All posts by alphageek

Android, Linux, Technology

Technical Info for Technical Recruiters

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EDIT:Originally posted 2012, updated for 2016…

I am a mid-to-advanced-career techie. I have been working in, on, around, near, over, under, and through computers and networks for  literally as long as I can remember. I got my first computer at 10, now almost 30 years ago, and was the local geek for years. I’ve been paid to work on computers for nearly 25 years. I realize that doesn’t make me an expert per se, but it means I have a bit of insight into the tech world. Sure, there may be more knowledgeable people for this post, I concur, but it seems nobody else has taken the time to set it to text.

So, here goes.  TECHNICAL RECRUITERS: you could learn a lot by paying attention here.

A technical job is going to be able to be broken down into a few categories. Many of these overlap, and I understand it gets confusing, but here’s a few quick breakdowns:

Job types in tech fields:

Administration world… (Key words: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Unix, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, Sun, Active Directory, Virtualization, OpenStack , AWS, VMWare, LDAP, Apache, IIS, LAMP… ) Continue reading Technical Info for Technical Recruiters →

Linux, Technology

How to configure mrepo to mirror Red Hat’s repositories for multiple versions and architectures!

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Have you ever needed/wanted to set up a single Red Hat Enterprise Linux server to sync all you servers to for package updates? 32 and 64 bit machines pointing to the same server? Different distros on the same server? Here’s how…

This tutorial is for setting up mrepo only. It’s the first part of setting up a Spacewalk instance to mirror RHN. If you’ve already completed this, go on to Part Two…(coming soon)

 

Part One: Setting up a mrepo server to mirror RHN’s Satellite repositories.

Continue reading How to configure mrepo to mirror Red Hat’s repositories for multiple versions and architectures! →

Linux, Technology

Spacewalk as a viable replacement for Satellite

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[Edit- mrepo tutorial has been posted. See here…]

Okay, a Primer, first.

Spacewalk is an open-sourced software suite for maintaining a number of Red Hat based servers. The Commercial version is Red Hat’s Satellite Server. SatServer has a few more bells and whistles, and the added benefit of support from the big Red Hat themselves, but also costs about $50,000 a copy. (Okay, I realize that number is off, depending on your situation, but my point remains. It’s expensive.)

What does it do? A lot, actually. You can use it for building new servers, and maintaining existing Continue reading Spacewalk as a viable replacement for Satellite →

Linux, Technology

Oh the joys of storage work in a network you’ve never actually seen.

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Bad idea: SAN storage on iscsi that mounts after fstab.

Worse idea: labeling them with /dev/sdX tags so they look like normal disks.

Worser idea: telling someone you’re adding disks to the raid array when you’re actually not- you’re adding it to a SAN the engineer still doesn’t know exists.

Mind numbingly worst idea: not having start/stop scripts on your Oracle RAC server because the whole “unable to mount the iscsi” drives configuration problem. Even with that whole mount/unmount problem- you SHOULD STILL HAVE A STOP SCRIPT so you don’t reboot a server with a live DB running.

Politics

…and a post for you “flat-tax”ers…and balanced budgeters

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Flat tax woes:

Let’s say a national sales tax of %10 goes into effect.

Man/woman who makes $20,000 a year spends approximately $20,000 a year. Every person at this income level does. Nominal tax rate = 10%.

Man/woman who makes a $1,000,000 is not likely to spend 100% in income in a year. Some will, most wont. Let’s be generous and say a person spends $990,000, and only saves or donates $10,000. Nominal tax rate = 9.9%. Continue reading …and a post for you “flat-tax”ers…and balanced budgeters →

Politics

Not a solution, but a big step towards recovery…

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I am thoroughly annoyed at the Right, but that’s nothing new. I am annoyed with the majority of the populace, as well, because people don’t seem to call them to task, well, ever.

I know, you think nobody is calling the Democrats to task, either, but that’s not exactly true. The Right has Fox and Rush and the like, who call EVERYTHING into question, without really explaining how or why it’s exactly bad. The old Rudy Giuliani quip works here: every sentence they utter contains a noun, a verb, and SOCIALISM!!!. Continue reading Not a solution, but a big step towards recovery… →

Linux, Technology

On the need for structure in a budding Enterprise environment…

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I am not an “organized” person. I like to go with the flow, be spontaneous, and shoot from the hip. I fully acknowledge that is not always the best way to be in a profession such as computing, but it is what it is. In my professional capacity, I am a proponent of organization on a much larger scale than I could ever do in my personal life. I think Christy is to blame for that. 🙂

At any rate, I started my new job in May, and was thrust into a position where there are 6 datacenter-ish locations (5 DC’s and HQ has a server room with a fair number of live boxes)… still a far cry from the 3,000 Linux boxes we had at Fidelity. Continue reading On the need for structure in a budding Enterprise environment… →

Gadgets, Technology

iPad Facebook app exists…

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…if you know where to look.

Apparently you can enable the iPhone facebook app to iPad mode just by adjusting a setting in the app itself. Just change the UIDeviceFamily setting from 1 to 2, and voila, instant FB in the native format. The offical release can’t be more than a few days away, but @AeroEchelon sent along the fix via twitter with a bit of a headstart. Enjoy!

https://twitter.com/#!/AeroEchelon/status/95119442828214272

Uncategorized

Blogs and SEO comment spam

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I’m sure this is a common occurence, but it’s still a bit annoying. Nobody has been told about this blog, with the exception of a single twitter post, that I added just to test out my google analytics plugin. (It’s working, btw…)

Regardless, insincere comments about how “impressive” my blog is when it’s a grand total of 6 posts and a generic WP template with absolutely zero customization kinda makes me not want to use your services. Ever. I am not signing up for your SEO optimization program or whatever it is you’re selling. If your search methods really did work, your blog would be at the head of google searches, and clearly they aren’t.

Good luck with that. Hey, by the way, I have some foolproof methods for buying lottery tickets and picking football point spreads…wanna find out more? Send $$$ to ….