Thoughts

So, test is scheduled for tuesday, and im looking through and updating my notes. My plan is to look through all of my notes on the morning, trying to pick up on anything I might have missed during my studying.

Also doing some subnetquestions during my awaken hours to keep my mind up to date doing that kind of work.

Unfortunally there is a 2 hour drive to the test center, which I could do without, but thats the name of the game.

Ive also been populating my new rack with some stuff. All the old equipment from my work has found a new home. Ive got a 2600 router, a 3640 router, 2x 2950 switches and a 2924 switch. I need to order the correct modules for them + some other gear for them to be really useful.

I read on Slashdot today, that a “Jack Thompson“, walked out of court, apparently because he was being disbarred for 10 years. I couldnt quite remember who he was, but then it dawned upon me, he’s the smock thats been trying to ban what he thinks are violent games, because he’s of the opinion they are bad for society.

He didnt think the court had the authority to hand him his ass, so he walked out of there. Unfortunally as another Slashdot reader noted, when has a disbarring ever stopped a person from practicing (Dr. Phil anyone?).

If all that effort was put to use actually fixing the problem with the violence in the states, im sure there would be alot less of it.

I just purchased a Rack from Dantrak UK. I need some sort of solution to mount the gear I have and will be getting. I cant have it all lay around the floor. They (Dantrak UK) is basically a reseller of Dantraknet.

I went for the 16U version, in case I will need more space in the future it is upgradeable.

Here it is:

I like sunny weather when its moderate, but temperatures in the 25+ Celcius range is a bit too much for me. Especially when I need to spend time in front of my computer. I will need some kind of cooling solution this summer for sure.

My idea was a fan with a timer on it for falling asleep, but not having it turned on all night (the draft will make you sick).

I am not a huge fan of an aircondition because of the wattage used by one of those badboys.

On another note, I need to start eating alot more healthy than I am now. I can feel my energy deposits going down when im not exercising nor eating particularly healthy.

Interesting indeed.

Im writing this on my 3rd HP laptop in 2 years. This is a company owned laptop, because if not, I would never have purchased another laptop from Hewlett Packard.

My first HP laptop was a so called NC8430, which is in their line of business laptops. It replaced a T20/T21 (I have forgotten), which was 3+ years old, and still working fine. The NC8430 has a 15″ display, 256mb graphics card, comes with 1 gig of ram (which I had upgraded to 2gig right away), and as far as i remember, a 60 or 80 gb harddrive. It also had a 2.0 ghz Core 2 duo processor from Intel. Pretty nice machine from reading just the specs. And thats where the story takes a turn for the worse.

A week after I received my first NC8430 the display started cutting out on it, sometimes it would turn on, sometimes it wouldnt. At first i thought it was a bad connection somewhere, because right from the beginning the hinges that holds the lid in place felt kind of wobly as well. Anyways, after speaking to the company that sold it to me (company), and since it had not even been 14 days since the purchase, they sent out a guy to fix it. Turned out it was a bad graphics card, and it was replaced.

After a while, the wobbling lid became really bad, but (un)fortunally the machine got hit by a snow storm (real snow comming through the roof, and landing on it, so I declared it dead. I dont blame HP for that though

I was told to order another NC8430, which I did. After a month of usage, this machine started running really hot, showing the same problems with the lid as the previous one. I shrugged it off for a while, but about 2-3 months ago, it became too much. According to Coretemp, each core was running at 99 degrees (celcius), and the exhaust fans was soo hot I couldnt have my hand anywhere near it. The USB port on the side, which has a metal frame, became so hot I actually burned my finger when I accidently touched it. I finally got enough of my left hand being very uncomfortably warm just by resting my hand on it, that I convinced my boss of purchasing another laptop for me. This time I got a 8510p, which I guess is the successor of the NC8430.

It has an even worse keyboard layout, the speakers are in the wrong place (almost underneath which makes audio the inverse.. inaudible at best). The keyboard is of really poor quality, and sometimes its like you get a finger under a key and almost rips it off.

Also, for some reason, during class today, the “touch” button for the wireless activity didnt work, and there is NO way to software-enable it, so I was left without wireless internet until I finally managed to tap it hard and brutally enough to turn back on.

At the moment, im in my hotel room, just feeling lucky that wireless is still working.

HP = Bad Software and Bad Laptop Hardware.

If you want a laptop that is usable and will last for a while, dont buy HP, its that simple. Sorry, but its true.

Been having alot on my mind lately. Ive been writing down the topics I want to give my opinion on, but just havent gotten around to actually elaborating on them. I will try to rectify that over the comming days.

The main reason for this lack of posts, is because of what happened with my health. I really thought I had those panic attacks beaten.

However, I must admit to myself, that I need to go another round with this enemy of mine.

Check in for some interesting topics in the comming days.

Trip to China cut short.
For some reason I fell sick in Amsterdam and had to go back to Denmark. Im out sick until friday where I will get to see my doctor.
Im quite convinced that what I experienced was a panic attack that just wouldnt go away for some reason.

Something needs to be done about this whole thing, its not getting any better and im using way too much energy even thinking about it. Medicine doesnt seem to help much anymore either, so what are you going to do?

Unfortunally, since Im not very positive about the doctors doing anything proactive, its very hard for me to believe they will help out here.

I will be leaving for China tomorrow. Will be going with my favorite coworker, along with my boss, his boss and bookkeeping guy. We will travel from Billund to Amsterdam, and then from Amsterdam to Shanghai. Alot of flying. I will be back friday night.

I am quite interested in figuring out exactly what content they are blocking from the net. I would really like to know more about how they do it, since it must be a massive accomplishment, from a technological point of view.

Right now im just packing down my essentials and getting ready. Lots of candy for the flight, along with my laptop which is filled up with The Sopranos

Adios, Catch up on the flip side.

Update:

Heres a link to the hotel where I am going to be staying.

Link

So Ive hit a snag in my learning process. There is a question on one of the chapter tests, that I simply cannot work out. I know the answer, but I simply cant figure out how to that answer. It is really pissing me off.

What I want to vent right now, is that its really detrimental to my overoal goal of passing this course, If i cant get past the mental block that “I dont understand something!!! *grrr*”, and keep on at it with the other chapters/material thats required in having even a shot at passing it. I guess it would be easier, if I actually knew that my teacher would help me the next time I see him, but as Ive explained in the previous post, I have my serious doubts he will give me a qualifying answer to it. I hope that he does, but im skeptical. There is also a timing issue in this. I wrote him an email (which Ive done before, without EVER getting a reply back), asking for help on the topic, so I could go forward with the other stuff during the week, and get prepared for the next time. But will you take the bet on whether he replies back this time or not?

Since I hold you in high regard, I would stand on a mountaintop and yell: “DONT TAKE THE BET!”.

Im pissed with myself. Im pissed with the lack of instructure (mail/forums) for help when hitting a bump in the road. Well I will try and go forward with other topics, in order to get as much down as I possibly can. If I still dont get help from my teacher, I have no choice than to take it over his head, and ask the other teacher teaching the CCNA course, and ask for her help.

Calm down Kim. You’ve done your best. read like crazy on this topic in 2 different books, the online course material, took quiz test both from the book, and from a third party exam engine. It doesnt look that bad. Get on with the other stuff, and return to this wrong question and get it explained SOMEHOW.