Last week I was spoiled. I holed up on the back row of the Red Hat Lab at Guru Labs and became the system admin for three machines. I was able to fill the roles of being me, my lab partner and unsuspecting third party. It was fun.

This week I've wanted to continue my learning experience. Monday I got to work ready to log on to my Red Hat laptop and review last week's lessons. No such luck. The laptop is old and is having problems. I couldn't get it working.

Today I was determined to repartition the Windows box at my desk and install Red Hat. I had a few meetings, phone calls, and other interruptions. Between them all I was finally able to get Red Hat installed and completely updated. I'm now ready to get going.

This evening I spent a couple of hours erasing Windows from an old PC at home and loading Red Hat there. I still have to get on the network and run up2date, but soon I'll have another Red Hat box on line.

I'm determined to fully understand and use Red Hat and the security tools available on it. This is my initial move into developing my "Director's Sandbox." This sandbox will be a place for me to play with and understand technology. It will provide a safe place for me to get my hands dirty.

I now appreciate just how much of my time is spent in non-technical, essential pursuits. My time is essentially filled with political, budgetary, HR and other important issues. I have attempted to compensate for this drain on my time by reading. But reading about technology can take me only so far. Experience with the technology is something I enjoy and need. Not just to enable me to be an effective technical manager, but to also help me keep my sanity........
9:45:40 PM    comment []