As this is my first column in the job of BNUG's President, I'd like to begin by thanking the man whose leadership, talents, and efforts have made the group what it is today, our past president of over eight years, Glenn Fund. Without him, there wouldn't be a BNUG. In light of Glenn's accomplishments, I can safely say that I will be the second-best President in the history of the group...of course, I am also the second President in the history of the group, period.
The last year has been one of changes for the group. We've moved to a new home, changed our name, established a presence on the Internet, and, in many ways, re-created our mission. We've even changing the format of the paper you're reading, the venerable LANtern. Why? Times have changed. Novell, for better or worse, isn't the only game in town anymore. Other technology, other NOS's, and other clients have come to town. Today's network professional has to operate in a world where accounting needs their Netware servers, engineering cross-mounts NFS drives on their workstations, advertising uses their PowerMacs, and your bosses have just told you to come up with a plan to integrate Windows 95 within 30 days of release. This is the world BNUG is living in, and will continue to thrive in.
Companies nowadays have to deal with the new technology issues, but so do their employees. How many people out there feel like they're being stampeded towards the "latest and greatest" version of an operating system, or have been told to build a Web server today? And how many companies figured that they'd never be connecting to the Internet, so they just told the LAN group to "make up" addresses and make it work? And how many of us stare at our pager with a sense of dread, expecting to be summoned back to the office at 3 AM? Hopefully, your association with BNUG and all we can offer you can help you make these less painful, perhaps even help you sleep at night.
My own company, Adlife Marketing & Communications (for whom I'm the IS manager), is a company with some unique needs. I've outlined my company's network in prior LANtern articles, so I wonít repeat it all here. Since I first wrote about it, Adlife has grown, helped in part by acquiring another company, to about 70 employees. As a result, Macs are no longer the only client on our network. In fact, I expect that for a while we'll be adding Intel boxes at a faster clip--the accounting department has found a nice Windows-based program and may make the switch. We've got all types of servers, and it gets pretty busy on our wires. I'm trying to ride the wave as we grow, but it's not always an easy task. The reason I joined BNUG in the first place was to find people in the same boat as me. Sometimes we're almost a company. Sometimes we're a typical users' group. And sometimes we're a support group ("Hi, my name is Josh, and I'm a geek. I've stayed off my Email for two days now"), for the 12-step program of LAN administration. I think the magic of BNUG is that we're capable of being whatever our members need us to be.
I'm looking forward to this next year. Enjoy the ride, and don't forget to join us on the boat in August!
-Josh Turiel
July 1995 "Welcome to the new LANtern!
As I write this column, I¹m sitting out on my patio (aren¹t laptops great?), and I¹m watching a couple of ants scurrying about the boards below me, looking for food. In front of me sits an apple tree, that is just beginning to develop the fruits which will soon be providing an feast of amazing abundance for all the assorted critters that live here in my backyard. To draw this excessively florid metaphor to completion, we BNUGers make me picture the scurrying ants. And the networking industry is turning into that apple tree, with fruits just starting to drop.
There¹s a whole new world of promise out there in the yard, with Intel and Motorola shipping processors that have power we never could imagine a few years ago, and fruits like Windows 95 and Apple¹s Gershwin readying for shipment, and all sorts of new technologies are cropping up to make our days manageable. Switching has brought new life to tired old Ethernet, and 100 megabit transports have become mainstream. Laptops have capabilities that last year¹s desktop systems didn¹t have. Every time I fire up Sparky, my trusty PowerBook, I am holding powers in my hand that I didn¹t think were even possible back when BNUG was founded. And Sparky¹s a lowly PowerBook 520c. Yesterday¹s news, compared to the latest models that all the major manufacturers are churning out.
As we leap forward at this fantastic pace, rendering everything obsolete in such short cycles, I¹d reflect on its relevance to us and our jobs. We need to be the facilitators of change within our organizations. P6 processors, Fast Ethernet, NetWare 4.1 (and too much more stuff to mention by name), these are all some of the tools today that we can use to help advance the causes of our companies and clients. We need to master these new technologies fast enough to keep our companies in front. Our jobs are getting easier, in the long run. It just seems like noise and static now. Eventually, the gerbil wheel will stop spinning.
On another note, I¹d like to welcome you to the first issue of the new LANtern. This issue was many months in the making, though we actually threw it together in just a few days. You¹ll notice changes in the layout, a new look to the resource guide (which we had to omit this month), a new, improved calendar, and a whole batch of other little tweaks. As we get feedback on the new design (you can e-mail comments to lantern@adlife.com for now), we¹ll fine-tune this, and start adding even more content and color. I¹d like to thank all the elves who have busted their tails to make the LANtern happen (their names are on the inside of page 2), and a special thanks to Kathleen Horgan at my office, who handled all the details of printing that made our eyes glaze over. We hope you enjoy it.
-Josh Turiel
After one issue of the new LANtern, I¹ve learned a valuable lesson already. Never try to do two new things at once. The format change was one thing, but the combination of that and trying a new mailing method pretty much killed us last month. The LANtern was printed on July 5, the day after the holiday, instead of the previous weekend. I forgot about the plant holiday. On top of that, we had problems with the mailing list format (the mail house didn¹t know how to use .dbf files), and getting it labeled and bulk mailed cost us several more days. We¹ve picked a new mail house, one that¹s done other work for us before (and this issue), so that problem will now be gone. Until we sort out all the odds and ends associated with the mailing, we¹ll stick to first class presorted to make sure the LANtern gets to you before the meetings. Oops.
Other than that, the feedback we¹ve been getting has been terrific so far. We¹ve done a little more tinkering this month, and fixed a few of last month¹s goofs as well. The new look seems to be going over real well, and now that the LANtern is in some bookstores and computer stores, we¹re starting to grow our audience, too. You¹ll already notice more content, and a couple of interesting technical articles. The monthly minutes are also making a comeback, as is the resource guide. If you have any ideas for new features, or would like to contribute, please let us know. Instructions for submissions are inside, on page two.
You¹ll find this to be the biggest LANtern in a while. As I write this, it looks like we¹re going to hit 20 pages going away, and I have some content left over. The LANtern is becoming a real success story, in fact, it¹s so successful that we could probably use more help. If you have access to a system that can run any page layout software, please e-mail me. The harried LANtern crew could really use the relief (whew).
We¹ve also added a new section: Neat on the Net. Neat on the Net will contain useful e-mail addresses, URLs, FTP sites, and access provider information, condensed into a LANtern page. Do you have any ideas, or neat things in your hotlist? E-mail your contributions to n-o-n@kramer. janeshouse.com, and we¹ll give you credit for the contribution. Don¹t keep your favorite sites a secret!
Next month, expect a few more redesigned parts of the LANtern to show up. And we¹ll finally be reprinting the resource guide, updated with all our new membership info. Please forgive us another month without it.
As BNUG prepares for our third LAN Ahoy!, I¹d like to highlight all the efforts of individuals on the Executive Committee that have gone the extra mile to make this possible again. Ted Dettloff arrived here from San Diego this winter, showed up for a meeting, and immediately found himself trying to adjust to a new job, move his family, find a home, and run the details of this production. Somehow, he found a way. Andy Daitch once again managed to corral all the vendors, and make sure all the trains ran on schedule. Fred DeCosta made sure all the things that had to be sent here got here, coordinating services with Emery. Steve Isenberg got us on the boat in the first place, handling all of our discussions with the Odyssey (I¹ve got to work downtown someday), and Bob Bowes took care of getting all the passengers on board. Lewis Shelton returned to our ranks long enough to procure t-shirts for the cruise (what good would a BNUG event be without t-shirts?). Finally, the dynamic duo of Glenn Fund and Vic Danevich teamed up to provide us with our guest speakers. We¹ll still need volunteers for show day to help out with the odds and ends. If you can spare the time, please call Ted (his phone number is on page two). Make sure to come, no matter what. LAN Ahoy! 3.0 is going to be the best LAN Ahoy yet!
-Josh Turiel