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Archive of "Computer stuff" Category
Open Source books
Recently I came across a great series of books, The Bruce Perens Open Source Series. Here is a bit of info on Bruce Perens for those that haven’t heard of him ;-).
The great thing about this series of books is that they are printed under the Open Publication License. After the printed version is put out, several months later a free online version is put out. Perens Series Page. If you’re a fan of Open Source and like technical books like I do then that is the site for you. So far there are 20 books in the series and some are already available online as .pdf files.
Posted in Computer stuff, Geek Stuff, General |
1 Comment »Insomnia and other “stuff”
So for the last 2 to 3 weeks I have not been able to sleep. I get to sleep about 5am and wake up at 6 or 7am. I wake up tired but when I start moving and doing things I don’t feel tired at all…Then when I’m supposed to be tired I am wide awake. I don’t know what’s going on.
I have had some things come up in my life that have really thrown things out of whack. The first, of course was Katrina. I really dislike my job right now. I feel like it’s a waste of time “helping” the same people day after day after day. I don’t get to really do anything “new and exciting”. I get to unlock passwords, walk people thru changing passwords and that’s about it.
I don’t think I mentioned it on here officially but in January I am going to BushKill Pennsylvania for a Cisco training class. This will provide me with two certifications that will, hopefully, help me get a job out of this godforsaken state.
One of the reasons I don’t like my current job is when I brought this class to them and asked if they would help me pay for it or even remburse me for it I was basically told to fuck off. Because of my job title it wouldn’t benefit me in my position. Well, hello!!! I don’t want to be in this position forever. Ideally I would have like to move up with the company. But from their response I see where I stand with them. I have also been having doubts about not sticking it out down on the coast after Katrina. I know it would have been tough but I think I would have learned a lot and really been able to establish a place for myself down there. But, that is the past and hindsight is bitch that can see very well…
This is going to turn into a bitch session in about 2 words: I hate living where I am living. I have had to put up with the most infantile shit I have ever put up with. The only thing, and I mean only thing that is stopping me from getting an apartment around here is the sheer lack of apartments here. And that is all I am going to say about it…for now anyway..
I have decided to take the opportunity of not being able to sleep to move data off my media machine and rebuild it. I started doing this a while back and never really finished it . So you wanna talk about nerve racking, try moving 160gb of data that could probably be replaced but it has taken me 4 years to get it. The main reason for this move is to get the 200gb hard drive that is currently housing the operating system which is only taking up about 4gb out and get a smaller drive back in.
Some background on the setup
I have three 250gb drives in a RAID 5 configuration. Raid 5 is fairly good redundancy, as long as I only lost one of the disks I could rebuild the data from the other 2 back to a 3rd disk. This is where my media is housed.
So that’s 750gb of storage right? Not really, with Raid 5 you add up the 3 disks (750gb) and subtract one disk (250). So actually I only have 500gb of actual storage space. This allows for the one 250gb drive to basically be hidden but have backup data written to it. Hmmm…looking back on that I don’t know if it really makes sense. But it’s 2am and I am rambling…I am off to watch some mindless tv …
Until later…
Posted in Computer stuff, Geek Stuff, General |
3 Comments »Trying day
Today has been the longest day of the week so far…Some background first, As sys admin for USM I am responsible for the 3 computer labs we have on campus (~60 pc’s) and also the lab at our Jackson county teaching site (~30 pc’s).
Being responsible for computers in a university environment is something that is taking some getting used to. At my old job I had 22 computer’s that got used, but not very often. I was able to play around with the settings to lock stuff down and block access to things that a normal user shouldn’t have access to. But in the university setting that is a little different. Every machine has to have every piece of software that is taught on campus.
Really all that means is I had to do some testing to make sure all the programs would play nicely together before I could roll up the image and push it out.
Sidenote, when I say “building an image” I am using one machine as a template so to speak, and putting everything I need on it. Then that an image of that hard drive is copied out to the other machines in the lab.
So myself and a couple of student workers have had a month or so to get things tested and make sure the image is complete and working. After all that today was the day, the day the image gets pushed out to all the lab machines for the next semester. So I get here this morning expecting to be done within and a couple of hours and possibly take off early this afternoon.
You have probably guessed it by now, the image blew up this morning. I couldn’t get the antivirus to update and a lot of random errors were popping up…So we reimaged it from a backup that was created on Monday. I am using software that will allow you to make whatever changes you want to the hard drive including wiping the C drive. But when you reboot everything is right back to the point I left it in when I imaged it.
Well, long story short, that software went haywire and I couldn’t unlock the drive to make changes. So we ended up totally rebuilding the image from scratch and here it is 5pm on a Friday and I still have a couple of hours work ahead of me…. So thanks Mr. Murphy, you’re a real pal….
Posted in Computer stuff, General, Things that suck!, University |
2 Comments »Sysadmin Day
In honor of Sysadmin Day here is a great list of stupid user tidbits. I can honestly say that most of these I have experienced. Especially the crumbs in the keyboard thing…yuck…
***Warning*** This is a long post!!
- Make sure to save all your MP3 files on your network drive. No sense in wasting valuable space on your local drive! Plus, Ted loves browsing through 100+ GB of music files while he backs up the servers.
- Play with all the wires you can find. If you can’t find enough, open something up to expose them. After you have finished, and nothing works anymore, put it all back together and call Ted. Deny that you touched anything and that it was working perfectly only five minutes ago. Ted just loves a good mystery. For added effect you can keep looking over his shoulder and ask what each wire is for.
- Never write down error messages. Just click OK, or restart your computer. Ted likes to guess what the error message was.
- When talking about your computer, use terms like “Thingy” and “Big Connector.”
- If you get an EXE file in an email attachment, open it immediately. Ted likes to make sure the anti-virus software is working properly.
- When Ted says he coming right over, log out and go for coffee. It’s no problem for him to remember your password.
- When you call Ted to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under a year-old pile of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, unpaid bills, bowling trophies and Popsicle sticks. Ted doesn’t have a life, and he finds it deeply moving to catch a glimpse of yours.
- When Ted sends you an email marked as “Highly Important” or “Action Required”, delete it at once. He’s probably just testing some new-fangled email software.
- When Ted’s eating lunch at his desk or in the lunchroom, walk right in, grab a few of his fries, then spill your guts and expect him to respond immediately. Ted lives to serve, and he’s always ready to think about fixing computers, especially yours.
- When Ted’s at the water cooler or outside taking a breath of fresh air, find him and ask him a computer question. The only reason he takes breaks at all is to ferret out all those employees who don’t have email or a telephone.
- Send urgent email ALL IN UPPERCASE. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery.
- When the photocopier doesn’t work, call Ted. There’s electronics in it, so it should be right up his alley.
- When you’re getting a NO DIAL TONE message at your home computer, call Ted. He enjoys fixing telephone problems from remote locations. Especially on weekends.
- When something goes wrong with your home PC, dump it on Ted’s chair the next morning with no name, no phone number, and no description of the problem. Ted just loves a good mystery.
- When you have Ted on the phone walking you through changing a setting on your PC, read the newspaper. Ted doesn’t actually mean for you to DO anything. He just loves to hear himself talk.
- When your company offers training on an upcoming OS upgrade, don’t bother to sign up. Ted will be there to hold your hand when the time comes.
- When the printer won’t print, re-send the job 20 times in rapid succession. That should do the trick.
- When the printer still won’t print after 20 tries, send the job to all the printers in the office. One of them is bound to work.
- Don’t use online help. Online help is for wimps.
- Don’t read the operator’s manual. Manuals are for wussies
- If you’re taking night classes in computer science, feel free to demonstrate your fledgling expertise by updating the network drivers for you and all your co-workers. Ted will be grateful for the overtime when he has to stay until 2:30am fixing all of them.
- When Ted’s fixing your computer at a quarter past one, eat your Whopper with cheese in his face. He functions better when he’s slightly dizzy from hunger.
- When Ted asks you whether you’ve installed any new software on your computer, LIE. It’s no one else’s business what you’ve got on your computer.
- If the mouse cable keeps knocking down the framed picture of your dog, lift the monitor and stuff the cable under it. Those skinny Mouse cables were designed to have 55 lbs. of computer monitor crushing them.
- If the space bar on your keyboard doesn’t work, blame Ted for not upgrading it sooner. Hell, it’s not your fault there’s a half pound of pizza crust crumbs, nail clippings, and big sticky drops of Mountain Dew under the keys.
- When you get the message saying “Are you sure?”, click the “Yes” button as fast as you can. Hell, if you weren’t sure, you wouldn’t be doing it, would you?
- Feel perfectly free to say things like “I don’t know nothing about that boneheaded computer crap.” It never bothers Ted to hear his area of professional expertise referred to as boneheaded crap.
- Don’t even think of breaking large print jobs down into smaller chunks. God forbid somebody else should sneak a one-page job in between your 500-page Word document.
- When you send that 500-page document to the printer, don’t bother to check if the printer has enough paper. That’s Ted’s job.
- When Ted calls you 30 minutes later and tells you that the printer printed 24 pages of your 500-page document before it ran out of paper, and there are now nine other jobs in the queue behind yours, ask him why he didn’t bother to add more paper.
- When you receive a 130 MB movie file, send it to everyone as a high-priority mail attachment. Ted’s provided plenty of disk space and processor capacity on the new mail server for just those kinds of important things.
- When you bump into Ted in the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon, ask him computer questions. He works 24/7, and is always thinking about computers, even when he’s at super-market buying toilet paper and doggie treats.
- If your son is a student in computer science, have him come in on the weekends and do his projects on your office computer. Ted will be there for you when your son’s illegal copy of Visual Basic 6.0 makes the Access database keel over and die.
- When you bring Ted your own “no-name” brand PC to repair for free at the office, tell him how urgently he needs to fix it so you can get back to playing EverQuest. He’ll get on it right away, because everyone knows he doesn’t do anything all day except surf the Internet.
- Don’t ever thank Ted. He loves fixing everything AND getting paid for it!
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Posted in Computer stuff, Geek Stuff, General |
1 Comment »Free school
I turned in my tuition waiver form for my classes in the fall today. My boss he was glad to see those come across his desk. I didn’t know what to say!! I have never had a boss say that.
Usually they grip and moan about how hard it’s going to be to get someone to cover my shift so I can go to class. So this was a delightful change from that norm.
It’s amazing how fast things move when you work for the university. Today I was re-admitted, changed my major, and got my financial aid done. I guess when you are an IT person in a place that is dependent on computers you get a little special treatment
And since school will be a big part of things down here I think it deserves it’s own catagory…So it has one…
Posted in Computer stuff, General, University |
2 Comments »Plugins
This is mainly for me, but I figured I would share what plug-ins I use for Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird.
Mozilla Firefox:
- Stumbleupon - This is a nifty little add-on that allows you to choose what interests you then click a button and you go to random sites within your intrests
- Sessionsaver - This is probably my favorite. If you close Firefox with tabs open, the next time you open Firefox all your tabs will be restored. **Of course Linux browsers have had this option for quite sometime **
Mozilla Thunderbird:
Buttons - I had to add this because I use two SMTP servers and this added a button to allow me to choose which one I want to use.***This button turned out to be completely useless. It doesn’t make much sense to provide a choice and then completely ignore it.***
Posted in Computer stuff, General |
Comments OffGreat Quote
“If we aren’t supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?”
“You know you’re an engineer if you have no life & can prove it mathematically”
“Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense”
“90% of being smart is knowing what your dumb at”
Head over to Thinkgeek to see more quotes…I love that site btw
Posted in Computer stuff, General |
1 Comment »Neuros dead…:-(
It is offical, my Neuros is dead. I called support last night and apparently the circuit board was fried when I plugged it into the wall. What really sucks is the company that made it no longer makes them. The Neuros II was discontinued because of some bugs that it had.
But the guy on the phone was really cool about it, I am going to send my Neuros to them and see if they can fix it. If not, I am out an Ogg player and since most of my music is in .ogg format that really sucks..Apple has a patch for the iPod that converts .ogg into .aac I believe. But that really defeats the purpose of having my music in .ogg…{sigh}
Oh well, I am off to uncover all the lab computers…
Posted in Computer stuff, General, Things that suck! |
2 Comments »Family Reunion
Along with Hurricane Dennis I had a family reunion this weekend on my step-mother’s side. I wrote this Saturday after everyone left. It is short, but so was the reunion..
Saturday July 9, 2005
Today was the James family reunion. All in all there was about 30 people that showed up and everyone ate and spent some time together. It is about 1740 and the rain has started which I assume is from Hurricane Dennis.
Earlier the track of the storm was slated to go to the grand Isle of Louisana, but that has since been changed back to Pensacola/Panama City area. I really think we are going to get some weather in Long Beach from this storm. I truly hope my apartment and motorcycle are there when I get back.
The satellite t.v. went out apparently it does this fairly regularly …Great…not a damn thing to watch and no internet…That is a lot of fun huh…
Ok, so it seemed to go back to the storm more than the reunion. Honestly the reunion was rather small. Usually there are 50-60 people that show up at 8am and don’t leave until 7 or 8pm. This year there was maybe 25 people and most didn’t show up until 12pm, ate and left around 2pm…
I ended up staying until Monday to see what Hurricane Dennis did. Luckly we (Long Beach) didn’t get anything except rain and wind. The power didn’t even go out. If I had been here it would have tho…
I did get damage from an upstairs neighbor who didn’t tighten the water hoses on his washer. I came back today to hear water dripping onto my washer. The ceiling over my washer is soaking wet and dripped all over the floor and onto the carpet in my dining room.
I noticed my ceiling was wet before I left on Friday and I did the right thing and called the landlord and reported it. I ended up calling 3 times that night, finally a maintance man came and looked at it and told me to ” keep an eye on it and someone would fix it over the weekend”.
Well needless to say no one came and looked at it so now have to deal with the ceiling being pulled out and most of the sheetrock replaced…I have some pics but I can’t seem to find the right usb cable. Somewhere between my last job and this one I ended up with a dozen or so usb cables and I have no clue where most of them go.
Speaking of usb cables…I think my Neuros died :-(….That sucks btw because they have been discontinued..:-(
Well this has just turned into a ramble…so I am going to wrap it up now….
Until later…
Posted in Computer stuff, General, Tropical Weather |
1 Comment »Shutting down for a while…
Well, I am getting things packed to go to the family reunion and to get away from Hurricane Dennis. I will be out of the net for a while since I am shutting down my server and covering everything with plastic. I honestly don’t think things are going to get *that* bad but an ounce of prevention right…
I will be up at my dad’s until Sunday, then depending on Dennis I may come back to Hattiesburg. If things are bad I am just going to stay at dad’s and fish
Dad doesn’t have hi-speed internet and I am not even sure if they still have dial-up (hopefully they do) but if not I will talk to everyone when I get back…If anyone needs me you can try to call my cell. If I don’t answer please leave a voicemail. My phone service is spotty in that area at best. If you leave a message I will call you back…Until later
Posted in Computer stuff, General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
1 Comment »Tiger Style
For a while now I have wanted to find a theme or something for the Wordpress admin panel. The panel is functional but that’s about it. It, in my opinion, is rather blah…
So enter Tiger Style Administration. In a nutshell it adds the look of Mac OS X to the admin panel. Pretty cool stuff..
Posted in Computer stuff, General, Website related |
2 Comments »New Poker Bots
Apparently some wonderful person put out a new bot. I just got hit with 12 poker spams in under a minute…Bastard ass spammers!!!
Posted in Computer stuff, General, Things that suck!, Website related |
1 Comment »Almost 2 Weeks
I have been at my job for almost 2 full weeks now. The environment is so completely different than what I am used to. My co-workers are really nice and have made me feel like I made the right decision moving down here.
I do miss the clinic (actually I miss the people more than the place) but it served it’s purpose for me which was to gain experience and move on to something else. This job is going to be a challenge for me and the experience that I will gain, and also the schooling I will get out of the way can only help me in the long run.
Yesterday my work laptop came in along with the docking station and a 17in flat screen monitor. I really enjoy having the flexibility of a laptop. And honestly I think workstations are becoming obsolete with the advent of wireless internet. I can put my laptop into standby and walk to another building bring it back up and I am connected as tho I never left my desk.
So all in all so far I am glad I moved to take this job. I will be going back to H’burg this weekend to see some friends and cook out…
Posted in Computer stuff, General |
2 Comments »Nonsense….
Yeah, this is going to work out well..
Posted in Computer stuff, General, Things that suck! |
Comments OffRandoms
Well, not much really going on…Just work and more work. I did order a new exhaust system for my bike yesterday. I put a pic of it here. I have really only seen these on custom choppers and not on any bikes around here.
So step one in the customizing is under way. I will post more pics once they are on…
My job is really getting to me some days. I don’t understand how some of these people don’t fall down more. When someone doesn’t know the difference between a monitor and the cpu something is not right. I am getting to do a little bit more with some document imaging stuff. Basically all the medical records we have are being scanned into a huuuuuuggggggeeee database. Currently we are up to one and a half terabytes I believe and steadly rising.
I started this post at 7:41am, it is now 1:24pm. I had to go to three different locations today…
Ok, so it is now Monday. I fully intended on posting this Friday so I will post it now even tho it is out of date…
Posted in Computer stuff, General, Hello Moto |
1 Comment »
