Home
May. 9th, 2006 @ 03:49 pm To all...
Listening to: Lasgo - All Night Long [Radio Edit]
I thought a brief note was in order here.

I realize I told many of you that I would be able to be online a lot more now that I'm not working. That's still true, however I seem to require decompression before I fully return to my normal online presence. Please keep in mind that I WILL be online a lot more, I just need a week or so to let all the stress roll off my stack, much like happened when I first moved out from my parents' domain.

You may or may not see me online much this week. Likely I'll be on when I feel like I need the energy. But I will be around again...very soon.


Monday   1900-2150   CIS 100   Introduction to Computer Information Systems (lab assistant)
Tuesday  1811-2150   CIS 291   Networking Theory & Applications
Thursday 1000-1250   THEA 101  Introduction to Theatre I
<online>             LIBT 145  Internet Information Retrieval



Went out to get the textbook for tonight's course at the bookstore today. Ha, found out that my instructor only just decided on what book to use, because he only ordered it six days ago, on the 3rd. Not a chance in hell of them being in yet. :) But I found out the title--Linux TCP/IP Administration...I forget the rest. I hadn't thought we'd be going into the darkness so soon, but that's okay. *raises shields* I'm going in with full field support this time. And while I may have naturalized denizens of the darkness along for the ride (aka. actual Linux power users), I'm sure there'll also be those who are as lost or even more so than I am. Balance everywhere.

Anyways, then I went over to BCAA to get my car insurance changed. While my new and upgraded license doesn't change my rates, the fact that I'm no longer making a daily trip to Burnaby and back does. I've never SEEN so many old people in to change their insurance! Seriously, I was the only person under 30 in there, and there was only one other person in there who was under 50. Out of another 20 people all trying to querulously get their car insurance sorted out. And not a few trying to get themselves some 3 million dollars in health insurance for their trip to some sunny destination or some such.

And the lady who changed my insurance for me didn't know what she was doing, either. *grunts* Was going to charge me $12 dollars, trying to explain that it covered the change up to today. I was rather surprised, seeing as I was REDUCING coverage, not increasing it, so why should I have to pay more money? We haggled about that for three minutes, before she looked at her screen, tapped a few buttons, and then said it was all OK, I didn't have to pay anything right now, because it would all go on my monthly payments. I checked the printout afterwards, and indeed I was REFUNDED $12, not CHARGED $12. All the old people's confusion must have been contagious.

After that, I went by Future Shop and picked up a 512MB USB flash drive. UCFV has upgraded, you see, and you are no longer supposed to hand in assignments on a floppy disk. You're supposed to use a flash drive. They carry them at the bookstore--$29.99 for 128MB, $39.99 for 256MB, $59.99 for 512MB--but I went to Future Shop because they had a sale/rebate combination that meant I could get a 512MB stick for $29.99. Four times the capacity, same price...yeah, I'll go for that, thanks. Stopped by the Post Office to send off the rebate form, so that's done too.

Came home and set to work on my USB flash drive. I didn't know that you can't use them like a real drive. *peevishly* You can't repartition the damn thing! *grunts* Still, I kept it as a FAT partition so I can access it in DOS if I have to. I was going to use TrueCrypt to encrypt/hide the second partition, but since I couldn't do that, I just set it up in a file container instead.

And that's the story! Off to class tonight in my favorite lab, and we'll see how our first plunge into the depths of darkness goes!
Entry Data
CHILDHOOD
Transmit backfeed
Hyperanchor

Add to Memories
Tell a Friend
[User Picture Icon]
From:[info]altivo
Date: May 10th, 2006 12:04 am (UTC)
(Hyperanchor)
I hadn't thought we'd be going into the darkness so soon
Aw, sweetie, it's not THAT dark. TCP/IP is the same no matter whether you're on Windows, Amiga, Macintrash, UNIX, or an IBM mainframe. Addressing, DNS, routing, filtering, firewalls. The same stuff. Actually, in Linux/UNIX it's often easier to see all at once what the configuration is because it lives in text files that you can print off and even edit. What a concept. See your whole route table at once instead of poking at it one line at a time with a mouse? Who'da thunk it? ;P

Anyway, "net route", "ipconfig", "tracert", "netstat" and other Windows commands are actually stolen from UNIX. So there's hardly any difference other than some better spelling ("traceroute" for instance.) Should be easy enough for you, and whatever you learn is applicable to any operating system, not just 'NIX.

That said, of course, ask me if you think I can help explain something. I'll be happy to help.

Now, flash drives. Some at least can be partitioned, encrypted, compressed, and otherwise treated as normal rotating disk drives. I thought they all could. You may need special utilities to set them up that way, though. Mine came with a CD full of special stuff for Windows 98, including such functions as that, but the instructions said the with Windows XP you didn't need any extra software. Likewise, Linux seems perfectly happy to treat it just as any other hardware drive. I vaguely recall something in the directions about partitioning and encryption, though. It may have said that not all environments will recognize them? It all depends of course on what the OS loads for a driver when the USB connection comes live. My Linux announces that it is a SCSI disk drive, and treats it as such, even though the device ID it displays is clearly "flash memory device". I'd check the manufacturer's web site for more information on that.
(Talkback) (Thread)
[User Picture Icon]
From:[info]corelog
Date: May 10th, 2006 12:17 am (UTC)
(Hyperanchor)
The darkness is Linux, not TCP/IP. :) I'm reasonably familiar with TCP/IP, and certainly from my work with configuring Cisco routers, I'm used to text configuration for the protocols. I am, however, not conversant in Linux, and having been defeated twice by the thing, I take my next expedition with much more caution, trepidation, and determination. It'll not destroy me again; rather the reverse.

As for flash drives. I checked the manufacturer's website, and they say you can't do it. This is supported by Microsoft--apparently XP will not repartition flash drives, and will not even natively recognize more than the first partition if such exists. Any such partitioning has to be done by specialist software provided by the manufacturer, and Kingston doesn't do that. I looked at other tools, but they are all configured to work only on that specific vendor and model for which they are designed.

XP doesn't need any software to recognize the drive, but it won't let you partition it. Format it, yes. Anything else...bupkis. That special manufacturer's software is what lets you partition/encrypt stuff. In Windows, it's called a "USB Mass Storage Device", so it doesn't use IDE or SCSI buses. Technically my big external drive is also a UMSD when connected by USB, but Windows treats it differently because it recognizes the actual drive over the bus, as I understand it. It also shows up as a fixed disk, not a removable disk.
(Talkback) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture Icon]
From:[info]altivo
Date: May 10th, 2006 01:22 am (UTC)
(Hyperanchor)
Naw, Linux is not darkness. I think your problems with it mostly came from not realizing how different it is from Windows. The whole philosophy and design turns Windows upside down. It's a completely opposite approach to almost everything.

My first trip into UNIX-land, back in 1990, gave me the same sort of fits. Once I understood that I was in totally alien land and should forget Microsoft entirely, I was fine.

I'll bet Linux can partition your flash drive, using only the native software. And I'll bet the partitioned drive can be properly read by not just Linux, but by several other OSes, because Linux follows standards where MS does not. If XP can only read the first partition, and your goal was to have a partition that will be invisible to others, that may have some advantage. :) You just need to get Linux running at home so you can retrieve what you put there.

On the other hand, smaller flash drives, like 128M or 256M, are being dumped at low prices now. I've seen 128s for under $10 US. So you could just get a second one for your more private stuff...
(Talkback) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture Icon]
From:[info]hgryphon
Date: May 10th, 2006 02:02 am (UTC)
(Hyperanchor)
*nibbles on your fur*
(Talkback) (Thread)