Lukas Beeler's IT Blog

Today and yesterday went by pretty well. We’ve spent a lot of time working on the exams and the only bad thing about it is that i can’t write about all the juicy details here (NDA).

One of the really good parts about it was that you could hook up with other people that also have A LOT of knowledge about and enthusiasm about their work.

Especially when talking about Microsoft technologies, nobody at my company wants to argue with me. This was different here, and i really enjoyed that.

It’s also great to see that Microsoft exams are a lot of hard work and a huge investment by Microsoft in order to provide up to date and accurate tests.

Keep in mind that when you make a Comment at a Beta Exam / Exam that they’ll be read by real people – they DO make a difference. So whenever you do not like a question for any reason, make a comment. It counts.

So, what now? It’s 1500 here right now, so i’ll try to find a few fun things to do before going to sleep. The same goes for tomorrow morning, my flight leaves at tomorrow 1600. And i’ll be back in Switzerland on Sunday 1200.

So it appears that i’ve survived my 16 hour trip from Zurich to Seattle, and i was even able to enter the US. Which is a good thing.

So, now i’ve spent a day at the Microsoft Campus and have worked on one of the exams. Unfortunately, i can’t tell write about the juicy details, but one thing is clear:

Microsoft Learning really makes a big effort in order to ensure that the quality of the exams is as high as possible. Much care is being taken to ensure that exam content is accurate, up to date and clear.

There were seven other people there with me, most of them know a lot more about this stuff than I do (which, I think, is rather good for my Ego).

So, if you ever sit in front of and Exam and think that a question is stupid and can’t be answered, it’s probably a good idea to think again – it probably makes sense, and you missed something (read carefully!).

So, what else to say?

• I’ve got a really nice rental car
• The hotel room is nice, big, comfortable bathroom, etc. everything you could ever wish for
• Americans have really strange ideas what “Breakfast” is – not that i don’t like it, it is just strange
• Transatlantic flights suck if you’re obese
• ZRH-SEA jetlag isn’t that bad. The other way around will probably be a lot worse
• My spoken English isn’t as bad as i thought
• Microsoft still uses CRTs
• AVIS in Seattle still has System i Twinax Screens in operation
• Cups and dishes made from Polystyrene (essentially Styrofoam) are popular here(?)
• Burger King has french fries boxy-thingies that fit into a cars cup holder
• There is such a thing as a Microsoft Dining Services eCoupon

It’s certainly interesting here. Hope the next two days turn out as well.

Let me start off with something quite obvious: I like working in IT, and i like working with almost any operating system and application you can throw at me.

But i don’t think that there is anything out there that is completely good and done, or perfected. As such, i always find things that need improvement or are implemented the wrong way for a particular use (or any use in some cases). And in other cases, there are also bugs that need to be resolved.

This is no problem in general, because many software manufacturers embrace (valid, constructive) criticism of their products, in order to provide better service and better products for their customers thus giving them more money and market share in the long term. Unfortunately, not all of them see it this way.

There are other problems in the IT industry (and some of these probably exist in other industries as well). One of them is unnecessary paperwork, or administrativa that prevent me from doing what i’m supposed to do (get something done). Of course, some of this is not avoidable and necessary – but in those cases it should be made in an easy, self explaining way with very fast turnaround times in case something goes wrong. Thus preventing the waste of time on administrativa and allowing to get the job done.

Those that know me personally know that I generally like to complain about stuff that doesn’t work right or better, doesn’t work the way i think it should, which is not always the same ;)

In many cases, this can help getting things done faster. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks that way. I don’t like making happy faces to a mess.

I’ve been in the receiving end of criticism more than i’d like to. No, i don’t like getting told that something i did was wrong. But shooting the messenger is exactly the wrong thing to do (even though i sometimes think that it would help my ego). In the end, criticism helps me to do my job better. But i still don’t like it.

You know who you are…

Yesterday i had a letter in my mailbox that i have received a registered letter from Bern and i have to pick it up at the post office. I thought that it was either my new passport (which would be a bit early) or something about my taxes.

But it looks like i did my taxes correctly – when i went to the post office this morning, i received my new passport.

So it looks like i have everything together for my trip to Redmond. I’ve also received lots of paperwork from Microsoft, which i signed and sent back. I don’t have much clue about German legalese, and i have much less clue about English legalese. So i just hope i didn’t sell something important.

So i’ve finally received a pile of legal paperwork from Microsoft, plus everything about expenses.

I’m now trying to plan a trip to Redmond, but it seems difficult within the allocated expense budget.

I don’t have a lot of experience planning international trips, but so far it is looking nicely. And yes, i have to sign an NDA, which means i won’t be able to blog a lot about this, which is sad but understandable.

I’ve also submitted all my biometric identification, so i should have a nice biometric passport by next thursday. Which is also cool :)

But hey, i’m really looking forward to this!

No, i don’t. Or rather, i did but now i don’t.

My passport expired quietly two years ago, and i didn’t care because i was only working in EU countries, where my national ID card is enough.

But now i’m planning a trip to Redmond (Microsoft confirmed my attendance), and i need a suitable passport to travel to the USA. This isn’t as easy at it seems.

The time limit is a given, and i can’t order an “old style” passport without biometric data on it. Biometric passports however take a lot longer to get than normal passports. There is a program for “emergency passports”, but these are not biometric, and thus not suitable for travel to the USA.

I spoke with the Gemeindeamt Horgen, and apparently it should be possible to get this done quick enough. The biometric passport costs 255 CHF total.

On Thursday i can go to the passport bureau and get my fingerprints and mugshot taken. Or something like that.

A few hours ago i received a mail from a Microsoft representative.

Microsoft will be conducting a three day focus group meeting from February 27, 2008 through February 29, 2008 to establish a fair passing score and identify the most relevant content for the LIVE exams:

[ Edited for NDA purposes ]

I am contacting you because you performed well on the betas for these exams.

If you choose to participate, you will be providing a key role in determining the final live exam content in addition to “setting the bar” that determines the standard required to gain certification for these exams.

I am inquiring as to your interest and availability for these sessions.

Well, urm, i was pretty shocked when i read this and at first thought that this was a scam. Thanks to the friendly help of Helmer i was advised that this is, in fact, the real deal.

Okay, so first things first: It looks like i passed both 70-646 and 70-647, which i didn’t really expect.

Microsoft is offering me a three day stay in Redmond, all expenses paid. I just hope i get my passport and visa covered until then. Looks like this is really going to get interesting!

Nine years ago, back in 1999 – i’ve purchased my first broadband access. A company then called Swissonline (now part of Cablecom) offered 512kbit/128kbit access using the Rediffusion (now part of Cablecom) TV network. I was 15 back then, and the 80 CHF that cost per month was a heck a lot of money. But i still thought it would be a good choice to invest it.

IP addresses issued back then were semi-static, they stayed for months. I started hosting my own domain on it (that was in 2000), using a Slackware based Server. It was interesting, and i learned a lot. However, i soon grew dissatisfied with the semi-static IP addresses, and looked for a possibility to get a static IP address. The offering from my cable provider back then was just too expensive.

In 2002, i switched to Init7 using ADSL. I finally had a /29 Subnet to do experiments on, and had a whole lot of servers at home for experimenting purposes. It worked well. And with just 99 CHF, it wasn’t that expensive. However, i also had to pay for an ISDN connection for 43CHF per month. I still lived with my parents back then, so that didn’t factor into my cost directly. This changed, though.

In 2005, i moved from St. Gallen to Horgen. Moving the ADSL Line was painless, and i was online at the same day i moved into my new apartment. Everything was well. At the same time, i purchased a HP DL140 to handle my internet server needs – and placed it into a co located rack, eliminating my need for static IP addresses at home. I still had the same ADSL line, with ISDN, because i didn’t really think about downgrading it – who knows, maybe i could use the static IP addresses once more.

ADSL speeds also improved during that time – in 2002 it was 512kbit, in 2006 the offering was 6mbit. However, at my apartment i was only able to get 4mbit.

I hoped that we’d get ADSL2 just like Germany in a few months time, but even in 2008, i was still stuck with just 4mbit. I wasn’t impressed, so i thought about upgrading to VDSL. However, my apartments infrastructure was unfit for VDSL and would need to be rebuilt. My landlord didn’t really consider that, so i looked at alternatives.

Cablecom Hispeed launched a new 25mbit offer for 75 CHF on January 15th. I was impressed – i currently paid 99CHF for the ADSL link and 43 CHF for the ISDN link, just for 4mbit of broadband with static IP adresses. I didn’t think long, and i switched to the cable offering. Yesterday, i received the new cable mode, and unplugged my ADSL infrastructure.

The 25mbit are really a best effort value – the best i clocked on a download was 18.4 mbit, but that’s still a lot more than 4mbit. Also, the new 2mbit upload speed come in handy when uploading Linux Distributions on quota trackers.