Reflecting back on my college experience

Last time I posted anything here was for school. I've officially been done with school for two years. I just hit the two year mark for paying student loans. Eight years left to go!

My thoughts on going back to college as a mature student.

First of all, let me say that I wish I had spent my last two years of high school in AP courses instead of spending all my time skiing and working at Snowbird. Life lesson learned. Secondly, school would have been less expensive and easier had I gone straight through after my LDS mission to Buenos Aires (oeste) Argentina.

My college experience was non-traditional though I must say it was not unusual. There were many students in a similar role or situation during my tenure at the various schools I attended.

I started my college experience in 1997 at the Salt Lake Community College. It was a good experience and I got good grades. I took classes at the various campuses and truly delved into the college experience. After completing my two years for my associates degree in 1999, I transferred to the University of Utah.

The University of Utah was a really good school. At this time I was just getting married, I started a new job at Wells Fargo as a technical banking specialist and my official declared major was pre-dental. After returning from Scotland and starting the enrolment process at the University of Glasgow it was pretty obvious that my fiancée was less than excited about starting a new marriage in a foreign country. Hence, new job at Wells Fargo and I enrolled at the University of Utah.

At this point my life changed forever. 6 months after working at Wells Fargo, I was given the opportunity to apply for a new job. This job would eventually become my career.

Here's a little background: I have always been fairly knowledgeable with computers and have been fascinated with them. Most of my friends and all the guys I played in bands with were either programmers, system admins, or worked extensively with digital media.

Suffice to say, I knew a thing or two about computers. I had an aptitude for it and I truly enjoyed working with computers.

So, after securing a job as as an actual computer tech at Wells Fargo, I changed majors, started over with the 4 year program for computer science at the University of Utah and began coding my way through countless hours of LISP, Java, C, and a variety of other languages. (remember this was only 2001).

After 3 years of struggling with full time job, daughter, apartments, duplexes, and a now pregnant wife I just up and quit school.

Six months later my son, Cole, was born. We had moved to Millcreek township on the east side of Salt Lake and purchased our first home. I think the next four years was primarily dedicated to work, side work, and selling plasma as a way of earning. I spent most of my time with the family and I love the time I spent with my wife and two children. I was working swing shift (2pm-12am) so with every Friday or at least every other Friday off.

Life changed again when Olivia now 5 entered kindergarten. I was sure I didn't want to miss out on time with her so I changed jobs to a day shift so I could see her when I got home from work. I took a pay cut and worked hard. I was still working for Wells Fargo as a team lead for the Auto Finance Helpdesk.

At this point I realised how my earning potential was being limited by my lack of a bachelor's degree. I went back to the U of U and met with counsellors and advisers to see what options existed. Unfortunately for me I was told that with a non-traditional background it would be difficult to complete a four year degree and to finish my degree would take roughly two years considering the amount of time it had been since I last attended.

A year later I took a new job with Wells Fargo as a Server Engineer (Systems Administrator). I kept working hard and for another three years I was bothered by my lack of schooling but hoped my years of experience would make up for it.

The turning point for me was in early 2010. I had a meeting where it became very clear that my job would be going away. I had a little time on my side but I saw the trend and could read the writing on the wall. (it said "Bad Wolf" -- for all you whovians out there).

Living close to Westminster College inspired me to talk to alumni and visit the school to see if this was a viable option for continuing my education. I was sure I would have to start my schooling from scratch but I applied anyway. I was amazed that I had only two years to complete my four year degree. There were only three lower division classes that I needed to complete along with my upper division classes. This meant carrying a full load of classes including summer semester.  After discussing with Kara if she was willing to be a single mom for two years, she agreed to it and I kissed her goodbye.

For the next two years, I was one of the old guys in class but amazingly enough I was far from the oldest. There were certainly a bunch of kids that were fresh out of high school. One of my favourite activities was the chance to be a Systems Administrator for the student server that the Computer Science department used. I not only learned how to properly code and write programs but I had excellent tutelage from Greg Gagne, Dan Byrne, and Helen Hu. Greg and Dan left the most impression on me. Both often expressed their gratitude for my hard work and dedication. They commended me for my efforts and on one occasion (after spending 2 hours at school, 8 hours at work, and then 5 hours at school, I was told, "Go home. Get some rest. Hug your wife and kids. Take a partial credit on this assignment, it won't affect your overall grade of an 'A' for the class." It seems like a little thing but at the time it meant the world to me.

I am proud to say that I not only earned by BS in Computer Science from Westminster College but I also graduated Cum Laude (with Honors). I was thirty-five when I graduated. I took my college career seriously and I realised the cost of failure and consider every penny I spent on my education worth it's weight in gold.

Setting up a Mercurial Repository for team programming

Okay, the whole point of this is to help some Westminster College students set up a repository on their Linux Server and then create a local repository from which they can push and pull code with their fellow team members.

Assumptions:
     1. You have a Windows PC or Laptop
     2. You have Key Authentication for password free connection to the Linux Server
     3. You are somewhat familiar with Agile development, or at least team programming

Use PuTTY to make sure your key authentication is working.

Next set up a folder so you can clone the central repository on the Linux Server.

Pull up Windows Powershell or cmd.exe and "CD" to your working directory.
If you're using Eclipse, then type.

cd \Users\"Your Windows Username Here"\Workspace\

Your command prompt should look like this

Make sure you've installed Mercurial from http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/Download

Read Joel Spolsky's site http://hginit.com

Open Explorer.exe (Windows Explorer) and go to C:\Users\"UserName"\

Create an ".ini" file named Mercurial.ini

Now let's edit the ini file so it actually has some settings.

Use this as a template:


[ui]
username = Jacob Wattleworth
ssh = "C:\PuTTY\plink.exe" -ssh -i "C:\PuTTY\my_privkey.ppk"


[extensions]


[web]
push_ssl = false
allow_push = *

Now to initialise your repository.

Type hg init.

Now clone your main repository
This should be in the form "hg -v clone source destination"
Source = The Central Repository on the Linux Server
Destination = The local Repository on your Windows PC or Laptop

Next if you have code in your repo that was pulled from the central repo in the CLONE then import that project into Eclipse.

Open Eclipse and Choose File, Import from the menu bar.

In the import window choose Existing Projects into Workspace

Browse to your local repo myTeamProject or what ever it's called. (mine's bumble in this example)

Click OK and then finish the import.

You can now begin working on the code.

You are now officially a g33x.

cd to your new repo in PowerShell or CMD.exe.

cd \myTeamProject

Remember the basic commands for pushing and pulling and never commit a change until it has been peer reviewed. Or create a branch that doesn't affect production code.

hg pull - Pulls files from the central repo on the Linux Server to your local repo.
hg up - Updates the repos
hg ci -m "comment" - Commits changes on your local repo to the central repo
hg stat - shows any changes that need to be made.

Just read hginit.com for anything else.

Good Luck.

Setting up RSA Key Authentication from Windows to Linux

How To Set up Key Authentication on a Windows PC connecting to a Linux Server

First of all, let's get PuTTY for windows: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Make sure you download PuTTY, PFTP, PuTTYgen, Peagent and plink.

Save them to a folder C:\PuTTY\

This tutorial assumes you've connected to your Linux Server using SSH so you know sshd is installed and running and that you have access.

Launch PuTTY and login using your username and password

Once logged into the Linux Server you'll need to generate your public and private keys

In PuTTY create the directory in your home share for your public key

mkdir ~/.ssh
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
cd ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen -t rsa


Enter the location for the key pair files. We want to put it in our .ssh folder that we just created.

~/.ssh/id_rsa

cat id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2

At this point we want to copy our private key to our Windows PC. You can use PFTP or FileZilla works nicely for those that are used to a GUI. Save it in the C:\PuTTY\ folder or a secure location that you can easily find.

Connect with FileZilla to your Linux Server and copy your id_rsa.ppk (Your Private Key) to your local Windows PC.

Now you'll need to convert your .ppk file from the OpenSSH format to PuTTY's .ppk format. 

Launch PuTTYgen and from the "Conversions" menu, select the "Import key" option. Select your key and follow the prompts to enter your pass phrase if you created one. Save your new private key to C:\PuTTY\.

Now launch PuTTY, input the IP or hostname for the Linux Server. In the left hand column select the SSH option and in the AUTH section browse to the PuTTY ppk file for your Private Key. 

You should now be able to connect to your Linux Server using Key Authentication. 

g33x.

Milady tells me I'm a geek. And I do not disagree. If opportunity arises I'll try and send a tweet. When working between home and school, I find my proxies differ. I'll write a script to locate sites like Google plus or twitter. The box I choose is windows, Linux or a Mac if I can ever find one. Terminal by far has the things I need but PowerShell is there for windows. So on my trusty Dell laptop running windows 7, I'll use my PowerShell to write my script to ease my burden.

props to Ivan for the idea and the code. I put it in a function rather than a .ps1 script. This way I can call it as needed and use it with other function calls

Wow, It's still here.

I completely forgot about the ol' blog. Time to pick it up again in hopes of keeping in touch. This is definitely more for my benefit than anyone else.

Most of my time lately is consumed by my return to school. I have finally come to terms with it and have accepted the fact that I NEED to finish up. Eventually my knowledge and experience won't be enough. Not only that but I'm finally to the point of my collegiate career where the knowledge I acquire is not entirely dismissible.

One of the biggest concerns was that of time. I work 45-50 hours a week and then doing full time school of 12 hours per week is a real challenge. The real impact has been the time away from Kara and the kids. Cole especially is missing his dad. I'm really grateful that Kara is such a wonderful wife and mother. She has had to pick up the slack. She's awesome.

This past year has been insane.

Alice was born on the 20 February 2010. She amazing. Our little 1 year old is getting so big. It's been fun to watch her learn and grow.

Olivia was baptized. Again, my oldest daughter makes me feel so proud. She is such a beautiful girl with the sweetest disposition. Olivia is so easy going and wonderful.

Cole is 7 years old now and such a good kid. I love playing with him and doing all the father son stuff. He's such a funny boy.

As for me this year has been interesting!

1. I crashed my Harley when I was run of the road by an SUV
2. I had two more kidney stones break free
3. I had shingles in my eye.
4. One of the kidney stones got stuck in my ureter (the tube between the kidney and bladder) forcing me to have surgery to remove it.

Now for the good. We got a new driveway. (with my motorcycle insurance money) I've been busy at work and love my job. I've had a few different chances to spend time with Kara's Aunt Beth and Uncle Dave from Reno. We went day camping with the Sisams. I purchased my first pistol, a Beretta 92FS. We've been pretty blessed. When the weather warms up we have some outside renovations planned for the house and we're thinking of buying an inexpensive pop-up tent trailer to make camping that much easier. Most of all, it has been really nice to enjoy spending time with one another.

life is good and God willing I will try and keep this more up to date

Manti Temple Trip

This weekend we had the opportunity to go camping in Manti UT with our ward. For the past year the Bishop of our church has been organizing and planning a neighborhood camping trip to Manti with an emphasis on going to the Temple. As a neighborhood we have encouraged those that have never been to the temple or those that are not members of our faith to go and enjoy themselves and join in the activities. For those members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we were encouraged to find a way to take someone with us to the temple. We took some names of family members and asked friends and neighbors to come camping and help in some of the service projects. Kara, the kids and I had a great time. I weeded the temple flower beds and got to spend some great time hanging out with my family and neighbors. It was a blast. Kara and I were able to do some ordinances at the Manti Temple. I'll upload some photos to my facebook site later this week.

I know you are but what am I

So this is my first post on the blog. I suppose I should say something important about who we are and expound upon the many accomplishments and historical facts relating to my family but most of you all ready know and frankly speaking, it can be quite heady for a blog.

I'm excited to start detailing many of my exploits (or lack thereof) to the pooblic at large. Again, mainly my friends cause no one else probably is that interested unless they're some kind of creepy voyeristic perv.

Yesterday I went in to Hoopes Vision to check out the possibility of lasik surgery. I was somewhat disappointed when I discovered that lasik doesn't mean replacing your eyes with robot eyes that shoot lasers. I mean come on that would just be cool. hehe. No but really, I will probably make some phone calls to see if it's worth it. Ned Flanders had good results until he hit the ten year mark.

-Jacob
Stridere secreta divisos aure susurros