Sunday, September 7, 2008

RTFM: How it Should Be

I have to admit that I despise reading technical books.  Some are tolerable, but most are dry and bland.  A Red Bull, a quad-shot of Starbucks and a B-12 overload might get me to chapter 3.  But after that, I'm ready to gouge my eyes out with a fork, due to sheer boredom.

My son walks in asks "Whatcha reading dad?".  "A boring tech book on Active Directory" I moaned in response.  He said something that made me pause for a while: "Why don't they write them like Harry Potter?  Then it would be fun to read them."

Hmmmm....  here goes...

"It was a treacherous night in the midst of Winter.  A snowy blizzard was afoot and sounds of wolves could be heard in the distance, crying in hunger.   We approached the castle, looming high above the hill, surrounded by crooked aging leafless trees. Loose shutters clattered along the windward sides of the decrepit structure, worn darkened wood with vines clamoring for life along the trim.  We knocked upon the enormous doors and waited for an answer.  Finally, the door opened and a large creature appeared before us.  It asked us a most perplexing question:

"You are to embark upon a mission.  A mission that may cost you dearly.  You are to establish a multiple-domain forest for the King of Fabrikam and his royal court in the countryside estate of Contoso.  This forest shall have one RRAS server in one domain, allowing the pessants to remotely and securely connect and submit their pittance.  But you need to decide whether you need a Global Catalog server within all the domains, or just one.  The choice is yours to make and yours alone.  Choose wisely."

Dumb, yes.  I know.  But if they were written somewhat like that, I'd bet you'd see quite a few 10 year old MCITP's than you do now.

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