Work Journal
For Week of October 11, 1999
Page Updated Tuesday, March 21, 2000 07:18 PM
Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday
Its turkey day here in Canada ( that's Thanksgiving Day ), which means today is a holiday for most people in Canada. I vaguely remember a discussion my parents had with some of our American relatives about the difference in the number of holidays we have in Canada verse the number in the US. I don't know the numbers myself but do know we Canadians do get more statutory and civic holidays than our American counterparts. I myself have one problem with the number of holidays because I have been doing contract work for almost 2 years now. Each statutory holiday is a day without pay for me. Wage earners and salaried people get paid for these holidays and I don't, which eats into my pocket book just a bit.
Working on an outline for an idea I have to become self employed. This process is giving me insight to how much work it will be, and just doing the outline is no simple task either. I now have even more respect for Tom Syroid, Bo Leuf, and Robert Thompson and the others I know of who are authors. The process of taking an idea whether for a book or a project and fleshing it out so that who ever you propose it to can see and understand your idea is hard work. Tom mentions in his posting for today that he and his wife put together a book proposal the other day and he makes it sound quite easy. I am finding that putting proposals together in a proper business manner is no simple manner, and may just be just as hard if not harder than the actual project the proposal is for.
Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday
The long weekend has totally messed up my head. My mind thinks today is the first business day of the week ( it is for us Canadians due to yesterday being Thanksgiving ) so it must be Monday, so when I go to read the Monday entries on certain web pages I start wondering why I have read the content before. Then it dawns on me that it is actually Tuesday and not Monday.
I went rummaging through all my spare parts to find a hard drive and came out with a hard drive, floppy drive, and mother board complete with RAM and CPU. If it is all functional I may have the makings for another low end PC.
Well testing of the hardware that was lost then found is not going too well. The main obstacle seems to be my lack of good ribbon cables. Much of my surplus hardware is circa 1992 - 95 so some of it has seen better days. If the pocket book allowed I would just start to slowly replace much of it, but this is not possible right now. Maybe I was too hasty asking my mother for dress shirts for work for my birthday, and should of asked for money so I can upgrade my fleet of aging computers.
I downloaded Redhat 6.1 and burned it onto a CD. I want to see how it differs from the OpenLinux install, as well see if I can get a fully functional GUI environment with it which I didn't get when I installed OpenLinux.
Tom Syroid gave me the necessary push yesterday to write a not too serious bio for myself to put up on daynotes.com. It will likely be posted the next time Tom updates the site.
Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday
I see in this mornings paper that some enterprising person is advertising in the Computers/IT section that they are a Microsoft Certified Systems Eng. & Certified Novell Administrator and willing to work cheap, cheap as in $10 hr ( I hope I never have to drop my hourly rate this low ). An agency I had recently sent my resume to called yesterday to see if I was willing to work for next to nothing at a very junior position, to which I answered no. Now today after seeing the advertisement I mentioned above that maybe I can help a few people out. So I called the agency rep I had talked to yesterday and told her about the ad, and that maybe this would be a good lead for her. I'll find out later if things work out and there is a possibility of a finders fee, though I didn't do this for the money. I did it thinking I can help the job seeker and the agency out and hopefully earn some good will that will make the rep think of me when a suitable position for me comes across her desk.
Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday
Tried to follow-up on a job interview but no one seems to know what is going on, so I am adopting the no news is good news position.
I dug through Novell's web site to find the objectives for course 529, NetWare 4.11 to NetWare 5 Update. I am self studying to write exam 050-638 which corresponds to course 529. I have found in the past that if I right each objective on page by itself, I can jot down notes when ever I come across information regarding one of the test objectives on the appropriate page. I find that I tend to remember the information better when I write it down, and in the process I create a nice study sheet.
The objectives are:
Choose an upgrade method and a protocol.
Use the Installation Program to Upgrade a NetWare 4.1x server to NetWare 5.
Use the Novell Upgrade Wizard to upgrade a NetWare 3.1x server to NetWare 5.
Explain Novell Licensing Services and add an additional license certificate.
Explain how NetWare 5 uses virtual memory.
Describe the advantages, disadvantages, and storage concepts of the Novell Storage Services (NSS) file system.
Set up Novell Storage Services (NSS) on your server.
Load support for Java applications on the NetWare 5 server.
Launch Java programs and applets from the NetWare GUI.
Manage NetWare from the server using ConsoleOne.
Install DNS and DHCP services.
Configure and start DHCP services.
Import a DHCP database.
Configure and start DNS services.
Import a DNS database.
Explain the services provided by the Netscape FastTrack Server for NetWare.
Install the Netscape FastTrack Server for NetWare.
Use the Administration Server to configure the Netscape FastTrack Server for NetWare.
Troubleshoot and tune the Netscape FastTrack Server for NetWare.
Describe the purpose and function of NDPS and how it differs from queue-based printing services.
Explain the four NDPS components and their functions.
List the NDPS printer types and explain the difference between public access printers and controlled access printers.
Configure the network for NDPS by creating and configuring the appropriate NDPS objects in NDS.
Configure a workstation to print to NDPS printers.
List the benefits and components of Z.E.N.works and describe the function of each.
Install Z.E.N.works and the NetWare Client.
Describe Z.E.N.works policy packages and explain how policies are used to manage workstations.
Explain how to register workstations and import them into NDS using NetWare Administrator.
Configure desktop environments throughout the network.
Distribute applications using the Novell Application Launcher.
Manage workstations using the Z.E.N.works Remote Control utility.
Set up the HelpRequester application so users can report workstations problems.
Describe transitive synchronization.
Describe WAN Traffic Manager and its use to manage synchronization traffic.
Describe Network Time Protocol.
Configure Network Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize time in an IP or mixed IP/IPX environment.
Describe contextless login.
Set up the network to allow contextless login.
Describe NetWare 5 licensing, including license container objects and license certificate objects.
Manage NetWare user licenses.
Describe compatability mode.
Describe the Migration Gateway.
Configure and maintain compatability mode on a NetWare 5 server.
Describe Service Location Protocol (SLP).
Describe Novell's Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
Describe Novell International Cryptography Infrastructure (NICI).
Configure and maintain PKI.
Describe the features and benefits of NetWare 5.
Describe the process of migrating to NetWare 5 in an IP only environment.
When I studied for Microsoft MCSE exams I found that this same process worked except instead of using an objectives list from a course as a guideline, I used the cram sheet from the Exam Cram Series of books.
With all the talk about the nuclear incident in Japan I happened to hear that one of the mechanics from the Ducati Superbike team took a Geiger-counter to Sugo Japan for the final race of the season on October 10th. The mechanic registered lower radiation levels on his Geiger-counter at Sugo than he did at a European race track where they had been testing. Why a motorcycle mechanic would carry a Geiger-counter is beyond me.
Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday
Somedays the internet is too much of a distraction. Take today for instance, I decided I needed a break from my studies so thought I would just check my mail, and check out PCWeek. Before I know it I have surfed too many other sites on the web, replied to emails that could have waited, which has lead to a few minute break taking well over an hour.
I caught a piece on the news today that some of the black and white film footage from World War II has been colourized. Historians and war veterans like this, as they feel that it will make teaching easier, as black and white film and pictures are not well received by the younger generations.
Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday
That Linux has entered the mainstream corporate environment is becoming more evident as job postings for people Linux administrators are showing up in the mainstream job listings. I also saw an advertisement for training in Linux/Oracle administration.
I encountered my first problem with Word 2000 today while editing a document. I had this one document open for a long time so I could make occasion revisions to it. Today after adding some notes I went to save my changes and word crashed taking my changes with it. When I opened word again I got no recovered document and when I opened my document it was in read only mode. I used explorer to delete the temp files word created and the document was still in read only mode. I could copy it and then edit it but this is not what I wanted, I wanted to edit my original document. I then logged on to the domain again as the same user and what ever hooks Word 2000 had into the document were gone and I was able to edit my document.
Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday
I am rather late posting today as I have not had functioning PC to work with for about the past 24 hours. I managed to toast my Windows NT install on my production PC last night so have been busily putting things back together again. I toasted things by trying to make my PC dual boot WinNT and Win2000. I had Win2000 working fine but WinNT got clobbered. I then thought that going only with Win2000 would be the way to fly but that leaves me without some applications I can't live without. So back to WinNT using only half of my 4 Gig drive. I plan to copy my NT setup to the other half of the drive and try and upgrade to Win2000 and see how that works out. The main reason for wanting Win2000 is so I can have USB support for my game controller. I could use Win98 but would rather use Win2000 instead.
Hey success at last. I booted my PC with a boot disk and started up Partition Magic 4 for DOS. I copied my new NT install to the free space I intentionally created when I did the NT install. I labeled the partitions WinNT and Win2000, then set Win2000 as the active partition and rebooted. The Win2000 partition came up with WinNT and one or two error messages. I then put the Windows 2000 RC2 disk from the October TechNet release in the CD drive and let it do its thing. After about an hour to upgrade to Windows 2000 and few minutes work to clean-up the networking setups I have Win2000 functioning. Next I have to install Motocross Madness and my USB game control so I can have have some well deserved fun.
I am finding mastering Netware 5 by James E. Gaskin to be an interesting read. I haven't read enough of the book to comment on the depth of coverage of material, but I can say that the authors writing style is light and easy to read.