Lawrence Young

It has been a long while since I have posted on here, but I think it will be interesting to see whether I have achieved the goals I set out for. Before completing my Network Engineering classes, my teacher recommended me for a job, and, of all places, at Northern Oklahoma College, the exact same position I had interviewed for and gotten turned down for before I started this journey! I took it and continued my schooling while working at NOC as an IT Technician. It was a very good learning experience and I got experience running cables, configuring equipment, and much more. Unfortunately, it would never be a full-time position. After completing school my teacher called me back in and said she had another job I might be interested in, at Groendyke Transport, the 5th largest bulk trucking company in the US as a Technical Support Specialist. I jumped on it. The experience here was invaluable, as I got to configure Cisco equipment for a large MPLS rollout we did for our 32 terminals around the country. A lot of traveling. I dove into the job and learned everything I could, but soon found myself becoming interested in the business itself and when a promotion in the Operations department came open I applied and got it. I am now in charge of the companies 800 pool trailers and also am heavily involved in the technology that runs the business, such as our peoplenet telematics. My position is Dispatcher Technology and System Trailer Asset Coordinator. What a long strange trip it has been. More to come….

I passed my ICND1 today and I am thrilled. For those who are contemplating this exam path, I hope to give some useful advice that may help you prepare and take the exam. First off, it is not an easy test. I went in completely confident in my knowledge and by the first few questions I realized it was much more difficult than I had anticipated. It is easy to see why Cisco certifications are an industry standard. You have too know your stuff inside and out. For every three moderately easy questions, there will be one that wrings every last ounce of knowledge out of you. Secondly, half of the battle is knowing how to take an exam. Time management, focus, the process of elimination, prioritizing: these are critical skills in any exam, but even more so on a Cisco test. The limited amount of time is a killer. If requires you to recognize the questions you are completely sure of and answer those without hesitation so you will have more time for those questions that cause you to really think about it.

I will give more tips soon, but in the meantime, remember to take three deep breathes, use the restroom beforehand, and just relax.

I love to do crossword puzzles to exercise my brain, so I’ve added a crossword puzzle page to this web site. Let me know what you think!

Learning the format that computers and technology equipment communicate in is an essential part of any IT field. You really must have a firm grasp of it to get those sought after certifications, such as the CCNA or Cisco Certified Network Associate. I am going to explain how this communication works and hopefully you will continue your studies with some of the links I will post at the end of this article.
Computers do not speak in English or any other language you can think of. They only translate their language into ours so we can readily understand what they are saying. To them, our manner of communication is unimportant and not very efficient. Computers speak in binary, and more specifically in bits and bytes. Take this IP Address for an example:

192.168.0.1

This is dotted decimal notation and it is understandable to us, because this is a format we readily understand and use on a daily basis. Let’s look at what the computer actually is saying:

11000000.10100000.00000000.00000001

Now that is hard on the eyes! Converting from these two formats is essential to IT work though, and it’s really not as hard as it would seem.
Computers only understand on or off, where 1 represents on and 0 represents off. So you can see in the first octet,

1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
on on off off off off off off

But how do we get 192 out of this?

Computers spit data out in bytes, which is essentially just eight bits or eight on or off signals. A single byte is a character or a number in this case. Each position in the byte has a corresponding value. These values are given in the table below:

128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to see that if a bit is on in the byte, then that value is added to all of the other bits that are on. Values of off count as zero. So if we take our example of 192 we see that:

1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

So, the two bits that are on are added up: 128 + 64 = 192. I will leave the rest of the IP, .168.0.1, for you to try.

Leave a comment if you have any questions. Here are some links to help you with your understanding of binary:

Learning Binary
Binary in 60 seconds
Learning Binary and Hexadecimal

Well, as week four wound down, we have today off because of snowfall. It gives me a little time to reflect on where I am now and where I would like to be in a years time. Of course, putting everything on hold to attend this Network Administration course has been difficult. Yet, I feel a resolve to complete this life course. A year is not so long, and I hope for good things at the end of it. I am hopeful that our economy will be in better shape, because the local job market for network technicians is not very great. If the situation is not improved by then, we will possibly consider moving to a different state. This would be difficult, but in keeping with my always wanting to try something new every year. Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Illinois are in my list of places to be.
Well, no rest for the wicked, back to studying!

well, I am going to end my second week of Network Administration classes today. Information Technology is only going to grow in the years to come and coupled with my love for computers it seems the perfect fit. This semester I am taking CCNA 1 & 2, Windows Server 2003 & Vista. I will pursue the applicable certifications after each class is done and hope to be in an IT job by the beginning of 2011. I will be posting at the end of each week to track my progress towards this goal.

Well, I have decided to try to go back to work for the City of Enid. If that doesn’t work, I am enrolled in a Network Administration class for 2010. My other goals for the year are making progress in my vending machine operations, expanding my real estate portfolio, and establishing a side computer repair business. It’s gonna be a busy and productive New York. More developments as they develop.

Well, the job I was anticipating at Northern Oklahoma College is apparently not going to materialize. The gentleman who interviewed me last week told me he would call Wednesday, but no call came. I am definately dissapointed by this, as I really do like the staff at NOC. I will keep on keeping on though.

On my way to my ultimate goal of financial independence I have found alot of little ways to save money. I will share some here. Read the rest of this entry »

Please note this article is from Early Retirement Extreme.

Being poor or unable to get credit 100% of the expenses must be covered with wage income. Schematically the cash flow looks like this

Thus you put your time into your work which gives you a wage income that is used to pay for stuff that goes back to you.People with a credit score can go into debt. Today almost anyone can do this. In this case debt can be use to pay for stuff and the wage can be used to pay for debt such as credit cards, car loans, mortgages, student loans, etc. This is the way most people handle their personal finance. Very few people pay cash anymore and financial success depends on being good at handling debt. Many websites will tell you how to do that.

You will notice that the debt box has a small leak of money that goes to other people. This is the price you pay for debt.

Investors don’t pay other people to use money. They are the other people. If you want to be an investor, you need to build income generating assets. Investing is mainly about escaping the need for a wage income. Initially though other people will not be paying you enough money to cover all your stuff, so your cash flow will look something like this. Read the rest of this entry »