Category: General

Some Good reads that I’ve been reading / Listening

Paul

*affiliate links :  all links in this page are affiliate links to Audible or to Amazon to allow you to easily find the books that I recommend on here.   I get a small commission for each time you buy a book when you click on my links.  Thank you for supporting my website.*

 

This is a continuation of the previous post that I did about what books on audible that I have been reading lately.  I thought I would share them with you in hopes that you might like these too.

Silver Ships Series


If you are like me and love to read some good novels that are well written, this is one of those that you should check out.  It all starts out with a young Alex Racine, an explorer-tug captain saves a lonely damaged silver ship.   This is just the beginning of the journey you will take in this series.   There’s comedy and gold nuggets of hints that show you where the author is going in this series.   The author takes you on a very interesting journey, and even then it is a masterpiece to begin with.   I started with Book 1 on Audible and already I’m now onto Book 12 on this 20 book series.  This is one of the most interesting books that have kept my attention in what would be an ongoing listening on audible.  You could can listen to several of the early books from Audible for free, you will however have to buy book 1 but there are like 7 books that are free, Book 2, book 3, Book 4, and Book 6 through Book 9.   Which is why I started listening to this series because one way I could binge my cravings for a Good Science Fiction book.   This is one of those that you must have in order to understand how good the author was at writing this series.   Truly the best series I’ve seen in a long time.

Time War last Forever Series

This is a 6 book series that I just loved because it was so compelling for the user to keep their attention on a good book.  I loved this book because of the space battles and how the aliens use time energy.   It was a great concept for me to think about how you could harness time and use it for your own purposes.   It’s one of the more interesting space fighting ideas.   The cast and crew of this series also keeps you from getting bored because they come up with some unique places in time.   It’s almost like a Doctor Who series because of how they use time to go forward or back in time.

Bobiverse Series

How Many Bob’s can there be?  That’s the real question, we may never really know but we find that after a while there are a lot more personalities that you would of expected.   Dennis Taylor, does a great storyline, it even has Star Wars and Star Trek references that you may or may not get.   I liked this series due to the understanding of what it would be like to be a BOB and how would people be able to do that in the future.   So many aspects of this book were really good and I thought it was high time to talk about these.  Ray Porter, the narrator does a good job at keep it interesting and makes you want to follow the journey.  It was one of those little books that made you smile as you did your daily activities.    It isn’t the best but it is one of those that kept you coming back to find out what happens next.   It’s a 4 book series and as such was nice to have but if you want something more than look at the other suggestions I have talked about this one went really quickly and left you wanting more.

I’ll have more later on but if you know of any good books that I should listen to on Audible, Let me know and I’ll check them out.  Have a good Wednesday.

It might be time to change your ethernet cords!

Paul1 Reply

Ethernet cords 101

Why would you need to change your ethernet cords?  You’re probably asking that because you’ve been using the ones in your hose for years without a problem.  This can seem quite different if you really consider the process of the network cords you have now.   Older houses are probably only using Cat5 or Cat5e cables.  The newer ones probably cat 6 but did you know there are more than that.  We’ve got Cat 1 ,2, 3 ,4, 5, 5e, 6, 6a,7,7a,8.  Each one of these is a much faster and more productive than the next.  Here’s a graphic to show you what I mean:

Those ethernet cables

Most of the time, those old ethernet cables are slowing you down.   If you are going to install ethernet cables into your house infrastructure you really should install the highest possible cat cable you can into your house.  This isn’t going to be  cheap but it will at least help with speed and it will also make it more useable in the future.  You might only have speeds of 10000mps down or up.  If you decide later on you want more speed you could easily upgrade your fiber speeds and be able to use the speeds without having to redo your ethernet cables in your house.  Gaming on ethernet cables would make it so much faster and less lag on the network than if you didn’t have those faster cables.

Network speeds to your Modem

If you don’t upgrade the cables from your modem to router if you have one of those then you will not be increasing the speeds of the network.  You’ll be bottlenecking all the speeds because of the cables you are using to the router to the modem.  You should consider buying a small cat8 cable and installing that into your router and connecting it to the modem.  This way the speeds will not be bottlenecked.  Also if you choice to use the highest speeds possible then will will allow you to get the most bandwidth from your ISP provider.  If you really do want the fast speeds possible, consider buying your modem and stop renting  your modem from the ISP.  This will help you in the future because the speed of the modem can be increased as the speed from the ISP.  ISP might be using some kind of throttling software in their modems to make it much slower for you for bandwidth.  This might be used or might not be used it just depends on the ISP.

Finally as you can see if you are like me, I use network cables in my house due to the saturation of the WIFI networks in my area.  This way I can get the most out of my ISP and not depend so much on my WIFI.  It can help with me to not have network interference from other WIFI broadcasting equipment.  I recently bought Cat 7 cables to help with my speeds on my modem since I can get 10gbps down and 5gbps down.  Which makes me having faster downloads and faster network speeds.   Don’t forget to check your cables from time to time for wear and tear and replace them from time to time.

I am Looking for a Job — Anyone Hiring?

Paul

Job searching isn’t easy

Let’s face it, the job market is saturated with people who are looking for a job and maybe even looking for the same job you are trying to find.  So I thought I’d try a different approach and tell people I am looking for a job.  Yes that is right, I am not going to just apply for any job on sites such as Indeed, Dice, and Monster.   I am going to go about it a little bit different, although I am applying like everyone else.  I thought it would help me if I did it this way also.  So here it is what type of job am I looking to do.  The easy answer is to get back into the Technical Support Specialist role or an Help Desk Support Role because I love to help customers with their problems.  I also have experience with that due to my home business.   The probably with this is that it just seems like everyone is overlooking me for better candidates and I am not sure how to stand out.    So how do you stand out and make them want to interview you?  That’s the real challenge and it just seems to be something I haven’t quite gotten right.

Education has been great

I’ve went back to college this year to get my Certifications in A+ and TestOut PC pro certification,  which is just saying I understand how a computer works and how to solve basic computer problems.  It isn’t really that hard because you have to have problem solving skills.  It seems that I have that also.  I love to problem solve and try new ways to fix a problem.  It seems I grew this skill with my blog.

Some of the course I’ve done this year to get me back into the Technology Field are:

  • Linux and Virtualization Classes
  • Enterprise Computer Classes (Using Active Directory)
  • Introduction into Cyber Security (InfoSec and how to defend against it in a corporate environment)
  • Networking 101 (Worked with Cisco Routers and Shell scripting)
  • IT Support and Helpdesk Software Support (Ticketing system like Spiceworks)

Will I be willing to Relocate?

The quick answer is not unless it is close to Indiana. I say that because I have kids who still want to be able to visit me and I want to be able to travel back and see them.  So I am looking for a job that around the Indiana area like Kentucky, Illinois, and maybe Missouri states but I might be will to move farther if the price is right.  If I can find a remote job that will work for me also but until then I am going to keep looking for a job and applying for jobs.  If you know of a job that I might like please feel to use the contact form down below and let me know.  I sure do appreciate it for those who might want to help out.

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Thank you for your response. ✨

It’s not a Bug but a feature : The Print Nightmare and Microsoft

Paul

It's Not a Bug but a Feature Comic

The Benefits of a central print server

It can be challenging to have a CPS(Central Print Server Infrastructure) due to a lot of demanding things.  This is the nature of allowing users to print to one location can bring on so many problems with how the IT people deal with it can seem almost impossible to some and down right chaos to others. After all, we have to deal with printing issues from time to time and even the unexpected problems that might arise.  For instance just in September, Microsoft released an update to the Print spooler and point to print features to cut off access to a zero day vulnerability called “Print Nightmare”.  Microsoft has stated in the past this was always a feature and not a bug, but I am sure that people may think this shouldn’t of been a feature to begin with.  Even then, you still have issues with having to fix the issues that Microsoft broke in the updates that are supposed to fix those other issues.   The Cost alone of productive might be hindered by the fact that workers can’t print what they need to print or have access to scan the papers they might need to scan to email or to use in production.

IT support

It will cause challenges to the IT support because it might not be as easily seen as you might expect with the current climate of people working from home or remote support.   After all, you don’t have any way to physically touch the printer or to examine the printer in details to know if it is a software or hardware issue.   This can be an issue on itself because some printing issues are both hardware and software in the same light.   One might look like a software issue but later find out it is a hardware issue because the manufacturer has determine the EOL(End of Life support) for that hardware.   In the end the printing to a centralized printer can have some good and bad benefits to all.

Acceptance of Printing

Even the accepting that you can not print can even be a challenge for the office staff.  There will be days you can’t print and there will be days you can print.   The office team will have to have ways to get around those challenges day by day.   They may eve have to come up with backup plans in case they may need to print something that day and we have issues just like this.  Although those are probably few and far between due to the how we are more dependent on email now a day.  It however isn’t something we should over look because of just how much people may need to use a printer.   There will always be a need for paper backups and there will always be a need to snail mail a form.  These are the challenges they will always face and we must accept that we will be there to fix their issues when the need arises.   Do you agree or Disagree?

How I passed my A+ Certification

Paul
Photo by Valentine Tanasovich from Pexels

How did I pass my Core 1 and Core 2?

If you haven’t read about my journey in to getting my A+ certification then you really should go back and read from the beginning. It all started in Sept and it took me a Month to get it. After the first failure, I thought to myself will I even be able to get a good grade on my Core 2? That was the really a good question in my mind. Could I get a passing grade in the Core 2, or would I fail that one also. I did some preparing for Core 2 and that seemed to help. I was sure I was going to fail but I went to take my Core 2 even though I failed my Core 1. You can take Core 2 even if you fail your core 1, I found that helpful to know that you didn’t have to pass the tests in order to get your certification.   It can be quite frustrating to get worry about getting the exam done and getting the certification.   I am sure I am not the only one who had this stress.

So How did You pass the 2 time around with Core 1?

I’ll tell you what I did but I knew I didn’t have to study as much as most because I’ve been doing computer repair for years and I understand some basic concepts well before I even took the CompTIA Tests.   I knew about it due to my life long experience about 10 to 20 years and that is just the beginning on how I didn’t expect to fail the first time around.   The other part depends on your first score was it really low or did you just barely miss the 675 or 700 points needed to pass?   My first score for Core 1 was just shy with 37 points needed to get a passing on the core 1.  You can pretty much do the math but it was 638 was my first score.   So I knew I only had to study  a little bit those with lower scores will probably need to study even more. You can go back and find out how I prepared for the Core 2 but I wanted to pass my core 1 test for sure so I went into depth even more just to be sure.   Here’s how I prepared to take the Core 1:

Even though this is very little I did differently, it obviously did help with my grade as I went up by almost a 100 points after take the Core 1.   If you really need to get your score this is definitely a good step to do to get your points you need to get your certification.   I know this isn’t going to be for everyone but I did learn a thing or two.  Know how you learn is how you get the good grades and this is the first step at getting grades you want in college and even in exams.   I can’t emphasize this as much as I should because people just don’t understand that their way of learning is far different than those that learn a different way.

How did you pass your Core tests?

I’d really love to know how others have passed their core tests.  Why not leave a comment and tell me what you did to help others to get the grades they need to get their certifications.  I am finally certified in A+ and that is a big accomplishment for me.   I worked really hard at it and now I have something to show to employers who might require that to get a job.

Have a good Tuesday everyone.