“There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who have lost critical data, and those who will.”
How to Build a Bulletproof Cloud Backup System Without Spending a Dime.
(Shared – CIO)
Category Archives: Linux
Unseen, All-Out Cyber War on the U.S. has Begun
“There’s a war going on, and it’s raging here at home — not in the streets or the fields, but on the Internet. You can think of it as a war on the digital homeland. If you work for a power company, bank, defense contractor, transportation provider, or other critical infrastructure type of operation, your organization might be in the direct line of fire. And everyone can become collateral damage”
Unseen, All-Out Cyber War on the U.S. has Begun.
(Shared from CIO)
Cannot find data record in database table course_modules.
The error that you may see if you are currently using Moodle may be seen after cron runs or when heavy access occurs. The error,
!!! Can not find data record in database table course_modules. !!!
The error is related to heavy transactions and what we believe is caching corrupting the database.
To fix the error, you can run this query:
select modinfo from mdl_course where id = PutYourCourseIDHere;
Below, we use MySQL Workbench to run the query on a course id of 2
There is also a Moodle plugin that rebuilds all of the site’s cache.
CIT Continues Advanced Training on Airfiber AF24s
The Computer Information Technology class continues to receive advanced training on the Ubiquiti AF24 Airfiber. The Ubiquiti AF24 Airfiber is a hi-power, linear 2X2 MIMO radio with enhanced receiver performance and reliability. The AF24 has a breakthrough speed of 1.4+ Gbps real data throughput.
These devices are specifically designed for outdoor Point to Point bridging between buildings and provide hi-performance network backhauls. These dual-independent 2×2 MIMO 24GHz hi-gain reflector antenna systems, can operate in FDD and HDD modes providing speed and spectral efficiency in the 24GHz band.
Students learn how to configure advanced wireless devices for real world information technology and hands-on experience.
Justin, Josh and Theo’s results during a configuration of the AF24s.
Students also participate in a wireless shoot-off. This contest challenges the students to design an antenna that will make an association between a standard access point and a laptop that will connect at extreme distances. The contest will start the second week of April.
(L-R) Jay Matlock, Jonathan Laine, Scott Hess (designer of a parabolic dish with a helical transceiver), Tyler Clift and Kenny Cooper.
Photo by D. Babian
Great details about building the Airfiber below (from 03:17 forward)
Photos above (D. Babian)
Photo Credit: (Wil McKamey)
Test your ISP’s Quality
Almost everyone is familiar with testing their internet for speed. With sites such as Testmy.net, a true internet speed test and Speedtest.net, you can see how fast your internet is (download and upload speeds) performing.
But what about quality? Here’s a site that will test your ping response time and jitter. Pingtest.net
Optimizing MySQL on Server 2008 R2
Server 2008 R2
- install Wincache by Microsoft
Optimizing IIS
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee377050(v=bts.10).aspx)
Edit the my.ini file found in the MySQL installation
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/optimization.html
- Set the innodb_buffer_pool_size=1G Resource
- Set the Max_Allowed_Packet = 100M
- Set Key_Buffer_Size=512M
- Set query_cache_size = 128MB
-
query_cache_limit = 4MB
- table_cache=512
- tmp_table_size = 64MB
Adjust your settings accordingly.
Note: Many of these settings can be made to the my.cnf file in Linux installations
Our performance increast? 50% savings on average (load times)
Surface Pro vs. iPad vs. Android
So we played with the Surface Pro and the iPad and measured each for productivity. What did we find?
After using an iPad for a year and having the Surface Pro for just under a week, the Pro far out shines the iPad tablet and our Android we’ve had for two years; no comparison. Why? Here’s what we found.
With the Surface Pro 128 Gb, you have a stylus, USB and every application that a laptop has. The critics say the 128 Gb is wrong because you get less than you pay for. Part of this is used by the OS. Have you ever purchased a laptop? The Pro can be used with every application you ever had and with the VGA adapter, you can hook it to a full size monitor ($39.99). The USB can be hooked to a cheap USB hub ($1.99) and guess what? External hard drives can be used for storage (and don’t forget you have an SD slot), flash drives, external DVDs, a full size keyboard and 127 other USB accessories including printers. The same as Windows 7. The speed is much faster and the reliability and new features are an excellent addition to this OS compared to Windows 7. Why aren’t critics looking at that? Another great mystery of American consumerization. So there you go. You can have a full desktop by laying your tablet on your desk and plugging in two things. When you are ready to go, just disconnect and you have a tablet or with the keyboard, a laptop. So the $900+ price tag is a bargain.
Also navigation is NOT hard. All you have to do is remember corners…touch any corner and you have menus. Is that really hard? Nope. Are we overlooking a great OS? I truly think so. Thanks Kenny for bring the Pro to school. Mine’s on order.
The Surface Pro and what Microsoft is not telling you – it can replace your laptop and desktop.
For the IT Professionals – join it to a domain and use the policies you have to further control this device on your network.
Emsisoft Free Emergency Kit vs. Java Exploit
Mickey was repairing a computer and got a first hand look at a computer with a few viruses on it. Here’s a some screenshots he shared with me during his long tireless battle. After endlessly working with and fighting the computer, he selected Emsisoft’s Free Emergency Kit 3.0 to remove the viruses along with several other anti-malware programs.
If you have not disabled Java or have not updated Java, you should before you experience a long removal process or re-installing your OS and software.
This flaw (Java 7) can be exploited on Linux and Mac operating systems also. Yes, these users are included too. The malicious programmers didn’t leave anyone out.
Middle Tennessee Cyber Summit
Middle Tennessee Cyber Summit: Building Partnerships and Understanding the Threat
Date: May 7 and 8
Location: MTSU New Student Union Building
Registration: March 1, 2013
Middle Tennessee Cyber Summit: Building Partnerships and Understanding the Threat will be held on the MTSU campus May 7 and 8. This event will address criminal, intelligence, disruptive, and information cyber threats and be of particular interest to city/state/federal governments, healthcare, education, transportation, financial, utilities, and business industries.
Presentations from Department of Homeland Security, TN Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and private sector cyber security. Registration information can be found at http://www.csimtsu.com beginning March 1, 2013.
Go Hack Yourself – Dark Reading
“Penetration testing is only the first step of self-inspection—
ask internal auditors to scrutinize IT practices beyond compliance to take risk management to the next level – Read More
You’ve started your IT career. Now what?
So you started your IT career and you landed in a help desk position. What now? We wrote an article, ”It takes time in the trenches of help desk” that tells you to do your time. But what about those amazing salaries on Computerworld or over at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Occupational Handbook? How do you get there? It takes time, experience and skill.
In IT you have to do one of two things. You can be a master at everything or you have to find a focus on one area. In IT, you can attend school and get ready for an entry level position. You can also become an expert in one area. This is one of the most career killing things you can do. Why? I’ve seen programming languages come and go and I’ve seen technology change at the drop of a hat.
But where does your advanced education come from? OJT (On the job training) and self-study. Without the ability to grow, you’re job can become stagnant. Attend seminars, attend classes, go to college and experiment. Most of all, network with others and watch and listen to others in the field. Have an open mind and be prepared to continually grow in the field of IT.
Here’s our article on “It takes time in the trenches of help desk” from March 10, 2012
That’s right, you’ve earned your way through technical school or college only to land at a help desk job. Take a second and look at the logic behind this. IT professionals over the years have landed at help desk and the successful ones deliver quality service to the end users. IT Managers, Directors or CIOs just can’t put someone in their server room without adequate experience troubleshooting computers. An understanding of the operations of your organization starts by being exposed to all of the software and inner workings of the company. Can you land that job in the server room or as a network admin? Sure. Reality is that it is rare. It takes time, trust and experience.
When surveyed, IT professionals have a deeper respect for that manager that has done their time at help desk. Many professionals do their time in this role and elect it as a career. If you do your time and continue your education by getting more certifications, going to seminars and electe to attend a higher educational institution, you can work your way up the IT ladder.
The stress of help desk is different than any other stress. While you have to put on your happy face and deliver quality service to your clients, it all starts at this level. The redundancy of calls, end-users who are frequent callers and the general grind of problems coming at you that appears to never end causes this stress.
IT managers and upper management in this field take notice of the people who excel at customer service. IT is a service based career and help desk is your starting point for your career. Ironically problems in this field go up to the higher level IT professional and solutions have to be pushed down in order to keep everyone happy.
Being positive and upbeat while you do your time in the trenches will bring that recognition to you. It also allows you to place this experience on a resume for future jobs and positions in your organization or with different companies.
After decades in this career, I can point out hundreds of students who kept this attitude and later in their careers became more successful in IT. There seems to be a sense of entitlement going through the IT field. See help desk as a starting point to move up. What about an example of someone who worked their way up?
One such example is Eric Canneer. Eric started his career in IT as level I help desk and performed well while keeping a positive outlook. During his career he never stopped learning and later was hired by one of the world’s largest logistics company and now manages their wireless globally. While Eric is one example, hundreds of more examples come to mind. I’ve had students who 95% of the time start help desk and over a period of one or two years worked their way to higher level positions in some of the country’s Fortune 500 companies and in every type of business and industry you can think of.
Are you truly ever out of a help desk position? No. You may not have that grind of answering phones daily but you are trying to please the end user and the problems never go away. With a society that thrives on technology, you have to accept that innovation and new technology brings on new problems and headaches.
Handling the stress of help desk and continuing your career in IT-
- Accept the fact that you are in customer service regardless of your position
- Obtain higher level certifications
- Continue your education with a higher-ed institution
- Realize that the customer is venting at the situation and not you
- Help other IT personnel and work as a team
- Ignore any negative personnel who bring you down
- IT is in the top ten growing industries and the opportunities are greater than any other career
- Find ways after hours to relax and get away
Information Technology will continue to grow and positions will continually be added in this field. Less than three years ago, we didn’t truly have mobile computing experts that took care of a field that is growing at an unprecedented rate. Become an expert in several fields and prove yourself not only to your managers and company but prove yourself to to you.
Here’s a great comment from this original post.
“IT is a service based career” … “There seems to be a sense of entitlement going through the IT field.”
These are the two most important statements in the entire article. Too many of my IT coworkers look down on the users and don’t treat them respectfully, which in turn soils the reputation of IT people. We are not an elite field of nothing but Bletchley Park code breakers, even if we think we are, and even if the end users think we are just because we were able to reset a password or tell them how to setup an email signature.
Consider yourself a mechanic instead. Some of use are working at Jiffy Lube, doing oil changes and routine maintenance. Some of us are rebuilding engines at Pete’s Auto. Some of us are helping design new transmissions at TransConn Int’l. But that’s it, so get over yourself, get another cup of tea, and answer the phone politely.
I’d also add, “Acknowledge the fact that you don’t know everything about everything”. Mike
VMware Player Review – Virtualization that’s easy
VMware Player allows for the installation of a virtual machine onto your workstation. This means of creating a second operating system within your operating system allows you to test or use an operating system of your choice. The user-friendly interface is truly the easiest virtualization software there is. Anyone wanting to try Windows 8 or any Linux distro can use this software to test operating systems. VMWare Player can be downloaded here.
VMware Player is fully customizable and the wizard provides instructions that are well written and with easy to find settings. Kudos to VMware for providing this excellent piece of software in an easy to use interface.
Remember, once you start the VM, if you click the mouse in the window, it will take focus. To release the mouse, press Ctrl-Alt.
You must also remember to protect any OS in a VM. (Antivirus information)
The first thing you will need is an .iso of your operating system of choice.
Above is the ISO for 32 bit Windows 7 with SP 1.
Next, install the VMWare Player. The installation is straight forward and easy even for a novice.
Now start the VMware Player by double clicking on the icon on your desktop. In this scenario we created a new virtual machine.
The New Virtual Machine Wizard walks you through step by step in setting up your operating system.
The wizard will ask for a location of the ISO or you can install from your DVD drive. Select the appropriate location at this time (below).
Enter your product key and information if prompted to do so. The Easy Install Information automates the installation process. You can of course customize Windows and reset passwords, enable the Administrator account and change information once the operating system is installed.
Once the wizard reaches the customization stages for your hard drive, you can adjust this to meet your needs.
You can select the Customize Hardware button to adjust memory, processors and other hardware. Remember to give your host machine plenty of memory. Do not use more resources than you have. This may cause lockups or other errors upon launching your OS.
One of the best features is the Network Adapter Advanced Settings. It allows you to bridge or NAT (Put your OS on a separate network – hidden from other computers on your network). Bridging your network allows your virtual computer to be ‘seen’ by other computers as though it is a physical computer. Because you are sharing a network card, you can limited the bandwidth (Inbound and Outbound traffic) of the virtual computer.
You can also generate a MAC address for the computer at this time.
The screenshot below (post install) shows the virtual computer when bridged (on the same network).
It is important to keep an eye on the resources of your host computer. You can do this by using the Windows Task Manager.
Once you finish, Windows will launch into setup mode. You will see a message alerting you to other devices that can be used (Webcams and other devices) if they are available.
As you can see from the screen shot below, the IP address is on the network with my other computers. This allows the computer to share out documents and to utilize any device within the network.
The VMware player tools provides drivers and other features.
Installing the tools
Once the tools are installed, a restart should be made to the operating system.
Remember the option to use other devices during the setup – items such as the Webcam? Click on Player when the VM starts and you will see the other devices.
You should also run a side by side comparison on the Task Manager’s to ‘see’ how much resources you are using. As you can see, the host (left) is maxing out the memory of the host computer. The virtual computer is not utilizing all of the allocated memory. Therefore the 2Gb of RAM allocated can be tweaked by decreasing the memory if performance is not an issue.
Once the VM is shutdown, you can adjust the settings in the console.
With dozens of tweaks and configurations, one of the best is the defragment, expansion and compact option under the hard disk in the virtual machine settings. (Compact only sorts the graintables but has no effect on size – optimizing your vm)
Overall VMware’s Player is an excellent tool that can be used (non-commercially) by anyone wanting to experiment with or run other operating systems. VMware Player is an excellent virtualization tool that allows users to install and test or run another operating system. The performance is based on shared resources of the host computer. The ease of setup is definitely a pro. Users should make every effort to ensure they have adequate resources on the host computer and the maximum amount of memory and other resources can be dedicated to the virtual machine.
