Diary of a Network Geek

I'm telling you, I can't make this stuff up!

Seriously, according to this article on AustralianIT, CIOs in Australia are less than happy with the results of outsourcing. And, though it's no surprise to me, CIOs in the US are even less happy! According to the article, roughtly one-third of the Australian CIOs were unhappy, but fully 50% of the US CIOs were unhappy with their decision to outsource! (I hope my former employers are reading this!)

So, I hope that executives start to think more before the send jobs off-shore. Cheaper isn't always better!

Isn't this idea dead yet?

Apparently not. At least, not if this article on Slashdot is any indication. But, c'mon, how long have "tip jars" and the "Donate Now" buttons been around? It seems like forever to me. And, does anyone ever do it? No. At least, I've never heard of anyone actually doing it. I know that I have never done it. And, what's more, no one has done it for any of my websites, either. (Of course, I didn't expect them to, but still...)
Yet, the hopefulls on Slashdot seem to think this could work. Well, dream big, I say. Dream big.

No, I'm not talking about a biased film documentary...

I'm talking about a different kind of hoax alltogether! Have you ever gotten that stupid spam about the e-mail tracking program that's sponsored by Micro$oft, or Intel? Ever wondered where that got started? Well, Wired has an article on it! Yep, it's the whole story from the very earliest days to the present. It's a story of Darwinian proportions! And, it really has taken on a life of it's own.

Hey, it's Friday, so soft news is the best kind. Enjoy!

Quick! Get it while it's hot!

I saw an post on Slashdot about an article on ZDNet about a guy who's giving away a Cisco manual. Now, I haven't actually seen the book, but it's been getting good reviews. Apparently, it's a free alternative to spending huge money on a Cisco Education book that's not even as good. Or, so the article says. I did download it yesterday from LuLu.com, and it was free, but I haven't had the time to read any of it yet. I'm sure I will eventually, though, because I've always wanted a Cisco certification. Anyway, it's free, so what do you have to loose?

A quicker way to read updates...

Or not, in my case. Okay, so the new job has kept me fairly busy and I haven't been able to do as many updates as I used to do. The good news is that means that I'm working at work, not looking for ways to not seem bored! Yea!
But, I do feel the need to share little "tid bits" with loyal readers (or reader, as the case may be). So, as everyone knows I'm a total, die-hard, Novell geek. I love using everything Novell, including GroupWise. In fact, if I could, I'd use the GroupWise client at home! (Hey, at least I'd be safe from all the worms out there!!) Anyway, I saw on Novell's Cool Solutions website that someone has created an RSS reader for GroupWise. How cool!

Kind of goofy, but fun.

Well, those crazy Swedes have finally done it. They went and invented the self-parking car. At least, according to this website they have. Apparently, a mechanical engineering school in Sweden has a senior project and this year someone created a car that uses Linux to park itself. They worked with Volvo on the project, so there's no telling if it works with an American pickup-truck, but it's a cool idea! Lord knows, I've seen plenty of people that could use a little extra help getting into a tight parking spot. Myself included!! (Oh, and I'm kidding about not working on a pickup. I'm sure it can be adapted to any size passenger vehicle.)

Anyway, it's a fun site for a Friday! Go have fun!

Tomorrow, it's back to the salt mines.

Today is my last day off before the new job. My beard has grown in fairly well, so I'm comfortable there. I got a couple of financial things taken care of that I needed to do before I was comfortable travelling. And, I got us both new phones. That's actually more important than it sounds! Over the weekend, my old phone got dropped into a puddle and was reading "Headset" permanently, which made it useless. So, now we have two, nice, new GSM phones and a new, cheaper calling plan that starts on th 17th.
Today, though, I plan on taking it easy. I do have a little ironing to do before work tomorrow, but the rest of the day is going to be nice and slow. The wife and I might take in a movie, since I'm off. Some low-impact shopping, too. Nothing too fast paced or stressful.

I'm pretty excited about starting the new job, but a little apprehensive, too. I mean, it's the "prefect" job for me, so if it doesn't work out well, I'm sort of sunk. The job description reads like my resume, which is good, but if I hate this job for some reason, where would I go? Of course, most of that kind of thinking is just fear talking. I'm sure that everything will go swimmingly. And, really, I am looking forward to it.

Okay, this seems a little strange even for me...

But, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. Have you ever been hankering for a site that's just filled with links to blogs that are all about God and Christianity? Well, now you can rest easy because there's Blogs4God!
Now, I identify as a Christian, though I try to be inclusive of other's religious beliefs as well. I certainly don't think that my Jewish friends or the Dalai Lama are going to hell for not accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior! But, the idea of a blog dedicated to nothing but religious material seems, well, "odd" somehow. Not sure why, but it just does. To me, at least. I guess it has something to do with my own less-than-personally-satisfying spirituality. Maybe, at some level, I'm even a little envious that someone could be so consumed by their belief. But, frankly, it's never been that big a deal. At least, I don't feel the need to try and convince everyone around me that what I believe is "right". I don't know, maybe my lack of missionary spirit makes me a lesser Christian, but prosthelytizing just makes my skin crawl.
Anyway, it is an interesting idea for a blog/aggregator. And, it sure suprised me how many God-related blogs there seem to be!

I'm sorry I missed a "fun" link yesterday.

Yesterday was my last day at Loomis, Fargo & Company. It was a bitter-sweet day, I have to admit. I'm glad to be moving on to something that I think will be a much, much better job for me, but I'm really going to miss a lot of the people I used to work with there. It's sort of ironic, really, that I'm going to miss this place, because when I started, I never planned on staying very long. I always saw this as a place-holder, or stepping-stone, to somewhere else on my way to a better job. It was just something to pay the mortgage while I waited for the market to recover. Well, the market still hasn't quite recovered, but it's getting better and I've spent about 18 months treading water.
Okay, that's not quite true. I did learn a lot more about Linux and I got my CompTIA Linux+ certification. I also updated my CNE (Certified Novell Engineer) to version 6.x. I haven't quite completed my CompTIA Security+ certification, but that's been mainly due to the upheaval of changing jobs. After I settle in, I'll start working on that again and bang it out. It is, after all, a single test that will certify me for life. And, of course, I also learned more about Unix in general and the Veritas backup program on Sun Solaris in particular. All of which has been very, very cool.
But, one of the things I was "promised" was that I would be working on more Windows 2000 servers. The plan was to be replacing all the 35+ Novell servers with Win2K servers at all the branches. Well, that never happened due to budgeting problems and a CIO that didn't understand why remote sites needed servers. (Yeah, I know, I can't believe it either!) So, what that meant was I did a lot of backup administration and played nursemaid to a bunch of old, cranky Novell Netware servers. Not a great "resume builder", is it? Well, I didn't think it was a great use of my CNE either. So, when the rumors of outsourcing started, I started paying closer attention to the job-list e-mails that I got. And, well, the rest is history.
So, I found myself another job, but I also managed to place a friend of mine from the "old days" at Harbor at this position. He'd been out of work for 15 months. It was a pain that I knew all too well and I was very happy to help out a fellow CNE who was down on his luck. Also, this guy used to report to me so I knew he could do the job. It was a really good fit. And, in 90 days, I get a kickback from the recruiter, so it's all good!

I'm really going to miss working with a great bunch of people, but I really look forward to meeting some new friends and working in a new, challenging environment that will really use my skills.

Could it be true?

Well, according to this article on AustralianIT, that's just what they're doing! They're allegedly opening up their operating system and the technology for their SPARC chip to the OpenSource community.
I'm assuming that they hope to generate more interest and, therefore, sales. Also, I'm sure they're hoping that making it open will make it easier for programmers to develop new tools and utilities for their OS. More tools equals bigger market. It makes sense, really, but I wonder what it means for the Unix market and the industry...