Ben Gillam’s posterous

Personal musings (or rants) by Ben Gillam
 

India Training Trip: Day 11

(Moment of silence to remember the victims of 9/11) Hello all, good news to report this morning, the 70-291 exam i was dreading has been and gone and i did bloody well :) GET IN! We are now onto the final course, Implementing Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 which is for exam 70-350 and will be the last exam before I become a fully fledged Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator. Having already had some exposure to firewalls in my time and also my recent training with GTA GnatBox's the principals are already in place so what I'm really learning here is how to implement it the Microsoft way, that said though most people use hardware firewalls anyway! Might post up a bit more tonight if i have anything worth saying... UPDATE 6pm: Just thought id let you all know that i'm now no longer out of the reach of the rain, its been quite wet this afternoon. Now this is more like home! Still very muggy though!

Posted September 11, 2008 by Ben Gillam 
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India Training Trip: Day 10

Not much to say today, apart from training is going well and... IVE GOT A BLOODY COLD! You wouldn't think it in such a hot climate and I've been eating and sleeping well, but it seems its not just me spoke to a couple of the other guys from the UK and they are suffering too, maybe something to do with being in aircon'd rooms/offices all day long. Just been to the chemists and got some cough syrup which worryingly has a picture of some lungs on the front! Hope that'll stop me coughing my lungs up when i go to bed and when i get up now all i need is some corks for my nostrils. 70-291 exam tomorrow morning, fingers crossed!

Posted September 10, 2008 by Ben Gillam 
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India Training Trip: Day 9 (The home stretch!)

Feeling a lot better today, I'm into the final 7 days (well 7.15ish) by this time next week I should be on my way to the airport. THANK GOD! Ran some practice exams last night for the next exam which i was a little worried about and did ok, and we also covered a lot more of the exam today now that my tutor is back, we have just booked the exam for 9am on Thursday morning....Fingers Crossed! If anyone is on facebook they can see my pictures i have uploaded now that i have worked out how to use the photos feature.. enjoy.

Posted September 9, 2008 by Ben Gillam 
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India Training Trip: Day 8

Not had a great day today, didn't sleep well last night and felt lousy all day and my instructor had phoned in sick so they had to get a sub in who was pretty good and we did about half of the modules in the second book for the exam. Then on the way back to the apartment I opened the door to let someone out of the cab and BANG! out of nowhere (like all traffic in Delhi) someone had shot past (coming towards us and clipped wing mirror with side of the cab no major damage but just made me feel even worse... Really starting to crack up now, cant cope with being so far from home and my fiancee, i just wish i could leave now and forget about the whole thing.... :(

Posted September 8, 2008 by Ben Gillam 
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India Training Trip: Day 7

My first day off!!!!.....well kinda, we get the day off training but we really need to keep up on the reading of the course books and stuff so as to make the best use of our time here. Spent a few hours reading this morning before lunch and am having a break now and vegging on the net lol then its back to the books. Once I got passed the binary and ip and subnetting stuff in the book it has gone back to a more understandable level that doesnt involve crazy maths so im feeling a bit better about things, nearly finished book 1 and about to start book 2 ready for my next exam on Wednesday.  

Posted September 7, 2008 by Ben Gillam 
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India Training Trip: Day 5 & 6

Not much to report from day 5, we completed the training for the second exam today and I read both books cover to cover. Today (Day 6) I took the second exam (70-290 Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment) and passed without any major problems. YAY! Two down two to go... After my exam we started the preparation for the next exam, 70-291(Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure). ............ OH MY GOD............ So far it has consisted of every last detail you can imagine about tcp/ip, subnets, subnetting, supernets etc and working all sort of stuff out in binary and other mathematical equations. My maths is not that great so this is all very daunting to me, i can follow the theory of it all (just) but it all seems very very confusing.  I am told however that the exam will not be these crazy questions but the theory will apply, so I'm not quite sure what to expect. I have 2.5-3.5 days to prepare for this exam, lets just hope things get more understandable the further we get into this. /me panics :(

Posted September 6, 2008 by Ben Gillam 
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India Training Trip: Day 4

No much to report today, training is going well and progressing very well through all the course material. Being a computer engineer working with Windows XP and Windows 2003 all the time means that a sizable portion of the course content I am already familiar with and as a result do not have to perform the labs or hands on training for it. If there is ever anything that I am not 100% sure on I can ask my tutor will go into more detail so there is normally some time left at the end of the day for me to read more into the books (which go into more detail) and I can test out anything that I want to get a better understanding for on the training computers. I would definately reccomend any existing computer engineers in my position to take a course with Koenig Training so long as they dont mind travelling too much (but saying that the difference in price compared to a similar course in the UK more than makes up the difference).  

Posted September 4, 2008 by Ben Gillam 
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India Training Trip: Day 3

I sat the 70-270 Windows XP exam this morning and passed with flying colours :) so you are now officially reading the blog of Ben Gillam (MCP)! The exam was reasonably easy most of it was general stuff that I do day to day as an engineer but there were a few questions which threw me a little, these being things that 90% of all people using xp don't use or will ever use and some topics were not even covered in the XP course but are include in the subsequent course (2274 for the 70-290 Exam - Managing a Windows 2003 Server Environment) but that just sounds like Microsoft being Microsoft. Just finishing off lunch now then its back to studying :)

Posted September 3, 2008 by Ben Gillam 
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India Training Trip: Day 2

I managed to sleep last night! Yay!!. Still feel a little bit shattered but im starting to get over the jet lag at least. Training went well this morning and we managed to complete the remaining modules of the course 2272 (For exam 70-270 - Implementing and Supporting Microsoft Windows XP Professional) and was given the opportunity to try a practice exam which I'm glad to say that I passed. My exam has been booked for tomorrow so I will be cramming as much as possible tonight so i can do my best tomorrow morning. With any luck by the time i can post tomorrow i should officially be an MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional). This afternoon we started on the second course 2274 (For exam 70-290 - Managing a Windows 2003 Server Environment) which is going well and we are actually ahead of time so I am using the spare time before the taxi back to the apartment to read up as much as i can of the book before we go through it in class. Going to try and have a walk around once I am back at the apartment to see whats arround shops and things etc so there may be some photos attached to the post later. Update: Went out this evning after training for a look around, from what i can gather the area im in is called west patel nagar, its kind of a maze with hundreds of people walking about and even more scooters, cars and taxi bikes. There were quite a few clothes shops mainly shops selling Sarees and such like, there were one or two names that looked fairly western but the rest were food stalls (which im told as a tourist is best to avoid as the food can make you ill) and shops selling cheap watches or phones etc. one thing that was apparent though is that i stuck out like a sore thumb with everyone looking at me in my bright "western" clothes. I took a few pictures whilst i was out, and have attached at the bottom of this post. [Gallery=3]

Posted September 2, 2008 by Ben Gillam 
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India Training Trip: Day 1

Arrived late last night and after a slight bit of confusion with my card to enter India i was swiftly through the airport and had my bags. I didnt have to look hard to find my rep and we d out to the cab. WHACK! As i left the airport building the heat hit me like a ton of bricks. I would later find out that the temperature was around 36oC. OUch. The apartment is a pretty good size, comparable to a typical travelin/lodge with a wetroom/bathroom. It has aircon and a celing fan (thank god) so the room can be made bareable but sadly due to my good friend mr jet lag i didnt sleep a wink and subsequently i feel pretty crap today. Oh well hope i'll sleep well tonight. I have started my training, my tutor is a woman called Pratishte (pronounced pratishta) and shes very friendly and explains things thoroughly. Thats all for now, if i can get access i'll post again tomorrow   EDIT: Got wireless YAY! bit slow but it'll do. End of first days training seemed go be ok, back at the hotel now and going to venture out and try and get some food soon. Just thought id upload some pictures of my room. [Gallery=2]        

Posted September 1, 2008 by Ben Gillam 
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