Some things I would like to see if able to attend:

1. Linux deep dive on troubleshooting via CLI.

• Configuring your terminal for maximizing productivity (customizing text for readability, setting up a terminal multiplexer like screen or tmux, useful aliases, etc...)
• Parsing text in BASH to find what you want(grep, awk, sed)
• Using logs to diagnose problems (tail -f, head, etc...)
• Helpful tools (top/htop, iftop, iptables, ip, etc...)

2. High level overview of system automation for SMB.

• Key areas that can be automated to specifically benefit small to medium sized businesses.
• Use of tools like Ansible/Chef/Puppet
• Examples of common tasks that can be scripted (BASH, Powershell, or otherwise...)

3. Deploying/managing container based services in a production environment.

• Deploying a new container-based service (Example: Discourse forums http://samsaffron.com/archive/2013/11/07/discourse-in-a-docker-container)
• Managing a container-based service.
• Migrating a service to containers
• General Best Practices for working with Containers.

4. BASH scripting best practices / standards.

• What basic format should my scripts follow?
• Do's and don'ts
• Where should my scripts live?
• When and how to add a script to cron.

Curious to know if anyone has any documentation or resources in regards to managing XenServer and KVM hypervisors and VMs. Specifically in regards to Backups and system resource allocation.

I've seen LVM snapshots being recommended for VM backups, and I've recently seen responses saying that is not the appropriate way to manage VM backups with XenServer.

I'm mostly looking for clarity and a solid source to reference for an upcoming Hypervisor upgrade and possible overhaul... I'm currently using KVM at the office, and looking to implement XenServer at home in my test lab.

Surprisingly less cluttered than usual...

I think I would rather receive full payment and save/invest those funds myself over the 4+ years. I'm more interested in employers that would allow you to take an entire year off and have your job waiting after the fact. Letting my employer keep that portion of my salary is like overpaying your taxes in the attempt to get a larger refund; you're effectively losing income.

Oh... And an overview of using SNMP to monitor and manage your network. This could possibly be built into a session on setting up a proper network monitoring service.

Any suggestions or words of wisdom from those who have taken it?

I've looked at DIY projects using kee klamps in the past. Might cost a bit more in parts/labor, but they look like they are made to last and you can design everything to fit your space.

http://www.simplifiedbuilding.com/solutions/pipe-desk-frames/

Any random Linux distro will do this... I don't understand the excitement.

• VLAN implementation (planning, implementing, and scenarios that necessitate their use)
• Managing VoIP traffic (QoS, if/when to VLAN, hosted or local, etc...)
• VPNs (types, differences, and use cases)

So:

• Remember to wear underwear
• Imagine the test breathing

Got it!

@wirestyle22 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@RamblingBiped said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@wirestyle22 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@RamblingBiped said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@wirestyle22 said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@RamblingBiped said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Counting down the minutes until quitting time and going over packing lists in my head in preparation for Ragnar in Richmond this weekend.

Have fun. You and @MattSpeller are way more active than I am. Then again I'm slowly de-evolving into a chicken mcnugget.

I dunno, I think I just practice a lot of poor judgement. I acquired a micro-tear in my left calf during the first week of March and have been slowly nursing that back to health. I wasn't able to run more than 2 miles until earlier this week. I should be good to do 25k right? Ignoring reason hasn't failed me before. Or at the very least it hasn't killed me yet.

Plus I have a can of Heady Topper waiting for me at camp.

Fully realize the scope of my pudginess. I tried to run the other day. I got to 3 mins 41 seconds until I had to stop. I'm basically dead already.

There's a trick to getting good at running. Run. Then run again. I didn't really make it a habit until I started doing it with a local group. Group runs are so much more enjoyable. I hate running alone. Anything more than 4 miles alone is torture.

Also this free app is pretty nifty: http://www.smashrun.com

And running from zombies while gathering supplies and fortifying your camp is kinda cool too: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sixtostart.zombies5k&hl=en

My fiance` tries to get me to run with her. It's like she wants me to live past 35 or something

I'm currently 35, I'll get back to you on whether that's a reasonable approach after this weekend...

I've decided to go back to school and finally finish an Undergraduate's degree. I've been accepted to WGU's College of Information Technology and plan on getting their B.S. in Software Development. The curriculum will include the Network+, Security+, Project+, Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 7 Programmer, and Oracle Certified Professional Java SE 7 Programmer certifications. While I could really care less about the certifications, it is a nice add-on at no additional cost. I'm mostly doing this out of personal interest and to fill in any holes that might exist in my experience; but I also believe it will be directly beneficial in my current position and future prospects. I like the idea of building a DevOps-like skillset and being able to do both development and infrastructure management.

I'm currently working as a SysAdmin for a small (but growing) engineering firm. We get the opportunity to work on a lot of really interesting projects for a wide range of clientele. (Mechanical/Electrical/Software Engineering working with robotics, wireless proximity detection systems, high speed cameras, etc...) Aside from managing the infrastructure I hope to have the opportunity to directly contribute to some of the future projects that involve software development. I've already been given the opportunity to build a small one-off tool in BASH that replaced an older slightly dated piece of software that was being used for managing an aspect of an ongoing project. I really enjoyed the work and it was part of what pushed me to go ahead and enroll for the WGU program.

I enjoy working with BASH and use if fairly regularly for writing scripts. I also have a little experience working with Python. I'll be picking up Java from my future studies, and I plan on adding in Ruby/Rails as I find time.

What else would you recommend that might be helpful when moving forward with courses that are specific to programming/development? Thoughts on the curriculum? How about additional skills to look into picking up along the way for career development? Depending on how these courses go I may move more toward the software development side of things and less toward systems administration in the future. Are there any other things I should be doing now or in the near future that might be beneficial?

(I thought about putting this in the Careers forum, but thought this might be slightly more relevant home. If I'm wrong please feel free to move it)

TL;DR: I'm going back to school for software development and I am looking for informed criticism of the degree program I've chosen, advice on other skills to look into for career development, and/or any other helpful criticism/commentary.

So I got to thinking about this post and decided to use it as motivation to practice with GIT version control. I built a simple website monitoring application/script that exports site status to a very simple HTML page and availability log. The script is meant to be setup using Cron and the availability log can be parsed to track any periods of downtime. If you're interested in giving it a whirl/critique you can clone it from:

https://github.com/ramblingbiped/simple-site-monitor

*written in BASH for use on debian/ubuntu-based linux distributions.

Thanks for the motivation, it was a great exercise for familiarization with GIT!

This topic makes me think of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90RajY2nrgk

@Reid-Cooper said in Stanford Removes Java in Favor of JavaScript in Intro to Computer Science Course:

I am a bit curious as well. If you don't know any programming, what are you doing in a comp sci classroom?

Learning programming?

I understand the utility of teaching JavaScript as an intro to CS, but I'm curious why nobody ever chooses plain old C anymore. Why not start off with C and then transition to Java, C++, C#, etc...? I mean... structurally they all branch from C right? Why not build a halfway decent foundation in it first?

Very cool, thank you for sharing. I still haven't had enough time to sit down and spin up a XO vm at home yet, but your threads on here have been eating away at me to get it done.

This is fun too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd5rul6EdF0

@Nic said:

I can't even:
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/we-talked-to-a-witch-who-casts-viruses-out-of-computers-with-magic

Replace "Wiccan" with "Christian" and " The Spiral Dance" with "The Bible" and I think the Donald has a running mate.

They have a banner up at the top of the community site asking you to reconfirm your email to unlock all of Spicework's features.

I'm considering not bothering. I haven't really got much value from the community over the last couple of years.

"sudo !!", "tail -f", the unholy trinity that is "grep/awk/sed", and vim (all from within tmux).