A whole lot of suckage

Yesterday sucked a sack of pen0rs. I knew it would when I got up in the morning. I guess it's one of those Monday things.

I got into work, and started working on the TeraServer like my boss asked me to on Friday. It hadn't done anything like it was supposed to...but I also didn't know what I was doing. I knew now. So, there was that...I let it do its thing, and went to work on LDAP or something...and broke it. Not necessarily me breaking it, but that it was not working entirely in the first place.

You know, I don't really remember what happened yesterday that made it suck so bad...all I know is that the TeraServer wasn't working like it should, and LDAP wasn't working like it should, and I had to walk around in the rain with my laptop to go test ports in various buildings. I don't like being wet in lots of clothes, or in nice clothes...I hate it. It's why I didn't test the rides at six flags that involved water if I was wearing an undershirt, or if it was cold.

So, about today...it was better...but still slightly sucked...until the end. I finished up the TeraServer this morning before lunch, and gave it to the IT Director to work on...I come back to the room, and a couple minutes later he comes it, has me check a webpage, and shows me that another one of the hard drives crashed...so I have to start over. wtf. And that it's due by the end of the day, because he needs it tomorrow. W.T.F.

I go to lunch, and come back to work on that - this time I know what I am doing though...and as much as I hate to have to pull out that hard drive again, I resolve that if I fix it this time, and it fails again, then we don't use the server. I go test the hard drive, and the computer doesn't even recognize that it's connected, and it's not spinning - so I tell him that the drive is dead...and that I can sell him 16 120GB identical hard drives for his 2x8-disk array for $50/ea...but he said to just leave it out of the array...one array of 7, the other of 8 with a hot spare in each. Whatever. I spend the rest of the afternoon going back and forth between LDAP and TS while the arrays build/format/install RHEL. In the meantime, I start over with Fedora Directory Server, from command line, since that is how I am used to working with linux - and find out that you can save the directory for fedora-ds, but it doesn't mean it's a backup...and you have to create a new certificate request and get it signed again. v_v

By the end of the day, the TeraServer is up and running, waiting for the Director to go in and configure it to do what he wants, and I am left with LDAP...as well as some other servers that he gave me to do now...2 Dell 1950s that are configured with Logical Volume Groups and he wants ext3 filesystem on them....WHO CARES?!?! If it works, it works...there is no need for all this bullcrap about changing stuff because it's not a particular way!

Also, the Network Admin is building a Sun box to compete with my Fedora Directory Server box to see who can get done faster. Right now though, he has to start over with installing the OS - so I have a little bit of time to try and figure out what is wrong with mine. I redid the SSL stuff on the console, but now I can't get into the console, because I told it to use SSL inside the console. I'm a nub...but I don't know why there is no admin-serv-<instance>-cert8.db file for it to find when doing encryption with the Admin Console...nor have I found documentation on it yet either.

I finally did my FAFSA tonight, and I have an expected family contribution of over $9,000...holy shazbots!! I don't even have money to go out to eat, much less to pay for school. I hope I can get some serious loan money or something. I need to finish school, and if something like grants or loans can take care of it, I can get out of there and have my degree.

I guess that's all for now. I got sidetracked by Kate Beckensale in Underworld: Evolution.

Encrypted Memories

Well, I just spent a little bit of time over the last 3 days encrypting my previous journal entries to Binary, like I had originally started to do when I first posted here.

"The point?" you say...it is so Google can't crawl my journal, and make my personal information searchable by other people. It's also to deter any unwanted people from finding me, and/or reading my journal. If they really care, they'll take the time to decrypt the binary to read it. I think it's a much better method than deleting the whole journal in one swoop, like chica did - which is sad and disheartening ;) .

Yesterday, wizard and mandaloo moved most of Wiz's big things from his house/storage to his new apartment...today he's just got boxes and stuff left - but it's still too much work to do, disabling him from doing lunch with Hambone and I. But like I said, I don't anticipate seeing him until sometime next weekend.

Hambone is on his way over again to play more games - at some point the games get pointless, and I foresee that time coming soon. There's no excitement in it for me...at least not as much as there was when we started this shindig.

I'm having to do more intelligent stuff at work -the kinds of things that wizard and I used to work on in our spare time, just to do it...the games are preventing that work, but so is my lack of desire to actually do it in my time off.

Instead, I have been wanting to work on tsnX and the next version - which will be infinitely simpler to mess with...but my creativity isn't there. I have been trying to come up with a new box-set for the tables on the site, and/or a new design for the logo, but I can't quite hit what is in my head. It doesn't come out on the computer right. But I'll keep fooling with it, and see if something comes out. I am apparently not too good at this whole "web 2.0" design technique...or at Photoshop.

I've already got the next version's code in place - I just have to do another frappin' database conversion - and this time, there is a whole different kind of database schema...which means that some data will be lost - metadata, like calendar dates and stuff for the posts. But I think that will be fine, we don't use the calendar anyway, all that much. And the new site has all the features that I've modded into mine, but they're built into the base code - so they're natively supported.

It took a year to come up with tsnV, and only 6 months until it was killed...and then by force, I had to come up with tsnV.ii which evolved into tsnX...and that's been around for about 9 months now, and just finally coming out of beta...even though I can't get the graphic for the new start page to do what I want. I also don't know what version to make the new one...tsnXI? tsnY? tsn7? technically it's the 7th version...but technically tsnX was the last version I was going to do.

I'll stop going on about this for now...I just got an idea for a new header thing...

"You have to multitask..."

Today was a bit different...it even started out different.

I forgot about the policy that I helped implement, so that we don't have to wear ties on Friday. I forgot about it until yesterday when I was reminded via a comment someone else in the department made.

This morning, I spent the first hour at my desk talking about various things with the other folks in there. Mostly this consists of venting our opinions on the various people that are whining about their computer. There are a couple that everyone would rather not go to - but those are few. Then there are those that a particular set of people would rather not deal with. Normally, I am one of those that doesn't care who the person is - I don't have a preference or difference to the person that I am assigned to help. I do, however, have a preference to some of the people that I would like to help.

After that was all done being discussed, I headed over to work on the LDAP server again, and that was short lived. I didn't get very far, because of the amount of reading that I have to do for this current step...getting them to see each other. I really have no clue what I am doing - just hacking stuff up and hoping that it works. BUT...that is what I am good at...I guess. I did that for a bit, and then worked on something else with the former Dell guy and that lasted until lunch...oh, I remember.

Our boss came in, and wanted to know what switch in the Server Room the computer labs were hooked up to. O_o wtf? I don't have a clue...the switches are something that the microsoft guy takes care of, and even moreso are the labs. So I go on a wild cable chase to find out what switch they are plugged into...tell him, and he wants more specific information, like what port. o_o The microsoft guy was out sick today, and we already called him once to find out the switch...I was not about to call him again. So, I go looking in the computer labs and find the boxes where the switches are stored in there, and look for labels...and then trace them back to the Server Room...and tell the boss - he wants to know where the printers are hooked up now. v_v So, I tell him that they are hooked up to the switches in the labs. That was fine, because they were on a separate cable that hit a patch panel in the labs that routed to a different port in the Server Room.

THEN, we try to find where the third computer lab switch hits the Server Room, and here's where it gets interesting. It has a label: TCBASS.26-42 and this means nothing...to no one. So the Dell guy gets a ladder, and he traces it through the ceiling tiles to the other end of the room...where it crosses over, into the middle computer lab from the one on the left...then he traces it into the computer lab office which is in front of the middle lab as you enter from the hallway...then he traces it BACK into the middle lab :? and across the room, and down to the other side of the room, and after that I had to leave. Apparently it goes to the Server Room, in one long-ass, round-about path...there could have been at least 100ft cut off that cable, and it would have been easier to route.

After lunch, I have to man the phones, and get a phone call from a student to the helpdesk asking why his computer can't hit the school website, but can hit any other website on the internet...I have no clue why *your* computer can't hit it...mine can...everyone else can. It must be *your* computer that has the problem...and I am not paid to support *your* computer. As I am explaining this to my boss, he tells me about a computer/server in the Server Room. O_o

He wants me to go in there, and find which one, out of 10, hard drives is the one that is failing in a 650GB RAID server, pull it, put RHEL on it, and turn it into a webserver. Um....ok....I am already struggling with the current Red Hat server that I'm working with, and he wants me to make another one too. I ask if I can just work on one at a time - because I've already got a "real" project going, and adding another hard drive to some computer's configuration to be a web server is not necessary...we have enough web servers, and we have Windows File Sharing, and we have Internet Access...any computer in the building can be turned into a web server, with ftp and samba...we don't need another Red Hat box floating around.

So at this point, I don't know what I am doing anymore, and told him that...but he didn't believe me. v_v I go to the Server Room, and take apart that massive-ass computer, and find out which hard drive (I think) is the one that is failing, and tell it to rebuild the array. I don't know if it's doing it or not, but it's got a blinking cursor on the screen, and that's where I left it when I went home today. It doesn't work anyway, and it's a freakin' old box (133MHz processor, if that tells you anything) and it's already crashed 3 times, and none of the drives are the same size, or type...supposedly they're all 45K RPMs though...We need to stop redeploying old equipment.

What I don't get is that the boss's keep saying that we need to pull in all the old equipment from the workstations and stuff, but yet they keep wanting to redeploy old servers that have known hardware issues. It doesn't make sense. I know that even I have tons of old desktop computers here that I am deploying as servers, but if there is a hardware issue, I part it out, use it in another computer, and trash the broken box...I don't format the drive, and stick it back out there, and hope it works for a while. That's ridiculous.

I spent the last hour of the day with the Dell guy helping a girl (who was cute) out with her Catalog that she was doing for her job - they sell leather stuff, like passports, luggage tags, boxes, etc. She was uncertain how to layout the pages. Originally the Dell guy was recommended because he does photography...but I was around too, and my opinion was asked, because I do web design, and did newspaper design. So we put our heads together, to find a layout we could agree on, and I picked out some colors and fonts for her to use, and hopefully she'll be able to work with that. But after I started thinking about it on the way home, there are some other ways that she could have laid out the pages so it would make more sense. But it's probably too late for that now. I may try to find her on facebook, and offer a few more suggestions.

Hambone is on his way over soon, and we're going to play Dungeon Siege 2 tonight. We're also going to dinner too, and probably to play pool with the Dell guy and some of his friends this evening too. [Wizard] is still moving, but when we asked if he would like help earlier, he said he could handle it. I hope he's doing all right with that. I remember when I moved though, I had fun while everyone was helping, but I didn't want anyone around once it came time to unpack...I wanted to be able to do my own thing without people offering their interior design "advice." So it will probably be next weekend before we get to hang out....

===============15 minutes later====================

...ok, I found the girl...on myspace - not one of the easier things I've done, but once I did, I tried to send a message to her with the info, and in true myspace.com fashion - the messaging is down. What a ghey website.

Anyway...Hambone is on his way over now, and I have a lot of journals to encrypt from the past - since folks at work know about my journals now. So I'm out.

"make install, make clean, repeat"

I have successfully installed, configured, imported, and crashed Fedora Directory Server 3 times today...and each time it has gotten easier and easier to set back up and configure...so much so that I don't even need instructions any more.

I eventually got the ssl cert situation taken cre of on the linux box this morning...and now I come to find out that I have to have the same tools on the windows box to import the exported .p12 file ti pass sync. So I have spent the afternoon installing the various ports of the linux commands on this Win 2k3 box so I can carry on with what I am doing.

This is probably more time consuming than my laptop fiasco because I have to do all this stuff while the Windows server is live...so I read about it before I do any of it...and I can't tell if it's even working. But everytime I kill he process it appears to stop a little further than before...so I am going to let it run until it finishes or the end of the afternoon...which ever comes first.

Laterz.

So far...

So far I got the fedora directory server up and running...after several guess and check processes for which java to use.

To spare the details...I ended up using j2re 1.4.2.13...1.5 and 1.6 didn't work...but the old one plugged right into place...even after fds was already installed and set up. What they don't tell you in the instructions that I used is that you have to create a user and group beforehand that you want to run the service as. They default to nobody:nobody...which is fine if you want the standard setup.

After that, I am now working on getting it to connect to the active directory server through ssl. I haven't started that yet though because of my other duties as a IT Mushroom (we are mushrooms, as the msft dude here put it, because we are kept in the dark and fed shiz). I will begin the ssl/fds/ad journey tomorrow.

In the meantime...I have been paying attention to what I am doing and am considering setting up an fds at the house just to do it. And so I can get better at understanding the program. Then I'll see if wizard wants to set one up and we can sync it over the internet to see if we can do it.

Updates are almost done...so I'm out again.

Maybe I'll write a journal after all...

I font really see any harm in writing a journal entry about my day. I was originally opposed because I've been doing this jornal thing for years now and am kinda burnt out on it.

But seeing as how I have this time on my hands, and a phone with mobile internets and a full slide-out keyboard on it...why not, right?

Yesterday was fairly uneventful...I finished up trying to fix the admissions department's daylight savings time issue on their public calendars. But apparently from what I've read, the public calendars have to be edited manually if their time is wrong. I also learned that turning on auto updates after installing xpsp2 doesn't guarantee that you are going to get the updates automatically from that point on...you have to manually visit the update site and install the first Windows Genuine Advantage update before you receive auto updates. But I dkid get to spend a lot of time with the people in admissions and try to make a new friend...Melissa.

Later in the day, I took on the challenge of propelling our company beyond its current stagnation...and interviewed some of the key players in the LDAP migration project. And then fooled around with RedHat and Fedora Directory Server before wiping a box to start a fresh install and try to build it myself. I didn't size the folder mounts right, and had to learn about "lvextend" and "ext2online" this morning so I could resize the mounted folders on the fly amd run updates on the box before installing java and fds.

That's where I am...time to get back to work...

The End...Chapter 6

And so concludes another chapter in the life of [[Neo]].

Now, there wasn't much of a marquee moment in that conclusion...just a decision to start new with some things...like the new job, the new desire for a girlfriend, and the new goals for this year.

In Chapter 6, we discover [[Neo]] having more debt than he realized he could sustain, and his solution to get out of it; another failure at a blind-date, but with positive results just on the horizon; and finally some job successes.

Join him on his adventures across the internet, the living room, and even Texas...as he embarks on a new journey through life, liberty, and the pursuit of a breakfast at Denny's with friends. Share in his frustrations with the world, and the people in it. Laugh at his misfortunes, weep for his happiness.


Having said that...let's get started. Things have subsided for the most part with my frustrations with the world. Occasionally I have moments where I want to go on and on about something that a general populace has the ignorance to commit, but I find myself with only a cellphone keyboard, and cellular internets, and I can't be typing a long entry on a 3.5" keyboard, now can I?

The problem that I have, is that I've been taught to forget too well. Forgive, forget, or whatever you want to call it. There are some occasions that the instance completely alters my life, and those are hard to forget, because you spend the rest of your days reordering your existence to accommodate that event. There are others that alter just your day, and by the next day you forget all about it, and can't even rant and rave to let it out if you tried.

One thing that bugs me though is about girls. This is not really anything important, or life altering, or even just exclusively related to girls...guys do it too. It's being Fickle. And in combination with "fickality" there is compassion. That's a jacked up combination there. Because in one instance, you have someone that can't make up their mind about something...and then they don't want to tell you their decision because it could hurt your feelings, and they "don't want you to get hurt." There is a Memo out for those people, and I guess they didn't get it...

"SOMEONE ALWAYS GETS HURT"

The minute you face that fact, the sooner you can realize that you have to be up front with folks when you're telling them something. Sure it may feel better to let them walk away from the situation feeling just a little better than if you had told them the flat-out honest truth about something...But when they go and make other decisions based on this false sense of understanding that you've given them, things get much worse.

You can't say you're interested in someone, and not agree to go out with them every time they ask...You can't say you still love someone, if you're telling the same thing to someone else behind their back...You can't say that you want to spend a little time apart, and give them the hope for the future, when you don't have any plans for a future with them. That's called lying.

There's something wrong with the world when everything has to be sugar coated, because no one can handle the real truth. At work, you have to wear boots because the political bullshiz is so deep. There are the people in charge, and there are the people who are not in charge. And within that second group of people, there are the people-pleasers...these are the people who have to go to the people in charge, remove the stick that is firmly placed up their ass, and remove it ever so gently...sniff it...nicely place it back from whence it came, and say to them "You're absolutely right, your crap doesn't stink."

I am not one of those persons. And that is simply a "for the record" (ftr). I can't be the kind of person to tell someone one thing, while I mean the other. I used to be able to do that...and it was hard work to keep up with my story, and the flavor of bullshiz I was spoon feeding them, so that I could get things done. But for some reason, at some point in my life, that all changed, and I started being just plain old me.

So, when I am starting out in something new, I let the person know up front that I'm going to tell them how I see it. And they're either going to like it, or they're not. In a relationship, I let the girl know "I don't play games, so don't get mad at me if you're just playing. I don't do arguments for fun, I don't give false compliments, I don't yell, and I don't hit." So when she says "Does this make me look fat?" she will get an honest answer.
Or if I am at work, I don't do the political crap. If there is a problem, then I will have a solution for it, that functions within the written policies and procedures. I don't care if there is a board member that has a buddy in a particular industry that does what we need...if their price is too high, their quality too low, or their reputation too bad, I'm not going to agree to it. I don't care if someone whines to someone else above me...if there is a problem, my job is to solve it, not kiss ass, and bandaid it.

Now...having said all of that - there are people that disagree with my philosophy in practice, but agree with the sentiment. They would like to do it that way, but they say that they can't...that it can't be done that way. I don't see why it can't. Who does the boss think that he is, that we should have to perform our responsibilities half-ass so that someone else doesn't whine? Is not the object of a company to become an efficient, well-oiled machine to crank out whatever product/service it is that we produce? I should put a disclaimer in here though that my boss is not one of those people that we have to kiss up to...and neither is his boss. But the later boss has the unfortunate job of having to remove the previously mentioned sticks from the other big-shots' rears.

I guess I will never be able to comply with the demands of the political game that people try to play. I am not fickle, and my compassion rarely gets in the way of my frank thoughts. I will try to break it nicely to someone if there is a negative news coming their direction, but I will not sugar coat it to change the meaning. Communication is an important function in society...few organisms have that capability, and I don't choose to abuse it. People need the correct information in order to make the correct decisions...tainting the info with rose-colored glasses turns everything from that point forward, rose-colored.

Test mobile entry

Testing a mobile entry from my gmail account

Flawed Logic

This is not a mobile post, but that's ok. Instead it's a post to vent out some frustrations that I have had over the past couple months/weeks/days...about people and their flawed logic.

It's basically surrounded by the same kind of person, but takes on different personas. First, you have the idiots...the people that think they know what they are talking about, but really have no clue - or heard someone else say it, so they think they know it too. For example, I was at work today, and had to fix a connection to a printer. The perceived problem, by the teacher/lady was that *I* broke it when I updated the computers yesterday. But that was only one of the "problems." The other was that they couldn't connect to the printer, by adding it through the Add Printer wizard in Windows.

The *actual* problem, was that the computer's network cable had come unplugged. If she'd bothered to get off her ass and look at the screen, she'd have noticed that the network connection was disconnected on the Windows Desktop. She did not. Then when I connected it, she INSISTED on telling the student how to connect the printer to the computer, refusing to let me correct her misinformation, because "I have it right here on the screen." Let me let you in on a little secret....I DON'T CARE!!! Who is getting paid to do IT work? ME! What is your title? ARTS AND SCIENCES SECRETARY! You are a SECRETARY! Shut the hell up and let me do my job, and quit wasting my time!

I plugged in the computer, added the network printer, printed out a test page, wrote down the correct path that she needs to tell her students next time she INSISTS on telling them how to set up a printer, and left. WTF.

The other kind are the religious fanatics/hypocrites. I used to be a pretty religious person...then there were thoughts. The kind of thoughts that one has when one realizes ones state of being, and that said state is temporary, and has no lasting impact on anything, and no logical explanation to fit in the whole after-life thing. Sure I believe that if there is an afterlife, it would be in Heaven, and I try to subscribe people to that belief. But my life here is going to be one that I enjoy the limited, one-dimensional vector of time that I am alloted.

I have all kinds of people around me that give up their ability to make things happen because they are "waiting on an answer from God." That's great and all...but while you're waiting, you could be doing something to better your chances of the requested outcome. "I'm waiting on God to give me a job at the Church he wants me to be at"....that's great - but while you're waiting, why don't you go apply at local churches, and get a job he doesn't necessarily want you to be at, in the meantime, so you're not a bum with a degree in religion?

I don't have time to wait on things...especially if they are things that I have the ability to attempt to acquire. I also don't have time to be wasted on holding back various things that I'd like to have. If I have the money to get it, then I'll get it. Sure it may be cheaper or free if I pray or something, but so what? I'm given one life, and one shot, and one chance, and then it's over.

Another type of people that bug me (like I mentioned above) are the hypocrites. Recently there was a spat on my website. Someone posted a thread about if a girl would post their pic in their undies, he would do the same thing. That was fine as a thread...it didn't go anywhere. Then another member came along, unknowingly posting a pic in a swimsuit-like outfit, and then he posted his pic in his boxers. Then another guy posted his pic in his boxers, with a laptop covering the private area - suggesting he was nude. Ok....but then the naive "religious" admin came along and complained about "soft core" being allowed on the site....in the name of religious morales, of course. And that's fine....or it would have been.

It would have been fine if this person's complaint also reflected her choices in her lifestyle. You can't complain to me about "softcore" (which it's not, but it *is* suggestive) when you sleep with your boyfriend every night. You can't complain about people drinking when you've been drinking since you were 16 -regardless of whether your parents gave it to you, or approved.
You can't complain about anything that someone else is doing if you're doing something similar too. It's a major turn off to people when you live one way, and then come back with all this "love of God, forgiveness of sins, don't sin, go to heaven, Jesus, Mary, and all the saints" kind of talk. It rings hollow.

People that do the Christian thing are fine...if they're doing it. People that talk about the Christian thing need to shut up, if they're not going to do it. I am certainly no model person here, but I know that if I am going to call someone out on something, I make dang certain that I am not going to be called out for the same thing or similar in my own life.

Another kind of person that bugs me, are the kind that want to force something down your throat...be it words, ideas, views, or objects (heh). But mostly the words, etc, are what I come into contact with. There are some people in this world that just don't care what you have to say. You need to learn to recognize those people, and identify them before you go spinning your wheels trying to convince them that the world is round, and the moon's not cheese. They have their viewpoints, and are most likely not going to change them. On rare occasion there are the people that are willing to change their perspective if you can give them a valid reason that they are wrong, with no subjective ideas in that reason. I am one of them. If you can prove to me that I am wrong with what I say, then I will concede my opinion to match yours. If all you can come to me with is subjective ideas, and nothing hard-core, objective, or concrete, then you're wasting your time.

There is no point in arguing with the rest of the people though. They don't care, and all you're doing is wasting everyone's time. That is my take on spreading Christianity. If they don't want to hear it, I am not going to throw it in your face, force it down your throat, and drown you in the Baptismal Water. You've got free will and choice just like I do - make your decisions, and in the end, if you were wrong, well then it sucks to be you. If you were right all along, then you got lucky, and it sucks to be me. It's whatever. We've all only got one chance at life here, and if you're reading this, chances are your life is already 15-30%+ over. And the closer you get to the end, the faster it appears to go.

Six years ago, I was 18....in 6 years, I'll be 30. That is 3 decades under my belt, and I still remember from when I was 9 like it was last week. Time is running out, days are numbered, life is short. So quit your bitchin' and get along with everyone. It's the last time you're going to see them.