|
|
In the world of networking Cisco dominates, atleast in the Army portion of the world. I finished the Cisco IT Essentials course about a week ago and now I am in the Cisco Netorking portion of my signal officer education. It is the entire first semester of CCNA prep in 10 days - very intense, but I feel like I have learned alot and it has been fun. It’s made me think about technology investment and reminded me of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_Internet_City
A business park with special tax laws and insane infrastructure provided by Cisco, makes you think about who is going to shape the future of the internet/world. There appears to be a massive engine of innovation just building up steam. It will be interesting to see where it is in 10 years or so oil to internet. I just hope we don’t see an Organization of the Internet Exporting Countries anytime, ever.
-Max
I have had an xbxox 360 for some time and have had the opportunity to play with a ps3 that my brother has. While trying to compare which one was better or which one to recommend to a friend who was looking to decide between the two I came to the conclusion that gaming systems are not just for gamers anymore. Instead they have become “home entertainment devices.” For instance, both devices play DVDs, mp3s and CDs - already they have incorporated what used to take 2 or 3 devices. As far as grabbing a competitive advantage the ps3 will play blu-ray movie, which is the next generation in high video quality entertainment. However, I believe that the xbox360 grabs the edge in that it has netflix with instant streaming integrated into it. Of course, this is an additional service you have to pay for, but with plans for less than $10.00 a month that include unlimited streaming it is a steal compared to options of the past. The xbox360 also more seamlessly connects to and plays media files from your computer on your network. While the ps3 has this functionality, sony is at the disadvantage of not being able to build it into your computer’s operating system, which makes it easier for Average Mom and Average Dad to use it with their windows PC. Price is also an issue, ps3s still hover around $400 - and what you are paying for is that proprietary sony blu-ray technology, while you get get an xbox with a hard drive for around $250. As far as networking ps3 offers free online gaming and includes and integrated wireless card. Still, any self-respecting gamer or video-streamer, for that matter, is going to want a wired connection (unless you are running draft-n, which the ps3 doesn’t) As far as gaming, the xbox live $4.00 and some change a month, despite the cost, is more preferable from my perspective as connections are consistently better, and its not necessary to play media from around your home network. As far as games that gets too far into taste and preferences, I’ll leave that to others. Either way you look at it though, its not just about gamers anymore, when deciding which console to get you have to figure how it fits into your enterainment system and if you want everything the questions is 360 and a bluray player or ps3 and a roku box?
V/R
Max
I am still in the middle of SIT, we just started the advanced portion of the “IT Essentials” course and are re-covering hardware, operating systems, networking and other fundamental stuff. The curriculum is through Cisco’s Net Academy program and I think it has been pretty good. It is also supposed to prepare you for taking a CompTIA A+ certification exam, which I plan to put to the test. Middle of this week we start the in-depth networking portion which is basically the first semester of a CCNA prep course, so should be pretty interesting.
-Max
I am still at signal school and have now started SIT, that is the Army’s School of Information Technology. The past couple days we have been going over Outlook 2003 Administration and we were tested on it today, pretty straightforward stuff. Tomorrow we start the IT Essentials part of the course, very basic stuff about computers, networks, etc. Eight days after that we start the Cisco portion of the school which should be some challenging and useful information.
I’m getting back into swimming to try and prep for some sprint triathlons this summer. I swam a mile this morning and have been swimming atleast a Kilometer everyday for a while now. It’s nice to do something that isn’t electronics related.
Anyways, all for now,
-Max
Right now I am chilling at REV Coffee in Smyrna, GA. I just had the privelege of enjoying a stand up comedian competition hosted by bleepfreecomedy.com and leftarmcomedy.com. It was a good time and the coffee was great. The top 4 in tonights competition are going to participate in the Dogwood (festival?) here in Atlanta. One of the greatest things was enjoying the local atmosphere. The coffee shop is located in what used to be an automotive business and it is surrounded by businesses that still are. The comedians had a lot of material specific to Atlanta which proved to be very entertaining. Also mildy funny by way of irony is that my friend who only wears sweatshirts won a $25 in free dry cleaning from the sponsors of the event. Being the economically trained person that I am I was particularly captivated by the business model. A small coffee shop that supports local art, entertainment and education, profiting from the extra sales and stimulating the culture of the area - its great when you can generate an economic and a social profit. Good stuff.
-Max
Tomorrow we start a class on Basic Electronics. The tagline for the class is a “Four Year Electrical Engineering Degree in 5 Days”. If Billie Mays said it maybe I would beleive it. Nonetheless, it should be a fun class where we get to learn a lot of interesting things and get a decent foundation for Signal Theory. Let the nerd-dom begin. In other news today, I got the privelege of helping my TAC out at his church’s youth group. It was a fun experience, got to worship, play some basketball and meet some people I can hopefully help develop over the next couple months I am here.
Oh, and netbook slated for arrival tomorrow. Just left Spartanburg, SC at 9:03PM today, what did I do before having UPS tracking on my cell phone’s browser - wait eagerly in anticipation? That sounds unbearable. Also, check out my cousin Spencer’s new website. It’s his first endeavor and he’s already got some cool stuff up: http://sites.google.com/site/theunnamedwebsite/
P.S. Gordon Lakes Golf Course is nice and I’m working on coming down from the 90s (on 9 holes…)
-Max
My latest purchase is an Eee PC Netbook. It is the 1000HE in black and should arrive before this weekend. I bought it from Newegg they have had the best customer service and usually the best prices in my experience. It came in around $417 including the 2GB stick of RAM I bought to upgrade it. I decided on it because of its rock solid reviews both on Amazon and on Newegg (It is THE top selling computer on Amazon period.) The specs are a 1.66Ghz Atom Processor, (will have) 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and all the standard webcam, wifi, etc. When trying to decide on a new computer I was in a toss up between a powerful laptop or a netbook. What made me finally swing the netbook direction was taking a step back and looking at what I actually would use it for. While it might be nice to have a powerful notebook, I spend a lot of time walking and living out of my car and though I have an Inverter for AC power in my car, battery life is still too important. This thing supposedly goes 9.5 hours on a charge (which I will confirm when I recieve mine) and it does all the things I need: email, internet, MS Office 2007, streams netflix (will report back on quality), has vga out, which I’ve used before to hook up to my hdtv, and it didn’t look half bad. As far as a powerhouse for gaming/editing/home servering(?) it is much more cost effective to build a desktop. For the price of a powerful notebook I realized I could build a desktop twice as powerful and get this netbook and so it was done. I’ll update after I have used it for a while.
Comment if you think I made the wrong decision….
-Max
I am now at Signal School in Fort Gordon, Augusta, GA learning the basics of being a Signal Officer.
I have been married to Allison for about 8 months now, I graduated from KSU and commissioned into the Georgia National Guard as a 2LT in December and I am waiting to hear back on my law school applications for this Fall of 2009. Blessed, thankful and praying for today and tomorrow.
As technology has become an increasing part of the way people conduct their lives day to day it may be necessary to rethink the way home networks are implemented. As experience streamlines information technology many devices that were separate have become one and functionalities have been added. For instance, that ordinary looking wireless home router so many homes have these days is actually the combination of what was many devices. Routing traffic, giving computers addresses, managing ports and forwarding, and connecting wireless devices use to be tasks for different machines. Gaming consoles are also now DVD players and soon will be streaming internet media to your tv. What does this mean for typical residential consumers?
Still even recently you might have a phone system, a dvd player, a tv, a computer to run your printer/scanner, a fax machine, a laptop, a cell phone, an mp3 player, an external hard drive - probably usb, and an amalmagation of other devices. Many of these devices are fusing together and when deciding what to buy for the future we are facing a possibility of obsolence that makes 8-tracks look long-lived. I recently setup a computer for my father that is connected via HDMI to a High Definition TV and optical audio out to a 5.1 channel reciever. It streams dvds(legally) from an internet service, it allows remote access, it serves as an ordinary home computer, it has a hard drive partitioned to share for back up over a wireless N network and it is configured as a host with a slingbox to view his cable from any device on the network. Some corporations say there will be affordable operating systems for conservatively priced devices like the one I’m describing that will lock your doors, arm your security system and turn off your stove via a secure remote connection from the internet browser on your cellphone. Where will the combinations stop? Will they stop? Are they a bad thing or a good thing?
Ultimately, technology is the same as any other product, the consumer will decide what level of integration and combination is efficient and economical for themselves, but as the comfort level of culture with these types of technology increases it is increasingly likely that the level of integration will be high and in a reasonable price range. Because of this, it is worthwhile to gauge your expenditures on consumer devices based not only on their value now, but on there continued value and synergy in an integrated home system.
-Max
It has been awhile since my last post. Life got busy very quickly and I’m just now catching up to the pace so, I think it is a good time to catch this up to pace.
First of, Allison and I have been attending Midway PCA and like it there. I am taking 5 classes plus ROTC classes, I am taking an LSAT prep course, I’m working full time at eDataCenter LLC, I’m the battalion commander of my ROTC program and I work in the S3 shop at my National Guard unit. Those things have all presented their unique challenges and rewards. Sometimes I worry I am spread to thin, but I’ve learned that if I just keep communicating and take each task one at a time in an organized manner everything gets done well, Lord willing.
Big things on the mid horizon are my LSAT on October 4th, getting a letter of acceptance and by-name-request for a unit in the GaARNG, finishing at KSU this December and starting the law school application process.
On the near horizon we have an FTX to Red Top Mountain, Georgia to do Land Navigation, I have to catch up with some reading on real estate law because my LSAT prep course has been overlapping that class, I am waiting got Allison’s new SSN card to put her into DEERS so we can get Tricare backdated to our wedding day and I am working on installing Open Source Security Information Management for the data center.
My project list now includes trying to sell racks/servers for the data center, looking for people interested in the National Guard and some various business ideas involving network consulting, customization and installation.
My hobbies have been expanded to include cycling at the suggestion of my wife who is an aspiring triathelete. So far its been fun and a nice break for my knees compared to running.
I also just signed up for netflix’s $8.99 a month plan - not because I ever plan on having them mail a movie to me, but because their web-streaming service has reached a point where I think it is worthwhile. Right now you can connect a computer to your TV to play streamed movies, but near the end of this month there should be an update where you can stream movies to your xBox 360, which is much more convenient for me. There are also devices for as little as $99 right now if all you want is streaming without the other options of a gaming console or a dedicated media computer. About 11000 titles available for streaming and more every day, I recommend it.
That’ll be all for now,
-Maxwell Thelen
|
|