The Day Today

A useful tip in DOS and for those batch files is how to change the current directory to a network drive. You can use the NET USE command to map a network drive, but that requires knowing an available drive letter… The commands PUSHD and POPD allow you to immediately jump to the UNC path, temporarily mapping the first available drive letter. Use the command as follows:

PUSHD \\SERVERNAME\SHARE

The current directory will be changed to the route directory of a temporarily mapped network drive pointing at the share mentioned in the command. Use POPD on its own to unmap the drive and return to wherever you were before the PUSHD command was used. If you used PUSHD again before POPD then you begin to stack the drive mappings, and you simply POPD for each one of them when you’re done. Run PUSHD without any parameters to see the current details of the stack.

See Microsoft’s support site for the PUSHD command here.

As I didn’t do a computer science degree, I skipped object oriented programming basics and although I do a reasonable amount of development work I generally work ‘by example’ and certainly haven’t done any C# or Java. As I have some time on my hands at the moment I decided to check out a very simple and easy to follow tutorial to fill in some gaps in my knowledge. Thanks to a quick search I found this tutorial, which is quick and easy to follow. It’s certainly given me a thirst for more knowledge, but the hardest thing is coming up with a project and deciding on a programming language. I have a friend that has an open-source application so perhaps I’ll try to make sense of that and maybe even contribute!

Back when I was studying for my Security+ qualification my lecturer introduced me to BlackICE, which he rated highly as an intrusion detection system. Recently I wanted to improve the security of my PC and so I looked into getting a copy. First I found it difficult to determine who now owns BlackICE, as it seems that IBM at some point must have bought the software. Anyway, after downloading and installing it I immediately experienced issues with it - I couldn’t successfully add exceptions to rules, and more importantly it was unable to accurately report if it was running or not! Most annoying of all was that once I had decided that I’d had enough I couldn’t uninstall it! Fortunately this appears to be a common issue, and IBM provide a tool that will forcibly remove all traces of the application. Now I start from scratch and am looking for a decide IDS/firewall application that isn’t bloatware like Norton/McAfee. Any suggestions?

My flatmate (and twice contributor to TheDayToday) has started his own tech blog focusing on web development. He started it in January with some sort of encouragement from his employer - it’s refreshing that companies are acknowledging the existence of weblogs, and the benefits they can have to their staff’s development. Of course there’s also the cynical view that it’s a way to spy on your staff, but I think there’s a responsibility to the blogger to remain somewhat anonymous and to also set some boundaries before you begin writing - don’t dig your own grave! Anyway, he’s got some handy tips and best practices as well as news and reviews. Check it out here.

Well I stopped writing here for a couple of reasons… the poorest one is that the site is blocked by my work network and I can’t be bothered to disconnect the VPN for long enough to write and post an entry. The slightly better reason is that I’ve had a lot on my mind and wanted to post more about my work situation, of which I still had no real details of until yesterday. So my silence is now broken and hopefully I’ll be updating more frequently again.

I’ve had many nights where I haven’t slept much, with my mind full of impossible decisions that I knew one day would need to be made. I’ve discussed it with pretty much anybody that will listen, and have probably made what is initially a shocking and exciting opportunity now sound to my close friends as a boring internal debate. The fact is that it’s still real, and a life changing decision will still need to be made.

Yesterday I finally found out the salary and relocation package, although I don’t have this in writing and still need certain other details before I would be expected to make a choice. Now I have these two important details I can now begin to discuss this more seriously with friends and family (and bore them again).

Clearly the figures they’ve given me aren’t making it an easy decision (too little and I’d stay without hesitation, much more and I’d be stupid not to go) but there are so many other factors - as I’ve discussed in a recent entry.

Today I intend to write a list of pro-Florida things and pro-England things. This is something Andi suggested, and although I initially didn’t like the idea because just writing one word doesn’t show the significance it has on my life, but the more I think about it the more I should probably get these thoughts written down. I might surprise myself and end up making it an easy decision!

I also have several questions to ask my employer: Can I get a short business trip out there before I make a decision to see the area and meet the people? Will they provide a visa for Pam - if she wants one? If things don’t work out, will they help me to get a job within the company back in England? All things that I believe are reasonable requests…

Anyway, I intend to update this blog with details in hope that it might help somebody else in this situation. It’ll certainly make for interesting reading for me in five years time, whichever decision I make!