Stay hungry, stay foolish.

No matter who you are, or what you do, you know the name, Steve Jobs.  By now you've heard that Steve passed away this week and you might have heard a lot about him that you never knew before.  I will not tell you anything knew, but I would like to point out just how important Steve was to us all.

My daughter, who is one, will never know life without Google in our pocket.  She will never know how people once typed documents for school in an application usable when the internet is down and not in a web browser on a portable device that also happens to carry tens of thousands of songs and can stream an almost unlimited number.  My daughter will most certainly not how anyone could have ever had a computer the size of our living room.

Steve Jobs might not have brought us Google or the web browser or the first computers, but he did bring the first computer into our home, the first computer into our office that could run more than just a spreadsheet program, and the main stream interface of today's hand held computers we call call smart phones that started out as an mp3 player.

I don't think there is much use in me telling you about what Steve has done, surely by now you have heard it all.  However, I would like to share the following video that I found via the TED Blog.  This is a video of the 2005 Stanford Commencement Address given by Steve himself.

Rest in peace Steve.

the new north texas cisco data centers

Cisco just completed a new data center build out in Allen, TX that not only has the goal of being a production Cisco environment, but also has a Gold LEED Certification.  I totally geek out over this stuff... here's a video walk through of the new data center, just North of Dallas, TX.



This data center will be a redundant production site for Cisco, along with their Richardson, TX data center.  Cisco has also building out a third data center in Raleigh, NC to be a DR site for the North Texas pair.  Here is a short video detailing some of the components of the Raleigh data center to achieve a Gold LEED Certification...



Pretty impressive stuff that is really shaping our day to day 'cloud based' world without any of us really realizing it.

What do you geek out over?

when did this happen?

Back in high school I took a Network+ class that had just been put together for the then brand new test.  A few of us in the class where selected to go over to yet another new class and prep for Cisco certification; however, there where no teachers who had Cisco cert level knowledge just yet.  So, the four of us that moved over had a room full of Cisco 2514 routers, 25 food serial cables, and 1900xl switches to "learn" on... and so, we spent the better part of half a semester setting up a lab by following an old lab book, but never really learned enough about the CCNA test to get certified.

So, here I am, 9 years later; finally serious about getting my Cisco certification and I have a lab full of Cisco 2514 routers.  It's bitter sweet, knowing I had this at my finger tips so long ago, but I digress...

The lab has come a long way!  I still have the two 2514s I got from a coworker, but after snagging a 2950G (enhanced image) on eBay, I came across a guy who was unloading two basic 24port 2950s, a 2621 router, and yet another 2514 on Craigslist.   And so the lab grew...

I went back and ordered a WIC-2T and cables on eBay to turn the 2621 into a frame relay switch and pulled the 1721 out of the mix for now.

If I subtract the $60 cost of the 1721, including the memory upgrade, my CCNA lab is up to just under $300 in cost thanks to the AUI ethernet transceiver cost and eBay shipping costs... not too shabby for an eBay lab I guess.

So, there's the lab update.  What do you think?  What's in your CCNA lab?

router memory upgrade

Tonight I added memory to my Cisco 1721 router.  The 1721 ships with 32mb NVRam and 64mb Flash on board.  My plan was to add 128Mb Flash memory.  This is what I did...

personal cloud lab

It has been a while since I posted here on the blog and I figured now is as good a time as any.  I still use the CR-48 daily for surfing the net but I changed jobs and now rarely do any thing on the internet at home, except work.

After about a month at my new job, I was asked if I would like to move over to the network team and start working on getting my Cisco certs.  I have always had a decent understanding of the Cisco gear and how things connect, but I decided it would be nice to get my feet wet and actually know how to configure the gear instead of just talk about it.  So, a long with my quest for a CCNA, I started building a home CCNA lab.

The picture above shows my transportable lab that I can carry to the garage whenever I will not be working on it which is handy since my wife and I are trying to sell our house and have showings during the work day.  A coworker gave me the two 2514 routers at the top and the nifty lab rack whenever he heard I was going for my Cisco certs.  Down at the bottom is a 1721 router that I scored on eBay (pictured after I pulled the CSU/DSU card from the back), and an old D-Link Gigabit dumb switch that I plan to replace with a Cisco 2950G that I just won on eBay and hopefully to be accompanied by another 2950G and perhaps a 3500 series switch in the coming weeks.The white cable and blue roll-over cable at the bottom of the picture disappear to my Windows rig for uplink and console access.  I also run GNS3 on my desktop in order to use a virtual Cisco lab environment.  Never mind the messy jumble to the left of the rack, it's actually my power cable for my CR-48 that I was to lazy to hide for the picture.

My coworker also gave me these two guys, a Catalyst 5000 and a Catalyst 4006, that I'm not quite sure what to do with just yet.

So, there's my update for now.  Hopefully, I will continue blogging about my Cisco adventures and start getting some feedback on what to do next.

finally no more "cloud" talk

a chrome os commercial without the word "cloud" in it!!  introducing the new chrome book...

google chrome laptops announced!

Today, at Google IO, two consumer Google Chrome OS laptops (Chrome Books) where announced.  One from Samsung, which almost mimics the CR-48 hardware (12.1" screen, all day battery life, 8 second boot), will come in two colors, and with two options... Wifi Only will be $429 USD and Wifi/3G will be $499 USD.  The other Chrome Book announced will be an Acer, which is a smaller 11" screen, a full size keyboard with number pad, as well as an HD screen which will start at $349 USD.  Chrome books will be available June 15 at BestBuy and Amazon in the US, and other major retailers world wide.

Some other interesting information announced today includes a Chrome Box, which is basically the same size as the Apple Mac Mini, bringing you Chrome OS to a desktop or presentation monitor, and a Chrome management interface in order to bring Chrome Books to business and education, merging software and hardware as a service for $28/user/month.

down the road with the cr-48

It's been a while since I posted last.  Here are a few things I've been doing with the Google CR-48...

1. I tested using my old-ish TRENDnet USB to 10/100 NIC and found that it works flawlessly.  I ran into a problem at my office and wanted to see if I could solve it from my Chrome OS browser.  I found that at the time, I could not connect to my work wireless so the TRENDnet TU2-ET100 came to the rescue.  Since that time, I have used the TRENDnet to configure new routers and other network equipment using the CR-48 without any problems.  I have the old style TRENDnet USB network interface adapter, but I'm sure the new, version 3.0R they show on the TRENDnet website will work fine (or even the fancy gigabit adapter).

2. I finally broke down and started using the CR-48 in developer mode.  I have also started dual booting with Ubuntu.  I followed Jay's fancy guide over at his ChromeOS blog to install Ubuntu 10.10 from his easy script source, and last week, did the auto update to Natty Narwal, Ubuntu 11.04.  (Jay now has a new post to do the install directly to 11.04, and allows you to resize your partition sizes!).  During the upgrade, Ubuntu barked about not having enough disk space, but after the clean up was done, everything was running fine.  Now, I'm just trying to get used to the strange new sidebar in 11.04.  And, if you're wondering, the USB network interface adapter, works just fine in both Ubuntu 10.10, and Ubutnu 11.04.

3.  Even though I just told you I have been booting Ubuntu on the CR-48, 90% of the time, I have honestly just been using the CR-48 as it is meant to be used, booting Chrome OS and saving everything in the cloud.  But that other 10% of using Ubuntu happened recently.  I just changed jobs, and during the transition, I found myself needing to download documents and upload documents from a thumb drive to send to my new employer.  I think that Chrome OS has taken great strides in helping with removable media management, but honestly, there is still a lot lacking.  For instance, it's difficult to use the default GUI to copy files from a USB drive, to an SD card, or temporarily copy the files to your local disk, then to copy them back off to another USB as to transfer files around.  I realize that the idea of Chrome is to store everything in the cloud, but that's just it... I want to be able to keep my files mobile so I can move them over to my workstation, or to my office laptop, and not feel restricted to going to a third party, when my files are right here on my thumb drive, sneaker net style.  My wife got a digital picture frame for Mother's Day and I found it difficult to copy any of our pictures off my thumb drive to an SD card she would be using, so I finally gave up and went to find the pictures on my Flickr and Dropbox to download to the SD card.  I have noticed that the last few operating system updates have introduced new file management features, so I'm sure there is a greater plan that will be revealed before long.

All in all, the CR-48 is still a great platform device.  I think that the laptop hardware itself is very easy to use, has tremendous battery life, and is a good platform to put Chrome OS through it's paces, but has it's downsides like a single USB port (think thumb drive + wireless mouse at the same time), a huge track pad that actually catches my left thumb often enough to be annoying, and an operating system that pushes it's users to rely on software and data stored on internet based services (the cloud).  All of that being said, I really do like where Chrome OS is going.  The features it has offered like cloud print, cloud sync, and the addition of very useful plugins like LastPass, have really been the force keeping me using the laptop and putting the hardware through it's paces.  I thought we might see Chrome OS laptops in the market by now, but I think that Google is still trying to decide it's path for Chrome OS vs the Android platform, and that will probably need to be pathed out before Dell or HP will put their name on any CR-48 like hardware.

those bunny suit guys are jerks

Chromium-OS Pilot Program And What Google Really Cares About...

After a couple of weeks with the Cr-48 laptop and using Google's Chromium-OS as a semi full time computer, I keep having to remind myself that the laptop hardware that is the Cr-48 laptop is only proof of concept of what hardware for future Chromium operating system computers could be like.

Yes, the laptop has a webcam, it supports standard cell phone headsets like the basic iPhone headset that I use as my goto headphones and a microphone, it offers Verizon wireless for on the go internet at 100mb per month, and it has a funky new keyboard layout that includes a missing caps lock key and a huge touchpad that's the size of a playing card; but that's not what this laptop that Google is giving out for the pilot program is trying to show off... Google is trying to show off Chromium-OS and what you can do from only a browser and the cloud.

The Cr-48 webcam is not the greatest, but you know what?  It works, and I can make a Google Talk video call with you right this instant.  The speakers are dull and the microphone is poor quality, but you and I can use Google Voice and if it is that hard for you to hear me, I can pull the headset I already carry with me out of my pocket, and use it.  The keyboard does take some getting used to and the touchpad is actually pretty powerful when you learn its tricks, like pinch to zoom, two finger scroll, and using alt+tap for a right click button.  But I have to remember, all that hardware is not what Google cares about me getting excited over.

Using a browser instead of a 'My Documents' folder and saving pictures, documents and other files on websites all over the internet and having an almost always available (remember, only 100mb of Verizon internet connectivity a month) online backup of your computer is what Google wants me and the other pilot program suckers to use, love, and become enslaved to.  They gave us a decent piece of laptop hardware with enough tricks up it's sleeve and improvements that can be made via software updates (like better flash to improve perceived webcam performance, microphone tweaks inside of GMail, and the ability to pay for a full day of unlimited Verizon internet) to keep us interested and using Chromium-OS so that we'll keep taking this little laptop all over the place and talking to our very jealous or totally uninterested friends about what can be done with only a browser and finding ourselves really dependent on synchronizing our Google Chrome browser on our Windows and OSx computers we are already used to using at home and at work.