KCLUG April 2005

kclug@kclug.org

53 participants
144 discussions

RE: Linux Certification
by Jonathan Hutchins 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

I've been watching the certification saga, both Linux and otherwise, for a while now. There came a point where companies suddenly realised that no, the sales team couldn't just double up on engineering to handle all the PC issues, they really needed skilled professionals to handle the computer infrastructure that had moved outside of the computer room. They needed people who actually knew something about PC's, and the computer room guys were still busy with the mainframes. For a while there in the late 90's, companies were scrambling to get people who could work on PC's, and they had no clue how to tell the bluffers from the pro's. Then, for a window of maybe three to five years, certification really meant something. It meant the difference between whether or not you got the job. Novell certs were probably the first big tickets, but they were quickly replaced by Microsoft certs. After all, just about everybody knew something about Microsoft systems (or at least thought they did), but if you hired someone who was certified, you could point to that as due dillegence even if he turned out to be all paper and no knowledge. That period didn't last though. More and more candidates turned out to know the MS Tests really well, but to be totally useless in the field. The certs became a nice thing to have in addition to proven work experience. They became somethign to earn to please the beancounters, or to qualify your company for certain Microsoft perks. As far as I know, that's where they've stayed. I haven't seen a job in quite a while were a certification was the make-or-break qualification. Yes, certification is pretty much expected to go with a certain level of experience - you don't get a lot of Cisco background without grabbng a cert or two along the way. More and more though, Certification is something you do within a position, not as a qualification for a new position, not as a ticket to the next job. I think that's where it remains, and when someone asks "what's a good certification to go for?", I say "Whatever your employer will send you to". If you don't have the qualifications to get the job without the cert, if the prospective employer isn't convinced that certification is a formality, for you, and isn't willing to pay for it, I think it's a bad gamble. I don't think there's a certification out there, whether it costs $300, or $3,000, or $15,000 that will, by itself, pay back the cost of earning it. It won't get you a job. Certification ever really get you a job, you have to do that by convincing the people doing the hiring that you're the kind of guy they can work with. Get the job first, then worry about the certification.

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PCI 56K Modem
by Gene Dascher 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

Does anyone have a 56K PCI modem that works with Linux that they just have lying around in their basement or computer room? I am trying to get a computer up and running with Linux for my brother in law and the Broadcom modem that he has does not have a compileable driver for the 2.6 kernel. Please contact me off list. Thanks, Gene

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Linux Don'ts
by Robert Kennedy 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

Hi All, The time has come to upgrade my home system. I have a college age nephew who builds Windows systems. He can always use the extra bucks, so I'll let him get the new MB, processor, & ram. Currently my system has a SoundBlaster Live card, a Matrox duel head graphics card, plus a SCSI card for the HP ScanJet. I'd prefer to stick with AMD processors. I currently run SUSE 9.0. My wife seems to think I run "that stupid Linux" just to tee her off. Therefore I've wondered about switching to Linspire or Xandros because they are intended to make Windows refugees feel comfortable. (Don't say duel boot. She can't be bothered to log on to a separate Linux account.) So here's what I want input on. Are there any brands for the hardware that I should tell my nephew NOT to consider? What are your practical opinions on the distro? Any help appreciated, Bob Kennedy __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Plan great trips with Yahoo! Travel: Now over 17,000 guides! http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide

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Re: Linux Don'ts
by Justin Dugger 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

Well, Linspire has an annoying tendency to charge for software most other Debian based distros offer for free. But there's probably a way to hack around that, if you choose that route (most likely simply altering sources.list). But as I understand them, Xandros and Linspire both aim to make the administration of their boxes as painless as possible. At this point most any of the distros can be molded to fit the Windows UI for things like browsing the net and writing email, although the integrated peripheral support (digital cameras, scanners) isn't like XP's system. Of course, there's no quality substitute for some programs like Office, but if you've been using SuSe for a while, you've probably found out what applications suit your family. Stay away from ATi cards, their binary drivers tend to be far lower in quality than nVidia's. Wifi cards, should you choose one, are a mixed bag so far. Some, like my D-Link, are supported by a pretty good linux driver. Others have to resort to ndiswrapper, which manages to actually use windows drivers for linux, to a decent standard of success. Regular network cards are almost always supported natively by linux, as are most sound cards. Serial ATA drives are usually supported, although motherboard based RAID for that is hit and miss. Processors, those are generally fully supported, if not more so supported than Windows XP. I don't know about SCSI, and I've only heard about ATi cards 3rd hand (from a lot of people). The big problem with telling your nephew what brands to avoid is that the PC hardware business has multiple tiers in most cases. One company designs the chips, another one makes them, a final one puts them on a board and markets them. Linux drivers generally support chips, not brands. For example, my wireless card uses the Atheros chipset, and the madwifi driver supports most all atheros based cards. Thing is, you can't always look on the box and figure out the chipset. Justin Dugger > So here's what I want input on. Are there any brands > for the hardware that I should tell my nephew NOT to > consider? What are your practical opinions on the > distro?

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Help cross-referencing files
by Brad 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

Hi all, I have 3 files each of which are space delimited sets of data. I have to cross-reference these files to get one set of data at the end. The first file maps IP Address to Cisco ATM interface, the second maps IP Address to MAC Address, and the third maps Cisco ATM interface to actual VPI and VCI. I need to map MAC Address to VCI/VPI. Here is a sample of each file: 24.121.58.91 0.32 24.121.57.11 0100.0f66.2b81.5f 0.2 1 33 I was thinking of using awk, but I am not sure how to tell awk to keep an array for each line of 2 files (let alone 3). Any shell script guru's care to lend some advice? Thanks, Brad --

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Back online again
by ghildebrand＠centurytel.net 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

After a long absence, I'm finlly back in business, now running on SuSE 9.1 --- My original install went through one too many fscks and I was relegated to "root" to get in, so I didn't do a whole lot. On top of that I had major problems with CenturyTel, changing my ISP and accessing their server in Savannah. Of course they don't support Linux, mostly because they're too lazy to learn something better. Gary Hildebrand St. Joseph, MO

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Re: Help cross-referencing files
by Jack 18 Apr '05

18 Apr '05

--- Brad <brad(a)bradandkim.net> wrote: > > > How about: > > home:~$join file1 file2 > file2a > > home:~$join file2a file3 > file3a > > > > syntax : join [options] <file1 name> <file2 name> > > > > Or at least that used to be the syntax. It may > have > > changed. 'Man join' or 'info coreutils join' > should > > get you there. also you can specify which field is > the > > match field for each file with options -1 and -2. > > Also, the files have to be sorted on the key > field. > > > > I know this may not be as exciting as writing an > awk > > or shell script, but it should get the job done. > And > > if you need to remove any columns from the final > file > > "cut" should do the job. > > > > So if you need to sort the files then match them > and > > then cut fields out: > > > > !/bin/bash > > # my file merger script > > sort -k12.14 vpifile > file1 > > sort -k1.14 ipfile > file2 Oops! That should read: sort -k=12.14 vpifile > file1 sort -k=1.14 ipfile > file2 etc. Computers are soooooooo picky about typos. ;') Kind of like KCLUG that way, but fortunately I caught it before being slammed by the syntax nazis. ;') > > This looks like just what I need. I will research > this more...thanks. > Good. Let me know if it works. Brian D. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Make Yahoo! your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Anyone Need an archive of the mailing list since 12/1/2004?
by Tom Bruno 18 Apr '05

18 Apr '05

Anyone Need an archive of the mailing list since 12/1/2004? As far as I know, it's complete. And getting ready to be deleted as I empty out all 1357 message to make room for the next few months. If you need or want this archive, I can send it to you in mbox.bz2 form. (that's the entire archive in 1 mbox file). Let me know a.s.a.p. Tom

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Re: Linux Certification
by Leo Mauler 18 Apr '05

18 Apr '05

Is there the MidWesterner "catch" to the RHCE/RHCT test still, that one must pick a coast to travel to, in order to take either test? Or is there a more local testing center for the RHCE/RHCT? I know that you can take CompTIA's "Linux+" test here at the Prometric Testing Center in Lenexa, having taken and passed said certification, but its a written test and thus unlikely to get the same prestige as the RHCE/RHCT test. --- Brad <brad(a)bradandkim.net> wrote: > On Mon, 2005-04-18 at 10:58 -0700, Linux Rocks > wrote: > > Howdy: > > > > I was considering to pursue a Linux certification. > > According to your opinion which certification is > > better or more rewarding to pursue, if any. > > > > Thank you in advance. > > > Though it is distro-specific, I think that RHCE is > the top Linux > certification. Their testing procedure is more > rigorous than most other > certs. It's a hands on lab type test instead of > multiple choice or > true/false. They have also now introduced the RHCT > which is similar in > procedure, but a lower level cert. Be > forewarned....if you go for the > RHCE, study long and hard and be prepared for a > grueling day on test > day. > > Brad > > > _______________________________________________ > Kclug mailing list > Kclug(a)kclug.org > http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250

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Re: Help cross-referencing files
by Jack 18 Apr '05

18 Apr '05

--- Brad <brad(a)bradandkim.net> wrote: > > > I'd use associative arrays in Perl or dicts in > Python. Trying to do > > this in awk would be painful. > > ... > > > -- > > I had considered Perl, maybe I will give that > another look. There is no > way I know of to get this out of the IOS, but if > someone can correct me > on this please do. > How about: home:~$join file1 file2 > file2a home:~$join file2a file3 > file3a syntax : join [options] <file1 name> <file2 name> Or at least that used to be the syntax. It may have changed. 'Man join' or 'info coreutils join' should get you there. also you can specify which field is the match field for each file with options -1 and -2. Also, the files have to be sorted on the key field. I know this may not be as exciting as writing an awk or shell script, but it should get the job done. And if you need to remove any columns from the final file "cut" should do the job. So if you need to sort the files then match them and then cut fields out: !/bin/bash # my file merger script sort -k12.14 vpifile > file1 sort -k1.14 ipfile > file2 join -1 2 -2 1 file1 file2 > file2a sort -k16.9 file2a > file2b sort -k1.9 macfile > file3 join -1 1 -2 2 file3 file2a > file3a cut 2 file3a > tadafile #end Of course you'll have to replace the values for filenames, keyfileds and such. HTH, Brian D. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Plan great trips with Yahoo! Travel: Now over 17,000 guides! http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide

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KCLUG April 2005