Developing a Sys Admin

I have been out on a much too long hiatus. I transitioned from the job I hated to a job that fulfills my short term goals of being lazy. It was a much needed change in scenery.

In the meantime, however, I have not been doing much studying or coding. I read a few books on my “to read” list. I built a new file server and recovered the data spanning the last decade and a half of my life. I also, though, spent a lot of time relaxing. I was too high strung.

I broke one of my rules: “Never rush through the things that matter.” This is a cardinal rule of mine. I got burnt out on programming. That was my problem. I stopped seeing the code and started seeing Everest. Each time I would sit down to read and learn, I could never quite focus long enough. Other things always got in the way.

This is a learning lesson for everyone trying to learn and grow quickly: The older you get, the longer it takes. As with everything, “Adjust for inflation.”

I have not been completely idle, though. Instead of coding, I purchased a Raspberry Pi and have been tinkering with its capabilities. I have come up with a list of projects that I am currently working on. One that, specfically, relates to coding.

My plan is to make a complete network monitor. Speedtests on the hour, ping times, packet loss, DNS testing, “top talkers”, a SNORT IDS, and more. Getting all of this to work on the Pi will be very simple. Most of these tools already exist. The one thing that does not exist is something to tie them all together in one place.

My program idea is to develop an app that connects to all of these services. A full network dashboard running off of 5W of power.

At home, I have a Netgear Nighthawk router. This device does quite a bit of this already, but the GUI is not very refined. The firmware is not very good either. It is okay for most people, but when you’ve been an enterprise admin you just can’t settle for anything less that perfect.

I have made a loose outline for the application, but a good friend of mine says I should just start programming and let everything else grow organically. He is an AGILE developer. Preferring this over the Waterfall methodology. In my case, it definitely makes sense.

I need to have a stable container of an application before I can start feeding it functionality…not the other way around.

Once this project has been completed, I would like to export a good version of the RPi image and make it freely available. I plan to do the same thing with the applicaiton. I will have to worry about compatibility later down the line. Although, I focus on generic android, so the app should work on all nexus and stripped back devices. We will have to see what happens.

One key step in learning how to develop is to choose your language.  This can be damning if you do not spend time researching the application of the language you would like to use.

All languages are not useful in all scenarios.  For instance, when writing for the web, one might use Java, JScript, or PHP.  I doubt anyone would use something like Visual Basic for this application.  Reading further into this idea, what are you wanting to write for the web?  What do you want to be able to do?  Answering basic questions like these will help you determine which language you should use, as well.

From a learning standpoint, whichever language you decide to take on will be the one you spend most of your time on.  For your first language, it might be easier to take on a high level language, rather than a low level language, like C.  You will want something that is as close to human readable text as possible, as it should help you understand syntax, logic, as well as specific nomenclature.

I have chosen to use Java as my language.  I have experience programming in Java with a friend of mine, so I’m already used to some of the ins and outs.  We were working on developing an Android application.  While we never finished the app, I did get to spend a lot of time with the language.  I developed an appreciation for it, and its capabilities.  Sometimes, it seems like the sky is the limit for Java.  It has its set backs, though.

// comments on Java and JScript differences

For anyone new to the Development world, Java is not the same as Java Script.  They are two separate entities.  They are both object oriented languages (OOP), but Java is a programming language, where JScript is a scripting language.  This changes the execution of the target application.

Java runs the program within a virtual machine, whereas JScript runs from within the browser only.  For a bit more information from Oracle, directly, check out this LINK.

// end of comments. Back to Activity.Main

Learning Java has been pretty simple so far.  I have been using the Wikiversity pages mentioned in my previous blog post.  While I have experience programming in Java, my friend was lacking in his explanation of the theory behind Java as well as the differences between things like variable usage.  When I would ask him, “Why would we use that?”  His answer would be, “I don’t know.  You just do.”

Reading through Wikiversity’s info, it has enlightened me more on the usage of various aspects of the language as well as its nuances.  As a supplement to this, practice makes perfect, so I have been writing short programs to test my knowledge of what I am learning.  It is a relatively slow process, learning the ins and outs, but I will probably thank myself later for spending this time now.

In conclusion, choose your language up front but choose wisely.  It may not be a huge burden to change your language later on in your learning process, but it’s a good idea to make wise decisions up front and waste less time.

As always, if anyone reads this blog and finds it entertaining or helpful, please let me know.

Sincerely,

The trick with moving from one industry to another is skill development.  However, there is one skill that you need right out of the gate:  Time Management.

Time Management is very important to one’s success, as it directly correlates to how quickly you will be able to achieve your goals.  The more organized your thought process is, the quicker you can complete said task.

It is important to make sure you set aside time each day, every couple of days, etc., that is earmarked for the development of the skill you’re working on.  This will help ensure your success.  For me, having at least one to three hours each evening is plenty.  I have set aside the tasks I want to complete each night, based on various sources and discussions with a friend that is a programmer.

Creating a Project Plan is not going to be easy for everyone.  It can be difficult to find mentors, subject matter experts, or even online resources.  Yes.  I said it.  In today’s connected world, there is still a chance you cannot find it online.  Blasphemy, right?

So, how does one develop an organized, thoughtful process to obtain a skill that one knows nothing about?  Research.  There are tons of resources available to us via the internet.  YouTube, Wikipedia, forum posts, but they can only get you so far.  As I said, there are subjects and explanations that cannot be found online.  As a result, it’s time to get creative.

Your first task should be to perfect your Google skills.  A successful programmer does not know how to program everything.  More often than not, they merely know where to look for inspiration, and, in some cases, source code published under the GNU GPL.

But I digress.  When it comes to looking up resources, there is a very unlikely suspect that I seldom find anyone referencing.  Begin Googling for images or published versions of college syllabuses (or syllabi)?  These can hold the answers you’re looking for.

For someone who does not know the nomenclature of a particular field, a syllabus is extremely valuable.  It can also give you a very, very clear direction.  Typically, a college class is designed to take you through the motions of what the instructor thinks is the most logical path to understand the subject.  In some cases, though, it can be hard to follow.  Try to find something that works for you.

Step 1 - Decide where you want to end up

Step 2 - Research the topic in great detail

Step 3 - Use that detail to develop an organized project plan

Step 4 - Like Jack Welch of GE said, “...implement like hell.” (http://jonathangifford.com/)

As always, if you find this post entertaining or helpful, please let me know.

Sincerely,

In a world filled with ads, it’s getting more and more difficult to weed through the crap and find anything useful.  Anything useful that’s free, at least.  It seems as though, in this world of $0.99 apps, we are always finding an excuse to spend just that one dollar to make our lives easier.

What happened to the days when we went to the library?  Hmmm?  That was free.  You could check out books, magazines, music, and more!  Today, we hit Google and type something like, “Free programming courses” or “Learn to code for free”.  Whatever the case, staying off of the Play and App Store may benefit all of us.

In my search to submerse myself in coding, I started looking for “Intro” material.  A few years ago, I took an Intro to Programming course in college.  It was mostly basic logic and flowchart programming.  We never really got to the meat and potatoes of programming.  However, that’s to be expected in an Intro class.

A friend of mine suggested Code Academy.  It is a free to use website with courses for various programming languages.  It includes courses for JavaScript, PHP, and Rails.  I signed up and started the JScript course, and it was quite fun to use.

The web page contains an emulator to help you through the various lessons.  The course starts with an Intro to the language, then progresses at your pace to a more in-depth look at the language.

The site is quite satisfying for goal-oriented individuals, like me.  It keeps track of your progress and gives you a completion percentage.  If you’re anything like me, you want to complete everything.  Having the percentage readout makes it that much easier to find the motivation to progress.

I highly recommend this site to anyone looking to learn popular web-based languages.  Signing up is free.  If you complete everything on the site, they also have partnerships with brick-and-mortar schools to further your learning.  http://www.codecademy.com/

The last free tool is geared more towards those that learn by doing and have the time to do so.  For those of us who do not have time because of our 9-5′s family, etc., can read through the “Introduction to Programming” section of WikiVersity.  I stumbled across this gem scouring the internet while at work.  I wanted something to supplement any emulators I might be using with a more theory-based approach to programming.

I was not disappointed with this page.  While reading, various terms and subjects are linked to their various Wikipedia pages.  While there are those who claim that Wikipedia is not credible, they must be referring to what Wikipedia used to be.  It’s much different now than it was 14 years ago.

It is still open source and edited freely by anyone with an account, but article changes require links to relevant data.  Then, editors read over the changes for approval.  I’m not too sure on the overall process, but I do know that Wikipedia is a great place to “get your feet wet” with various topics.  At least it will give you exposure to the topics involved, allowing you to search for relevant material more easily.

Check it out, if you have time over your lunch break.  I will link the page HERE.

To wrap things up, I know that we live in a world of immediate gratification, but there is no hard and fast way of teaching yourself a new skill.  This may comes easier to some than others, but keep plugging away.  I know I will.

As always, if anyone finds this blog helpful, let me know!

Sincerely,