Recently in Offtopic Category
I renewed my GIAC certification in Securing Windows today. When renewing a GIAC for the renewal fee you also get access to course materials (mp3s and the course books). I found it a bit dificult to listen to the MP3s. I did notice that when I took the course live I think there was some "you need to know this" where as this time around the only guidance toward the test was "everything in the workbooks."
GIAC certifications now require proctored tests. They are still open book, but you can't use electronic books. The answer isn't as easy to find when you can't just find it by searching PDF files. The test is 150 questions and you have a four hour limit.
I struggled a bit with IPSec, RRAS and PKI, but did fine over all. I'm glad I don't have to do that again for another four years.
looks like someone forgot to renew grandcentral.com. doh!
http://www.iptools.com/dnstools.php?tool=whois&user_data=grandcentral.com
Domain Name: GRANDCENTRAL.COM
Registrar: EASYDNS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Whois Server: whois.easydns.com
Referral URL: http://www.easydns.com
Name Server: NS1.EASYDNS.COM
Name Server: NS2.EASYDNS.COM
Name Server: NS6.EASYDNS.NET
Name Server: REMOTE1.EASYDNS.COM
Name Server: REMOTE2.EASYDNS.COM
Status: clientHold Updated Date: 20-may-2008
Creation Date: 19-may-1997
Expiration Date: 20-may-2008
A commenter asked for advise in starting his own blog.
The first step in starting a blog is deciding what its going to be about. Is it going to be about everything, your life, or just one topic. While some people post about everything, and separate their topics in categories, I think a work related blog like this should stay on topic. People came here a specific reason. They dont necessarily want to hear how my day was, what the dog did on the carpet, or what I think of Hillary. To do otherwise is kind of self-indulgent and abuses the loyal readers.
A lot of bloggers give their full name or use real whois info if they buy a domain. If the purpose of your blog is self-promotion, than you'll have to attach your name to your opinions. I think when your real name is attached to your blog, it makes it more difficult to blog about work. Its too easy for someone to gather information about the company you work for. Even if you blog pseudonymously, I would recommend blogging as if who you write about will read it later. You dont want your management, co-workers, etc mad at you later if you do end up sharing the URL with them.
When it comes to setting up a blog you can go with a hosted solution (typepad, blogger) or you can go buy hosting space and set it up yourself (movabletype, wordpress). I use movabletype although wordpress seems much more popular. I enjoy tweaking the design templates, installing plugins and doing the upgrades.
In terms of content, original content is preferred over linking. If your blog contains nothing but links, why should I read your stuff? There are already a ton of blogs out there with little to no original content. Yeah, it annoys me that they get more visits based on their (copyright violation) cut and paste of other people's work. When you do link, have a opinion and insight. Keep your quotes brief and clearly labeled. If your target audience is the general public then its not as bad to spend time aggregating data for them. Ultimately though if you're blogging for the right reasons, then post what makes you happy.
In terms of promotion, I am really antispam and gaining eyeballs wasn't my goal in writing. I added a link to this site in my sig on a couple of sites where I was already a member and frequent poster and I made sure google found my site. That's about it.
So that is my two cents. There are plenty of articles out there on 'movabletype versus wordpress' or other things like 'getting your blog noticed'.
These bring back some memories
Fred, I promised someone remote access. What is remote access...
I opened that virus, just like you told us not to...
I'm taking user error to a whole new level...
The following post was originally written in June but not posted. I was stressing out about our Full Disk Encryption selection. I didn't want to talk to the Snr Manager for a few days after this dream. I can laugh about it now.
I had a dream last night that I got fired. It was so real.
We were trying to deploy an update to some software that I'm not responsible for in real life. My Senior Manager said to install it on the server so all the clients would get the updates. I responded that didn't make any sense, we would have to deploy to each client. In my dream, the Senior Manager said, "that's it, you're through" and asked a co-worker to help me clean up my office.
