Diary of a Network Geek

I haven’t written much about technology lately…

I know this blog started out as a very technical, very geeky blog, but since a lot of what I do these days has gotten so tied to things like company policy and some other proprietary information, I haven’t been talking a lot of tech. Well, today, I’ve got something I think all Novell and Linux guys, like me, have been watching. Sometime back Novell bought SuSE, a German Linux distribution and support company. They then proceeded to move their entire line of products away from a DOS-based, proprietary kernel and onto the SuSE Linux kernel. Really, I think, a pretty smart move.
Then, last year, Novell entered into an unholy alliance with the evil empire, Microsoft. Basically, Microsoft gave Novell a bunch of money so that they’d work on software “stuff” that made SuSE Linux interface more easily and seamlessly with Microsoft’s line of server software. Oh, the hue and cry about that! Well, now, I think I see why they did it.

According to this story on News.com, Walmart has contracted with Microsoft to expand their on-line business using Windows Server and SuSE.  Apparently, Walmart, who had been a Redhat customer, was hesitant about expanding because of concerns regarding the intellectual property rights of Linux, thanks to that old SCO lawsuit that should have been thrown out of court a long time ago.  But, part of the deal with Microsoft and Novell is that Walmart can get support from both companies for whatever might go wrong and get indemnification against any copyright infringement suits regarding Linux.
Suddenly, that Microsoft/Novell deal doesn’t seem so crazy to me.

I still wonder, though, what the hell I should study up on next.  Security maybe?  I mean, no matter what operating system people run, they’ll still be worried about security.  Besides, I already know Linux, Novell and Microsoft products fairly well.  In fact, I have certifications in two of the three, not to mention way too much experience in all three areas.  I just don’t know.  The IT landscape of the future is getting pretty crowded and bumpy, not to mention shrouded in heavy fog.  Any suggestions from the techies?

Novell has failed me.
I cannot believe that I am writing this, but I actually advised against continuing with a Novell product in favor of a Microsoft product this week. I would be more ashamed of myself if not for the terrible problems I had with Novell’s Open Enterprise Server from the install all the way through an attempt at migration. Everything that could possibly go wrong, did.
First, there were numerous problems getting the software to simply install simply because I used a secure password that started with a “$”. That caused a previously unknown error in the Linux-based installer. As far as I know, this has still not been corrected or published. From there, things just got worse. Then there were all the problems getting the SAMBA share to work at all with the Netware Storage Services(NSS) functions on the server. I had to do this because we have Mac OS X clients that access the same data as Windows clients. I had no other option, but, apparently, no one has ever done this before in the history of Open Enterprise Server because I could find no data on doing this and making it work. And, it did work, for a couple of weeks, until I changed some setting somewhere that knocked the Macs off that SAMBA share. I have no idea still what did that. But, there’s more!
The deal-breaker in this case was that our accounting system, Peachtree, would not allow us to add more than a single transaction without restarting the program. Even when only a single user was accessing the data at a time. As you might imagine, this cause some concern in upper management. Two days into trying to get this resolved via Novell Support, my management had lost all confidence in Open Enterprise Server running on SuSE and Novell as a company. At the point that happens, there is absolutely no way to ever make that executive feel “warm and fuzzy” about the software in question. I know, I’ve tried over and over and over again over the years. Well, your Uncle Jim has learned his lesson, kids. Not this time. This time, I decided to cut my losses early and not drag it out. What’s the point? If I managed to get them to stick with this product, six months from now when some other thing went wrong, because, of course, it will, who will get the blame for choosing this stupid software? Me, that’s who. So, yeah, no thanks. Time to change horses.
So, I figure, if we’ve got to change, go with what they know and feel okay with and that’s Windows Server 2003. And very few of you have any idea how it galls me to have to admit that it’s the best option for these folks. Trust me, this goes against every thing I believe in the realm of technology. It used to be: “Windows for workstations, Novell for servers and Macs for graphics” as far as I was concerned. Now, it’s “Windows for workstations, Unix/Linux for servers, and Macs for graphics”. I think a part of me died inside to have to say that, too.
I worry about Novell as a company. This has been a mess from day one. Understand, I’ve been Novell certified for more than fourteen years and I’m well known as a Novell cheerleader. But, after this, I really wonder how long they’ll be around as a company. I think the shift to Linux is too little, late. I don’t think even vaguely complimentary articles at eWeek or changing their strategy, again, to building “cross-platform management tools” can help them now.
At least I think I’ve convinced the boss that when we do an e-mail server it should be Linux or BSD running some, to-be-named-later e-mail package. So, I’ll be able to use some of my favorite skills and show that on my resume. After all those jobs doing so many different things in IT, I can spin just about anything I do professionally to look about the way I want. Sure, there are limits, but, with me, not many. Professionally, that is. I’ve alway said that I can sit down with a good manual and a test system and figure almost anything out. Time and professional experience has shown that to be true. So, I guess I’ll be looking for a good Windows Server 2003 book. And, a good Linux-based e-mail system that allows me to give my users web access. Any suggestions anyone?

Well, no kidding!
When I read this article on the Register about Novell using the upcoming, and potentially bug-filled, launch of “Longhorn” Microsoft’s newest Windows operating system as an opportunity to get their Linux desktop into corporate America, my thought was, “Well, DUH!” What else does this reporter think they’ve been doing?! I mean, c’mon, buddy, this isn’t exactlly a secret, you know? Novell has been talking about this for years. Though, I have to admit, this time I think they have a better strategy, and opportunity, than that “genius” idea to buy WordPerfect. Hey, I love WordPerfect, don’t get me wrong, but there’s just no way that suite of software was going to really compete with MS Office.
Of course, I think they’re being a little optimistic, but, hey, Jack’s heart is in the right place. Hopefully, though, this will keep them alive in the market for a couple more years.
Now, iff they can just hold out until I retire…

To emote or not to emote…
Should that even be a question? There are times that I am sorely tempted to, as the old writing aphorism goes, “open up a vein” on this blog and just emote all over the place. God knows, I have plenty to “emote” about. Recently divorced, an ex-step-daughter that seems to think I’m the anit-Christ, mountains of debt, little forward progress in my career recently. There’s lots there. I could go on at length regarding my feelings when packing my ex-step-daughter’s clothes which were left behind. (None of these look like they’d fit her anymore, but they were still hers.) But, I hesitate. Why? Because I know who’s reading this. At least, I suspect who’s reading this. More importantly, I don’t know for sure, but am fairly certain that my ex-wife and her boyfriend (fiance?) read my blog searching for… Well, for something. Honestly, I’m not quite sure what, but they seem determined to find it, whatever “it” is.
So, knowing my audience, or potential audience, or possible audience, how much do I give them? Do I show them a little bit of what I’m feeling in order to show the rest of my readers what my life is like? Do I lie, to throw the pests off the track? No, I can’t lie as a simple distraction. It would feel too ingenuine to do that here. Is it better to drift at a shallow, surface level, never touching the deeper stuff, in the name of “safety”? Not sure I know the answer to that one, either. Though, that may be why my posts have been a strange mix of the personal, obscure and technical lately. Maybe.
Of course, for a long time now I’ve been careful what I say about things and people at work. After all, I would hate to get fired for blogging. Still, there are many things I can, and do, talk about that are quite geekily professional on this blog. It is not, by any stretch of my imagination, a professional blog. It’s very personal, but I do spend a lot of time at work, so work factors into my personal blog. And, I am a geek by nature. For pity’s sake, my older brother has a PhD. in Physical Chemistry and interviewed with Microsoft, in the early days. Know why he turned them down? My brother the chemist, who rearranged molecular bonding sites for his doctoral thesis and wrote shareware for the TI home computer, felt that the guys at Microsoft were just “too geeky”! It’s genetic. Geeks and we both still don’t care for Microsoft. And, yes, I had a great-great-uncle who was in the circus. As a trick shot artist! Still… Strange runs in my family. So, geeky stuff gets into the blog.
Well, have I rambled enough to distract you from the initial premise? Should I talk about my feelings in this blog when someone might either use that against me or take great satisfaction in my pain? Don’t know. If I ever figure it out, I’ll let you know.
Oh, and your Advice for today? “When agitated, pause.” Best advice I never asked for.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Contrary to popular belief, UNIX is user friendly. It just happens to be selective about who it makes friends with."
   --Dave Parnas

No, not here!
But, apparently, coming soon in the form of assorted free Office suite packages. According to this article on eWeek, all the happy-go-lucky Mac users out there who are looking for a free replacement for Microsoft Office will have alternatives shortly. Um, actually, I thought there was one already… (*cough* “OpenOffice” *cough*)
Okay, actually, the article admits that there is such an animal, but apparently the average Mac user doesn’t want to install XWindows to run a free office suite. Not sure why, since that should be free, too, but, then I’ve never gotten a good “picture to reality” chart for the Mac interface. Oh, and it won’t be quite “free” either. It’ll be $49, which is practically free compared to the cost of a full, non-upgrade copy of MS Office for Mac.
Or, you could just learn how to install XWindows and OpenOffice.

Well, I’m off to Louisiana! Be good while I’m gone!

Hmm, I’m wondering who has the real advantage here…
Well, if you read Slashdot, you’ve already seen this story about a Linux guy using wine to update a WGA game successfully. Apparently, he’d been running this game on wine quite well for a while, but it needed some kind of update. So, he used the update feature from within the game, while on Linux running the wine Windows emulator, and he was prompted for his Windows Genuine Advantage code. He put it in and the Microsoft website proceeded to tell him he was running “Genuine Windows” and update his game. So, what was that advantage again?

Oh, and it looks like I’ll be on the road tomorrow, just for the day. Off to Bellechasse, Louisiana to install a couple of desktops. Three, actually, in one day and transfer data and settings on two. It’s going to be a long, long day. At least the boss will be flying me, so I won’t have to hassle with airports! (Don’t worry Diary of a Network Geek junkies! I’ll post something before I leave.)

Oh, how sweet is this!?
So, I was looking around the other day for a PERL script that would send me an SMTP mail notification from a Windows 2000 server at a remote location, so that I’d know what their IP address had been changed to after a reboot. (It’s a long story, but it involves a VNC server, a cable-router, and a bad power grid.) And, whenever I search for this kind of thing, I go to my backup/long-term memory archive, Google, and do a search. Guess what I found? A whole set of web pages at Microsoft dedicated to Windows-centric system admin and monitoring PERL scripts. Oh, I think I’m in heaven!
I’ve been looking for this kind of thing for ages and ages. I have no idea why I never found it until now, but, well, here it is! Now, I can develop that massive, PERL-based auditing system that I’ve always dreamed of having! YEA!

ten year old can do it!
Get Microsoft certified, that is. At least, according to this story on SeattlePI.com, that’s all the life experience you’ll need to get certified. Arfa Karim Randhawa from Pakistan is the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional, so far, and she recently composed a poem honoring Bill Gates and his life achievements, which even I have to admit are admirable. Apparently, little Arfa is a very promising programmer, Microsoft certification not withstanding, and had some interesting ideas about self-navigating cars that some of the Microsoft top brass were interested in hearing. And, of course, all the nice publicity of Gates meeting the youngest member of the collective.
Anyway, I’m not sure if this is a statement about how easy it is to get Microsoft certified, just how smart 10-year-old girls are, or how slow the average Windows IT professional is, but it tickled my funny-bone. And, I would like to note that the youngest Novell Certified professional wass 12 when he got certified. Much more challenging.

I never trust Microsoft.
According to this news story, brought to us by BoingBoing, Microsoft has not only purchased a spyware company but defaulted their AntiSpyware program to Ignore said spyware. Can you guess who they used to be? Gator, the most notorious and prolific of the bottom-feeding spyware companies. (Actually, the company is Claria but they’re known for their spyware product, Gator.)
Now you know why I didn’t bother to install this.

Address unknown!
Not only is that a great Elvis tune, but also the new plan that Microsoft is trying to force down our throats. At least, according to this article on CNet News.com. And, when I say “force”, I do mean force. According to the article, not only is Microsoft’s Sender ID a not fully adopted “standard”, but it’s also not quite ready for prime time. Seems that there are some issues with it and that’s one of the reason it hasn’t been adopted as readily as Redmond would like. Also, according to the article “Sometime around November, Hotmail and MSN will flag as potential spam those messages that do not have the tag to verify the sender”. So, it’s not catastrophic, but it has the potential for trouble. I mean, do we really need Microsoft, the company most notoriously bad at security in the entire computer software industry, setting an e-mail security standard? I don’t think so.
Well, let’s hope this one withers on the vine. But, if it doesn’t, be sure to check those “spam” e-mails before deleting them. Some may be ones you want to keep!