I just wanted to post a quick message letting everyone know that no, I’m not dead. Google did not kidnap me for my heresy. Also, I can assure you that I have not given up blogging or forgotten about the posts I said I would write.

What has been going on is a complete redesign and redeployment of the CIT Program infrastructure where I work. While we’re only taking around 120 physical nodes and less than 10 servers, the depth of the redesign goes all the way down to the hardware.

Work has actually bee fairly exciting lately. We’ve finally bit the bullet, as it were, and have decided to deploy VMWare ESX Server to virtualize several of our servers. We are also looking at virtualization for the desktop as well. Beyond the virtualization work, I’ve also been tied up migrating the data from the old CIT Program websites to two new sites. When complete, there will be two primary sites: a private intranet for faculty and staff powered by eGroupWare, and a public portal powered by Wordpress that will be configured as a full-blown CMS with LDAP authentication.

Given the unique complexities that are inherit in both of the above migrations, I’ve been quite tied up working on the nasty little details that can bite you in the bum.

Regardless, I have been quite lax in my posts here as of late, and I apologize for that. To wet your appetite until I have more time to write, here are a few of the subjects I plan on writing about as soon as I have time:

• Revisited: Compaq Presario F755us – Updated driver package and tutorial
• Social Media and Education – Reaching students through Social Media Marketing
• Migrating from XOOPS to eGroupWare (intranet)
• Using Wordpress as a CMS – quick start guide
• Migrating from XOOPS to Wordpress (as a CMS)
• Is virtualization right for you?
• VMWare ESX server basics
• Theme releases (I’ll be making a couple new themes based on the new CIT Program CSS wireframe layout)

Of course, these are not written in stone and I may throw in a couple different subjects depending on my mood and what is going on at the time. Still, I will be writing more in the near future!

Thanks for hanging in there until I have more time to write again. Also, thanks for all the comments lately.