Recent blog entries for backtick

Yay for NASA! Coolest thing I've seen in years! I watched the NEAR mission in one window all day, and the work on the space station in another. I just alternated between the two. And yes, I was actually working in a set of ssh terms in between :-)

God forbid, but I MAY have gotten my scripts reading the SNMP MIB's from a test Cisco router working. Now I should be able to monitor any interface I want and send an email page on CRC errors. Handy thing. I'm wondering if I can't tie some kind of web snatch-and-grab interface into this, to grab and mirror any stats off the interface. I couldn't find anything to do it as a simple module; it's all "Write it yourself". Seems there's a need for a plugin to let you just say "community@router", click a link for an interface, and see EVERYTHING it knows about :-) We use cricket and friends here, but it's a buttload of config work for the simple stuff I'm trying to do. Might be the start of a new toy. Not sure if I should start w/ PHP for this, as a way to get into it.

Okay, Sunday it is. Pulling second shift, but I *do* get a lunch break, so I'm happily doing this and knowing it's on my time and not company time. Sound silly worrying about it? Not to me. I'm a sysadmin, and we by definition HAVE to hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards. Wow, dramatic, eh? But it's true; how else can I look at a user and complain about his quota usage, if I'm stockpiling gig's of MP3's on the fileserver? Same thing goes for not ever working on personal stuff except during lunch break, etc. Sure, I could make the case AGAINST myself that I'm using company bandwidth just by looking at this page and submitting this post, but I'm willing to assume that I'm allowed to use THAT much company bandwidth for personal uses; we DO have a company policy allowing a certain percentage of personal calls and surfing :-) If anyone actually READS this post, take a minute, and make sure you're keeping your work up to the ethical standards it needs to be at. If not, don't burn yourself at the stake, but just remember it as you go, and work towards a goal. Sure, I like to read BOFH as much as the next guy, but do we really want to live in that environment? Remember, the finance guy could start taking the same liberties in HIS job!

God have mercy; 2 updates in one day.

So I'm browsing Adrian Legg's web site (www.adrianlegg.com) and I realize I have completely missed one of his CD's, AND it has a song on it named 'McPherson'! How apt (not apt- get, you debian nuts). So, if you click HERE you can here about a minute of the song. It just so happens it sounds like a good theme song for a TV show :-)

And I browsed my OLD diary entries and figured I'd fill in gaps. Heh.

The tape stuff is working wonderfully; another guy here (also by the name of Sean) is now in charge of the project, and is doing a masterful job. I feel sorry for him, since most of the work on the customer side is NT based, but what the heck...

Wow. I have been way too busy. Weird, huh? I'm even busier now, but I decided to post stuff here regardless, as a de- stress plan :-)

So, Bellsouth got out to my house on December 20th, and finally agreed with me that it was a wiring issue. You see, while ON THE PHONE with a BS rep, listening to him tell me it was a software problem, I rewired a jack using backwards pairs, and suddenly they saw my end of the connection. I explained what I had just done, and said I was going to go out to the NTI on the side of the house and start plugging things together randomly (and I mentioned I had a power outlet right next to the box, along with my main power feed from the utility company, AND my cable feed) if they didn't roll a truck. Next day service, and the tech even said "Wow, I've never seen a whole box wired backwards like this" :-) But, it's working now, the roaring-penguin PPPOE software works great, and maybe in the next 3 months or so they'll finally quit billing me for the OLD service *sigh*

So, the Queso stuff is STILL on hold. I haven't even LOOKED at it lately, and the whole new kernel thing has kept me playing with other stuff in the few free minutes I DO have.

Well, that and finally updating my web site.

Finally managed to kick Bellsouth into gear; the order is in, and soon, SOON we'll be back online...

Wonder if I should just switch to Telocity when the line is installed and tested???

I really hate not having any net access from home! I'm *STILL* waiting on bellsouth to find the DSL order for the new house in their system *sigh*

Well, the drives are working fine now, and I'm pushing data into them using 'dd' or 'tar' w/ 1 MB blocks at a rate of 5.9 MB/sec each. Not bad, since the manufacturer said 6 MB/sec. Now, if I use 'standard' tar w/ the default setup of 20 512-byte blocks, the rate drops to 2.4 MB/sec! Sheesh, it's all in how you optimize, as always.

Now all I have to do is get the Library acting as a normal robot, and we'll be fine :-)

Again, with moving and all, no time to play w/ host identification. *sigh*

Whew, another LONG several days. No time to work on the OS analyzer for queso; Been buried getting a Sun E220R to recognize the SpectraLogic tape unit we have. See, the SL is loaded with a couple of Sony AIT-2 500X drives, and the damn unit reported them back as HP JetStore drives. Never used a HP JetStore drive, but it ain't the same thing :-)

So, the new Fluke DSP-4000 is in for cable testing (yet another tool in the uber-toolbox of ethernet/fiber/coax destruction/installation *grin* we do here), and it comes with the serial cable and software to dump your reports to a Windows machine for printing. EWWWW!

Now, I think Fluke did some REALLY neat things; they gave all the pinouts in the manual, and the format of the reports makes me think it's just some normal ASCII. Wonder how hard it'll be to make a Gnome applet for reading data off the Fluke? Heh, a little Fluke-meter in the toolbar...

Quick thought regarding moving: Don't ever do it. Just burn down your old house. Think about it; the only stuff you really care about is on a hard drive that'll fit in a coat pocket.

I hate moving...