Shayde

Packing done... heading out.

shayde@pobox.com — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:32:13 GMT

I have to stop and pick up a few things, like, yaknow, my son, but I'm heading West.

See a bunch of ya soon.

Homeport servers are offline.

shayde@pobox.com — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:24:52 GMT

All homeport servers are currently offline. We're working on it, we shoudl have an update in about an hour. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Dreamwidth. WTF?

shayde@pobox.com — Sun, 03 May 2009 03:01:47 GMT

So. There's this thing called LJ. It's a site that has a ton of journals on it, and people tend to use it a lot because all their friends are there, and it has an interesting way to 'lock' postings to specific readers. Many people are into it, despite it's numerous technical and aesthetic shortcomings.

"Why don't you use a blog site or something else?"

"Nah, all my friends are on LJ, I'll just use that."

But now there's Dreamwidth. Which is...another livejournal installation.

Because of LJ's braindead RSS mechanism, I cannot feed 'locked' posts out to an aggregator, so I generally read LJ for personal posts, and Google Reader for everything else.

Now I'll have to read LJ, Google Reader, AND Dreamwidth?

Folks who are getting Dreamwidth accounts. I'm not going to jump through hoops to read content over there. If you have an RSS feed of your journal there, let me know, I'll happily read it. If you start posting friends-locked posts over there, chances are I'll never see them - which may or may not matter to you. Just a heads up.

However, if you are going to make the jump, may I ask... why? There are tons of livejournal copies out there. It's opensource. And why LJ software, why not use blogger.com or typepad?

Reminder - My blog feed.

shayde@pobox.com — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:49:12 GMT

Most of my writing is not done here on LJ, but is done on my blog at Planet Geek!

Fortunately, there's a feed available that lets you read postings from the blog here in LJ.

This has been a reminder from your friendly neighborhood geek.

LJ Crossposting still down, use the feed.

shayde@pobox.com — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:08:46 GMT

I'm beginning to think that LiveJournal is losing much of it's appeal and, frankly, community - being steadily replaced with sites that are more than just journal posts (such as Facebook). I will likely continue to use LJ for private / locked postings if I need to, but I'm not going to put a lot of energy into integration.

Livejournal has an 'adequate' RSS feed mechanism, and Planet Geek has an active feed. If you've been reading my journal and reading my posts, and want to continue seeing the, please add the Livejournal RSS feed for Planet-Geek to your friends list, and you won't miss a post.

The Tweets, they are a marchin

shayde@pobox.com — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:03:07 GMT

16:45 Dear god I had forgotten what a genius Peter Gabriel is. (Listening to 'Shaking the Tree' while parked at Boloco on the common) #

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shayde@pobox.com — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:43:19 GMT

LJ Crossposting not working yet - manual repost:

http://planet-geek.com/archives/005007.html

Speaking of webcomics. What are your favorites?

While on the topic of webcomics, I'm curious what strips folks read regularly? I have all of mine loaded up in Google Reader (currently one of my favorite toys), and while I'm not necessarily looking for other good strips to add to my lineup, I'm always interested in finding new interesting comics. Some I add to my daily read, some I let slip..

A quick D&D game Thursday night?

shayde@pobox.com — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:10:50 GMT

Zach has gotten fascinated with D&D. We've made up a character, and I'd like to run him through a very simple scenario on Thursday night, probably 6:30 til about 8:30.

I could use another player - mostly to back him up, and help him with puzzles and where to look and the like. If anyone is around and wouldn't mind chaperoning Zach through the game, I'd be very grateful.

I'll have a character sheet put together, and all the materials handy - we'll play for about an hour and a half - this'll be a 'speed game', without a lot of prepping and hemming and hawing - I'll lay out the entire setting and characters.

Because I'm a rabid old fart who hasn't gotten up to speed, I'll be running with 2nd Edition Rules (cuz those are the books I have too). If we decide we're going to play more, I'll jump to 3.5 and rework things.

I could use 1-2 people, I don't have the time or setup to bring kids up to speed, so I think for this first game for Zach, an adult or two would be best.

If you're around, and would like to play, I'll even provide pizza.

Meeting at Interlude at 6:15, starting things rolling by 6:30, stopping at 8.

shayde@pobox.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:36:44 GMT

Just FYI we've migrated the blogs over to a new host - which means planet-geek.com's Livejournal crossposting is currently not working.

I'll keep folks posted.

The Tweets, they are a marchin

shayde@pobox.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:02:49 GMT

17:57 Relational Database Barbie says "Referential Integrity is HARD!" #

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Skiing tomorrow! 2/28/2009

shayde@pobox.com — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:18:31 GMT

(STOOOPID lj did NOT post this when I wrote this 6 hours ago! Grump!)

It's warm and sunny out. So... Lets go skiing!

Zach and I will be at Wachusett around 9am, going til 2pmish. Come join us!

Planet Geek!: Barry Smith is back!

shayde@pobox.com — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:18:25 GMT

(Who?)

Barry Smith once drew the incredibly awesome Angst Technologies webcomic. He went on hiatus for a while, but has restarted his artwork.

I highly recommend reading through the archives - the current strip is on InkTank.com. He's thoughtfully linked the older strips into archives.

Ya'll can finally see the origin of the IT Ninjas.

Cloned from: Planet Geek!
Category: Life. Don't talk to me about life.
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Planet Geek!: Check out my nephew's band : "The Malone"

shayde@pobox.com — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:57:24 GMT

Check it out. My nephew's band, "The Malone" has set up their myspace page (Warning for us old farts - it will start playing music as soon as you click on that link.)

Josh is playing bass, and I can well say he sounds a lot better than I do.

Cloned from: Planet Geek!
Category: Life. Don't talk to me about life.
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Planet Geek!: RadioParadise iPhone app!

shayde@pobox.com — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:19:12 GMT

Last night I wanted to sit down and listen to some RadioParadise during gaming. Unfortunately, my efforts to get a streaming 'terminal' available in the living room (other than plugging in one of the laptops) hasn't gone particularly well.

I remember listening to RP via my iPhone, and since we had Cat's Bose Sounddock on the shelf, I figured I just had to whip up a connection and dock the phone.

I ran up Safari on the phone, navigated to Radio Paradise, and lo, there was a link to a Radio Paradise iPhone app! For free!

In a blink I had it downloaded and running on my iPhone. The app gives basic functionality, showing the current track and allowing easy music control.

Score another one for the awesome Radio Paradise.

Cloned from: Planet Geek!
Category: Life. Don't talk to me about life.
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The Tweets, they are a marchin

shayde@pobox.com — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:02:34 GMT

11:00 Pondering some geocaching today. Have to run to the airport mid-day, but may be kicking around this evening. #

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Planet Geek!: A little distracted.

shayde@pobox.com — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:07:42 GMT

mosaic-settlers

Originally uploaded by eidolon

Perhaps my mind wasn't completely on the game at hand.

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The Tweets, they are a marchin

shayde@pobox.com — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:02:22 GMT

16:04 Circuit City is going out of business. DVD's and CD's are 50% off. Just got a bagful. THATS how to expand a collection. #

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The Tweets, they are a marchin

shayde@pobox.com — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:02:19 GMT

16:46 Hanging out at Manchester airport @boarding area. First trip for Zach unattended. He's off to Florida to visit grandma for a week. Eek. #

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Planet Geek!: The Macs. They tempt me.

shayde@pobox.com — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:20:15 GMT

I've been having... unpure thoughts lately.

While I'm fairly happy with clipper running Ubuntu 8.10 as my working desktop machine, I realize that clipper is getting a little long in the tooth (I have not worn the keycaps off, but there's a distinct 'looseness' in the keyboard). It's now 4+ years old, and while it's 'working', it might be time to consider an upgrade.

The macs tempt me. After setting up mom with her macbook, I had a better feel for the mac mobile experience. The latest line of macbooks has enough power in a non-bulky configuration that I can do all my development and serious work on them without making compromises.

I stopped by the Apple store to try out the new macbook touchpad (as I'm not a fan of touchpads in general), and I have to say I was impressed. The 'glass' touchpad implements multitouch in a good way (one finger for 'single click', two fingers for 'right click'). I'd still miss the 'nipple' pointing device in the middle of the keyboard, but I think I'd be okay.

The last thing motivating me is the need to run some business software. I'll be taking over more of Stonekeep's finances, so I need to run Quicken / Quickbooks. While Intuit has done the right thing and put Quicken / Quickbooks online (though with our account with DCU, much of our banking can be done remotely anyway), having native commercial apps available, plus all the wonderful opensource / free apps - is a huge draw.

A properly kitted out laptop from Apple (250gig HD, 4gig RAM, Macbook 2.4Ghz) runs $1800-ish. This would be my machine for another 3-4 years at least - the price is reasonable, though a little daunting.

But then I look at other things that would bring me - like Time Capsule. Brilliant.

It would mean abandoning Linux as a desktop. A moral dilemma to be sure.

Cloned from: Planet Geek!
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The Tweets, they are a marchin

shayde@pobox.com — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:03:17 GMT

07:36 Up at 7:10am to start the shuttling. To Grafton, then Berlin, then Grafton, then Home. But, waxing the CH floors today. Mmm, concrete! #

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The Tweets, they are a marchin

shayde@pobox.com — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:02:33 GMT

11:57 Huh. Heard that IBM is apparently rewriting the notes client using the eclipse SWT. It can only improve I guess. #
18:50 Happy epoch! #

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Planet Geek!: Not 64 bit.

shayde@pobox.com — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:36:13 GMT

Not 64 bit.

Originally uploaded by eidolon

Gall dang it.

'ketch' will be the new application server at our colo facility. I'vebeen slowly piecing it together and installing pieces on it.

Tonight I sat down to load Debian etch. Lo, it kept coming up with:

Your cpu does not support long mode

Turns out these are older Xeons, and are in fact not 64 bit. They're also configured for hyperthreading, which I"m also hearing I should turn off.

Still, a pair of 2gig CPU's will be a vast improvement over what we had, just not quite as shiny as I had hoped.

RAID1 configuration is continuing now. Debian's RAID setup can be a little convoluted to set up on install, but I managed to wiggle my way through it.

Oh, a hint if you ever do this? Remember to leave a little space on your raid volumes for swap space. 2 40 gig drives mirrored to make one 40gig volume == no space for swap. Oops.

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The Tweets, they are a marchin

shayde@pobox.com — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:05:59 GMT

20:35 Thermometer says '18 degrees'. I call it a baldfaced liar. Walked to and from dinner and holy cats is it cold. #

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The Tweets, they are a marchin

shayde@pobox.com — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:08:25 GMT

10:55 Perl geek? In the Boston area? We SO need a senior (and I do mean Senior) Perl CGI developer. Contact me! #

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Planet Geek!: It's alive! ketch is powered up

shayde@pobox.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:33:57 GMT

About six months ago, it became pretty apparent that boomer's newest brother, guardian, wasn't going to be enough to bring the load off the main server, and that applications needed to be shifted off boomer soon. The paired 80gig SATA drives were getting full - it was time to expand the cluster.

Because homeport is a community cluster, I couldn't just go to the CTO and requisition up another couple servers. One of our community members coughed up a little cash, thereby setting a budget, and I was off. After much ebaying and craigslisting, I came home with a pair of Penguin Computing Relion 130 1U servers. These were pulled out of a computation cluster, and were missing some small parts (one had no fans in it, and between the two of them they only had 2 40gig drives), but the price was right, the CPU oomph was good (dual Xeon 2gig CPUs), and the budget allowed for further upgrades.

Last week I got the final parts and did the assembly last weekend. 'ketch' here is the first machine assembled and loaded, and so far things are going fine. I moved the 2 40gig drives into this machine, and set up RAID-1 mirroring. 'ketch' will be an application server, taking the load off 'boomer' (which is only an AMD Sempron 2400+). The real kicker load wise was that I'm now deploying Tomcat based applications, and boomer just can't handle big Java footprints and still manage 20-30 users comfortably.

'ketch' will stay here until configuration is done. I still have to build 'dock', which is an identical machine, except for a pair of 500gig drives that, once mirrored, will act as homeport's NFS and MySQL server, further unloading boomer. We have dozens of Drupal sites running now, and the MySQL traffic is pretty hefty.

I haven't made the final decision on directory services. There's more and more pressure to just knuckle under and use NIS, certainly the easiest and best-known mechanism for replicating user information around a cluster, though I still hold out hope of a central LDAP based authentication / authorization system.

I hope to have 'dock' configured in the next week or two, and once they're both ready, they'll be shipped off to our colo facility for installation, bringing our homeport-specific server count to 4 (6 if you count 2 other machines that we share services with).

Pretty durned cool.

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