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GRAFFITI -- December 08 thru December 14, 2003>> Link to Current Week <<Last Week << Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun >> Next Week Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable. About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.. |
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December 08, 2003 - Updates at 0709
Good morning. We made our ride up to Riesterstown yesterday, and came home with a little friend for Sally. Meet Lucy Mae, the spaniel. She's about 2/3 the size of Sally, and she's been in a kennel awaiting adoption for a number of weeks. I was proud of Marcia, though. I was sure we were coming home with the very first dog she saw. But Lucy was second, not first. Wooo.
Sally's fairly jealous, and it appears that Lucy is fairly protective of her food, and perhaps her space. We'll have to work on that with her. Additionally, she seems a bit lame in the left rear. I manipulated the limb and joints without complaint from Lucy, so we'll have the vet give it a gander while Sally's getting her physical tomorrow. But both dogs ate well last night, and both patrolled the perimeter for us. I think this will work out fine, and once they figure out their boundaries and dominance, I think that having a pack-mate around will be good for Sally.
That's about all I had time for over the last two days. And all the remaining move-in chores that didn't get touched this weekend? Well, they're still here. There's so much still to do. At least we finally got the generator in, so that even if we lose power, I'll be able to keep food cold, and the sump pump running. Today we're starting the process of installing Linux for both server and workstation use in one of the small municipalities in the area. Isn't that excellent? Yeah, I think so, too.
I guess I'd better get to it. Oh, keep an eye on Tom's Insights site - he had a mico-post up on the second, promising his return this day. I'm very, very pleased to have him back in the game. Happy Monday, and have a great day!
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December 09, 2003 - Updates at 0714
Good morning. Yesterday got eaten by work, chores and paying bills. Also I was on the phone with Tom for a fair bit, trying to help debug a server problem. That might explain why his first real post in several months was delayed. I'm sure he'll get there soon. Meantime, Marcia took both mutts to the vet yesterday. They're both doing well - Lucy's got a mild skin infection that needs treatment, but other than than she's in fine health. That's a good thing. Now, sorry to abandon you, but I've got to get to work. See you later, or far more likely tomorrow.
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December 10, 2003 - Updates at 0700
Good morning. Last night, we took the girls over to meet Ebony (Sally's friend who comes to stay regularly). We figured that it would be better if Lucy met him on his home ground first, since he's coming over to visit for a few days later this week. It went well. Lee and Jim (Ebony's people) like Lucy, too. It was fun. Then we came home and I effectively collapsed.
That's because it was a long day at work. We unboxed a bunch of workstations, modified the IP, joined the domain, added NAV and other software, tested and reboxed. It was a full day! Today's going to be busy too, but fortunately for my sanity, back on the Linux side of the fence. I'm configuring that multi-function Debian box and putting him up in a DMZ. I'd better get to it - have a great day!
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December 11, 2003 - Updates at 0712
Hullo. Good thoughts and condolences headed towards our friend and coworker, Torie, who lost her young brother yesterday. I've lost a couple of friends far too young, but fortunately no family members... my heart goes out to her.
It is house-cleaning time around here, at least as far as linkage goes. Here's some stuff that's accumulated in my mail and bookmark folders:
Svenson sent me this next picture. His caption: Penguin with Balls. Now, I 'm not one to complain, but those look like cymbals to me...
Well, that should be enough to keep you busy for a while. We've just finished with a big rainstorm that came through yesterday afternoon and overnight. Winds are on the menu for today, then the temperatures start dropping so that Sunday's storm is snow instead of rain. Lovely. Meantime, I've got a batch of machines to install today, with much help from both Larry and customer, so I'd best be on my way. Have a great day.
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December 12, 2003 - Updates at 0713
Good morning. Sorry for the borked link to the optical illusion in yesterday's list. I fixed it, thanks to timely advice from Brian Cheesman. A full day yesterday, set all the boxes up in yet another trial area, so that the application consultants could do all their work in one centralized area. Then we installed a couple of apps for each workstation that hadn't made it onto the list previously. So it was a busy day.
Today I'll be doing some remote security work on a new client's Red Hat 9 server. For those of you that may have missed important news, Progeny Linux Systems is going to be offering update support for RH 7.2 through 9, past the RH end-of-life for those products. And the price is identical to that of RHN, at $5 per month. Have a look, this might help you stay with that platform you installed in the last few months.
Now we have three dogs in the house, since Ebony is over to visit for a few days. He and Lucy got in a snarling match last night, and Lucy snapped at me. That won't do - she received a decent whacking on the snout and a refreshing shouting-at. She understood, then and there - do not bite the hand that feeds, especially when it outweighs you by a factor of 8.
Time to get me to work. And it'll be another long day working tomorrow, too, so expect things to remain light around here for another day or two. Someday thing's will settle down again.
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December 13, 2003 - Updates at
Good Morning. Today Larry and I convert half of a (small) local municipality to Linux - both server and several workstations. Wooo. They've selected SuSE as their distro, and we're doing installs, rebuilds and rearranges today. Should be fun, if frantic. There's a lot to do, and we only have today...
There isn't much else to tell. I got all the Holiday shipping packed up last night to go down to UPS, Marcia will do that today while I'm at work. The dogs will have to amuse themselves, and probably work pretty hard at keeping directly under Marcia's feet, as well.
I've been taking note of the international reaction to the Pentagon's decision to let contracts only to companies from countries that supported us in the war effort. Um, Earth to whiners: Shut up! Last I heard, we could spend American taxpayer money any way we desire. If you want your companies to help in rebuilding Iraq, then the obvious solution is to pay them to do it, or ingratiate yourself with the pending Iraq government by forgiving their past depts in favor of incurring new ones. But to spend months trying to block our efforts and object to them, then want a piece of the pie when the job's done... well, that's just stupid. Get over yourselves.
Then there's Microsoft, with their questionable Trademark on a thing called Windows, which is a pretty common word, last I checked. They've managed some way another to get judges in a couple of different EuroJurisdictions to issue preliminary injunctions against the Lindows name. It sure doens't confuse me, an L and a W are completely different letters. Oh, and IMHO, Lindows is an instance of a stable, secure, easy-to-administer Operating System with a bunch of good apps, based on Debian, whereas Windows is a vulnerability-laden, consumer-oriented, hard-to-administer Operating System with a bunch of expensive good apps. Clearly different things, and you'd think that the stable and secure bits of Lindows are things that you'd like your customers to think about Windows, even if it isn't true. Hmmm.
Oooops. Gotta run. Bye.
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December 14, 2003 - Updates at 0943
Good morning. Not a great day yesterday. I spent most of it fighting with a recalcitrent Dell server that SERIOUSLY doesn't want to be running Linux. It's a 1500 model server, with Adaptec SCSI and a single SCSI drive, 36G. We added a 160G IDE drive to the system, so that the Windows server partition could be retained. Um. Well, it won't boot from the IDE drive. Period. We had 3 hours getting to the point where the system would even SEE the freaking drive. Finally, I got SuSE installed on it (customer's choice of distro), and neither GRUB nor Lilo run from the SCSI drive. So, I can't boot from the IDE, nor can I install a Linux boot loader on the SCSI drive. It's day's like this when I hate computers professionally. Oh, oh! Then, finally, I get the system rebooted to finish installing all the server-ish bits I'm asking of SuSE, by booting the installation from the Install CD. Then, then, I can't write to the floppy drive. Ah, but I hate computers. I may have to go pick up a copy of some third-party boot manager just to get things working right. Argh!
Oh, yeah, and I'm going back later this morning (I hope), to complete the configuration with Larry's help. It should have taken two hours to get that server doing exactly what I wanted. Instead, it took 9 hours just to get Linux installed. So today I do Samba and fetchmail and postfix and imap. What a wonderful life, as long as I don't weaken. Wish me luck, since I've got to wait for the ice and snow to stop first...
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Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.
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