Category Archives: geek

Warning: Complete Geek Post.

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I was telling a female friend of mine about getting licensed over lunch… and received quite the compliment. I believe it was something like: “You’re a complete geek…yet you have this suave confident demeanor about you that’s quite sexy. You’re a great conversationalist and are always wanting to try something new.”

Especially after it was given while I was explaining the search for my first transceiver. I’m looking at a dual-band HT on 2m/70cm. Preferably w/ a BNC instead of SMA connector. (I’m not going to lie…I kind of enjoyed feeling geeky and saying that) In other words, I’m going to get a handheld radio first that’s capable of operating on the 2-meter band (144.000-148.000 MHz) and the 70cm band (420.000 – 450.000 MHz) with a connector that will allow me to connect my handheld to an external antenna without fear of placing undue stress on it.

But, I’m not trying to sound knowledgeable… I am a complete newbie. I’m just pleased with what I’ve learned so far. I am entering a world full of concepts that I haven’t even begun to comprehend yet. Simply learning to read a basic circuit diagram was a cause for celebration….and that’s also where the excitement comes from… knowing that I’m involved with something that has so much to offer and so many opportunities to learn.

Right now, I’m looking at the Icom IC-T70A. It doesn’t have a BNC connector but it’s rugged, great battery life, water-resistant, plenty of memory channels, WX channels, capable of supporting an external mic. and very important–an external power jack.

…the only drawback is cosmetic: It doesn’t have a backlit display. Doesn’t sound like that big of a deal but could be a drawback in an emergency situation

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Found a skill to add to the list: I will learn about IC, electronics and electricity in general. I’ve read the same thing so many times it’s finally being absorbed.

…and learn to read freaking electronic schematics. So many symbols…

Actually have something I’m working on now…more to come.

MAK

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How do MAK activations work? Or rather, how do you “deauthorize” an activation if you are no longer using the computer/have to reinstall? From playing around in VMs and just generally messing around I’ve used up most of my activations but only have 3 machines active.

I wonder if you call it in and do an activation over the phone or if they deauthorize the entire key? I know they can rearm it… but I’m sure that has a limit. It’d be nice to find out where exactly I stand…

problem?

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The TWC tech came out and switched out my cable modem… the connectivity has improved and my DL speeds are certainly back to normal but uh, notice anything off? Talked to a level 3–super cooperative and awesome tech… who told me that everything looks fine and she’s going to have to send someone back out Friday. She seemed apologetic…I’m pretty happy w/ the turnaround time.

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This is one of those frustratingly long days that doesn’t have much going on but is spread out between 8am and 8pm leaving me waiting more than anything.

Right now, I’m waiting on the TWC guy to bring me a new cable modem and test my line. If he’s not here by 10 I gotta run to class…and of course I can’t just swing by the main office and pick one up.  Jeez, it’s only 8am and I’m already looking forward to lunch. Going to be the high point of my day.

Oh, I found my solution to learning absolutely nothing in my disturbingly simple WS2k8 lab–scrapping my HTPC and doing the lab at home as well. For my purposes, it should be able to run datacenter w/ enterprise and server core under Hyper-V. This way I’ll be able to take my time and examine all of the options instead of just what’s in the book.. While configuring the scope of dhcp addresses the kid sitting beside me didn’t realize that an ip address couldn’t have an address higher than *.255 … no, I’m not joking.

 

You’ll meet them all again on their long journey to the middle.

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Believe it or not, it’s been a while since I’ve been up in the middle of the night drinking coffee for no reason. Somehow I got carried away in my organizational frenzy this evening…This time it was organizing, clearing up and securing my electronic files. Changing passwords, archiving backups…Generally walking the tightrope of diligent behavior and you know, just being weird.

If you think that’s weird…

I’ve had a passing interest in “prepping” for a while…but nothing extreme. Keeping some stuff in the car in case I break down. Same thing w/ putting a kit together for the house…never know if you’ll lose power or a water main will break.

Well, someone posted this link: Your Emergency Computer Kit. This was a complete geeky prepper…I’m not talking about throwing a backup dvd of important files in your BOB. He gets into the importance of backups, integrity checking and complete drive encryption in case you have to leave it behind.

It’s interesting to see the electronic world and survivalist worlds intersect… After all, geeks want security and privacy from Big Brother–and if the protests of PIPA and SOPA were any indicator: geeks are against an overreaching government. You can see where some of that ideology is shared w/ the survivalist.

So, now you see people talking about their CCW and RFID blocking wallet in the same conversation.

Anyway, I got a kick out of it.

 

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I would love to have a tablet, but they’re way too expensive and my laptop is too new to justify buying anything else. That’s part of the problem… When I bought my laptop I knew it was going to be used for my IT courses and work…which means being able to run VMs. So, I have an i7 w/ 6gb of ram…it’s a desktop replacement, weighs a ton and even with a 9-cell battery, battery life is way too short.

I’m not complaining though, I’d much rather have a fully functional heavy duty laptop instead of an iPad 2. What I’ve been waiting for is a low-end but functional tablet that I can use for basic e-mail and web surfing…or hand it to one of my friends to use when they ask to check their facebook instead of busting out my laptop.

There have been plenty of low-end models that would work, but, they’re either off brand or use a resistive touch screen that quite frankly, doesn’t work. I think the Lenovo IdeaPad A1 is going to change all that. $200, 8gb internal storage w/ a microsd addon, capacitive touchscreen technology, all the basics and what’s really neat-a GPS that doesn’t require a data package. My only concern is that it runs Gingerbread instead of Honeycomb and I’ve heard that apps tend not to scale very well w/ the new display. Still, for a coffee table tablet it’s the best I’ve run across

Windows Server 2008 Study Outline

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The Server 2008 Administration course and lab book is divided up into 12 lessons. The official course is a bi-term course split between this and managing Windows 7 in a network environment. So, I’m allotting 7 weeks for this course w/ the test out date November 7th. That gives me 5 weeks for the Windows 7 course which I believe will be the easier of the two. The server 2008 is the only class that I HAVE to test out of before spring but I’d like to do both of them if possible. That’s why I’m focusing on this first. If I find that the lessons are easier than expected I’ll revise this

My Goal: To set a realistic study outline that allows me to learn the necessary objectives in the needed time frame without placing an undue burden on myself

I’ve never actually created an outline like this before so let me know if it seems either too lax or too challenging.

I intend on doing two lessons a week which includes the end of chapter questions and two labs a week with the exception of Lesson 3, active directory which I’ll spend a full week on

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