ramblings of a {sys,net}admin…

Do you love boobs? If you’re like me, you sure do.

If you could save a pair of boobs with just a few seconds of your time, would you? If you’re like me, you sure would.

Alright, well check this out…

“The Breast Cancer Site provides a feel-good way to help promote awareness of breast cancer and provide free mammograms for women in need every day — through easy and quick online activities.

With a simple, daily click of the pink “Click Here to Give - it’s FREE” button at The Breast Cancer Site, visitors help to provide free mammograms for women in need. Visitors pay nothing. Mammograms are provided by our charitable partners.”

All you have to do is, once a day, go to thebreastcancersite.com and click the pink button that says “Click Here to Give — it’s FREE!”. That’s it, it’s that easy.

thebreastcancersite.com is paid for by sponsors, and for every 45,000 clicks accumulated, a woman somewhere gets a free mammogram.

Please help support a pair of boobs (get that pun?) and click. Even if you just do it this once, you’re helping out. The boobs you save just might be your own (or your favorite pair)!

Oh, and feel free to send images of your favorite pair. =)

I mentioned yesterday that on Friday I ordered a MacBook from Apple. Later that evening, I called back and asked if I could upgrade the shipping. The Apple representative that I talked to (I have his name and e-mail, but I’ll keep that to myself for now) told me sure and gave me the price. I gave him the credit card number and we hung up. Problem solved, right?

Not so fast… I called back a few minutes ago because I still haven’t received any type of order confirmation or receipt. Since this was purchased on a company credit card, I sorta need that. This time, I spoke to a helpful woman named Emily. Emily pulled up the order and let me know that the representative who took my order was “an idiot”. Apparently, the MacBook is coming from overseas and, according to Emily, there’s no way they can ship it overnight. In addition, due to the closings of various schools (I work for an .edu), they’re “putting a hold” on their orders until after Christmas.

I’m not sure what that means entirely, other than it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting familiar with the new MacBook over the Christmas holiday. That kinda upsets me, to be honest — probably much more than it should, but I want my new toy now! =)

I’m gonna close my office door and cry now. =)

Let it snow…

Originally uploaded by jeremygaddis

Lack of planning on your part…

Originally uploaded by jeremygaddis

Recently, I have been — often without realizing it at the time — doing a lot of reflection and reassessment about myself. Only during the last few days have I realized what I was doing. I am now officially committing myself to do some of the things I’ve been meaning to for quite a while as well as “getting my priorities straight”.

Getting organized is at the top of my list. For as long as I can remember, I have always been one to write things down and/or “make lists”. I usually have so many things going on in both my private and work lives that I have to — if I don’t, I’ll forget things. I’m also guilty of using my Inbox as a task list, which is a bad thing. For the past year and a half or so, I have gotten fairly involved with “Getting Things Done“. “GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them somewhere. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks. What distinguishes GTD from other time- or action-management systems is the idea of grouping tasks by the context (defined as a place or set of available resources) in which they are to be performed.” (–Wikipedia).

About the same time I started getting involved with the GTD methodology, I picked up a copy of “Time Management for System Administrators” by Thomas A. Limoncelli. I was able to relate tremendously to the book — I’m a system administrator as was Mr. Limoncelli. The book outlined the unique aspects of a sysadmin’s daily work life and ways for a syadmin to become better organized. “Time Management for System Administrators” was the first book I’ve read cover-to-cover in a number of years. The things it talked about really hit home and I was determined to put them into practice. And I did. For a while. Then I quit.

It wasn’t a conscious decision to stop, it just happened slowly over time. Over the last week I’ve really been devoting myself to becoming better organized and most of that centers around GTD. I’ve spent countless hours trying out and evaluating a number of online, web-based systems that are designed around GTD: Vitalist (I have a premium account), Toodledo, and Remember the Milk (RTM). I also took the time to install Tracks on a test box at work, but wasn’t all that happy with it. I think I’ve finally decided on RTM — both for its features and because it has a nice API. I currently have 42 tasks entered into RTM, 30 of which are active (i.e. “uncompleted”). I currently have RTM set up to send me a once-per-day reminder e-mail of all my tasks due that day, and I get notifications via Twitter as well. If I can just stick with it, I think it’ll help tremendously.

Continuing my education is the next thing on my list. I currently have somewhere around 69 credit hours completed and have decided I want to continue my education. I’ve decided on pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio (home of the Ohio Linuxfest). I’ve spoken to the folks there and every one of my 69 credits will transfer, which is awesome! For the classes I have to complete, a number of them can be taken at my local Community College and Franklin will give me credit towards the B.S. The remainder have to be completed through Franklin, of course. I know firsthand that working full-time and attending school part-time is not the easiest thing in the world to do — especially when I also teach and volunteer for some non-profits in my “spare” time. It will simply come down to being able to effectively managing my time, which goes back to GTD (above). It might be a little on the optimistic side, but I’m confident that I can complete the B.S. in three years. I’ve reviewed the requirements, completed all the necessary paperwork, and have a telephone appointment with a “Student Services Associate” at 2pm on Tuesday to finish things up. At that time, I’ll get signed up for the first course, PF321, “Learning Strategies”. I’ll begin in January.

Obviously, my job is still a priority of mine as well. I don’t spend every waking moment of my “free time” VPN’d in and working on things like I used to, but I still love my job and (a majority of) the people I work with. Building on my skillset is something that I want to continue doing as well, to benefit both myself and my employer. In that regard, I have plans to also add to the list of certifications that I have and will probably start by completing the requirements of the MCSA (I’m already an MCP).

I’ve also made a conscious decision to pay off some of my debt. I don’t have a lot of it, but I usually look at my bills, see what the minimum payment is, double it and round off. I could pay things off a lot faster than I have been — it’s just a matter of doing it, which hasn’t really been a priority for me. That said, I’ve decided to cut down on some of “leisure activities” and put the money towards the debt. Tuition at Franklin will be much higher than at the local Community College (where my tuition is paid for), so that’s another bill I’ll have that I don’t have now. I put together a “Net Worth Worksheet” and have set some pretty realistic goals with regard to my finances. Christmas is getting close, though, and I always blow lots of money this time of the year… maybe I’ll wait until January to start on this. =)

Oh, and I sold my motorcycle too. I’ll miss it, but to be quite honest, I’d probably just end up getting killed on the damn thing. That wouldn’t really be good.

Aside from all of this, I have took the time to take some goals that I’ve had (many of them for years) and put them down on paper where I can review it often. Keeping those sorts of things fresh in my mind is the only way to keep myself motivated towards completing them. The months ahead will definitely be interesting, that’s for sure…

Perhaps a year or so ago, I discovered the book “Time Management for System Administrators” and, after reading just a few pages, could definitely relate. It is the first book that I read cover to cover in the last several years. Newly motivated, I began implementing some of the things that Limoncelli wrote about.

Now, several months later, I find myself again in the same spot. My interest in “Getting Things Done” seems to come and go. Having recently taken the time to sit down, evaluate a number of things in my life, and making some decisions, I know that I will have even less time in the near future to get done all of the things I need to do. It is time, once again, for me to focus on getting organized and making the most efficient use of my time.

One thing that I remember from “Time Management for System Administrators” was unsubscribing from mailing lists. Like most other sysadmins, I’m a member of a large number of mailing lists, both at work and at home (though there’s a very blurry line between the two). At work, there’s only a few mailing lists I could really remove myself from without affecting my job (and those are very low traffic as well). My “personal” e-mail address is subscribed to a number of mailing lists, however — I intentionally keep my work address off of “non-work” mailing lists (even though some of them are definitely related to work: security lists, “new version” announcements, etc.).

A good example would be the Fedora Project mailing lists. I’m a Fedora Ambassador but, to be quite honest, I don’t really do much in that regard. I set up a Fedora booth at the IU Linuxfest and have mailed out a number of Fedora CDs and DVDs as a part of the Fedora Free Media Program. I promote and use Fedora in the courses that I teach and to the other folks who have to work around me. Other than that, however, I don’t do much else and yet I am still subscribed to a number of mailing lists related to this, even though I delete probably 75% of the e-mails from those lists without even reading them. In an effort to save a few moments out of my day, therefore, I just unsubscribed from every “non-essential” Fedora mailing list.

This is nothing against Fedora, of course. It’s simply a matter of time (literally!). Fedora just happens to stick out as the majority of e-mail to my “personal” account is from those lists. There are a number of other lists that I’m on that I don’t really need to be, and those will be going away as well. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a number of unsubscribe requests to confirm.

Over the 12+ years that I’ve been on the Internet, I’ve used a number of different devices to provide routing between my home computer networks and the Internet: from 486 PCs to Cisco routers to Linksys wireless routers. For the last year or so, I’ve elected to keep things simple and have just been using a WRT54G. I’ve had a few of them in the past as well, and the current version I have (v6.0) has different firmware than the previous versions, which doesn’t make it easy to get “third-party” firmware running on it.

A number of folks that I talked to, as well as some of the students in my Linux Security class have been talking lately about DD-WRT. DD-WRT is third-party firmware (Linux, of course) that runs on a number of these “home routers”. The DD-WRT Wiki mentions that the Buffalo WHR-G125 is “the cheapest 100% compatible wireless router“, so a couple of days ago I picked one up at Best Buy for $50.

I brought it home, started a download of their firmware designed specifically for the WHR-G125, and unboxed it. In short, I had DD-WRT running on it in just about 10 minutes. It has now replaced the WRT54G as my home router.

One cool thing is that DD-WRT supports WDS. I’m considering getting another one to put on the roof (or as high as I can get it) and seeing if I can pick up the signal from work (we just deployed a new wireless network there within the last two months). I’m only about 0.4 miles away (the way the bird flies) so it’s possible, but the amount of vegetation in the way might be an issue. I’d also probably need to locate an external antenna on the front side of the building (which faces this way) to get the best reception. If I could do that, I’d have a permanent link to work, which has a much faster link to the Internet than my 10/1 Mbit/s cable modem provides. =)

From http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Top/ecomments/4754/:

If you were a man walking across the campus of Florida State University in 1978, an attractive young woman might have approached you and said these exact words: “I have been noticing you around campus. I find you to be attractive. Would you go to bed with me tonight?”

If you were that man, you probably would have thought that you had just gotten incredibly lucky. But not really. You were actually an unwitting subject in an experiment designed by the psychologist Russell Clark.

Clark had persuaded the students of his social psychology class to help him find out which gender, in a real-life situation, would be more receptive to a sexual offer from a stranger. The only way to find out, he figured, was to actually get out there and see what would happen. So young men and women from his class fanned out across campus and began propositioning strangers.

The results weren’t very surprising. Seventy-five percent of guys were happy to oblige an attractive female stranger (and those who said no typically offered an excuse such as, “I’m married”). But not a single woman accepted the identical offer of an attractive male. In fact, most of them demanded the guy leave her alone.

At first the psychological community dismissed Clark’s experiment as a trivial stunt, but gradually his experiment gained first acceptance, and then praise for how dramatically it revealed the differing sexual attitudes of men and women. Today it’s considered a classic. But why men and women display such different attitudes remains as hotly debated as ever.

For those of you who are new to National Preparedness Month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sponsors NPM each September to encourage Americans to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, and communities.

In addition, U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins, and U.S. Representatives Bennie Thompson and Peter King, have agreed to serve as honorary Congressional Co-Chairs of National Preparedness Month 2007 and lead the effort on Capitol Hill to increase public awareness on the importance of emergency preparedness.

Citizen Corps and the Department’s Ready Campaign work closely together to promote NPM throughout the country, but we need your help! You can make this the best NPM yet by planning and supporting preparedness activities in your communities and organizations. Need ideas? NPM 2007 will focus on several different areas of emergency preparedness:

• September 1-8: Back-to-School
• September 9-15: Business Preparedness
• September 16-22: Multicultural Preparedness
• September 23-30: Home and Family Preparedness, including pets, older Americans, and individuals with disabilities and special needs

Thanks, Mark Brostoff, CERT Monroe County Citizen Corps

Do you drive? If so, would ya do me a favor?

WATCH OUT FOR MOTORCYCLES!

Last night, I was heading west (home) on Third Street, right before the intersection at Curry Pike. Some dipshit in an SUV pulls out of the Speedway station directly in front of me. I quickly checked my right mirror, seen the right hand lane was clear, and swerved into the right hand lane to avoid hitting him in the ass. Apparently I made quite a scene when we were stopped at the light (yelling and cursing at him), because a number of people all around were looking at me.

Then, today… yesterday and today is some big annual neighborhood association yard sale thing in my neighborhood. I got the bike out and was pretty much idling around the neighborhood. I didn’t really care to go “yard saleing”, I was just cruising around the ‘hood checking out people. I was going south on Park Square Drive, turned left (east) onto Gifford Road and was about 3/4 of the way down when some dipshit woman pulled out (also eastbound) onto Gifford Road right in front of me. I laid on the horn and grabbed the brake to try to get slowed down enough to avoid running into her (just like the guy last night). When it was obvious I was going to hit her in the ass, I ran off the right hand side of the road and dropped the bike into a ditch.

I got scraped up a bit (nothing major, declined an ambulance and didn’t go to the hospital). The bike got more damage than I did (just added a photo album of pics, by the way), but the whole little incident gave me flashbacks to last September when the dumbshit teenager turned left in my path and sent me smashing into the front end of his car.

Fortunately, the cop who responded today also rides a motorcycle, sometimes even riding one of BPD’s Harley’s. He was a really awesome older guy (thanks Deputy Baugh) and he made it a point to include “Vehicle #1 made evasive swerve right off roadway and went down off its longitudinal axis, slide, rolling…down south shoulder”. That should help out when it comes to the insurance thing, and the woman also admitted that she pulled out in front of me. Also, there was a witness (behind me) who seen the whole thing go down.

I called my insurance company (Progressive) already, and they are fuckin’ awesome, by the way. I have never had a single problem with them and this will be the third time I’ve had to deal with a claim with them. Anyways, Monday sometime the local adjuster will be calling me to check out the bike, I’m sure.

Anyways, please be careful and watch out for motorcycles. This is not my first “wreck” (the last one was a head-on collision with a car) and I can tell you, they are NOT fun.

Peace.