Hello <insert your name here>,
it is now Friday evening and the first days of work at the NMNI (National Museums of Norther Ireland) are over. As most of you can probably guess I am working in the IT-Department of the NMNI which only consists of Gordon, Robin, Graham and Keith, who only does audio and video related work.
My first thought, when I heard I was going to work at a Museum, was <sarcasm>“Great working at the Museum can only mean first level support.“</sarcasm> but as it turns out a was so far off. The thing is the IT-Department is responsible for everything inside the NMNI which is , even if it is only remotely, related to Computers, Networks, Server and etc.
The department is situated in Cultra, which is located near Hollywood (yes there is a town outside Belfast called Hollywood ;)), and I have to take the train to work. It is a really convenient way to work, I get on the train at Botanic (5 minute walk from the apartment) and get of at Cultra.
On Tuesday I had my first workday which basically meant to be introduced to everyone, setting up my work place and getting to know the place and everything. On Wednesday and Thursday I tried to get hang of how things work and trying to understand the infrastructure of the NMNI. Besides that I got to work with DrayTek SOHO VPN-routers which I will implement in the following few weeks, the goal is to achieve a VPN connection between Cultra and Armagh (70 miles outside of Belfast).
Today I met with Graham and worked at the Ulster Museum until noon because we some had some tickets to attend to, e.g some hotdesk PCs weren’t supposed to be working (as it turned out they worked perfectly fine). After that we went back to Cultra and had to sit out the 2 hour server shutdown because of maintenance at the SAN arrays.
All in all it is a I can say I got lucky with my placement, I really like the familiar atmosphere and that my workplace is surrounded by green is a nice bonus.
And if someone is curios the weather in Belfast is a nice british grey with hints of rain 😉 And if you will excuse me now I have a beer to attend to 😀
Yours sincerely
Tobias
P.S I will try to post new blog entries every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, if anyone cares ;p
