In the case of wanting a reference book instead of something like the two I seconded the recommendations of above, I would have to recommend UNIX in a Nutshell. There is no better printed UNIX reference out there. Some of the chapter topics include the commands themselves, various shells, editors (this is super important), pattern matching, make, and more.
Regarding my primary interests of unix system administration and wireless technologies, here are just a few books I have found to be incredibly useful and/or interesting:
Essential System Administration, Third Edition (Frisch)
Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition (Robbins)
The Practice of System and Network Administration (Limoncelli, Hogan)
I think the art (and technology) project behind this, "Pioneers Hitchhiking in the Valley of Heart's Delight", particularly Hewlett and Packard's travelogue is more interesting than the post. Ironic how HP wouldn't allow the cutout into their lobby!
I'm not sure why this was modded down, but I have to agree with this. I founded and own a business with a partner and we were advised to do exactly this 51/49 split. Although my business partner is one of my best friends, we have covered ourselves well through our operating agreement, in the event anything bad ever happens. Also, if the two top people (who are at the same level in our case and presumably in your case as well) cannot agree on something, decisions can still be made by the person holding 51%. In our case, it made additional sense to do it this way, since if I, as a woman, hold 51% or greater ownership in the business, it is legally a woman-owned business, which may be some advantage for us in the business world.
I work in academia.. I make a decent salary compared to a lot of other sysadmin types at my university. I think the people I work with are great and I've been presented with many cool projects that keep me working there. All of this despite the fact I could be making twice as much in corporate. I wouldn't leave my job for that. Money isn't everything. I wouldn't take a pay cut either..
However, I'm working on starting my own business. I can do this safely without taking a pay cut while I continue working at my academia job. However, once my retirement vests in two years, I'm probably going to quit, and risk the pay cut and other risks that come with starting a business (altho hopefully we'll be profitting to some degree by that point). I'm doing this in the interest of doing something I find incredibly cool and fun, and most importantly, as my own boss.
Most importantly, when considering a pay cut, is making sure you'll be happy and can afford to live on the lower salary. If you're just making ends meet right now, probably not a good idea to quit the current job, no matter how interesting the other job is. For instance, I wouldn't quit my job now to concentrate on starting my business. Sure, I might progress with that faster, but I won't be able to pay my bills or have some minimal comforts in life.
There are always tradeoffs in any job change. A previous post listed you are happy with your current coworkers. This is important. A new job could be more interesting, but not if you can't get along with your coworkers/boss. Of course other benefits should be taken into consideration as well. Going back to academia vs. corporate, I like how I can work on my degree, all paid for by the university. I also have a very flexible schedule. All tradeoffs for a lower salary. I also have job security and know for a fact when I'm going to get raises, retirement money, etc..
Good luck and think carefully about making life decisions!
Trango, Motorola Canopy, just to name a couple of proprietary solutions. Hell, I've even made a 16+ mile link with 802.11b SmartBridge radios. How do you think WISP's can go into and stay in business?
At my place of work, we have a wireless backbone that links over 16 miles. When one of our primary units went down due to a lightning problem, we constructed a cantenna and pointed it at the remote ap. The backbone was linked up once again and it worked great! We eventually replaced the redundant link with a 24dbi parabolic, but it's worth the small amount of time to check out the cantenna solution, as it's significantly cheaper than the parabolics.
Right, I see. I guess then the question would then be how much would you want to compromise your own wireless network in regards to where in your residence you could actually receive the directional signal. (ie, if you could only receive your signal in some standard 30 degree directional angle, wouldn't that defeat the point of having a wireless vs. a wired network?).
Perhaps an omni would be a better solution in that sense, even though the gain wouldn't be as high.
Again, I ask, won't there still be a problem with channel interference? If so, increasing signal strength isn't going to help, but rather, only make it worse (at least for your neighbors).
This brings up the point about transmit power vs channels. If you put a high gain antenna on your router, won't channel interference still exist? If so, increasing signal strength isn't going to help, but rather increase interference throughout the building.
Furthermore, if you really want to be hidden (which isn't even the point here), you should not be broadcasting your ssid.
Didn't catch the full article before it got slashdotted, but it would be interesting to know how these statistics were calculated. It would make a big difference if they were calculated by official audits/inventories or rather by random surveys of company employees. Imagine how your non-technical employees would respond..
Without a package manager, it's practically impossible to remove a program.
I think this presents another point in that when you figure out how to remove a package, it's difficult to determine all of the dependencies that needed to be installed to support the original package. You may have had to install several dependencies, and now not only do you not remember what these were, but you also don't know if other packages you've installed since then require those dependencies. You then end up with a bunch of random packages on your system that may or may not be needed. This is particularly a problem when testing several packages of the same type in order to determine which package is right for you. It's not always practical or feasible to have a separate development system for this kind of testing purpose (which could be argued as another problem in itself).
If this tool doesn't scan the Windows Registry, then it's worthless. Instead I am using the Sophos removal tool, http://www.sophos.com/support/disinfection/sasser. html. It has found and successfully disinfected/removed the worm from the infected machines on my network. It checks in all known locations for the virus, including the registry. This is critical, as the worm does make its way into the registry in most instances. You also have the option of scanning your entire machine with this tool if you're overly cautious.
I SysAdmin a significantly sized heterogeneous network and to my dismay, I often have to set up new Windows machines and/or reinstall Windows machines.
As an aside, in sysadmin-land, the general rule is to reinstall a machine after someone leaves and/or every two-three years max. Any longer than that and the machine's OS & registry gets too clogged up with crap (among other things) that the machine goes so slow and a complete & clean reinstall is the only way to really regain that lost productivity.
Anyhow, the first 10 or so programs I install on these (primarily w2k) machines are as follows:
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (if you don't install this from a cd before you put the machine on the network, you will get a virus).
Deloused is a concept album about vocalist Cedric's good friend, artist Julio Venegas who commited suicide in 1996. From the Mars Volta Site, the album is "Based on a story written by Cedric, it is a concept album in which the hero tries to commit suicide by overdosing on morphine. Instead of dying, he falls into a coma for a week, and experiences fantastic adventures in his dreams, elemental battles between the good and bad aspects of his conscience. At the end, he emerges from the coma, but chooses to die."
Not surprisingly, they list Pink Floyd as one of their major musical influences.
..Microsoft recently (last Fall I think) changed their critical update release schedule to coincide with the second Tuesday of each month to supposedly take some of the workload off of the sysadmins. Thus, today is the day.
However, as a sysadmin I still have mixed feelings about this. If something is a critical vulnerability, I think a patch needs to be released as soon as it becomes available. At the same time, it's a real pain in the butt to have to go around to hundreds of computers to make sure auto update is actually doing its job. More specifically, the last time I checked machines to see if they were auto-updating, at least a third of them weren't even though they are always on and set up to do so. Not to mention the machines that fatally crash due to windows updates..
It doesn't say in the article (at least from what I saw), but it would seem that even if it did sent straight to voicemail (which is logically what would happen, as this is what happens when your phone is off or out of service), the jammers would block you from calling your voicemail to see what the phone call was about.
At the same time, you might not get your voice mail notification until you leave the jammed area. I find that when I am in a location that has poor service, I don't know I have a voice mail until hours after it was created.
I find that when I need to write some documentation or write a policy, etc.., it's best to begin making a list of everything you want to say. Do not worry about order or organization at this point. You just want to make sure that everything you want to say gets on that list so that you don't leave anything important out. It is preferred if you can spread this process out a little bit, as you may not remember everything you want to put in the list during the first go. Also, you might come back later and start adding subtopics to any of the items in the list.
Once you feel your list is complete enough, go ahead and try to organize it logically, probably outline it out by topic as previous people have suggested.
When you think you are done, always have someone else read it. You will want someone out of your target audience to read/proofread as well as someone very close to the project, perhaps one of the other developers. They might be able to add some insight or think of something you didn't.
As an aside, it is good to google this sort of thing, as others before you have been through the same process. Obviously slashdot is a great place to get input as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't need to be a climate change scientist to figure that one out. - a climate change scientist
In the case of wanting a reference book instead of something like the two I seconded the recommendations of above, I would have to recommend UNIX in a Nutshell. There is no better printed UNIX reference out there. Some of the chapter topics include the commands themselves, various shells, editors (this is super important), pattern matching, make, and more.
Both of these books are *excellent* and I would recommend them both as texts for a unix sysadmin class.
Yeah, the kiwi thing got me too.. My thoughts exactly.
- Essential System Administration, Third Edition (Frisch)
- Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition (Robbins)
- The Practice of System and Network Administration (Limoncelli, Hogan)
- Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks (Unger)
- Wireless Hacks, Second Edition (Flickenger & Weeks)
Of course, anything published by O'Reilly and fitting with your given interests is worth having as well.I thought the advertisement at the site was much more interesting than the article itself.
I think the art (and technology) project behind this, "Pioneers Hitchhiking in the Valley of Heart's Delight", particularly Hewlett and Packard's travelogue is more interesting than the post. Ironic how HP wouldn't allow the cutout into their lobby!
I'm not sure why this was modded down, but I have to agree with this. I founded and own a business with a partner and we were advised to do exactly this 51/49 split. Although my business partner is one of my best friends, we have covered ourselves well through our operating agreement, in the event anything bad ever happens. Also, if the two top people (who are at the same level in our case and presumably in your case as well) cannot agree on something, decisions can still be made by the person holding 51%. In our case, it made additional sense to do it this way, since if I, as a woman, hold 51% or greater ownership in the business, it is legally a woman-owned business, which may be some advantage for us in the business world.
I work in academia.. I make a decent salary compared to a lot of other sysadmin types at my university. I think the people I work with are great and I've been presented with many cool projects that keep me working there. All of this despite the fact I could be making twice as much in corporate. I wouldn't leave my job for that. Money isn't everything. I wouldn't take a pay cut either..
However, I'm working on starting my own business. I can do this safely without taking a pay cut while I continue working at my academia job. However, once my retirement vests in two years, I'm probably going to quit, and risk the pay cut and other risks that come with starting a business (altho hopefully we'll be profitting to some degree by that point). I'm doing this in the interest of doing something I find incredibly cool and fun, and most importantly, as my own boss.
Most importantly, when considering a pay cut, is making sure you'll be happy and can afford to live on the lower salary. If you're just making ends meet right now, probably not a good idea to quit the current job, no matter how interesting the other job is. For instance, I wouldn't quit my job now to concentrate on starting my business. Sure, I might progress with that faster, but I won't be able to pay my bills or have some minimal comforts in life.
There are always tradeoffs in any job change. A previous post listed you are happy with your current coworkers. This is important. A new job could be more interesting, but not if you can't get along with your coworkers/boss. Of course other benefits should be taken into consideration as well. Going back to academia vs. corporate, I like how I can work on my degree, all paid for by the university. I also have a very flexible schedule. All tradeoffs for a lower salary. I also have job security and know for a fact when I'm going to get raises, retirement money, etc..
Good luck and think carefully about making life decisions!
I'm curious how you experienced computer science that you think it's so easy?
Why- by outsourcing all of the coding assignments!
And that's why I work in academia...
if you're rural, long distance links are more important. if you find a high enough point, long distance links can save you money.
Trango, Motorola Canopy, just to name a couple of proprietary solutions. Hell, I've even made a 16+ mile link with 802.11b SmartBridge radios. How do you think WISP's can go into and stay in business?
At my place of work, we have a wireless backbone that links over 16 miles. When one of our primary units went down due to a lightning problem, we constructed a cantenna and pointed it at the remote ap. The backbone was linked up once again and it worked great! We eventually replaced the redundant link with a 24dbi parabolic, but it's worth the small amount of time to check out the cantenna solution, as it's significantly cheaper than the parabolics.
Perhaps an omni would be a better solution in that sense, even though the gain wouldn't be as high.
Again, I ask, won't there still be a problem with channel interference? If so, increasing signal strength isn't going to help, but rather, only make it worse (at least for your neighbors).
This brings up the point about transmit power vs channels. If you put a high gain antenna on your router, won't channel interference still exist? If so, increasing signal strength isn't going to help, but rather increase interference throughout the building.
Furthermore, if you really want to be hidden (which isn't even the point here), you should not be broadcasting your ssid.
Didn't catch the full article before it got slashdotted, but it would be interesting to know how these statistics were calculated. It would make a big difference if they were calculated by official audits/inventories or rather by random surveys of company employees. Imagine how your non-technical employees would respond..
Without a package manager, it's practically impossible to remove a program.
I think this presents another point in that when you figure out how to remove a package, it's difficult to determine all of the dependencies that needed to be installed to support the original package. You may have had to install several dependencies, and now not only do you not remember what these were, but you also don't know if other packages you've installed since then require those dependencies. You then end up with a bunch of random packages on your system that may or may not be needed. This is particularly a problem when testing several packages of the same type in order to determine which package is right for you. It's not always practical or feasible to have a separate development system for this kind of testing purpose (which could be argued as another problem in itself).
If this tool doesn't scan the Windows Registry, then it's worthless. Instead I am using the Sophos removal tool, http://www.sophos.com/support/disinfection/sasser. html. It has found and successfully disinfected/removed the worm from the infected machines on my network. It checks in all known locations for the virus, including the registry. This is critical, as the worm does make its way into the registry in most instances. You also have the option of scanning your entire machine with this tool if you're overly cautious.
I SysAdmin a significantly sized heterogeneous network and to my dismay, I often have to set up new Windows machines and/or reinstall Windows machines.
As an aside, in sysadmin-land, the general rule is to reinstall a machine after someone leaves and/or every two-three years max. Any longer than that and the machine's OS & registry gets too clogged up with crap (among other things) that the machine goes so slow and a complete & clean reinstall is the only way to really regain that lost productivity.
Anyhow, the first 10 or so programs I install on these (primarily w2k) machines are as follows:
The first (and fairly recent) album I can think of that has a meaningful sequence is Deloused in the Comatorium by The Mars Volta, released 2003.06.24.
Deloused is a concept album about vocalist Cedric's good friend, artist Julio Venegas who commited suicide in 1996. From the Mars Volta Site, the album is "Based on a story written by Cedric, it is a concept album in which the hero tries to commit suicide by overdosing on morphine. Instead of dying, he falls into a coma for a week, and experiences fantastic adventures in his dreams, elemental battles between the good and bad aspects of his conscience. At the end, he emerges from the coma, but chooses to die."
Not surprisingly, they list Pink Floyd as one of their major musical influences.
..Microsoft recently (last Fall I think) changed their critical update release schedule to coincide with the second Tuesday of each month to supposedly take some of the workload off of the sysadmins. Thus, today is the day.
However, as a sysadmin I still have mixed feelings about this. If something is a critical vulnerability, I think a patch needs to be released as soon as it becomes available. At the same time, it's a real pain in the butt to have to go around to hundreds of computers to make sure auto update is actually doing its job. More specifically, the last time I checked machines to see if they were auto-updating, at least a third of them weren't even though they are always on and set up to do so. Not to mention the machines that fatally crash due to windows updates..
It doesn't say in the article (at least from what I saw), but it would seem that even if it did sent straight to voicemail (which is logically what would happen, as this is what happens when your phone is off or out of service), the jammers would block you from calling your voicemail to see what the phone call was about.
At the same time, you might not get your voice mail notification until you leave the jammed area. I find that when I am in a location that has poor service, I don't know I have a voice mail until hours after it was created.
I find that when I need to write some documentation or write a policy, etc.., it's best to begin making a list of everything you want to say. Do not worry about order or organization at this point. You just want to make sure that everything you want to say gets on that list so that you don't leave anything important out. It is preferred if you can spread this process out a little bit, as you may not remember everything you want to put in the list during the first go. Also, you might come back later and start adding subtopics to any of the items in the list.
Once you feel your list is complete enough, go ahead and try to organize it logically, probably outline it out by topic as previous people have suggested.
When you think you are done, always have someone else read it. You will want someone out of your target audience to read/proofread as well as someone very close to the project, perhaps one of the other developers. They might be able to add some insight or think of something you didn't.
As an aside, it is good to google this sort of thing, as others before you have been through the same process. Obviously slashdot is a great place to get input as well.
Good luck!