Secret Santa - Watch Santa PWN This Holiday Weekend!

On Tuesday while at work I was whiling away the hours counting down until my shift was over so I could leave for the Holiday weekend. Most office folk were on vacation, and that means a slow time for the I.T. professional. So where does one turn to while at the office and bored out of their gourd? Why Youtube of course!

I found this funny little Holiday gem where Santa is our only hope against an evil monster known as "The Warlock" who is threatening to cast the world into a nuclear Winter.

Check out this Holiday spoof:



What did you think about it? Sort of reminds me of, "The Night The Reindeer Died" from Scrooged.



I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I want to hear about what Santa brought you in the comments!

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The 12 Admin Days of Christmas

Last year I tried my hand at Christmas parody by writing An Admin's Night Before Christmas. It was all festive and what not, and did spread some Christmas joy, but honestly it wasn't my best work.

This year, I decided a much easier Christmas Carol to parody, The 12 Days of Christmas!

With the help of Mark Sexton, one of my company's Senior Systems Administrators, I have come up with this year's Sysadmin driven Christmas Carol, the 12 Admin Days of Christmas!


Enjoy!

On the first admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

An EMC Clariion SAN

On the second adminChristmas my supervisor gave to me

2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN

On the third admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

3 Phase power
2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN

On the fourth admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

4 Storage processors
3 Phase power
2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN

On the fifth admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

5 Hard Drive Shelves!
4 Storage processors
3 Phase power
2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN

On the sixth admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

6 9's of uptime
5 Hard Drive Shelves!
4 Storage processors
3 Phase power
2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN

On the seventh admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

7 storage admins
6 9's of uptime
5 Hard Drive Shelves!
4 Storage processors
3 Phase power
2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN


On the eighth admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

8 HBA's
7 storage admins
6 9's of uptime
5 Hard Drive Shelves!
4 Storage processors
3 Phase power
2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN

On the ninth admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

9 fibre channel cables
8 HBA's
7 storage admins
6 9's of uptime
5 Hard Drive Shelves!
4 Storage processors
3 Phase power
2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN


On the tenth admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

10 Thousand RPM Drives
9 fibre channel cables
8 HBA's
7 storage admins
6 9's of uptime
5 Hard Drive Shelves!
4 Storage processors
3 Phase power
2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN

On the eleventh admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

11 LUNs Provisioned
10 Thousand RPM Drives
9 fibre channel cables
8 HBA's
7 storage admins
6 9's of uptime
5 Hard Drive Shelves!
4 Storage processors
3 Phase power
2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN

On the twelfth admin Christmas my supervisor gave to me

12 Terabytes
11 LUNs Provisioned
10 Thousand RPM Drives
9 fibre channel cables
8 HBA's
7 storage admins
6 9's of uptime
5 Hard Drive Shelves!
4 Storage processors
3 Phase power
2 Fibre Switches
and an EMC Clariion SAN

We at Bauer-Power wish all of you a very Merry Christmas (Or what ever Holiday you celebrate) and a very happy New Year!

Please forward this to all of your friends and help me spread some Sysadmin Christmas love!

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Bauer-Power Episode 3: Top 11 Geeky Shopping Sites For The Holidays

Happy Monday all! I realize that it wasn't very long ago that we came out with Episode 2 of Bauer-Power, but Sundance and I thought it would be best to shoot our December video before Christmas. We needed to give you guys time to check out these sites so you can order them before Christmas without having to pay crazy shipping princes.

In this episode Sundance and I discuss our top 11 sites to find deals on kick-ass geeky stuff for the Holidays. I know, I know, 11 is not really a round number. It was actually a top 10, but I saw an opportunity for our number one site that I just couldn't pass up ;-)

Besides out favorite sites, we give a quick shout out to our newest contributor, Rob Steenwyk from www.BudBoyTech.com whose first post will appear right here on Bauer-Power tomorrow! We also talk about our cheap beer (Taurino Cerveza) which we got on the cheap from Fresh n' Easy, neither of which sponsored the show.



Without further ado, here is Episode 3!



I realize that some of the urls flash up kind of quickly, so here are all the sites in numerical order (Opposite of how we read them in the show):

1. http://gear.bauer-power.net
2. http://www.computergear.com
3. http://www.thinkgeek.com
4. http://www.splitreason.com
5. http://www.sciplus.com
6. http://www.geeks.com
7. http://www.gamefly.com
8. http://www.thingsyouneverknew.com
9. http://www.play-asia.com
10. http://www.Hackerstickers.com
11. http://www.rpgshop.com
    

Tell us what you thought! What did you like? What didn't you like? Any sites you think we missed? Any beer you want to recommend? Hit us up in the comments!

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Happy Holidays From Bauer-Power

I will be out of town for the next week and a half with limited access to the computer. Therefore it is more likely than not that I will not be back to update the blog everyday like I normally do. In fact, my wife was very adamant about me not blogging while we are at her aunt's house for Christmas.

I know I said the same thing during Thanksgiving, but this time I mean it. Sure I may throw a post or two up, but it certainly will not be everyday.

To keep everyone mildly happy though, I will post this Youtube widget that will play random technology videos while I am gone. Please check back everyday for a new video.

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

I hope everyone has a very Happy Holiday, and a wonderful New Year! Thanks for reading, and for staying loyal all year! We hope to see all of you (and your friends) back again in 2008!

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An Admin's Night Before Christmas

Since it is in fact, The Night Before Christmas, I thought I would bring this to the top!

Please bear with me. I am not a poet at all which you will soon be able to tell, but I thought this would be fun none the less. I know that it sometimes lacks in Iambic Pentameter, but like I said, I am not a poet.

Anyway, I was in my Advanced TCP/IP class in college, bored out of my mind when I decided to write this. I hope you like it, and it gives you a good chuckle! -EDP

An Admin's Night Before Christmas
By Paul Bauer
(AKA: El Di Pablo)

'Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the LAN.
Not a problem apparent.
All is right with the SAN.


I in my P.J.'s
and XBox in front of me
had just settled down to play Halo 3.


Then my Blackberry
with buzzing and clatter
signaled via SMS
that something was the matter.


A server is down.
Not responding, can't ping.
Can't RDP, SSH, iLO or VNC.


After acknowledging the alert
I hopped in my car.
With only a quick stop
for some Jolt and a Snickers bar.


Minutes later at the data center
I arrived out of breath.
Soon to find my server
with a blue screen of death.


An automatic update
which my server did not agree,
was the cause of my shiny, new blue screen.


A system restore
brought the server online.
I logged in and disabled
updates this time.


After closing the ticket
and feeling thrown under a bus,
I made plans for after Christmas
to configure WSUS.


2:00AM, back at home
I checked once more
for alerts on my phone.


All appears well
I drank a cap full of Maalox.
I laid my head down
and dreamed of Linux.


Merry Christmas!

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Christmas MAC Commercial

Have you seen the latest commercial from Apple for the MAC? It is the same PC versus MAC concept except the characters look like they are straight out of the "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" animated classic.

I am not a MAC user, but I know a lot of you are out there are. Either way, these commercials are really funny, and I am always down with spreading some Holiday cheer. (Did you read my Sys Admin Night Before Christmas Poem yet?)

Well, without any further interruption, here is the commercial straight from Apple:



You know I realize that I am falling into the evil Apple trap by propagating their commercial more across the internet, but I really don't care. I love these commercials, and think they are hilarious! Which Mac versus PC commercial is your favorite? Let us know in the comments.

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