I am currently trying to beat the deadline for the CCIE R&S exam. Cisco is moving from version 4 to version 5. As I have been reading the version 4 material for sometime, I would prefer to do the version 4 exam and then plan for the lab later.
Cisco has made important changes in version 5 which includes removing frame relay (this archaic technology) which was the thing when TKL was still the biggest player in the ISP business in Kenya :). This reminds me of what one Bryon said last week - Evolve or die, clearly TKL had it rough because they didn't evolve but lucky for them.. they didn't die.
I have been through most of the topics, after going through video material, I have decided to go back to the official Cisco R & S Certification Guide. Then I will get back to the video's.
I am currently on Chapter 6: IP Forwarding (Routing).. though I am not reading this stuff systematically. My base is BGP & MPLS being the topics that I interact with the most in my day to day job since the time I joined a local ISP's NOC.
I am a CCNP R&S by the way..
Lets see how it goes.. I was telling a friend that this certification is worth like 90,000 USD per year. Hope that''s the case or better by the time I am through ..
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Wife's Grandmother dies..
It's the 08/03/2014. Women's day and am at work. About 2 hours ago I got a call from my wife and she could hardly talk and disconnected the call. At first I thought she was laughing and she had called my by mistake. When I called her back she was sobbing and I knew something was wrong even before she uttered a word.
We had planned to call her aunt in India to get to know how my wife's grandmother was fairing on yesterday, as this didn't happen, I reminded her to make the call in the morning as I was leaving for work. I called her again after I had worked for about two hours to know how she and the baby were. She informed me that the baby was Ok and she was to call her aunt.
The grandmother had been taken to India for surgery as she had a growth in her abdomen. The operation was successful .. I am not sure what went wrong. All the same she had lived a good life, was a good mother and grandmother. Someone loved by many. She was an active christian at the Naikuru PAG church.
She is a woman who I knew for about two years but loved very much because of her charisma, attitude and hospitality.
May she rest in peace. We loved her but God loved her more.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=347280028737658&set=t.100000090106985&type=3&theater
We had planned to call her aunt in India to get to know how my wife's grandmother was fairing on yesterday, as this didn't happen, I reminded her to make the call in the morning as I was leaving for work. I called her again after I had worked for about two hours to know how she and the baby were. She informed me that the baby was Ok and she was to call her aunt.
The grandmother had been taken to India for surgery as she had a growth in her abdomen. The operation was successful .. I am not sure what went wrong. All the same she had lived a good life, was a good mother and grandmother. Someone loved by many. She was an active christian at the Naikuru PAG church.
She is a woman who I knew for about two years but loved very much because of her charisma, attitude and hospitality.
May she rest in peace. We loved her but God loved her more.
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Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Corporate Social Responsibility
Yesterday we had a Fiber Awareness Day at the Swahili Cultural Center. The aim was to involve the local people & inform the of the cost / benefits of the cable landing station that was built around 2008.
Most of the people that were invited were fishermen & divers in Mombasa. The Kenya Ports Authority, Maritime Authority, Mombasa County Government were also involved.
It was good to see the divers & fishermen happy to be involved is complex to them & hitherto somewhat dark technical world. They were shown videos of how the cable was laid & the ships that were used in laying the cable. They were also shown around the cable station.
All in all the day was good & at the end of it, the divers & fishermen were informed of the importance of the cable to them, their county & Kenya as a whole.
They all stand to benefit as the coountry pulls ahead in the quest to be more developed.
Most of the people that were invited were fishermen & divers in Mombasa. The Kenya Ports Authority, Maritime Authority, Mombasa County Government were also involved.
It was good to see the divers & fishermen happy to be involved is complex to them & hitherto somewhat dark technical world. They were shown videos of how the cable was laid & the ships that were used in laying the cable. They were also shown around the cable station.
All in all the day was good & at the end of it, the divers & fishermen were informed of the importance of the cable to them, their county & Kenya as a whole.
They all stand to benefit as the coountry pulls ahead in the quest to be more developed.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Booking Your Bus Online - Kenya
We are caught up in many activities in this age, you could be meeting relatives that you haven't met for a long time while at the same time being introduced to new ones - come to think of it this happens a lot, you could be watching your favourite EPL team play Southampton - which features Victor Wanyama & thats an important game both ways, or you could be held up in the office doing reports or just ensuring that your Cacti graphs are normal, routers & servers CPU processes are normal.
In essence you could don't have time to go to the bus stop to book a 'bus flight'. The bus companies now provide a way of booking online, the most user friendly one being the Modern Coast one.
Instructions are on their website, modern.co.ke modern.co.ke. My colleague Humohrey tells me that you can also book a Mash online but the process isn't as easy as the one provided by Modern Coast which means that if for some reason you are held up & the only option that you have is to book online, your best option is to try Modern Coast, which means more business for them, I think this is one of the good examples that Mr. Omollo - one of my lecturers in my first year at Egerton should include in his notes for IT & National Development.
In essence you could don't have time to go to the bus stop to book a 'bus flight'. The bus companies now provide a way of booking online, the most user friendly one being the Modern Coast one.
Instructions are on their website, modern.co.ke modern.co.ke. My colleague Humohrey tells me that you can also book a Mash online but the process isn't as easy as the one provided by Modern Coast which means that if for some reason you are held up & the only option that you have is to book online, your best option is to try Modern Coast, which means more business for them, I think this is one of the good examples that Mr. Omollo - one of my lecturers in my first year at Egerton should include in his notes for IT & National Development.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Baby's first hair cut
According to the Kisii tradition, a baby's first hair is shaved by his / her grandmother. Two months & three weeks after the birth of Joshua, I decided to take him to meet his grandparents to meet this traditional requirement.
It had been necessited by eczema-like symptoms that had failed to heal on the torso. We got advise from several people that recommended a shave. My brother Fred had come to visit my family in the month of September & he reported that his daughter had the same problem when she was a few months old & the solution was to shave the hair.
A few calls from my wife & it was agreed that it was better to have the baby's hair shaved soonest to stop the discomfort that he was experiencing.
On the 15/09/2013, the visit was carried out & the boy got his first shave & was looking very new.
I am coming to understand that regardless of whether you are a a born-town or was born in a rural setup, traditions need to be upheld. There is a lot of importance attached to each of them.
One of the conditions for this particular one is that you need to give the parents gifts, a sign of appreciation.
On a different article, I will write about another aspect of tradition that involves that parents coming to say hi to the baby after birth.
It had been necessited by eczema-like symptoms that had failed to heal on the torso. We got advise from several people that recommended a shave. My brother Fred had come to visit my family in the month of September & he reported that his daughter had the same problem when she was a few months old & the solution was to shave the hair.
A few calls from my wife & it was agreed that it was better to have the baby's hair shaved soonest to stop the discomfort that he was experiencing.
On the 15/09/2013, the visit was carried out & the boy got his first shave & was looking very new.
I am coming to understand that regardless of whether you are a a born-town or was born in a rural setup, traditions need to be upheld. There is a lot of importance attached to each of them.
One of the conditions for this particular one is that you need to give the parents gifts, a sign of appreciation.
On a different article, I will write about another aspect of tradition that involves that parents coming to say hi to the baby after birth.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Bob Collymore's Kenya’s future as a regional ICT hub 's Speech
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/eblog/2013/09/18/kenyas-future-regional-ict-hub/3/
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
CCIE Journey begins.. as the Cisco journey continues
Here at last.. Its time I embarked on the last part of this journey - that of becoming a CCIE.
After doing my CCNP in over two years, main reason being that I was too busy with work, I plan to do my CCIE in four months & Lab in one year, meaning that by Dec 2014, I will be a CCIE, God willing.
Why R&S?
I am choosing R&S for obvious reasons, its the easier track for me given that I recently got my certification in CCNP R&S. I have worked in an ISP environment all the years I have worked & I gave SP a thought but decided against going for it.
The journey to being a CCIE SP would be longer because I will need to do CCNP SP first. With time being finite, I prefer doing the easier things in life when given an option & on this one - I choose R&S.
Setback
I had done a few chapters on the R&S certification guide, had a few other PDFs & videos that I had planned to use for this part of the journey but was disoriented when I lost my laptop in Mombasa at a place with first name Athina. Am still following up the issue with Nyali policemen & hope we will be able to get to the bottom of it.
Finally
First things first - I need to do the written exam first. I need a month to go through the PDF, second month to go through the PDF & fill in gaps. Third month to combine the PDF & videos. Fourth month to get through sample exams & get ready for the main exam.
Lets see how this goes on.
After doing my CCNP in over two years, main reason being that I was too busy with work, I plan to do my CCIE in four months & Lab in one year, meaning that by Dec 2014, I will be a CCIE, God willing.
Why R&S?
I am choosing R&S for obvious reasons, its the easier track for me given that I recently got my certification in CCNP R&S. I have worked in an ISP environment all the years I have worked & I gave SP a thought but decided against going for it.
The journey to being a CCIE SP would be longer because I will need to do CCNP SP first. With time being finite, I prefer doing the easier things in life when given an option & on this one - I choose R&S.
Setback
I had done a few chapters on the R&S certification guide, had a few other PDFs & videos that I had planned to use for this part of the journey but was disoriented when I lost my laptop in Mombasa at a place with first name Athina. Am still following up the issue with Nyali policemen & hope we will be able to get to the bottom of it.
Finally
First things first - I need to do the written exam first. I need a month to go through the PDF, second month to go through the PDF & fill in gaps. Third month to combine the PDF & videos. Fourth month to get through sample exams & get ready for the main exam.
Lets see how this goes on.
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