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GRAFFITI -- May 14, 2007 thru May 20, 2007 >> Link to the Current Week << Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week Search this site : 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.

MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
May 14, 2007

0709 - Good morning. Well, until I know which desk is going to get buried in my work, I can't very well show up at the office before everyone else, I suppose. So that means instead of showing up for work at 0730, I'll be leaving here at about 0745. Yep, first day at the new gig. While I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things after 10 days off, I'm sure not going to miss all the driving. At the end of the week, I'll let you know how much time this saved me. And in a couple of weeks I'll know how much gas this saves, too. While the distance is only half, I expect to be able to cover it at speed, instead of in stop-and-go mode. That latter eats fuel like no one's business. And since we're back up over $3 per gallon without any real point to that price except Big Oil profits, anything I can save will be good. However, I don't like not using up my share of Al Gore's carbon offsets. Maybe I should barbeque more often, or just mow more... HAHAHAHA!

Anyway, I'll grab my breakfast and go. I know where I can hang out until the tech offices get opened up.

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Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
May 15, 2007

This was supposed to be up this morning. Errrr, I forgot to run the push-script. Sorry.

0645 - Good morning. First day was fine. Met a couple of people I didn't previously know, and a bunch of servers in racks. Oh, yeah, and a 1200 Amp breaker. Mmmmm. AC. Mmmmmm. To offset that, there was loads of paperwork, some of which I didn't get to until last night. Between that, bills, backups, dogs, trash, and formatting the latest column for Jerry's Chaos Manor Reviews, I had precious little time to do anything worth mentioning here. So I'll keep you no longer. Follow that link and read what Jerry writes. Ciao!

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May 16, 2007

0656 - Good morning. Last night I got up to very little trouble. I did a few more backups - I foresee a major data reorganization coming in the near future. While duplication of data is good across multiple sites and multiple hosts, having two or three copies of a large tree here on Harmony, plus full duplicates of all those copies on Vroom, plus full duplicates of all those copies on the encrypted offsite backup, plus dated archives that serve no purpose on Vimes ... well, you get the picture. There's redundancy, then there's insanity. The line was crossed accidentally, and I've never made it right. So some permanent deep archiving to optical media, followed by a purging, would be indicated.

Thereafter, I worked with NTP, making sure that the timekeeping was right across the board. I have some tests in mind with a syslog server, and making sure that time is consistent across all of my machines is a real good starting point.

Time to get to work. Oh, the code is business casual. They're going to get tired of my two button-down shirts. Grin.

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May 17, 2007

No Post....

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
May 18, 2007

2003 - Good evening. It's the end of week one. I guess they want me to come back next week, so that's a good thing. I have three towers under my desk - one each linux, winders, and slowaris. The latter two are running headless. I have a bunch of servers to watch over, and I spent some time introducing myself to them over the last few days. There's lots (LOTS) more to learn, but I have no doubt that I'll pick it up and run with it.

I've got boatloads of stuff to do, and hopefully more interesting stuff to report down the road.

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May 19, 2007

No Post......

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May 20, 2007

After moving office furniture and recabling everything.

1046 - Good morning. Yesterday was an inopportune time for posting, so I didn't. Instead I disassembled my office, stacked all the books in the hall, and uncabled everything. I moved the desk over to the wall by the door, and flipped the computer cabinet 90° to match. Now all the core machines are in that lower bay again. That let me rationalize my cabling scheme, and cut way down on clutter. In addition, I recovered four network cables that were in disuse, two wall warts that weren't powering anything anymore, and get the right equipment plugged into the right stuff. That is, network gear and computers in UPS battery-backed ports, everything else just in surge-protected ports. The way stuff had been previously daisy-chained, that was no longer a clear choice. Once I got that stuff squared away, and the network back up and running, I got some tunes going, and started going through the shelves. I discarded boatloads of old games (Win95, Win98), 10-year old Linux books, anything to do with Caldera, etc. One large trashcan down, probably one to go, as I have one more shelf and the spares closet to go through. If I've been making bad past choices in the spares closet, then it might be one-and-a-half or two cans to go.

We're about to go shopping, having slept late and puttered about, so I'll finish this later...

Computers on a vibration isolation platform.

1422 - Back again. One of the other enhancements in my reorganization involves moving Vimes, my Linux workstation, out of the desk bay and into the "computer cabinet". You can see the desk bay, now full of keeper magazines, in the picture above (click the image for larger). Since I took that picture, I put the door back on that bay, and took the doors off of the cabinet. The front doors cut the small amount of fan noise just a little bit, but when shut, they cut into the air circulation so badly that the now-hotter computers ramp up their fan speeds... so the doors buy me nothing. Anyway, with the doors off, it's easier to see the other feature I added: I put in a raised platform in the bottom of the cabinet, to get the machines a bit more clearance off the floor and the inevitable mess of cables. The two under-cubbies are perfect for things like cables and warts for USB drives, when they're not in use. Above the platform, I've got a piece of heavy carpet, then another piece of plywood. The upper plywood is 1/4" less wide — centered, it doesn't touch the walls on either side — and the computers' mechanical vibration is now well-isolated from the cabinet carcass. That makes a huge difference in the noise from the two machines.

While the sands of this day are clearly running fast, I'm still going to try to get through the other shelf, and maybe put in a couple of shelves in the closet to help organize that stuff. Right now that's a take-everything-out closet, just to get to the one thing I want. I need to add a couple new small boxes, in order to segregate a couple of cable types for ease of access, too. But before I get to that chore...

My pride in our uniformed men and women continues to be boundless. In country at the pointed end of the stick, they continue to do their duty enforcing a policy with goals that they really want and believe in. It's such a damned shame that it appears the loony natives to those lands are more interested in fighting and killing each other (and us when we get in the way) than in peace and quality of life. Should I call them loony? Well, it's not PC, and that always appeals to me. And of course I speak in the general context. It's like cold-war Russians. There are always quality individuals, but as a mass of people ... not so good. Where's Hari Seldon when we need him.

• Spc. Michael K. Frank, 36, of Great Falls, Mont., died of injuries suffered in Baghdad May 10, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.
• Pfc. William A. Farrar Jr., 20, of Redlands, Calif., died May 11 in Al Iskandariyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• 1st Lt. Andrew J. Bacevich, 27, of Walpole, Mass., died May 13 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit during combat patrol operations in Salah Ad Din Province, Iraq.
• Pvt. Anthony J. Sausto, 22, of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., died May 10 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from enemy small arms fire.
• Maj. Douglas A. Zembiec, 34, of Albuquerque, N.M., died May 11 while conducting combat operations in Baghdad, Iraq.
• Spc. Rhys W. Klasno, 20, of Riverside, Calif., died May 13 in Haditha, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Staff Sgt. John T. Self, 29, of Pontotoc, Miss., died May 14 as result of enemy action near Baghdad, Iraq.
• Sgt. 1st Class James D. Connell Jr., 40, of Lake City, Tenn., died May 12 in Al Taqa, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his patrol was attacked by enemy forces using automatic fire and explosives.
• Pfc. Daniel W. Courneya, 19, of Nashville, Mich., died May 12 in Al Taqa, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his patrol was attacked by enemy forces using automatic fire and explosives.
• Cpl. Christopher E. Murphy, 21, of Lynchburg, Va., died May 12 in Al Taqa, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his patrol was attacked by enemy forces using automatic fire and explosives.
• Pfc. Nicholas S. Hartge, 20, of Rome City, Ind., died May 14 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using grenades and an improvised explosive device.
• Maj. Larry J. Bauguess Jr., 36, of Moravian Falls, N.C., died May 14 in Teri Mengel, Pakistan, of wounds sustained from enemy small arms fire.
• Pfc. Zachary R. Gullett, 20, of Hillsboro, Ohio, died May 1 in Baghdad, Iraq, as a result of a non-combat related incident.
• Lance Cpl. Jeffrey D. Walker, 21, of Macon, Ga., died May 14 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Sgt. Thomas G. Wright, 38, of Holly, Mich., died May 14 enroute to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, from a non-combat related illness while serving at Balad, Iraq.
• Sgt. Allen J. Dunckley, 25, of Yardley, Pa., died May 14 in Salman Pak, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Sgt. Christopher N. Gonzalez, 25, of Winslow, Ariz., died May 14 in Salman Pak, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Staff Sgt. Joshua R. Whitaker, 23, of Long Beach, Calif., died May 15 in Qalat, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from enemy small arms fire.
• Pfc. Aaron D. Gautier, 19, of Hampton, Va., died May 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his mounted patrol came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire and an improvised explosive device.
• Sgt. Steven M. Packer, 23, of Clovis, Calif., died May 17 in Rushdi Mullah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his dismounted patrol encountered an improvised explosive device.
• Pfc. Jonathan V. Hamm, 20, of Baltimore, Md., died May 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his forward operating base received indirect enemy fire.
• Sgt. Anthony J. Schober, 23, of Reno, Nev., died on May 12 in Al Taqa, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his patrol was attacked by enemy forces using automatic fire and explosives.

Still among the missing are Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty. Taken when their patrol was attacked (and four of their mates killed), we have an awful lot of troops looking for these young men. We want to get them back into relative safety, before the evil loony Islamics once again execute captured soldiers in violation of the Geneva Convention.

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