RUN TCP/IP | Morgan Lucas is Tech Blogging

 I have always liked the idea of a grocer where I can get a small amount of what I need to try a recipe. I don't need 4lbs of sugar for 12 cookies. Some places used to operate like that, buying things in "Stick it in your bag amounts and we'll weigh it." (RIP, Lucky's Market).  Zero Grocery is the next best thing, offering delivery of food, spices, and underground culinary treats to your (California only) doorstep in reusable containers.      You may be thinking that in the times of COVID, people would be hesitant about reusing glass jars strangers have stuck their fingers in. Not so ; [CEO, Zuleyka] Strasner says that customers haven’t been squeamish about reusable packaging during the pandemic. You don't need an account or subscription to browse the goodies , though you will need a zip code in their delivery range to stick them in the basket.  Come with me as I step through my first impressions of the site here - There's a lot to like. This is not a spo...

 "Never be afraid if people don't see what you see. Only be afraid when you no longer see it." Join Black Girls CODE and Netflix for a virtual conversation with the filmmakers of Netflix's Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey on how visual effects brought the magic of the movie to life.  We will be joined by filmmakers David & Lyn Talbert and VFX supervisor Brad Parker.   Moderated by BGC's Community & Events Manager Isis Miller. We will be taking questions from our students and audience so be sure to check out the film!   

   A film by Shalini Kantayya. Join our free two-week screening of the trailblazing film Coded Bias that sheds light on the threats artificial intelligence poses to civil rights and democracy  Considering how Google abruptly fired Dr. Timnit Gebru , one of the leaders in the Ethical AI field, this is very timely. Also, very cool, she's in this documentary as well! As of this writing, you still have a few days to watch "Coded Bias" for free over here . 

Most People Give Up See an error on a page? They leave the page.  They don't click through. They don't buy. You don't get a customer.  I go deeper. I let you know. I show you videos. I look at console logs. Your engineers are busy. They're working on the back-end. They're working with browsers without the most popular add-ons of the day. I give the real user experience so you can get the real value. I browse websites and apps while making note of things I find frustrating for end users.  The other post was getting too long, so I will cap out each entry at maybe 15-20 mistakes, to keep your attention. Contents: Instances where I offer constructive feedback on someone's website, logo, or app. Actions that were taken by the developers or artists.  I'm glad you want your webpages to be the best they can be with my help; If you need your sites audited, e-mail me . Updated ; June 24th, 2021. Most recent entries will be at the top.

 December will be spent helping others, networking, establishing contacts - and generally touching up older (and some exclusive) posts to be posted on my Medium blog. It will be easier for you to follow, share, and support, and I appreciate every interaction. This blog will not be discontinued - In fact, I'm growing more than ever! Again, follow me on Medium here .

I'm not here to take a dump on the hard working web designers who brought their ideas to life because there are good things, and things that need just a smidgen of improvement. One day in November 2020, I opened my LinkedIn to see this:

  Letterboxd is a personal database to keep track of what movies you've watched, want to watch, and their ratings 🎥 Now, we're looking at my own data. Everything goes from 2016 - 2020, even though some movies are dated for the years they were released. I am keeping the date watched and the year released in the data. I've hidden the Letterboxd URLs to the specific movie pages - It's not necessary - and my own username is not shown. Spoiler alert: There are movies that are highly acclaimed that...I do not like! Feel free to link to this post and go "How does she like ' Valerian and The City of A Thousand Planets ' more than ' Up '?" Check out the public charts here on Tableau Public, and follow along!

 I read this in high school and randomly remembered it today. It's a book that made me want to be involved with network infrastructure.                                                               This is the Australian cover. Doesn't it look cool?  It's very well-researched (though some of the concepts it touches on seem to have died in real life). Also, terminology kind of marches on - "computer phones" is something constantly said. Searching that in 2020...You get smartphones and various 'use your PC as a phone' links from CNET.   I won't be breaking down every section of the entire book.   "They sent in sniffing programs to intercept his access code."    

 None of this is promotional. I am not paid by Target to do this. Boy, I wish I were. Someone let them know!    I really love to cook. It's fun to find unrelated ingredients and make something out of them that's mostly palatable. This idea came to me while driving home from Target. I had bought stuff from Good and Gather, their in-house grocery brand that replaced Market Pantry. With its sleek and minimalist design packaging, it's easy to spot on a busy shelf. While not the first time I've bought G&G items, it was the first time I thought "What makes me go to this brand?" The G&G item is usually less expensive by a few cents. Target's food brands have built enough goodwill with me to take the chance. Not every item is a winner - some I still prefer a different, more established brand. Some  are so ordinary, there's no point in reviewing it. A baby carrot is a baby carrot, G&G ones come from the same field as Green Giant.    I'm guessin...

All data science is asking a question.  I've been playing in Tableau for the past month, and needed to stick something on my blog to point to on my resume. So, this webinar, hosted by Mark B at Thinkful Webinars, arrived at the right time. He gave people ample time to follow the instructions. Data Analytics - "We have all these numbers and words, what patterns in the data can we find to make money?"   There was also a case study with Chipotle - A lot of their data was scattered, and communication was poor. (Also, people were getting sick. Remember that?) With Tableau, insights were easily shared with more accessible dashboards., saving them 10,000 hours a month.  Here are some of the visual options I learned about; Because That's what Tableau is about - How to display information.

   When being the Master of Ceremonies and IT Support merge. I always liked event planning, so this was a lot of fun. It was a client's 60th birthday, and they hired me to set up a party, send invitations (I made a webpage and sent the link out), and monitor the event. Here's a short list of what I did. Backups: Multiple backups of portable power banks and mobile hotspots in case weather knocked out power. Power strip installed to prevent blowouts of laptop and Alexa.   Setup:  Tested lighting, distance, camera location in 3 different locations.  Considered location of Wi-Fi extender and ISP router to decide which AP to use.   Meeting: Password protected Zoom meeting. Letting people into the room from waiting rooms. Adjusting the views. Sent out a self-made video educating how to log onto the Zoom meeting. Had a notification ready incase of inclement weather: "Hi there! Thanks for joining us today. If we disconnect, you may be kicked out of the room. Pleas...

 This is a blurb of a post - I played around in the environment for a bit and didn't complete it. Sometimes, projects just go unfinished. It's not my greatest ambition in life to make an Alexa skill. The instructions are a bit out of date, I had to create a new role from policy templates, which took me to several other screens. You have to make about 2 separate accounts - One main AWS one, and one Amazon Developer one.  "earnings"? Something to consider... 'You can provision your own back-end resources or you can have Alexa host them for you.' I suppose I could actually use the Azure equivalent of Lambda if I wanted to. My favorite part so far has been thinking of the invocation words - You can't use a handful of them. I want to make Alexa going 'Hello, World' to make sense in context. I almost put in 'Bye world' but that sounds very morbid. I'm guessing this Utterance Profiler does this: "What word could you say to make this work?...

What a time to be alive. Smart objects are the way of the future.  I prefer good, hands-on manual activity, but I did want to see what was out there for those who never want to be unplugged.    While I acknowledge a lot of this stuff is oddly pointless, I know that's only one viewpoint. I'm not here to take a dump on people with mobility issues who use these to help themselves. Or people who like them just for the fun of it.  Heck, I'd use the *checks* Bane-Mask.

 Why not learn a bit about React? Video here .  Tech used: React Hooks Node.js Programming fundamentals (HTML, CSS, Javascript)   Github repo .  I added the nifty drop down menu. I learned about it on Twitter about 3 days ago.

  Story time:   I had heard about IRChat in a podcast  (NSFW) at first.    I had no idea until now it was a real thing that not only existed, but still exists .    This is the kind of late 90's "Hackers"-esque mysticism that surrounds tech I love.   IRC is an application based protocol that uses a client/server model to chat over text. They're not necessarily forums, as the functionality is bare-bones 'type words'.   Also, little ASCII people like this ヾ(•ω•`)o    

 Contactless hospitality technology is growing. You want to get away, and you'll be damned if a little thing like a deadly virus will stop you! But you still don't want to touch things. Ew. During the chat between INTELITY CEO Robert Stevenson and THE GEORGE Director of Operations Kerrie Hunter, you’ll learn how the historic boutique hotel has adapted a mobile-first guest experience in the wake of COVID-19—and how they see contactless technology affecting the future of hospitality. I don't remember how I found INTELITY (probably hoping to score a position with them), but I liked them enough to stay on the e-mail lists.  

I'm exploring different avenues of networking besides straightforward "Work on a network, stay late every day, no peace of mind, fight with higher ups to get resources.". You may have noticed that there's a smattering of UX and HTML/Javascript coding on here. I like coding, but I'm not too knowledgeable yet. UX is what I really enjoy (And I'm even working with a major company to improve theirs). Site Reliability Engineering seems to be a nice merging of the two. I imagine it's who you call when your eCommerce check-out services craps the bed. Not naming any names. This is actually the AZ-400 track

 Video for reference here . I'm one to encourage good rest over constant work.  Yet I found myself awake at 2 AM listening to this video by TraversyMedia, because I was suddenly curious about making a full page image carousel. I wanted to listen before I put hand to keyboard in coding, so at around 3 AM, I pulled up my machine with an idea.   I followed the instructions and did most of the code myself. Here, I outline: The changes in my code from the original. The demo mockup ( Here ) The changes in the new Tourism: Welcome to Babylos! . The images may take a moment to load at first. The original video code says .buttons button#next .buttons button#prev But the code didn't work! The buttons were still as follows:

     It is my dream to have a 'working relationship' with companies and tell them "This is great, I especially like x,y, and z." or "Err on the side of caution when doing this - It could be misinterpreted."  So when a certain company said "Do that, for us, for a few days." I said "Happy to help." " And we'll pay you!" "Even happier to help!"   I will not give specifics on information gathered and shared beyond "habits", as I signed a contract. And when I sign a contract, I consider this contract work. So I will absolutely drop in conversation, "Hey, I consulted for ... someone I can't say... for 🌟10 Days🌟!" This is about my experience - And I'm happy to say it was pleasant. The project-runners were clearly people who valued our insight. Here's a story about them that has nothing to do with the study, but this post should be a little longer.

      Hellmann's Canada is helping to stop hunger IRL by taking it virtual; #HellmannsIsland has come to #ACNH to help turn virtual food waste into real meals. For each spoiled turnip you drop off on our 5-star island, we’ll donate a meal to @SecondHarvestCA to feed people in need. DM us with #HellmannsIsland for your dodo code. Limited spots available. pic.twitter.com/QOWXDR5FCQ — Hellmann's Canada (@HellmannsCanada) August 17, 2020   On forums, talk quickly turned to; "Why not just donate?"  

  What does it take for people to enjoy their online, digital experience without getting scammed? Hosted by Wizer's Chris Roberts , featuring Joanna Udo , Gabriel Friedlander , Ryan Cloutier , & Christopher Sant. * Security is daunting; Even I think so, and I work here. How do we get influencers to care, chefs, marketing professionals, anyone who isn't us? How can we make cybersecurity accessible and not daunting, because it affects everybody? Let's hit on the big points (the giant headers, and the quotes from the panel follow. Quotes are slightly paraphrased. I'm working on the journalistic integrity to keep it short while not bastardizing the answer.)

With moderation by Theresa Mershon, Director of Design Systems, learn why accessibility and intersectionality are essential for designers and how the industry could use a lesson. We'll be hosting four external guests across the UX spectrum to share their thoughts and experiences. Also, sign translation by Kevin L. Mogg and Susie Kahl. Here's a bit about me; I use captions everywhere I can.

Capture the Flag is a networking game that will allow you to gain hands-on experience with designing and operating cloud-based solutions with the Cisco Meraki platform. #CiscoCTF Find it HERE (Until July 17th 2020) - An Online treasure hunt! Where the treasure is "things to put onto your resume."

After weeks of pushing it back, Warner Bros. has finally accepted that Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" would not see the light of theatrical day anytime soon in America. “We will share a new 2020 release date imminently for ‘Tenet,’ Christopher Nolan’s wholly original and mind-blowing feature,” said Warner Bros. chairman Toby Emmerich in a statement. “We are not treating ‘Tenet’ like a traditional global day-and-date release, and our upcoming marketing and distribution plans will reflect that,” Emmerich said. Will "Tenet" open overseas before America?

I want to write about things my (human) network is doing more often, so here we are. Ramneet Brar (President of the STEM Fellowship SFU) hosted Tara Furiani (Not The HR Lady), one of many HR people I'm connected with on LinkedIn who are very outspoken about current HR practices that put the employee at a disadvantage because of bigotry. In short - She makes the suit wearers of LinkedIn clutch their ties because she says more than "Network is networth." Gotta love it. "But the cool thing is; We're doing it. We're adapting. We're utilizing technology like we've never done before." Tara says that the authenticity of being in quarantine has counted so much more than in normal times. I agree.

You think I bought this? Absolutely not. I won it at Cisco Live.* *"At" being online. Did I feel like a sellout accepting it? Absolutely. But it's free technology. Do I like it? It doesn't like the 5 GHz Band on channel 36 either @alexa99 Imagine not being tech savvy and trying to set this up! But they just throw it on their main network and call it a day. Want a bit of security and this is how we're penalized 🙃 https://t.co/vHba0pg6tU — Morgan Lucas, technical writer (@runtcpip) June 27, 2020 If you haven't been able to tell so far, I'm not fond of it. Just because it was free doesn't mean I'm not going to be honest.

I first learned about the article (here ) from the latest edition of The DISUnplugged Podcast , of which I am a weekly listener. While I constantly hear park proprietors complain that a bit of infrastructure has failed to account for the demand when it comes to dining reservations (or recently, park passes due to the reopening of Magic and Animal Kingdom on July 11th ), I've always been interested in how they use technology to encourage guests to give up autonomy, interact with the 'on-stage' setting, and get the most out of their Disney World trip. The last time I was at Walt Disney World (WDW) was in April or May of 2013. While MagicBands were announced in January of 2013 , I'm not sure when they started being given to guests to use with MyMagic+. I never got one.

The new CCNA was released in mid Feb of 2020. With the advent of COVID, all of our active certs were pushed back 6 months. Mine won't expire until the end of next year, which is rapidly approaching. So why not go through the free course on Cisco NetAcad? It looks way different than the first course. The navigation on the left starts at... 10. It takes until 11.1.10 to get to a Packet Tracer about Port Security. It's an old one, I recognize it. There are no small activities scattered throughout the (much shorter) lessons. There used to be matching games. Short quizzes are at the end of each section. (Unrelated note: It also showed that the Rogue Laptop thwarted by port security and sticky MACs, while in the same subnet as the legitimate machines, couldn't ping. Because port security!) The Syntax Checker displays the appropriate instruction at the appropriate time. No more continuous scrolling back and forth (Unless you want to go upward and check on a command in the lesson) ...

Like many events, CiscoLive 2020 was pushed to an all digital format. What is everyone talking about? I'm at #CiscoLive with a crowd right now! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/djamyEymyG — Morgan Lucas @ Cisco Live! ※ o(￣▽￣)ｄ (@runtcpip) June 17, 2020 So, I have to repeat this again; Online events should have always been an option at this point . I understand the energy of real people. It's fun to talk to random, like minded people! However, these events take place in a world of growing inequality, especially in America, where people who want to learn, network , and improve, might not have the money for this.

Let's briefly look at some virtual firewalls in Linux. This is Iptables, running in my Ubuntu Server. Remember that? What is CHAIN in this context? My best guess is 'the route a packet takes'. Think "At this point in the process, what should happen to this packet?" [ 1 ] Here, it's saying "Forward everything!". At which point, you may as well not have a firewall at all. So let's set some rules on this bad boy;

I browse websites and apps, while making note of things I find frustrating for end users. You have probably been linked here from a form or my resume. If you have any questions about what I'm looking for in a role, click here .   This post is not to shame, but to point out errors and hopefully make my talent for finding and documenting such mistakes clear to someone hiring. Contents: Instances where I offer constructive feedback on someone's website, logo, or app. Actions that were taken by the developers or artists.  I'm glad you want your webpages to be the best they can be with my help; If you need your sites audited, e-mail me . Latest Update -  November 20th, 2020.   Vol. 2 is here .

Back in times of old, when we could go places, one of those places was the movie theater. The smelly, cramped, outdated movie theater. One of those movies to be played in the theater was Disney's "Artemis Fowl". When worldwide hell broke loose, it was banished to Disney+. I have waited too long to see it - More than 15 years - And won't be deterred by watching it upon a smaller screen. Before we can get to that story, let's peel away the application layer tech and take a look under the hood. I think ,even before COVID-19, that this was headed to a digital grave.

The course is in 6 sections, so I'll separate them by parts. I do have Windows Server experience, and 2019 is new to me, though the general idea is the same. 💠 Powershell is A) A scripting language, and B) Is an application with a command based shell to run and create your own Powershell scripts and modules (a collection of scripts, modules, and functions). 💠 PowerShellGit is used to download packages from GitHub. Is it the equivalent of 'apt-get'? 💠 You can remote the Domain Controller from Powershell. Consider the permissions, who is logged into the target machine. Other parameters may be needed. 💠 Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock {cmdlets} -ComputerNames("name1", "name2") can be used to run the same command on multiple domain controllers and servers. 💠 Windows Admin Center is a browser-based app for managing clusters, servers, and Windows 10 PCs. Check your SSL certificates! 💠 When installing a role or a feature, you're prompted to install GUI ...

Again; I've done this, but now there's so many new things, I'm doing it again. The truly new portions were...everything on the right side of this diagram; The cloud needed a coax connector and a copper Ethernet connector. It's all easy to install, turn off the cloud (Weird), install the modules. Getting the Cable section of Connections was an unusual struggle - The other drop down menu had nothing within. It required going into the Ethernet options and setting the Provider Network to 'cable', which is the next step AFTER the drop-downs. The rest was typical DHCP and DNS setups, mainly on the Cisco server down there. The post is rather short - How about adding a video to it? Find out what A Record means - This site says 'Maps a name to an IP address', which is DNS. So it's another name for DNS? You can change them (presumably in a local context) to associate an IP address to another name.

Clear writing is concise writing. • In order to → To • In spite of → Despite • A number of → Some • In the event that → If • The majority of → Most • Has the opportunity to → Can • Despite the fact that → Although — Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) June 1, 2020 I have looked at 1000s of applications in 3 years of job seeking. This isn't the worst one - That goes to one simply titled " DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES??? APPLY NOW! " Here is a link to the listing. Originally on LinkedIn. Even if it's filled, it should stay up for a while. Just in case, here's the original text; Staff Engineer - DevOps (open for remote) VMware Why would you enjoy this new opportunity? You have an analytical mind and a passion for the craft of software engineering, and you love solving problems and learning new things. Technologies come and go, but that excites you because of the endless possibilities it creates. You are lo...

The course is in 6 sections, so I'll separate them by parts. I do have Windows Server experience, and 2019 is new to me, though the general idea is the same. The first relevant video opens with " I was speaking recently with a network administrator for a global company. He told me that his IT infrastructure was out of date because his Windows Servers were a version or two behind the newest thing from Microsoft." Just because you can upgrade doesn't mean you should! If your stuff works (well), it works. If new features help your business, or have the possibility for your business to 'grow' into them then sure, upgrade. But there's no need to keep up with the Jones or Gates.

The course is in 6 sections, so I'll separate them by parts. I do have Windows Server experience, and 2019 is new to me, though the general idea is the same. 👋🏾AD Certificate Services can be used to verify user identity and encrypt data with certificates 👋🏾 Install the role on a member server to make it easier. The root Certificate Authority is the most important. 👋🏾 You can make your own certificates with your PKI (private key infrastructure) 👋🏾 The subject name is how someone will be recognized, and for more security, you can specify who can enroll. Can they request certificates, or automatically receive them? 👋🏾 AD Federation Services form trusts across organizational lines to claim the identity of someone in your network as someone who can get resources and permissions. Sort of like the guest accounts in your AD in Azure. 👋🏾 Rights Management Services secures content within files, and even emails. REMINDS ME OF ... Azure Information Protection. 👋🏾 👋🏾

The course is in 6 sections, so I'll separate them by parts. I do have Windows Server experience, and 2019 is new to me, though the general idea is the same. ✅  Active Directory Domain Services Schema (ADDSS) defines type of objects stored, properties maintained, and how these different bits of data relate to each other. ✅ Active Directory sites/domain/forests have names that aren't an option to change in configuration. In the Sites and Services name, you should change it (Right click it). Name it depending on geographic location. ✅ Link Values are set based on speed or bandwidth. Now we get into path costs and hops, and that's what I was trained in. ✅ Encryption of traffic between VMs on a per-subnet basis! Use Certificates on Hyper-V hosts. Everyone gets a matching certificate Virtual machines/switches are created and managed by network controller. Reminds me somewhat of CHAP and PAP . ✅ Cluster Sets have consistent hardware and shared namespace. They help with high a...

Did you know? Before Covid-19, employers were rather stingy on helping graduates, new or not so new, with internships, often having a very limited time frame that they cared about you. Not so with Deloitte and InsideSherpa ! Check it out here . It was free, and a project to talk about, so I did it. Turns out that consulting is pretty cool. I've enjoyed thinking about the best solutions to bring a business to the cloud, or online.    It's not all just 'Set up a Cloud account and have at it'. My Azure certification gave me a leg up on one of the projects; I was more minute than they expected at points. It did show me that I can do remote work; Work is often already an invasion on someone's life and time. Being able to take my time and work when I wanted to without being burned out was a nice perk. If you still have your school e-mail address, you can sign up with that. I haven't tried it with a business address. This is basically "What does Deloitte do?"...

 If you're seeing this post, I'm helping you, and you probably have LI presence: React and share this post to help me in return.   In Packet Tracer, a demo software made by Cisco Systems. It certainly has changed a lot since 2016. It's almost an Olympic feat to even get started with it now, but it does look snazzy. This is for the new CCNA, that integrates, among other things, IoT and Automation, which I've worked on here before. Instructions here . I don't know if this is an aspect of "Let's make sure people are paying attention and not simply following blindly", or an oversight - The instructions indicate a Meraki Server, when a regular one is the working option here. I have to enable the IoT service on this server. Also, we assign the server an IPv4 address from a DHCP pool instead of giving it a static one. For something that handles our IoT business, perhaps that's safer; Getting a new IPv4 address every week or so is a minimal step against an...

* I am using an Ubuntu server, which means I could skip epel-release and simply install Ansible from these instructions. Opening the configuration file in vi (as su, or you won't be able to overwrite), I'm pleasantly surprised it didn't take me more than 3 minutes to find #host_key_checking = False . The # means 'this is a comment', so let's take that away so it can work with the demo. Let's configure; This is openly available information over here . Let's ping it; Yes, apparently my Ansible was using older Python for backwards compatibility. But we did successfully ping the router! First bit of automation = ✅ With a bit of manipulation, we can run some good old Cisco IOS commands like 'show ip int brief'; The command is sudo ansible router -m ios_command -a "commands='show ip int brief'" I revisited this the next day and added the second router; I got a really funky error pointing out a...

Jira is a piece of project managing software that can be maintained on-prem on a server, or in the cloud (also, technically, on a server). It's a busy piece of planning software for software development, with various modes (scrum and kanban) depending on your project. You can learn the essentials remotely, with a 6-hour course - This is more of a brief, technical overview about using a Kanban board in Jira. Introduction aside, let's get into the completely fake idea of "Installing Wi-Fi At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry", and see how these boards can help keep me on track. Edited to add: This blog and the author supports trans women. This was posted before she decided to act that way online. That's not software! Don't think too deeply about the logistics of magic and technology.