Diary of a Network Geek

Last year, on this day, Warren Zevon died.

Warren Zevon was one of the most influental musicians of our time. The sad thing is, there are so many people who don't even know it. He wrote an amazing number of songs for other people to record. So many, that I don't know where I'd start. Of course, it was his own work that I loved the best. Nothing beats WZ singing "Piano Fighter" or "Seminole Bingo". I know for a time, I lived, or wanted to live, "Mr. Bad Example" for real. Unfortunately, he's known best for "Werewolves of London". Don't get me wrong, it's a great song, but it's just so little of what made WZ great. I mean, what can you say about a guy who's personal physician was Hunter Thompson! And had guys like Dave Barry coming to see him while he was dealing with the pain of his cancer. He was just a miracle of a man.
We miss you, Mr. Zevon, but thanks for the great music and memories you left behind.

You may have noticed a change or two...

Namely, I've added small Google ads to my blog. Why? Well, for one thing, this site doesn't pay for itself. That means that I spend, roughly, $35 per month to maintain this site, as well as my others. (I have several sites, including HavePalmWillTravel and Fantasist.net, and I support the backend for my wife at Babydoll's Closet. Heh, I like the idea of supporting her "backend"!) But, still, that all costs money. So, I'm running ads now. So far, I've made less than $10 in the past month. But, I'm hoping that will improve. Now, all I ask is that if you found anything on any of our websites helpfull, funny, or cool, just click on an ad or two. I figure if I can make even $15/month, I'm ahead of the game.

Anyway, that's why I'm doing it. We now return to our regular blogging.

At least according to The Gematriculator .

The Gematriculator has rated my home page thusly:

It's fun, easy and uses "the infallible methods of Gematria developed by Mr. Ivan Panin to determine how good or evil a web site or a text passage is. " So, now, I'm 68% sure I'm going to heaven! Hooray!

Hey, it's Friday, try it for yourself!

Okay, not really new, but new to me.

I was introduced to a utility called Servant Salamander this week by my boss. It's basically a file and disk utility, but it has plugin extendability. For instance, it comes with the ability to open ZIP, TAR, GZ, and RAR archives. It lets you quickly edit text files, including INI files. It has direct access to the registry and it has a built in FTP client. So, you can upload files directly to a server via FTP as if you were using a regular file manager. Pretty cool. Oh, and there is a free version, but it's worth paying for the latest.

Enjoy!

Too much of a good thing!

I have installed, played with, and uninstalled way too much Linux in the past month. We're still having "fun" with the ZENWorks imaging boot disk. Now, we've moved on to other machines and discovered that there aren't any drivers compiled for the particular kernel that Novell uses for the boot cd. Okay, that's not quite true. There has been an update to the boot iso which actually fixed at least two problems. But, not, I'm afraid the one that is currently kicking my ass. Namely, the SCSI drivers for a Dell Precision 650. So, we're going to have to find the right kernel version and complie these bad boys ourselves. Oh, God, save me!
So, if you downloaded my USB boot iso, it's obsolete now. The newest, non-beta, non-6.5 boot iso from Novell Forge is correct. Use it!

Okay, I'm not totally sure why...

But, it's still cool. My darling wife mentioned an interesting website in her blog yesterday: TextImage.Com It let's you take images and convert them to text, html, or "Matrix". So, if you want an old-style, gigantic sig file, convert a favorite graphic to text and include it in all your e-mails! Or, for an interesting effect on a webpage, ditto, only to html. And, well, I don't think I'd ever actually use the "Convert to Matrix-style", but it's still cool.

So, what the heck, it's Friday, go check it out!

"Liberals Want Their Own Network", the headline read.

Uh, I don't get it. The Liberals seem to think they don't have a "network"? Uh, I'll take, "What is ABC, NBC and CBS News? for $100, Alex". I mean, c'mon, I'm Conservative, sure, but not really *that* conservative and even I can see the massive Liberal bias in the media. So, what in the name of all that is holy and unholy do they really want? Oh, I'd say they want to cram their nutty, fringey wacked-out ideas down our throats. But, that's just a guess.

Okay, that sounds a lot more charming and witty in a Scottish brogue.

So, we're having the monthly "Birthday Celebration" for the department today and the VP/CIO introduces me to everyone for something like the third time. And, again, the jokes about how they keep me locked up in Storage Room B or, as the CIO likes to call it "The Bat Cave", are all trotted out to make their appearances. That leads to a number of jokes about how no one knows who am I or what I do. Then, suddenly, Alex, who is a great bear of a Scot lets off with "Well, he doesn't drink like a girl, I can tell you that much!" And the room erupts with shocked laughter. Personally, I took it as high praise coming from a Scottish ex-pat who used to work in a foundry. If anyone is a fair judge of drinking "talent" it would be he.
Okay, now at this point you may be asking yourself what that's all about. No, I am not a big drinker, though I have been in the past. And, while I do enjoy a good Scotch whiskey now and again, I do not have a great tolerance for alchohol. But, I also don't go around bragging about how I can drink any man under the table, either. See, we have a co-worker, Mike, who was absent today, that does just that, but is a bit of a light-weight. So, now, they make fun of the poor guy.
Later, I thanked Alex for the complient and someone said that the only thing was it would have been better if Mike were there to hear it! Everyone laughed and Alex said that he'd tell him. Better yet, he'd e-mail him about it!

So, while I may be many things, some desirable and some not, at least I don't drink like a girl.

No, really, you can make your own stamps.

And even use them to send mail. Real, regular, normal, "snail" mail. According to this article on Wired News, the U.S. Postal Service is testing out a personalized stamp program that will let you use your own digital photographs or logos to make stamps that have your own message on them. Hmm, I wonder what they'll censor? And, I wonder how quickly someone will try to make something "naughty"? (Oh, get your mind out of the gutter! I meant something anti-American, you pervert!)

Anyway, it's Friday, so go have fun with it. Clean fun!

Er, well, actually, it's specific to ZENWorks.

I've been yapping about all the ZENWorks desktop imaging stuff that I've been doing lately and, apparently, a couple of you have been listening because you've asked for the CD. Well, I'm pleased to provide it for you.
A couple of notes, though...
1) You'll have to edit the ISO to update the "settings.txt" file to reflect your own default server.
2) If you choose "Automatic" from the first menu, you'll get an error because this shell script has been modified to TFTP a menu to the local server. (This link let's you grab an example.)
3) The script that pulls the menu tries to hit ZFD1, so you either have to change that or add a DNS entry for it.

I think that's it, but I'm not going to support this, ya' hear? Y'all are on your own! I spent the better part of a month working this bit out and I know that it's not perfect, but it works for us.
Oh, yeah, here's a link to the ISO. (Be warned, it's about 10meg. It didn't shrink when I ZIPed it, so I just uploaded the ISO straight.)

Good luck!

Note: I removed the ISO due to lack of downloads and space issues. And, also, it's probably so far out of date that it's not really useful any more.