Diary of a Network Geek

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately!

In between rewriting Novell’s ZENWorks imaging system in Oceaneering International’s image and watching cleaning up my personal office, I managed to get Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai read. Actually, I’ve had this one for quite some time, but I just got around to reading it this past week.
Now, for those of you who know me, I love Asian culture, especially Japanese culture. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of books about Japan and Japanese history. I’m most interested in their Tokugawa period and the years leading up to that time. Of course, that also means I read a lot about samurai, who made that era happen. Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai is a book about the philosophy that drove much of that time. I say much, because it was really the refined and codified philosophy of a warrior class that no longer went to war. The Tokugawa Shogunate, ironically, brought an era of peace to a war-torn Japan and forced the samurai to redefine their purpose. It is in that light that this book has significance.
I found it an enjoyable book, though I disagree with much of it philosophically. And, based on what I’ve read, it represents an ideal that very, very few true samurai met. In fact, at one point, the author is quite critical of the famous 47 ronin who are almost saints in Japan for their devotion to their feudal lord. But, that aside, it provides a good look at the severe devotion to duty and loyalty to one’s master that we associate with the samurai. The author, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, advocates a brutal disregard for one’s own life which, he says, should be sacrificed for one’s lord. The book is filled with advice about how to harden one’s self to the potential distractions from duty, including death. It shows us a strict code that few modern warriors could achive, even if the wanted to do so. But, again, it is a good look at how this ancient warrior caste saw the world and approached life.
Much easier to read that it first appears, and well worth it!

More soon!

I’ve been doing a lot of reading!

Though, I have to admit that I haven’t actually read Learning the Bash Shell, I have used it quite a bit in the last week working out my menuing solution. Of course, I know that I can never go too far wrong with an O’Reilly book, but still this one was worth it’s weight in gold this past week.
Okay, so I know I’ve been going on and on about this, but still, it really is a great solution. I had to write a script that was easily updateable, simple for the end user and could be dynamic enough to serve an entire world-wide distribution. I came up with the basic menu and the script to TFTP it over from a remote location with help from Google. But, then we needed to parse an IP address without using anything more than GREP and native tools (i.e. no SED or AWK). How to do it? Pattern matching that I learned from this book. Then, we had to read in the date, without access to the DATE command! How’d I do it? Again, parsing information using pattern matching I learned in the book. Oh, and a bunch of other things, that I also read in this book.
So, in short, though I may not actually read the whole thing through, I will use this sucker as a reference for quite some time.

Okay, I read this some time ago, but I’m finally getting to review it!

Well, since there’s been some question about the future of MovableType, the blog engine I’m currently using, I started looking at other blogs. I discovered that most of them were done in PHP, so, I decided I needed to read up on PHP. Toward that end, I got Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours, Third Edition. Wow, what a book! First of all, it was not only a great introduction to PHP, but it was a good primer on the basics of programming. Now, a lot of that part was review for me, but it was a good review. Second, the only “bad” thing I can say about the book was that by the end, I was in way over my head. And, honestly, that wasn’t all that bad, really, but it might be intimidating for someone new to this kind of book. And, in the end, I think this was a really great book for me to have read to get a good, overall picture of PHP. It went further than I needed, but it covered everything I was worried about.
In short, if you’re looking for a good introduction to PHP programming, this is an excellent choice!

Either “best” or a “buy”.

I hate BestBuy. Why? Because their sloppy web design cost me several hours of my life. In fact, I’m so irritated with their malfunctioning website that I will not ever buy anything from them again, if I can help it. I would have given up after the first try last night, but my favorite nephew and godson (yes, that means I am a Godfather), said that all he wanted for his birthday, which was yesterday, was a gift card from BestBuy. Though, “WorstSale” is probably a better name for them.
It all started quite simply, as these things usually do, with me going to their cursed website to purchase a simple $25 gift card for my nephew. Sounds simple enough, right? Fifteen minutes worth of transaction and off to bed, I figured. WRONG! After getting through the transaction the first time, I noticed in the side-bar, in small print, something about needed to have pop-up windows enabled to complete the transaction. What? WHY? What sort of crazy e-commerce website would require me to open a potential security hole in my browser just to spend money on their website? And what kind of moron would let that roll out to the public?
So, I check my Account and see that there are no orders. Just to make sure, I do a search on the order number. Nothing. So, I call and verify with the very polite customer service person that my credit card has not, in fact, been charged. She then tells me to go ahead and try it again now that I have pop-ups enabled for their site and it should all be good. Fine. Only, it wasn’t. I tried this three times only to have NONE of the attempts show up. Not even the one I did through the hated Internet Explorer, which I generally don’t use for security reasons.
So, I call Customer Service again, cursing the idiot who thought up this moronic system. The second very polite Customer Service rep confirms again that no charges have gone through to my card and offers to take care of the transaction for me. Okay, great. All done. And, he tells me that I will be e-mailed a confirmation. Wonderful.
This morning when I check my e-mail, guess what I found? FOUR confirmations, each for a $25 gift card. All of which were processed at around 1:00AM, which was more than TWO HOURS after I was done on the phone with BestBuy’s Customer Service. So, I get to waste even MORE time trying to ge this straightened out today.

I have never, ever in more than ten years of on-line purchasing had a worse experience than I did with the BestBuy website. I have bought from little “mom-and-pop” stores and even game companies from the United Kingdom and never had problems like I’ve had with BestBuy. Gee, aren’t they supposed to be a technology company? Don’t they sell high-tech gear? You sure wouldn’t know it from their non-functional website!
So, what has all this taught me? Don’t ever use BestBuy again. In fact, I’m going to tell everyone I know about this experience and encourage them not to use BestBuy, either. If you live in Houston, I recommend that you try MicroCenter or Fry’s. If you want to get something from the internet try CDW. Personally, I will go to extreme lengths now to avoid spending even one more cent inside a BestBuy. All because one stupid web development team couldn’t get their shit together. (Crap, I almost made it through that entire rant without making any excretory remarks. Oh, well, shit happens.)

Okay, so I’m still trying.

I may not be doing as well as I’d like on this, but I haven’t quite given up. Enlarging my spiritual life is very important to me, so even a little bit of improvement is worth the effort. I’m still managing to pray at least three times a day, though, I’d really like to be praying four times, like the The One Year Manual suggests. In any case, I finally made myself read the exercise for the month. So here it is…

Rythmic breathing. A simple extension of the first two exercises, really. It’s just what it sounds like, breathing in a even, rythmic pattern. Oddly enough, this one is easy for me. I’ve been “into” Zen for quite a while and rythmic breathing is one of the basic building blocks there, too. So, it’s basically just breath in for a certain count and then breath out for the same count. Regardie suggests using a mantra as an aid. Interestingly enough, he suggests, for the Christian, “My Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” So, it would be inhale saying, mentally, “My… Lord… Jesus… Christ…” and exhale while saying, mentally, “have… mercy… on… me…” Now, I wish I’d read this sooner, because rythmic breathing I can not only do, but really get into. It’s very, very relaxing.
In fact, several years ago, I read Science of Breath, which is a book on nothing but breathing techniques used by the Yogis. It’s a fascinating book, really, and one I need to read again. I remember using techniques from this book to completely calm my heart-rate and breathing in just seconds after marching up several flights of stairs. And, I remember the stilling calmness I would get from just a few moments of rythmic breathing when I was feeling even the slightest anxiety.

Well, slowly but surely I march ever forward on the Path.

I finished The Hiram Key: Pharoahs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus last week.

It was, er, well…. “Interesting”, to say the least. I’m not sure I agree with everything they claim, but it sure made me question what I thought I knew about my own faith and Freemasonry. In a nutshell, the authors claim that Freemasonry is the repository of the “secret” teachings of Joshua ben Joseph (aka Jesus Christ), by way of the Knights Templar. Now, the idea that Freemasonry is derived from the suppressed Knights Templar is not new, and, frankly, one I believe. Too much just fits together too well for that part to not be true. Where it starts to get a little sketchy for me is that they claim the Knights Templar got ahold of some secret, forgotten scrolls that were hidden under the Temple in Jersualem at it’s building. And, that the knowlege in those scrolls goes back to ancient Egyptian kingship rites which themselves may be derived from ancient Sumerian religious beliefs. It’s all a kind of a stretch to me, but the authors make it seem frighteningly plausable.

It’s an interesting book, but probably not the best place to start if you’re interested in Masonic history. But, since this book got me so interested in the history of Freemasonry again, I’ve set myself the goal of reading at least one Masonic book a year. So, keep an eye out for other reviews!

It’s beyond me today, but…

Well, let’s just say this gives me something to shoot for in my PERL goals. I found Advanced Perl Programming on the discount shelf of a local bookstore, so I snapped it up, but it’s going to take me a while to “get” everything in this book. I mean, they’re talking about really advanced database access, incorporating C programs, and making GUI interfaces with Tk. That’s way, way beyond the little bit of text processing that I’ve managed with my own PERL efforts. Still, I’ve always felt that getting in “over my head” and fighting my way to the top, so to speak, is the best way for me to learn anything of value. And, it does tend to keep me challenged. So, while I love where this book is going, I probably need to stick with the PERL Cookbook. But, I’ll get there eventually. I swear it.

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!

Not the usual Diary of a Network Geek book.

But, well worth looking into. I first got interested in Rastafarianism by way of William Gibson, who had several characters who were Dreadlocks. My ignorance of what that was all about was, well, somewhat shocking for me at the time. So, I started poking around. Quite a few years ago, I found Rastafari: Roots and Ideology by Barry Chevannes. It followed me around, unread, in a box for several years. Well, I finally read it this past week. What a shame I waited so long!
This was a very good book about the history and origins of a relatively new religion. Among other things, it was fascinating to track the birth of a new faith from its very start through the modern day. As a sociological look at a small, but growing, religious or spiritual movement, this is a great book. It is, however, a rather schollarly look at this movement and, as such, is somewhat dry at times. Still, it presents not only a well-rounded look at the religion, but also the socio-economic forces that shaped it. One of the main “pillars of faith”, for instance, is the concept of “repatriation” to Ethiopia. This would never have come about if not for the practice of black slavery in the New World.
I’ll not attempt to describe the intricacies of Rastafarianism in a short message, but, if you’re interested in knowing more, this book is a great place to start.

(Note: This review also appeared on my other blog.)

In celebration of my business travel being postponed, we saw a movie yesterday.

Earlier this week, as I was about to buy airline tickets, which I can’t really afford, I was told to “WAIT!” So, this project, or at least my end of it, having been put on indefinate hold, we decided to see a movie to celebrate.
First, I think it’s important that I say Pirates of the Caribbean was NOT my first choice. I was out-voted two-to-one by my wife and daughter.
But, I have to admit, I was very, very pleasantly suprised. This was a GREAT movie! Obviously, it’s about pirates, but it’s more than that. It’s about a curse on pirate gold, stolen from the ancient Aztecs. The story follows Jack Sparrow, er “Captian” Jack Sparrow, in his quest to regain the Black Pearl, his pirate ship lost to a mutiny.
The story also follow Will Turner in his quest to find out who he is and marry the fair Elizabeth who is the daughter of the local British Governer. Will, it turns out, is the son of a very important pirate who has the secret to lifting the curse. Only, he doesn’t know it, of course.

But, before I spoil any more plot, let me say that this movie had something for everyone. There was adventure, of course. After all, how could a movie about pirates not have adventure? There was romance. After all, how could a movie about pirates not have romance? And, there were wonderfully animated corpses. (Really, the special effects were so good they were almost an additional character.) Johnny Depp, who plays “Captain” Jack Sparrow, does a wonderful job of combining comedy, action and drama. And, I have to admit, he’s not too bad with a cutlass.
This movie is really a great one and good for just about the whole family. Anyone who could survive the Disney ride should enjoy this film. Go see it!