Re: [tlug] What is the Sysadmin pager these days?

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

> I remember that an alphanumeric pager used to be the standard tool of the
> trade as it was;
> 1. Loud as hell
> 2. Got reception everywhere
> 3. Enabled you to see exactly what the alert was when you got it.
> 4. Fairly small, so it wouldn't take up much space in your pocket
> 5. Battery life measured in weeks not hours

I hated pagers. I still remember the party the day I handed back my last
one. (Of course the functionality was perfect for the task, as you
describe above: it was that I slept next to it, as a symbol of being
on-call, that I hated.)

I wonder how much the monthly contract on a pager is? It might be better
to get a dedicated smartphone contract, as the smartphone brings
advantages that the pager does not have.

For instance, though it has been fiddly, I've done ssh terminal work on
an android phone, while on a train, and also while hiking.  (It helps, I
think, that my phone is one with the slide-out keyboard.) I've also used
the remote desktop app on the same phone to check and restart apps on a
Windows server machine. That was more painful, but only took about twice
as long as it does from my notebook.


Darren