Undercover Boss

Last night I watched the premier of Undercover Boss - a TV show where corporate executives work entry level positions at their own company. Undercover Boss is worthy of another late night hour, and from the Waste Management episode I took the following:

1. The President of Waste Management seems to be an upstanding guy.
2. Always work hard and keep a positive attitude. It paid off for the Waste Management employees that unknowingly entertained their company president.
3. As a boss, (or employee, husband, etc.) its important to look at situations from more perspectives than your own. Take time to assume the role of, and learn from your own customer or employee.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/undercover_boss/

Building a web presence

From time to time I’m asked about how someone can create a web presence. While you can hire a web developer to build you a highly customized website, you might not want to write the check for one or track down the developer to make simple changes here and there. So, I’ll attempt to provide you with a few tips to build an online presence quick, easy, and free!

First, it’s not a bad idea to secure your very own domain name, i.e. www.yourname.com. You can buy your own domain name at www.godaddy.com for about $10 per year. This step isn’t required.

Now, you should probably create a Gmail account at www.gmail.com from Google. Google has a whole suite of tools that you can use to build an online presence. Once you login to your Gmail account, the menu on the upper left side of the screen has links to Documents, Sites, Photos, etc. Your Gmail account will become your gateway into all your other apps.

Your Blog or Site

For starters, you should use your Gmail account to sign up for a blog at www.blogger.com. My blog, the one you’re reading now, was created with Google’s blogger. Simply put, a blog is like an online journal, and because it’s integrated with Google, you can use YouTube.com to add video, picasa.google.com to add pictures, and the Documents app to link to documents from your blog. By the way, you need to be using Google’s Documents app for online word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. They also have a new document type called a Form, which is a online form that you can use to collect information from people. I currently use Google Forms for online surveys.

If you don’t want to go the blog route, you can use Google Sites by selecting Sites from your Gmail account to create your very own website. Google Sites is a content management system (CMS), which means you can create and update your own website without tacking down your web developer.

Marketing Your Site

The fast, easy, and cheap way to market your website is through social networking sites like facebook.com. For example, I have a Facebook Page for my website GunDogForum.com:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gun-Dog-Forum/162970454176

Once your friends on Facebook become fans, they will automatically see any updates you post on your Facebook Page. So, you’ll be using Facebook to drive traffic to your blog or Google Site and vice-versa. It’s a nifty trick. For more information on creating a Facebook Page, go here:

http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages

Another way to market your site is with Google’s AdWords:

http://adwords.google.com

When you Google something, you get results in white, organic results, and colored ads, which are sponsored results at the very top and right side of your screen. The organic results are the hard earned placements that are achieved through various search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. The sponsored results are the ones that you can pay for. For example, you can pay $0.25 per click when someone searches for a term you specify. But don’t worry, you can also place a monthly limit on the amount you spend.

Anyway, this is just a start, but hopefully it’s enough to get you started off on the right foot.

Sinus Surgery - Day Six

Day six was not painful, but annoying. I had a very slight headache in my forehead at times, the worst part was the nasal drainage and itchy nose! It felt like I was having a bad allergy attack all day. I also had a few hot flashes where I would just sweat.

Sinus Surgery - Days Four and Five

By day four, I was ready to get off the pain meds and detox some. I was sleeping better at night also. The morning of day five I was scheduled to get my splints out. With most sinus surgeries, patients have packing or splints in their nose for a few days. The packing is like some sort of gauze and the splint is plastic. The people who had packing say the removal process was the most painful experience they ever had.

I was scheduled to have my splints removed at 8am. That morning, I took a hot shower and inhaled the steam. I used a saline nasal spray with q-tips to gently clean my nose. The process helped remove some of the dried blood and goo, but didn't disturb the scabs. When Dr. Walker removed my splints, it was not painful at all. By doing my saline spray every four hours and a gentle cleaning once a day, I didn't have a lot of dried build up, which would make the splints painful to remove.

Sinus Surgery - Day Three

Same routine. My nose is starting to dry out some, which is making it sore and itchy. Some people have the packing, and I have stints (like straws) in my nose, so I can still breath out my nose a little. I couldn't imagine breathing out my mouth for 5 days!

Sinus Surgery - Day Two

Same routine and not much sleep at night. For the first time, I'm feeling more discomfort as the hospital meds have worn off. At one point I thought I was feeling pretty good, so I stopped taking the meds every 4 hours. In short, I'm back on the meds every 4 hours now.

My neck is sore. I assume they had it extended during the procedure.

Sinus Surgery - Day One

The actual surgery is not a big deal. I was really nervous, but after the first IV, I was completely calm and didn't care what the nurses did to me. In the blink of an eye, the procedure was done, and someone was rolling me out to the car. At this point, I didn’t feel any sharp pain, just a bit sleepy, and a small burning sensation in my nose.

From Sinus Surgery

Now, this is the most important place after your sinus surgery, the Pampering Operations Center (POC). Not to be taken lightly, the POC is where you will spend the next 5 or 6 days and nights - so it better be comfortable! Key features might include:

• Recliner - you can sit or recline back, but it provides a nice head position with your head above your heart. It should be angled toward your plasma TV.
• Clorox Wipes - place around your house for the visitors you have. You don't want to get sick! If you vomit or sneeze after the sinus surgery, it could be painful! They say, if you need to sneeze, do it with our mouth open.
• Spit Cup - You'll probably spit blood for the rest of the week as it drains from your sinuses.
• Frozen Beans - or something cold to place on your forehead.
• Fan - With all the blankets, you may get warm.
• Humidifier - HANDY! With the tubes, dried blood and other funk in my nose, I kept the humidifier running 24x7. Because you can't breath out your nose much, your mouth gets dry, and the humidifier keeps it moist.
  

From Sinus Surgery

During the first day, the meds from the hospital were still in my system, so I thought I felt better than I did. There were no sharp pains the first day, but there was a dull burn. Almost like when you get water up you nose in a pool, and the chlorine burns a little.

The routine for the next 5 days pretty much consists of

1. rinse nose
   
2. eat
3. take meds
   
4. sleep or rest for 4 hours
5. return to step 1
   

And finally, here is a picture 12 hours after surgery.

From Sinus Surgery

Sinus Surgery - I am a living barometer

I am a living barometer – when the weather changes, tension starts in my middle back, moves up to my neck, around my head and lands in my right eye socket. Most of the time, a severe headache will follow. About 50% of my life I feel great, but the other half is filled with headaches and fatigue, which disrupts my career and relationships with family and friends.

My typical headache routine includes taking Ibprofen and Sudafed, placing a heated rice-pack over my eyes, and rubbing a vibrator over my sinus areas. After blowing my nose and a quick nap, I would feel better 75% of the time. I also used saline nasal rinses from time to time.

Still, I was tired of the headaches. My mother has the same type of headaches and we usually have them within a few days of each other. I started visiting Dr. Walkers office to learn more about my sinuses, which is where I met Katie, my girlfriend, and the one who talked me into having the surgery.

From Sinus Surgery

Alexi Murdoch

Here's a pretty cool artist... I like the song "all my days."

RHCE Exam

This is my study guide for the Red Hat Certified Engineer exam. I'll be taking the test on May 22, 2009 and its a bear!

Study Points for the RHCE Exam from Red Hat

• use standard command line tools (e.g., ls, cp, mv, rm, tail, cat, etc.) to create, remove, view, and investigate files and directories
• use grep, sed, and awk to process text streams and files
• use a terminal-based text editor, such as vim or nano, to modify text files
• use input/output redirection
• understand basic principles of TCP/IP networking, including IP addresses, netmasks, and gateways for IPv4 and IPv6
• use su to switch user accounts
• use passwd to set passwords
• use tar, gzip, and bzip2
• configure an email client on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• use text and/or graphical browser to access HTTP/HTTPS URLs
• use lftp to access FTP URLs

RHCT skills

Troubleshooting and System Maintenance

• boot systems into different run levels for troubleshooting and system maintenance
• diagnose and correct misconfigured networking
• diagnose and correct hostname resolution problems
• configure the X Window System and a desktop environment
• add new partitions, filesystems, and swap to existing systems
• use standard command-line tools to analyze problems and configure system

Installation and Configuration

• perform network OS installation
• implement a custom partitioning scheme
• configure printing
• configure the scheduling of tasks using cron and at
• attach system to a network directory service, such as NIS or LDAP
• configure autofs
• add and manage users, groups, quotas, and File Access Control Lists
• configure filesystem permissions for collaboration
• install and update packages using rpm
• properly update the kernel package
• configure the system to update/install packages from remote repositories using yum or pup
• modify the system bootloader
• implement software RAID at install-time and run-time
• use /proc/sys and sysctl to modify and set kernel run-time parameters
• use scripting to automate system maintenance tasks
• configure NTP for time synchronization with a higher-stratum server

RHCE skills

Troubleshooting and System Maintenance

• use the rescue environment provided by first installation CD
• diagnose and correct boot failures arising from bootloader, module, and filesystem errors
• diagnose and correct problems with network services (see Installation and Configuration below for a list of these services)
• add, remove, and resize logical volumes
• diagnose and correct networking services problems where SELinux contexts are interfering with proper operation.

Installation and Configuration

• HTTP/HTTPS
• SMB
• NFS
• FTP
• Web proxy
• SMTP
• IMAP, IMAPS, and POP3
• SSH
• DNS (caching name server, slave name server)
• NTP

For each of these services, RHCEs must be able to:

• install the packages needed to provide the service
• configure SELinux to support the service
• configure the service to start when the system is booted
• configure the service for basic operation
• Configure host-based and user-based security for the service

RHCEs must also be able to:

• configure hands-free installation using Kickstart
• implement logical volumes at install-time
• use iptables to implement packet filtering and/or NAT
• use PAM to implement user-level restrictions

Just some thoughts after reading a Wayne Dyer book...

Ego and self-importance are strange feelings... They seem to leave us feeling offended by others and ultimately misidentifying ourselves by our achievements, income, and possessions. After all, what good are these things in our final days? Yet, they typically serve as our primary motivation throughout life. Shouldn’t we value ourselves on character, integrity, kindness, etc? Ego places us in a situation where we consider ourselves greater than those who have accomplished less, and offended by those who have accomplished more. The reality is that there is always someone who makes more money and has more stuff, so by being egotistical, we find ourselves competing with our peers instead of cooperating with them (and often feeling defeated).
I’m not quite sure how to drawl the line here though. Doesn’t self-importance drive competition and innovation – making the world a better place? I’m sure it has something to do with being content with what you have, and while striving to be a better person each and every day, realizing that achievements, income, and possessions come in their own time.

Maybe the Bible touches on it in Matthew 5, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life….But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”

Postfix, LDAP, Kerberos, Courier-Authlib, and Courier-IMAP Build
By Grant Carmichael

This build uses ldap aliases in postfix...

Openssl
shell> ./config shared
shell> make
shell> make test
shell> make install
shell> echo "/usr/local/ssl/lib" >> /etc/ld.so.conf
shell> ldconfig

OpenLDAP
shell> ./configure --without-kerberos --without-cyrus-sasl --without-tls --without-threads --disable-slapd --disable-slurpd --disable-debug --disable-shared
shell> make depend
shell> make
shell> make install
shell> echo "/usr/local/lib" >> /etc/ld.so.conf
shell> ldconfig

Postfix
make makefiles CCARGS="-I/usr/local/include -DHAS_LDAP" AUXLIBS="-L/usr/local/lib -lldap -L/usr/local/lib -llber"

Do:

shell> /etc/init.d/sendmail stop
shell> chkconfig sendmail off
shell> mv /usr/sbin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF
shell> mv /usr/bin/newaliases /usr/bin/newaliases.OFF
shell> mv /usr/bin/mailq /usr/bin/mailq.OFF
shell> chmod 755 /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF /usr/bin/newaliases.OFF /usr/bin/mailq.OFF

Open: /etc/passwd

At the end add:
postfix:*:12345:12345:postfix:/no/where:/no/shell

Open: /etc/group

At the end add:
postfix:*:12345:
postdrop:*:54321:

Install postfix with:
shell> make install

The Postfix install will ask you some questions. I just accepted the default.

Open: /etc/postfix/main.cf

Change/Configure the following variables:
myhostname = example.example.com
mydomain = example.example.com
myorigin = $myhostname
inet_interfaces = all
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost, $mydomain
mynetworks_style = host
mynetworks = 127.0.0.1
home_mailbox = Maildir/

Start Postfix and send a test message to a user on your system
shell> postfix start

Create LDAP aliases:

Open: /etc/postfix/main.cf

Configure/Set:
alias_maps = ldap:/etc/postfix/ldap-aliases.cf
local_recipient_maps = ldap:/etc/postfix/ldap-users.cf
canonical_maps = ldap:/etc/postfix/ldap-canonical.cf

Create: /etc/postfix/ldap-aliases.cf
Add:

server_host = ldap-1.example.com
search_base = ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
query_filter = (mailAlternateAddress=%s@example.example.com)
result_attribute = mail
bind_dn = cn=Manager,dc=shorter,dc=edu
bind_pw = somepass
version = 3
size_limit = 1
expansion_limit = 0

Create: /etc/postfix/ldap-users.cf
Add:

server_host = ldap-1.example.com
search_base = ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
query_filter = (mailAlternateAddress=%s)
result_attribute = uid
bind_dn = cn=Manager,dc=shorter,dc=edu
bind_pw = somepass
version = 3
size_limit = 1
expansion_limit = 0

Create: /etc/postfix/ldap-canonical.cf
Add:

server_host = ldap-1.example.com
search_base = ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
query_filter = (uid=%s)
result_attribute = studentEmail
bind_dn = cn=Manager,dc=shorter,dc=edu
bind_pw = somepass
version = 3
size_limit = 1
expansion_limit = 0

In an LDAP entry, make sure the "mail" attribute is the actual deliverable address, and "mailAlternateAddress" is some.alias@example.example.com and uid@example.example.com

Courier Authlib

As regular user do:
./configure --with-redhat;make

As root do:
make install
make install-configure

Open:

/usr/local/etc/authlib/authdaemonrc

Add:

authmodulelist="authpam"

Start:

/usr/local/sbin/authdaemond start

Setup the system for Kerberos authentication:

shell> authconfig

Test:

/usr/local/sbin/authtest user password

Courier IMAP

As regular user do:
./configure --with-redhat;make;make check

As root do:
make install
make install-configure


Add the following folders to the system for the script that adds users:
/etc/skel/Maildir
/etc/skel/maildir/cur
/etc/skel/maildir/new
/etc/skel/maildir/tmp

Apache 2.2 PHP5 Build

OpenSSL
shell> ./config shared
shell> make
shell> make test
shell> make install

Apache2
shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-so
shell> make
shell> make install

PHP5
shell> ./configure --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs
shell> make
shell> make install
shell> cp php.ini-dist /usr/local/lib/php.ini

Open:

/usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

After (or somewhere in httpd.conf):

AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz

Add:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-source .phps

Change:

DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm

To:

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm

Start Apache with:

shell> /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start