“What am I doing here? What are you doing here? What are any of us doing here? I think it was Shakespeare that once said…” *slapped* “…and let that be a lesson to you.” –Chevy Chase, Spies Like Us.
I am a Professor of Network Security, Computer Forensics, and various Operating System administration at ITI in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I am also a professional musician (being that I get paid well for what I do) who plays mostly percussion and drums (there is a difference) in any genre where I’m requested and I offer vocal relief for singers when they’re exhausted. My content more than likely deals with Linux and will almost positively ramble off topic. I’ll try to keep everything in its proper place, but there will be bleed-over.
Linux
I have been interested in Linux since the early 90’s when an installation required downloading Slackware from a BBS (pre-Al Gorian internet) onto something like 17 floppy disks and then completing an install only to be greeted by what looked to me at the time like DOS. After staring blankly at the screen and modestly tapping at a few keys, I put the system away for a while. More than a few years later I worked on an SGI Indy station running Irix, another Unix based Operating System, which re-sparked the interest to learn more about what I could do with it. This led to a Linux Red Hat server install to play with. I more or less made the switch from mainly a Windows user in 2002 when I dumped Windows 98 in favor of SuSE (my web designer thought an Iguana was a cooler mascot than a Fedora) on my trusty old Thinkpad. I still have some Windows PCs, but my daily driver (Sony Vaio) is running Ubuntu Studio.
Microsoft Windows
I still have the Windows 2.1 installation diskettes if anyone is interested. While in college, I helped set up the first Windows Domain in a Louisiana State agency. My MCSE experience comes from the transition from NT 4.0 to Windows Server 2000 and I haven’t felt a need to update that. Active Directory from 2000 to 2003 doesn’t have enough improvements for me to go through all the coursework again. Microsoft Technet… got the T-shirt and lots of CDs. I refresh on the Microsoft E-learning pages which is a great resource, so I didn’t feel a need to re-state that information when the source works. Even if you have to pay for some of the courses, my time is worth wayyyyy more than the $40 they’re going to charge you per class.
Apple Mac
I’m going to defer questions about the Macintosh to one of 3 People: My Wife, Allan Hancock, or Cali Lewis of Geek Brief. I love Mac, I even suggested that my brother buy one. It’s just not for me. I’ll take my OS flawed, broken, and beautiful… …as long as I know exactly what it’s doing and have some control over its improvement. So, if you ask me, I’ll politely remind you that “I don’t know.” I can’t fix it if I don’t know how it’s supposed to be working in the first place.
