Diary of a Network Geek

No, not Linux bashing, actual penguins.

Okay, so here’s a mindless, little bit of fun that my wife found. It’s a penguin bashing game. The object is simple: as the penguins come down the tree, make the “yeti” bash them for distance. Left clicking both releases the penguin and makes the yeti swing its club. Distance is displayed when your penguin smashes to Earth in the snow. If you’re good, you can get distance and a “face-plant”. In any case, it’s mindless fun. (You do need the Flash plugin installed to run the game and there’s obnoxious sounds, so, if you’re at work, turn down the volume.)

Happy Friday!

This book ROCKS!

Ahem. I know this is only the “pocket” version of this book, but Essential System Administration Pocket Reference is the best system admin book I’ve seen in a long time. Now, I’m relatively new to Unix system admin, but I’ve knocked around the industry for over ten years now, so I know a thing or two about sysadmin work. Usually, what I look for in a reference guide is either something quick and simple or with miles and miles of depth. If I’m new to a system, or I only administer it as a backup or “once in a blue moon”, the quick guides suit me well. In this case, that was precisely what I was looking for in a Unix system administration guide. Essential System Administration Pocket Reference provides this to a “T”.
Without getting bogged down in lengthy descriptions or philosphical discussions of which tool to use when, this pocket reference lists the basic administration commands, beyond GREP (though it lists that, too!), with a short description of what it does. It’s easier to read than the MAN file, usually gives me few examples, and I don’t have to open a second terminal window to use it! Seriously, I really reccomend this guide to anyone new to Unix, including Linux, system administration. Or, like me, is getting back into it for the first time since, well, since the Dark Ages. It’s a great guide or refresher and it literally does fit in your pocket!

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.

A bootable Linux security “suite”.

Cool. I saw this on the ScreenSavers, but it’s still cool and probably new to most of us. It’s a a tool called PHLAK. PHLAK stands for Professional Hacker’s Linux Assault Kit. But, what it is is a bootable Linux distro that’s loaded with security tools and information. Oh, it’s also free. I have to admit that I haven’t actually played with it. Yet. But, on the surface, it looks pretty cool.
Frankly, I like the idea of bootable distros. You can crank them up and try them out without reformating your hard drive. That’s pretty cool. And, for some applications, like security auditing, it’s nice to not leave too many footprints. A bootable distro is pretty good for that. Not perfect, of course, but it does limit certain kinds of trails and fingerprints.
Anyway, it’s Linux, new and fun. Go check it out!

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!

Wow, I’m becoming a Unix admin!

Now, this might not be a big deal for old-time Unix geeks, or anyone who prefers to work with Micro$oft products, but I think it’s cool. Last week, I was wrestling with a little problem that I solved with a judicious application of XWindows.
We run Oracle 9ias at my office and to get it to print graphics we have to do a kludge work-around. Not that we’re special, everyone who runs Oracle 9ias has to do it. What we’ve been doing is using a pair of Windows workstations running a Windows-base X terminal. Well, over the weekend those workstaions locked up and the DBA couldn’t get them restarted without physically rebooting them. So, Wednesday he came to me and told me he wanted a Linux solution to the problem.
After a bit of Googling, I found what I hoped would be the answer, but I didn’t have time until Thursday to try it out. Here’s what I did, in a nutshell:
1. On my Red Hat 9 workstation, I opened a terminal and ran “xhost +”
2. On the Solaris 8 test server running Oracle 9ias, I telnetted in and ran “display=my RedHat 9 workstation IP address:1.0″ and then “export display”
3. Then, still on the 9ias server, I ran”Xterm” and it popped up on my XWindows session on my RedHat workstation!

Woot! So, I know it might not be a big deal to an old Unix hand, but to this old Novell geek, it was pretty cool. Oh, and it works, too. Now, I just have to figure out how to script all that so it runs automagically……

I’ve been thinking about it…

I had a really busy weekend and, of course, missed a couple of shows that I tend to like to watch. So, that got me thinking about TiVo…. But, I don’t like the idea of having to pay for a subscription. (Because I’m perpetually under-paid and, as a result, a tight-wad.) In any case, that made me think about a way to get around the fee. Naturally, I turned to the Internet for a solution. And, I may just have one: Knoppmyth.

In a nutshell, Knoppmyth is a Linux install that also installs something called MythTV, which is, you guessed it, a TiVo replacement. So, now, all I need is a machine to run it on and the hardware to decode the signal and ….. Hmmm, maybe it’s cheaper to just pay the fee for TiVo. I’ll get back to you on that one….

Does that mean, Novell servers?

When I read this news story on Forbes.com about how Gateway is going to be selling servers with SUSE Linux on them, it struck me as odd. First of all, Novell just announced that they were going to buy SUSE just a couple of weeks ago. Second, Gateway selling servers? Well, okay. I don’t think I’ve ever run one, but their PCs are okay. Third, just as everyone else seems to be dropping Linux support, SUSE and Gateway are just starting to push it.
Okay, so, I’m no pundit, but this seems a little strange to me. I mean, these guys aren’t neccessarily “top of the line” in the industry, but they’re not light-weights, either! I can’t put my finger on it, but there has to be something going on here that I’m missing. Is there some kind of behind-the-scenes deal going on? Did Novell know about this deal before they made their move? Did Novell orchestrate this deal? And, what the devil will it all mean to the industry? Will it mean anything? I don’t know, but I’ll be watching this as it develops!!