Rokey Dokey

May 01 2009 ∞

CCIE Bootcamp

I meant to write this up way sooner, but hey better late than never!

I’ve learned a couple things this past week, foremost being: I have a LOT to go before I’ll be ready for the lab.

Which was really crushing, because I thought I was a lot further along. However on an extremely difficult lab, I did just as well (or more correctly just as poorly) as several other people in the class; people who already have their R&S CCIE.

I also realized that the way I’ve been studying isn’t helping me get ready for the real deal… doing a full 8 hour lab in chunks is more convenient and easier to fit into work/home life, it also takes out the stress/exhaustion of a full 8 hour lab; this is not a good way to go.

Time management ties right into that and is something I really should have seen coming. I’ve always known that I have very poor time management. I guess I’ve known but never really understood how easily I can get pulled into a problem, totally loose focus and just spiral down, trying things over and over but never getting anywhere.

In the bootcamp Brian talked about how he approached time management. He would create a small table with each of the hours from lab start to end down the left side, and then as he completed tasks he would write their point value in the row for that hour. At the end of the hour he would tally them up and put that in a column on the far right. Since the lab is 8 hours, and you need 80 points to pass you need to maintain an average of at least 10 points an hour. Realistically you need to get more like 12-16 so that there is a reasonable amount of time at the end to do a couple of things.

First review any tasks I wasn’t 100% sure on (marked as I go in my task list). Second, run through the reach ability tests that are mentioned throughout the lab (VPN_B sites can talk to each other etc). And third to read through the whole lab again and make sure I didn’t miss something or interpret things wrong.

I’m definitely going use his time tracking method; however I think I need more extreme prodding to maintain forward momentum, I’m just not sure how to do that. I had thought of a vibrating watch however from the people that I’ve talked to they make you take off your watch. :( Damn flash-drive-having-watches!

As much as I would have liked to do a lot better, I learned a bunch both technology wise as well as how to approach a full 8 hour lab.

While there were a couple false starts regarding the scheduling of the class I would highly recommend Internetwork Experts products to anyone presuming their CCIE.

Apr 21 2009 ∞

SP Lab Bootcamp

So last week I attended a Internetwork Expert bootcamp for the Service Provider CCIE lab. It was an online class which was a new experience for me as far as live interactive situations. The online delivery worked well I think, and overall the class was great and pointed out a lot of things that not only am I weak in technology wise but also ways I can improve/focus my method of approaching the lab.

I’m still trying to collect my thoughts as well as get caught up with work after being offline for a whole week, but I’ll have stuff on my impression of the class and my thoughts on lessions I learned.

Mar 20 2009 ∞
It seems like a trivial thing, however he raises a really good point. Turns out our minds treat numbers differently based on the size of the number itself, and tend to not take into account unit. NYTimes article that talks about a paper on this very topic (link to the paper is there as well).

It seems like a trivial thing, however he raises a really good point. Turns out our minds treat numbers differently based on the size of the number itself, and tend to not take into account unit.

NYTimes article that talks about a paper on this very topic (link to the paper is there as well).

Mar 06 2009 ∞
Yes… quite.

Yes… quite.

Feb 20 2009 ∞

Kindle 2 thoughts

Geoffrey Kleinman - examiner.com:

As I thought about carrying around a device that holds several thousand books, I really thought about my reading experience. With music I love being able to switch between thousands of albums at a click of a button. Music is whimsical - at one moment I may be in the mood for one song and then for another. Books on the other hand aren’t. I’m extremely ‘loyal’ when it comes to a book. I pick up a book and read it cover to cover. I don’t start up other books, leave one half read while I start another. So what’s the real benefit of carrying around so many books?

As a geek and gadget lover I really want to justify the Kindle 2, especially now that it’s not so fugly. However Geoffrey’s comments about the predominantly serial nature of most people reading habits got me thinking.

My own reading for entertainment certainly fits his model of not putting one book down before starting the next. However as I’ve cut out all casual reading while I’m focusing on studying for my CCIE lab, my reading has gotten much less serial.

At any one time I could possibly want to look something up or read from any one of about 4 large (600+ page) Cisco Press books plus one or two other reference books. These are all hardcover tomes which pretty much excludes carrying more than two in any reasonable bag - laptop or an additional dedicated “study” bag I’ve taken to toting around - an unappealing thought.

In addition to the physical books that could be eliminated (lets ignore the fact that they would have to be repurchased to get them on the Kindle), I read a very large amount of technical reference material obtained via PDFs. The Kindle doesn’t have any native PDF support, but can convert them which is a somewhat experimental feature it seems.

However just how good is that, can it handle diagrams in PDFs, or standard text formatting etc?

And what about eye strain? Part of my lust of the Kindle is how much I dislike reading things on my laptop. Yes I have it with me most of the time I could be using a kindle, and it supports any and all formats I could run across with ease; but I really dislike reading things on it.

Especially reference material where I might be actively using my laptop and looking to read some kind of document (thinking LAB material here: I’ve printed out pages and pages of things to put in a binder). Flipping back and forth on one screen does nothing to reduce my already ADD proclivity to loose focus.

I also seem to comprehend things better when reading them in printed form vs. computer; which camp would the kindle fall in?

Kindle Pro’s:

  • Light no matter how many books
  • Ease of access to new material
  • Totally cool toy
  • Cheaper books vs. print copies

Kindle Con’s:

  • Price $350 is a bit much — though the argument could be made that this is offset by the savings in ebooks
  • Not as durable as books — though the drop tests on Amazon’s site are impressive

Kindle Unknowns:

  • Eye fatigue — exactly how much easier on the eyes is the eInk screen vs an LCD?
  • How good is search/bookmarking facility — can it over come the page turn speed?
  • How good is PDF importing?
  • General user experience
  • Reading comprehension on par with paper?

My biggest problem is how do I investigate the unknowns? I don’t know anyone that is getting a Kindle 2, nor any place where I could get my hands on one to play with for a little bit. I wonder what Amazon’s return policy is……

Feb 19 2009 ∞
paulgiacherio: danielha: (Btw, correct answer is B. There is no debate.) My wife brought this up during a speech she gave at her brother’s wedding - point being, marriages are built on love, trust, and getting the toilet paper right. Daniel is right, B is the only path to wedded bliss. While I’ll completely agree that B is the only possible answer on a matter of principle, what people are clearly not thinking about is the child factor. Starting when they can readily walk around on their own; all kids, boy or girl love to plant their little hand on the roll and spin it downward unleashing a cascade of paper down to the floor. Our house has definitely benefited from a switch to method A, now that we have a toddler roaming free.

paulgiacherio:

danielha:

(Btw, correct answer is B. There is no debate.)

My wife brought this up during a speech she gave at her brother’s wedding - point being, marriages are built on love, trust, and getting the toilet paper right. Daniel is right, B is the only path to wedded bliss.

While I’ll completely agree that B is the only possible answer on a matter of principle, what people are clearly not thinking about is the child factor. Starting when they can readily walk around on their own; all kids, boy or girl love to plant their little hand on the roll and spin it downward unleashing a cascade of paper down to the floor.

Our house has definitely benefited from a switch to method A, now that we have a toddler roaming free.

Feb 16 2009 ∞
danmeth: My Trilogy MeterI know other movie geeks are going to have disagreements and that’s fine. And yes, I know some of these movies went more than 3 sequels, but none were ever meant to. These are rated purely on my enjoyment level on each film and nothing else. Frankly I’m surprised by how many sequels were better than the original. And I’m not surprised that the 3rd movie is never the best.

danmeth:

My Trilogy Meter
I know other movie geeks are going to have disagreements and that’s fine. And yes, I know some of these movies went more than 3 sequels, but none were ever meant to.

These are rated purely on my enjoyment level on each film and nothing else. Frankly I’m surprised by how many sequels were better than the original. And I’m not surprised that the 3rd movie is never the best.

Feb 12 2009 ∞

Hi Everybody!

I so I’m a almost 30 father, husband, and geek; I’ll be posting about all of those things here.

Regarding the geek portion of my life… I’m hoping that writing here and having some structure slash public accountability will help me with my CCIE lab studies. Or that’s what I’m telling myself.

Thank you and good night!

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