After going through the convoluted obfuscated pain of NTP through Windows Server 2003 I made a wiki describing what was relevant and how most of it works. If you have seen anything from Microsoft’s TechNet you’ll appreciate this verbiage because it doesn’t assume you know what ‘SpecialPollInterval’ means by heart.

http://www.sonofrune.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Network+Time+Protocol 

Learning about integrating functions with Arrays and Dictionaries and Nested Dictionaries…

miltary_units={’soldier’:{‘off_pwr’: 1, ‘def_pwr’: 1, ‘cost’: 100, ‘housing’: 1},
‘trooper’:{‘off_pwr’: 4, ‘def_pwr’: 0, ‘cost’: 350, ‘housing’: 1},
‘dragoon’:{‘off_pwr’: 5, ‘def_pwr’: 0, ‘cost’: 450, ‘housing’: 1},
‘laser_trooper’:{‘off_pwr’: 0, ‘def_pwr’: 4, ‘cost’: 400, ‘housing’: 1},
‘laser_dragoon’:{‘off_pwr’: 0, ‘def_pwr’: 5, ‘cost’: 550, ‘housing’: 1},
‘fighter’:{‘off_pwr’: 6, ‘def_pwr’: 0, ‘cost’: 650, ‘housing’: 1},
‘tank’:{‘off_pwr’: 9, ‘def_pwr’: 9, ‘cost’: 1750, ‘housing’: 2},
‘tactical_fighter’:{‘off_pwr’: 12, ‘def_pwr’: 0, ‘cost’: 1600, ‘housing’: 0},
’scientist’:{‘off_pwr’: 0, ‘def_pwr’: 0, ‘cost’: 1000, ‘housing’: 1}}

off_pwr = 0
for x in military_units.keys():
offensive_power = offensive_power + military_units[x]['off_pwr']
print offensive_power

My friend Sean is helping me comprehend this vast ocean of a language. I’m making progress but I think their might be a more refined way to do this. I’ve been hopping around in Python tutorial websites and books looking around for neat little tricks and stuff. A good way to help me save it is by posting here. Whee.

So over the last couple of days I’ve been bit by the programming bug. I’ve taken up looking at a lot of scripts and tutorials initially for AutoIT, but then shifted to Python as it was a bit more versatile and robust. I’m trying to create a script that will skim a web-page, parse some information, perform calculations on such information, and then post calculated numbers. I’m trying to get a system that helps define what is best for building an army via Starkingdoms.com. It is a fun game that doesn’t take much time, sorta.

As far as creating something in Python I’m working on the framework of what the numbers will be crunching. Basically attack power / defense power / cost/ housing of units, how many I have, what that will amount. As you can see I’ve only have a tiny bit of progress. Amazing that the few lines has taking me more time to research about than to write it! But I guess that goes with the territory of learning a new language. So far I’ve come to understand a string, a function, a variable, a print function, and an array. Hopefully it will still be in my head after a wake up.

Military Units Python Source

You’ve been gone for a short while and I miss you. I’m sorry you had to leave so soon. I felt it was only right for me to tell your guild of your passing. We grouped up, had many laughs about the good times, a few tears, and one last wipe via the traditional falling off a ledge Greg style.

Photo courtesy of Zinkwazi.com

http://www.zinkwazi.com/wp/2008/02/28/greg-gerg-gilbert/

So today I’m quite happy that I figured out a fairly complex issue regarding external to internal DNS with a local mail forwarding object in Active Directory. There ws a slight change from the corporate office affecting the firewall so DNS that would usually get out or redirected was now blocked. I thought of using the IP address and a coworker mentioned it as well but said he couldn’t get it to work. After some poking and prodding I was able to get it to work! Everyday I feel that my skills increase and my knowledge grows quite a bit. It is an amazing feeling.