Working my way through this week's tutorials.

Our first assignment for this week was to boot Ubuntu from the disc. I had no problems with this as soon as I improved my F12 trigger finger. Next, I began to work through the tutorials on VTC. I found the introduction to Linux and the "look around the file system" to both be useful and a handy reminder of a lot of the information we had already covered. Admittedly the file permissions and the change in ownership tutorials both seemed a little unwieldy, however I have a feeling these things will make more sense as we start getting into the practical applications.

The written tutorials will be coming with me everywhere I go. Of particular joy tonis the tables which provide a quick reference of the Linux commands and their equivalent action. I booted the Ubuntu desktop from the disc and played around with these for a cheap thrill.

Finally, we were tasked with installing the Ubuntu server in VM ware. I would say that this task provided me with the most valuable lesson of the week.

Before installing Ubuntu in VMware I needed to install VMware workstation 6. I had previously installed the VMware server with no problems so I assumed that this would be equally effortless. Admittedly the actual installation of the VMware was quite easy as was the installation of the Ubuntu server - but typical to my style I made it much more difficult and time consuming that it needed to be.

I am coming into this Digital Information Management program with a somewhat limited knowledge base. My undergraduate degree is in history and at the end of the summer I will also have my MLS. All of my technical skill and knowlege (which is generally better than average) has been gleaned from my own curiousity and motivation to self teach. I decided to apply for a this program despite my concerns that I may not have all the needed qualifications. This had been nagging me and I have almost been unnerved by the fact that I have had no problems with the first two modules. The first half of the 3rd module went swimmingly but I think I got it in my head (largely because I had watched the wrong videos AND out of order somehow) that installing the Ubuntu server was going to be far more difficult than it was.

Fundamentally, what this comes down to is that my previous approaches to studying and information retrieval will not suffice for the subject material of this class. All of my education up to this point has largely been theoretical. When I have approached readings and lessons I have done so by "scanning" the information and looking for the most salient points. This modus operandi has served me well up until this point. What I learned most from the tutorials and this week's lesson is that I need to;

A. Assume nothing about the relative ease or difficulty of each assignment
B. Take the lessons from mistakes and system errors
C. Read everything!!! Read every pop up screen, every detail, every footnote and check internally for comprehension.

This is a unique opportunity and I am scared, elated, and excited to be stepping out of the relative comfort zone of my previous decades of education. Now THAT is a tutorial!

Okay literal issues with the installation:

Nothing really big here, just as predicted I did have to install with a NAT instead of a bridge.

The mistake I had been making was trying to install the desktop instead of the server. The classic putting the cart before the horse.

I did get well versed in removing extra virtual machines

I did pat myself on the back for figuring out that I could switch from Bridge to Nat with going back by right clicking on the icon in the lower right hand corner

I did do a double check of closing the virtual machine and bringing it back up several times to make sure all was well. I then did play around with some of the CLI prompts from the tutorial just to "see" what was out there.