Diary of a Network Geek

Well, apparently, I am in touch with the bleeding edge of the IT industry.
Just Saturday I was talking about anonymous browsing, and then yesterday, I got an update from a news feed with an article about just that! This article on InformIT is certainly more detailed that I was and warns you about the potential hazards of being too smug when browsing anonymously. It also goes into a bunch of different options for concealing your identity and doing so at varying levels of security, not to mention the fact that it goes into hiding yourself on the Internet for more than just browsing. (Yes, young’uns, the Internet is much, much more than just the World Wide Web, in spite of what AOL and Microsoft have told you.)
So, though I may be handing dangerous people more sharp objects to play with, I reccomend going and reading the article. For one thing, if you needed me to point these resources out, you probably aren’t really dangerous to me anyway. For another, if you are familiar with the basic techniques, you already know most of what’s in the article. But, no matter your Internet security background, it’s worth reading the article for the review, if nothing else.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"A great deal of good can be done in the world if one is not too careful who gets the credit."
   --Jesuit Motto

I’ve been extra introspective lately.
I don’t know, maybe it’s the therapy, but I’ve been thinking a lot about my life lately. I guess I didn’t do that as much at the end of the year, because there was so much going on that I didn’t want to have to look at just then. I’ve really done okay, over the years, with my career. It hasn’t always gone the way I’d like, of course, but, still, it’s been okay. I remember telling my Father at one point that I didn’t want to just bounce from job to job, but that I wanted to take control of my career and steer it in a particular direction. He kind of got upset with me, like I’d insulted him or something. It struck me as odd, at the time, because I’d always felt that he’d done a pretty good job of steering his own career, which is what motivated the comment. I think he thought I was saying the opposite.
Anyway, I’ve been going over my history with my therapist, so that meant a lot of talk about jobs. In many ways, as a man, my job has defined me over the years. But, as I went through the different places and the certifications, it didn’t seem like I’d been steering much at all! I just threw myself upon fate and lucked out! I mean, winning the scholarship to pay for my Certified Novell Engineer training was very lucky. Sure, I did the work to maintain it, and even get Linux+ certified, too, but mostly it was luck.
But, one thing I am very proud of is that my Father got me one interview. That’s it, just one. Everything else that’s happened in my career is either due to luck, or my own ability. Sort of bootstrap-levitation. My therapist commented on it and said, “So, you’re really a self-made man, aren’t you?” And, I had to admit with no small amount of pride, that, yes, I am. So, I may not have as much career direction as I’d like, but I have a good job that I enjoy working for a company that I feel good about for a change. In the over all scheme of things, that’s better than a lot of guys ever manage. So, I guess I’m doing okay after all.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"As human beings, we all want to be happy and free from misery. We have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger and attachment, fear and suspicion, while love and compassion, a sense of universal responsibility, are the sources of peace and happiness."
   --Dalai Lama