It looks as though plans are coming together for me to spend some time at the Red Hat Mothership in Raleigh NC next month.
A couple of days’ worth of technology refresh presentations will be followed up with a week of book learnin’ in RH423 Red Hat Enterprise Directory Services and Authentication.
Use what you know, learn what you don’t; that’s my motto.
I also hope the Harris-Teeter behind the 5 story LaQuinta is well stocked with Shiner that week.
-k-
I planned to post something yesterday, when I was actually safely ensconced back in tbbs WorldHQ. My last “yum update” session brought down the released version of Firefox 3. Thereafter, my Scribe Fire blog plugin would only post the article’s title, sans content.
I deinstalled/reinstalled Scribe Fire, and now write in SF in the HTML instead of WYSIWYG mode. At least that has worked once.
So for the fourth time, and hopefully this one is visible, I’m safely home from Boston and the Red Hat Summit. What an amazing conference. Information overload is an apt phrase to use to describe the goings-on. The sessions were presented by developers, engineers, and doers, rather than by marketing flacks. I especially enjoyed the cobbler and func presentations. I love infrastructure, and both of these are an infrastructure guy’s dream. I have dabbled with func, and read about cobbler; I’ll investigate the latter in more detail ASAP.
My original plan was to attend some FUDCon sessions on Friday, after Summit wrapped up. However, on Thursday night, or more precisely, early Friday morning, I took a header walking back to my hotel. Believe me, the sight of asphalt coming up to meet your face is not pretty. I managed to break the fall with knees, elbows, and hands; the face, for better or worse, is OK. I was stiff and sore on Friday, and have remained so since. I don’t know whether it was the fall, or toting around my backpack full of electronics, but my left side is especially tender. In spite of my right side having absorbed most of the punishment in the fall, it’s the left one that gives me grief.
I think it’s time for some liniment. Warming, and leaves me smelling like wintergreen.
-k-
I arrived in Boston safely and on time yesterday. An evening of wining, dining, and socializing followed. Today, it’s off to the Red Hat Summit, where there are so many good sessions being offered in any one time slot that it is difficult to pick one.
Better feast than famine, though. Knowledge is Good.
-k-
After a long layoff from the unfriendly skies, I’m airborne again later this month. Destination: Boston.
This time for a geek extravaganza.
First and foremost, the Fourth Annual Red Hat Summit will be taking place. There is so much on the agenda for this that I’m having a hard time choosing which sessions to attend. There are sessions on current state of the art, peeks at futures, and several on success stories. I’m wearing out my highlighters on the agenda for this one. My attendance at the summit is being company-paid, so this one is my #1 priority.
Icing on the cake is that Fudcon 10, the Fedora Project’s hackfest, clambake, and unconference, will be held pretty much concurrently with RHS. My feeble skills doubtless preclude my adding much value to the hackfest sessions. Still, Fudcon is free, and I want to be involved with the Fedora Project in some fashion, so I’m going to make my way to whatever sessions I can.
Downside is, I get to fly again. The TSA will be dutifully graded on their performance, or lack thereof, as the event unfolds.
-k-
The Red Hat class is over, and I’ve absorbed about all I can in four days. There is no exam tomorrow; either I misread the schedule on the RH website,1 or there was some 11th hour change of schedule on Red Hat’s part.2 Whatever the case, I’ll be rolling northward, through RoVA, and back to NoVA.
I can reschedule the RHCE exam for early December, it appears. Either enough time to bone up some more, or enough time to forget all the relevant course material. That part is up to me.
-k-
[stags]Work, RedHat[/stags]
Update: The only test remaining for this week is to determine whether or not I can dispose of the Shiners in my hotel room ‘fridge. That’s a test I’m sure to pass.
I arrived safely in Raleigh a few minutes ago. Since my arrival, enough time has elapsed to unpack my duds, set up my toiletries, call my little bride, hook up the computer, and find the NASCAR race on teevee.
It was a beautiful day for a trip; the fall colors, which I’d say are past peak, are still beautiful in the sunshine, and it was just a pleasant drive coming down,
This trip is powered by Chevy Malibu; Greg the Avis agent at IAD saved me some money (about 100 bucks) on the rental by giving me my company’s corporate rate instead of the AARP rate I used when I booked the car. Such customer service is rare, and most welcome when you see it. I’d always thought the AARP rate was pretty good; Greg told me that AARP rates aren’t as good on holiday weekends. I’d have thought the Avis website would have reflected the higher rates; Greg says that’s sometimes not the case.
Savings is savings, though, and Greg got my day off to a great start.
Tomorrow, off to the Red Hat Mothership, for 4 days of book learnin’, followed by what I’ve heard is an ass-kicker of a certification exam.
-k-
[stags]Raleigh, Avis, Red Hat[/stags]
I documented a couple of posts back, that my Red Hat training trip had been deferred until November. A couple of reasins for the decision were highlighted in that post.
As if to remove all doubt about the prudence of my decision to attend the class later, I woke up this morning with a sore, scratchy throat, the sneezes and sniffles, and the general malaise that accompanies a cold.
I’d rather be at home feeling sick than in Raleigh feeling sick.
So things work out in the end.
-k-
[stags]Raleigh, RedHat[/stags]
Sometimes plans turn on a dime. Mine took such a turn today; I’m not indispensable on the job site, but I feel obligated to stay and help my buds during the upcoming week. It wasn’t suggested by the higher-ups that I reschedule my class, but it seemed to me to be prudent.
So, I’ll be Raleigh bound in November, back to the Red Hat Mothership. With another month to bone up on things I’ll need to know for the RHCE exam.
And, in calling the LaQuinta to cancel my hotel for the upcoming week, I discovered that the confirmation number I had was not for me, and that the hotel had no record of my making a reservation for next week.
Probably a good thing all the way around. And I just made the November reservation myself, online.
-k-
[stags]work,RedHat,Raleigh[/stags]
I spent today at home, tending to a tender left foot. and decided to clean out my Delicious bookmarks. I dropped the bookmark count from 941 to around 645, and painstakingly retagged the balance of them into at least a semblance of order.
Here’s an example of my new tag structure : RedHat.SysAdmin.Tools.ssh. This is more directory-like than tag-like, and I hope I haven’t painted myself into some big delicious unusability corner, but I how have far fewer tags, and my delicious page is ever so tidy.
I only hope I can find the stuff I need.
-k-
[tags] GTD, del.icio.us[/tags]
It starts on July 22, with me heading solo to Raleigh NC for some more book-learnin’ and lab work at the RedHat Mothership. Class lasts until Thursday, whereupon I head south to a secure undisclosed location, where I’ll meet SWMBO’s flight and whisk her away about 20 miles or so inland, where we will be attending a birthday celebration of a really good guy on July 28th. Rolling homeward on the 29th, and possibly part of the 30th.
We’re being fitted for our bells; I really would hate missing the blowout we’re planning on attending. As always, details to follow.
-k-