Feb 22nd
Nights in the Technical Operations Centre are strange, the thrill and buzz of the Olympic events from the day slow down and fade. People talk not of the technical side of things but of their families and homes across the nation and around the world. There are people here from Spain, England, Pakistan, Brazil, China and the USA to name a few; also from Manitoba, Ontario, PEI, Alberta and the Yukon in Canada. I’ve heard stories about dog sledding and cliff jumping, skiing in the Alps and snowmobiling the back country. The diversity of the Olympic Games is shown in this one room. It’s a point when Acer’s computers start to show their other side, as people begin to watch movies, play games online and go on to social networking sites for entertainment. Our systems move away from their day to day of delivering the technical and begin delivering the multimedia experience instead.
Feb 17th
Starting out the night – a 12 hour shift ahead; the Technical Operation Centre is watching the end of the Men’s Hockey games and I am settling in counting how many open trouble tickets we have between the venues. It’s astounding that with over 6300 PC’s out there we have 6 tickets open! That’s 0.15 of a Percent that are experiencing trouble. I would challenge any IT shop to show us those results.
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27 Minutes away from finishing a 12 hour overnight shift in the Technical Operations Centre. I spent a good portion of my night making work and looking for things to accomplish. It’s hard when all this Acer equipment keeps on going without fail, as a tech I want something to fix.
Feb 16th
I was on an overnight shift today, working in the Technical Operations Centre and at one point took a walk to the helpdesk to see how things were going for them. One of the helpdesk supervisors was leaning back in his chair and the rest were looking relaxed and comfortable. The remark came. “This stuff, your computers… can you go out and enable a kill switch or something? Nothing is breaking and we’ve got nothing to do”. I said “Sorry fellas; I’d rather see you bored than busy”.
It’s been truly amazing how this has all come together in the last few weeks, the people and the equipment. We have thousands of computers out there, checking in workforce, providing info to broadcasters and delivering results. Day after Day we are watching the helpdesks at all the venues smooth out and reduce, proving that our systems are working at peak performance. We are in fact delivering excellence.
Feb 15th
Today at Whistler Olympic Park we had a service call where a woman with one of the NOC’s was watching her team on the Ski Jump; she got so excited she jumped up and spilled soup on her TravelMate laptop. Our tech investigated the call and upon inspection he decided that although it was still functional; it was full of soup and we needed to replace the laptop. Well the customer was adamant that we not take this machine away. She insisted that if an Acer machine could stand up to this and keep working that she wanted to keep it until the end of the Games.
Feb 14th
Tonight we watched the Women’s hockey on the big screen in the TOC, Canada VS Slovakia and the absolute trouncing they handed out was intense. 18-0!! Can you believe that? An Olympic record set not in time or distance but in how many goals they put in that net. It was almost hard to watch; knowing that this was the first ever Olympic appearance for Slovakia and they were up against the greatest Women’s Hockey Team in the world. It was a rough first day but hey, some times trial by fire breeds success in the ashes.
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The worlds fastest track for Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton is now in service up in Whistler and the Atletes are flying down that track. There has been the unfortunate tragedy of the Georgian team losing one of their own; still the look on the crowd is one of sheer joy for the events. There’s rain and snow and it’s dark right now at the Whistler Sliding Centre but everyone is cheering, smiling and loving every moment of it.
During the World Cup sport event, a number of us here were lucky enough to be able to be track side while the training was going on. A few of us even tried in vain to take some pictures of the blur that was Men’s Luge. It’s truly astounding that these Athletes are able to hurdle down the track at beyond highway speeds and come out the other side. This is one sport where you have to understand that it doesn’t just take skill, training and quality sport products to compete. It take’s courage, nerve and someone… a little crazy.
Feb 13th.
In the last few days I have been privileged to watch the opening ceremonies of these Olympic Games in person, the first 24 hours of competition on TV and the Technical Operation Centre come %100 operational at work. It’s been amazing; the emotions felt during the opening ceremonies as a Canadian and as a member of Acer and Vanoc were immense and swelling with pride in both my country and our work.
Watching Biathlon, Speed Skating and Luge today I knew as the cameras panned over the commentary positions that those were Acer computers, handled by Acer’s staff in a building deployed by people that I have worked closely with over the last year. Similarly I was overcome with the same pride. I have never; in my life known such joy as this work has given. Such satisfaction in the job, the people and the product, it saddens me to know that even as this the Games are just beginning it is in a sense almost over.
A friend of mine once spoke of live music as something so special it was magical. That the tune that was created was something of only that moment in time and once heard, even by a million people, it would never be again. In a way I can liken this thought to our days here. There are moments of sport excellence that exist for that second, that tenth of a second only. The only difference is that here, like a studio, everything has replay button and we can watch the greatness unfold again and again and again….
Nights in the Technical Operations Centre are strange, the thrill and buzz of the Olympic events from the day slow down and fade. People talk not of the technical side of things but of their families and homes across the nation and around the world. There are people here from Spain, England, Pakistan, Brazil, China and the USA to name a few; also from Manitoba, Ontario, PEI, Alberta and the Yukon in Canada. I’ve heard stories about dog sledding and cliff jumping, skiing in the Alps and snowmobiling the back country. The diversity of the Olympic Games is shown in this one room. It’s a point when Acer’s computers start to show their other side, as people begin to watch movies, play games online and go on to social networking sites for entertainment. Our systems move away from their day to day of delivering the technical and begin delivering the multimedia experience instead.
Feb 17th
Starting out the night – a 12 hour shift ahead; the Technical Operation Centre is watching the end of the Men’s Hockey games and I am settling in counting how many open trouble tickets we have between the venues. It’s astounding that with over 6300 PC’s out there we have 6 tickets open! That’s 0.15 of a Percent that are experiencing trouble. I would challenge any IT shop to show us those results.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
27 Minutes away from finishing a 12 hour overnight shift in the Technical Operations Centre. I spent a good portion of my night making work and looking for things to accomplish. It’s hard when all this Acer equipment keeps on going without fail, as a tech I want something to fix.
Feb 16th
I was on an overnight shift today, working in the Technical Operations Centre and at one point took a walk to the helpdesk to see how things were going for them. One of the helpdesk supervisors was leaning back in his chair and the rest were looking relaxed and comfortable. The remark came. “This stuff, your computers… can you go out and enable a kill switch or something? Nothing is breaking and we’ve got nothing to do”. I said “Sorry fellas; I’d rather see you bored than busy”.
It’s been truly amazing how this has all come together in the last few weeks, the people and the equipment. We have thousands of computers out there, checking in workforce, providing info to broadcasters and delivering results. Day after Day we are watching the helpdesks at all the venues smooth out and reduce, proving that our systems are working at peak performance. We are in fact delivering excellence.
Feb 15th
Today at Whistler Olympic Park we had a service call where a woman with one of the NOC’s was watching her team on the Ski Jump; she got so excited she jumped up and spilled soup on her TravelMate laptop. Our tech investigated the call and upon inspection he decided that although it was still functional; it was full of soup and we needed to replace the laptop. Well the customer was adamant that we not take this machine away. She insisted that if an Acer machine could stand up to this and keep working that she wanted to keep it until the end of the Games.
Feb 14th
Tonight we watched the Women’s hockey on the big screen in the TOC, Canada VS Slovakia and the absolute trouncing they handed out was intense. 18-0!! Can you believe that? An Olympic record set not in time or distance but in how many goals they put in that net. It was almost hard to watch; knowing that this was the first ever Olympic appearance for Slovakia and they were up against the greatest Women’s Hockey Team in the world. It was a rough first day but hey, some times trial by fire breeds success in the ashes.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The worlds fastest track for Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton is now in service up in Whistler and the Atletes are flying down that track. There has been the unfortunate tragedy of the Georgian team losing one of their own; still the look on the crowd is one of sheer joy for the events. There’s rain and snow and it’s dark right now at the Whistler Sliding Centre but everyone is cheering, smiling and loving every moment of it.
During the World Cup sport event, a number of us here were lucky enough to be able to be track side while the training was going on. A few of us even tried in vain to take some pictures of the blur that was Men’s Luge. It’s truly astounding that these Athletes are able to hurdle down the track at beyond highway speeds and come out the other side. This is one sport where you have to understand that it doesn’t just take skill, training and quality sport products to compete. It take’s courage, nerve and someone… a little crazy.
Feb 13th.
In the last few days I have been privileged to watch the opening ceremonies of these Olympic Games in person, the first 24 hours of competition on TV and the Technical Operation Centre come %100 operational at work. It’s been amazing; the emotions felt during the opening ceremonies as a Canadian and as a member of Acer and Vanoc were immense and swelling with pride in both my country and our work.
Watching Biathlon, Speed Skating and Luge today I knew as the cameras panned over the commentary positions that those were Acer computers, handled by Acer’s staff in a building deployed by people that I have worked closely with over the last year. Similarly I was overcome with the same pride. I have never; in my life known such joy as this work has given. Such satisfaction in the job, the people and the product, it saddens me to know that even as this the Games are just beginning it is in a sense almost over.
A friend of mine once spoke of live music as something so special it was magical. That the tune that was created was something of only that moment in time and once heard, even by a million people, it would never be again. In a way I can liken this thought to our days here. There are moments of sport excellence that exist for that second, that tenth of a second only. The only difference is that here, like a studio, everything has replay button and we can watch the greatness unfold again and again and again….
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