I had the opportunity to participate in the very first Philly Tech Guys roundtable podcast this past Saturday.  Mike Smith from the Mike Tech Show organized and produced the whole show and it was great.  Steve Cherubino from the Podnutz and Podnutz Daily podcasts rounded out the cast and we had a good time talking about independent consulting and handling issues related to being the go-to geek for family and friends.

We hope to do this monthly and Steve has setup a Philly Tech Guys site where the show will likely move.   The next Philly Tech Guys show is scheduled to record on September 6th, 2008 live at Podcamp Philly 2008.  Paul Muller from the Caffination podcast will be there as well.  The show will be streamed live on uStream.tv and I’ll post the exact time as soon as it is known.

Mike released the audio as show #199 through his podcast feed.  Take a listen here.  You can also watch the show as recorded on UStream.tv.  I’m the doofus in the red shirt with the antique laptop.

Well, as if work and home life aren’t hectic enough, now I’m apparently running for president.

News3Online Breaking News

Many thanks to Cali Lewis at GeekBrief for the link to the site.

Steve and I were discussing on Episode 59 which podcasts we consume.  Here is a list of the shows on my iPod (Broken down as audio or video podcast) and I have included links to the shows site where I can:

Audio

• Buzz Out Loud (CNET)
• Caffination Podcast
• Casting From The Server Room
• CNET News.com Daily Podcast
• CyberSpeak
• Mac Geek Gab (Newly subscribed - still evaluating)
• Microsoft Technet Podcast - Active Directory
• Mike Tech Show
• Network World 360
• Network World Twisted Pair
• Security Bites from CNET
• Technorama
• The PePe Show
• The Onion Radio News
• TWIT (This Week In Tech)
• Windows Weekly

Video

• CERIAS Computer Security Seminar
• Cisco Hands On Training Podcast (Out of production. Keep old ones for fun)
• CNET Buzz Report
• CrankyGeeks
• dl.tv
• GeekBriefTV
• IT Idiots (Newly subscribed - still evaluating)
• Lab Rats (Newly subscribed - still evaluating)
• Onion News Network (Video)
• Systm
• Tekzilla
• WallStrip

If you have a favorite show, post it in the comments and share with your fellow listeners.

Keith

My apologies for the long delay in getting this out. This is a sanitized version of my Server Staging Checklist for Windows 2000/2003 servers. I use this as a guide when staging new servers to prevent missing those little detail tweaks. The original document was developed as part of a comprehensive set of policies and procedures at my former company to promote standard server builds throughout my line of business. I used our corporate server groups document as a basis and modified and added to it to suit our environment. You may have different requirements in your organization, but hopefully it will serve as a foundation for you.

Let us know your thoughts and suggestions about the document through feedback here on the blog or email the show at Feedback [at] MindOfRoot.com.

Windows Server Staging Procedure

I talked about it a bit when we recorded Episode 55 (soon to be released), but the Sysadmin Meme has really taken off. Admins and scripters from all areas are responding and calling out their associates… I’ll update this as I see come across more.

In no particular order:

1. Shay Levy
2. Hal Rottenberg
3. Marc van Orsouw
4. Richard Siddaway
5. Rolf Masuch
6. Andy Schneider
7. Jacob Saaby Nielsen
8. Paul Muller
9. Jonathan Noble
10. James O’Neill
11. Kirk Munro
12. Jeff Hicks
13. Rick Savoia
14. Darren Mar-Elia
15. David Moisan
16. Paul Sylvester
17. Joel Bennet (Jaykul) - taking it back on the dev track
18. Oisin  Grehan
19. Joe Richards
20. Brandon Shell
21. Don Jones
22. Greg Shields

Thanks again to everyone for sharing their stories!

OK, here it goes.

How old were you when you started using computers?

I was around 12 or 13 when I started playing with computers. I saw them in Popular Science and was fascinated with them. I then pestered my parents for my first PC for Christmas and my dad finally took me to K-Mart where I had to choose between the Texas Instruments TI/99-4A, the Timex Sinclair 1000, and either the Commodore Vic-20 or C-64.

What was your first machine?

My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000. I remember my friend getting a Commodore and being jealous of the color graphics. My second and real springboard PC was a Radio Shack/Tandy TRS-80 Model 4 with 64 kb RAM and dual 5.25 floppy drives (360k each!) We had Tandy TRS-80 Model II and 3’s in my school district so I went with what I knew. My dad had IBM PC’s at work and showed me an ad for an IBM (Peanut, I think) and I decided to stick to the Radio Shack brand. I still have both of these units somewhere in my parents attic….along with all the other old stuff I’ve talked about on the show. My first x86 PC was a Bondwell B210 286 laptop with a 40 MB hard drive.

What was the first real script you wrote?

Hello World loop in Basic on the Timex Sinclair 1000……Isn’t that what everyone writes? I went on to write an inventory control system in BASIC for the company my dad worked for. I coded on the TRS-80 and then printed it out. A typist transcribed my code onto an IBM PC and then I came in to troubleshoot the problems. No reading floppies cross-platform in those days. There were subtle differences in the BASIC compilers back than for disk I/O and file handling. Sadly, this old geek can still remember that BASIC stood for Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.

What scripting languages have you used?

Basic (No, not visual), Pascal, COBOL, and Fortran. Pascal will always be my favorite. Top down design rocks. If you haven’t declared it….you can’t freakin’ call it. That’s probably why I’ve had so much trouble grasping the object-oriented languages. Later on into today, it’s been DOS batch file scripts, SQL, Kixtart, and the occasional dabble into PowerShell.

What was your first professional sysadmin gig?I took a part-time job in 1987 doing data entry for free magazine subscriptions (International Computer Network) while going to community college for Comp Sci. When they found I had a tech bent, they started using me to do after-hours system tasks on the two mainframes we had (Tandem System I and Tandem System II). Load tapes for backups, load printers for labels or other print jobs, etc. The one thing I remember is the wide carriage printers in the data center. Before each type of print job, I had to run a paper tape with a series of holes punched in it through a reader on the printer. This would set up the printer for the type of job to be printed.

If you knew then what you know now, would have started in IT?

Definitely. During my college years, after I gave up on programming as a major, I focused on being in the financial markets. After a couple of years, however, things changed and I took on MIS as a second major and veered back towards IT. Mostly the change was in the industry. I wasn’t cut out to be a programmer locked in a hermetically sealed mainframe room, but that was the only college curriculum at that time. Once MIS and broader IS/IT curriculums came around it fit me better.

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new sysadmins, what would it be?

Everybody knows something you don’t. Talking to them and asking them is the only way to find out what it is. In return, share everything you know. Nothing is more counterproductive than having knowledge and not sharing it.

If I could add a second item, it would be; Nobody knows everything. If you think you do, it is time to get out of this field. You need to enjoy constantly learning new things because this is an ever changing field.

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had scripting?

I guess the scripts I am most proud of are the ones I did for Y2K at my old job. They had these old scripts using this Novell Netware add-on pack that allowed them to transfer files between a Novell NetWare server and a SCO Unix server. The Add-on pack was not Y2K compliant, so I replicated the scripts using FTP and DOS batch files. There are only one or two facilities still using these scripts, but thy are still there 10 years later.

Who am I calling out?

Paul Rj Muller at the Caffination Podcast

Justo Morales at the Pepe Show Podcast

Rick Savoia of the The Force Field Podcast

UPDATE: Paul and Rick have both responded. I’ll have to reach out to Justo and kick him in the asterisk. You can find Paul and Rick’s responses at the following links:

Paul’s Response

Rick’s Response

I’ve found a Software Development Meme (A meme  consists of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another) on a few blogs I’ve started reading (Larry Clarkin’s and Damon Payne’s), and I thought I would adapt it to the Sysadmin.

How old were you when you started using computers?

I was eight when I first started using computers.  My mom was a teacher for the local public school system and they were just getting computers.  She could bring one home over the summer and I started learning Basic on an Apple II.

What was your first machine?

The first machine we had in our family (other than the ones my mom could bring home) was an Apple II GS.  My first machine was a 486 IBM clone that cost me $2,000 (in 1993) (my summer work money - I was in high school).

What was the first real script you wrote?

The first “real” script I wrote was a Python script to enter addresses into a database system via ADO.

What scripting languages have you used?

I’ve used VBScript (marginally), PowerShell, and Python.

What was your first professional sysadmin gig?

My first professional sysadmin job is the one I currently have, with a local law enforcement agency.  I started officially as the IT Specialist here in April of 2006.

If you knew then what you know now, would have started in IT?

Definitely.  If I knew then what I know now, I would have finished college in the IT realm and started down this path sooner.  However, that might have changed how I’ve ended up, and I really like the position I have now and the opportunities in front of me.

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new sysadmins, what would it be?

Get involved.  I’ve learned more and met more great people getting involved in community.  By commenting on blogs, podcasting, spending time on IRC in the #powershell channel and participating in PowerShellCommunity.org, I have learned so much and met generous, knowledgeable people.

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had scripting?

The 2008 Winter Scripting Games were a blast, even though I got busy with work halfway through, I had a great time.  It was awesome watching the community provide their solutions and see people working on the challenges in the IRC channel and forums.

Who am I calling out?

Rich Niemeier

Keith Albright

Hal Rottenberg

Jonathan Walz

Shay Levy

Aleksandar Nikolic

Check this out. Now you can listen to some of your favorite podcasts without an internet connection. Sure, it’ll cost you long distance or at least some minutes on your cell plan, but honestly….aren’t we worth it?

OK, OK so it’s probably not worth ditching your iPod, Gigabeat, or Archos, but it will do in a pinch.

You can now listen to the Couple Of Admins show using Podlinez by calling +1 (801) 349-3833.

Check out the other great podcasts you can listen to over the phone by visiting Podlinez.com.

Listen By Phone

podlinez.net

Recorded: September 4, 2007

Your Hosts: Keith Albright, Rich Niemeier, Ted Miller, and Steve Murawski

Show Length: 1:50:33
Ted returns this week for a regular format show. We discuss some recent news items; Microsoft shuts down AutoPatcher, SpamHaus gets a legal reprieve, and Sony introduces rootkit 2.0. Rich discusses the appropriateness of companies editing their Wikipedia articles and a look into the future of video on the Internet. Steve discusses employees Cyberslacking habits and the effect on companies. We end with our website picks and as usual, we hope you enjoy.

A reminder for Podcamp Philly. Keith will definitely be there on Saturday and possibly Sunday. Drop him a note at Keith [at] acoupleofadmins.com if you want to meet up for lunch.
Links mentioned in this show:

• Podcamp Philly
• Microsoft Takes Down Autopatcher
• Spamhaus off hook for $11 million judgement
• Storm Worm Add Millions To Botnets
• Sony Rootkit 2.0
• Corporate Wikipedia Editing
• The Future Of Internet Video
• I-Caught TV Show
• Foldersize Utility
• Email at Work
  • CIO Magazine
  • Dichotomy
  • Enterprise Networking Planet
  • Law.com

Other podcasts mentioned in this show:

Valid Syntax

See the full show notes here.

Website Picks:

Steve’s Pick: www.diigo.com

Keith’s Pick: www.digibarn.com

Rich’s Pick: www.livecdlist.com

Ted’s Pick (By Rich): www.flock.com

Listen Now:

Download Here

Recorded: August 28, 2007
Your Hosts: Keith Albright, Rich Niemeier, and Steve Murawski

Show Length: 1:59:32

Steve Murawski joins us again for this regular format show. We hold a lengthy discussion on open WiFi and the legal implications as well as how these cases may affect the innovation and use of WiFi by companies like Fon, etc. We also cover Acer’s purchase of Gateway and the ‘consumerization of IT’. Some technical segments on load balancing and ISP failover on a BSD box, stupid IP address tricks, and a couple utilities to round it up.

Take note of the promos for the Podcamp Philly Un-Conference and plan to attend. We end with our website picks and as usual, we hope you enjoy.
Links mentioned in this show:

• Podcamp Philly
• Wireless Hijaacking in England
• Consumerization of IT
• Citrix Acquires XenSource
• Gunplay Blamed for Internet Slowdown
• WGA Servers Offline
• Acer to Acquire Gateway
• What is a System Administrator
• SlickRun Utility
• Multiple ISP Connections on BSD
• Microsoft Hackers Blog
• Network Time Protocol

Other podcasts mentioned in this show:

The Mike Tech Show

See the full show notes here.

Website Picks:

Steve’s Pick: Hanselman.com

Keith’s 1st Pick: Stupid Waste of Time

Keith’s 2nd Pick: Even More Stupid Waste Of Time (NOTE: NSFW)

Rich’s 1st Pick: Boot-Land.net

Rich’s 2nd Pick: Bootdisk.com

Download Here