ITIL: Utility and Warranty

King of Bat'ha - A new book by William Franklin

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As endorsed by a friend Mr Tim Howey.

PublishAmerica is proud to announce the recent release of William Franklin's new book: King of Bat'ha!

Here's what the author says about the book: An American engineer travels to the Middle East to support allied military efforts. Immersed within an Islamic society he undergoes a spiritual journey whereby he examines his own faith in God while confronting his own mortality. A classic, timeless tale of Eastern culture meets Western culture as his only ties to his Western heritage are through the game of chess that he plays in the Filipino community of Bat'ha which is a subdivision of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. This chess playing culminates in FIDE tournaments in Europe. He also explores the diverse lifestyles and religions of the Middle East. These lifestyles, religions, and politics are intermingled and form the essence of the Middle East.

We are offering you an opportunity to secure your personal copy of William Franklin’s exceptional book today.  Please click here:http://www.publishamerica.net/product37286.html to secure your copy of the book*, then click Add to Cart. For an introductory discount of 20%, use this coupon code: Discount20. 

Thank you for your interest in our author's wonderful achievement.

Have a great day!
PublishAmericawww.publishamerica.com 

www.publishamerica.net

T-Wall Iraq

A Bremer wall is a twelve-foot-high (3.7 m) portable, steel-reinforced concrete wall of the type used for blast protection throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. The name is believed to have originated from L. Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority, who was the Director of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for post-war Iraq following the Iraq War of 2003 in the early years of the Iraq War.^[1]

The Bremer barrier resembles the smaller 3-foot (1 m) tall Jersey barrier, which is used widely for vehicle traffic control on coalition military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. To indicate that the Bremer barrier is similar but larger, the 12-foot (3.7 m) tall intermediate-sized Bremer barriers are usually referred to as Texas barriers (but not to be confused with the 3½ foot (1.1 m) Texas constant slope barrier). By this same naming convention, the largest barriers, which stand around 6 metres (20 ft) tall, are called Alaska Barriers. Unlike the Jersey barrier which has sloped-sides at the base, the Texas and Alaska barriers have a rectangular ledge (usable as a bench for sitting or resting) which is approximately knee high for a typical adult.

Alaska barriers are typically used as perimeter fortifications of well-established bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.^[2]

 

These T-shaped walls were originally developed by the Israelis in the Israeli West Bank barrier. The term "T-wall" is commonly used by soldiers throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, due to their cross-sectional shape resembling an inverted letter T. Article taken from Wikipedia

 Now it became sort of a souvenir for anyone who had spent some time in Iraq. It's a must have item prior to leaving Iraq.

 Normally T-Walls are deployed around the housing facilities or the whole camp to protect from incoming mortars and rockets.

Victory Over America Palace at Camp Slayer

Camp Slayer, a former Iraqi government palace and amusement complex near the Baghdad airport, featuring man-made lakes filled with Carp, was transformed into a logistics and operations base for US intelligence and weapons-hunting teams. The camp has also hosted US eavesdropping and other classified operations. Most of the 1,200 or so troops that have been based here, plus CIA and FBI officials, covert Special Forces teams, civilian experts and others, camp in two dozen or so garish guest houses that line three artificial lakes. 

Upon completion of the renovations, the Iraq Survey Group staff worked in the Perfume Palace. The ornate building has an indoor pool on the ground floor, military murals on the second floor, and a blue-domed ballroom on top level. The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was an international, inter-agency organization that operated in Iraq from June 2003 to April 2005. The group's mission focused on the search for and elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Its responsibilities also included the exploitation of documents and media related to terrorism, war crimes, and POW/MIA issues. 

Also, a building at Camp Slayer was assigned a Forensic Analysis Facility, with equipment to analyze exhumation evidence from mass graves.

Additionally located at Camp Slayer, the pair of Iraqi trucks which the CIA claimed were mobile biowarfare production facilities, and a stockade that has been used to store some captured Iraqi weapons scientists and other top regime officials. 

All the buildings were looted, and most lacked air conditioning or running water. Soldiers have furnished their accommodations with chandeliers, wingback chairs, gilt-edged tables and pieces sculpture scavenged from the complex's five major palaces. One palace has an underground bunker with thick steel doors and gold wallpaper. 

From February to March 2004, soldiers from 1st Armored Division's 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment trained soldiers from the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps at Camp Slayer. The corps is a guard unit consisting of Iraqi citizens who volunteer to serve their nation and fight terrorist insurgents within their homeland. The training included both classroom and hands-on instruction. It encompassed 1 st Armored Division battle drills and focused on five key missions: dismounted patrolling, setting up traffic control points, performing route security, securing a forward operating base, and conducting raids and cordon and searches. The Iraqi soldiers also spent two days qualifying on an AK-47 assault rifle. 

In July of 2004, officers based at Camp Slayer were working out of lake front buildings that were once holiday guest houses for Baath Party loyalists. Opinion seemed to agree that the best part of the lake front offices were the marble bath rooms, complete with modern toilets and bidets that worked. Throughout Iraq water systems have been the last of the major infrastructure systems to be restored. On BIAP the soldiers were still using porta-johns, although contractors were working diligently to bring in toilets that flush. Looking across the lake from the headquarters are the ruins of one of Saddam Husseins vast palace complexes. One in particular was a recreational facility, with a huge theater, ballroom, conference room and swimming pool. One corner of the palace was completely demolished. It was attacked on the first night of the war by cruise missiles as it was suspected that Saddam Hussein was there. Unfortunately, this intelligence turned out to be wrong. 

 As of mid-2004, troops staionned at Camp Slayer had access to running water, functional toilets and showers. In addition, troops garrisoned there also had access to the internet. Source

A weekend walk at Mount Faber Park

Mount Faber is a hill about 105 metres (344 ft.) in height in Singapore, located near the Bukit Merah planning area in the Central Region. It overlooks the Telok Blangah area, and the western parts of the Central Area. The summit is accessible by road, but there are many footpaths leading up the hill.

It is a frequent tourist destination, as it provides a panoramic view of the increasingly densecentral business district within the Central Area. Its slope includes a tower that is part of the Singapore cable car system that connects to HarbourFront and Sentosa. It is accessible from theHarbourFront MRT Station.

Mount Faber was known as Telok Blangah Hill but was later renamed after Captain Charles Edward Faber of the Madras Engineers, the superintending engineer in the Straits and GovernorButterworth's brother-in-law, who arrived in Singapore in September 1844. Faber cut through the thick undergrowth, allowing the road to the top of the hill to be built. The original winding road was referred to in the press at that time as a "stupidly narrow road".

The article also questioned the change of the name from what it deemed its originally more appropriate Malay name. A signal station was erected on the hill in 1845, and the Malay used to refer to the hill as Bukit Bendara (Flag Hill). This signal station was transferred from Pulau Blakang Mati (now Sentosa) because of the "injurious miasma" on the island.

After the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the Straits government decided to convert Mount Faber into a fort for fear of revolt among the local Indian sepoys. Defence work was carried out and granite emplacements for guns were completed halfway up the hill, but Mount Faber never became a fort. An observatory was built there in 1905.

A Dormitory Project

Encrypt the Web with the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox Extension | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Encrypt the Web with the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox Extension | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Backyard cattle raising as an investment

 I am one of those doing a backyard cattle raising as an investment and recently I tried promoting a blog with the keyword of backyard cattle raising. In less than a month I've made the site appear on the first page of google using that keyword. But when I check the keyword on bing the site didn't appear on the first five pages. I guess this is normal since google and bing are two different worlds.

How to reduce the size of a PDF File

 Sometimes when we scan a document and the output file is PDF the file size is too big which is very difficult to send as an email attachment. This also happens when you convert word documents into PDF format.

This guide assumes that Adobe Acrobat Professional or Standard is already installed on your computer for PDF conversion. Click here to see the complete guide.

Image source

How to download TV Series on your favorite torrent site

I will be out of Baghdad soon and this guide will assist you in downloading your favorite TV Series :) . . . So from this point onwards you need to help your selves.

Go to www.tvu.org.ru - this site contains almost all popular TV series. I choose this site since I find it to be reliable on its contents compared to other sites and it is virus free. Normally IT guys like me would blocked this site on the network since this will eat up all the bandwidth if everybody is doing a download from this site.

If it's block try to be friend your IT guy. Just tell him how nice and good looking he is and let's see if that works! :)

This is how the site looks. NOTE: You can always click on the image to see a larger view.

Now to download your favorite TV Series you may browse and locate the title alphabetically  or you can just type the title and search it. Say we'd like to search for 24 so we type 24 on the search area then click on the search button (circled in red)

This would show up all the TV series titles on the list. You can always check on the date if there's a new file (circled on red)

Click on the first link of 24 on the list (the one with a red and yellow New word)

This would show up all the seasons and video format for TV Series 24 but what we're currently interested in is the latest season which is season 8. With regards to the format I always use XviD(HDTV) for the main reason that it's size is only 350MB more or less and it is on avi format and the quality is acceptable.

Now click on the link that you prefer (in our case the link that is circled in red)

This will show up the page for 24 Season 8 and the episodes available on the list.
The list is divided into two parts . . . eD2K files and Torrent files. We are more interested on the torrent files which can be found on the lower part of the page.

Now click on the episode link that you want to download. The latest file is episode 16.

When clicking any of the links a pop up window will show up prompting you to save the file.
Now save the file on your pc.

Now that you have the torrent file what are you going to do with it? Fire up your favorite torrent client. If you still don't have you may download u Torrent or BitComet or any torrent client that you are familiar with. For the sake of this example I will be using uTorrent.

Now let's open u Torrent client and this is how the main window looks

Let's add the torrent file that we've save recently. Click on file then select Add Torrent

Locate the file that you've downloaded recently then click on Open

 

This window will show up. Just click on OK.
Please take note of the directory path in which the file will be save (circled in red).

Once you click on OK the download process will start. 

The details of the download is visible on the page.

A PIECE OF ADVICE: Please respect other users on your respective networks. Do your downloads late at night or when the network is not that busy. If you abuse your network and the IT guy would know about it then say good bye to your download days :) . . .

That's all folks  . . .

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Webcam Drivers List

A collection of webcam drivers

Logitech webcams

Bandwidth Test Tools

A collection of bandwidth testing tools

Green Beans 1 April 2010

Green Beans is a bright spot after a convoy. Green Beans was the first place we went to ease our nerves. Thanks for the little piece of home.

Green Beans Camp Victory South Baghdad Iraq

Sean . . .you're the man!

Sean congratulations on your graduation . . . :)

Career Advice '08

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Career Advice '08

View more presentations from garr.

Useful Cisco Switch Commands (suitable for a 2950)

 Showing the Running configuration of the Switch. Example commands:
show run ' to see the conplete switch running
confige
show run int f0/1 ' to see running confige on
FastEthernet, slot 0, port 1
show run int vlan x ' where x = the management vlan for the
switch
show int status ' show basic interface configuation
information


Saving the Switch Running Configuation. Example command:
copy run start


Dealing with Switch Logging. Example commands:
service timestamps debug datetime localtime
service timestamps log datertime localtime
logging buffered

clear log ' clear logs if they have been on for a
long period of time
show log ' see see the switch logs


Setting the switch clock:
show clock ' to see the clock settings
clock set hh:mm:ss d m y ' clock set 14:10:55 9 sept 2005


Finding out the general topology of the connecting network. Example
commands:
show cdp ne ' for an overview
show cdp ne de ' to be more specific. This gives the
neighbour IP address


Managing the ARP:
show arp ' to see the ARP table
clear arp ' to clear the ARP table


Troubleshooting connectivity issues:
ping x.x.x.x ' ping a known address 5 times. There should
be a quick response.
ping ' extended ping, followed by return to do an
extended ping test. Can state no. of pings
trace x.x.x.x ' to do a trace route to an IP address


Looking at the Switch counters:
clear counters ' to clear all switch counters
show int counters ' to see all interface counters
show int counters error ' to see errors on all the interfaces
show int fa0/22 ' to see errors on a particular
interface

So how fast are Ports running:
show proc cpu
sh cont util


Making changes:
config t ' to go into configuration mode
int range f0/1 - 10 ' to set changes to be make to a range
of ports
speed 100 ' to set the speed of the port to 100Mb
duplex full ' to set the line duplex to full, half
or auto


Setting up the Banner:
config t
banner motd ^C

^C

Working with VLAN's:
show vlan
show vtp status
vlan database
vtp transparent|server|client ' Choose wisely here!! Swithces come
out of the box in Server mode!!!

The source of the picture above is from here.

Subnetting in your head - What do we know?

What do we know about a /25?
128 mask
1 bits on and 7 bits off (10000000)
Block size of 128
2 subnets, each with 126 hosts

What do we know about a /26?
192 mask
 2 bits on and 6 bits off (11000000)
 Block size of 64
 4 subnets, each with 62 hosts

What do we know about a /27?
 224 mask
 3 bits on and 5 bits off (11100000)
 Block size of 32
 8 subnets, each with 30 hosts

What do we know about a /28?
 240 mask
 4 bits on and 4 bits off
 Block size of 16
 16 subnets, each with 14 hosts

What do we know about a /29?
 248 mask
 5 bits on and 3 bits off
 Block size of 8
 32 subnets, each with 6 hosts

What do we know about a /30?
 252 mask
 6 bits on and 2 bits off
 Block size of 4
 64 subnets, each with 2 hosts

Regardless of whether you have a Class A, Class B, or Class C address, the /30 mask will provide you with only two hosts, ever. This mask is suited almost exclusively—as well as suggested by Cisco—for use on point-to-point links.

If you can memorize this “What Do We Know?” section, you’ll be much better off in your day-to-day job and in your studies. Try saying it out loud, which helps you memorize things—yes, your significant other and/or coworkers will think you’ve lost it, but they probably already do if you are in the networking field. And if you’re not yet in the networking field but are studying all this to break into it, you might as well have people start thinking you’re an odd bird now since they will eventually anyway.

Manage network broadcasts on Cisco switches using storm control

Network broadcasts can create a huge amount of traffic on your organization's network. When one device sends out a single broadcast, that broadcast goes to all devices on the subnet or VLAN.

How can you manage these broadcasts to make your network more efficient? One method is to use Cisco Catalyst broadcast suppression—also known as storm control.

Broadcasts are a natural part of the TCP/IP suite of applications. A broadcast is a packet sent to ALL HOSTS or ALL HOSTS ON A SUBNET.

A packet sent to all hosts has a destination IP address of 255.255.255.255. A packet sent to all hosts on a subnet is a directed broadcast, and it goes to a specific destination—for example, 10.1.1.255.

Some necessary protocols such as Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) use broadcasts, so they aren't something you can just throw out. What you can do is suppress excessive broadcasts on your network using storm control.

Configure storm control

It's important to protect your organization's LAN from broadcast storms, which can cause network slowdowns if they become severe. With the Cisco IOS, you can easily and quickly protect your network by configuring a single command on each switch interface.

You can configure storm control on most Cisco Catalyst platforms. (On older platforms, Cisco calls it broadcast suppression.) The Cisco IOS disables broadcast suppression by default.

Storm control manages how the receiving port handles the broadcast. You can configure a threshold to drop broadcasts for a certain period of time or until the broadcast flow slows down.

By default, the switch only drops the broadcast packets. In addition, you can shut down the port or send a SNMP trap to your management station.

Here's how to configure storm control on a Catalyst 2950 switch:

Switch(config)# int fa0/19
Switch(config-if)# storm-control broadcast level 50
Switch(config-if)# storm-control action trap

The first command—storm-control broadcast—is the only required command. Thestorm-control action trap command is optional, as is shutting down the port, which requires the storm-control action shutdown command.

This example has nothing to do with regular unicast or multicast traffic. However, you can configure storm control for both unicast and multicast traffic by substituting unicastor multicast for broadcast in the command.

Once you've configured storm control, you can check the status of the configuration with the show storm-control broadcast command. Here's an example of the output:

Switch# show storm-control broadcast 
Interface Filter State Trap State  Upper    Lower  Current  Traps Sent
--------- ------------  ---------  -----    -----  -------  ---------
Fa0/1     inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/2     inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/3     inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/4     inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/5     inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/6     inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/7     inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/8     inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/9     inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/10    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/11    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/12    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/13    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/14    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/15    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/16    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/17    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/18    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/19    Forwarding  Below rising 50.00%   50.00%     0.00%   0
Fa0/20    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/21    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/22    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/23    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Fa0/24    inactive    inactive     100.00%  100.00%    N/A     0
Switch#

For more technical information on Cisco Catalyst Storm Control, check out Cisco's "Configuring Storm Control" documentation.

Source of the picture above is from this link.

10 things you should know about creating a resume for a high-level IT position

Building a resume that targets an upper-level IT position, such as architect or consultant, requires a different approach than creating a resume to land an entry-level tech job. Although many of the standard rules still apply, you need to follow some more specialized guidelines. In fact, a few of these tips may actually contradict your previous notions of what your resume should include (and exclude).

 image source

 

 

#1: Keep your list of “core skills” short and sweet

When you’ve worked with a lot of technologies, you want to show the world all you’ve done. However, having a long list of core skills actually gives the impression that you know only a little bit about most of those things and that you’re a generalist, not the specialist that the potential client/employer needs. Keep this list to a handful of key skills or possibly eliminate the list altogether.

#2: Don’t list certification exams

At the very least, minimize the impact of a cert list. The average IT pro might want to list exams passed to build up a resume, but for the IT veteran, this actually marginalizes real-world experience and accomplishments.

#3: Quantify projects and results

For example, if you do an Active Directory implementation, specify how many sites, domains, and servers were involved. If you designed an e-commerce system, specify the increased percentage of sales that resulted from the project. Tell the potential client/employer exactly how you helped a previous company you worked for.

#4: Take advantage of bullets

Don’t use paragraph style writing to describe your projects, tasks, and duties. Bullet-point every major accomplishment or project and leave out the minor things. (Your resume is already going to be too big anyway.)

#5: Include examples of work, if possible

For instance, maybe you’ve written articles for an online magazine or built an e-commerce site. Include links to pertinent examples so that potential clients/employers can see firsthand what you do.

#6: Highlight major accomplishments

If you’re a high-tech consultant, you may have a lot of smaller projects and clients. Maybe you were hired as a “grunt” for a couple of short-term assignments but had a major project last year. You can’t exclude the small stuff or potential clients/employers will question what you’ve been doing. But you can minimize the impact by focusing attention on the bigger things. Some ways of doing this include using a slightly larger font, boldface, or italics, or even drawing a thin border around the major accomplishments. But don’t go overboard — subtlety is still key.

#7: Seek advice from actual managers

Recruiters, agents, brokers, and human resource personnel are all different from managers. Managers want to see results, and they usually know how to spot a weak candidate. If managers think your resume reflects someone who can’t do the job, you’ll never get anywhere. Run your resume by some managers you know and have them critique it for you.

#8: Know when to stop

If you list all your experience from all the jobs, contracts, or projects you’ve handled, your resume will be more like a book. Find a place to stop listing your experience. If you feel you must at least acknowledge previous experience, try making a separate section and just bullet-point where you worked and what your title/function was. Of course, you’ll usually want to do this only for the less-accomplished jobs that you don’t want to highlight on your resume.

#9: Make sure your design is simple, attractive, and readable

As with any resume, you should use a clean font such as Times New Roman or Arial. Be consistent in your use of boldface, underline, or italics to help lead the reader through the document and avoid contrived graphical elements.

#10: Edit, revise, and proofread

Experts suggest that a resume should go through three to seven drafts before it begins to reflect the multidimensional individual on a piece of paper. Be grammatically correct, spell-check the document, and have someone else proofread your resume carefully.

• Date: July 24th, 2007
• Author: TechRepublic