Here i am....taaadaaa...


Yeah, i know nothing really going on lately. Oh wait, not so much. Heres a bit of a recap.

Got declined from the apple job. Ok, shit happens, we move on. So, i had to go full tilt to get ready for the fall semester here at BGSU. While doing that, it was also virus hell week here at BGSU, so i was working some mad hours, during the day rather then my normal night time garbage, since there were no classes to support at night.

The week before classes started, including the saturday and sunday of move in, i worked over 55 hours. I know, it was sick, good thing that i get paid overtime. Do other ITS students get paid overtime? No. Why do i? Beats me. I dont know why they go the extra mile, or sometimes extra 194039472 miles for me to do things for them. Meh, dont fight it wags.

Its funny to see how RCC is viewed not only at ITS but in the rest of the university now that im outside the organization. I always knew that RCC and the whole organization was the butt of alot of jokes around campus, but jesus, this past week/weekend really showed me why. Yes, i used to be in charge of the computer labs there, and i also assisted in alot of the move in operations that first week. I have a really good idea of what went on and how things were run. This weekend was such an eye opener for me. Lets get one thing straight.

I appreciate everything i learned at RCC and where it got me today.

Ok, now that that disclaimer is over with....GODDAMN. As any of you with eyes, a sense of retention and some kind of incoming news feed can attest, there were 4 major virus attacks in the past 10 days. Thats the largest attack on this campus's infrastructure...ever. Since i work in the university main help desk, i get to see first hand how all of these viruses(virii?) effect computers and network usage. When MSBlast(aka lovesan) hit, i spent the whole day getting the union and tech computer labs up and running again. Any virus that is strong enough to bring down over 50% of a universities windows XP machines is something to worry about. Especially a worm that takes NO EFFORT on the user end to spread. After we got that somewhat under control, we got hit with sobig. Then Nachi. Now Dumaru. Now, as move in started, we had only been hit with the first 3. The wed before exam week, we were scrambling at ITS. We were dealing with those viruses, the blackout that hit the whole east coast/midwest and increase in network traffic. Now, the way lovesan works is through a windows vulnerability. Meaning users have to patch the vulnerability with a windows update to fix it. My ex-boss at RCC told my current boss that he "wasnt concerned" with the imminent virus problem on campus and said they were ok to deal with it.

Ha. HOW CAN YOU NOT BE CONCERNED WITH A VIRUS THAT BROUGHT DOWN THE NEW YORK TIMES NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE???? Right there, i was so mad i could spit blood. Think about this....once students moved in, all of their brand new dells that mommy and daddy bought them that they didnt take out of the box since they got them weeks before suddenly connected to the university network..and BAM. Infected. Last count was over 300 infected systems. Thats unheard of. Yes, it could have been worse, but it was insanity to clean up. Last count here at ITS was over 170 virus removal discs handed out for free, god knows how many people shared them. Those were just people who DIDNT report their problem to RCC. Not only that, but the fact that there were viruses all week when RCC was in training and nothing was done about it. Now, i know that its difficult for them to drop training to do that, but i also know(since i made the training outline 3 years ago) that there is considerable downtime in the evening to do things like this. We got so many calls of angry people regarding network connection issues and virus problems that Toby Singer, the head of ITS called Tim King, the head of technology stuff at ResLife(and a former boss of mine before the RCC Reorg of jesus) telling him to get on the ball. I dont know how that came about, but man. The problem was so widespread that little freshman girls who didnt know anything about computers were calling us at ITS afraid to use the RCC connection CD because they thought it would give them the virus. People called us asking for network connection and virus help because they said they werent getting responses from RCC. Something needs to be done over there. Something huge and drastic. I dont know what, but something needs to be done.

I dont want anyone to think im badmouthing RCC. Im not, i was just very suprised to see how this crisis, and yes it was a crisis was dealt with. I spent 4 years of my life there working so hard for them that i couldnt see straight. Am i bitter about how i was treated? Yes. This has nothing to do with that, this has to deal with leadership in a time of crisis. Character shows itself in crisis situations, and from what ive heard, it didnt impress the campus community.

This week ive been working alot and started classes. My last semester, hopefully. After getting the B in phys 202, hopefully i can survive calc. The teacher is a total yatch and assigns over 40 problems of homework a night. It sucks. Other then that, i have a 6-9 mktg class...who needs that? Intro to unix will be fun, 1 credit hour, hopefully learn to do more in the unix terminal in OS X, and then ECT 441. Yes. Dr. Kolla strikes again. Another fun filled semester with him, but he swears(and im not making this up) that this class will be easier, have less homework, no formal lab reports and easier exams. Well see about that.

Other then that, been playing alot of star wars galaxies, madden 04 and trying to stay personally sane, which has been more then a chore lately. Im looking forward to a weekend of nothing. Preseason football is over, bears were 1-3, doesnt show much, but i was happy with how the 1st string offense looked, should be a good season for them...JUST NEED TO STAY HEALTHY.

Well, hopefully ill start to post a bit more, and put a chatterbox or tag board back up. But well see about that ;-)

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Positive: One semester to go before im out of this place...
Negative: One semester to go before im out of this place...
Quote: None...too many to write down.
Song of the day: Dave Matthews - Save Me
Cool Mac Moment: Using the panther dev preview on my machines. Buggy, but still cool.
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