ManazMakesIT

I'm Andrew, and this is my life so far...

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

January 26, 2024 / / 0 Comments

It has been a long time coming, but in two weeks, I start the final two classes for my bachelor’s degree in IT, Application Development, and Enterprise Development using J2EE.

When I started this degree plan five years ago, at my 15-year mark in the Air Force, I decided to only do one class at a time, so as not to burn myself out between work and school. In retrospect, I should have taken more than one at a time. Over the years I got burnt out anyway, not from the amount of school work, but from how long it was taking to finish. The finish line, never really seemed to get closer, it was only a distant dream for so very long.

During my last year in the military, I decided to take time off school to focus on my retirement. After I did my retirement ceremony, after I started my internship, and after I finally got settled into my civilian job, I decided to commit to two classes at a time so I could finish in the Spring of 2024. I am so happy to have stuck with that commitment because I am so close to finishing. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Last year, I wanted to get my CompTIA Security+ certification, but that didn’t end up happening. Between work, restarting college classes, and not fully committing myself to studying, it fell to the side. Guess what? I’m committing to getting this certification by June 2024. Previously, I didn’t want to spend money on study material, and I also think that had a hand in my commitment issues, as I didn’t think I had anything to lose. Not this time, I purchased study material including a subscription to to ITProTV.com from ACI Learning. Their videos, practice tests, and labs, not to mention the money I spent, I believe will motivate me to finally attain this certification.

Hopefully, the next six months will see me not only with a BS in Information Technology but also a CompTIA Security+ certification. I’ll keep you posted on progress.

Teen Computer Woes

August 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

About 10 months ago, my child, who is a teenager, came to me saying that their computer wasn’t displaying on their monitor. I looked at it, the computer was running, one of the fans wasn’t running, and neither was the fans on the GPU. The CPU on this machine has a built in GPU, so I moved the HDMI cable from the GPU to the the I/O panel, we had picture! I pulled and repeated the GPU, didn’t work, I checked the drivers, all updated. My thought was it got too hot and fried. I ordered a new fan and a similar GPU. Installed both and it all worked fine!

Then, about 2 months later, my teen comes to me again saying their computer just shut off and won’t turn back on. Ok, well then, let’s take a look! My first thought, best cast it’s just a PSU, worst case, it’s the motherboard.

I went and looked at it, it didn’t turn on. I checked to make sure it was plugged in, still nothing. I moved the PC to a known working power outlet, still nothing. There were no POST lights, nothing. The motherboard looked fine from a quick glance, but the PSU fan was pretty dirty. I didn’t have any spare PSU’s around, so I went ahead and ordered one with more output, and a better efficiency rating so that we could upgrade in the future. I had a feeling we would be needing to.

The PSU came in pretty quickly, thanks Amazon! After figuring out where everything was supposed to go, I installed the new PSU and BAM, it worked! I talked to my teen about ensuring the computer stayed clean and clear of obstructions and established a cleaning schedule, which we still do today with no new problems (knock on wood).

Until next time, cheers!

My First Problem With My PC

August 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

It didn’t take long to find my first problem with the PC I just built.

After putting everything together, I plugged it in for the first time and pressed the power button…then held my breath. It POSTed and brought me right to the UEFI/BIOS screen! I sat and monitored the CPU temp for a bit, I was nervous my thermal paste job wasn’t going to hold up. But everything looked good! After flashing the UEFI/BIOS with the updated firmware from MSI, I restarted and continued.

It saw my RAM, the GPU, and both SSD’s, so I was reasonably confident it all worked. After watching a YouTube video of what to do after building your PC from JayzTwoCents and watching a comprehensive PC build from LinusTechTips, I was ready to install the operating system and go through all the updates. For the OS, I chose Windows 11 Home.

After quite some time updating drivers, installing applications from the part manufacturers, all while marveling at the wonder RGB lights from my case, CPU fan, and RAM, I had my first deep dive into the computer.

Problem one found, the second SSD (the 1 TB Samsung) wasn’t showing up. What the heck? I went back into the BIOS to make sure it was still showing up, it was. I restarted more than a few times, and finally started to Google the issue. Apparently, you can’t just expect a storage drive to be ready for use when you install it. I figured out I need to go into Disk Management, active the drive, assign it a drive letter, and the format it before I could start using it. That wasn’t too bad.

I documented the problem and the fix and went about my day figuring out what to do first.

That’s it for now, cheers!

I Built My First Computer!!

August 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

After months of planning and collecting parts, I finally had everything I needed to assemble my first computer. My wants for it were for some light gaming, video processing, coding, but mostly for the experience. If I was going to work in IT, I NEEDED to build this computer. Plus, it will help with gaining experience in building a home network, and building labs in virtual environments.

First thing I had to figure out was what processor to go with, AMD or Intel. After considering what I want to use the PC for, I decided on the Intel i5 12600K. With 12 cores and 16 threads, it was more than enough for the job I was going to ask it to do. And to cool it, a Vetroo V5 cooling tower and RGB fan.

For the motherboard, I wanted to make sure it had built in WiFi, be DDR4 capable and have plenty of input/output (I/O) ports for various peripherals and add-ons. With that in mind, I decided to go with MSI MAG B660 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 ATX Gaming Motherboard. It has the space for DDR4 RAM, enough M.2 slots for the solid state drives I planned on putting in it, and just a bunch of I/O ports.

Because I like to multi-task, memory was also important for me. I went with two 16 GB DDR4 RAM sticks from Corsair. My intention is to add two more just like it, bit 32 GB will be good for now.

Storage was going to be two M.2 SSD’s from Samsung. A 500 GB SSD for the operating system, and a 1 TB SSD for the main storage.

For the graphics processing unit (GPU), I didn’t need top of the line, my bank account also didn’t need it. But I wanted to be able to play games, and run video processing so I couldn’t go super cheap either. I landed on a Zotac GeForce RTX3060, which I couldn’t be happier with at this stage. Plus, I got it for under 300 on Amazon Prime Day!

Lastly. I wanted to make sure the power supply unit (PSU) was up for the task of powering everything and then some, so I went with a Thermaltake 750W fully modular PSU. I was only rated to consume less than 400W, but wanted to make sure I had room to grow.

So, what now? As Ham Solo once said, “That’s the trick isn’t it?”, I can do whatever I want. First, Diablo 4, then start learning Active Directory using a virtual machine. I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers!

Transition Assistance Program Course Take 2

January 5, 2023 / / 0 Comments

In the military, when you separate, you are required by the Department of Defense to take a course to help you transition out. This class is called the Transition Assistance Program, commonly called TAP. I am currently attending TAP for the second time because it is recommended for those retiring from the military to go through twice, once 24 months out and again 12 months out. There is so much information in this five day class, it is hard to keep up some times.

The first time I went through, I had my laptop and was just hammering away on the keyboard, taking just a ton of notes. We had an entire day dedicated to just Veterans Affairs (VA), you want to talk about a fire hose of information. It got to the point that I just couldn’t keep up with the note taking and just started highlighting information in the books we got as we were discussing it. The employment portion was three days long, and it was very compressed.

This time around I am able to refer back to the notes I took and refine them, adding things here and there that I may have missed. Now, I can pay closer attention to what our instructors are saying, apply information to my own situation, and use knowledge gained from the last time attended and what I’m learning now to my transition coming up this summer. But what do you actually learn in TAP?

Day one is all about general transitioning knowledge to include financial management. We learn about different websites to leverage for helpful resources for finding employment and continuing education. We learn how to research housing markets in areas we potentially want to live in or are moving to when we transition. The last part of the day is dedicated to our financial plan, how much we are making now while in the military versus what we need to be making as a civilian to maintain that quality of life. Let me tell you, this part is an eye opener for sure. We get a lot of benefits on top of our base pay, and when you factor those in, you need to make a lot more that you may be thinking to equal what your getting while serving.

Day two, depending on what day of the week day one is on, may be an almost entire day with the VA with a little bit of health insurance towards the end. This is the day where the fire hose really opens up. I have literal PAGES of notes about the VA information along with the books they gave us with highlighter just all over the place. I learned so much this day that I had no idea about, which I suppose is why we do this course. During the health care portion, which was confusing in its own right, was another fire hose. The saving grace was that they gave us books to keep on all the information they covered.

Days three through five were all employment information. We learned about more websites for finding employment, how to research potential employers to see if you even wanted to work with them. How to build a resume based on a job posting. How to set up an utilize LinkedIn. How to conduct yourself during and interview. These last three days are all about building yourself as a brand.

At the end of it all, I find myself better prepared for what is to come. I am still nervous, but more sure of myself in what I need to do. This summer is coming fast, why wouldn’t it, the last 19 years flew by.

Cheers!

What Should I Do When I Grow Up?

December 24, 2022 / / 0 Comments

A common question one hears in the military is, “What should I do when I grow up?”. This is meant to be a jest, as “growing up” simply means moving on from the military. I had been asking myself this very question since about my four year mark, a time when an enlistee must decide to stay in or get out, it was a question that wasn’t answered until my 15 year mark. By then, I had grown into my boots and had a halfway idea of what growing up looked like for me. I always had a love for technology and had grown up with it as it grew in the late 90s and early 2000s. So, I decided to enroll in college, and picked American Military University as my school. AMU is an online university with a number of degree plans to choose from, and it didn’t take me long to decide on a Bachelor’s of Science in Information Technology concentrating in Computer Programming. The path was set, time to get moving!

The end goal for me is a career in cybersecurity, but with little to no real world IT experience under my belt I had to find a way to get my foot in the door. Enter the Department of Defense SkillBridge program! This amazing program allows service members to intern with a civilian company to gain quality workforce experience while still maintaining their military benefits for up to 6 months before they separate or retire from the service. That is the short term goal, find a SkillBridge I can learn the ropes in. What comes next, I suppose we’ll have to see.

Until next time!

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