Diary of a Network Geek

So, last month, I was talking about rolling your own distro.  This week, it's rolling your own LiveCD.

Over at TechRepublic, they ran an article on using some tools built into Ubuntu to make your own, custom Ubuntu LiveCD.  For those of you not in the know, a "LiveCD" is a bootable version of an operating system, in this case Linux, that will run from the CD without installing on the workstation.  It's a great way to try out a new operating system or bring a portable, emergency software toolkit with you without damaging or changing a PC.

The tool, for my fellow wireheads, is called Reconstructor and the article pretty well takes you through step-by-step on how to do it.  Well worth the read if you're a Linux geek, most especially if your distro is Ubuntu.

Who says I don't listen to my readers?

So, one of my readers wanted to know about watermark applications to protect her photos before uploading them. Well, I'll be honest, I haven't worried about that too much, so I didn't have a ready answer. But, a little Googling and a little experimentation turned up three freebies:

PicMarkr is free, but limited in number of files you can upload and total size of all the files.  As well as being free, another plus is that it integrates with Flickr pretty well, or seems to, at any rate.  And, as is the usual case with these free apps, there is a "Pro" version which they sell that has more features, including the ability to work with larger files and have fewer restrictions in general.

Watermark.WS is again, free and has more options than PicMarkr, but is still limited.  They do have a "Pro" version for sale with more and better options, for instance, the ability to watermark larger photos with no size limits, the ability to upload as many photos as you want and "400% faster batch processing", whatever they mean by that.

Watermarktool.com: free, easy to use, limited options, but not bad for basic watermarking.  It also seems to be the only one that doesn't have a more advanced version for sale.

So, there you are, gentle readers, three free watermarking tools, per your request!

PublicEnemies

Originally uploaded by Network Geek

I love movies.

I saw Public Enemies and The Proposal this weekend. The best part of Public Enemies, I'm afraid was the bits of Chicago architecture and the fight that broke out in the theater which required security.

Now, in spite of the critics panning it, I enjoyed The Proposal. Of course, that's because I am a great, girly, romantic at heart. You see, The Proposal was a romantic comedy and well worth enduring the hawk-like stares of the angry women who could not seem to get their men to go with them to see it. Also, it was quite funny. Not a movie filled with surprises or twists and turns, but very satisfying in that it gave you just what you went in looking to find; namely, romance and comedy.

I saw another romantic comedy that was a little heavier on romance on DVD from Netflix, as well, this weekend called Lucky Seven. That was even sappier than The Proposal. It was about a young woman who's mother dies when she's young and gives her a time-line that has her marrying the seventh man with whom she has a long-term relationship. She thinks she's found her "lucky seven", but he's number six, so she quickly finds a replacement six, with whom she promptly falls in love.

Now, you might wonder what these movies all have in common. You might wonder why I find movies, especially romantic comedies when I'm single, appealing. Well, the answer is surprisingly simple and straight-forward. They are all fantasies in which I indulge myself when things are going in ways other than how I'd wish.
Perhaps unrealistically, I think of myself as a mostly practical man. A trait I come by honestly from my parents and their parents before them. It's not the only trait which seems to run through our family, however. On my mother's side, my grandfather was quite an accomplished painter and my mother, his daughter, inherited that artistic talent from him. On my father's side, well, they had the more practical talent of story telling and facility with language. All modesty aside, I do believe I inherited more than a fair portion of that. Though I am in many ways quite shy, I do seem to have my father's ability to perform in front of a crowd. I know, as he would say, how to work a room. But, I never really followed through on most of those creative talents.

I've always wanted to draw, and never really seemed to find the time to work on it enough for anything to come of it. My writing has likewise been replaced by more immediately lucrative pursuits. Paying bills took precedence over "indulging" in my artistic leanings. Photography has been the most artistic thing I've done, outside of this blog, in more years than I care to count. And, some days, that seems to go better than others.
But, that latent, dreamy quality of escape that I found once in writing and occasionally still find in photography, comes to a full head in movies. Especially when things are going in ways other than how I might wish. I imagine, I'm not the only one seeking escape in movies these days, what with the economy going the way it has been. I remember the stories my paternal grandmother and my father told me about people going to the movies during the Great Depression. In fact, movies and the long gone Biograph Theater in Chicago figure prominently in Public Enemies, which is the story of John Dillinger. My grandmother was there shortly after he was shot, as it turns out, and provided me with one of the most vivid mental images of my childhood when she described people soaking up his blood with their handkerchiefs to sell later as souvenirs.
I don't know what drives anyone else to go see movies, but I can tell you that the momentary fantasy and escape is one of the biggest attractions for me. Even a bad movie can provide a few moments of fantastic denial of my personal reality. A minute or two not thinking about I have bills to pay and work to do or how big my empty house is with no one to fill it but me and my dog.

As I do not expect to see many more rapid improvements in the economy, I hope that the rest of this Summer's movies improve. I suspect I won't be the only one who needs escape from both the Summer's heat and the pressures it will bring.
So, how about you, gentle readers? Are there any movies you're looking forward to for escape this Summer? Are there any favorites you like to use for an escape?

This seemed timely...

Okay, I love night photography, though, from my photos you may not know it.  Frankly, I think the whole Flickr 365 Days self-portrait project is starting to wear on me.  But, you know, I committed to it, so I'm, well, committed to it!

Anyway, like I was writing before I got sidetracked, I love night photography and there is an outside chance that some of my readers will have the opportunity to take some photos of fireworks this weekend.  I know, I know, it's a wild, crazy idea, but, since it will be Independence Day on Saturday, I thought I'd link to the Wired HowTo Wiki article on HowTo Photograph Fireworks.  The nice thing about this article over some others I've seen is that it covers all kinds of cameras, not just the digital SLRs.  So, even if you're using a "point-and-shoot" or an iPhone, there are tips there for you, too.

And, with that said, in all seriousness, have a happy, safe, Fourth of July weekend.

Kind of a specialty item.

Oh, if I only had a nickel for every time I heard that!
No, seriously, though, this is useful, but only in a limited way.  I know I've had photos get pulled from my camera and had the time and date wrong for whatever reason on them and wished I could change them to the right time.  Now, sure, I could just use a file utility and that would update it, but that won't change the information deep, deep in the photograph that, among other things, is displayed on Flickr.  So, what to do?  Well, from now on, I'll be using EXIF Date Changer to fix it.

Thanks internet!

It seems like this comes around on a regular basis.

Server names and naming conventions are a constant source of argument and irritation in big IT departments.  Everyone has their own idea of just what naming schema should be used for the servers and workstations and such on the network.  And, since it hasn't shown up recently on Slashdot, we were about due for an article on it.  There is; Why do we name servers the way we do?  The comments, if you can be bothered to dig down deep into them and wade past some of the worst attempts at humor, are quite telling.  It doesn't take long before the relative merits of using quirky, easy to remember names is being quite hotly debated.

The original article  over at IT World, titled Would a server by any other name be as functional?, seems to weigh in on the side of the more creative names.
I've worked both kinds of places, actually.  In one job, we used a very precise naming convention that had been put in place after some, apparently, very intense debate.  There, we used the LocationFunctionOperatingSystemNumber kind of naming system.  So that the first Accounting server in Houston running Novell Netware would be HOUACTNW01.  Perfectly clear to me, actually, because of that job.  It's a logical system and works well enough, though it does lack a certain "zing".
At most other jobs, though, we tended toward the other way.  Once, I worked with a guy who named his servers after dead musicians and actors, but that was only so he could ping his favorite router and see "Hendrix is alive" come back to him.  Another place, we used various things and it was, well, far less themed and much more confusing.  I think it's best to choose from a very, very large mythology or naming pool so that you don't have to switch themes mid-stream.  We had some servers named for "gods of the underworld" and others that were named after space shuttles at the same company.  There was no rhyme or reason to it, really, just what the last guy felt like doing.

I'm not sure what naming convention I'll finally use when I finally get around to redoing my network at home.  It's hard to get motivated, you know?  When you do it at work all day?  Makes you feel sorry for sex workers and gynaecologists, not to mention urologists, doesn't it?
(Yeah, this is what happens when I stay up way too late.  Or is it too early?)

Remember those fancy custom campers from last week?  Small time.  What I really need is an airplane fit for a James Bond villian.

Over at the Guardian, they're running an article about the "flying palace" that a Saudi prince bought for a cool £300 million.  That'd be something like $500 to $600 million dollars.  The only thing its missing is a shark tank!
Of course, I would need a pretty impressive crew for this.  And an endless supply of oil money.  Hmm, maybe those high-end RVs aren't such a bad deal after all...

Well, okay, maybe not non-geeks, but non-network-geeks, at least.

As many of you well know, I am almost always pressed for time. That's partly due to my work, which seems to include more and more front-line support and less and less networking coolness. It's just the way things go. In any case, ...

So, don't be intimidated by this. You can diagnose most of your own network problems. Just head on over to the Linux Journal's website, where Mike Diehl has written a pretty comprehensive article on Troubleshooting Network Problems. Oh, and don't let the fact that it's on a Linux website throw you, he has tips for Windows users, too.

I've seen extreme bravery from the least likely of people. Life is about the moments when it has all gone wrong. That's when we define ourselves.

-Bear Grylls, adventurer and start of the Discovery Channel series Man vs. Wild

I wish I had fewer opportunities to define myself.

I like to blame my melancholy on an existensial crisis brought on by a near brush with death served up thanks to a bit of cancer.  But, the truth is, every moment is an opportunity for everything to go wrong, for redefining ourselves.
I'll be honest, ladies and gents, for the last loyal few of you who put up with the empty, impersonal posts, life does seem empty, void and without any real meaning.  I do my work well, mostly, and try to be a good friend, though I know I often fall far short of that humble mark.  But, the work is impersonal, and any schmuck could do my job.  The moment that I stop putting in that extra effort, I can and will be replaced.  I'm the kind of guy who you can call while he's on vacation, who can't say "no" when an acquaintance needs help with their computer.  But, what difference does that make?  I mean, outside of my utility, what difference do I make?  To anyone?

I'm sure my friends and I would disagree greatly in regards to what my weak points, my character defects, are, but, I'll tell you, there's more wrong with me than a simple inferiority complex.  As a dear friend casually pointed out Sunday night, I look to all the wrong people for validation.  Yes, I'm talking about women.  No, not just one, but, well, virtually any woman.  I don't know why, but it's not even the few who do tell me that I'm worth more than my simple skills, that I have value beyond my utility.  As someone at work said, if I can't be handsome at least I can be handy.  But, beyond a few very common skills with a computer, things that anyone with Google could manage, I don't even have much use in the world.
No, what I hear are the other voices.  I hear the girl from Junior High who laughs at my first fumbling attempts at snickering socialization.  A lesson learned too well.  I hear my ex-wife's bitter barbs, still working their poison into me.  Worse, I hear the silent voices.  I hear the women who don't even say anything, who's voices I imagine saying aloud all the worst things I've ever thought about myself.  They're the worst.  When someone silently turns away, or glares, or doesn't notice me at all.  The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.

So, there I am, an un-confident shell of a former self I don't think I ever was, wanting to be different, but no knowing how to go about it.
I've a friend who's a professional artist with whom I have lunch virtually every Monday.  We've been talking about art a lot, and photography.  My photography, actually.  His unfortunately accurate assessment of my work is that it lacks passion.  He quite rightly described me as being afraid, afraid of following that passion.  Also, he sussed out that I had in my head some notion of doing the photography "right", that I was very concerned about doing it that mysterious "right" way.  And, those two things were what was holding me back.  If I could just let go of those things, then the crisis of my internal life would be freed.  Maybe.  And, yes, these two subjects, three subjects really, are all tied together.

So, there is the crux of things.
I know at some deep level that I am at a crisis point.  It would be hard for me to picture my life having gone much more wrong than it has.  Forty and divorced and, as much as I love kids, not a one to be found on Father's Day.  Deeply in debt, with more on the way, thank you again, cancer, you bitch.  It may not be the way that Bear means in his sound bite, but life has gone wrong here, trust me.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think art could save me.  I think that getting through that semi-mythical block would free my entire life.  But, here's the thing...  The passion that's missing from my work, is women.  Complicated, confusing, confounding, captivating women.  Women who mean so much, too much, to the tattered, hollow shell of my ego.  To approach them for inclusion in the work, I have to be indifferent to their constant rejection, but, you know, I'm not.  And, would I have so much energy around these mysterious, magical creatures if I were entirely fearless around them?  Doubtful.

So, what to do, what to do.
Perhaps nothing.  Perhaps a few more therapeutic lunches with my artist friend.  Perhaps, cancer survival aside, this existential crisis point may be a turning point.  If I'm lucky, I'll find a bit of courage and surprise myself.
If I'm lucky.

TakingOfPelham1(23)

Originally uploaded by Network Geek
I saw The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 on Friday.

I'll be honest, I was hoping to talk some folks into going to see The Hangover again, but also, I wanted to get out with some folks I don't normally get to hang out with. But, those folks were more interested in Pelham 1-2-3, so that was what we saw.

The premise of the movie is simple, a criminal, played by John Travolta, takes over a New York City subway train and holds it for ransom. Ten million dollars worth of ransom, in fact. He leads a team of three other guys, two gunmen and a former MTA motorman to drive the kidnapped train.
The MTA controller at the main headquarters who deals with the kidnappers or terrorists is played by Denzell Washington. He's got a little secret in his recent past. Travolta's character takes a perverse liking to him and insists that he be the one who brings the money down into the subway system when the time finally comes. Honestly, sitting here trying to describe the movie, it sounds a little boring, but it was surprisingly good. Travolta plays an apparently unstable and randomly dangerous violent criminal who seems to be out for a little revenge against the city that he feels "done him wrong". Naturally, there is more to him than meets the eye.

So, in spite of the Scientology connection, with Travolta, it was a pretty good movie. Except for one thing where my suspension of disbelief got totally blown. So, they hook up some kind of wifi relay in the subway tunnel, right? No mention of what or how they tapped into some other line or other outside access, it just magically worked. Then, a computer on the train finds and attaches itself to the network without any intervention. You know, that would be nice and all, but, uh, that's kind of what I do all day. Connect networks and computers and stuff. And, uh, they pay me pretty good money because, you know, it just doesn't work that way.

Also, there was a kind of weak sub-plot that was all about manipulating the markets with a terrorist scare. And, of course, Travolta was guilty of a little over acting, but, then, that's normal for him. Other than that, though, it was a pretty good movie.

Honestly, I still would have rather seen The Hangover a second time, but The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 was a pretty good movie and definitely worth seeing if you like simple action films.