Licensed Technician

I've been taking classes for the past several weeks and studying to pass the exam for becoming a licensed ham radio operator. There are 3 levels of licenses and the first level is called Technician. There are 35 test questions chosen out of a pool of over 300 possible questions. We left for Seaside, OR yesterday and on the way down my wife quizzed me. I had previously been taking practice tests online at qrz.com. I was doing pretty well and was pretty confident in myself. Local Amateur Radio clubs around the world held their annual Field Day event this weekend and it is not uncommon for there to be testing sessions available at this time. It requires 3 licensed hams of General license or higher (General is the second level, Extra is the third) who are certified by a VEC (Volunteer Examiner Coordinator). Basically this means that they are allowed to administer the exams and have passed training for FCC regulations and what-not.

Anyway, we found where the club in the Seaside area was holding their Field Day event and stopped by to pay them a visit. We actually missed our exit off the freeway because Mandy was asking me test questions. She's been studying along with me as well since she thought it would be a good addition to compliment her previously obtained CERT training. We were about 15 miles past our exit by the time we realized we had missed our turn off that we pulled out the laptop, fired up Microsoft Streets & Trips, and recalculated a new route which took us through Portland where we stopped for lunch.

Field Day events were being held at a restaurant/gift shop/museum at mile marker 18 on Hwy 26 called Camp 18. We found the club & got ourselves set up for a test. They had actually just finished a testing session when we arrived but they were happy to get us set up. Mandy finished first and missed only one. I was a little concerned because many of the questions I was answering seemed foreign to me as I had not seen several of them on the practice tests I had taken. The tests we took were different sets of questions from each other. My test was graded and I was surprised to hear that I too only missed one. I was glad as well because if I had done worse than Mandy, I would have never heard the end of it. The examiner said he did worse than his wife 15 years ago and he's never heard the end of it.

In fact one of the examiners had actually moved to Oregon from Bonney Lake, WA and were originally certified as hams at the same place we have been taking our classes (Maple Valley fire station). And if that wasn't coincidence enough, just as we were about to leave they asked just one more question. "Are you L.D.S.?" I said yes and they said they were as well and that they could just tell. Kind of funny how that happens and yet it somehow doesn't surprise me any more.

Now we'll be researching what kind of radio to start with so I can be able to transmit at something higher than .5 watts which is what you get without a license from the 2 way radios you can get at many retail stores.

Unexpected Motivation

Sometimes in life we have people that say or do things that motivate us. Often this can be a coach, a parent, or some other role model. There are times though when this source of motivation comes from someone or something that we didn't expect. In some cases it not only motivates us but also teaches us that our preconceived ideas or thoughts about that someone or something could have been misconstrued and way off base in the first place. Like when a truck gets stuck under an overpass because it's too tall and didn't make the clearing so it's wedged in pretty tight so it can't move on its own power...Tow trucks can't budge it and city engineers are scratching their heads and a little kid comes up and asks, "Why don't you just let the air out of the tires?" and at first nobody even listens to "a kid" but then everyone has that "DUH" moment and all of a sudden there's a new found humility.

Well, as silly as it may sound, the advice I pass along comes from a 1989 movie called UHF. Before Michael Richards was ever known as Kramer, he was an unsuspecting janitor named Stanley Spadowski. In the clip below, he teaches us never to quit and to stand up for yourself.


And if that's not motivational and inspiring, I don't know what is. God bless America!

Tribute to Dad

A few years ago, 2004, I decided I wanted to utilize my amateur video making skills and create something for my Dad for Fathers Day. I actually started planning months in advance. I noticed that there was this large stack of photos my Dad had been planning on having scanned so he can have a digital library. Most of the photos, if not all of them, starred him and they went back as far as him being 1 month old. I'd seen these photos several times when I would come to visit lying in a clear plastic bag waiting for something to be done with them and always in the same spot.

I went over to their house one day (probably sometime in March) and had my Mom gather all the pictures she could that had my Dad in them and I took most of them with me. At this time I didn't have a scanner at home but my Mother-In-Law had a pretty nice one. I arranged with her to come over after work for several days to scan photos. I scanned about 300 photos in the best resolution possible and saved them to my portable hard drive then later burned them to a DVD when I got them home. All the pictures I scanned in high resolution were pretty large and took up a few gigabytes worth of space. This was the first part of the Father's Day present.

I sifted through all these photos and found themes amongst groups of them and started by putting them in a somewhat chronological order for presentation. I included transitions between each one and a few effects to add to the feeling I was trying to impress. I put them together, added music that I had to do a little bit of editing too as well (mostly for appropriate length) and made the pictures fit with the words.

The very last group of photos was put together to go along with a song I had found a year or so before and had played for my Dad the previous Fathers Day. It's by a group called 2NU or now 2NU2 and it's appropriately called "A Father's Day". They are actually a band local to here and had a song on the radio in the 80's called "This Is Ponderous" that was unique and catchy. Along with most of their "songs", it's more like a story told to music as it's not really sung and doesn't always have a "chorus" so to speak.

Anyway, I consider this one of the best pieces of work I've done so far and it doesn't contain 1 second of actual video as it's just a somewhat slightly fancy slideshow. It may not be great to many others but it was a custom bit of work that means alot to me and is quite moving to my immediate family. I think it almost made my Dad cry and when I watched it again recently, it's not hard for me to understand why. I give most of the credit to the music artists because as George Lucas once said, "The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie," (qtd., IMDb). This is very true in this short 14 and a half minute video and even more so for this clip if you know my Dad or our family very well.

After presenting this to my Dad and the rest of my family, they were impressed. I don't think it was the quality of the work that was so great but that this little clip seemed to capture my Dad's life so well. I don't mean to present this to you as a method for "tooting my own horn" so to speak but so that you may share in some of the enjoyment others have as they've watched this. My brothers claimed that this is what we'll be playing at his funeral, which I hope is many years from in the future.

So without furuther ado, Father's Day:
Google Video:

Documentaries I didn't fall asleep watching

Looks like I'm not the only one who may have watched the documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?". The author at OzTech posted an appropriate blog about GM and their Hybrid mistakes. Oh, the error of their ways. Actually this film actually did quite well for being a documentary. It came out back in 2006, only made $45k it's first weekend but ultimately grossed $1,764,304 worldwide (95% domestically). You can read more about it's statistics here or check out the IMDB listing for more details on the film.

As of this posting, you can watch the entire 92 minutes at Google Video
Or, for your viewing pleasure, here:




To digress a little bit, this might be a good segue to another documentary I just got done watching. My brother really wanted me to watch this one and it's the reason he won't shop at Walmart anymore. Perhaps you have heard of or seen on tv the documentary called Walmart - High Cost of Low Prices
The official website for it is here where you can read about it, see the trailer, "join the revolution", and get additional info. It's really amazing the stuff you don't know and the lengths big companies go to in order to squash, hide, cover up, or eliminate anything that's not in their interest. After watching this, I kind of felt like, among other things, that Walmart was a mafia ran organization. Another real eye opener and a well put together film. It even got some great reviews by the big film critics.

While everyone else is watching the latest superhero movie of 2008 (Ironman, The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, Hellboy II, Hancock) I recomend watching these documentaries (from the comfort of your own home even or anywhere you can get an internet connection). I won't say these movies are necessarily better than those out this summer but once you get done watching those already released, run out of money for the theater, or have some downtime waiting for the next big hit to come out, click on the links above & discover the truth about these behemoth companies.

Speed testing

Ok, so my last post was an attempt at publishing a document from Google Docs directly to a blog site. Obviously it's not perfect but if the document was originally created with Google Docs and/or it was a more simply formatted document, I'm sure it would have been fine.

Anyway I ran some speed tests today and the results were better than I expected. You can run a speed test that will show the ping result along with your upload & download speeds then you can click on a tab to show how you relate to others in the area and the world and your ISP, your city, state, region, etc. Here's my best results today so far:



Like I said, the results were surprising. Apparently my country rank is faster than 94% of and my global rank is faster than 96% of connections. As you can see, I'm using Comcast for my internet. (Though I have Dish Network for my channels.) I've been using Voip.com for my home phone service ever since Sunrocket went out of business last year. The problem with the whole concept is that the quality of service is based on available bandwidth. Now, I'd think that with results like above I should have no problem however that's just not the case. The voip.com hardware connects to my router vs. directly to my cable modem so not only does that use up one of my ports, it also makes it subject to the network traffic on my local home network. (The Sunrocket hardware connected directly to the cable modem and then to my network router.)

Long story short, my wife is pretty sick and tired of this service that is less than 100% reliable when she, apparently frequently enough, experiences no dial tone, can't get incoming calls, can't make outgoing calls, other end can't hear you, etc which makes her hang up and use her cell phone and/or turn on call forwarding online to automatically forward all calls to her cell phone. My experience has not been so frustrating and seems worth it for all the features we get for $16.66/mo. and being able to be free from Qwest (Qworst).

So last week she called me letting me know that someone representing Comcast was going around in our neighborhood door-to-door offering their Digital Voice service for just $5 more per month to our internet bill. (Introductory offer for 12 months.) It seems to have all the same features I already use, they can port my number, and I'm told I won't have a loss or interruption of service. When my wife asked me what I thought I left the final decision up to her and she didn't hesitate one bit. I'm sure she feels glad to be soon rid of the frustrations she's had for the past several months.

I don't use the phone much at home unless I'm working VO. I try to do most of my communication over the internet (e-mail, IM, Blog, and social networking sites). We'll see how it turns out when they set us up later this month. Until then, at least I have fast, reliable internet.

Douglas Rutherford

11041 SE 304^th Pl.

Auburn, WA 98092

Technical Support Engineer Home: 253-887-1348

Cell: 253-740-9585

doug.rutherford@gmail.com

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Ten years experience in IT/IS with an emphasis in the areas of network and server administration as well as hardware and software support. In addition, performed troubleshooting in a mixed Windows and Unix environment. Built, configured, and implemented servers for mail, databases, internet, storage, backups, host applications, as well as other network services. Includes 7 years experience using and supporting Unix and associated scripts, binaries, and client applications. Seeking to work in an organization that will challenge me while taking advantage of my knowledge, skills, and experience.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Windows XP & 2000 as well as previous Microsoft operating systems, Unix. Networking. Microsoft Exchange, MS Office applications. Strong troubleshooting skills in hardware and software (Intel based workstations and servers, Unix, telephony). Phone switch experience with T1 and ISDN line testing and configuration on Avaya Predictive Dialer. Some exposure to Oracle and SQL databases running queries and client applications.

EDUCATION

Bachelors IT Network Administration 2006 American Intercontinental University Hoffman Estates, IL

Recognized on the Dean's List for the entire duration of study with a 4.0 GPA through all classes.

Focused on key areas of Business, Computer Networking, Software Development, and Database Administration. Curriculum based on current industry needs to ensure exposure to real world technical challenges. Studied the business side of the IT industry that requires project management and leadership skills. Developed business and programming skills. Studied the use of networks, education in data administration, as well as the design, management, and completion of IT projects.

AA -Computer Information Systems 2000 Highline Community College Des Moines, WA

MCSE -Training 2000 Micro Learning Center Tukwila, WA

CERTIFICATIONS-

Microsoft Certified Professional 2000

PROFESSIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE

9/2000 To Present Post Sales Support Engineer 2 and 3

Avaya Redmond, WA

Responsible for providing remote post-sales support of hardware systems, sub-systems and/or applications for customers or field personnel utilizing telephone and remote diagnostic capabilities. Supports end-user installations, configurations, upgrades and migrations. Supports 3rd party products and occasional on-site support. Provides solutions to a diverse range of complex problems including hardware, software, telephony, networking & shell scripts in a mixed Unix and Windows environment. Responsible for providing troubleshooting and corrective action technical support to Implementation, Operations and Customer Support. Assesses and responds to situations where routine procedures have failed in isolating and correcting problems. May direct the work of small teams formed to resolve technical problems. Reports design, reliability, and maintenance problems to Product Development; Communicates same to other groups in the company. Assists Product Development in resolving product problems. Worked on project teams and delivered training for globalization efforts. Participated in internal and external audits for ISO-9001 compliance. Delivered training of new product release with hardware details and a focus on software features, changes and capabilities.

8/1997 To 9/2000 Computer & Systems Consultant

Shannon & Associates Kent, WA

Administrator for Local Area NT and Novell Network. Designed, performed, and maintained company wide backup systems. Performed client backups for work with SQL databases. Migrated existing network from 10baseT Coax to 10/100 Fast Ethernet network using CAT5. Migrated e-mail system from Lotus cc:Mail to Microsoft Exchange. Maintained Exchange Servers, e-mail accounts and other Exchange related resources. Trained company staff and management on Microsoft Outlook and e-mail procedures and policies. Built, upgraded and maintained all company computers including servers, hardware, software, and other technical equipment as needed. Set up high speed internet access and proxy server, VPN, anonymous and restricted FTP server, and provided web access to e-mail. Updated and modified company web site. Worked on team projects to meet company and customers needs.