I used to do three monitors a couple gigs ago where they let me spend money. I had my two flat panels in front of me with whatever I was working on, and then off in my peripheral vision I had a CRT which had the monitoring system on it. It was great - I could pull stats or problems off on monitor three or track a problem lifecycle there and keep working on whatever the flavor of the hour was. Someone called that their printer didn't work I could tell them from the snmp status that they'd find adding paper to that tray helpful in two seconds and be back on task when I hung up. Thanks, Brian Desmond [EMAIL PROTECTED] c - 312.731.3132
________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of joe Sent: Wed 1/25/2006 9:08 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience Yep the equipment comes in handy. I gave most of my machines to a couple of my brothers once the virtualization software really became stable. They thought they hit the jackpot. I always try to maintain 1600x1200 or better, even on laptops with smaller screens. On the touching the screen thing, I can't do it. Fingerprints on a monitor really irritate me. I wore contact lenses for years because I couldn't stand glasses because they got smudges on them. When I was told I was destroying my eyes from wearing contacts for 20+ years I went and got Lasik because I still was unhappy about smudged glasses. I have little monitor cleaning pads in my top right drawer. When I maintain an office and had people coming in and out someone would always inevitably touch my screen to point at something to help me find it. Right after they my cube I usually would pull out the windex and paper towels. :o) To bring this back around to tech... I love dual monitors, I don't know how I get anything done without them especially when working on documentation. It is easily worth the cost of a second monitor to set it up in terms of the productivity gains, at least I feel that is so. I was talking to ~Eric once and he was telling me he was using 3 monitors on a single system. That rocks. ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rich Milburn Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 9:16 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience That's funny - and no wonder you do so much from home. Hard to script or code without a lot of real estate.... I often start touching my laptop screen after using a PDA or touchscreen terminal for a while. All laptop screens should be touchscreen. Flat panels too, for that matter. I digress... My main monitor is a 21" CRT because we don't have flat panels that big, and I always run it at 1600x1200. Same at home, but I do have a Dell 20" FP at home, as well - but it only does 1200x1024 - what's the point?? :-) ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of joe Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 11:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience My main desk that I was talking about has an XP home built P4 machine with 2x 21" Dell 2001FP Flat Panel monitors and I usually have either my HP NC6000 work laptop or HP DVR8000Z on the desk next to the monitor and keyboards (right now it is the DV8000Z running a memory exerciser). My biggest complaint is that when I am working on the PC doing something on the right monitor and I look at the laptop on the far right I move the mouse from the right screen and hit the edge of the left screen and get confused for a second when it doesn't make it to the laptop screen. Other than that there is quite a bit of other hardware spread around the house with 3 machines running ~1000GB of disk each (thanks to low disk prices at Sam's club). Electric bill usually runs about $130 a month. The Den has all heater vents blocked and stays quite warm all by itself. joe ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rich Milburn Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 10:24 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience Ok I gotta ask, Joe you said monitors plural... how many computers and monitors do you guys have in your desk? I can't imagine that I win... I certainly don't have any 100+ VMs like I saw Joe mention... but I'll start... I have 6 computers, 1 laptop, and one touchscreen POS terminal, in my office and running right now. 2 of those have VMs, and so does the laptop but it's tied up for 3 or 4 hours running longhorn server setup so I can try again now I know there is a wireless add on component hidden somewhere... I have 4 monitors plus the laptop and touchscreen. And I have one other POS terminal and 2 other PCs on standby. This doesn't count the lab. I'll bet that, regardless of some of the looks I get when people peek in my cube (no, not office), that this is pretty standard... Rich ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Rich Milburn MCSE, Microsoft MVP - Directory Services Sr Network Analyst, Field Platform Development Applebee's International, Inc. 4551 W. 107th St Overland Park, KS 66207 913-967-2819 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "I love the smell of red herrings in the morning" - anonymous ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of joe Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 9:10 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience Oh great Gil thanks... now I have to clean Coca-cola off my monitors. :o) Good to see you back Todd. You working for Ringling Bros now? ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gil Kirkpatrick Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 2:16 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience But at least you're not bitter... -g ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Myrick, Todd (NIH/CC/DNA) [E] Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 12:06 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience In my experience, when good directories go bad, it is usually due to three things. 1. Firewalls 2. Firewalls 3. Did I list firewalls? Runner ups would be ADC for Exchange, Clowns posing as Administrators, Clowns posing as DNS experts, Clowns posing as Security experts, and no disaster recovery solution. Todd Myrick Brushing off the dust of my MVP status. ________________________________ From: joe [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 3:17 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience When I read Al's post I thought of you Wook, I figured, hey Wook could use a creative presentation name... ;o) I would say "When Bad Things Happen To Good Directories" is more on par with "When Bad Things Happen To Good People", say like when your nanny gets a flat tire. "When Good Directories Go Bad" is more like when your good little daughter hits her teen years and starts going out to parties in fish net stockings and Big Red gum. :o) ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lee, Wook Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 2:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience Importance: Low Sorry, I already did that one. My first DEC presentation was entitled "When Bad Things Happen To Good Directories". :-) Wook ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 8:02 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience when good directories go bad...sounds like a catchy title for a presentation, Joe. I think of directories and identity management infrastructures a little like networks: you rarely do get to design one from scratch, you're always tweaking an existing one. And I agree that tweaking the existing ones are a lot more interesting than designing from a blank slate. The analogy could be taken too far, but like networks, directories and authentications systems are always morphing due to new technologies, new tools, adding or removing applications. Lots of fun. Al Maurer Service Manager, Naming and Authentication Services IT | Information Technology Agilent Technologies (719) 590-2639; Telnet 590-2639 http://activedirectory.it.agilent.com ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of joe Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 6:31 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience I would say focusing on the design of big directories is pigeon-holing a little too much. There are only so many big directories that need to be designed. I personally find much more fun in diagnosing good directories that have gone bad than trying to design them. I design if I have to but it isn't what I like. Plus often with the design, it is rarely the case where you actually have all of the info though someone will tell you you do. You find out you don't later on when someone starts complaining or something starts breaking. I am not sure I would go so far to say it is something you let the tools handle though. A lot of the tools out there still aren't doing the greatest job and there are many companies that don't want to spend the millions on those tools that they would be charged for them instead having a few really good people handling it. A tool doesn't see bad things coming when someone is coming at you with the next great thing they want to plug into the AD. If the tool does catch it, it is way too late in the integration cycle. Plus, what if the tool isn't catching the problem? Someone has to be knowledgeable enough too. If you depend solely on your tools to keep your AD running well it is possible you are going to get cut pretty good. When I did Ops, I had several tools that watched what had been determined needed to be watched and then I would just go off and sample things to decide if there was something that maybe could be watched that we weren't watching. That could take the form of just watching a network packets on a DC or a client subnet for an hour or so or just walking the event logs event by event or walking through looking at objects in the directory. Whatever. To get into those positions you want to get in with the companies already mentioned and jump about (and try not to hurt the customer too much with your learning) or find a big company and take whatever entry position you can get and prove yourself and grow into bigger/better positions. Don't expect to, for instance, walk into Walmart and become their AD guy. Maybe you get in as desktop support and get to know the right people and make suggestions on how things can be better and work your way up. You could possibly walk into a company and be there expert right off if your experience is greater than what they currently have or your resume indicates it or they are desperate. But it could end up biting you in the end if you don't turn out to be what they expected. Companies can get mighty pissy if they find out down the road that they are paying 100k+ to someone who would normally be lucky making $45k. joe ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Douglas M. Long Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 11:49 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ActiveDir] OT: Gauging AD experience I am trying to figure out how one gauges their AD experience. For example, I have designed, implemented and maintained an AD/Exchange environment of 5000 users with 1000 workstations from the ground up, alone. The environment is only 3 sites, with little complexity. I now work for a company maintaining a directory of about 150 users and 150 workstations. And the more local AD people I talk to, the more confident I am that I know quite a bit about AD compared to them (only talking about the people I have met...not generalizing the entire industry). Although I am not a guru like some on this list, I would like to get myself to the place where I can say "yeah, I can design your 50,000 user / 15 site infrastructure." Or is that even possible? Is a project of that size several directory experts working together? I honestly believe that I could perform such a task, but knowing that I would make some mistakes that a VERY experienced person would not. So, I guess my question is: How do I get to where I want to be? Consult? Try to get a job with the biggest company I can? There may be no real answer, but I thought it was worth asking because I have been thinking about it for a couple of months and don't know where to start to move forward, and this is the only place I know that has people that I consider AD gurus (or gods even) ________________________________ -------APPLEBEE'S INTERNATIONAL, INC. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE------- PRIVILEGED / CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION may be contained in this message or any attachments. This information is strictly confidential and may be subject to attorney-client privilege. This message is intended only for the use of the named addressee. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, unauthorized forwarding, printing, copying, distribution, or using such information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this in error, you should kindly notify the sender by reply e-mail and immediately destroy this message. Unauthorized interception of this e-mail is a violation of federal criminal law. Applebee's International, Inc. reserves the right to monitor and review the content of all messages sent to and from this e-mail address. Messages sent to or from this e-mail address may be stored on the Applebee's International, Inc. e-mail system. ________________________________ ________________________________ -------APPLEBEE'S INTERNATIONAL, INC. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE------- PRIVILEGED / CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION may be contained in this message or any attachments. This information is strictly confidential and may be subject to attorney-client privilege. This message is intended only for the use of the named addressee. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, unauthorized forwarding, printing, copying, distribution, or using such information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this in error, you should kindly notify the sender by reply e-mail and immediately destroy this message. Unauthorized interception of this e-mail is a violation of federal criminal law. Applebee's International, Inc. reserves the right to monitor and review the content of all messages sent to and from this e-mail address. Messages sent to or from this e-mail address may be stored on the Applebee's International, Inc. e-mail system. ________________________________
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