Websphere 6.1 training

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend WA822 which is Websphere 6.1 advanced administration training in Pittsburgh, PA. I drove up on a Sunday and stayed at the Hilton in the downtown area. A couple of observations: 

1. Pittsburgh is a really nice town which doesn't get a lot of credit - people think of it as "dirty" but I honestly didn't see it during my stay there. Buffalo NY is a much worse town yet it doesn't get nearly the flack from folks. 

2. The hotels in this area are severely overpriced - around $300 a night plus $19/day to park. I can understand those rates if I was in Times Square or Chicago, but not Pittsburgh. 

3. The Hilton is bascially falling apart and has the strangest parking set up I have ever seen. They utilize parking for the Gateway center and not for the hotel, and what was really strange was that the valet didn't want to park my car when I arrived! They told me to just go park myself. I have never heard of that before - it was a bit late (around 9pm) but I guess they didn't want my money. 

4. Parking is a pain - it is underground across the street with no attendants - it is all automated with poor signs. I got to a place to park, and it was very empty which made me worry about leaving my car parked there overnight but it turned out to be okay. You walk through this dimly lit tunnel over to the hotel where they are doing massive renovations. The place is a wreck and yet they are still charging full prices for food and the rooms. I would not recommend going there until all renovations are completed. 

The class itself wasn't as useful as I first thought it might be. It really wasn't an advanced course at all and was more of a fast-paced beginners course. The only topics that really interested me was the clustering and load balancing section. I learned about the Edge components which is a free tcp/ip sprayer for webservers which actually does a really nice job of load balancing. The labs were good around this part, but the majority of the labs were installation issues. A section I enjoyed as well was the security section, which we spent a bit too much time on. The professors were pretty good and seemed to know their stuff, although they jumped around quite a bit and werent really into having discussions as much as throwing us into labs. I made some new friends and even had dinner with a few of them which is always nice. 

I took the test and passed it with little trouble which is a good thing. My next goal is to try to get some portal experience and take that test as well. Clustering and java middleware is the way to go, so I am excited to add those to my skill sets. 

On a side note, my brother came up on Wednesday night and we went to the WVU game in Morgantown against Auburn on Thursday. We were a bit late but we managed to get cheap tickets and great seats so that is always a plus. It was the first time we have ever been to a game together at WVU so it was a nice trip. He really enjoyed the room service since he doesn't get ouch much and I am pretty sure he had a great time.