Diary of a Network Geek

Uh, part three, part four? How long have I been doing this?

Well, anyway, we hit a snag Monday. Our goal, of course, is to have a single base Windows XP image for all our systems, adding only smaller images for things like the Novell Client and machine specific drivers. We got really close on Friday when I discovered the Hardware Abstraction Layer, as contained in hal.dll. It seemed to be the key. So, I pull hall.dll for an XP laptop and make a little ZENWorks image of just that. Now, it’s time to test. I take our base image, which was made on a regular workstation, and slap it on a workstation. I follow that with the specific image for the laptop drivers and boot loader files. Then, I pop on the HAL image and follow it up with the ACU (Automatic Client Updater) image. I reboot and….. Ka-Pow! I have a working laptop! Yea!!
Then, on Monday, we tried it again using FAT32 instead of NTFS. Why, you ask? Well, because if a drive goes bad, FAT32 is a lot easier to recover enough to salvage data. At least, in theory. Want to guess what happened? The Amazing Blue Screen of Death! Okay, so now I’m questioning my own sanity and trying to figure out what I did differently on Friday, but I’ve slept twice since then, so I needed help. My partner in crime, and system administration, suggests that we do it all over again, but with the NTFS images instead. Blamo! It WORKED!

So, today, it’s another round of testing and experimenting to try and get the process to work with FAT32. Fun!

Not my usual Sunday fare…

But, I think this is important. It seems someone is trying to intimidate a domain name owner into giving up their rights. Back in 1996, Katie Jones got a present from her husband, namely, the domain name Katie.com. Well, now, it seems someone has written a book about her horrible experience being abused as a child, which she titled “Katie.com”. Frankly, I know nothing about the book at all, but, based on the title, I assume it involved meeting a stranger on the Internet who lured her into the abuse. In any case, this book came out long after Ms. Jones already had the domain name. Well, now, thanks to the book’s popularity, the author wants the domain name for her very own. And, she’s trying to intimidate Ms. Jones, via a lawyer, into just giving up the domain. Well, I, for one, think that’s just wrong. I’m sorry that this woman was abused and all, but how does it make it okay to bully someone else? Well, it doesn’t.

So, now you know. And, here’s how you can help. Good luck, Ms. Jones.

Hey, it’s fun to me!

Yeah, so this is what I’ve been working on for the past two weeks. Well, not so much the USB part, but the rest of it. Along the way, we did a lot of work getting the boot image we were working on to run of a USB JumpDrive which was pretty cool. There are a lot of tools to use for this, but we mainly worked with SysLinux. This also seems to be what Novell used to make their boot image with, so I figured it was a good choice!
First, though, I had to use a tool from HP. I used an older version, but the one currently listed as Windows-based Format Utility for HP Drive Key or DiskOnKey USB Device, version 2.00.006 A (6 Feb 04) should still do the trick. But, once you’ve done that, the tutorial at SysLinux should get you along the right path.
Or, if you just want to try out Linux, or Unix, you can try UnixKit for Windows. I saw this the other day on the ScreenSavers. Actually, it was one of Leo’s Tips. Last damn thing good about that show.

Anyway, if you’re a hardworking network geek like me, you deserve to have a little fun with a USB drive. It’s Friday, go for it!

Updated 04-17-09: Link to HPDriveKey utility had gotten outdated, so I updated it.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately!

In between rewriting Novell’s ZENWorks imaging system in Oceaneering International’s image and watching cleaning up my personal office, I managed to get Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai read. Actually, I’ve had this one for quite some time, but I just got around to reading it this past week.
Now, for those of you who know me, I love Asian culture, especially Japanese culture. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of books about Japan and Japanese history. I’m most interested in their Tokugawa period and the years leading up to that time. Of course, that also means I read a lot about samurai, who made that era happen. Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai is a book about the philosophy that drove much of that time. I say much, because it was really the refined and codified philosophy of a warrior class that no longer went to war. The Tokugawa Shogunate, ironically, brought an era of peace to a war-torn Japan and forced the samurai to redefine their purpose. It is in that light that this book has significance.
I found it an enjoyable book, though I disagree with much of it philosophically. And, based on what I’ve read, it represents an ideal that very, very few true samurai met. In fact, at one point, the author is quite critical of the famous 47 ronin who are almost saints in Japan for their devotion to their feudal lord. But, that aside, it provides a good look at the severe devotion to duty and loyalty to one’s master that we associate with the samurai. The author, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, advocates a brutal disregard for one’s own life which, he says, should be sacrificed for one’s lord. The book is filled with advice about how to harden one’s self to the potential distractions from duty, including death. It shows us a strict code that few modern warriors could achive, even if the wanted to do so. But, again, it is a good look at how this ancient warrior caste saw the world and approached life.
Much easier to read that it first appears, and well worth it!

More soon!

Okay, here’s some more on that. The article was out Sunday night and based on this article on YahooNews, that’s helped Novell’s stock price up. Also, this article referred to the proposed “merger”, not a buyout. Of course, since Sun seems to have the bigger bank account I’m betting they’re going to be in charge.
When I checked Novell’s website, the last big news story was about Novell’s new software contract with the US Government. Nothing to sneeze at, but I’d have hoped to see something more about a potential merger/acquisition.

Well, that’s one rumor.

According to this article on ZDNet, Sun has been talking about acquiring Novell. Apparently, they’re after SuSE, in part because of IBM’s heavy involvement in that particular Linux distro. On the other hand, Sun was outbid by Novell when Novell bought SuSE last year. Hmm, interesting…
But, I don’t think it’s going to happen. First of all, why force a company to buy a company that you “want” just to turn around and pay more to get that same company that you were out-bid for? Not really logical, is it? Secondly, the article says that Sun chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz was quoted as saying “…we’re considering all our options”. So, it may just be an “option”. You know, sort of like Oracle buying, oh, say, PeopleSoft was an “option”. An option that didn’t work out so well. At least, not yet.

Well, anyway, it sure is an interesting piece of news! I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

This is what happens when I watch the Discovery Channel.

So, yesterday, I was watching The Other Side of Outsourcing on the Discovery Times channel, which is one of their several cable outlets, and I got to thinking about globalization and outsourcing. The show was “hosted” or centered around Thomas L. Friedman, who writes for the New York Times on globalization and he showed us what Indians, in India, think about the US outsourcing jobs to their country. He also showed us some of the effects that is having on their culture. It was quite thought provoking.
For one thing, not everyone was the “wake up and smell the new global economy” type that I’ve gotten so used to in recent years. Oh, sure, there were some that had the whole attitude that if they can screw lazy Americans out of jobs that was our fault, not theirs. They feel that they should be able to make money off our greed. Of course, they don’t seem to notice the fact that the entire process is driven by their greed as much as it is ours.
Secondly, the wealth created in India by outsourcing is only benefiting a relatively small group of people. I’d never thought about that, but it makes sense. I mean, in a country of billions, most of whom are quite rural, only a very few million are truly profiting from the wealth. So, in effect, what we’re doing is making a whole new upper class. In fact, an upper class that is quite a bit distant from the next lower class. In other words, that wealth is polarizing a large population into two extremes. Can anyone say “class war”? How long before that happens? How many generations of oppression and poverty will it take to generate a revolt?
Third, all that wealth is Westernizing a very non-Western culture. It’s undermining quite a bit of the Indian family values that are their traditional life. I don’t know how anyone else feels about that, but it seems a little amoral to me to destroy a culture with “traditional” Western greed. That is, after all, what’s driving outsourcing. Our greed as Westerners. That’s a hidden export from America to the rest of the world, that we often forget. Outsourcing is making yet another consumer culture. Is that a good thing?

I don’t think outsourcing is a good idea for many, many reasons. The above are only a few. OTH, I have a quandry. See, I work for a truly multinational company now. So, of course, certain jobs are in other countries. Jobs that Americans could do, but that people in other countries can do cheaper. But, somehow, that seems better than outsourcing to me. I don’t know, maybe I’m splitting hairs, but it seems less like stealing jobs from Americans and more like generating jobs in the world. But, it still made me, well, a little itchy when I first heard it. It still seems different, though. I mean, for one thing, we’re a freaking multinational! This kind of thing is what multinational corporations are for. And, in our case, it’s 100% expansion. It’s a new project that isn’t going to lay off Americans currently working, nor will it import a bunch of H1B1 visa holders to undercut American workers. Instead, we’re creating jobs in other countries. Again, maybe I’m splitting hairs, but it just feels better to me.

Well, whatever, it’s a huge issue that’s not going to go away any time soon. And, the more I look at it, the more complicated it seems. I guess I’ll just have to keep thinking about it until I know how I feel. Until then, it is what it is and nothing I think can really change that.
Happy Monday.