life of a network administrator - rew

jobs jobs...not steve either

2006-02-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

I have been super busy! I got a new job and am getting ready to go into that. I have been informed that 30 days is handbook required time to break contract, so I have actually put the final date @3/31, with my last actual workday being the 27th (I wanted my spring break paid for!). I am very excited about my new job and look forward to a great new start with a great company and even better environment. Here is a hint...I get to work at home. I did get an offer to work on the "Death Star" (the company name starts with a "C" and is dreaded by many educational IT Staff), but I chose the home-office setup. I think I will be far happier with it in the end. I am thankful for the great and truly AWESOME things that God had done in my life. He even gave me the choice of prime positions with two great opportunities; two offers within 2 days of each other! I am truly thankful for the people that I have worked with, met, and be able to call friend on my journey at st. johns. I truly hope that I can continue to rely upon those who I have surrounded myself with, as each of them is a truly dear friend, whom I will always have. I will be starting a new blog and post the link when I choose a name...I am not a network administrator come April. st. johns is pretty much the only job I have had, from contract and parttime, to the full time positions I have help over the last 3 years, and for that I am truly thankful too. We may have had rocky moments here, but they are always memorable...(damn that WiFi) :) .

Ask if you want to know more...Call me if you know the number!

rew

the man...at it yet again

2006-01-09T20:57:00.000-05:00

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/preview/default.mspx

Well, I am talking about Microsoft's predetory nature. Well...I wonder what cool things people are doing with our products that we can do and pocket the increase, while alienating and confusing people?

the man

2005-12-15T12:04:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Not much to say; sorry no postie;

tomorrow is 5 yr anniversary, Bill's birthday, and Bill's graduation.

Congrats to Bill on both.

I am gearing up to start making some money (short term) in order to go to SCT Banner Summit, a 4 day conference with great presentations. I figure with hotel and everything it will be $1600.00, and considering that I have told my boss that I am casually looking for other employment, he said that I and R1 are not going. I told him I was going to make the money and go anyway. I figure that I will end up going to learn, not play golf.

Anyway.

Nathan, Ris and I will pray that the wonderful China opportunity comes to fruition.

Post if you want to discuss anything, I don't care what about, but I usually don't flow well unless prompted.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

on microsoft

2005-10-11T08:30:00.000-05:00

if you build it, they will...

buy it
copy it
steal it

Choose all that apply.

For those who don't know, there is some great software called Deep Freeze produced by Faronics. Created specifically for educational environments, Deep Freeze basically consists of a journaling FS layered over top of Windows volumes. When you reboot, any changes are wiped out. Well, not to be out done, MS has now released their "Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP" (SCTXP) [read as: Deep Freeze that's better and cheaper {read: free}]. In my own testing I found some things out about this great new product from MS, and some problems. First, I think that it is great the MS has decided to produce this software, as it makes sense to integrate it at the kernel / FS level. Second, they, from the user standpoint, have done a little bit more with the client-side implementation, as SCTXP presents the additional options "Retain changes on reboot" and "Save changes to disk on reboot", where as Deep Freeze requires a reboot to change states (Frozen/Unfrozen). The problem is that from the user (read instructor) point-of-view, they may download a piece of software and load it. With Deep Freeze, their testing would be limited to until the next reboot, killing any chances of testing software that requires a reboot before use. With SCTXP, the user can retain those changes through reboots, testing the software as much as he/she requires. After said testing is done, with Deep Freeze, to make those changes permanent, a reboot would be required to Unfreeze, then reinstall and configure the software, then refreeze. With SCTXP, if the user decides he/she likes and wants to keep using the software as setup, then they may change the state from "Retain..." to "Save..." [read as "Keep journal around through reboots" and "Write journal to FS permanently"]. Faronics hopefully will add this, as it should not be that hard for them to implement this feature, save a little boot time overhead maybe. The downer to SCTXP though, is the management. Currently there are no network management tools for SCTXP as there are for Deep Freeze, which may give Faronics the upper hand until they too can implement the changes required to keep pace. Sure...they'll say that in large school environments, these new options presented by MS in SCTXP will probably be useless in the student labs. My answer to that is that with these options, Deep Freeze would be suited to EVERY desktop, student or instructor...school or enterprise.

Heck, I know one NAZI that might just go for it as it is...He's probably downloading it now.

tempus fugits

whooda thunkit

2005-09-23T20:20:00.000-05:00

...a post about being a network admin.

Yesterday I had to give a lecture on the importance of being thorough. The offending party told me that "the server [x] is down in [y]". The following dialogue ensued:

Me: Are you sure that [x] is really down in [y]?
Person: Yes
Me: Are you really sure?
Person: Yes. I was remoted into it and then my connection was dropped and I can't reach it anymore. I tried pinging it and it didn't respond. Do we need to schedule someone to go over and bring it back up?
Me: Are you certain that it is the server and not the firewall?
Person: {puzzled look} huh?
Me: Network, VPN, ... that stuff?
Person: I didn't think so.
Me: Did you try and reach anything else in [y]?
Person: What else is there?
Me: Server [z], clients, switches, core, their firewall...
Person: Oh
Me: In fact maybe I should check...
Me: Yes, the firewall is unreachable, an entirely different problem.
Person: Ahhh
Me: It is important [person] that when you tell me something is down, that that is the actual problem. I need to be able to trust you with that. I am not getting on your case; I just need to know the correct diagnosis. It's ok not to know what caused it, just know what it is.

This is not to offend said party, simply explain that trials (and trails) that I deal with as 1/8th of a network administrator.

tempus fugits

one down

2005-09-21T19:30:00.000-05:00

one to go...

I haven't posted in a week, with good reason. I studied, diligently, to much avail. With God's help I am now an Oracle DBA OCA (Oracle Certified Associate). That also means that the only thing between me and the OCP is the test and a hands-on class (required with the 10g certification now; I guess too many people were getting by with just study guides and Oracle wanted to get a little bit more mullah!). Good thing is that work should pay for the class.

Plus I got to see some pictures of TexasNewsome's office setup (complete with The Dew properly placed on a moisture disappaiting coaster).

Also my friend Chris and his wife Crystal are expected a wonderful bundle of joy! Congrats to both of them.

tempus fugits

song of the day

2005-09-14T19:52:00.000-05:00

Audio Adrenaline's Mighty Good Leader

He's on the way.

I don't know how I could deal with everyday life save for the blessings of peace, comfort, and companionship that the Lord has given me. That having been said, one more project almost in the can (one more monkey) and I still don't like inventory. I am looking forward to us finishing inventory tomorrow, however. I am also glad to see that the project I talked of finishing yesterday didn't bite me in the backside. I thought it did this morning, but that is an oversight that I'll have to overcome. I often find myself overcoming stuff (read: people) that bites (read: stabs) me in the back.

On a side note, not to compare to my comrade nathan, but I said this entire time that Ophelia was going to head to North Carolina, I think to prove my point, at least to myself. Maybe I am just rationalizing, eh? Some may know of what I speak. Don't mention it by name, as I haven't let everybody know about that yet. On that particular subject, however, another opportunity may present itself anyway; God is great and marvelous.

tempus fugits

tuesday; normally a stress day...but

2005-09-13T20:00:00.000-05:00

...I haven't been to work in 4 days and on saturday I got a good, head-bangin' 4 hour stent of my fav radio station (radio y). Euphoria has set in. I am extremely happy, attentive to my wife, and...not looking forward to tomorrow.

But some good news. I have now torn the thorn from my side and finished one of my projects (ask if you care). Not, however, the project that I wanted to complete, but definitely good enough.

Since my recent good mood has upset some...I will be certain to post tomorrow, as work may have fully consumed my glee, and life as 1/8th of a network administrator can be hard [read: pity me NOW].

More tomorrow...tempus fugits

this is the day

2005-09-11T21:27:00.000-05:00

...that the Lord hath made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Today I would like to take a little time to truly thank the Lord for all of the blessings he has given me.

A wonderful family, great friends, good coworkers.

Most of all, a wonderful wife whom I love very much!

inventory…clarification

2005-09-09T11:40:00.000-05:00

This is a public memorandum for immediate release regarding my previous comments on Inventory.

I don’t dislike having inventory.

Inventory is stuff. Some stuff is not so cool, but other stuff is way cool. Think tractors, tablet pc's, and stoves. The part of stuff I don’t like is the constant stacking, sorting, moving, labeling, recording, and tracking. Ever tried stacking tractors, tablet pc's, and stoves? Not pretty. How about sorting; do you go alphabetically? by size? maybe by coolness factor? Yes, definitely coolness factor. [For those wondering, that would be tablet pc, tractor, stove]

I apologize to any "inventory" that may have been offended in any way by my previous comments. Although these comments should have been removed from this site and stricken from the record, have not because, well...I am a jerk.

inventory how I loathe thee...let me count the ways

2005-09-08T20:31:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned how much I do not, Do Not, DO NOT like inventory?

What you need to do in order to imagine our inventory process is a three step process:

Imagine the most painful thing in the world.
Multiply that by the number of managers (think 3 or more), as all have their say of how crappy one or more of the following are:

Your speed
Your accuracy
Your attitude

Now pick a number between 1 and 4, and that is the likeliness that you are the one it all falls on.

Have you adjusted your attitude lately?

office antics

2005-09-07T20:52:00.000-05:00

I like to have fun and can be sarcastic at times. Everything contained in these articles are for your personal use and enjoyment only. Please refrain from tapping on the glass and using flash photography. Cell phone use is not permitted, and cigarettes are banned too.

I am rew, a Network Administrator at a edited in Florida and I deal with users on a daily basis.

By the way, for all future comparisons, please remember that

people are people
users are evil

people use technology

users abuse technology

Consider yourselves warned.

therapy...redefined

2005-09-07T20:13:00.000-05:00

don't be fooled or disillusioned. don't worried or discouraged.

This is my new blog...ha ha ha. It is my way of venting. Actually, it is a possible precursor to a book I am planning (not really, I like to dream too).

Updates of my "office antics" will be on display; of course the names will be changed to protect the indecent.

rew