www.mikestuff.com

Career Updates for 2008

mischenk@hotmail.com — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:29:49 -0700

New revisions: my resume for 2008 includes training and experience with Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2007, Windows Server 2008, Vista, and VMWare ESX 3.5.
http://www.mikestuff.com/stuff/Michael_Schenkel_2008.htm

A stanza for a friend!

mischenk@hotmail.com — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:32:23 -0700

To whom it concerns: Here's the stanza you'll need to finish your configuration. Enjoy! 'Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting - 'Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

2007 Schroon Lake and Pharaoh Ponds Map

mischenk@hotmail.com — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:23:33 -0700

Schroon Lake, Pharaoh Lake, Putnam Pond, Treadway Mountain, and Pharaoh Mountain and many trails interconnecting these beatutiful remote areas shown in this custom map. My best cartographic effort thus far, I think. Again a 'large' file (about 13.5Mb), so you may want to right-click and choose "save as..." and then open the file after it is fully downloaded.

2007 Hickory Creek / Minister Creek Map

mischenk@hotmail.com — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:19:39 -0700

Here it is. Hickory Creek Wilderness Loop and Minister Creek Backcountry Loop in the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania.

This map is about 15Mb in size, and is designed to be printed at 24 by 17 inches. I enjoy doing these overlays - I hope you find this map useful. Here's a scaled down PDF version of the hickory creek wilderness and minister creek wilderness map as a PDF.

New on mikestuff: RSS Link!

mischenk@hotmail.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:24:21 -0700

RSS feed for this blog is now linked in the footer of the page. Firefox 2.x picks it up and lets you add the feed, but IE7 doesn't (yet). Enjoy!

Revised for 2007

mischenk@hotmail.com — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 04:38:52 -0700

I've revised my resume for 2007 to include recent training and experience with VMWare ESX 3.0.x.

Response to a soldier's letter

mischenk@hotmail.com — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 13:34:38 -0800

I was digging through my emails, and found a "letter never sent". I wrote it as a response to a soldier's letter which was forwarded to me. I reread my response today, and decided to post it - it's not as badly written as I thought. Comments welcomed.

Response to "a soldier's letter" (a) The Kurdish people are not defined by a Christian religious viewpoint. (b) The attack on the World Trade Center and other US targets on 2001-09-11 had nothing to do with Iraq, and there is no link between Saddam's Iraq and anti-american terrorism in recent history. (c) Failing to overthrow, create, or otherwise intervene with governments not our own has nothing to do with any generally accepted definitions of "democracy." (d) American troop increases will not "destroy the insurgents" anymore than the the Russian Navy won the American Civil War for the North. (Europe and the US civil war) -- the fighting in Iraq is not our war, but theirs. (e) "The insurgents ... are from outside the country" -- what??? The "countries" in question (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, etc.) are a European fiction drawn on a century old map of the world in the last years of the British Empire! (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait) By destroying Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, the U.S. exposed problems exacerbated by externally imposed divisions between the peoples in these regions. The instabilities and dictatorships have been encouraged by external powers throughout the past 100 years, allowing the real outsiders (that's us and Britain) to retain inordinate control over the economic output of the region. (f) If "we are the only one who can stop al-Sadr," maybe that's because our policies are what creates "al-Sadr"-like individuals. Without our existing policies, there would be much less incentive for such characters to be allowed to exist by the cultures within which they thrive. (g) If we are so "pro-democracy" and "pro-freedom" why does the U.S. support the regime in Saudi Arabia? In Egypt? Why haven't our troops overrun Cuba? Haiti? Venezuela? The agenda is not about freedom and democracy, or we'd be doing a lot more in places much closer to home. I think our government should act in our civil defense. But it should not attack other peoples solely to improve our killing technolgies. Nor should we destroy the lives of our soliders and other nations' citizens to remove the fear of a changing world from a elite merchant class. Neither should we continue killing in the name of religious sentiment or so called "political containment." We should not devestate and devalue human lives and cultures to satiate an intransigent labor movement which finds itself unable to cope with global markets. Defending the current U.S. war in Iraq as "pro-democracy," "humanitarian," or "anti-terrorist" ignores history and current events and insults the people dying on both sides of this conflict every day since the US military and the current federal administration decided to play a board game of "RISK" with the world in which the rest of us actually have to live. I think we must help other people when we can -- but person to person, purchase to purchase, not rifle to rifle. Why has our foreign policy been so focused on this region for the past twenty years? Why are we continuing this "peace to end all peace?" If we are obligated to finish what we've started, I hope that we can put and end to our involvement in a way which leaves the situation better than we found it -- both for our soldiers, as well as for the rest of the world. - Mike

mysqldump and auto_increment

mischenk@hotmail.com — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 01:44:41 -0800

I'm working through building a site based on TikiWiki for Mister Goodbar, a pub in my neghborhood that features a fast-changing, reasonably priced selection of micro and craft brewed beers. They even tap a cask of real ale from time to time. Apparently, it becomes a popular nightclub with live music and scantily clad young people at some time after my bedtime each evening. Enough about that, though. On to the part about mysqldump, before I forget . . . So . . . I built a test site, they liked it, I backed up the files using SmartFTP, then transferred my backup to their web host. I set up a schedule within SmartFTP (this feature is the whole reason I use it!) to back up their site every day at 2:00AM for me. Next, I used mysqldump to dump the mysql database from my webhost. Here's a bit about that: C:/temp>mysqldump -V mysqldump Ver 10.9 Distrib 4.1.21, for Win32 (ia32) C:/temp>mysqldump --host=10.1.2.3 --user=someuser --password=********* --compress --single-transaction --skip-opt --result-file=C:/\temp/mydump.sql --no-create-db --extended-insert --add-drop-table --hex-blob --databases db1 I then created an identical database on their webhost, like this: C:/temp>mysql --host=mysql.premium-webhost.com --user=someuser --password=********** < C:/temp/mydump.sql I tested the site, and all was well. I set up a "scheduled task" in control panel to repeat the mysqldump process from a batch job (fictionally called backup-the-db.cmd) each morning at 3:00AM. The batch job contains this command (As seen above): mysqldump --host=10.1.2.3 --user=someuser --password=********* --compress --single-transaction --skip-opt --result-file=C:/temp/mydump.sql --no-create-db --extended-insert --add-drop-table --hex-blob --databases db1 Off to the races! We worked on the site, made some changes, and soon it was time for the final meeting. I thought I'd make a few last tweaks to the menuing system. OOPS. I deleted almost all of the records from the table containing the menu settings! No problem - I'll just restore from my backup. C:/temp>mysql --host=mysql.premium-webhost.com --user=someuser --password=********** < C:/temp/mydump_last_night.sql And almost nothing works on the web site! I traced it back to the attrubutes of the tables: none of the "ID" columns are set as "auto_increment" anymore, so unique rows are not being added to the database as actions are tken against the website, and thus update queries are failing. Then, I found on the web many articles stating that mysqldump doesn't correctly grab auto_increment values. So how was my original site transfer successful? I looked at the initial database dump, and compared it to the most recent one.

Initial Dump:

-- MySQL dump 10.9 -- -- Host: 10.1.2.3 Database: db1 -- ------------------------------------------------------ -- Server version 4.0.24-nt-max /*!40014 SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS, UNIQUE_CHECKS=0 */; /*!40014 SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0 */; /*!40101 SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE, SQL_MODE='NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO' */; /*!40111 SET @OLD_SQL_NOTES=@@SQL_NOTES, SQL_NOTES=0 */; -- -- Current Database: `db1` -- USE `db1`; -- -- Table structure for table `galaxia_activities` -- DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `galaxia_activities`; CREATE TABLE `galaxia_activities` ( `activityId` int(14) NOT NULL auto_increment,

Most recent database dump:

-- MySQL dump 10.9 -- -- Host: mysql.premium-hosting.com Database: db1 -- ------------------------------------------------------ -- Server version 4.1.18-nt /*!40014 SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS, UNIQUE_CHECKS=0 */; /*!40014 SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0 */; /*!40101 SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE, SQL_MODE='NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO' */; /*!40111 SET @OLD_SQL_NOTES=@@SQL_NOTES, SQL_NOTES=0 */; -- -- Current Database: `db1` -- USE `db1`; -- -- Table structure for table `galaxia_activities` -- DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `galaxia_activities`; CREATE TABLE `galaxia_activities` ( `activityId` int(14) NOT NULL,

Where'd the auto_increment of `activityId` go? It looks like the only difference is in the version of MySQL running on the server - the original is 4.0.24-nt-max, and the new one is 4.1.18-nt. I'll be checking with both hosting providers to see if they're any help, but I'm not expecting much, since both accounts are shared hosting (not dedicate servers). The fix is documented, and if the hosting providers would upgrade the target DB server that'd be fine. They won't without more money, though. I'm going to try using the php script referenced on the fix page. Sigh. But hey - now there's one more article on the web about this problem, and maybe it helps someone else out. Sleepless in Buffalo, I remain - - Mike

So Many Wee Beasties!

mischenk@hotmail.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 05:21:41 -0700

This morning, I awoke to find a rustling noise coming from under my desk. Lo! and Behold! A Roborovski Dwarf Hamster!He's back in his cage now . . . I had to do a quick check on all of the pets, though. Something in my childhood has convinced me that when one pet escapes from their cage, they make a map and tuck it away . . . and then when the humans are away they all plot with each other to escape! I'm also glad the cats were asleep.

Certification Notes

mischenk@hotmail.com — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 11:10:45 -0800

Here and here are some of the notes that are online that I used to study for MCSE 2003. I also used Syngress Publishing's 70-292 and 70-296 study guides and DVDs. An earlier post on this blog contained links to some other resources which I've since removed from my site. Thanks to the contributor who pointed out a good reason to remove some (but not all) of those links.

Canaan Mountain Backcountry

mischenk@hotmail.com — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 08:21:41 -0700

Photos of our hikes and horseback rides in the Canaan Mountain backcountry area of the Monongahela National Forest are posted.

Finger Lakes National Forest

mischenk@hotmail.com — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 09:45:32 -0700

We went hiking in the Finger Lakes National Forest. New addition: the bear vault. Over two and a half pounds (empty), this monster took up most of my new internal frame pack. Pictures are posted!

My Parents and My Birthday

mischenk@hotmail.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 05:22:43 -0700

My parents visited for my birthday. We went to see the Nina and to see the Bisons 4th of July game.

New maps

mischenk@hotmail.com — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 05:15:06 -0700

I've made a new map of West Virginia's Canaan Mountain Backcountry using WorldWind v1.3 from NASA. I overlaid a US Forest Service map of the hiking trails from 1994 on the USGS maps. I used the "paint to select" tool in Corel Photopaint to highlight just the trail markings, then pasted this selection into the USGS data and stretched to fit. Two previous overlay maps using simliar but less successful techniques were Hickory Creek Wilderness, PA, and Alander and Greylock Mountain, MA.

These files are "zipped" becuase they are really large and high resolution, by current standards.

May 2004 - hickorycreek-biggest-overlay.zip

July 2005 - greylock-300dpi-overlay-18x24.zip

June 2006 - canaanmountain-2.zip

Disclaimer: These maps are for planning purposes only. You may find that beaver dams, human construction projects, strip mining, errors, forest gnome uprisings, or other events may cause trail conditions to differ from the maps I have generated.

A web project: mondovideobasement.com

mischenk@hotmail.com — Wed, 31 May 2006 15:20:43 -0700

I've been working on tweaking the simplog 0.9.3 enginge's php files to act as a very simple web store front.

Look in the basement and see what you think. The business owner is just getting started as an online vendor so lots of fun will ensue, I'm certain when we add the shopping cart, and more. Probably we will move the content to ZenCart.

Goo Goo Springtime Buffalo

mischenk@hotmail.com — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 11:32:08 -0700

We went for a walk on a gorgeous spring day. Photos of the house with flowers, a large collection of people in our neghborhood waiting in line to autographs from the "Goo Goo Dolls" (a Buffalo-based national touring rock band), and some people we met in the convienience store who wanted their picture taken are all to be found here.

Realizing the kitchen

mischenk@hotmail.com — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 13:22:06 -0700

The kitchen is almost completely demolished. The floor and a feww studs still need to come out, and then construction can begin. Pictures are here: http://www.mikestuff.com/photos/index.php?level=album&id=26 Most interesting discovery so far: signatures inside the north west wall of the house. All in pencil, one in hebrew (?). Please comment if you read this, see the photos, and think you can read the signatures - I can't!

CompTIA A+ with Nick - Day 1

mischenk@hotmail.com — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 15:16:39 -0800

Today, my brother, Nick, and I began our effort to get his CompTIA A+ certification squared away. We're working through David Groth's A+ Complete Study Guide Deluxe Second Edition. My A+ certificiation is from 2002, and a lot has changed in 4 years. I think the review will do me good. Chapters 1 and 2 are done for now. The book is good, but it does remind me how fast information about hardware becomes obsolete. The section on bus architechture is too general to be comprehensible in the format that it is presented in. The details needed to string the ideas together are missing, so the general ideas presented seem detached and incomplete. Chapter one would benefit from color photos - my brother has never worked with 'jumpers' before, and the pictures of this specific piece of hardware were confusing. The practice questions are useful, and I'll start messing with the two included CDs of software and content soon.

Kitchens, Clusters, and Implants

mischenk@hotmail.com — Wed, 31 May 2006 15:21:30 -0700

We finished a major portion of the kitchen remodel this past weekend - by contracting out the work! I honestly didn't expect to have such pain in the shoulders after tearing out the floor in the pantry. We'll find out later this week what the schedule looks like. Tonight I added a rebuilt Windows 2000 Advanced Server to an existing file & print services cluster at work today. All went well, but I'm missing 7 print drivers. Guess I'll figure out why tomorrow.

I've just got to find it . . .

mischenk@hotmail.com — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 19:41:38 -0800

Not *too* much done this week. That's a good thing. Moderately restful, yet quite a bit done on the kitchen. I've mostly lost my voice. Hopefully I will be breathing well enough to go to work tomorrow. If I'm still coughing, I'm staying home - I don't want to get anyone else sick. There's a lot going on at work, and I don't really want to miss tomorrow. Enough going on to earn a 'stressed' mood rating right now . . . but maybe a good sleep will set me up happy and healthy for the morning. Got 'myspace invites' from Suzanne and Sarah. Thanks to both - I hope to write a cohesive reply soon. Not-so-new photos going up in a few minutes - my brother Nick's family back in October of 2005. Nick's in Ypsilanti, MI, now. More later.