Lifergeek.com

Hey everyone,

My name is Pete.  My interests are varied and specific all at the same time.  They range from Computers, Networking, Cars, Sci-Fi movies, Sci-Fi TV Shows, Music, Videography, Photography, and well anything else that needs MORE POWER.

In a few words I would best describe myself as “A jack of all trades, and a master of some.” I have done jobs from video rental retail, steamfitter (commercial fire sprinklers) apprentice, senior repair tech, warehouse logistics manager, to an IT systems integration engineer.

I have been into electronics and computers since the commodore 64 was the hot thing.  I have been taking PC’s apart and putting them together for about 18 years now.  Over the years I have worked in the IT field for tech repair shops, data centers, and currently for an IT systems integration company.  With a company like the one I work for I was able to start out in the cabling department.  I learned the industry cable color codes (or here) and how to properly terminate everything from a 1 pair cross connect to a 300pair feed run.  After that department I went into the PBX /VOIP phone department.  There I was able to learn the inner workings of a few major phone systems. This included Inter-Tel, Mitel, NEC, and of course Cisco.  My next and current step in the company is the IT department. My core role in the IT Team has evolved from a general tech, into a more well rounded tech with having a few specializations.  These specializations are a VMware practice manager, disaster recovery specialist, storage specialist (NetApp as a core vendor), backup and recovery specialist (Symantec focused), and finally IT systems integration engineer.

Well enough about the tech stuff. I will do my best to get my 2c about new tech and stuff that is coming out when I can, but about 7 weeks ago I have the first addition to my family. This makes writing tech articles a bit lower on “the list”.  I am sure that anyone with kids, or younger cousins, or siblings can understand.   This first article was solely typed out on my work blackberry (except the insert of the HTML links) on the train to and from the city when I wasn’t passed out sleeping.

I hope to be writing an article on virtualization, including server and workstation environments.  Any comments, questions, or suggestions for topics please you can e-mail me here pete at lifergeek dot com.

Best Regards,

Pete

Not many people have the hardware or networking knowledge I have and still setting up a traditional VPN can be difficult.  A side project at home was to link my home network to two of my friends.  Admirable but it proved to be a tedious task.

Enter Hamachi.  Reading up on this gem reminded me I had seen it mentioned before on Lifehacker.  It looked interesting but never tried it.  Today is different.  Here I’ll show you how to link PCs (Windows, Linux and Mac supported) with Hamachi and give you a few ideas on what you can use it for.

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“And here they come rounding the final bend.  On The Back Of Natal Still has a huge lead, but look!  Here comes PSP-a-Go-Go coming on strong!  Can she catch Natal, it’s neck and neck, the jockeys are giving it all they got.  They cross the line, it’s a photo finish!”

Well e3 has finally come to a close, and i think it is safe to say no new news is going to be coming out from e3.  Let me get right to the review for Sony’s conference so we can get to see who won.

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“And here they come now rounding the first bend approaching the half-mile marker, On The Back Of Natal still running strong, and Nintendo’s Vitality’s Run is trying to make a push.  Can Vitality’s Run get ahead of the strong lead set by the front runner.  Wait a second, something seems wrong, it looks like Vitality’s Run has broken a leg, no strike that, all 4 legs.  Looks like she will get trampled by Sony’s PSP-a-Go-Go.  Can PSP-a-Go-Go do what Vitality’s Run could not, can she over take On The Back Of Natal?”

So out comes Nintendo and practically trips over their own feet.  Clocking in at only a little over 1 hour long, the media briefing showed exactly Microsoft’s “showing not telling” mentality worked.  The entire thing reminded me of a conference where they were announcing big new consoles, except the were practically the same videos for the previous consoles.  Let’s check my details as I get to the point in the same fashion they did, quick simple and boring.

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“Welcome one and all to the e3 derby!  The horses are lining up in the gate. AND THEIR OFF!  Coming out of the gate strong is the microsoft owned horse, OnThe Back Of Natal. Meanwhile the Sony Owned horse seams to have stumbled out of the gate…”

Yes, welcome to the week known as e3.  By the end of today, the winners of the e3 derby will be determined by me based on who i felt had the best showing.  And this is like a derby because out of the gate with a huge head start was Microsoft.  The ability to go first lent them a few advantages, first they are setting the whole tone for the convention with their “Showing not telling” mentality.  Secondly going first allowed them to unleash the first in game demo of Final Fantasy 13 on the XBox 360.  Square Enix has really spread their wings as of late, deviating from their Sony mentality.  This isn’t to say they haven’t always been multi-platform, but with Final Fantasy being mostly Sony exclusive (although not contracted) they always felt Sony-centric.  Now this is one bullet that has literally been taken out of the chamber of Sony’s gun.  Sony can no longer say that any announcement for Final Fantasy 13 is new or interesting, Microsoft beat them to that punch.  Microsoft also came out with a nice selection of exclusive games, including stealing another one from Sony.  With the announcement of Metal Gear Solid: Rising coming out for the Xbox 360, I don’t know if anyone can catch them.  (continue reading…)