As I've alluded to in other posts, I'm now working at Cisco Systems doing consulting on their Active Directory infrastructure.
I'm commuting from Seattle on a weekly basis, which is interesting. I fly down on Monday morning and leave Friday evenings. Alaska Airlines has a 6:25am flight from Seattle to San Jose. That means waking up at 4am. The flight is listed at just under hours, but so far, it’s never taken more than a hour and a half. I’m out of the San Jose airport by 8:40am. From there it’s the #10 bus to the Metro light rail station on First Street. I take the train going north and transfer to another train going East. My building at Cisco is #12 and there is a light rail station about 100 feet from the entrance. This week I was into the office by 9am.
On Friday's, Alaska used to have near hourly flights leaving to Seattle, but now has one at 3:15 and the next one is at 6:55pm. Anthea picks me up shortly after 9pm and we're home by 10pm. The flights haven't been too bad so far, but it's crowded on the Friday evening flights.
I’ve been experimenting with different hotels. This is week #4 and I’m in my fourth different hotel. The closest one on the map is the Homestead Village in Milpitas. It’s about a mile and half walk, which I don’t mind if I’m in shorts and a t-shirt. But with jeans, a polo and lugging my computer bag, it’s not optimal. However, the #33 bus goes by the hotel every half hour, and then right by building 12 a few minutes later, so that works out well.
The Homestead Village is okay, and has high-speed internet access via wired and wireless connections. It’s $10 a day though via the ARESCOM folks. It works okay, but you have to re-login each power cycle. The wireless feature is very nice.
The disadvantage of this particular hotel is that there is no food nearby. There is a bunch of fast food a half-mile away, but you have to get there via an overpass over the 237 interstate. There is a Borders store there as well, which is nice. The #33 bus goes by this area too.
This week, I’m in the Comfort Suites on First Street. This is a recently renovated hotel, and is small, but nicely appointed. There is a Denny’s next door. It’s about 5 miles south of Cisco, but there is a light rail station about 250 yards away. There are a number of cheaper hotels in this area too, probably without the high speed internet, but I get that for free from work ;)
I’ll write more about Cisco soon. Having spent much of my working career at Microsoft in various roles, I’m adjusting to the cultural difference here. So far, the experience is going very well.