Recent blog entries for semaj

Well well... haven't done the diary thing in a long time. Not that I haven't been posting diary stuff on my own site, but the idea of double posting seems a bit much. I haven't been working on alot of code that I even think is remotely useful to the "population at large" and with all the craziness at work and home... I just decided to read and not write here on Advogato.

The only thing that makes me write an entry today is the fact that I finally have a linux job. After all these years of using linux at home and work... I will finally be making my living actually "offically" using the OS. What is the job? Glad someone asked, I will be a Linux System Administrator for NTIS( a part of the Department of Commerce). They have a linux webserver farm and also use linux for DNS, mail and other services. The CIO at NTIS is trying to offload as much of NTIS's services from the HP systems that they currently use for all their large projects. Matter of fact, they host and update the IRS website, so they are definately in need of high powered web services.
I am still not sure what my roles will be overall, but I am sure I will be learning a ton, which is always a good thing. Heck, I may even learn more about HP-UX so that I can help more in migration of services from the HP platforms to linux based ones. It seems that they have standardized on Redhat... which versions I don't know... but I am sure I will figure all that out before the end of my first day :).

Until later...

Hmmm... finally got some sleep and now with a clearer head, I look a bit more seriously at my part of being a member of Advogato. I enjoy alot of the posts here on the site. Some people really seem like they are big time into problem solving. I have seen some math and algorithms that have made my eyes roll back in my head.
For me... I think I will be an observer for a long long time. I mean, alot of stuff people are doing are way beyond my ability to judge fairly. I use quite a bit of the software that people here have contributed to in some shape or way. If I did the "silly" thing, I would just base my cert's on how useful the sofware was to me and how easy it was to install/configure.
This in itself could be a bad thing. Since I use alot of cvs/alpha/beta software, it would really just be more of a reflection of my tastes and abilities.Not really what cert's seem to be about. I also don't really don't have the programming skills or background to be a useful certifier. This is too bad... but the end point is... my cert's will more than likely never matter... observer is where I should be...
I did notice that a few people have certified me as an apprentice... that is interesting. I will have to check those folk out :)

I have had this account for quite sometime and never really felt that I would do anything with it, well I have definately changed my mind. I have finally hit the point where I feel that I can actually make some neat things happen. I have totally revamped my website and even have put up some of the PHP code that I use on the site.
This brings me to the reason that I decided to finally make a diary entry. I have started to really get into functions to do "formatted" image displays on the web. I have no idea why I am so in to it... but I just finished working for 3 hours on generalizing a function to display the contents of a directory full of images. Now I am relatively stuck... do I use the shell command in php to get to convert, compile all the mod_php3 and gd rpms to make sure that jpeg images as well as png image functions can be used, or take the "easy" way out and search the web for some code to do what I need.
The need itself is simple, now that the TableDrawing function is complete, I would like for php to make thumbnails on the fly from the images in a selected directory. Is this really important... heck no. Do I think it is a neat thing to try and learn to do... sure do.( otherwise, I would be working on a newer design for my employer's internal website... he would like for it to have more "pop"... whatever the heck that is... gee!)
Well enough boring stuff for now... Time for some sleep/tv/reading... something other that this computer screen. :)