What are the top 100 Viewed Wikipedia Pages?

This tool shows the articles from the English Wikipedia that are viewed most. Some results may surprise you...

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Microsoft PowerShell

As a Windows Administrator, I love FOR loops as they help me do the same thing for several servers. Then again, looking back scripting in DOS has always been rather painful. I admired powerful Unix shells and kept on wondering when will Microsoft recognize that and come up with a powerful shell.

Apparently, it's close! They have now released RC2 of their PowerShell (used to be known as Monad). I have not yet start reading the getting started guide but one I have high expectations. After all, Microsoft used to be a company that designed programming tools and languages :)

Hopefully we will get something better than vbscript. Check this out!

101 ways to organize your life

Project Management (and life) Wisdom straight from a project managers... I like the article. I think it is a must-read!

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Neat ssh tricks

I saw a very concise article on ssh tricks here. I would highly suggest that you read the comments as they include a lot of stuff not covered in the original article or supplements it.

While you are at it, the same author has written a follow up to this article that explains how to bypass firewalls via tunneling.

Also want to mention a few tricks I learned today...

[X SESSION FORWARDING]
If you want to forward your X sessions from remote host to your local pc, use X

ssh -X username@server.address.com '/usr/bin/gaim'

will run gaim on the target but will display it on your screen

[KEEP SSH SESSION ALIVE]
If you find your ssh session timing out after 2 mins of inactivity (this is a security feature) and want to increase the time-out period, just add the following line into the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file on the target server:

# Sets time out to 10 mins

ClientAliveInterval 600

[REMOTE PORT FORWARDING]
Let's say you are on a firewalled host X. Assuming you can create a reverse tunnel (aka. Remote Port Forwarding or Incoming tunnel) to your target homeServerY using this:

ssh -N -R:2222:localhost:22 Y

You can use that tunnel to access back to X from Y by typing the following on your homeServerY:

ssh -p 2222

Read more below for further information...

[USING CORKSCREW]
Corkscrew is a simple tool to tunnel tcp connections via http proxy and is also very easy to configure. You just enter your http proxy like this into your .ssh/config file:

ProxyCommand corkscrew your.http.proxyserver 8080 %h %p

Let's say SSH Daemon is running on port 443 on the target host. Instead of typing
ssh -p 443 or scp -P 443 everytime, just place it into config file ~/.ssh/config so that your config file would look like:

host targetServer
User username
Port 443
ProxyCommand corkscrew your.http.proxyserver 8080 %h %p

Now, assume a scenario where you have two servers, X, Y. X is able to ssh into Y using let's say port 443. However, X is behind a firewall and can not be accessed from outside. In this case, you may use ReverseTunneling,

ssh -N -p 443 -R:2222:localhost:22 Y

-N means do not execute a command. Useful for port forwarding. Also checkout -n.
-p is telling X how to connect to Y
-R and the port after it means use that port on the remote machine. Then, localhost:22 means forward anything that comes to 2222 to 22 on the local box, X. We chose a port >1024 as anything less would mean privileged port. ie. root access required.

Now, you can configure ~/.ssh/config file on Y

host X
HostName localhost
User username
Port 2222

So now you can use ssh X, to connect to it from Y. Essentially, you are connecting to your Y's port 2222 which gets redirected to X's port 22

Remember, once you close the connection, reverse tunnel will disappear. If you do not want this, you can create a simple shell script:

#!/bin/bash

while [ true ];

do ssh -C -N -L 2222:localhost:22 Y

done

[ACCESS WINDOWS USING RDESKTOP]
In this scenario, let's assume that you have a home NAT where
your windows ip: 192.168.0.2
your linux ip: 192.168.0.3
your router's ip: 195.100.100.100

Let's also assume that your Router is forwarding port 22 traffic to your Linux box and you can access it from internet using ssh (you are on machine X).

If you want to rdesktop to your windows box from your linux box using rdesktop, you can first create a tunnel on machine X:

ssh -N -L 3389:192.168.0.2:3389 195.100.100.100

(add -p port# if you are not using standard SSH port of 22)
Then on X, simply run:

rdesktop localhost

Your windows box at 192.168.0.2 should answer with logon screen...
Of course it does not hurt if you add a few useful params to, for example, make it 1024x768 with 16 bit:

rdesktop -a 16 -g 1024x768 localhost

Som what's happening here? Our target ip is 195.100.100.100 which, because of the port forwarding, will take us to our linux box (192.168.0.3) and establish an SSH session.
Then, we are essentially telling our linux box to forward all requests we sent to our local rdp port 3389 to the rdp port 3389 of windows box.

Upstart init.d replacement in Ubuntu Universe + Comparisons

I loved this article. As a matter of fact, it cleared a few things that kept me wondering about Mac's implementation. It's a must read. Also take a look at Ubuntu Wiki on upstart at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReplacementInit

Upstart, an init.d replacement, is now in the Ubuntu Universe. This article also details comparisons between other approaches and why Upstart is the best. "From the start of development of edgy+2, no new packages will be accepted unless they provide upstart jobs instead of init scripts and init scripts will be considered deprecated."

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Stage6: High Quality Videos

DivX, the video company well known for its coding and compression technology, quietly launched a YouTube-style online video sharing community, Stage6, a few weeks ago. The quality of the videos are much better than what you will find at YouTube or Google Videos but site is slower. You have to install the DivX Web Player (a small download) too.

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Creating Firefox Search Shortcuts

This is a neat trick, I've seen Rohit Pai using all the time... Purpose is to create a shortcut that will let you search for keywords (in our example "hindistan" "blog") using a search engine (in our example, google). Steps are simple:

• In Firefox, go to the web site that offers search
• Right click in the *search box*, where you would normally put your keywords
  
• Choose "Add a Keyword for this Search..."
• Give it any name
• Type the shortcut you would like to use (in our example g)
• Click OK.
  

Now in the address bar you can use type your new shortcut and the keywords as shown above...

Seth Godin's list of 937 Web 2.0 sites, sorted by traffic rank

I am not surprised to see digg.com or some other web sites I frequently use raising in the ranking but there are a lot of services I never heard of. Worth taking a look... Adil
"Web 2.0" (for lack of a better term) has the 'net all atwitter. But of the websites included in the category, which of them have real traffic, and which don't? This list, put together by Seth Godin and Alexaholic, is the first of its kind to let you see at a glance the movers and shakers in Web 2.0-land.

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5 Rarely Used HTML Elements

I saw this post on 5 rarely used HTML tags:

• "address""for address fields ",
• "q" for double or single quotation (does not seem to work with IE),
• "optiongroup" to group options,
• "acronym" or "abbr"for abbreviations and
• "optiongroup" & "legend" for grouping items inside a form.
  

Seemed pretty useful to me.

Automatix Bleeder & Compiz

Just wanted drop a note that you may also use automatixbleeder, to install XGL/Compiz. I actually tried it and it handles most of the work including installation & configuration of
XGL session menu
Compiz packages
nVidia drivers
...

I just talked to arnieboy, who is the original poster about Automatix Bleeder on irc #Automatix channel @Freenode, he told me that once Automatix Bleeder installation completes, it creates an instruction file on the desktop. He also corrected a few things like
- I should use cgwd instead of gnome-window-decorator
- I do not need to add deb http://xgl.compiz.info/ dabber main
- I do not need to add deb http://media.blukind.org/xgl/ dabber main
- gset-compiz is now obsolete as quinn does not maintain it anymore...
- bleeder does not overwrite my existing gnome session

I've updated the how-to with this info.

compiz on Ubuntu Dapper

[LAST UPDATED ON 2006-08-16]

After seeing compiz videos at eHomeUpgrade, I could hardly wait to try it on my Ubuntu. I have an HP X6000 Workstation with nVidia 980 XGL card which is not of course that great to show all the great effects compiz offers. Plus I was disheartened at some blog entry because I did not have direct rendering enabled on my card :

adil@ahlnx:/etc/apt$ glxinfo  grep rendering
direct rendering: No

but none of them proved to be a show stopper! I had to try a few things to get this working so bear with me...

First thing first, I backed up my /etc/X11/xorg.conf and /etx/apt/sources.list
Then edited /etc/X11/xorg.conf as described here.

It was time to add additional repositories so that I could download and install compiz and dependent packages again as described in the link above. I added the followings into /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz/ dapper main
deb http://xgl.compiz.info/ dapper main
deb http://media.blutkind.org/xgl/ dapper main

Then installed the GPG key:

wget http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz/quinn.key.asc -O - sudo apt-key add -

Updated the available package list:

sudo apt-get update

and finally installed the packages:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl compiz-gnome gset-compiz

Edited the /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom and added the followings

---------------------------------
[servers]
0=Xgl

[server-Xgl]
name=Xgl server
command=/usr/bin/Xgl :0 -fullscreen -ac -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:pbuffer
flexible=true

Updated (Automatix Bleeder) script

=================================
adil@ahlnx:~$ more /usr/bin/toggle-compiz-nvidia
#!/bin/bash
if ps -A  grep -e "compiz.real$" > /dev/null; then
   killall cgwd
   metacity --replace &
else
   cgwd &
   compiz --replace gconf &
fi

=================================

If you do not use Automatix Bleeder, make sure you can execute it
sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/toggle-compix-nvidia

I actually use a different name:

sudo mv /usr/bin/toggle-compix-nvidia /usr/local/bin/startcompiz

Effects are mind blowing. To have an idea what my desktop is like now, watch this YouTube video or see the below post

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

TIPS & TRICKS
As I keep on reading and learning more and more on compiz,
I decided to add some more tips...

1) When ubuntu Logon Screen shows up I have an option for XGL
Here is the content of my xsessions

sudo gedit /usr/share/xsessions/xgl.desktop
---------------------------------
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Xgl
Comment=Start an Xgl Session
Exec=/usr/bin/startxgl.sh
Icon=
Type=Application
---------------------------------

If you have do not see any effects, try to start compiz-start script we created
above. To see session start up errors, take a look at your xsession-errors file

gedit ~/.xsession-errors

2) Remember, you can find tons of info on compiz forums

3) Obviously, ATI configuration is different than nVidia. For example,

in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom>

[servers]
# Override display 1 to use Xgl (DISPLAY 1 IMPORTANT FOR ATI FGLRX).
1=Xgl

For nVidia screen is always 0 not 1!

4) When checking forumg, if you need to find out whether you have a
package already installed try:

dpkg -s  grep -i status

eg.

adil@ahlnx:/usr/local/bin$ dpkg -s compiz grep -i status
Status: install ok installed

5) Use `xvinfo` to confirm that your
color depth is set to 24 bit

6) To check what plugins you have, run gconf-edit & browse to
"apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options"
double click active_plugins, you should see things like

gconf decoration reflection blur wobble fade minimize cube rotate zoom
scale move resize dbus switcher water trailfocus state showdesktop neg bs

If you do not try adding them in that order as there are dependencies
(one per line)

7) Sometimes you see an application is missing a window decorator,
eg. my firefox was missing it, use ALT + Mouse to move that window ;)

8) There are some really nice themes for compiz , heres how to install them:
You will need the following packages:

gcompizthemer
cgwd

After you have installed the packages , edit /usr/local/bin/startcompiz
And change it like this:

---------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
killall gnome-window-decorator
wait

cgwd &
compiz --replace gconf &
---------------------------------

Restart compiz / reboot.
Go to System , preferences and you will find Compiz Themer there.

Apparently there used to be a gcompizthemer-themes package, which is now
part of cgwd package, which will appear in
System > Preferences > CGWD Themes menu

9) If you do not want the XGL session restart when you press shift+backspace, add this to your start up script: (toggle-compiz-nvidia or startcompiz)

xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace BackSpace Terminate_Server"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
So, what's not working?
Well, after reboot, if I choose XGL session, it does not start.
I see some errors in the ~/.session-errors log...

The workaround?
Well, I asked in Automatix Bleeder forum and arnieboy suggested this:
"revert your gdm-custom.conf to its original shape and try again. you told me in #Automatix yesterday that you already have gdm set up to start xgl. you need to change that to NOT let gdm start up xgl by default (in other words, revert it back to the default) and try loggin in to the xgl session from gdm (after restarting)."
That did the trick. No more issues logging into XGL session.

Linux XGL/Compiz Graphics to Apple Aqua & Vista Aero: EAT ME!

WOW! Oh boy, is this really possible? Guys at worked showed me the videos of Compiz together with Apple's new Leopard and of course Microsoft's Aero. There is no comparison really. Compiz is the clear winner. You really have to see these videos.

By Alexander Grundner - "I couldn't help being a little over the top on this one. Just watch the attached videos. And if you want to see XGL/Compiz running on dual screens, click here. Do me a favor, though. After watching all three videos, tell me which desktop graphics environment looks more advanced."

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Installing mailx on Ubuntu Dapper

At work, I frequently use mailx on Solaris and I thought I could make use of it on my linux box too. I did not know how to install it but guessed right:

sudo apt-get install mailx

During the installation, it asked some questions which I did not know how to answer and just chose the defaults. Then I tried something like

ls -l |mailx myemail@address.com

which indeed did not work. Then I started reading and realized that I should have probably used "Satellite" mode during installation....

Removing it should be easy, right? Well, sure, if you know what you are doing! I did not :)

sudo apt-get remove mailx

said it removed the package but when I reinstalled it, it did not really ask me any questions which meant that I had not removed it completely. Reading some more on APT documentation, I learnt a few useful commands like

sudo apt-get --purge remove mailx

(would remove mailx together with "configuration files")
Nope! Then I cleaned the cache:

sudo apt-cache autoclean

(supposed to remove unupgradable packages from /var/cache/apt/archives)
and

sudo apt-cache clean

(Removes everything except locks from apt-cache archives)
Still, I was missing something. The command I was looking for was something like

rpm -qp 

or

rpm -qlp 

that would tell me more about package and its file.

I found something similar:

sudo apt-get depends mailx
mailx
Depends: libc6
Depends: liblockfile1
 |Depends: postfix
Depends: <mail-transport-agent>
...
Depends: base-files
Conflicts: <suidmanager>

Aha, I needed to remove postfix too. As expected, after that I was able to get the install menu. I chose satellite and specified smtp.comcast.net as my relay host. I got an error when I tried the above mailx command though:
postdrop: warning: unable to look up public/pickup: No such file or directory

I did not find much info on the error but somebody was talking about authentication... Then, I remembered that comcast needs authentication and did some more google search and found a nice article.

I did everything mentioned but still the same issue. It looks like I am missing SASL now but readme is losing me...

[UPDATE - Aug.17 -2006]
Looking at the /var/log/mail.err files, I found out that it was complaining about a file missing

/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd.db

Then, I remembered that I had entered this line:

smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

into /etc/postfix/main.cf
sasl_passwd file included something like this:

smtp.comcast.net myuserid:mypwd

but I had fat fingers and actually named the file not sasl_passwd but sasl_password and the accompanying .db file was named sasl_password.db. The thing is, running

sudo postmap sasl_passwd

gave me an update error. So I left it as is.

So I corrected both and now when I tail /var/log/mail.info, while I run something like

ls -l|mails myemail@address.com

I don't see errors:
Aug 17 00:13:20 ahlnx postfix/pickup[17245]: 6823B64707: uid=1000from=Aug 17 00:13:20 ahlnx postfix/cleanup[17973]: 6823B64707: message-id=<20060817041320.6823b64707@ahlnx>Aug 17 00:13:20 ahlnx postfix/qmgr[11714]: 6823B64707: from=, size=788, nrcpt=1 (queue active)

Bad news is, mail still does not arrive and I see this warning:
Aug 17 00:29:45 ahlnx postfix/master[4870]: warning: /usr/lib/postfix/smtp: bad command startup -- throttling

I still had a hunch that there not being able to update that .db file was not good. Even stopping postfix was not enough:

sudo /etc/init.d/postfix stop

So, I removed it. Then changed the permissions on /etc/postfix

sudo chmod 777 /etc/postfix

and ran the command again while I was in /etc/postfix directory :

sudo postmap sasl_passwd

I got relatively better results:

Aug 17 00:39:22 ahlnx postfix/pickup[18775]: CC18F63A35: uid=1000 from=

Aug 17 00:39:22 ahlnx postfix/cleanup[18784]: CC18F63A35:

message-id=<20060817043922.cc18f63a35@ahlnx>

Aug 17 00:39:22 ahlnx postfix/qmgr[18776]: CC18F63A35: from=,

size=788, nrcpt=1 (queue active)

Aug 17 00:39:23 ahlnx postfix/smtp[18781]: CC18F63A35: to=,

relay=smtp.comcast.net[63.240.77.77], delay=1, status=bounced (host 

smtp.comcast.net[63.240.77.77] said: 550 [PERMFAIL]
comcast.net requires valid sender domain (in reply to RCPT TO command))
So, I needed to enter a valid address somewhere. Examining /etc/postfix/main.cf, I guessed that I had to activate this line:

myorigin=/etc/mailname

and created the file /etc/mailname, which included a single line like
comcast.net

That did the trick, and after reloading postfix

sudo /etc/init.d/postfix reload

I was able to send e-mails:

Aug 17 00:45:22 ahlnx postfix/master[18772]: reload configuration /etc/postfix

Aug 17 00:46:08 ahlnx postfix/pickup[19101]: 87A5163A35: uid=1000 from=

Aug 17 00:46:08 ahlnx postfix/cleanup[19148]: 87A5163A35:

message-id=<20060817044608.87a5163a35@ahlnx>

Aug 17 00:46:08 ahlnx postfix/qmgr[19102]: 87A5163A35: from=, size=2033, nrcpt=1 (queue active)Aug 17 00:46:09 ahlnx postfix/smtp[19150]: 87A5163A35: to=<destination@comcast.net>, relay=smtp.comcast.net[216.148.227.147], delay=1, status=sent (250 ok ; id=20060817044626m12001a30fe)

Aug 17 00:46:09 ahlnx postfix/qmgr[19102]: 87A5163A35: removed

That was some experience! But as always, it feels good to make something finally work :)

SSH, SCP, SFTP From Windows

I have just finished configuring my ssh daemon on my ubuntu box where I changed port number to 443 in /etc/ssh/sshd.config file

Then I tried to use Putty to connect to it from windows, it worked like a charm. However, I found another very useful tool that can do scp, sftp as well: It's called WinSCP. It's very easy to configure and in not time I was able to login to my Ubuntu and copy files from there to my windows box using scp/sftp.

The problem is I have NAT enabled. I also have a Vonage box in front of my router. I created an account on www.dyndns.org and entered relevant info on my router configuration. However, because it is also behind NAT, it can not properly update its IP and there is no configuration option on the Vonage Motorola box.

The only thing I could do was to tell Vonage Motorola box to forward all 443 port requests to my router and then enabled Port forwarding in my router so that it would forward all 443 requests to my Ubuntu box.

I have restarted ssh daemon by running
/etc/init.d/ssh restart
and now it's listening on 443. This is working fine as long as I connect to it directly at 443 but port forwarding does not seem to be working properly. I guess I have to wait for Mathieu to come back from France to show me a few tricks to do this...

Creating A New Partition in Ubuntu Dapper

When I was installing my Ubuntu Dapper, I had not really used up all the space. In fact, I had left about 250GB free space. Today I wanted to use up that space...

First, I checked my partitions
adil@ahlnx:/etc$ sudo fdisk -l Disk /dev/hde: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hde1 * 1 3187 25599546 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hde2 3188 36483 267450120 7 HPFS/NTFS Disk /dev/hdf: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdf1 1 4613 37053891 83 Linux /dev/hdf2 4614 4740 1020127+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/hdf3 4741 5633 7173022+ 83 Linux
So, I could have simply run

• sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/hdf4

but I wanted to use Gnome Partition Tool. So,

• sudo apt-get install gparted

After the installation, I ran it (also available System > Administeration > Gnome Partition Editor)

• gksudo gparted

Tool is very intuitive! Simply select the /dev/hdf from up on right side on the toolbar and then click the empty space, click "New" & choose the size. Then "Apply".

After partitioning done, it advised that I reboot the server...

Configuring IP Address in Ubuntu

As most people, I have a small home-network. My ubuntu was getting the IP address from the router dynamically. I decided to use static addresses instead of DHCP. The procedure is a bit different then Red Hat Linux.

I first connected to my router and changed the DHCP range so that I would have plenty of static addresses. Then I backed up my /etc/network/interfaces file which had an entry like this:

iface eth0 inet dhcp

As I did not know how to edit this file, I ran the network-admin script:
/etc/network-admin, (you can also do this from GUI: System > Administration > Networking)
Clicked Deactivate Ethernet Connection
Clicked Properties & Changed the IP/NetMask/Gateway after choosing static
Clicked Activate Ethernet Connection
and examined the difference in /etc/network/interfaces file:

OLD <> iface eth0 inet static
NEW > address 192.168.1.3
NEW > netmask 255.255.255.0
NEW > gateway 192.168.1.1

Then, to be able to access my windows box, I added the following entry into /etc/hosts
192.168.1.2 windows

In Red Hat Enterprise, there are to bring up/down eth0, you would run
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/if-up eth0
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/if-down eth0

In Ubuntu, it's a little different
sudo /etc/ifup eth0
sudo /etc/ifdown eth0

[UPDATE - 08/09/2006]
I noticed a weird issue with the Gnome Network Applet icon on the top right corner. It has a little red exclamation mark and when hovered reads "No network connection" although my network connection is just fine...

Red Hat Enterprise Training

I was at Red Hat Training this week. I took RH133 Red Hat Linux System Administration course at Global Knowledge which located in down-town Manhattan at 90 Broad street.

It was one of the best training courses I ever attended. Instructor Rob Locke was great! Unfortunately, I am not going to take the exam to become a Red Hat Certifief Technician but today they gave us a taste of what the exam will be like. I loved it.

They made us install a troubleshooting package and then go to init 3. Then, we started to the tests. They were divided into 3 categories. Basically, they break something in your system and make you repair it. They do not care how you fix it as long as it is fixed.

They had 4 so called 'local' problems, 2 network and 3 boot problems. The last boot problem was the hardest to find but my scripting skills helped me realize that they broke bash and that's why the system was not booting up.

I was one of the few who fixed all the issues and I was proud of myself when I completed them. I came home and tested myself via their course pre-assessment tasks. Normally, you should take RH033 , Red Hat Linux Essentials but I had skipped that as it would be difficult for me to get both that one and system administration.

Interestingly, when I tested myself using Red Hat Linux System Administration Pre-assessment Questionnaire, I scored 34/48 but scored 37/48 on Red Hat Linux System Administration Pre-assessment Questionnaire .

Below are my results... The thing is, I use Ubuntu as my desktop :)

Red Hat Linux Essentials Pre-assessment Questionnaire

Topic	Evaluation	Score
Basic Filesystem and File Commands	Deep Understanding	4
The Linux Filesystem Layout	Substantial Knowledge	3
Permissions and Attributes	Substantial Knowledge	3
Manipulating Floppy Disks	Familiarity	1
The vi and vim Editors	Substantial Knowledge	3
Regular Expressions	Substantial Knowledge	3
Standard Input and Output System	Substantial Knowledge	3
Process Control	Substantial Knowledge	3
Client-side Encrypted Communications	Familiarity	1
bash Command Line Shortcuts	Substantial Knowledge	3
Shell Scripting	Substantial Knowledge	3
Task Automation	Deep Understanding	4

Total Score: 34

Red Hat Linux System Administration Pre-assessment Questionnaire

Topic	Evaluation	Score
Supported Hardware	Substantial Knowledge	3
Installation	Deep Understanding	4
Creating and maintaining filesystems	Deep Understanding	4
X Window System Administration	Familiarity	1
System initialization	Substantial Knowledge	3
User and group administration	Substantial Knowledge	3
Client-side network authentication	Substantial Knowledge	3
Network setup and troubleshooting	Deep Understanding	4
Printing	Substantial Knowledge	3
System Logging and Monitoring	Familiarity	1
System-wide task automation	Deep Understanding	4
RPM	Deep Understanding	4

Total Score: 37

Conclusion: You have sufficient knowledge of the topics at this skill level.

How Pre-assessment Questionnaires are Scored

Questionnaire takers answer questions on twelve topics related to a particular subject matter.

Each topic is scored separately, more points for more difficult questions. Question type and scoring is as follows:

Question 1:

• Easy
• Correct = +1 point

Question 2:

• Moderately difficult
• Correct = +2 points

Question 3:

• Extremely difficult
• Correct = +4 points

For any one topic, the range of possible points is 0 to 7. Questionnaire takers are evaluated per topic as follows:

Deep Understanding		6 or 7
Substantial Knowledge		3, 4, or 5
Familiarity		1 or 2
Unfamiliar		0

The overall score for the class will be based on the number of topics falling into each category, as follows:

# of topics with this score		Multiplied by
Deep Understanding		4
Substantial Knowledge		3
Familiar		1
Unfamiliar		0

This final score will range from 0 to 48. Based on this score, we come to one of the following conclusions:

42 - 48	You have mastered the topics at this skill level.
	Red Hat Linux Essentials (RH033)
	Consider taking a System Administration or Network and Security class. Take the Red Hat Linux System Administration Pre-assessment Questionnaire to determine your best placement.
	Red Hat Linux System Administration (RH133)
	Consider taking a Network and Security class or the RHCE Rapid Track course. Take the Red Hat Linux Network and Security Pre-assessment Questionnaire to determine your best placement.
	Red Hat Linux Network and Security (RH253)
	Most likely, you are prepared for the RHCE exam. Either: Take RH302, the RHCE exam, or: Take RH300, the RHCE Rapid Track course, if you would like a review of the material before taking the exam, although this is probably not necessary.
36 - 41	You have sufficient knowledge of the topics at this skill level.
	Red Hat Linux Essentials (RH033)
	Consider taking a System Administration class. Take the Red Hat Linux System Administration Pre-assessment Questionnaire to determine your best placement.
	Red Hat Linux System Administration (RH133)
	Consider taking a Network and Security class. Take the Red Hat Linux Network and Security Pre-assessment Questionnaire to determine your best placement.
	Red Hat Linux Network and Security (RH253)
	You are probably prepared for the RHCE exam. However, you should consider taking RH300, the RHCE Rapid Track course, if you would like some review before taking the exam.
32 - 35	You have substantial knowledge of the topics at this skill level, but you may benefit from further study.
	Red Hat Linux Essentials (RH033)
	Either: Take the RH033 class, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Linux Essentials eLearning curriculum, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Academy Essentials curriculum, or: Study the material in this curriculum on your own before taking a system administration class.
	Red Hat Linux System Administration (RH133)
	Either: Take the RH133 class, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Linux System Administration eLearning curriculum, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Academy System Administration curriculum, or: Take the pre-assessment questionnaire for RH253. If you score decently (24+ points) on that quiz, you may consider taking RH300, the RHCE Rapid Track class, or: Study the material in this curriculum on your own before attempting a Networking and Security class.
	Red Hat Linux Network and Security (RH253)
	Either: Take the RH253 class, or: Take RH300 if you prefer a rapid track class and would like to review the system administration material, or: Study the material in this curriculum on your own before attempting RH302, the RHCE exam.
24 - 31	Your knowledge of the materials at this skill level is spotty.
	Red Hat Linux Essentials (RH033)
	Either: Take the RH033 class, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Linux Essentials eLearning curriculum, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Academy Essentials curriculum, or: Plan on studying extensively to become completely comfortable with this material before taking a system administration class.
	Red Hat Linux System Administration (RH133)
	Either: Take the RH133 class, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Linux System Administration eLearning curriculum, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Academy System Administration curriculum, or: Take the Red Hat Network and Security Pre-assessment Questionnaire. If you score decently (24+ points) on that quiz, you may consider taking RH300, the RHCE Rapid Track class.
	Red Hat Linux Network and Security (RH253)
	Take the Red Hat Linux System Administration Pre-assessment Questionnaire. If your score for that questionnaire is: Below 24: consider taking RH133, the System Administration class, or taking classes from the Red Hat Linux System Administration eLearning series, or similar classes from the Red Hat Academy before taking a Networking and Security class. 24 through 35: consider taking RH300 to learn/review the system administration materials as well as learning the Networking and Security materials in a rapid track class. Above 35: take a Networking and Security class: RH253, or: Classes from the Red Hat Linux Networking and Security eLearning curriculum, or: Classes from the the Red Hat Academy's Red Hat Linux Networking and Security curriculum.
0 - 23	You will need to undertake substantial studying to acquire skills at this level.
	Red Hat Linux Essentials (RH033)
	You must take a Red Hat Essentials class before engaging in the study of System Administration. Either: Take the RH033 class, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Linux Essentials eLearning curriculum, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Linux Essentials curriculum from the Red Hat Academy.
	Red Hat Linux System Administration (RH133)
	Either: Take the RH133 class, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Linux System Administration eLearning curriculum, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Linux System Administration curriculum from the Red Hat Academy. Also, take the Red Hat Linux Essentials Pre-assessment Questionnaire, if you have not already done so, to consider if classes in that sequence are a better placement.
	Red Hat Linux Network and Security (RH253)
	Either: Take the RH253 class, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Linux Networking and Security eLearning curriculum, or: Take classes from the Red Hat Linux Networking and Security curriculum from the Red Hat Academy. Also, take the Red Hat Linux System Administration Pre-assessment Questionnaire, if you have not already done so, to consider if classes in that sequence are a better placement.

The 100 Top Brands 2006

Just wanted to blog this: Top 100 Brands of 2006. The two company I worked for are on the list as #36 & #37