Diary of a Network Geek

And, it’s good news, too!

I’ve been called back for a second interview!! Yea!
So, obviously, the interview last week went well. And, this could be a really good job. They’re a world-wide organization with offices in some really interesting places, like Singapore, London, Africa, and Equitorial Guinea. And, best of all, they’re building a big network all based on Novell products. Oh, and they’re rolling out a PeopleSoft solution on Linux. Score! So, I would get to use all my favorite skills, learn new things, travel to exotic locales, and the main office is less than 10 minutes from my house, even with bad traffic.
Well, anyway, I found this out yesterday, but I didn’t want to detract from my “fun Friday” posting, so I waited until today to post the update.
I’ll keep you posted!

Oh, God, how I hate interviewing…

But, it’s a requirement for change, so I do it. Well, both interviews I had this week went well. The first was with a search firm and was on Tuesday. It was fairly standard. They mainly had found someone with all the right buzzwords on his resume. (That was me, incidentally.) They ran me through the standard questions about where I’d been, what I’d done and why I was looking to leave. Then, they gave me the info about the job, as they understood it. And, too, they let me know about the environment and the person I was interviewing with, so I could guage my answers and so on. Standard stuff.

The second interview was with the actual job and was yesterday afternoon. I met with three people in IT. One was the person who I’d actually report to and the other two were people I’d interface with. One of them was a manager who was originally from Scotland and he was a hoot. He had a bit of an accent, but was easily understandable and was full of life and fun. Really, all the people there seemed really happy and in fairly good moods. I can’t say where it is just yet, but it’s an oil-related business that deals with ocean-based vessels and platforms. Very interesting stuff. And, their main headquarters are just a few miles away. My commute would be like 5 minutes, or less. Pretty good for Houston.
There is a bit of travel involved, and there would probably be international travel, which could be fun. But, they’re pretty tight on salary, so we’ll see what my headhunter can do for me. Of course, my resume reads like their job description and I know that the headhunter had someone in from San Antonio, so I think they might be flexible. I mean, how many guys can there be in Houston that have 10+ years experience with Novell and have Linux experience, too? Not many.

In any case, I think I made a favorable impression, so now it’s a waiting game. I’ll keep you posted!

This might not seem like much…

But, this could be a really big deal to people tied to Oracle. According to this article on eWeek.com, MySQL is going after the enterprise with a SQL database that is scalable to clusters. Now, if you’re not a database geek, that might not mean much, but, take my word for it, it’s a big deal.
What this means, basically, is that there’s now an Open Source SQL database that could rival Oracle. Databases at a discount. Oh, and Novell licenses MySQL, which they send out with all their product. (Or, at least they did the last time I installed anything.)

Though, my wife tells me I could be.

No, really, she once encouraged me to fully explore my Rageboy-ness. Never heard of Rageboy? Oh, I think you have. You probably know him as Christopher Locke, the author of Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices and The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual. But, I’m really trying to not give into the “dark” side and rip into people anymore. Hey! Stop laughing!!

Okay, I have to admit, sometimes I get a little, well, cruel when I’m dealing with idiots. For instance, when the guy from overseas e-mailed me looking for advice on installing a Gauntlet firewall asked me what I meant by “hardening the OS”, I kind of went balistic. I mean, if he doesn’t know that there are steps to take to make Windows 2000 more secure, should he really be installing a firewall? And, what does he think I’m going to do for him? Search TechNet and get only the “good” articles? But, I digress. I’m trying to be a kinder, gentler Network Fascist. (Okay, in actual conversation, I get specific about the kind of alliterative fascism, but why should I risk insulting anyone I haven’t met?) Really, it’s part of the new image that I hope will let me compete with all the fine off-shore outsourcers who don’t know how to spell LDAP, much less what it is.
Besides, Rageboy has nudity on his blog page and I try to be “family friendly”. Sure, it’s Manson Family, but, still…. I do try to put a “nicer” face on disgruntled, soon-to-be-outsourced, under-paid, over-qualified, angry, thirty-something Network Engineers. I mean, I don’t go out of my way to be cruel and nasty. It just happens. Er, “it seemed like the thing to do at the time”?

Well, anyway, I’m happier being the Network Geek, or even the only Novell Certified James Hoffman, than I am being an imitiation Rageboy. And, that’s the story I’m sticking with!

I got an interesting phone call yesterday…

It seems that I’m so popular a hit on Google for “CNE Resume” that now people are asking me to help them find CNEs in other cities. A poor, frustrated small-business owner called me yesterday, out of the blue at my day-job, looking for help finding a CNE in Dallas. First of all, I was suprised to get that kind of call at my work. I guess she traced me down by way of my resume and the helpfull operator at my job. Anyway, she had apparently been looking for someone to come in and help her get something done on her network, but couldn’t find anyone. What’s more, she seemed to be having trouble getting through to the Novell sales office in Dallas. In any case, I wasn’t able to help her much, since everyone I know who’s a CNE is in Houston these days, and maybe back in Chicago. I’ve lost touch with everyone in Dallas that I used to know from Harbor Financial.
So, I finally got her connected to the Novell website Partner Locator. That seemed to pull up a number of options that might work for her. I felt really bad for her because there really aren’t too many good resources for people in her position. Maybe that’s why so many small business seem to favor Micro$oft these days? Maybe this is an opportunity Novell to get some market pentration… You know, if they started to market to the smaller businesses and encouraged the smaller IT consulting firms to have CNEs on staff to support them, maybe Novell would get into some markets that they hadn’t thought of before. Maybe…

So, you CNEs out there, if you want to be seen, join the CNE Resume Webring! It really could get you noticed!

Well, I hope she got her help. Good luck!

Novell is getting right on it!

Just a few months ago, Novell bought SuSE, the leading LINUX company in Europe. Well, now they’ve announced that they’re going to be letting loose some new versions of their distro. At least, according to this article on Wired News, they are. Frankly, all I can say is “Horay!!” I really hope Novell follows through on what they’ve started here. I know they have a whole section of their website dedicated to the Novell\Linux intersection.
I really, really like the idea of running Novell products on a Linux kernel. For instance, I can’t think of a better sounding e-mail solution for corporate envrionments than GroupWise on Linux. (Okay, I’m a little biased, but still….) I mean, this just sounds like a bulletproof setup to me. None of the hassles of Exchange/Outlook bugs, exploits, viruses or worms and the reliability of Linux. C’mon, let’s face it, Unix-based servers so very rarely crash that it’s almost a non-issue.
Now, if someone would just offer me a Novell job where they’re starting to use Linux…. Ah, well, a guy can dream, right?

On a happier foreign note…

Open Source projects in Germany. Accoding to this article on Wired News, Munich is going forward with thier migration to Open Source software. They’re not the first, but they’re the first I know of in Europe. And, they’re the first I’ve heard about in a long time. That combined with the whole Novell purchase of SUSE makes me really glad to be of German descent! Seriously, it really looks like Germany is getting cranked up on the latest technology and that’s cool. Hopefully, they’ll pull some of the rest of Europe along! Go, Tux, go!

Let’s talk “license”.

It looks like SCO’s attempt to extort money for alleged proprietary pieces of Linux code is slowly failing. At least, according to this article on AustralianIT, which says that the Australian government is basically just ignoring them. They apparently got their Linux solution via IBM, so they just refer any issues to IBM. Which, frankly, makes sense. Besides, IBM is already bringing suit against SCO for, well, basically for being stupid, I think.

The more I read about stuff like this the more I think the way to go is Novell and SUSE. An integrated solution, right down to the desktop, that has a better, less expensive licensing program than Micro$oft and has global support. Seems like a better option to me. But, what do I know? I’m just a Network Geek.

Two great tastes that taste great together.

I only wish I was going to get to taste them. I was reading the article in this month’s Novell Connection Magazine about all the cool new things that Novell is rolling out for Netware and Linux in a mixed envrionment. It really makes me sad that my current company is phasing out Novell. Especially now that Novell has bought SUSE! Yow! I can only imagine the things that will be coming down the pike! I mean, things like Linux-only Groupwise just really makes me drool. And, with all the web-based administration tools, managing servers from home on the weekend would be a dream with Linux. *sigh* Well, maybe one day I’ll get the chance to be in a Linux/Novell shop. Until then, I have to content myself with running Linux servers and nursing the old Novell servers through end-of-life.
At least it pays the mortgage.

Jack Messman opens LinuxWorld.

Well, based on this story from WiredNews, Novell is really serious about their commitment to Linux. Jack Messman, who is the CEO of Novell, said that we need more OpenSource projects and applications. I really think his opening the biggest Linux show in the country show just how much Novell has committed to Linux. They’re really betting on the fact that enterprise computing is looking for a more robust, more stable, system than we’ve gotten used to recently. Certainly, I’d like a system that has fewer crashes and more uptime than most of the Windows servers I’ve worked on! And, Unix, which is still what runs the Internet, no matter what Micro$oft would like you to believe, is the most stable OS that I’ve ever worked on, Netware included. So, it seems like a good match for Novell. A series of products that integrate Novell’s easy-to-use tools and Linux’s stability seems like a good idea. At least, I think it’s the right move, obviously since I got my Linux+ certification. I just hope the rest of the IT world sees it our way!