solution.
• Setup new banking arrangements. If I ever work for a financial institution again and consider getting a credit card or variable interest rate loan with them, please smack me in the head (especially considering that our tax system calculates the reportable fringe benefit amount based on the statutory interest rate rather than the actual staff discount on the loan). Having to contact my telco, ISP, VoIP provider etc etc to give them new credit card details is going to suck. I should have just stuck with the Credit Union. Grrr.
• Decide on a new phone to buy. I’ve historically been a cheapskate on the mobile phone front. I’ve generally bought cheap Nokia phones and used prepaid SIM cards. Now I need to find one with Windows Mobile, (and hopefully GPS). But which to choose? And how long will I be able to hold out until replacing it with a Xperia?
• Decide on a new laptop to buy. I currently only have one laptop in the house, and that is to use as a portable DVD player for long trips in the car (for the kids). It sure isn’t useful for anything practical (256MB RAM – woohoo). I have to wait until my probationary period finishes up anyway – so maybe better to wait and see what the new Penryn-based models look like…
• Decide on a wireless router for at home. The ASUS WL-500gP and Linksys WRT54GL look to be the most appropriate. I generally prefer Linksys hardware (my VoIP box is a Linksys SPA3102) but the ASUS does include USB ports to allow sharing of USB printers (or sharing of 3G USB modems if you are willing to use third party firmware). Of course the Draytek Vigor 2910 would be a good option too – but at more than double the price we might have to knock it out of the running. Decisions, decisions…