teh pdx

Took a train from sea to pdx. ’twas a pleasant ride… maybe ~ 3 hours or so – they played ‘die another day’, the latest james bond movie, and I didn’t listen, and just about every time I looked up, it was either a vehicle going really fast, or an explosion, or a vehicle going really fast which then exploded.

I’m here this week to deliver apple’s newest training course, Mac OS X Administration and Integration, which is the first course in the ACSA track. Avid readers may recall that I participated in the alpha delivery of this course at apple back in November.

Things were a little sketchy this last week getting everything ready for the class. First of all, I didn’t even get the trainer’s guide until Monday (having not previously seen the material since the alpha), due to it being misplaced at our store. Then as the week wore on, I started stressin’ about the Windows 2000 Server component of this course, just because it’s Windows and I hadn’t yet had an opportunity to test it all myself. There are only two exercises that use the Windows machine, but it’s like the climax of the course (getting os x machines to auth against Active Directory). Finally, on Friday, myself and our lead tech AJ scrounged a PC together, got everything installed and configured, and I tested the exercises in the courseware (it all worked as it should ;).

It’s a small class… we usually have a 3 or 4 person lower limit, but we’re running it this time with only two students. It is a brand new course, and it’s still profitable for us to run it (something like $2495 per seat, yo), plus we wanna get the word of mouth started (yeah, starting at 2 is a slow start, but it’s still a start).

This courseware is definitely much more interesting than the ACTC stuff, as it’s targeted at a higher end audience. In ACTC, almost everything is done via GUI; in this class, it’s only about 30 – 40% GUI. Among the Apple Certified Trainers that I have met, I’m one of the most unix savvy, so I hope to be delivering this class often, both for my company and for apple.

First I have to pass the certification exam for this course though :) See, having participated in the alpha, I am granted a temporary 30 day certification to deliver the course, starting at the date the courseware goes final (I believe feb 28). We just barely made it inside the 30 day limit… I don’t anticipate any problems with the exam or anything, but it’s a necessary step towards my ACSA certification (which will include two other tests for courses which aren’t finished yet), and is required in order for me to deliver the course on behalf of Apple.

*yawn*… well that’s about it. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: I’m officially an Apple contractor now :) I was recently informed that I can pick up my badge whenever I’m ready… (which will be next time I’m in cupertino). Woop! Woop!

now i’ll slide off to sleep, probably watching something other than the war on cnn.