pgwinkley

Brother Printers, Windows Updates, or an Excercise in Banging Head Against Brick Wall

I feel like a significant portion of my working life is currently being taken up with fixing things broken by Windows updates.  Thanks for that Microsoft.

So the issue seemed relatively simple.  The main office printer, a Brother HL-L6300DW monochrome laser printer, had stopped printing double-sided.  In fact, if you sent something double-sided, it didn’t print at all.  A quick dig into the user settings proved that duplex printing was disabled, no problem enable that, and problem fixed.  Right?  Nope!  Ok back to the drawing board, check settings on the printer, Duplex enabled.  Ok.  Print server?  Disabled.  Universal Print?  Disabled.  So after running down every conceivable location for the duplex settings, I was feeling reasonably confident that the issue would be resolved.  Alas, not.

 

So I turn to the mainstay of all sysadmins the world over and start googling.  Which produced nothing particularly useful save a Brother troubleshooting article and several forum posts with people having the same issue but predominantly on Macs.  The general consensus from all of this post was that it was a driver issue, or rather a driver update incompatibility issue.  I have at least now got a working theory.  Handily, updating the driver using the Windows print server proved challenging so in the end I decided to pull a Ripley.  Totally remove the troublesome printer and reinstall it on the print server using the most up-to-date dedicated drivers available from the Brother website.  Deploy the new printer and away we go.

I have to say, this is one situation where Universal Print for Azure really comes into it’s own.  Once the printer was redeployed on the print server and added to universal print the new configuration could be rolled out seamlessly by switching printers in the Univeral Print console.

I figured I would do a quick write up in case in was of any assistance to anybody.

Thanks for having a read.

Pete

Posted by pgwinkley

How am I studying for CompTIA Network+?

This I fear, will not be the most interesting of blog posts. I hope though that documenting my current study practices, ideally with a follow up further down the line, will hope me to refine my method and maybe someone else to gain some ideas for designing their own.

Currently, I am studying for two separate exams, The CompTIA Network+ and the RSGB Advanced Amateur Radio exam. One for professional reasons, the other is purely personal. Although the two exams will be very different and the content had very little over lap I will be using roughly the same method to study for both. There is nothing particularly ground breaking about the method I will be using but I do believe firmly in the KISS principal.

I will be employing 3 tools:e

  1. A video course.
  2. Mock exam papers
  3. A course/text book
  4. Flashcards
  5. The Fienmann Technique (sort of)

My plan is to first get an overview of the course material and gain a general understanding of the subjects by working my way through a video course which covers all the main exam topics. I think this is a good method for two main reasons. The first is that it has all the information ready curated and presented in an easily digestible format. The second is that videos are easy to watch while doing other low focus activities (like the washing up for example)

Secondly, I intend to work my way through some past exam papers, this I believe will be a good way to assess how much of the course I have actually understood/remembered. From there I will then use the the textbook and revisiting my notes to generate flashcards to help memorise the materials. CompTIA exams in particular require the memorisation of specific facts, such as protocols and ports numbers and I believe that this will be the most effective method of remembering these things.

Finally, when I m feeling confident in the materials, I will deploy a variation of the Fienmann Technique. Rather than writing things out on paper though I intend to draw on my previous career and create several videos in the from of lessons. I think this will lead to potential benefits. In order to ensure that I can adequately teach the subject, I will need to ensure that I have a good understanding of it. And if I then post the videos on the internet, I am sure that any mistakes will be picked up very rapidly.

I have tried to keep this post as simple and concise as possible, thanks for reading. I hope this post provides some interest or insight.

Posted by pgwinkley

Goals and Aspirations for 2022

Looking Back

I am not a fan on new year resolutions, never really have been. When people as me about new years resolutions, my usual reply is that I made a resolution many years ago to never make any more and I have managed to keep that to date. However, I am also a fan of a quote I heard from Eisenhower (quite probably paraphrased) which went along the lines of “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”. I do therefore, like to at least try and have a plan moving forward and the beginning of the year is as good a time as any to make one. Though to keep with my general contempt for new years resolutions, I like to use my birthday, which handily falls at the end of the January as the starting point for my ‘yearly review’.

Looking back over the last year, a lot has changed. This time last year I was attempting to teach phonics to 4 year olds remotely whilst locked up in our tiny flat for Lock down 3.0. Now I have had a complete career shift and am currently a sysadmin at an independent college on the other side of London. Things is my personal life have not changed significantly, although I am beginning to think that I might be facing the prospect of being single again in the not too distant future. But that is another story.

Looking back over the last year I think it is safe to say that I achieved my main goal, which was to make a career shift. However, many of my other goals that I had set around my personal development and fitness went unachieved. So, having succeed in making a career change, I want to make my 37th year on this earth focused more on my own development. Primarily I want to build sustainable habits that will help me to achieve more and grow as a person. I have tried to pair down my goals to the simplest and most achievable steps. Ideally focusing on action rather than outcome. I have tried to divide them into neat-ish subheadings.

Physical

This is probably the easiest to address, I have let myself go. There are no two ways about it. A few years ago I was training for triathlons and maintaining a really good level of base fitness. Now I have become a fat slob. I have gone from being able to run a 10k without training, to barely being able to manage 5k if I do go running. There are a number of reasons why this has occurred. Shortly before leaving Singapore I contracted Dengue fever. While I was lucky to not have any serious complications, It hammered my immune system which left my wide open when Covid became a thing. Then due to my weakened immune system It took me a long while to fully recover. It was 2021 before I really began to be able to train properly. But by then my focus had moved onto studying for a masters an I neglected to get myself back in shape.

Therefore, my first and most significant goal is to get back to having a healthy exercise routine. I don’t really want to assign a number to this. I want to focus on the process rather than the outcomes so my goals is simply at the moment to get to the pint where I am engaged in some form of training 5/6 days a week. I want to split my focus between cardio fitness and strength training so I will be aiming to complete 3 workouts for each.

The way I hope to achieve this is by blocking out time to use for these activities, I know from previous experience that the morning is the best time for me to achieve this so I will be working towards building a workout into my mornings before work.

Emotional/Spiritual

In a lot of ways 2021 was a very tough year for me. The combination of social isolation, lack of access to nature and working in a job that I found soul crushing took a massive tool on my mental well-being. I ended up having to seek professional medical help and for the first time in my life having to be medicated for my depression. Consequently, I want to keep the momentum I have gathered and carry on with sustainable habits that will help me to maintain a healthy mental baseline.

The main corner stone of this for me is and has always been exercise. I know that a regular excercise routine does wonders for my mental well-being. Other than that I want to experiment with other healthy activities such a journaling by setting my self challenges, like journaling everyday for a month. I also want to reduce the amount I am drinking. I definitely drink to much at the moment and I need to find healthier outlets for stress.

Financial

I am lucky to be in a fairly comfortable position financially. I have a job that pays a pretty reasonable salary and despite living in one of the most expensive cities in the observable universe, I am able to live pretty comfortably. However, my saving have taken a hit recently for a number of reasons so I have two goals in this areas. The first is to work on building my savings backup, the other is to start building some passive income streams.

I don’t have any clear ideas on what for these will take so for the time being my idea is to focus on developing an audience through making YouTube videos about my career change and the studies I will be undertaking and look for opportunities as they present themselves.

Career

Career is an easy one. I want to get a handle on what it is I actually do as a job now. I have very much landed in a job where I don’t really know what I am doing. While this has been great in terms of me learning how various systems work, I don’t really have a clear understanding of what a good system admin does. Therefore I think the actions I need to take in this area will focus on 2 areas, The first is gaining an understanding of the technologies I am using, this I will be working on through studying for various qualifications. The second is harder.

I think what I really need is a mentor. Someone who i can learn from by working with them and understanding what the job actually entails. I am not sure how to go about this. It will require further thought and research.

Productivity

This is simple, I want to make the next year count. In order to achieve that I need to use my time effectively. This first step I am going to take is planning my time in advance, properly by actually creating a schedule. After that I will look at ways of using that time more effectively but I think being purposeful with my time is the first major step I need to take.

Posted by pgwinkley

A (sort of) Retrospective of 2021

It is hard to really know where to start this, there have been so many significant changes in the last 5 month or so. Although there are obvious turning points, it is hard to know which one makes a good place to start for this particular chapter of my life. Looking back now it all seems so jumbled, even though I lived through all the events it is hard to believe that I have somehow ended up a System Admin with so little work experience. Sometimes I feel like I am on some sort of weird busman’s holiday and I will soon return to my old life and the endless treadmill of planning and marking, photocopying and laminating. Other days it feels like things have been this way forever and teaching was some sort of half remembered previous life. I suppose the only way to start is at the beginning, or at least some arbitrarily defined point that I will call the beginning.

I suppose, like so many things, the real beginning for me is about 6 months ago. The moment when it finally dawned on me. Not that I was no going to be an IT professional, albeit at the lowest level, but that I was no longer going to be a teacher. I watched the class I had been working with every day for the last year, through self isolation’s and lockdowns, line up to be dismissed for the final time. As they ran off to meet their parents, bags brimming with the last terms work, excited at the prospect of 6 whole weeks away from school, I was suddenly no longer a teacher. At least not in any sense that counted. I was still qualified, I hadn’t been barred for some inappropriate activity. I had chosen to walk away from the classroom. So it seemed as they ran off to meet their parents, they took with them part of me. A big part of me. Probably the only constant in my life for the last decade. I been married, divorced, moved countries 3 times, made a lost friends traveled more than would have ever though possible and in some way if not found then redefined myself. But through all of that I had always been a teacher. And now, I had to learn to be something else.

I suppose then, the logical start to this story would be the most pedestrian of events. The receipt of an email. The read something along the lines of, “you had previously expressed an interest in a vacancy at the college as an IT technician, the post has become available again and we wondered if you were still interested?”

Almost a year previously, when I had first decided that I wanted to move out of the classroom my partner had told me, too late to actually apply for it, that they were looking to take on a junior IT technician at her college to support the network manager. Although I had missed the deadline I had contacted them anyway and been informed that they had just hired an excellent candidate but that they would keep me in mind should anything come up in the future. The excellent candidate had decided to move onto bigger and better things and so something had indeed come up. I replied to say I was interested and after some back and forth I found myself sitting in an interview room, answering questions about malware attacks and disaster recovery before having to complete a technical assessment which essentially involved putting batteries in a remote control and plugging a network cable back in. It was to say the least, a disjointed recruitment process but I was offered and accepted the job.

All of this occurred approximately a week before the teaching year ended and I would have my playground epiphany about the role of my career in my identity.

For a month I lived the life of a junior IT technician. I split my time between checking things were plugged in, turning them off and on again and helping people to setup video lessons for students who were stuck at home self isolating. I spent as much time as possible out of the server room roaming round the college because the server room was not really fit for human occupation.

Everything was filthy, the cleaner would periodically knock on the door and beg to be allowed in to dust the sides at least, a request that was consistently refused on the grounds that if the room was too clean people would think that we weren’t doing any work. It was kept at approximately the same temperature as a sauna through a complex arrangement of using a massively over spec’d air conditioner to cool the server whilst using a hideously inefficient fan heater to warm the staff. And my line manager enjoyed spending most of his days ignoring the needs of the failing IT system whilst expounding on a number of conspiracy theories and the virtues of a diet that consisted entirely of cucumbers. On the last part I would have to conceded he looked remarkable for his age.

It was a week before I found myself midst of a crisis, a common refrain for the early days of working at the college. The hard disk array that ran all the virtual machines, which in turn ran all the IT services in the college, ran out of space. The servers immediately crashed and I was left running round the college whilst the network manager calmly munched on a cucumber and prodded and fiddled the various partitions to free up some space. This was an event that would repeat itself several times over the coming days until some sort of equilibrium was reached and the server scatted by with the bare minimum of free space. One really large copy and paste away from resuming their inactive state.

It is worth noting at this point that additional hard disk space was purchased but it couldn’t be used a fact I would only discover much later and that would cause my immense amounts of stress.

In this way days became weeks became month as I split my time between clearing paper jams and bearing the brunt of people’s temper when once again even the most basic IT functionality was lost. Until one day I was returning from a separate building on the campus having un-jammed the printer for the umpteenth time when I as grabbed on my way through reception, herded into the principals office and asked to wait. After 20 minutes of being sat on my own with no clue what was going on I had managed to convince myself that I was about to be fired, or possibly arrested, for what I wasn’t quite sure but it seemed the only reasonable explanation in the circumstances. Little did I know my fate was both far less dramatic and far worse.

In due course several members of the senior management team came in and told me in no uncertain terms that the current network manager was being let go and they wanted to keep me out of the way while that played out. I was then given a very nice sandwich and taken up to the server room by a visiting consultant who upgraded me to domain admin and gave me a crash course in enterprise level administration. The remainder of the day is a bit of a blur to be perfectly honest, based on this fact more than memory I imagine that I got hideously drunk (it was a Friday after all) whilst attempting to make sense of the events that had occurred.

And so, with precisely 31 days IT experience under my belt, I became the systems administrator for an IT system in such poor shape that… well I usually use the phrase that is it was a horse you would take it out and shoot it, But that isn’t even close to how bad it was, if it was a horse you would have made it comfortable for the night at let nature takes its course. A quiet death out of respect for so many years of faithful service. Letting it pass away naturally would certainly have been the most humane thing for everyone involved.

The next few months passed by in an endless cycle of meetings trying to squeeze some money out of the owner to spend on the IT, who simply couldn’t understand why people couldn’t get by with PCs that where years past end of life, attempting to bring everything up to date and make it stable when I didn’thave the first clue what most of it did and deal with bi-weekly catastrophes which would render significant portions of the infrastructure unusable. Whilst still trying to keep the printers un-jammed and help people setup video conferencing for the students stuck at home. Mostly it involved Googling, a lot of googling.

I won’t bore you with every event that I went through save a couple that stick out in my mind as the most note worthy. The first was when the entire network crashed because we accidentally unplugged the external hard disk which turned out to be a critical piece of infrastructure. The other was when I had to reprogram a switch for the first time.

The hard disk incident occurred, as these things always seem to around 3 o’clock on a Friday. We had been doing some investigation of the virtual machines that run the critical services of the college, specifically with a view to locating several hundred gigabytes of data which has some how disappeared from the file server suing one of out previous outages. After much head scratching, confused pointing and coffee drinking we came to the conclusion that we could make neither head nor tale of how things had been setup and where utterly convinced, despite evidence to the contrary that nothing was actually working

Although we didn’t dare say this too loud in case the servers, which were somehow functioning heard us and decided to give up the ghost. It is probably worth noting at this point that when I say we, I meant an IT consultant and myself and this early on, we meant he did the technical stuff and I made coffee and asked a million questions. Usually starting by saying “this might be a stupid question, but….”

For reasons that are still unclear to both of us Harpreet decided to investigate behind the server, which is where he discovered an external hard disk plugged into the back of the host controller. Following some further discussion and investigation we discovered that the hard disk was the repository of all the missing data. Excellent. Having made this discovery we decided that it would be wise to unplug the hard disk and store it safely until such time as we were able to migrate the files back to the server properly and make them available to the people who were rather upset about having lost them in the first place. Shortly after this things began spontaneously failing. People who logged out where unable to log back in, devices regain to loose connectivity. Back to crisis mode.

I won’t bore you with full details but after extensive investigation we discovered that the external hard disk not only contained a significant portion of files form the file server. It also contained the virtual hard disk for the domain controller. The primary domain controller was running from a mechanical, USB 2 drive. This made me rather nervous, it still does in fact because there is insufficient space on the SAN to migrate the virtual hard disk back. You see it turns out the additional hard disks are useless. Although that are compatible with SAN hardware, it has been so long since the SAN was updated, 9 years at the time of writing, that the firmware is incompatible.

The other significant event was the night of the great switch reprogramming. I had previously zero experience of programming managed switches and I found myself in the unfortunate situation of having to do it one evening after college had closed. This would not have been suck a major issue, had the previous network manager not kept all the passwords in his head and they had not been successfully extracted before his departure. So instead of simply being able to carry out the necessary tasks on the switch, I instead had to setup it up from scratch after a full factory reset. Picture if you will me sat at my computer with a copy of the switches manual and the CompTIA Network+ study guide feeling my way through programming a switch by trial and error. The next day I stumbled across an article with a title like ‘Programming Switches for People who don’t Understand VLANs’ which would have saved me a great deal of time had I found it the day before.

So that is more or less my journey so far. Lurching from one crisis to the next whilst trying to learn the ropes of being a system admin. I wouldn’t say it has been fun, but it certainly hasn’t been boring.

Posted by pgwinkley

Failed Activation SOTA SW/GW001 Pen Y Fan

Failed? More like didn’t even try.

Boyed by the success of our previous hike, Claire and I decided to tackle the highest peak in Brecon Beacons. Pen Y Fan. Standing at 886 meters it an impressive peak and a popular destination for summit blaggers. We decided to avoid the so called ‘motorway’ route from Storey Arms, the most popular and easiest route. Instead parked at the National Trust car park at Cwmgwdi. Our resreach suggesting that this was significantly less popular and not significantly more difficult.

The plan had been to walk a circular route, taking in Pen Y Fan, hopefully activating for another tidy 8 points before heading Corn Du, doubling back to Cribyn, which would hopefully lead to a successful HEMA activation. Then if time and conditions were with us, summit Fan Y Big before doubling back to Cribyn to descend via a different route. The weather however had other ideas.

The rain started before we left the car park, however it didn’t engae full force until we had gained a few hundred meters of elevation. As the wind really picked up we found a small ditch to take shelter in and review our options. We would push for the summit, radio however was out.

There is not much to say about the hike overall other than the weather was awful, high winds and rain meant stopping was not really an option. Aside from grabbing a quick summit selfie on Pen Y Fan and consulting the map we pressed on. Keen to get off the mountain and into dry clothes as rapidly as possible.

The rain did not abate until well after we had climbed in the car, cranked the heater on full and made a break back to our accomidation.

Overall not my best days hiking. However I am not too upset not to have got the points. Radio is a hobby after all and fighting the elements would have certainly sapped the fun out of mountain top operations.

Despite the weather we saw quite a few people hiking the various routes to the summit. I guess we arent the only mad ones then.

Thanks for reading.
73s
Pete
2E0PNW

Posted by pgwinkley

SOTA Activation Fan Brychieniog gw/sw003

Fan Brynchieniog is a mountain in the heart of the Brecon Beacons, coming up just short of Pen Y Fan at 802 meters (2631 feet) it is an impressive summit which forms a series with several others in the region. Probably due to it not being quite as tall as Pen Y Fan it doesn’t seem to be as popular, which adds to its appeal in my mind. Handily, because of it’s height it is still worth 8 points under SOTA. Win.


My long suffering girlfriend and partner in crime when it comes to outdoor adventures, Claire, had chosen this hike specifically for the spectacular views and number of radio points available.

Pouring over various online guides and maps the night before the hike we had settled on what was arguably the most challenging but also the most rewarding route. A route that would run to just over 13miles (21km) and have a significant amount of climbing in the first part of the walk.

Fuelled up with porridge and coffee we took the short drive from our accommodation to the decided upon start. With post walk rehydration and refuelling at the forefront of our minds we parked opposite a pub, grabbed our packs and started tabbing.

The route did not disappoint. The promised ascent began seemingly within a few paces of the start of the walk and continued, unrelenting for several miles. When after more than an hour of grinding our way slowly up hill we made it panting and sweating to Fan Hir we had the majority of the climbing in the bag and things were looking up radio wise. No sooner had we gained some elevation than my trusty FT3 handy came alive with a GW station calling CQ on 145.500. Once I had regained my breath I went back to his CQ and we had a brief QSO. Keen to cover distance I was reluctant to stop and was struggling to keep a conversation going and walk uphill at the same time. Still it was looking promising, first QSO and only using the standard rubber duck.

The ground levelled off somewhat and we began to make some more forward progress, rather than going straight up! Soon the radio was alive again, this time with and m6 station calling CQ for SOTA. Keen to work them I followed her onto the given frequency but it became apparent their were a few stations chasing, not wanting to pause to set the antenna up I decided to take my chances and see I could work them later. No way I was going to be heard with only the rubber duck. Sure enough a little while later I heard the call again . Going back this time I was able to complete the QSO with 5/1 each way. I had heard Viki(M6BWA) saying she wanted more contacts on 70cms for the activation so suggested that we QSY and see if we could make it.

Surprisingly, we were able to make the QSO with slightly better signal reports. She then passed the mic to her XYM, Rod (M0JLA), so he could get it in the log too. I should mention they were also very helpful in helping pronounce the name of the mountain we were climbing, I had been thoroughly butchering it until that point. We finished up the QSO with me giving them an ETA for our summit and them promising to listen out for me even if they were heading back to the car.

The final push to the summit was short and sharp. I left Claire behind to make a start on setting up. She was still recovering from a cold and was struggling a little with amount of climbing. Opting for slow and steady.

I setup my slim jim at just above ground level, using my backpack as a support and took a few moments to tune around and see what was happening. There was not a lot of activity so I found a clear frequency and set about self spotting. Just as I was grabbing a snack, I heard Adrian (GW1BXX) calling on 500 for any SOTA station. I went back to him and QSY’d for an extended QSO before he signed off. I held the frequency and pretty soon had a number of stations calling in. Fairly rapidly I had 9 stations in the log, 3 into north Devon and one summit to summit with Rick (M5RJC) who was on SW15 Myndd LLagorse. I had heard another summit to summit calling but struggled to get back to them.

Just as I was finishing up what I felt was a pretty good run, I heard the summit to summit call again. Viki and Rod were back. They had been trying to get through but couldn’t quite make the trip so had gone back to the car to retrieve another antenna. Another summit to summit completed, this time with G/WB-011 Bradnor Hill.

The rest of the hike passed relatively uneventfully, if a little painfully towards the end. Perhaps a 13 mile mountainous hike is not the best way to break in a new pair of boots? However, when we retuned to the car, disaster struck.

Our carefully chosen parking place, due to its location to a pub left us standing, mortified at the bar as the landlord informed us, contrary to the large sign outside, that they were in fact not serving food. We beat a hasty retreat and without out the modern safety blanket of 4G were left with just our wits to forage for our post walk feast. Luckily, we very soon located a pub that was serving food, by driving to the other end of the village.

The Gwyn Arms is a family run establishment which occasionally features 3 generations of the same family behind the bar. The dining experience was somewhere between the Queen Vic and Fawlty Towers. However, the beer was cold and the portions were substantial, exactly what was needed.

For anyone interested the equipment used on this activity were:
Antenna: Home-made Slim Jim in a pvc support pipe. Then antenna I have some to think of as my back pack special.
Radio: Anytone 778UV powered by a 3s LIPo at the summit and Yeasu ft3D whilst walking and for APRS
Logging: Write in the Rain brand waterproof notebook
I also used a pair of no brand in ear headphones to help keep noise pollution down at the summit.

Thanks for reading.

74s
Pete

2E0PNW

Posted by pgwinkley

CompTIA A+ A Lesson in Humility

The idea to embark on studying for the CompTia A+ certification began whilst hiking in Yorkshire with some friends. One of whom is a network engineer at Chester Zoo, a job he seems to really love. I had realised that as much as I was enjoying learning about programming and software design on my master course, I honestly felt like something more closely linked to networking/cloud computing would be a better fit for me personally. Particularly in the short term. After all, any program you write is going to be deployed on one of those systems. Therefore, my logic was, gaining some experience in those areas could only help me to better understand what I was building right? So I asked Craig, what was the best way to start a career in his specific network, or more specifically if my CV was to hit his desk, what would I need to add to it in order to have a shot at getting shortlisted? After a lengthy discussion about my experience etc he told me rather emphatically that my CV would go straight in the bin.

A masters is apparently,not the best first step on this particular career path. After some more discussion his advice was simple. I need to get my first 6-12 months experience in an IT support role. And to get that I needed to demonstrate I actually knew which was my arse and which was my elbow when it came to computers. Therefore, I need a well recognised and respected entry level certification. Enter the A+. So I downloaded the syllabus, bought a book and video course. Syllabus in hand I sat back confidently and smiled to myself, this would be easy, I could definitely knock this out in a month or so, no worries.

Kunning-Drugger Efffect


Have you ever heard of the Kunning-Druger effect? simply put it is a cognitive bias in which people of low ability over estimate their own ability. Fits quite nicely doesn’t it? Essentially, I had massively underestimated how much knowledge and skill is required to pass the A+. For those who aren’t aware, the exam covers pretty much all the fundamentals of IT including but not limited to installing configuring and troubleshooting hardware, software,
networks, mobile devices, all major operating systems and pretty much everything else in between. So needless to say, their is a lot to learn in terms of actually passing the exam and obtaining the competencies an employer would expect of someone who had passed.


I think a significant part of what lulled me into a false sense of optimism was that each of the individual areas of the syllabus is actually quite straight forward. Some od the early topics include how to install various pieces of hardware, how to configure boot order within the BIOS and how to connect to a network. All things that I think would be within reach of anyone who has ever tinkered with a computer. However, part of this is being able to know, by heart, the specific CPU socket types and which generation of CPUs are compatible with which. Or how many pins a specific type of RAM uses. Now I do have a small issue with this. I am not a fan of retaining information which can be quickly and easily looked up. After the human brain is for having ideas, not storing them. This is however, how CompTIA have decided to structure the syllabus. And they are the most well know provider for this level of qualification. The issues comes when you try to put together all of this information in order to be able to answer questions and complete tasks
all within a limited time frame and with no external resources. Now it is difficult for me to say at this point in time, having not actually taken the exam, whether all of this information is strictly necessary. I would say however, that all of the mock exams I have taken so far have proven to be very challenging. Indicating that it just might be.


The thing that annoys me most is that I am actually pretty good at studying for exams. I have coached many students through learning and revising for exams and have taken a number myself over the past decade. However, I let my arrogance get the better of and as such have wasted a significant amount of time with ineffective study.
Now, the only thing left for me to do is get stuck back into studying for the qualification, this time applying a much more dedicated study methodology, with a new found respect for the requirements laid out by CompTia.
I will check back in soon with a full write up of my study methodology and provide some concrete evidence of why I believe that this is the most effective way for studying for exams

Posted by pgwinkley

The Journey So Far….

So, I have decided to make a career change. To be perfectly honest, I actually made the decision nearly year ago. I have only just got
around to writing a post about it. I toyed with the idea of starting a blog, but never got round to it until I read “Show Your Work” by
Austin Kleon. I will write a post at a later date dissecting my thoughts on the book. But for now, lets just say it changed my opinion
on the value of writing blog posts on something that you know next to nothing about. So one domain name registered and
WordPress set up and I am ready to go. Now I just have to find something to write about!


The decision to leave teaching is not something I came to lightly, or quickly. Having spent the last six years working in international
schools, totalling more than 10 years experience in various roles as a classroom teacher I had been feeling disillusioned for some
time. I thought the solution to that might be a total change of scenery, rather than teaching privileged children in private schools,
maybe the solution to my discontent would lie in returning to the front line of teaching in the UK. So having pulled a complete 180 I
found myself working in as part of the team working to turn around a failing school in one of the most deprived areas of London.
Fulfilling and meaningful work, right?


To be fair to my colleagues. they are absolute warriors. It takes someone pretty special to go into work in a school like this one. I
distinctly remember having a discussion with my line manager after a few months of working in the school that went something
along the lines of. “How was you day?”, “Well, we got through the day with no fights.”, “In a school, we call that a win.” Just to be
clear, I am not lumping myself in with these people. They actively choose to undertake this work, and are committed to staying. It is
just not for me. To be fair, it is not just this school. I have just come to the conclusion that I have done my time as a teacher.
However, at the moment at least, the focus of this blog is not supposed to be my previous career as a teacher. But the journey I
have chosen to undertake.


So having come to the conclusion that I no longer want to be a teacher, it was time to figure out how to move on. I have always had
an affinity with computers and was even a full time Computer Science teacher for a time. Maybe in part seduced by all of the
promotional materials around being a programmer or coders as we now call them, I decided to try and pursue a career somewhere
in the field of computer science. But in case you didn’t know, computer science is a large field with almost limitless possibilities. So I
very quickly realised that I was going to have to narrow down my focus.
After some research and some soul searching, I concluded that I would like to pursue a career in some form of programming role.
Web development seemed like a good fit. So employing my philosophy of not over committing myself, I decided to enrol on an online
web-developer boot camp. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. So I decided to take the next step and enrol in some more formal
qualifications. In this case, a MSc in Computer Science from the University of York. Fully remote and taught part time it meant I
could keep working full time to fund my studies and study in the evenings and weekends.


It is probable worth noting that this decision was taken during the initial lock down, when there was nothing to do but work and
walk increasingly well worn routes around the local footpaths. That and enjoying the national past time of drinking.


So that is where I am now. Almost a year into a part time master in computer science and barrelling towards the end of lock down
3.0 and the inevitable return to full time teaching and part time study. With one note worthy comment. I have decided to accelerate
my plans for exiting the teaching profession in order to more enthusiastically pursue a career in the IT field. Undoubtedly, July won’t
mark my last day in the classroom, supply teaching will inevitably form a significant part of my income in the immediate future while
I search out gainful employment in a totally new field.


I have to confess that I am absolutely terrified. For the first time since 2013 I will not be employed full time. Not only that I will be
trying to make my way in a new field at the age of 36

Posted by pgwinkley

And so it begins….

Having worked as a teacher for over 10 years now, I have decided to take a move away from the classroom. I could rant on about the specifics that have led to this decision, maybe I will. However, I didn’t start this blog as a space to tramp the well-worn paths of the issues and shortcomings of the British Education system. This is a space for me to document the process of moving from the classroom to the server room. And so, it begins….

Posted by pgwinkley