My Current Projects

Like it or not, Microsoft's Windows NT is slowly overtaking Novell NetWare in the server world. It was always a better application NOS (Network Operating System) than Novell, but its file and printer services have been lacking to say the least. Non-the-less I have tried without much success thus far, to set aside time to study for the exams—nine in all with the Internet portion added in. I had a plan all mapped out at the beginning of the year, but as with all plans this went astray due to a number of reasons. I will attempt to get back on course the latter part of this year, because from what I hear the payoff will be big…wish me luck!

Hey if Jewel can do it, so can I. I have amassed a substantial body of work in my Poems and Sonnets and would like very much to get them published. To date, I have only had two published; The Chocolate Man via Poetry Magazine online, www.poetrymagazine.com, and A Poem for Oliva, via print. Both of these poems as well as other works can be read in the Poets’ Enclave. I bought the Poet’s Market with the intention of actively trying to market my poetry, but I have not had time to read it in earnest yet. I need to set aside a time each week to submit my poems to different publications. I will keep you abreast of the situation as it changes.

I first decided to build this web site to see if I could, and guess what, I can! I started out using Microsoft's Front Page® Ver. 1.1 and have now moved on to Front Page 98, and will soon move to FrontPage 2000. I am now a Microsoft Site Builders Network Site® Level 1 member and I feel pretty good about that. Now that the pages are out there I feel confident that I can start designing even more even complex pages. This is the third rendition of the Bard’s Inn, and it is by far my most ambitious. I totally redesigned the site from top to bottom, with the help of a Template I bought from Pixel Mill; check it out f you can. I have finally registered my own name so to speak with Network Solutions®. I registered EbonyVillage.com a new website community that will cater to the Black American audience and seek to put "all things Black" under one roof. I hope to launch the site before the end of the year. Watch for it.

I am to my very core a computer nerd, but not your average everyday computer nerd; I would never be catch dead with pocket protector or tape on my glasses! Now I do have quite a few computers in my house, one of which acts as a Windows NT server. I finally bit the bullet and built two machines around AMD K6 333MHZ processors. I installed Windows NT Server 4.0 as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) on one and Windows 98 on the other. Both have 96 megs of ram, and a 6.4 gig hard drive.

The PDC has a Backup Domain Controller (BDC) installed on a 75mhz box. I have since installed Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, Internet Information Server 4.0 (IIS) SQL Server 6.5 and Systems Management Server 1.2 on the PDC and DHCP server along with WINS server on the BDC. DNS server is installed on both with the BDC acting as primary. My protocol of choice is TCP/IP and I have set the DHCP server up to hand out address in the 10.25.50.1 – 10.25.50.50 range, with 10.25.50.1 - .9 excluded for server use. Both the PCD and BDC have static addresses.

I've already installed Exchange Client on all the PC’s and now we have a little email network thing going right in the house. I have taken it a step further and created ID’s on the server for all my friends so that they can dial-in from their respective computers and gain access to my shared directories. In the near term I am going to set and FTP site where I will store files that my friends need and want but don't have access to the internet.

The rest of the network consists of a Cyrix 250mhz box running Windows 98. It has a CD-ROM read/write recordable installed as well as a Nakamichi 4x4 CD-ROM. I also have a Iomega Jazz drive and Zip drive attached to the box via a Adaptec 2940 SCSI controller. You can never have too much drive space.

My future plans call for two more computers, onto which I will install Novell NetWare 5.0 and Linix 2.2. I want the Linix box to act as my primary web server and Firewall, while the NetWare box will be for learning purposes.

Pursuing my Bachelors Degree from DePaul University.

I have been meaning to complete my degree for the last five years, or so it seems. I have been accepted as a degree-seeking student at DePaul University, as part of their School for New Learning (SNL) program. I hope to finish my degree by the end of next year, and have in mind a whole raft of self-study ideas I hope SNL will accept. SNL offers Bachelors in computing and I considered it, but in the end I rejected it because I didn’t think it would be beneficial in the long run.