It's Dirty Work, But Somebody's Gotta Do It

Network Engineers are known to have to work in dirty places like under desks, janitors closets (err I mean network closets), and those weird spaces in mechanical rooms in which someone decided to hide a switch or two.  Nothing though in networking compares with some of the jobs that this year's Cisco Live! keynote speaker has done.  He's cleaned poo, made snakes vomit and even greased the crawler for the US Space Shuttle.  

That's right, this year's keynote speaker is none other than the host of Dirty Jobs and Somebody's Gotta Do It, Mike Rowe!  If you haven't followed Mike recently, he's also started his own foundation Mike Rowe Works.  His goal is to bring back the notion that hard work can achieve greatness without the need for a formal higher education.  

His foundation is working to revitalize vocational training in the United States and train people for the over three million jobs that are open because of a lack of skilled labor.  Take Mike's S.W.E.A.T. Pledge today that Skill and Work Ethic Aren't Taboo.

Mike's speech should be humorous, yet poignant and very educational.  If you haven't already registered for Cisco Live!, what are you waiting for? I mean really, a week of awesome training, new and old friends, Mike Rowe and Aerosmith, can you really beat it?

Cisco Live! Social Media Hangout

Cisco's commitment to social media at Cisco Live! has grown steadily.  This year they're announcing a new Cisco Live! Bus Stop gathering area on the beautiful San Diego Bay for social media gatherings.  Below is an artist rendering of what it might look like.  More details to come as we get closer to June.  Definitely stop by and introduce yourself to your fellow Tweeps, Bloggers and Facebookers.  Put a real name with the avatar and handle.  Oh and if you haven't registered yet.... do it!

Cisco Livin' On the Edge!

Cisco Live! is always a great week of training, networking and socializing, but this year is going to put us on the edge. The Customer Appreciation Event band is always one of the things most anticipated in the lead up to the event. This year Cisco has done a wonderful job of bringing us a band that has managed to span decades and still keep going. Without further adieu... the band this year will be ...

So if you haven't already registered for Cisco Live! do it this weekend and get a grip on early bird pricing before it expires!  It's going be a blast and you don't wanna miss a thing.

Linksprinter

Last fall I had the pleasure of winning a Fluke Networks LinkSprinter 200 network tester on Twitter.  Since then it has become my go to tool.

In my environment, I have a lot of links that are poorly labeled and that are on VLANs without DHCP.  This means having to tone out or trace cables when the desktop team or server team comes to me wanting something moved to another VLAN.  That's where the LinkSprinter has been a life saver.  Now when they come to my desk, I just hand them the LinkSprinter and tell them to press the power button once they hook up the cable and wait until it either gives them a red icon or a green solid cloud.  

When they bring it back, I plug it into my spare port and within a minute I have their port reports in my e-mail.  From those reports I can easily see the CDP information and know exactly what port on what switch needs changing.  The tool also tells me about POE, speed, duplex, dhcp and latency to a cloud target.  In the field of course, I also have made use of the wireless feature to see the results instantly on my iPhone.  

I used to carry my OneTouch AT with me a lot more, but I have found the LinkSprinter to replace the OneTouch AT for many smaller daily jobs.  Both its size and its price make it a perfect tool for every engineer and technician.  My organization is currently reviewing the idea of issuing our desktop support team with LinkSprinters to help decrease problem resolution time.

If you haven't bought one, I highly suggest you head over to Amazon and get yours today.