Anyway, something I’ve been mulling over lately is the concept of low-value information and media. I recently received a hand-written “thank you” from someone via -wait for it- the US Mail. That’s right, someone took the time to press pen to paper, then place said paper in an envelope and apply an evermore expensive sticker to the upper-right corner and drop into a mailbox.

Can I tell you? It meant a lot to me. I’ve read it once each day since I received it. The words that are written in it could have been shared over the internet through email, but this person spent both time and money to present me with a real and tangible representation of their appreciation. The weight of their words also carries more weight because of the effort that went into getting those words delivered to me.

That got me thinking about the evolution of human written communication since the beginnings of mainstream internet usage. I’ve observed that as the cost of writing down and distributing one’s thoughts has decreased over time, it has allowed many more people to write down many more ideas and to share with many more people with much less effort.

I think about the number of emails I send (and receive). If I had to handwrite every communication I sent, not only would I think considerably more about what I was going to say, but I also wouldn’t write as many communications. Interesting. Remember “junk mail” delivered by the USPS? How does that compare to email spam? I don’t know about you, but my experience has been orders of magnitude in difference. Physical junk mail costs more, and as such, marketers seem to be (only a little) more discerning about to whom they send what.

The irony isn’t lost on me that I’m typing on a laptop into a digital system that costs me little in respect to sharing this partially formed idea. So maybe it’s a double-edged sword?

Before YouTube, you had to jump through thousands of hoops before you could get on TV or into the movies. Before the podcast explosion, not just anybody could get on the radio. Before music streaming, if as a musician you wanted to get on the radio, you were at the mercy of a few record companies. Various other social media outlets have filled their own niches that have democratized a great many things that were the domain of a privileged minority. It even created a new career path: “Influencer.”

I posit that with the glut of information and discourse we have lost much to the noise. Of late, I have mentioned in certain company that “while everyone is entitled to their own opinion, not every opinion is worthy of an audience.” But I also support free speech, so…

The best hypothesis I can come up with right now is that people tend to ascribe greater value to things that cost them in some way. This isn’t limited by any means to direct financial cost. There is opportunity cost. Spending time on A means I’m not spending time on B, for instance. There is discomfort, pain, heartache, disappointment, loss. The greater the perceived cost, the greater the value. If I hate being dirty, sweaty, and tired, then spending evenings and weekends preparing our garden plot so that in a short time we will be able to eat of the fruits of our labor, those meals prepared with the garden produce are going to be valued more highly than a meal obtained from a drive-thru.

As I ponder this idea further, I consider the low cost/low value baubles and trinkets we purchase online, play with for an afternoon, then put on a shelf. Don’t get me wrong, I like stuff. I have a materialistic bent. I like “stuff”. For the purposes of this article, this fact is neither good nor bad. It just is. But even in liking stuff, I observe that those things that are unique, on of a kind, or custom - those things that are of a higher level of craftsmanship - have a higher value in my mind and heart. Not just because they are more expensive, but because they come with a higher cost from creation to purchase. Low value material objects are assembly line carbon copies. They are largely made by laborers or robots, not craftsmen, and one example has zero difference in value than another.

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m still wrestling with this. On the one hand, a lower barrier to entry is a good thing. People who would otherwise be excluded have a voice and can share their ideas. Others can purchase things they couldn’t afford if everything were custom made by a few craftsmen (supply and demand). On the other I can’t ignore that there is most definitely a trade-off in the form of greater volume of low-value content, materials, and consumer goods.

What do you think? Have we lost something along the way, or has what we’ve gained more than made up for the higher noise floor in all areas of society?

I just stumbled upon an article, https://open.substack.com/pub/plumpits/p/unrot-your-brain?r=ll0oi&utm_medium=ios, because I’m always on the edge of the battle in my own mind between reality and living in the moment, and the mind numbing effects of doom-scrolling (Facebook has always been my weakness in this regard).

The article as a whole is good, but the quote above lept off the screen to me.  In short, I see way too much division and dismissal of opposing viewpoints.  My algorithm shows me a lot of “good vs. evil” types of arguments.  Strangely enough, both left-wing and right-wing use that same foundation to  build their cases upon.  I don’t fit neatly into either camp (nor do I fit neatly in the middle ground, either.  I’m an anomaly like that 😉 ).

I posit that we, as human beings, are made for relationship.  We are made for conflict in the sense that we are at our best when we work together to coexist even in the midst of differing opinions.

I do not for a moment suggest that in seeking to understand someone’s opposing views that you must change your mind or agree with them.  Actually, by understanding an opposing opinion, the history and motivation behind it, you may discover even more reason to keep your own opinion.  But that’s beside the point.

You will likely, however, discover that a living, breathing, God made individual with their own unique past, present and future, and hopes and dreams, and strengths, failures, bravery and fear is who sits across from you in whatever the debate of the day happens to be.

I personally find it a lot harder to patently dismiss someone whom I have invested in.  I choose to believe many are like me in that regard.  The person behind it becomes more important than the issue at hand.

And perhaps that’s why keyboard warriors do what they do.  Zero investment, zero risk, but a seething desire to “win” and argument at all costs drives them to cut down others who disagree with them.  I catch myself more often than I care to admit taking the easy route of judging a book by its cover, with only is single partial side of the story.

…A rude homeless person?  “They made a series of choices that led them here.  They don’t want help, they want a hand out.  Probably for drugs…”

Except, I sat down with a homeless man a couple of years ago and (rare for me, iykyk) I just listened.  His only child, a daughter, had passed away due to health issues.  He and his wife tried to work through it together, but they each struggled with the loss in their own ways.  They ended up divorcing.  So having lost his only child, his wife, and his home, he sank into depression, lost his job, and one day found himself on the street.  He didn’t want drugs.  He wasn’t looking to party, or to even escape.  Life had hit him hard.  He wanted to work, but without a permanent address, prospective employers weren’t interested.

…Someone driving in a way that I don’t approve?  They are a moron and think this is their world, I’m just living in it.

Except, I’ve been that maniac.  Once when my wife was having trouble breathing and my toddler son was in the vehicle with her, she pulled over and they ended up taking an ambulance ride to a hospital several towns away.  She was ultimately okay, but in that space between the call telling me she was at an ER 20 miles away, and my arriving there, you can bet I was primarily concerned with getting there as soon as possible.  I probably offended a few fellow drivers and certainly broke a few ordinances along the way.

In both cases, the extenuating circumstances may not “excuse” the behaviors, but they go a long way in explaining them.  And certainly in each case, if given more desirable options, after the fact, the behaviors may have been different.

The point is, we are not individual beings impervious to others’ trials, triumphs, and all the other experiences that make us who we are.  We are not fully independent; rather we are interdependent.  “Living my truth” has a ripple effect on my family, friends, and community.  There’s nothing I can do about that.  That’s just the way it is.

From a social media perspective (and to borrow from Lady Gaga of all people, “social media is the toilette of the internet’s), when you “win” an argument online, but haven’t changed the opposing parties’ opinions and in the process burned bridges and led to the opposition doubling down, what, pray tell, have you actually won?

Ask yourself the next time you take the path of least resistance and rely upon a regurgitated opinion or ideal that only works in a vacuum, “where is this coming from? Is this a hill worth dying on?  Is this really how I feel or what I believe?  Do I have any skin in the game?  Do I even understand what I’m taking a stance on? Am I better than this?  Do I want to be and do better than this?”

“Most importantly, is my opinion, or my chosen delivery of my opinion going to cause unintended harm and pain to people I [should] care about, and am I prepared for the consequences?”

I don’t have a universally applicable answer here.  I’m as guilty as anyone of taking the easy way out simply to stroke my ego or act like a spoiled brat as if my opinion has earned any sort of audience.  But I’m learning and trying to be a little better every day.

Consulting – scaled back for now

After working 60-hour weeks at my primary employer for the month of September last year (immediately following an attempt to launch my consulting side hustle earlier in the summer), I took a step back and decided that there were other things in my life I wanted to focus on instead of working such long hours. I left this site as it was while I considered the long-term plan.

While cooling my heels on website content and scaling back my side hustle gig postings, I also turned some attention toward diet and exercise. Over the past five years, I’ve gradually “softened” in the midsection as well as in cardiovascular health.

Setback

November and December of 2024 flew by in a flurry of activity, as they do. I was successful at incorporating physical activity into nearly every day. The weekend immediately preceding Christmas, Jessica and I undertook the effort to clean out and set up our finished basement space, converting it from storage to a basement family room. By the end of the 12-hour stint, I knew I was in for some lower back discomfort.

After a week or so, my back started to ease up, true to form over the past 25 years. But it was at the beginning of the second week of January that my next challenge presented itself. It all started with a dull ache in my left shoulder…

I’ll present the Cliff Notes version here. For the past three months, I’ve been through X-rays, an MRI, physical therapy, and an epidural steroid injection. In a few days will be doubling up on an EMG followed immediately by Trigger Point Therapy.

The initial diagnosis leaned toward a pinched nerve base due to a deteriorated disc in my C6-C7 cervical spine. A combo of physical therapy and an epidural steroid injection was prescribed as an attempt to alleviate the rather significant pain and discomfort that grew out of that original ache.

While physical therapy has provided hours of relief at a time, it has only reached a point of pain management, whereas the epidural steroid injection was utterly ineffective. This has brought my care team and me to the point where we believe my cervical spine, though showing the effects of age, probably isn’t the root of my shoulder neuralgia.

For the past 3+ months, I have been very conservative in my physical exertion where my neck and shoulder are concerned, which has completely derailed the progress I’d made fitness-wise toward the end of 2024. In the past two weeks, after we all realized my cervical spine is what it is and I’m not at any (apparently) significant risk of my “neck falling off”, I’ve started to ease back into some walking with Jessica. I fully intend on continuing that trend for the foreseeable future, and I’m hopeful my shoulder complication will eventually get worked out.

What I’ve Been Up To

Thus far in 2025, aside from managing my shoulder situation and working a lot of extra hours at my primary employment, I also began serving as the Amateur (Ham) Radio Net Control Operator on 146.610 MHz W8BLV on Wednesday nights at 8 pm for DIAL Radio Club in Middletown, OH.

One of the intended benefits that has borne fruit is that having this responsibility ensures that I will spend some time operating in my shack at least once a week, even when I may not feel like it. I was originally licensed in May 2020 and have been in and out of the hobby multiple times since. Early last summer I even sold my HF radio and VHF/UHF radio to fund my Vintage Stereo interests, and expected to spend some time away from Amateur Radio.

What brought me back?

Late September through early October brought a couple of exceptionally strong hurricanes, Helene and Milton, to the Eastern United States. After learning the extent of devastation in Eastern Tennessee/Western North Carolina from the weather systems in that region over a six-week period, I considered my unique role as one of only 750,000 living licensed Ham Operators in the United States. Not only was I licensed/qualified to provide communications assistance if something similar happened where I live, I also wanted to be able to be that lifeline for my family, friends, and community should some sort of regional disaster ever occur here.

By the end of October, I had purchased a new HF radio and built my shack out in the basement. I had the help of an “Elmer” from DIAL in getting a new antenna wire strung through some trees (it involved a compressed air-powered tennis ball launcher – yes, every bit as cool as it sounds).

Through the end of 2024, as I got acquainted with my new HF radio, I started reaching out to a few organizations in my area to provide some sort of EmComm assistance. Because of where I work, I was able to get hooked up with Hamilton County (OH) ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services). While I am still working around the demands of my career right now, I am working toward completing all the required training to move from being a Provisional Member to an Active Member by the end of this summer. Even while all of that is in progress, I am scheduled to provide communications coverage during Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon next month.

What’s Next?

Work will keep me extra busy through mid-summer, then I hope to be able to finish up any remaining training for Hamilton County ARES, and also study for and obtain the Red Hat Certified Engineer certification by the end of the year.

I’m looking forward to us getting the swimming pool opened up and in use in the coming weeks, and Jessica and I are in discussion about where I’m going to install an antenna tower on our property to get better range on my radio equipment.

I have a few ideas for some fresh website content that I’d like to start producing over the next few weeks or months, schedule permitting. I’m no longer interested in any sort of monetization or advertising revenue for this site. I’ve lowered my service level to a plan that I’m comfortable with eating the annual cost of. I had tried that last summer into fall, and I kept running into obstacles that ultimately dissuaded me from providing an advertising venue for any of the ad networks out there. They seem to want a lot and aren’t willing to pay much for it. Not to mention I didn’t want to deter or alienate what readership I do have.

New posts may come in spurts, and then be few and far between. All I really hope for this site from here on out is that visitors may occasionally find something useful and have a good time doing so. Thanks for reading!

The post Personal Update: Life, Health, and Radio Adventures appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

Why a Dayton Audio Subwoofer – “Coloring In the sound”

Over the summer, I found a great deal on a pair of Klipsch KG4 stereo speakers, only a 4 hour round trip away. I was already excited with my purchase – the seller demo’d them thoroughly for me. But nothing prepared me for the significant improvement in sonic quality from my Klipsch R-610F tower speakers.

When connected to the Sansui receiver, the new KG4 speakers bring the mid-range to life with an unexplainable clarity. You have to hear it to believe it. The KG4 speakers have dual 8″ woofers and a horn tweeter on the front, with a 12″ passive radiator on the back. I continue to be blown away by the dynamic range of these speakers. But I wanted just a little more bottom end.

I talked with some friends and coworkers, and perused Reddit, where I found constant high marks for the SVS 1000 Pro, coming in at $600. I wanted to see if a more economical solution existed, even if not quite as high performing. Enter the Dayton Audio SUB-1000 for just under $160.

Since my vintage receivers don’t have a dedicated subwoofer output, I need speaker-level inputs, check. And a 100W power supply? Check. Finally, Phase, Gain, and Crossover adjustments. Check, check, check. Let alone the price. I simply had to try it to know for sure.

SUB-1000 Installation

The Sansui 6060 has been my main service provider since I bought it last December. So when it was time to incorporate the Dayton Audio subwoofer, I pulled all the existing speaker wire and ran new. I opted to use the speaker-level outputs on the SUB-1000 to avoid using both A and B speaker outs on my receiver. Initially, I used all bare wire connections, as seen below (because I’m lazy):

A Blown Amplifier Stage

Prior to installation, I powered off the Sansui, with it making its usual “pop” through the speakers. Upon power up, however, I heard an unusual “pop/fizzle”. Not thinking much of it, I proceeded with sound checks. I got no sound from my Wiim on the Aux input. Then I got no sound on the Phono stage. Finally, no sound on FM, even though the tuning meter was reporting signal. Dang it. After half an hour, and repeated power-offs/power-ons, I admitted defeat. The Sansui was relegated to the workbench.

The Yamaha Receiver Saves the Day

During the summer, in a separate transaction from the speakers, I also purchased a vintage Yamaha receiver (CR-620). I briefly demoed the Yamaha to see what work needs to be done to it. Aside from needing new dial bulbs (a common ailment for these units), I noted that any volume level above 50% causes the speakers to pop. I then set it aside for a winter workbench project.

When suddenly faced with a completely failed Sansui, I field-promoted the Yamaha receiver, hoping for the best. My first concern was there being an issue with the subwoofer’s amplifier. If so, my Yamaha was also at risk, but I proceeded anyway.

At first, I only wired up the SUB-1000 to both channels, then tested. So far so good. Then I wired up the KG4 speakers. Immediate 50% success, but the left channel wasn’t outputting any sound.

It’s here I must mention that the Yamaha receiver had been at child/toddler level. All the knobs and switches had been manipulated by tiny hands. I thought I’d readjusted everything prior to testing, but it took longer than I care to admit to determine the balance knob was cranked hard to the right.

SUB-1000 and Yamaha Receiver Performance

I’ve already mentioned the >50% volume issues, but I didn’t go into detail on the Yamaha’s performance otherwise. In short, the “Natural Sound” of this era of vintage Yamaha receiver is full-range, rich, and beautiful. I’d even put it above the Sansui as far as out-of-the-box sound quality. I have the EQ settings nearly flat, and loudness off. Even with it’s need for servicing, the Yamaha receiver is a fine specimen.

The Dayton Audio subwoofer has been a welcome addition. For my current listening space, I found optimal adjustments to be:

• Phase: 180 degress

• Gain: 40-45%

• Crossover: somewhere in the middle of the 40 Hz to 140 Hz range

These settings work well with the Yamaha at 10%-45% volume, which is honestly sufficient for my current listening space. The bass that is added is a hint or a suggestion and doesn’t overpower the KG4s’ splendid range and performance. The SUB-1000 can do a lot more than I’m asking of it, but is a perfect fit at a perfect price to compliment the rest of my system.

Wiring Update

I still wonder if the bare wire connections may have “crossed the streams” and triggered the amp failure. Also, one of the terminal nuts on my right KG4 speaker is cracked and doesn’t tighten. In an effort to address both concerns, I once again turned to Parts Express:

• 6x 091-310 (pin connectors)

• 2x 091-1165 (banana plug connectors)

The banana plugs were a breeze to install, and solve the issue with the broken nut on the KG4 speakers

The pin connectors were easier to install than I though they would be:

After connecting the pin connectors to the terminals of the Yamaha receiver, I was concerned they might still touch and short out another amplifier:

So I added electrical tape on every other pin connector to calm my fears:

Conclusion

While I’m absolutely bummed that the Sansui is offline, I’m happy that I had the Yamaha to rotate in, at least temporarily. I’m equally happy the Yamaha sounds so darn good! The Dayton Audio SUB-1000 adds the nuance that was missing at the low-end, and at a price that I couldn’t pass up! I plan on servicing both receivers this winter, to recover functionality of the Sansui, and to light and improve the functionality of the Yamaha receiver.

The post Dayton Audio SUB-1000: Affordable Subwoofer for Vintage Systems appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

Roots: Where I came from

The Very Beginning

My very first job when I turned 16 was as a pet store employee. I’d grown up with pets, and a couple of years prior I set up my first freshwater aquarium. While I loved our family cats, I was indescribably intrigued by all things fishy. I was hungry to learn and practice all that I could in the time I worked at there. I learned about water chemistry, fish species compatibility, treatment of fish illnesses, etc. Camaraderie, responsibility, and money aside, I was always learning something new. Even today, I’m experimenting with an indoor pond, and I continue to learn new things on a whole different scale.

First Career Pivot

Fresh out of high school and in my first semester of college, I left the pet store and started at a garden and feed store. Immediately, I was tasked with learning about operating a forklift, a tractor with a loader bucket, and occasionally a small dump truck.

I spent a lot of time outside at this job, which I really enjoyed. It was physically demanding, involving stacking firewood by hand, delivering bags of salt to customer water softeners, and throwing bags of mulch and feed around. Then after about 7 months, I was give the opportunity to take over driving the dump truck full-time. To this day, I LOVE to drive. When I was a child, my favorite toys were Hot-Wheels. A lot of boys like to turn things into guns (I was one of them). But more often than that, anything that I could pretend was a steering wheel was absolute bliss. So being paid to drive? Sign me up!

I ended up staying at this job for seven years, taking a break from college to explore being an adult along the way. Toward the end of my tenure there I enrolled in Police Academy and began training for my next adventure.

Second Career Pivot

Over the course of 1.5 years, I completed Police Academy and tested and interviewed at several local police departments. And after some intense interviews I accepted a full-time position as a patrol officer, rather than volunteer in a reserve capacity. A couple of temptations drew me toward police work. This was post-9/11 America, first responders of all kinds were somewhat in vogue. Additionally, there was, once again, the driving aspect. Finally, I was looking for meaning or some sort of worth outside of myself, and what better way, than to be selfless and willing to risk my life?

My time as an officer was brief. And I didn’t even finish the field training program to become a full-fledge patrol officer before I discovered this was not mean to be.

A Time of Transition

When I left the police department, I was at a low point, as I wasn’t used to, or comfortable with, failure. For the next year-and-a-half I worked a couple of warehouse jobs, finding no purpose or sustaining mental stimulation. It was in the midst of this that I returned to college. Initially I loaded up on business classes, having tired somewhat of computer programming curriculum in my first run of college. The important part was that I took control of my circumstances and I prioritized my education, having received the motivation I needed.

Breaking into IT – The Opportunity

In an ironic twist, it was my police education that opened the door to my first job in IT. My wife happened across a half-page Employment advertisement in the newspaper. Adding to the irony – we seldom read the newspaper. The ad was for a company looking to, among other positions, bring their physical security team in-house. Up to that point, my highest credentials were a State of Ohio Peace Officer Certification, and that was where I felt the most marketable.

Breaking into IT – The Interview

On the day of my interview, I walked in the this opulently appointed office building in the middle of an idyllic campus, complete with fountains and a lake. Before I’d made it to the receptionist’s desk, imposter syndrome kicked in, in full.

A recruiter met me at the receptionist, and walked me through their welcome area before showing me to a computer to take an evaluation exam. This exam tested personality, and cognitive and logic skills, and results were instantly spit out to the recruiting team in the welcome area.

One of the recruiters took me into another room and informed me that while they were in fact looking to hire for physical security, between my education and my test results, I might be interested in interviewing for a position on a new PC Support team. He sweetened the offer by suggesting that if PC Support didn’t work out, they would still process me for the physical security position, so I agreed.

I was asked if I could stick around while they notified a couple of hiring managers that a candidate was available for an interview. Then I met with each, and left somewhat stunned at the turn of events. Having taken a half-day of work for a “doctor appointment”, I was running late to my current employer. In a it of survival mode, I changed from my interview attire into more warehouse appropriate clothing in the parking lot, before I drove to work.

Breaking into IT – the Offer

After less than a week, I was contacted with a conditional job offer that was a 50% increase from my warehouse job. Of course I had to go through the particulars of a background check and drug test, but that was a formality that wouldn’t stand in my way.

IT Career Development – The Early Years

Over the next 3 years, I worked full-time in IT, and climbed the lower rungs of the IT career ladder. I also finished my Associate’s Degree in Applied Science, specializing in Computer Information Technology.

After all of that rapid success, including a promotion to a supervisory role, I began feeling I was losing my edge. So five years after finishing my Associate’s Degree, I enrolled in a Bachelor’s Degree program at Western Governor’s University.

IT Career Development – Hitting my Stride

Over the next three years, I studied for and earned multiple IT certifications as a part of the degree program. Visit my LinkedIn to see an exhaustive list, but a few key certifications I earned: A+, Network+, Security+, and Linux+. I also took a few Python Development courses that built upon Associate’s Degree education.

More recently, I’ve slowed my cadence on studying for new, more advanced, IT certifications. Over the past several years, I’ve aimed for 1-2 new certifications per year. These have included Puppet Enterprise Professional and Red Hat Certified System Administrator (read about that adventure here). Additionally, I’ve renewed all my CompTIA certifications via CertMaster CE for Security+.

Putting it all Together

Infrastructure

Career development in IT can take many paths. There’s Desktop Support, Data Center and Server Hardware, Operating Systems, Virtualization, Storage, and so much more within infrastructure. I love hardware. I’ve had multiple homelab setups over the years, and built several gaming PC’s. And when I studied for Cisco certification I had a full blown networking lab.

Programming/Development

From the start of my college career, I’ve been immersed in computer programming. I have successfully applied my programming education repeatedly throughout my career. A few examples:

• Authored a Java-based wake-on-lan program to programmatically create and send a magic packet, with a database backend.

• Discovered and fixed a code error in a vendor’s VBScript-based web application

• Co-authored an early Linux/Bash based backup solution

  • Co-authored a VBScript-based Windows backup client

  • Co-authored a Bash-based Linux backup client

• Developed 3,500 lines of Python code to convert the configuration code base for Puppet Enterprise to a code base for the Ansible Automation Platform.

Automation

In my last two employment roles I have focused heavily on Linux automation in the areas of patching automation and configuration management. As briefly mentioned above, I’ve worked extensively in both Puppet Enterprise and the Ansible Automation Platform.

IT Career Development – Road Map

The convergence of my preferences for and familiarity with infrastructure hardware and operating systems, programming, and automation has led me to where I am today, a Systems Engineering Specialist. My primary responsibility is leading the enginering, adoption, and maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I am aided significantly by leveraging products such as Puppet and Ansible for configuration management. Furthermore, where I need to convert thousands of directories and files of code from one platform to another, I’ve been able to approach that programmatically to save time, introduce consistency and stability, and minimize human error.

With this background, I’ve selected the following certification goals for 2025 and 2026:

Red Hat Certified Engineer | 2025

This certification will serve a dual purpose. It is an extension of the Red Hat Certified System Administrator certification, as well as a home base for Ansible best practices.

I will be using Red Hat Learning Subscription and am hoping for Sander van Vugt to release an RHCE book for RHEL 9

Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation | 2025

This certification builds upon RHCE and further establishes best practices for developing and managing Ansible automation,

I will rely primarily on Red Hat Learning Subscription to prepare for this one.

PCEP – Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer | 2025

In concert with my desire to become ever more proficient in Python development – in support of both my primary employment and my freelance efforts – I’ll be learning and adopting best practices.

https://edube.org Python Essentials 1

PCAP – Certified Associate in Python Programming | 2026

This certification is the successor to the Entry-Level cert, and will further solidify my ability to adopt and implement best practices.

https://edube.org Python Essentials 2

Certified Kubernetes Administrator | 2026

I’ve decided it’s time for me to address the gap in my skillset where containerization is concerned. I’m going to start out vendor agnostic and go for this certification.

Sander van Vugt offers a video series for this one.

Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Administration | 2026

OpenShift is Red Hat’s container orchestration platform (and more) built on top of Kubernetes.

I will leverage Red Hat Learning Subscription to prepare for this.

Conclusion

I’ve come a long way in my IT career development thus far. What I continue to get excited about in tech is that if I ever get bored it’s my own fault. What I’m doing today doesn’t have to define the remainder of my career. I’ve grown from PC support to server hardware support, to operating system administration and engineering, to most recently platform automation. And all along I’ve been able to exercise my programming muscles. With subjects such as AI taking the industry by storm, and future tech such as quantum computing on the horizon, I only hope I can keep up!

What are your IT career development goals? Are you in infrastructure? Application development? What do you like/dislike about working in tech? Do you fear the constant change in tech or do you embrace it? Comment below!

The post Setting IT Career Goals: My Two-Year Plan appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

A Brief Homelab History

During the height of the pandemic, I purchased a used Dell PowerEdge R720 rack mount server with 2 Intel Xeon processors and 64 GB of RAM (I recently upgraded to 128 GB of RAM after one of the original DIMMs failed). Over a couple pay periods I then fleshed it out with disks, resulting in a 500 GB partition and a 2 TB partition. Initially, I installed CentOS 7 and ran a simple KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) platform. Using this, I was able to setup and experiment with things like Nexus for a local Python package repo and a PXE environment for building various Linux distributions from Kickstart files. I even admittedly mined Ravencoin with the Xeon processors for awhile (still waiting on Ravencoin to go to the moon!).

A Homelab Hiatus

In 2021 when we moved to our current home, I placed the server, nestled precariously in its 12 U rack without rails (aka lying on the bottom of the rack diagonally), in the basement and left it powered off. A year later I powered it back up as it sat and staged some Developer licensed RHEL 8 virtual machines to start prepping for the RHCSA exam (read about my recent success here). After a couple of months, I powered the server down again.

Rebirth as a Proxmox Homelab

In direct relation to my recent reawakening, I felt the compulsion to rebuild my homelab from scratch. I wanted to evolve past KVM on a RHEL-based distribution and explore another virtualization platform option. Being a “Linux guy”, I wasn’t enthused about Hyper-V, and anything VMware is out of the question due to licensing requirements.

Proxmox Virtual Environment has a very VMware ESXi-esque familiarity to it and offers some desirable features that almost make it enterprise-ready, like clustering, command-line interface (CLI), high availability, and even a mobile app for managing. It is still based on KVM, so it’s not a completely new technology stack, but it has a lot of additional, very useful features included.

A Detour to Touch on Homelab Networking

At this point, I need to explain that there is no network cabling from my basement to my router in my first-floor office. One of the reasons I’d been so slow to get anything going with my homelab in this house was that I couldn’t get a Wi-Fi dongle to work very well with all but a few Linux OSes installed directly on the server. In the case where I was able to get one to work with PopOS, the data throughput was criminally slow due to signal strength between my router and where the server rack sits in my basement.

Enter the ASUS RTX-55U. I was able to find a lightly used specimen on eBay for less than $60, shipped. My primary router is an ASUS RT-AX88U with AiMesh. AiMesh is a technology that makes it easy to scale out a home wireless network. The RTX-55U, configured as an AiMesh node on the RT-AX88U, extends my wireless network into the basement. Where it is installed, a mere 4 ft below the primary router’s location in the office on the first floor, data throughput on wireless is adequate for now. Below are the results of an internet speed test from a VM on the Proxmox host:

Back to the Proxmox homelab server

The bare-metal installation of the Proxmox Virtual Server was straightforward. I downloaded the ISO file and wrote it to a USB thumb drive, then inserted it into one of the server’s USB slots. Then I had to get into the BIOS to enable booting from USB on the R720, but once past that point, things just worked. I won’t detail the installation process here, as it is well documented by Proxmox and many others, but read on for some post-install customization resources.

To manage the Proxmox host after installation, I needed to be able to connect to it from a web browser on port 8006. The server console displayed the full URL, so I made a note of it. From this point forward, I no longer required direct physical access to the host, so back upstairs I went.

Proxmox VE Post Install

Some of you may already be acquainted with the Proxmox VE Post Install script. For the rest, I recommend checking it out. I encourage you to review and understand what the script is doing prior to executing it, as a standard best practice. For me, it checked all the boxes I wanted on a clean Proxmox homelab installation. I copied the command provided in the link into the Proxmox host’s console and executed it successfully, with no observed ill effects to date.

Homelab Experiments

Many of my experiments have been ephemeral in nature, wherein a virtual machine is provisioned, a use case is exercised, and then the virtual machine is purged. However, I do have some longer-lived VMs that I keep patched and running. You may see additional posts on these in the near-future.

Pi-Hole

Pi-Hole is a DNS server that primarily blocks unwanted ads by sending DNS queries for known ads and malicious networks to a black hole. It can run on Rasberry Pi, and a few other operating systems. With the Pi Zero 2 W I have, I’ve seen reports of – and personally experienced – issues with the Wireless connection dropping out. DNS stability is too critical to attempt on a flaky wireless device. I also have a Pi 3B+, but it’s currently serving as a DAKBoard display.

That leaves the Proxmox Homelab as the only remaining option that doesn’t require additional equipment purchases. Even though it’s on a wireless connection, it’s much more stable than the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, and I configured my router’s IP as backup DNS, in case the Pi-Hole DNS server becomes unavailable for some reason.

Windows Server 2022 Core

While I prefer Linux, I’m not fully anti-Microsoft. I have written PowerShell scripts when the opportunity presented itself. Throughout my career, when I’ve administered Windows servers, I’ve had the full GUI to rely upon. For this VM, I’ve registered it with a 180-day evaluation license, and installed Server Core, which is “the recommended installation option. […]It is used for “headless” deployments which are managed remotely through Windows Admin Center, PowerShell, or other server management tools.” (1)

I’m flexing my PowerShell skills and evaluating Windows Admin Center at the same time, while also testing how suitable Proxmox VE is for hosting Windows VMs.

Conclusion

While this summer saw a lot of activity in the Proxmox Homelab, lately I’ve been occupied with my first Fiverr Gig, and a complex and time-sensitive project for my primary employer. The R720 is about 10 years old, and while it’s still plugging away without major complaints (aside from the recent memory DIMM failure mentioned above), I’m considering options for a companion and/or replacement for it. I’d like to expand to a two-node cluster and incorporate a separate NAS device for backups, and additional storage needs soon.

Do you have a Homelab? Do you use Proxmox? What projects or experiments have you enjoyed? What have you regretted? Comment below!

The post Building a Proxmox Homelab: My Journey appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

The initial contact occurred through a message on Fiverr with a detailed problem statement, the tools the customer had at hand, what operating system they were going to use the solution on, and a target timeline. I reviewed the requirements and terms and concluded this was right up my alley. It would exercise my existing coding experience with Python, require me to look into how to leverage both Selenium and ChromeDriver for Selenium. The offered payment was reasonable, given that I’m trying to make a name for myself on the platform, and the timeline was adequate, with some wiggle room if it was needed.

I can’t provide too many details about the field the work was performed for, other than to say it was medical in nature. I can, however, provide a high-level summary:

• Medical documents are received

• Within the document, patient data and document classification must be parsed

• Document data must then be input into a web form, the document attached and the form submitted to the patient record on a website

• A final step requires the submission of any pending document actions on the site and a move of the document out of the source directory into a “processed” directory

• Dis-qualifiers such as patient record not found, incomplete document data, or other errors must not upload the document and must not move it to the “processed” directory

Because the website that the data and documents were being entered and uploaded to does not have an available API (application programming interface), I had to interface with the web UI. This was an interesting challenge and the only other tool I’ve used for comparable functionality was AutoIt to interact with the Windows desktop nearly 15 years ago.

Fortunately, Selenium and ChromeDriver are both available within the Python ecosystem and are well-established, meaning I had extensive documentation and others’ experience to rely upon to get me where I needed to be.

For an easy win, I started by writing Python code to launch the Chrome browser and log in to the target site. With this out of the way, I took an iterative approach to each feature to extract, enter form data, attach documents, etc., and after the first weekend I had an initial Alpha release that I delivered to my customer.

There were plenty of minor bugs and we discovered some inconsistencies in the document formatting and data entry/organization that I had to write code to handle. Also, my customer wanted to not have to maintain a Python virtual environment, meaning I needed to package the application for their operating system.

As it turned out, my development rig for this project was on a different operating system than what my customer was running. Fortunately, I also had a system with the same OS and version, so I just had to port over my virtual environment and test/debug my code for any anomalies introduced by the OS switch, then build package up the application for portability. This was, dare I say, a strange kind of fun for me. It had also provided some justification in recently purchasing this other system (how many laptops, desktops and servers does one System Engineer/Developer need anyway?).

Not even 4 days into the engagement, immediately after delivering the first Alpha release, our family dog, Lacy, was taken to the emergency vet because, over just a few days, she went from the picture of health to no longer eating and being very lethargic. During that second week of the Fiverr engagement, we discovered that Lacy had developed a mass on her spleen, and for quality of life considerations, we helped her pass from this life in as humane a way as possible.

I mention the loss of Lacy here because my customer was not only flexible as we navigated the sudden and unexpected loss, and the grief that came with it, but they also were genuinely concerned and interested in giving me space to grieve and take a few days to recover from the initial blow. In the grand scheme of things, I only lost about 4 days, between vet visits and a couple of days to let the fog clear. I don’t think I can properly convey how much my customer’s support helped during that time, though I did try to tell them.

Coming out of the second weekend, I had a Beta release ready, this one packaged, so my customer wouldn’t have to maintain or concern themselves with a Python virtual environment on their system. The only caveat is that the ChromeDriver Python module will need to be updated and the rest of the code repackaged after some Chrome browser updates are applied. Barring any major changes to the browser or module, this work should take less than 15 minute in total, and I’ve included basic support updates in the terms of delivery.

Testing highlighted a few more issues on the document side but proved that the code I’d written was handling these exceptions as intended. By Monday evening into the third week, we had a release candidate delivered with partial validation. A misunderstanding on my part had required a last minute revision, and at the end of the weekend we were out of use cases to further test against. So we had to wait until the following weekend when more documents would arrive for processing.

The third and final weekend of the engagement brought a total of 71 documents. We arranged a Zoom session so my customer could share their screen and run the application, while I observed, so I could gather data related to any errors or failures. This would assist me in quickly addressing any last remaining issues.

The application was launched and we watched and chatted as the browser was programmatically navigated. One after another after another processed successfully. The tally at the end was 61 documents successfully processed, 9 documents kicked back due to data inconsistencies between the documents and the patient records (the code did what it was supposed to here), and 1 document that actually caused the website, itself, to error, and which wasn’t related to my code at all.

So what are my takeaways from this experience?

First and foremost, I need to better reconcile my estimates on how much time a given effort will take versus what a buyer is willing to pay. While my customer left me a generous 100% tip on top of the base negotiated price, calculating an hourly rate came out to be about as lucrative as driving for DoorDash, minus the wear-and-tear on my car, or the cost of gas. This is not to be construed as a slight to my customer, as I am thankful for the opportunity they presented me with, and I truly enjoyed both working with the code and working with them! I just won’t be replacing my day job with freelancing anytime soon at my current hourly productivity levels. As I get more efficient and faster at Python, the hourly ROI growth will naturally increase.

Secondly, it’s important to factor in that this was my first gig on the platform. Not only did I get paid to exercise existing skills as well as pick up a couple new ones, but I also got an AMAZING review from my customer which will help other buyers on the platform feel more confident in choosing me for their projects. I’m confident the more buyers I deliver quality and value to, the more positive reviews I’ll receive and the more opportunities will come my way.

I want to conclude by saying I most definitely see the potential for more freelance work through platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. Some will argue that the fees these platforms charge are a little steep, but I just see it as a mutually beneficial arrangement. Were it not for Fiverr, I would never have gotten this particular gig and the opportunities and challenges associated with it. I wouldn’t have gotten paid anything at all. I wouldn’t have met and connected with my customer. I wouldn’t have the reach I now have with the positive review I now have on Fiverr. Thank you so much, my first buyer on Fiverr (you know who you are) for reaching out and giving me the opportunity to, as you so eloquently put it, bring your vision to life.

For assistance with Python application development, visit https://brianalcorncom.wordpress.com/consulting/ for links to my Fiverr and Upwork profiles, or reach out directly to me through the contact form.

The post Fiverr Freelance Success: Python Coding for Medical Document Automation – Reflective Overview appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

Backstory

I’ve always been a little anxious and intense. I pushed myself hard in high school and my first stint through college, and then through police academy 20 years ago. I was actually fortunate enough to get full-time employment with a local police department within about 8 months of graduating from the academy.

I remember how much I’d poured into my perceived identity as a police officer, and what it was going to mean for my family. I caught on to most things pretty quickly. After my very first second shift/midnight shift double, where we spent the midnight shift on standby with riot gear at the ready in response to a risk of civil unrest that fortunately never materialized, I’d gone to sleep at 4am. At 6am, in a dream, I heard a police radio squelch tail (a beep after someone has keyed up to transmit and then released). At that very moment, I bolted straight upright in bed, adrenaline flooding my entire body. I immediately needed to used the bathroom.

Over the course of the next several hours, I remained in fully fight-or-flight response. I felt sincere dread that nothing would ever be okay again. My first full-blow panic attack. I went to the ER to get evaluated and received a couple days worth of the benzodiazepine Lorazepam.

Over the next few weeks, I experienced constant dread/fear/anxiety when I was out of uniform. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t think about anything else. I wasn’t even afraid of getting hurt in a fight, or getting stabbed or shot. My fear was that I wouldn’t or couldn’t do a good job. Soon, I came to the decision that police work was not going to be for me.

Quitting the police department was like losing a family member. I’d nurtured this dream for years and saw it come to fruition, only to have it slip through my fingers, with no one to blame but my inability to keep it together. I felt emasculated. I was completely lost.

Over the course of the next 2 years, I worked a couple warehouse jobs, and started back to college. Then I started in entry level PC Support. The first night, I had another panic attack. I reasoned that if I decided to quit my new job, I’d be able to go back to sleep. That was unrealistic. Hello, Impostor Syndrome…

Over the next decade, after NOT quitting my PC Support job, I rose up the rungs of IT infrastructure. I took citalopram (an SSRI) to keep me reasonable, but overall I’d overcome the early days. Or so I thought…

A relapse

In 2018, I left an employer after a month-long decline in my mental health. Call it anxiety/depression, or call it burnout. Either way, one day, enough was enough. I left without a plan. I was in no place to wait until I had a plan. I had to get out. So I did. Being a person of faith, I “let go and let God”, so to speak.

The first week, I didn’t do much. I was in no shape to think about the future. I was honestly mentally preparing for us to lose everything we’d worked so hard for up to that point. I didn’t know if I would or could find work. My wife and I drove around one day searching or a place to get some sort of counseling. It seemed like a good idea; we had to try something.

The second week, we had a trip to Orlando (Disney World) and Anna Maria Island planned and paid for before things started to sour. I determined that whatever happened on the other side of that week, I’d go and have a good time. So I did. I event felt good enough to start looking at IT jobs, and sent out my resume. I took a couple callbacks later that week. All hope was not lost!

From the cliffside leap to starting a new position, it was only a six week process. I’d somehow dodged a bullet and we didn’t lose everything. I was contract-to-hire but I knew I had good odds of being converted to full-time after the 3 month contract was up. And that’s what happened! I didn’t even have a panic attack during this time!

For about 4 months, I’d been going to counseling with a licensed therapist. I was also seeing a psychiatrist, and was prescribed a higher dose of citalopram for maintenance, as well as Alprazolam (Xanax) for emergencies. While I was doing what needed to be done at work, I was catatonic at home. Anxiety and depression were building up, and darkness was enveloping my psyche. I used to stare a little too longingly at lottery billboards that promised to shower me with cash and take me out of the rat race.

Just after Christmas, I mentioned in passing to my therapist that, while I was not planning on acting on it, I was almost daydreaming of ways I could end my life. I thought it was a harmless thought exercise. My therapist knew better, though, and by that afternoon I was booked for a one week stay, with the intention of addressing my lack of medication response.

That week gave me a chance to really evaluate what I was about, and what I wanted out of life. My citalopram was switched out to venlafaxine (an SNRI), the Xanax, that I wasn’t taking anyway, was switched to some sort of super charged anti-histamine (for fear of acquiring a dependency on Xanax.

Following that drastic but necessary week, I knew I didn’t want to end my life. I didn’t want to give up. But there was a long road ahead of me. Little did I know that five-and-a-half years later, I’d be writing this blog post, from the other side.

My catatonia outside of work continued in earnest for at least 2 years after that. We added Rexulti to my medication list, and I was at least calm, if not slightly sedated. I was much quieter and less vibrant. And if I got stressed, I suffered from a condition called psychogenic dysphonia – I’d lose my voice.

Eventually, I rediscovered reading, and started devouring books. It was something more than watching TV, and quieted my subconscious so I could have a reprieve from the darkness. I also discovered an appreciation for fishing magazines. One of my favorites was Field and Stream until it stopped publishing after its 125th anniversary issue.

During the pandemic, I also sought a few challenges. I obtained my Technician and General Amateur Radio licenses, and began operating on the air occasionally. On the work front I studied for and earned a couple professional certifications. I was making progress.

About three years into my dark time, we impulse bought a new house. You read that right. We weren’t looking, but we fell into an opportunity, and were in a financial position to take advantage. Had the opportunity come one or two years earlier, I wouldn’t have had the capacity to process and adjust to all the upheaval that comes with moving.

In the fall after we moved into the new house, I worked feverishly on a data center migration project for work. I was the technical liaison, drawing diagrams, submitting firewall rule requests, and strategizing with the business unit who was making the move. This continued through early February, and before many remote meetings (still COVID-era) I’d find myself getting worked up and gagging/dry-heaving. It happened so often that I started to laugh at myself. It was silly.

That next spring, I received a promotion at work. They were certainly pleased with the value I was delivering, regardless of how I saw myself. I cut my venlafaxine dose in half, under the care of my psychiatrist, and continued to make progress. At some point we cut the venlafaxine dose in half again, where it’s stayed since. I went from 150mg/day to 37.5mg/day.

The last two years have been like waking up really slowly. Confidence and contentment have been winning out. I’ve been exploring my christian faith more deeply, even leading a church small group we host in our home for the last year. I started a project at work in January that I’ve been really excited about, and we’re seeing success as we progress through the year.

If you’ve followed my blog, well, you know I started a blog. I also got into vintage stereo equipment.

The Present

This brings us to the most recent six weeks, as of this writing. Rexulti, prescribed as an adjunctive therapy for Major Depressive Disorder, was getting hard to find in stock to refill. At my last check-in with my psychiatrist, we agreed to switch me to Abilify, and begin tapering me off this class of medication altogether – if and only if I don’t have any relapses.

I may have jumped the gun a bit, but I was on 2mg/day of Rexulti, and got 1mg/day of Abilify, and immediately halved those pills. The only comparison I’ve been able to find was someone on Reddit (it’s on the internet so it has to be true!) suggesting that Rexulti was 5x stronger/more effective than Abilify. Mathematically, I was taking 10mg worth of Abilify in the form of Rexulti (not apples to apples, I know), and now I’m taking .5mg.

Let me tell you what’s happened since I made that change:

• While on Rexulti, I was sleeping 11-12 hours a night. Now, I can only sleep 6-7 hours.

• I’ve lost 11 lbs without really trying. I’m more outgoing and talkative. I look forward to the day’s challenges ahead at work.

• I stopped biting my finger nails

• I planned out my professional development in the form of certifications I’m pursuing for the next 3 years and shared it with my boss.

• I took a long weekend for July 4th, and during that time decided to try to start up a consulting side hustle in addition to my primary employment

• I’ve gotten interested in testing technology again in my home lab – I resurrected my old rack-mounted server, updated one Linux laptop, and obtained another laptop and dual-installed Fedora and Kali Linux on it

Since stopping Rexulti, and tapering off Abilify, I feel like I’ve finally woken up again and am more of the me I used to be than I have been in a really long time. I have no plans to change my venlafaxine dosage for the foreseeable future. My psychiatrist and I agree we have a good thing going on the maintenance dosage.

If you’re reading this and you’re in the thick of the fight, I want to encourage you to stick it out, play the long game. Work with your support system to navigate the days you don’t want to get out of bed, the mood swings, the quietness and lethargy. Thank your family, friends, and care team for being there when it’s not easy to be. Things can and do get better.

The post Rebuilding Life: Confronting Mental Health Challenges appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

My last blog post was immediately after we returned from a spring break trip to Orange Beach, Alabama. I really enjoyed the downtime and to be honest, I simply got lazy and distracted and time got away from me. As one sometimes does with a new project, initial interest is intense, but as time goes on, without proper discipline, things fall by the wayside.

Couple my lack of discipline with some struggles coming up with content ideas (reverse-inspired by enjoying one less responsibility), and here we are 3 months later.

What have I been up to?

I haven’t really mentioned it on the blog up to this point, but about 6 years ago I struggled with intense professional burnout and major anxiety and depression. This continued for about a 3 year period before I started to see marked improvements. And in the past year to year-and-a-half, it’s as if I’ve been “waking up” to be and feel more like my new and improved self. Most recently, I’ve found myself becoming really interested in hobbies – old and new. A recent medication change seems to have opened up a whole new world of interest and drive that has been unexpected, but welcome.

What’s next for brianalcorn.com – blog focus?

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been bouncing around ideas for what the blog focus will be for the foreseeable future. I believe I’ve settled on a technical blog with some lifestyle related content peppered in here and there. The blog will continue to grow and improve as my writing and organization improves. I hope you will all come along on the journey with me.

Vintage Audio

About a month ago, I purchased a vintage Yamaha CR-620 receiver from eBay, at a moderate steal. A couple weeks later, I bought some vintage Klipsch KG4 speakers to pair with this receiver. I’m in the middle of some light restoration/repair on the receiver right now, but as soon as this initial phase is complete I’ll be posting an article describing my buying adventures, repair experience, and opinion on resulting sound quality.

Career Development

On the career front, I have a few irons in the fire: I’ve compiled a list of certifications I’m pursuing between now and the end of 2026, and I’m launching a freelance Python and Ansible Development side hustle. Python and Ansible content will become more common on this blog, and will include links to my personal GitHub.

Mental Health

I will go into detail on what I experienced, and how I recovered from what we refer to in my inner circle as “the dark time”. I’ll discuss medication, therapy, coping mechanisms, and conclude with an update on how I’m doing now.

The post It’s Been Awhile – Blog Focus Pivot appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

I haven’t posted in almost 2 weeks, in part, because I was away on vacation for one of those weeks. Some of our family journeyed to the Gulf of Mexico to enjoy a little sun and sand for spring break. It’s become a bit of a tradition at this point – not just the spring break, but the spring break in Orange Beach, Alabama. This is my second, and our family’s third, trip in about 4 years to Orange Beach.

The above pic was taken shortly after our arrival at our condo, while we were still unloading and unpacking, but hey, that view! It was a good 20 degrees warmer, with a lot of sunshine, compared to southwest Ohio.

Day 2 was expected, but still a bit surprising. Watching the double-red flags dance for their lives in the gusty wind told us all we needed about being outside.

After a day of wind and a day of rain, we finally got the sunshine we’d sought after, which continued for the rest of the week. Varying levels of sunburns were earned and treated within the family, and lots of beach time and even some water time were spent.

Many of the morning were glorious, with the sun slowly rising in the East. Being a bit of a late riser usually, even I found myself getting up comparatively early with views like this to look forward to.

The evening Golden Hour most days lived up to the name. I found myself regretting not taking my DSLR to get better photos, but my phone’s cameras did their best – and the subjects were optimal all week.

Orange Beach is just a little East of Gulf Shores, and a little West of Pensacola, Florida. There are lots of things to do there, lots of shops, restaurants, places to get drinks, etc. A little inland there is a place called The Wharf that packs a lot of options into a single area. If you have children and/or like to shop, and you need a break from the beach, you should check it out.

Most of the time when I’m on vacation, much to my wife’s chagrin, I prefer to stay in the condo, on the beach, or in the pool. I venture out for short supply runs, or occasionally go on fishing trips if I’m feeling up to dealing with sea-sickness while out. The white, sandy beaches found in Orange Beach as well as elsewhere along the Gulf coast are perfect for me.

Do you venture to the Gulf of Mexico on vacation? What destinations have you enjoyed? Where haven’t you been that you’d like to go? Comment below!

The post Down Time appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

Day 1

On Tuesday this week, after a period of inactivity post-enrollment, someone from DoorDash reached out to me to see if there was any reason I hadn’t dashed yet, and the suggestion was made to do a single delivery ahead of St. Patrick’s Day weekend, to make sure I didn’t have any questions, and that everything went smoothly. I thought it over, and decided to accept the challenge on my way home.

I should have known this evening wasn’t like most evenings. I have about 30 miles of interstate driving between the office and home, and it’s typically uneventful, beyond the expected slowdown areas. But on this Tuesday evening, I encountered three accidents on the way home that delayed me by 40 minutes.

Once I got off the interstate at my exit, I pressed “Dash Now” in the Dasher app, and within 20 seconds had my first order pop up. I was to pick up at Chipotle, which was just off the next intersection. I turned right at the light and was immediately met with police activity in the opposing lanes, so I turned onto a side street and snaked my way to Chipotle.

As I approached the parking lot, I met with 3 police cruiser at the entrance to the store ( Was my first delivery going to be a bust?). Fortunately, the officers were clearing out as I parked and I was able to get inside and pick up my inaugural order and get back to my car without any additional delays. The destination was 3 or 4 miles from Chipotle, and was uneventful.

After completing my first delivery, I started driving back to my hot spot near the interstate, but quickly received another order to be picked up in the opposite direction at White Castle. Okay, not too far, so I accepted.

When I got to White Castle, I went to the counter and let them know I had a DoorDash order. The time was 6:50pm, and I learned soon after that this location closes at 7pm. the driveway was packed with hungry people, so I had to wait – and wait I did – until 7:20pm. Now, credit where credit is due, the staff apologized several times, and even gave me a sack of sliders for the road for being patient and understanding – so not a complete loss.

Once I had the order in the car, I looked at the destination: 2 towns away (someone really wanted their White Castle). This wasn’t really the direction I wanted to head, but I didn’t have anything pressing, so it wasn’t hurting anything. Heading 2 exits north, I jumped on the interstate and was on my way.

Approaching the first exit, I saw another interstate slowdown in a spot that doesn’t usually back up. Ruh-roh. Another mile later, I spotted the source – a late 90s F-150 had gone off road and was on top of a fence and honeysuckle. Emergency crews were on the scene.

Another half mile and I was exiting the interstate, continuing to my destination. At the next intersection, I was heading east, but in the northbound lanes, south of the intersection – and thankfully not impacting my progress – there was yet more police activity! I turned northbound and continued on.

A few more turns and I was in the apartment complex where my delivery was to be made. I circled twice and eventually found the side entrance referenced on the order. I dropped off the food and took a photo to prove it. Then I had an uneventful 30 minute trip home after an hour of dashing 2 orders. Mission accomplished.

Day 2

Undaunted by my first evening, concluding it was just a really crazy travel day for many, for no good reason, I pressed the “Dash Now” button again. I was intending on doing a one and done delivery. Immediately I was offered an order at Applebee’s, so I accepted. A minute late, while still en route, I was offered an additional delivery on the route, but declined because I just wanted to do this one delivery.

Well, the Dasher app had other plans. After warning me my driver rating could take a hit for declining a delivery, not 15 seconds later another delivery was offered on my current route. So as to not lower my rating even further, I went ahead and accepted it – a nearby Mexican restaraunt.

Both of these pickups were uneventful. Restaurant staff was courteous both places, and both these deliveries were actually on my way home. Up to this point I’d had all “leave the food at the door” orders, but my last delivery was labelled “hand the food to me”. This, too, was uneventful, just a pleasant exchange and I was done for the night. 30 minutes.

Conclusion

The first night, if I’d let it, could have turned me off to the whole thing. But in all honesty, I knew it was an outlier. I never see that much police activity on my normal route. I made $23 for an hour of driving. The second night was much more normal, and the deliveries were on my way home, so all in all a better experience that netted $10 in 30 minutes.

My average payout so far is ~$20/hr. If I factor in 30% for taxes, and then a little more for gas/maintenance, I feel like I’m only netting $10/hr, which while not the worst thing in the world for a side hustle, isn’t going to make me rich, but having only given 90 minutes to the process in total, it’s some extra money for going out, gas, or paying down student loans. In fact, since I like driving on the whole, I plan on driving for at least a couple hours on St. Patrick’s Day this Sunday to see if I can raise the average pay a little bit. This may not be the last you hear of DoorDash on this blog. Time will tell.

Do you drive for DoorDash, GrubHub, or UberEats? What’s been your experience? Comment below!

The post Gig Economy – initial thoughts on driving for DoorDash appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

A few years ago I started collecting vinyl albums – jazz initially, like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, etc. Along the way I also picked up some classic rock albums like Boston, Styx, AC/DC. More recently, I’ve obtained some 90s alternative LPs and some indie/folk.

My vinyl gets played on a nothing-special Audio-Technica AT-LP60. It’s a solid entry-level turntable that gets the job done, but doesn’t feel substantial in the user interface department. I’ve spent months looking at potential upgrades, but haven’t settled on anything just yet.

I listen in 2-channel stereo, with no subwoofer at the moment. I accomplish an astonishing sound field with two Klipsch R-610F speakers (pictured below). These are rear-ported tower speakers with exceptionally balanced bass, mid, and treble. I’m honestly amazed at the amount of bass I get from the woofer/port combo. The performance probably also has something to do with how close these are set to the wall right now.

Over the past 4 years, my receiver has changed from an old Panasonic 5.1 channel home theater to a Sony 2-channel STR-DH190, to a newly acquired, reconditioned Sansui 6060 receiver. This latest acquisition was a few months in the making, researching and watching eBay auctions until I found just the right balance of performance over cost.

When I’m not spinning vinyl, I use a Wiim Mini fed into a Schiit Modi 3E DAC (digital to analog converter) then fed into the Aux ports on the Sansui to listen to a variety of streaming sources, with Spotify being my primary go-to. Using a media streamer on Wi-Fi gives a much better audio experience than Bluetooth connectivity.

My current setup never gets played above 50% volume out of the Sansui, with the EQ flat. The Klipsch R-610F speakers, by themselves, perform quite well with a clean-to-warm sound signature, and fill a 25 foot tall great room quite well, without overpowering it.

As mentioned above, I’m on the hunt for a turntable upgrade. One contender is the U-Turn Audio Orbit 2 Plus, while another is the Dayton Audio Belt-driven turnatable. Both have the aesthetics and many options I’m looking for.

In the next year or so we are planning on moving my stereo system into our finished basement, which is a much smaller space than our great room. Where it sits today is effectively the “dining room”, and is less than ideal. Once in the basement, I’ll be able to better position the speakers, out and aimed at the listening position instead of against the wall. I expect a much different experience, and might have to even downsize to some JBL L-52 speakers (maybe, maybe not). A subwoofer might be added later on if I feel it’s necessary with any speaker changes, but right now I don’t need it.

While I LOVE the performance of the Sansui 6060, I’d like to possibly obtain a 7070, 8080 or 9090, if for no other reason than for more headroom. This is certainly not a must have, as the 6060 doesn’t underperform in my current space – and is probably more than enough for the smaller room it will be going into soon.

Finally, I’d like to combine the media streamer and DAC functionality, but that will be further down the line, as I already have ~$200 invested in this portion of the system, and it works great!

Some will argue that this equipment is not true audiophile quality, and that may be true, but I’m looking at it as a journey. As my ears and tastes mature and my financial means grow the sky is the limit as to what sort of equipment I’ll eventually have. Are you an audiophile or music fan? Do you have a sound system you’ve built out? Are you happy with it or do you have regrets or room for improvement? Comment below!

The post Audiophile “lite” appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

For more detail about setting up an Ansible directory structure, follow this link.

In the common role inside main.yml we implement the following code (I’ll break it down further later):

- name: Import commons simple_allow_users variables
  ansible.builtin.include_vars:
    file: common_simple_allow_users.yml
- name: Add users to SSSD simple_allow_users string
  ansible.builtin.set_fact:
    simple_allow_users: "{{ lookup('community.general.merge_variables', 'common_simple_allow_users') | to_yaml | regex_replace('\\[|\\]|\\\n ', '') }}"
  when:
    - ansible_facts['os_family'] == 'RedHat' and ansible_facts  ['distribution_major_version'] >= '9'
- name: Test Ouput
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: " {{ simple_allow_users }}"
  when:
    - ansible_facts['os_family'] == 'RedHat' and ansible_facts  ['distribution_major_version'] >= '9'
- name: Add simple_allow_users value to sssd.conf
  ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
    path: /etc/sssd/sssd.conf
    regexp: '^simple_allow_users = '
    line: 'simple_allow_users = {{ simple_allow_users }}'
  notify: Restart SSSD
  when:
    - ansible_facts['os_family'] == 'RedHat' and ansible_facts  ['distribution_major_version'] >= '9'

The first task imports the common_simple_allow_users.yml vars file from common as follows:

---
common_simple_allow_users:
  - 'user1'
  - 'user2'
  - 'user3'

The second task took me several hours to work through, as I needed the list from common_simple_allow_users to output a certain way for the sssd.conf file to be properly formatted:

- name: Add users to SSSD simple_allow_users string
  ansible.builtin.set_fact:
    simple_allow_users: "{{ lookup('community.general.merge_variables', 'common_simple_allow_users') | to_yaml | regex_replace('\\[|\\]|\\\n ', '') }}"
  when:
    - ansible_facts['os_family'] == 'RedHat' and ansible_facts  ['distribution_major_version'] >= '9'

Note the community.general.merge_variables collection being called to merge items from common_simple_allow_users variable list. Piping this into “to_yaml” gives output that needs some additional cleanup, hence piping into regex_replace(‘\[|\]|\\n ‘, ”). which FINALLY gives me the output of user1, user2 without additional symbols cluttering the ansible fact.

The next task is optional, as it simply outputs the fact in a human readable format on the Ansible output, which was actually quite helpful while working through the formatting issues.

- name: Test Ouput
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: " {{ simple_allow_users }}"
  when:
    - ansible_facts['os_family'] == 'RedHat' and ansible_facts  ['distribution_major_version'] >= '9'

The final task takes the created Ansible fact “simple_allow_users” and creates/replaces the line we need in sssd.conf:

- name: Add simple_allow_users value to sssd.conf
  ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
    path: /etc/sssd/sssd.conf
    regexp: '^simple_allow_users = '
    line: 'simple_allow_users = {{ simple_allow_users }}'
  notify: Restart SSSD
  when:
    - ansible_facts['os_family'] == 'RedHat' and ansible_facts  ['distribution_major_version'] >= '9'

Following all this, in the handlers/main.yml file of the common role, you create the following handler for sssd, so if the line in sssd.conf is change, the sssd service is restarted.

- name: Restart SSSD
    service:
      name: sssd
      state: restarted

This is one possible solution for managing the simple_allow_users field in /etc/sssd.conf, and restarting sssd if the line is change or created so that you can restrict by username which LDAP users are able to login to your servers. You could also leverage this same approach, substituting simple_allow_groups, if you have LDAP groups that you would like to use instead. Our current implementation isn’t as robust, hence the approach outlined here.

Have you run into similar situation? How did you solve for your scenario? Do you see anywhere I can improve the process I’ve outlined here? If you’re looking for more Ansible content, check out this post.

The post Ansible SSSD simple_allow_users appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

We closed on the new house at the end of July/beginning of August, and then had to spend a month or so moving from and selling our previous home. There weren’t any major hurdles or roadblocks, just some physical effort required. So sometime in September we started asking around for specialists to bring our indoor pool up to snuff. We quickly learned that at least as far as the pool was concerned, we’d taken a risk, and didn’t get the expected return on investment.

Only one company would even look at the pool, because of its age, and I assume some sort of liability concerns. The gentleman who did show up had to borrow my fishing waders to get in and evaluate the plumbing. The end result was a conclusion that the water lines embedded in 3 feet or concrete were shot – as in swiss cheese. His company, however, wasn’t interested in even quoting the required work. It was just too much, and there was no telling what else we’d run into.

Initial Triage Attempt

So in late September, we rented a trash pump locally, and emptied the pool. No sense in keeping water in it if it wasn’t swimmable, after all. The pool rested fallow through the holidays and the end of the year. Fast forward to New Years Day, 2022, we had been experiencing very wet weather, and I went out to the pool room for some reason, and noticed water seeping in around the bottom seem, and sheeting down into the deep end of the pool. At this point, we’d been considering building a wooden deck over the pool, so we could have additional gathering space. Now with the pool taking on water, would we need to install a sump pump? Things were getting weird.

By April, the pool had filled up to 3′ below capacity. As it turns out, we have a relatively high water table, and groundwater infiltrates the pool like a sieve. The humidity became a concern, so we turned on the ventilation fan to mange it. But what to do…

An Idea

Over the next several months, I had the idea that, if the pool was going to fill in with groundwater anyway, why not put fish in it? I started suggesting this in jest to my wife at first, but after awhile, it didn’t seem such a bad idea, all things considered.

Something I should mention at this point is that I have kept aquariums full of fish, ranging from cold water goldfish to full on coral reef aquariums since I was 14 years old. So I know a little bit about keeping fish alive and flourishing. I once had a pet piranha that lived 11 years…

So I started doing some research. I knew that goldfish and koi would love the space available, but I had other ideas in mind – bass and bluegill. It turns out, very few people post online about a 10,000 gallon “pond” and whether its suitable for gamefish; but there also wasn’t any information flat out telling me I was crazy. So I had my plan. And if things didn’t work out, I had a plan B. My sister-in-law and her husband had just bought some acreage with a 1 acre pond that I could transfer any remaining fish to if the pool was untenable.

Preparation for Fish

In September of 2022, we drained and cleaned the pool once again, banking on groundwater refilling the pool. I asked a few friends to save their cut Christmas trees for structure and tossed them in the deep end. By February, there was some water, but nowhere near enough to support a flourishing colony of the kinds of fish I was intending on adding. Would this be a bust, too?

Thankfully, by April, the pool was roughly filled to where it had been the year before. It was time. We have a fish farm truck out of Arkansas that comes several times a spring to a local store to provide a stocking source for people with farm ponds. About a week before, I added some pond formulated bacteria to the pool, then kept another bottle on hand for adding along with the fish.

Adding the Fish

Sadly, I don’t have any pics of the bags or videos of adding the fish the day we got them. I just didn’t have the fore thought that I’d be blogging about it a year later. Initial numbers were 6 largemouth bass and 30 bluegill.

By the end of May, I’d decided I wanted to build up the population of bluegill to increase the odds that they will breed and provide a more natural food source to the largemouth bass. By this time, I was down to 4 largemouths, and pretty close to 25 or so bluegills. So when the truck came again, I obtained 50 more bluegill.

Adding More Fish

Up to this point I’d been feeding all the fish gamefish pellets, and they were more than happy to consume – and growing quickly. To give the new bluegill fish a fighting chance to find cover in the Christmas trees, I threw a handful of pellets in, distracting the bass; however as soon as the new bluegills hit the water, disoriented from their travels, the bass saw opportunity. Did I mention they had grown quickly? Previously 4-6 inch bass were now 8-12 inches. I estimate at least 25 of the 50 new bluegill were immediately food.

Over the course of the past year, the 4 bass have continued to grow, all solidly 12-16 inches in length, and there are some huge bluegills as well. I estimate the bluegill populate to be at least 30 at this point, which I hope is enough. Here are a few pics:

Here are the bass, schooled up.

The clump of Christmas trees for cover.

The Christmas trees, and a wider shot of the deep end.

In the last photo, you can see my aerator, rated for 10,000 gallons. The stones were originally closer to the middle, but don’t weigh enough to stay in place. As such, the air lines have coiled up over time, but the fish don’t seem to be in distress.

For lighting, I turned to the hydroponic industry, and am experimenting with a 340W LED fixture (3000W equivalent), and hope to add 2 more on a timer system to see if I can sustain any aquatic vegetation.

What’s Next

We need to have an electrician come in and add a circuit(s) for the lighting. I have one more Christmas tree from 2023 to add to the shallow end for fry (baby fish) cover, in case the bluegills breed successfully. I need to come up with a way to weigh down the air stones so the aeration can be closer to the deep end.

Conclusion

While the indoor pond doesn’t look the prettiest right now, I have been surprised with just how quickly these fish grew. There are eating size bluegill – they call them “panfish” for a reason – that I sometimes mistake for the bass. The bass are all around 1 lb and 12-16 inches in length. Time will tell how large the bass might get, and if the bluegill will breed in the pool, but so far I’m at a point where I just need to focus on aesthetics, and consider how I may add some small catfish without drawing the attention of the bass. Both species are thick and healthy, so I’m calling year one a success!

Do you have a farm pond? Koi or goldfish? Or have you, like me, turned a swimming pool – weather indoor or outdoor – into a life sustaining pond? Comment below!

The post When Life Gives You a Defunct Swimming Pool, Make a Pond! appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

https://ansible.com describes Ansible as follows:

“Ansible is an open-source, command-line IT automation software application written in Python. It can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate advanced workflows to support application deployment, system updates, and more.

Ansible’s main strengths are simplicity and ease of use.”

You can do quite a lot with Ansible, but sometimes it’s hard to find a solid example of something you can do with it that is both immediately useful and not a huge undertaking. This article will describe how to set up a simple directory structure, as well as give you a working playbook that calls a role that will patch and, if needed, reboot your Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers.

First, let’s go over the filesystem layout I typically choose to work with. Further information is available here.

In my case, I have this directory structure in ~/git/ansible. I strongly recommend you leverage source control, be that GitHub or GitLab, or something else. Assume I have remote_user configured in ansible.cfg with the right to SSH and sudo to root on the target hosts defined in the inventory file.

I have created a _role_template directory under roles. This is a cheat sheet, if you will, for me to remember the most common components of a role. For what we’re doing here, the patching role only needs a main.yml file under roles/patching/tasks.

Ansible Role

Now for the code. Below are the contents of roles/patching/tasks/main.yml…

---
- name: DNF update the system
  ansible.builtin.dnf:
    name: "*"
    state: latest
    update_only: true
  when:
    - ansible_facts['os_family'] == 'RedHat' and ansible_facts  ['distribution_major_version'] >= '8'
- name: YUM update the system
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: "*"
    state: latest
    update_only: true
  when:
    - ansible_facts['os_family'] == 'RedHat' and ansible_facts  ['distribution_major_version'] == '7'
- name: Reboot required
  ansible.builtin.command: "/usr/bin/needs-restarting -r"
  register: reboot_required
  ignore_errors: true
  changed_when: reboot_required != 0
  failed_when: false
- name: Rebooting
  ansible.builtin.reboot:
    post_reboot_delay: 60
  throttle: 1
  when: reboot_required.rc == 1

As you can see, the tasks in this file execute patching using ‘dnf’ for RHEL 8+ or ‘yum’ for RHEL 7. Using these conditional blocks allows me to use a single role, regardless of OS major release, instead of having to author and maintain separate roles for each scenario.

The tasks then continue to evaluate whether or not the target systems needs to reboot after patching, and based on that, either reboot them or not.

Ansible Playbook

On to the playbook, patching-conditional-role.yml. Here is where we call the patching role:

---
- name: Patching Linux Servers
  hosts: all
  gather_facts: true
  become: true
  roles:
    - patching

As you can see, the playbook is very simple in this case, with all the heavy lifting taking place in the role. Using roles allows you to easily reuse code, without having to duplicate it. The patching role can be incorporate as-is into additional playbooks that may have additional roles and/or plays included.

Conclusion

In this high-level overview of Ansible, we have looked at the directory structure and the use of a role in a playbook to patch your RHEL server infrastructure. You can easily leverage this code in your own environment to conditionally patch and reboot RHEL servers. If you’ve found this useful, or have ideas on how to expand this – or other- Ansible playbook/role content, please comment below.

If you’re looking for assistance with Ansible playbooks, roles, or proper design, implementation, and maintenance of Ansible Automation Platform, reach out at https://brianalcorncom.wordpress.com/consulting/. Also, if you’re looking for more Ansible content, check out this post.

The post A Beginner Ansible Playbook that DOES Something appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

We’ve now been in our new home for two-and-a-half years. It’s a mid-century A-Frame just outside of town, with a few acres of land to call our own. We found ourselves in a really good financial position to cherry-pick this home from an estate sale (as-is) at a bit of a discount, even in a multiple offer scenario. This was due to following Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps.

It would be nice to say we continued on our previous path with maintaining little to no debt (except for my student loans, which were in deferment due to the COVID pandemic), and socking away money, but alas, that was not the case. We racked up some credit card debt over the past few years, for a few needs, and in all honesty, too many wants. Recently I started re-reading some of Ramsey Solutions’ book offerings, to rekindle a little personal finance romance.

In addition to re-reads, my renewed interest in getting a better handle on our personal finances coincided with the release of George Kamel’s book, Breaking Free From Broke. What I liked about this book was that it is a fresh perspective and presentation on Dave Ramsey’s overall personal finance approach, detailed in The Total Money Makeover. George owns his millennial generational identity, and reaches to an expanded audience that might not be as quick to pick up Dave’s books.

Coupled with George’s platform as a Ramsey personality, he also has a YouTube channel, where he uses media and memes to keep the topics he discusses engaging and light-hearted – while still getting the message across. I find myself lightly binging his videos while sipping on coffee or winding down from the work day, and I highly recommend you try him out.

To say our personal finances are magically back on track to pre-new-house status would be a lie, but we are once again focused on paying down credit card and student loan debt, following a budget, and “telling our money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”

We’re still fine-tuning our budget and trying to squeeze as much value out of each dollar that comes in as reasonably possible. We are aiming at paying off the credit card debt in full by the end of this year, and my student loans the following 1-2 years. We have no car loans, as I like 20-year-old luxury vehicles, and we’ve paid cash for our last two purchases. Once the credit card and student loan debt are cleared, we will follow the next Baby Step of saving up 3-6 months of expenses in our emergency fund, and then we get to increase our retirement contributions to 15% and fast track paying off the house. After that, we will be focused on building wealth and living and giving like no one else!

I would like to express my gratitude for what Dave Ramsey and George Kamel, specifically, have contributed to our personal finance journey. While we have ebbed and flowed in the Baby Steps for nearly 20 years, and still have a bit of work ahead of us, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I believe we are at a point in our lives where we can take this seriously and see it through the the desired outcome – financial freedom.

I know Dave Ramsey isn’t for everyone. Do you agree with his approach? Have you tried it in the past or are currently working the Baby Steps? Comment below!

The post Rekindling Personal Finance Romance appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

I took the exam on a Wednesday morning at a testing center 3.5 hours from where I live, because our home currently doesn’t have space conducive to taking a proctored online exam. On that Monday I took the day to finalize my preparation and rest up. On Tuesday morning I drove north to Livonia, MI, to scope out the testing center and get settled into my hotel room.

After being on the road for an hour, I suddenly realized I hadn’t brought my laptop charger. This wasn’t ideal, since I had planned on going through some practice scenarios that evening. I was now limited to the charge on my laptop battery to get me through. It was too late to turn around now.

Weather reports showed a line of wintry mix extending from Detroit southward to where I live. Fortunately, I’d have a few hours before dealing with anything concerning, but it also meant I couldn’t take my sweet time getting from point A to point B.

All but the last hour of the drive was uneventful for that stretch of interstate. Once, I reached Toledo, OH, however, the snow started to fall. Another half hour north, road conditions deteriorated considerably. It wasn’t until I finally exited the interstate that I quickly learned just how dicey the situation was. 

I instinctively slowed way down as I approached the exit ramp, and for good reason. There ended up being 4 inches of unplowed, wet, slippery snow leading to an equally concerning intersection. As I came to a stop, my car inexplicably slid to the right – only a few inches, but enough for me to realize just how dangerous conditions were.

I still had about 2 miles to the testing center on surface roads that weren’t cleared at all. I pushed the SNOW button on my car’s dash and proceeded with caution. My car is rear-wheel drive and heavy, so it tends to “complain” in slick conditions. Fortunately, most of my remaining route to the testing center was on straight roads, with only 2 right turns.

After locating the testing center, I proceeded along a series of side streets to get back to my hotel. After making several slow, but uneventful turns, I arrived, and parked my car. I’d be walking anywhere I wanted to go for the evening.

After checking in and dropping my luggage and laptop bag in my room, I decided I’d try Buca di Beppo, since it was close, and who doesn’t want to carb load before a heavy study session? I severely underestimated the amount of food in a meal, laughed to myself, and dug into a family-sized bowl of fettuccini alfredo.

After dinner, it was time to study. So I opened my laptop and emailed myself the eBook I’d been referencing so I could view it on my phone, and alternated between 20 minutes of studying Linux command line and 10 minutes of “The Best of Top Gear” on PlutoTV.

I shut everything down at 9:45pm, and tossed and turned in a strange bed in a strange town, anxious to get my exam over with, and fighting indigestion from too-much-dinner. I lay awake until 11:45pm, and then woke up frequently until at 5:45am, I decided I was up for the day, and got ready for breakfast.

After breakfast, I was back to late stage cramming, hoping to retain a few commands and scenarios that aren’t common in my daily job. At 9:15am, I headed to the testing center. My exam was at 10am.

At the testing center, I got checked in and shown to the room I’d be examining in. I logged in, and immediately got an error about a streaming service not connecting. I reached out to the proctor and after 10 minutes of the Support team looking at and rebooting the test system, I was told there was an issue and that there was no ETA for a fix. The proctor asked how long I would wait, and I explained that I’d driven 3.5 hours from home, and that I’d wait as long as necessary.

Thankfully, after another 25 minutes, I was instructed to log in again and begin the exam. I’d somehow kept my nerves in check, and was still just ready to rip off the band-aid and get it over with.

All I can say about the actual exam is that probably 70-75% of it was almost “fun”. It was right in my wheelhouse, activities I do daily. The remainder was a bit more challenging – made more so by the lack of laptop charging capabilities the night before which kept me from practicing scenarios. With about 20 minutes left, I decided I’d done all I could do, and the rest was in God’s hands. I closed out with the proctor and immediately headed to my car to make the 3.5 hours journey back home.

If I recall correctly, the roads were in much better shape, but for the first hour I was going through all the stages of grief. I knew I hadn’t aced the exam. I left some activities unfinished, so while I was still hopeful for a passing score, I have a melancholic bent, and was preparing for the worst, while slimly hoping for the best. But eventually, after pleading with God, and thinking over what I’d do if I didn’t pass, I found I’d come to a good place, and had released it to be what it would be.

Now, just because one releases something to be what it will be, doesn’t mean one doesn’t want to know the results as soon as possible. Each chance I got on the way home and during that evening, I checked my corporate email for the expected email. Red Hat says it can take up the 3 days, but most people reported getting results the same or next day.

By the time I went to bed that night, I still didn’t have my results. I guess because of the psychological stress of the previous couple of days, I strangely slept through the night, which never happens. I usually wakeup at midnight, then hourly thereafter. But on this night, I slept through until 6am. 

On my personal phone next to the bed I logged in to my Red Hat Learning Subscription (RHLS) portal, and instead of showing “Pending Results” for the exam, it showed “Complete”. Well what does “Complete” mean? It didn’t clearly indicate a pass or fail, so I got up and went downstairs to get my corporate phone. There was the email, timestamped 2:21am – I’d PASSED!

I ended up scoring a little better than I’d expected. Though not a perfect score, I also didn’t pass only by the skin of my teeth. I’d prevailed against something that I’d put a lot of weight on, and had built a lot of anticipation for over the course of a decade. 

I used to get riled up when unplanned or unfortunate events took place on a trip, but I learned years ago to embrace these little adventures. And adventure is the word for it. Some say it’s “not the destination, but the journey”, and I’ve come to appreciate that. The unplanned challenges along the way add flavor to an otherwise routine or dull activity.

I hope you’ve found enjoyment in this chronicle of my RHCSA exam journey. I pushed myself in risking failure to see if I was truly proficient as an RHCSA on RHEL 9, rather than studying and preparing until it was all rote. Being a perfectionist by nature, this was a departure from my typical certification exam prep, but it has given me confidence to push the envelope in the future. Next step? Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).

The post Adventures in Certification – RHCSA 9 appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

With the seemingly sudden onset of Generative AI, all facets of professional and personal life have been impacted. From corporate IT to the music industry, to graphic design, people are struggling to make heads or tails of the legal and ethical challenges associated with this new field of content generation.

I love the Terminator franchise, but that’s partly because I’m a big Arnold Schwarzenegger fan – and can anyone dismiss the impact the original “The Matrix” had on the world? But these movies and TV shows, as well as many others, have fostered an extremely cynical view of a real-life future where we, at best, cooperate with “the machines” or, at worst, are seen by rapidly learning AI as redundant or an obstacle to be removed.

Now, before you think I am a relic of the past, completely against Generative AI, I must admit that the image attached to this post was AI generated. And I played with ChatGPT right after its launch to generate a bare bones Ansible playbook to serve as a starting point for some new automation – especially after spending five years almost exclusively performing configuration management at scale with Puppet. It’s easy, it’s convenient, it’s fun. I get it!

My company’s security group has since forbidden all AI generated code, and is monitoring traffic to those sites. With the convenience and ease of access to generated code comes the concern that a developer may implement poorly secured code into a Production environment. Worse still, if a developer has a deadline they are rushing to meet, or has a lazy day, are they taking the time to understand the code they are implementing? 

Jeff Goldblum’s character in “Jurassic Park” says the following that applies really well to Generative AI, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” We are seeing AI generated art, music, books and other written works. Will this eventually displace artists, musicians, and authors? I, for one, hope not. 

And what about AI pretending to be human? There is at least one account detailing how an AI bot attempted to bypass a CAPTCHA by impersonating a human needing assistance. I don’t see AI as inherently evil, but by its very nature (can you say AI has a “nature”? I just did), it will seek out any means necessary to solve a problem. Are there guardrails? Sure, but you can’t always outwit unbridled ingenuity. 

I still believe that Generative AI can be used for good. But as Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” I’ve also observed in my lifetime that with greater freedom to do good comes greater freedom to do evil. Generative AI is a tool, like a hammer, or money. It’s not good or evil on its own. It’s how it’s used that determines the outcome. Which way will humanity go? Only time will tell.

The post My Musings on Generative AI appeared first on Brian Alcorn.

My name is Brian. I hail from southwest Ohio, not far from Cincinnati. Along with being a husband, father, son and brother, for the past couple decades, I’ve been working in IT infrastructure. I specialize in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Puppet, and Ansible. 

Perhaps you’re wondering what kind of content to expect on brianalcorn.com. Since my intent here is to build a published CV of written works for reference in freelance writing opportunities, I anticipate quite a bit of tech content, but also other life perspectives and maybe special interest articles.

You won’t find sports or politics on brianalcorn.com. I’m only a passive sports fan, so will leave that content to others better suited for it. Politically, I do have my views, but I don’t subscribe to the confrontational political discourse our country has become accustomed to. I have friends all across the political spectrum, and care more about those relationships than engaging in a flame war.

So grab some tea or coffee, sit back, relax and enjoy! If you have any feedback, or ideas for content, please reach out! I’ll be setting up an email list soon so be on the lookout!

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