I have been far too silent for far too long. (of course some would say that there is no such thing as “too” silent, since silence is defined as the absence of sound. Thus it would be difficult to have different levels of NO sound, but anyway…..)
Several things have happened since the last posts on here. War has broke out, we have fiber up and running at our schools, I have seen GigE in action, starting to feel like a server administrator again, job opening at WKU, good news on the EdCo job front, Cisco Class moving along, new PC coming, WebVCR machine running at work, article submission, fan mouse, poison ivy, and the return of Brock Umland to KY today.
Lets see if I can tidy things up a bit around here…….
Fiber: Yeah baby!!!! Fiber between over half our schools. Works great. There has been several network outages as we rebuild and completely restructure the network. So far things have been what I like to call “BAD ASS”.
GigE: Gigabit Ethernet for those not into networking. I have it to my desktop and all of my servers right now. Coupled with the Gigabit Fiber links and the district has gigabit all the way out to every wiring closet. After that it is mostly 100 meg to the desktop. Pulling data off of a IDE drive I can actually max out the drive and not the network. I am beginning tests against SCSI arrays to see how that goes. Right now I can transfer a CD to my boss’s machine faster than I can eject the cd from my machine and carry it over to his, which is the way networking should be. 🙂
Starting to feel like a server administrator again: With the fiber links and bringing sites up on that, we have started to move servers over to our office. We have been downing them and replacing pieces and stuff constantly. Doing it all with complete disregard for users and their needs. Ah great to be back in the saddle. 🙂 Actually though other than random Windows-networking-not-refreshing kinda issues stuff has went pretty smoothly. Hardest part was getting the Compaq server in the trunk of my car to move it.
Job opening at WKU: WKU has a new job opening that really reads like it is for me. Add onto that the 5000 dollars more that it pays and I am thinking I might be a little interested in what they have to say. Might be kinda cool to be back on the hill again.
Cisco Class: Moving right along….(insert rest of Muppets Song…) Class is going well. We had our first field trip the other day. Of course it was just over to our office to see our new stuff, but hey oh well.
new PC coming: Thats right. What I have decided to call Mirage is on its way. Like Gears it will also be a laptop, but as per its namesake if you rotate it in the middle it becomes a tablet PC. How cool is that? It is actually a Toshiba Protege 3500. If you notice there the list prices you will see that mine is $2,299.00. Well every now and then you can get a good deal on ebay and mine is new-in-box for $1,500.00 +SH. A considerable discount I would say, especially since I haven’t found them anywhere for less than $2,099.00.
WebVCR Runnning at Work: Not much to say here. Got a Linux machine running WebVCR that is recording lots of stuff for me. I have already forgot how I lived with out it. Mnnnmmmmm…Daily Show……
Article Submission: Submitted a write up about MusicStorm to http://www.newpenguintimes.com/ Hopefully it will become something of a regular event.
Fan Mouse: Made a fan mouse for one of the guys that helped with our fiber. It is pretty sweet. I didn’t just stop at the mouse-that-has-a-fan idea, but added a three-way switch and a button that activates the fan at one of the switch settings. Unfortunately, while building it I broke the mouse functionallity. Gonna have to figure out what is up with that. Pictures to follow soon.
I have poison ivy: And man does it suck. I haven’t been able to shave for about 4 days since it is on the side of my face and I am afraid I might make it spread. Looking kinda scruffy.
Brock Umland (of Shogun Fame) returns to KY today: Mark Hicks (of JMHwebbing fame) has found some stuff about a building for a business and Brock is headed over here to check some stuff out. I’ll let you guys know what all goes down.