Documentation is a pain

This entry was posted in Work Stuff on by
Spent the day yesterday working on getting restarted on my network documentation. I am one of those syadmins that just hate to document anything. But lately I have been thinking about it and realized that if I got hit by a bus or had to call in some one to fix something if I am out of town or something they wouldn’t be able to do anything. I am also trying to get it done so when I finally get around to OS upgrades it will be easier to know what each server is doing and how I have it set up. So in my research of looking for the best way to proceed with the documentation I found a neat site called rate my network diagram it’s a pretty cool site. I might just up load my diagram when I have it the way I want it.

On a personal note I got squirrel mail up and running on the webmail side of things. Now I have to get it working here on the Arora webmail site.

Tonights the LUG/IP meeting so I will be busy tonight…..

Off to shut down a WINS server……..

Wow first time out

This entry was posted in Work Stuff on by
Well it’s been a while going out on a computer repair it felt good getting the modem fixed and getting $45. It was a simple repair and then I cleaned up his machines of spybots and a bunch of viruses. Did make it back to Hoagie Haven to get a cheese steak sandwich with hot peppers on the way home last night. I think they have changed owners because they skimped on everything. It was still good though.

Yesterday at work it was pretty quiet waiting for the wins server to purge all the old address assignments and compress it’s database. Other then that just took care of stuff around the office. Spent last night after getting back working on an e-mail newsletter for LUG/IP. Sent out a test one to the officers and waiting for feed back.

Been a busy mornin’

This entry was posted in Work Stuff on by
I got all the users machines moved over to DHCP this morning. Now I can start working on getting the wins server moved off of it’s current box. That should take a few hours. Spent the rest of the morning upgrading some of the mail server software. I need a break from Windows so spent the rest of the morning in my Linux environment.

Spent a few hours at Home Depot looking at kitchen flooring and cabinets and counter tops. Then went home and tried to figure out how to get what I want to fit in the room. I think I might have to remove a wall or part of it. I need to get Dean over and take a look and see if it’s possible or not. If not I have to re-figure out my layout. More on this when I get more things figured out.

Get to go out to my first client as a legal business tonight…that’s right I got all the papers filed and am now a Limited Liability Company. Shouldn’t be to bad tonight just get his modem working and fix a mouse problem…. more on this after the job is done…..

Windows networking and TCP/IP

This entry was posted in Work Stuff on by
Spent the day yesterday working out the plans to move the WINS server to another machine. Decided the easiest way is to convert all the client machines to DHCP that way I can change the setting once and then force a releasing of the IP addresses. So last night I cleaned out the DNS server of all users static address and am now going around to all the users machines and switching them to DHCP.

Recipe for all those who were asking for it…..

This entry was posted in Food/Cooking on by
For my fun party guest from New Years Eve here is the roll recipe from Mel.

Okay,so here’s the recipe.

Refrigerator Rolls (yes, they have a name.)

Ingredients Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
2 tsp salt
2 packets yeast
1 cup boiling water
1 cup lukewarm water
2 beaten eggs
approx 6 cups flour

Combine sugar, shortening, and salt and over this pour the boiling water. As it is cooling, add the yeast to the lukewarm water in a separate container. When the first mixture is cool, add two beaten eggs. Cream with mixer. Add the yeast and slowly add the flour, stirring as you go.

When dough is pliable but not sticky, form into a roughly shaped ball in the bowl, cover the bowl and let it rise in the frig for at least two hours. The dough will keep for a week if a little bit of oil or Pam is sprayed on the surface to prevent it from drying out.

Roll the dough out into your favorite style. Clover leaf and parker house is particularly nice, but do what you want. If you are doing parker house style, roll the dough out to 1/4 th inch thickness. Cut with a round shape: I use a drinking glass, Grandma uses coffee mugs. Add a pat of butter to the circle, fold in half. Press the edges down firmly. This methods makes 3 dozen, approx.

Let the dough rise for 2 1/2to 3 hours, covered and in a warm place, before baking.

Ovens and cooking times vary. Grandma bakes hers at 425 degrees for 15 to twenty minutes. I bake at 250 degrees for ten to fifteen minutes, plus I have a pizza stone in the oven to block the direct heat. Start low, watch the first batch closely until you find the prefect temperature for your oven.

Enjoy!

A New Start and the Start of 2005 1

This entry was posted in Work Stuff on by
Back to work today after a nice long 4 day weekend. The New Years Eve party was a blast. Everyone had a great time and the food was out of this world.

Now that the new year has started it’s time to get back into the swing of work and get some old dusty projects finished and out of the way to move in some new ones. I came in on Sat and yesterday to get some stuff done that I can’t do during the week. I got the new server moved into the server closet and moved the companies original server out and into my office. It will be retired as soon as I get some things migrated off of it. I was going to take my time doing that but the drives are so loud that I am sure my neighbors are going to start to complain.

On the todo list for today is:
1. Get the budget done
2. Map out the network changes
3. Start moving apps off server-1

That’s it for now. One of the resolutions for the year is to get a log entry up every day (weekday at least)… 🙂

Christmas 2004 come and gone

This entry was posted in Family on by
Well Christmas has come and gone. We had a nice holiday here in Lawrenceville. My parents came down from Bath, NY to celebrate with us before there cross country trip. We all received nice things. Avery got a new computer the last of the Bilancios in this house to get her own computer. To see pictures of it go here.

The rest of the day was fun. My mom and I spent most of the day in the kitchen cooking a nice dinner. It also took us about 2 hours to open gifts and just to sit around and enjoy the morning. Pictures of the morning are here.

Monday Monday

This entry was posted in Technology on by
Opened the front door of work this morning to hear a screaming alarm emanating from the server closet. One of the drives on the RAID chain died in the Web/FTP/Mail server over the weekend. Luckily I had a spare from the summer when Harrisburg lost a drive. Took me about 15 min to swap out the drive and then 2 hours to have it rebuild the drive. Now I remember why I preach RAID 5 to my other tech buddies. Even though the drive died the server was able to keep working without lose of performance. And the drive was still under warranty so I was able to send it in and will be getting a new one to replace it….

In Memory of one of the best TV shows

This entry was posted in Fun Stuff on by
To get everyone into the Thanksgiving Spirit and to memorialize the show that got me hooked on radio. From the best known episode of WKRP……..
————————————————————
Herb: When that farmer asked me what I wanted with twenty live turkeys, I had to do some pretty fast talking, let me tell you.
Les: What did you tell him?
Herb: I told him it was a secret.
—

Later that day at the Pinedale Shopping Mall:

Les: It’s a helicopter, and it’s coming this way. It’s flying something behind it, I can’t quite make it out, it’s a large banner and it says, uh – Happy… Thaaaaanksss… giving! … From… W…. … K… … R… … P!!

Les: No parachutes yet. Can’t be skydivers… I can’t tell just yet what they are, but – Oh my God, Johnny, they’re turkeys!! Johnny, can you get this? Oh, they’re plunging to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just went through the windshield of a parked car! Oh, the humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement! Not since the Hindenberg tragedy has there been anything like this!

Johnny: Les? Are you there? Les isn’t there. (composing himself) Thanks for that on-the-spot report, Les, and for those of you who just tuned in, the Pinedale Shopping Mall has just been bombed with live turkeys. Film at eleven.
—-

Back at the station:

Jennifer: But Mr Colly, a lot of turkeys don’t make it through Thanksgiving!

Venus: Les! Are you okay?
Les: I don’t know. A man and his two children tried to kill me. After the turkeys hit the pavement, the crowd kind of scattered, but some of them tried to attack me! I had to jam myself into a phone booth! Then Mr Carlson had the helicopter land in the middle of the parking lot. I guess he thought he could save the day by turning the rest of the turkeys loose. It gets pretty strange after that.
Andy: Les, c’mon now, tell us the rest.
Les: I really don’t know how to describe it. It was like the turkeys mounted a counterattack! It was almost as if they were …organized!!

Mr Carlson: As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE

Another year coming to a close and another back spasm

This entry was posted in Personal on by
On Wed I was pulling cable and somehow pulled my back out. I suffered through the rest of the day at work and figured I would be alright…wrong…..I spent Thursday sitting on the couch with the heating pad. I felt OK and figured I would be OK. Headed to bed and crashed out and woke up to a massive back spasm. I got up and kicked Avery out of her bed which has the better mattress. I slept OK in there once the pain subsided. In the morning it was right into the shower for a hot shower aimed right at my back. That loosened me up enough to move back downstairs to lie on the floor on the heating pad. I ended up sleeping on the floor and being able to get around a little better on Sat and yesterday was feeling good enough to go food shopping and doing some work on a customers new machine that I am building for him. I also got the turkey defrosted and in the marinade for Thanksgiving.

This morning I am in a little more pain then Sat and Sun. but I think I will make it through. If I can make it home at lunch and lie on the heating pad I should be able to make it through the afternoon….. I have to be able to move around better soon. I have to get stuff ready for Thanksgiving dinner we are having 18 people over this year.