Diary of a Network Geek

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

I LOVE Friday the Thirteenth!
Why? Well, mainly because I'm perverse and everyone else seems to distrust it. Also, over the years, I've complained about my bad luck so often that I used to say the only time I had good luck was when everyone else had bad luck. So, Friday the Thirteenth, became one of my "lucky" days. Not sure how this one will turn out, but I'm hoping for the best!
Oh, and here's a link to why everyone else is afraid of Friday the Thirteenth.

Hey, why not click that link. After all, what else could go wrong today?

I'm starting to feel like the Grim Reaper again...
So, one of the guys a level above me in the food-chain at work starts asking me some cagey questions this morning before lunch. I start to get nervous, thinking that they expected me to have the server migrated by now or something crazy like that. But, no, when I get back from lunch he asks me to disable the accounts of the guy who used to do my full-time job part-time. He's no longer with the company. Ah-ha! Suddenly all those questions Tuesday about security and security concerns make sense. I still need to address some of them in the long-term, though. Things like having actual names for user names and forced password rotation. Little details like that...
Yeah, I'm working with a blank slate here in regards to an IT infrastructure. Sure, it's a pretty messy blank slate, but still, there's no where to go but up and I get to steer the IT boat, so to speak. Not a bad gig, if you can get it. Especially if you can get it without selling your soul or relying on nepotisim. Though, I have to admit, if I had a rich dad who could get me a cushy gig with little or no effort on my part, I wouldn't kick about it! (Too bad he's happily retired.)

I love Dr. Suess, but all he did was inspire the title.
I have two concerns this week: Linux servers and security. I've installed a test RedHat server and configured Samba on it, so now I can start testing how the accounting system will run from a mapped Linux drive. And, I'll be testing the custom, in-house app that gives us our competitive edge. I've got server spec to get to the boss, when he's in the office again, but I'm still waiting on pricing for a Linux-based backup system. It was actually much easier to get setup than I thought it would be. Though security may be an issue, since, essentially, Samba emulates Windows sharing on a Linux platform.
Security is my second issue. There's a basic firewall in place on the router, but I don't think that's enough, especially if we want to block "adult" sites. And, since we do actually have a policy against that sort of thing, we do. So, eventually, I need to get that all spec-ed out and installed, too. And tested. Yeah, a little scan against our outside link would be interesting to look at, especially if I do it before and after. Ah, well, that's down the line. First, I have to get the server upgraded.
Oh, and I still need to evaluate Novell's Open Server on Linux before I decide which way to go for an OS on the new server. I know I want to avoid a Microsoft product, if at all possible. Frankly, it looks like it should be a real possibility. It all depends on how testing goes this week, so we'll see. That and getting a CD burner at the office so I can burn the demo ISOs and install them.
Then, there are all the "little" projects that everyone keeps bringing me, not to mention all the nice G4s and assorted Macintrash... Ah, the work of a one-person IT department is never done. But, somehow, having easily defined goals makes the work more fulfilling. I know where I'm going and how I'm going to get there, so it's all okay.
(The Suess book, by the way, was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and a childhood favorite.)

Test your skills!
Well, since it's hacking IIS 6, I'm not sure how much of a "challenge" it will be, but, still, the "Hack IIS 6 Contest" sounds like a bit of fun. The goal, obviously, is to crack a publicly available Internet Information Server 6 that the contest organizers have setup. They claim to have set it up as they would expect the "average" Windows Admin would have configured it. The goal is a simple defacement or the reading of a "hidden" document. The prize is an XBOX.
If I had more time, it might be fun. Of course, I'm not really a hacker, nor have I ever claimed to be a hacker. My "skillz" are so out of date that the last time I did any "security testing" was back in the days of the BBS. Remember those? Ah, the good old days... And, to be honest, even then I was little more than a clever script-kiddie. (On the other hand, there have been those who accused Kevin Mitnic of being little more than a well-connected, persistent, script-kiddie, too, so I guess I'm in good company!) But, for you young'uns that might be a little bit more spry than Old Man River, it could be a fun challenge.
The contest runs through June 8, 2005.

Yikes! I almost missed it!
Well, actually, I will because I'm just too busy this weekend, but you, my faithful readers, will not have to miss Free Comic Book Day! So, quickly, before all the good ones are gone, find yourself a local comic shop and get your free comic! (Okay, check first to see if they're participating, because not everyone is.)
C'mon, it's a kind of literacy! It helps your spelling, I promise. Don't use me as an example, I started reading Larry Niven in the Fifth Grade. If I'd started with comics, my spelling would have been better.
Honest. You can trust me. I would not lie about something as important as this.

There's a frightening, new people search engine in beta.
It's called ZabaSearch, which is Greek for something. Frankly, I don't care what it's Greek for, but this thing rocks! I don't know how long it will be free or in beta, but it's frighteningly good. I always use certain people to search on as a test of the people searcher. Myself, of course, and a few old friends. And, yes, I have to admit it, an old girlfriend from college or two. But, here's the thing. None of the other people finders have ever actually found some of these people. Until now.
So, now I've found an old flame. Someone that I would think about when relationships would get rocky. When I'd be sad and lonely, I'd find myself wondering what she was doing and who she was with. Now, I've found her. And, yes, I'm pretty sure it's her because she has an unusual name and the address is in the general area where I heard from her last. How many "Gaylenes" can there be? Even in San Francisco?
So, I've found the girl I always thought of as "the one that got away". Do I call her or not?

No, trust me, this is really cool.
Okay, Gizmodo had this on their site weeks and weeks ago, but now, you can actually buy it. And, I just may. It's the VooDoo Knife Holder, and, as I said, it's for sale, or it will be in June. You can get it here. Though, you have to put down a $20 deposit, according to the article, and you can contact the company who makes it, ViceVersa, at this page, if you can manage the Italian. The total is going to be $40, but, I think it's worth it for the shock value. And, when I start dating again, it will be a good test of my future wife's sense of humor. If she doesn't find the VooDoo Knife Holder amusing, she won't be my future wife.

Anyway, it's been another crazy week and we all made it to Friday, so go ahead and click the link. You know you want to do it!

I've been blogging, in one form or another, for five years now.
Wow. That's a lot of meaningless nonesense spewed, eh? Take a look back through the archives and see what I've babbled about over the years. It's occasionally interesting. Do a search on "black helicopters" and see what turns up, for instance. Freaky.
We've seen a lot of changes over the years, this blog and I. I don't really know how many readers I've had over the years, though I know some of you have followed my rantings for quite some time. I've changed just about everything on this site since I first started, including blogging software! And, I've made more than a few changes in my personal life, too. It really is interesting to look back over some of the archives to see what I was concerned with four or five years ago. Very different than my concerns today. Shoot, everything in my life is different now than it was five years ago. I never realized just how much could change in that short amount of time before. Freaky, indeed.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed the ride so far. I've tried to keep it upbeat and interesting, if occasionally somewhat salacious. I hope you'll stick with me for the next five years, at least. I promise, it'll be just as crazy and strange as the last five have been!

Looks like I'm going to be a Unix admin!
Yeah, it definately looks like we'll be using some form of Linux at the new place. If not Novell's Open Enterprise Server on Linux, then Red Hat Advanced Server. Of course, I'll end up running SMB as a Windows PDC, for the login scripts, but, hey, at least I can do it! And, it almost sounded like the boss was actually leaning toward Novell's solution. It actually worked out to be about the same, cost-wise, as Red Hat. Though, the Novell pricing doesn't include any support if anything went wrong. But, I suppose we could pay by incident. I mean, I hardly ever call Novell anyway these days. Their online knowlegebase has most of the answers I need.
And, of course, there's all the Mac and OS X stuff, too. That's BSD, essentially, with a Mac X Windows front end. Funny, it all comes around to that GUI, doesn't it? All point and click. Oh, for the good, old days when all we had was a command prompt and we were darn lucky when we got that! These kids today don't have any appreciation for what a good command prompt can do. Why, I remember, back in the "before time", messing around on an old HP-UX system and figuring out how to read mail from reading the man file! So, here I am, again, back where I started, about to become a Unix admin again.

Cool.