The Left Side of Normal Airplanes, The Internet, and Everything Else

This won't be a big deal to anyone but me, but I've finally breached the 5,000 reputation point on ServerFault with an accepted answer to a question about figuring out e-mail storage quotas.  ServerFault is one of those "why didn't I think of that" type of sites.  It's a free Q&A site for anything related to professional server, system, and network administration.  People ask questions and other people provide answers.  Answers get voted up or down and the person who asked can "accept" an answer.  When answers get voted up or your answer is accepted, among other things, you earn reputation points.  Sure, it's sort of silly, but in a field where "do you know these things and can you get the job done" is of the utmost importance, something like this can put you on top of the stack of resumes as a way to demonstrate to future employers that yes, you really do know your stuff and are even willing to help others with it as well.  (Don't worry, I'm happily employed at present but it can't hurt to be thinking of the future.)  Besides, it's just fun and I learn new things in the process (which is fun by itself).

Aside from web development (programming), network administration is my other primary area of interest when it comes to technology.  As a web developer, this naturally translates to managing networks that relate to Internet infrastructure.  This leads to lots of experience with web servers, e-mail systems, etc.  Through ServerFault, I can lend a hand to others who have less experience and gain some assistance when needed from those who know more than I do (like I did yesterday with a question about a network share getting dropped unexpectedly).  It's a great system and I hope that the questions I've answered have helped to improve people's knowledge and skills.  Onward to 10,000 and beyond!

CNN is reporting that the co-pilot on an American Airlines flight became ill during the flight and was unable to continue his duties.  These jets require two pilots to conduct the flight because the workload is just too large for one person to handle.  In addition to actually flying the airplane the pilots have to deal with approach procedures, communicating with air traffic control (and monitoring where other planes are and what they're doing), run through mandatory checklists of things that have to be done before the plane can land.  Unless you're superman, it's just too much for one person to handle.  When I'm on a flight, one of the last things I want to hear come over the speakers is the captain asking if anyone on board has a pilot license.  I'm a pilot, and that would make me nervous.  If I were on that flight I would be quick to volunteer to help, and quick to defer to someone else with more experience if another option were available.  In this case, one of the flight attendants held a pilot license with a commercial rating.  She was able to jump into the right seat and work with the pilot to complete the checklists and assist with whatever else he needed help with.  I highly doubt she actually controlled the movement of the airplane in any way.  She may have dropped the landing gear, turned some lights on, read through the checklist, things like that.  These jets are fairly complex machines and require a lot of training to operate.  Having a commercial rating means you know the rules and regulations as outlined by the FAA, but it doesn't mean you have training on any particular aircraft.  In any case, I congratulate the flight attendant on helping to bring the flight to a successful conclusion.  If I were in that position I can only hope that I would perform as well.

Maybe it's the new mouse.  Maybe it's because it's Monday.  In any case, I'm feeling like I got a lot done today.  Domain renewals.  SSL renewals.  Moved the last remaining sites from an old (ancient) Windows 2000 web server with ColdFusion 5 out to a new home on a virtualized Windows 2008 web server with ColdFusion 8.  Once all of the DNS changes propagate around and we have a snapshot of the old server, that will be one less piece of hardware to manage (not to mention an outdated non-supported OS and ColdFusion version to support).  Hopefully I can shut it down by the end of the week.  I also closed a bunch of support tickets that had been hanging around.  I even brought lunch to save a few dollars and shave off a few calories from my usual intake (have to make up for buying this awesome new mouse).  Now it's time to go home and take some proficiency profile exam for school.  It's not part of the degree program directly, nor does it impact my GPA, but it's mandated by the school that we take it when we're getting close to graduation.  They ask you to block off just over two hours.  I really hope it doesn't take that long.  I have more code to write and projects to get caught up on.  Here's to hoping the productivity carries on at home and I can get everything done that I'd like to get done.