End of My First Semester

Finally, my first semester ended! After4 months of struggle, pain, torture, peace and quiet arrive to give me a chance to recuperate my fighting spirit and gain back my energies. The semester didn't quite end all glorious and triumphant for me. Instead it ended rather quite painfully.

The load balancing exam hit my glass house with a solid brick and sent me crashing back to reality. All the 1's I earned so far, gave me a false sense of accomplishment and a consequential feeling of confidence. But this last exam just ripped my lovely cheerful painting to tiny little pieces. Looking back, it should have been easy. But I guess when you don't really use the Big IP software, 40 minutes of practical exam could be torture.

Although one final exam remains,  I don't have to go all the way to school. This one will be about network planning and telecommunications platforms. This was like having the CCNA course compressed to just about 6 3-hour sessions, and this already includes laboratory work. 

My instructor  thinks it won't be an easy exam, and so do all of my colleagues. I won't be taking my chances on this one. 

Let's see:

Command Line Interface;

Setting up console, telnet, and enable passwords for Router and Switches;

Setting up ip addresses for interfaces;

Static routing;

Dynamic routing;

VLANs and intra-vlan-routing;

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF);

Both versions of RIP;

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP);

Domain Name System (DNS);

Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP);

Subnetting;

Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR)/ Supernetting;

Variable Length Subnet Mask (VLSM);

Access Control Lists (ACL);

and Dijkstra algorith.

Looks like it's gonna be tough... 

But what would Hanzo do?

Revealing Facebook Stalkers?!?

No, you can't see who viewed you on Facebook

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Some Notes on Using Crossover or Straight-through Ethernet Cables

UTP Cables for 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX - Just to make it easier for me to remember how cabling works specifically for Crossover and Straight-through I've decided to jot down a few notes for quick reference...


Ethernet straight-through cable connects using the following combinations:

• Switch to Router
• Switch to PC or Server
• Switch to WAP (Ethernet interface)
• Switch to LAN Networked printer
• Hub to PC or Server
• Hub to Router
• Hub to WAP (Ethernet interface)
• Hub to LAN Networked printer

Ethernet crossover cable connects the following:

• PC to PC, Server to Server, PC to Server
• Hub to Hub
• Switch to Switch
• Switch to Hub
• Router to Router
• Router to PC, Server
• Router to WAP (Ethernet interface)
• Router to LAN Networked printer
• PC or Server to LAN Networked printer
• PC or Server to WAP (Ethernet interface)
• LAN Networked printer to WAP (Ethernet interface)
• WAP (Ethernet Interface) to WAP (Ethernet interface)

It may also help to think of it using the following tables :

Devices That Transmit on pins 1,2 and Receive on 3,6

• PC, Servers
• Routers
• WAPs (Ethernet interface)
• LAN Networked printers

Devices That Transmit on pins 3,6 and Receive on 1,2

• Hubs
• Switches

A device connected to another device using the same pin assignments must use a crossover cable, otherwise use a straight-through cable.


A simpler way:



Crossover Cable
Switch-Switch
Switch-Hub
Hub-Hub
Router-Router
PC-Router
PC-PC

Straight-Through Cable
Router-Switch
PC-Switch
Server-Switch
PC-Hub
Server-Hub

Why Facebook Wants Your E-Mail

Why Facebook Wants Your E-Mail

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My First Week in my Telecommunications and Internet Technologies Class

I never thought I'd say this, but my first week wasn't exactly a walk in the park. I have a few things against me:

• The instructors had a "European" English accent, the kind that girls in the US probably think is cute. I find it hard to understand them, given that I grew up watching Hollywood.films. I bet it wasn't easy for my American classmate as well, who by the way, is from Kansas. Yes, think of Dorothy and Toto. Howdy pardner!
• I was the only one with a non-IT background. The rest of my classmates graduated from Internet Technologies, Computer Networking, Electrical Engineering, etc... courses. When it was my time to introduce myself, I managed to blurt out that I graduated with a Chemical Engineering Degree and have no background in IT. I did say that I have a very strong interest in learning about telecommunications and internet technologies. That managed to draw some looks that seems to say"Huh?! Are you sure you want to be here?!"
• Hunger. The moment I leave work, I have to move it and get going. I have an hour to get to class.It turned out that my classmates don't seem to mind not eating. I can't do that. Food is my fuel. It gives me energy for physical and mental work. Our class is from 6pm to 9pm, and it seems like we have nor breaks. I need to eat something while I commute to class. A sandwich... maybe a nice juicy burger. There is just no other way to do it if I want to arrive in class on time.

These are a few of those things. It seems I have a lot of catching up to do....

So let's go! (in Zohan accent)

My IT Battleplan

In every war, there should always be a battle plan. As quoted from the Art of War by Sun Tzu:

"Hence the saying:  The enlightened ruler lays his plans well ahead; 

the good general cultivates his resources."

I'm no soldier. Just an Entreprengineer. I have limited time on my hands, but 

I want to live a balanced life. Man is afterall, multi-dimensional. Therefore, I 

have no to make use of plans and force myself to execute them as violently as I can.

 Let me see:

• Learn new CMS. I decided it will have to be Joomla! for now.

• Get a degree in Telecommunications and Internet Technology. 

• Study Internetworking via Cisco's CCNA (Cisco Certified Networking Associate). 
• Get myself CCNA certified (Thanks to Dennis and Arnold for introducing me to this wonderful company)
  

 

• Get a Windows certification of something. Maybe a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE).

I hope to finish all these in 2-3 years through professional and educational institutions. I already enrolled myself in a specialized university here in  Vienna which thankfully teach in English (I imagine myself to be totally devastated, defeated, and broken if these courses were taught in German. I can speak Deutsch but just a little. I frankly sound like a preschooler, but it get me by for now.

Hmm... so far the plans looks all good from here. The question remains if I am really built for this. Let's see if the Entreprengineer can make it in IT.

Content Management System

I have been recently tasked at work to make a website for the company I work for. And to be honest, I had zero experience in making a website from scratch. The only thing I knew was to make blogs from Blogger, Wordpress, and Multiply.

Luckily for me, I found out that Wordpress has CMS (Content Management System), which is also offered by Joomla and Drupal. And to top it off, all three are open-source, which is a fancy term for being free. BTW, I am sure there are others out there but these three came out on top.

In case you don't know what CMS means, Webopedia has the definition as follows:

Abbreviated as CMS, a content management system, also called a Web management system is software or a group or suite of applications and tools that enable an organization to seamlessly create, edit, review and publish electronic text. Many content management systems offer a Web-based GUI, enabling publishers to access the CMS online using only a Web browser. Also, a CMS designed for Web publishing will provide options and features to index and search documents and also specify keywords and other metadata for search engine crawlers.

Some advantages cited in using CMS are as follows:

• Increased control over the web site
• Improved speed to market in terms of content changes
• Lower cost per page
• Decreased total cost of maintaining the website

In short, CMS just made my life easier. Although I still need to learn a few HTML and CSS commands, I can now design and create a real website with almost no knowledge of both HTML and CSS. Yup you heard me right. A real live customized website.