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Thursday, August 21 2008, 7:07 PM

It should be the goal of every good geek to build something with lots of blinking lights. I'm proud to say that I've done this many times over. The latest...

Too bad the system this set of drive arrays is attached to is causing me no end of grief.

coraid work

Sunday, July 13 2008, 1:18 AM

It's been a pretty crazy couple weeks, for sure. I've been super busy with multiple projects at work, with each one demanding lots of attention. I tend to have a hard time changing directions once I get going on something, so having so many things to do can be pretty stressful. In addition, a system I take care of at work also had some kind of a nervous breakdown, and required a ton of attention in order to correct. A ton of attention while I was on vacation. Totally weak. It's mostly fixed now though, so it's back to being pulled in multiple directions by other stuff. Sigh.

There hasn't been a lot going on outside of work recently due to a general lack of energy and motivation to do anything. All of the stuff happening at work leaves me with no desire to do anything when I get home. It's pretty depressing, in a way.

One relatively fun thing happened though. For the first time since around 2000, I built myself a brand new computer. I got myself a quad-core AMD Phenom processor clocked at 2.3GHz, 4GB of PC2-8500 RAM, a Biostar TPower N750 motherboard, a power supply, and new case from Newegg. I also got a couple of SLI-capable Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS video cards from a coworker. Combine all the parts together and I've got myself a pretty beefy machine. A hell of a lot more beefy than my other desktops. I've been installing some of my old games on it, and they absolutely scream.

amd biostar frustrations nvidia work

Thursday, April 10 2008, 10:15 AM

It seems that posting here regularly is getting more and more problematic. It seems as though I'm busy a lot of the time, but most of the stuff I'm busy with is mundaine and would be boring to talk about, or its stuff that shouldn't be talked about in a public forum. I've been a lot busier with human-oriented things at work as opposed to the purely technical side of things. It's definitely taking a while to get accustomed to. I still lack team members for my group, but that's my fault as much as anybody else's. I still need to come up with a list of qualifications that are required/desired for people interested in joining the team. It seems easy enough to do, but every time I think of it, I come up with more and more items to put on that list. It may be a never-ending task... :)

Other than work, there isn't a whole lot of things going on. I've been doing some more playing with AoE/Xen at home, and have succeeded in getting some things working that should open some doors regarding what I can do with those tools, but that's a subject for another post... One with drawings and diagrams. :)

Oh yah... It's getting warm! Yay for spring!

aoe work xen

Wednesday, March 05 2008, 1:02 AM

I've been pretty occupied with work lately. I've been busy putting the finishing touches on a project that will be unleashed on the masses within the next week or two. I put in a lot of hours trying to meet a deadline that ended up being meaningless because others involved went on vacation before finishing their parts. That's fine though. It gives me more time to solidify my end of things, which is never a bad thing.

Also in the work front, I've been given what most would consider a pretty significant promotion. I've been made the head of new department that, for all intents and purposes, is a R&D group primarily focused on bringing innovative products and services to the customers. I'm the only member of the group right now, but others will start filling in sooner rather than later. This role also puts me in a position where I'll be (along with another senior member of the company) overseeing the progress and direction of most (if not all) projects, company-wide. In ways, it's a pretty big change from my previous role of hiding in the shadows and making things happen, but at the same time, it's really not. I'll still be making things happen that most people aren't even aware of, but I'll also be someone's boss. That's definitely a first for me. If anyone's got any helpful advice, be sure to share.

In other news, I'll be taking a well-deserved vacation starting this coming friday. Chris and Darin have somehow found a way to free themselves from their better halves for the weekend, so we're headed down to Andre's for the weekend for some old school debauchery. It sounds like Andre has a full itinerary planned for us, and judging by the list of things I saw yesterday morning, we'll be lucky if we make it out alive. I await the challenge. My liver, however, would be wise to prepare its defenses while it has the opportunity.

indianapolis vacation work

Friday, February 15 2008, 9:35 AM

Eeek! It's been a month since I last updated here. Time flies when you're ... alive. I guess.

I haven't really been up to all that much. I had a couple of pretty hairy weeks at work where I was called upon to help clean up messes that I did not create. This occured on multiple occasions, and because of which, I was pretty stressed out during those two weeks. Its been better recently though, so I can't complain a whole lot.

I recently picked up some new pickups for the Carvin, and I'm mighty pleased with how they sound so far. I bought a pre-assembled pickguard on eBay from a guitar store in Florida, and it came loaded with three Lace Sensor pickups. I had a Lace Sensor in the Carvin before the upgrade, and I always liked the way it sounded, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. I'll be updating the guitar page with the new details sometime relatively soon (read: before 2017), and I may post some sound clips for the axe handlers out there.

It seems like I also put some more work into refining the code of the old web site here a few weeks ago. I converted some of the code to handle data objects over to an object-oriented approach using classes, and it's reminded me how easy they can make things. Instead of having to write code each time I want to say, make a form to add new content or submit new comments, I can just call methods on the class object. A few calls to something like $ContentObject->setTitle('OMG Wheee!'); and a $ContentObject->commit(); sure as hell beats a bunch of SQL statements.

guitar siteupdates work

Tuesday, March 13 2007, 3:39 PM

The ending days of last week were a total pain for me. The reason is something that I would have never thought to be much of a pain for anyone - daylight savings time. I don't know if everyone was aware of the problems associated with the change, or that there was a change at all, but it was certainly a major annoyance for me. When George Dubyah moved the daylight savings time changeover up three weeks, that mandated that just about every computer in the land needed to be updated with new timekeeping parameters.

Lets just say that the software automated updates didn't work out as well as one might have hoped. We manage an entire fleet of linux environments at work (they number in the thousands), and nearly one quarter of them needed work to ensure that they changed over properly. Most of these issues resolved around stale /etc/localtime files. While all of the information in /usr/share/zoneinfo was correct and reflected the new DST changes, /etc/localtime was wrong, and that's what the system bases its timezone conversions on. That meant a lot of work to isolate and fix all the problem machines. We got it hammered out though, with much loss of sleep and overtime. It shouldn't have occured that way though.

It doesn't look like the saga of my broken receiver will end soon either. I called up to circuit city late last week, and inquired about the repair effort. They stated that it had just come back from the repair facility that day, and was available for pickup. When I went to pick it up, I was presented with a concept that was strange to me - the receiver wasn't broken. Not according to Circuit City's repair facility anyway. They gave it a clean bill of health, which didn't sit well with me. I know it was broken when it left my house.

I asked that one of their techs there assist me in running a few tests to make sure it was functioning properly. He grabbed one of their display model TVs and a DVD player, and some cabling. We hooked it up with what we had (using the composite input/oupts), and everything seemed to work fine, except the on-screen setup menu. I thought that was strange, but was in a hurry to head into work to continue dealing with the DST problems. The tech assured me that I could bring it back in if it was still broken.

Well, it was. My fatigue and lack of motivation kept me from testing things out fully until yesterday. When I first sent it in, I just noticed that things weren't working properly, and that I could hack around the issues by changing the input/output path through the receiver. I thought the repair techs would perform more testing to localize the issue, but it would seem that I was wrong. I spent a half hour or so mapping out the various input paths I used, and what the picture looked like on the various output paths. In all the various combinations, it seemed as though there was one common issue - S-Video. Nothing relating to S-Video works. All of the component and composite video works fine. Knowing that, it would seem feasible that the internal setup menu is somehow driven by an SVideo feed as well.

I took the receiver back in yesterday and provided a nice printed copy of my notes that I had taken, which outline exactly what works and what does not. If it comes back as OK after this, I'll be quite upset.

frustrations homeaudio linux onkyo-tx-sr603 work

Friday, August 25 2006, 1:22 AM

I guess I haven't been in much of a posting state of mind over the past few weeks juding by the lack of new words being shown around here. It happens. Some cool things have happened recently though, so I guess I could talk about them.

First, I got an office at work. There's no significant promotion or anything like that associated with it, but it is pretty damned cool. I got the office because it puts me in a position to share my experience with some of the newer guys while they work on servers, which was an area that was lacking beforehand. So that's good. It's also good that my office is pretty big, and it has a huge desk. I need to make it cooler still, but it's coming along. I have a few pictures in the gallery here.

Another cool thing is that my sister's boyfriend Jay sold me a nice quality TV. It's only a 24", but it has a beautiful picture, modern inputs, and it doesn't take 10 minutes to warm up like my previous TV. It's pretty nice to just be able to crash on the couch and watch something, even though I don't watch TV that much.

Third on the cool list is some cool musical acquistions. I picked up the new Lamb of God album, "Sacrament," on tuesday, and it kicks all kinds of ass. Lamb of God rocked hard before, but they've upped their game. I wouldn't say that they'd appeal to any metal fan because they have a somewhat prog-ish sound wth lots of rhythm changes, but I like it, and that's all that counts. Another sweet CD I picked up came at the recommendation of a guy from work - "In The Eyes of Fire" by Unearth. I hadn't heard any of their stuff before he lent me the CD, but I'll be hearing a lot more. They are a total powerhouse. Their guitarists play with a fury, alternating effortlessly between groove-laden riffs and frenetic melodies and solos. I've only had their CD for a day or so, but it's definitely one I'll be listening to for a long while.

lambofgod television unearth work

Saturday, August 05 2006, 11:54 PM

I'll leave you to figure out that acronym.

It's been a busy week and a half. I was up north from last thursday to sunday for the second half of my vacation, which was a lot of fun. It was kind of hectic, but that's expected due to all of the people around. Alex and I weathered a fierce thunderstorm just as we were coming out of Lansing, which made the first 45 minutes of the trip slow going. The light show was amazing though. We got up to the cottage thursday night around 1AM, only to find that everyone else had fallen asleep. Not exactly what we were expecting. So we made the best of it, and unpacked the beer we brought and headed out onto the beach to have a few under the stars. The seeing wasn't very clear due to the humidity, but it's still an amazing sight to see so many stars. I never get sick of it. Living around the city makes the sight that much more spectacular. We also saw what we're pretty certain was a display of the northern lights. We thought it was city-glow from Cheboygan at first, but it seemed too luminous and stretched way too far out over the lake. That belief was strengthened by our observation of 'tendrils' of light eminating from and receeding to the greater luminous 'mass.' It was pretty neat. We got pretty ripped just sitting out on the beach in lawn chairs and talking about this and that and eventually decided that we should just go all out and watch the sun come up over the lake. It took its sweet time, but it eventually came up around 6:30. A few cottage-dwellers had risen by then, and David came down to the beach to watch it with us. A sunrise over the lake is a beautiful sight to behold.

The rest of the weekend is more of a blur, but it involved a lot of lounging around due to the stifling heat and humidity. The lake felt great, but as soon as you would get out, the heat became unbearable. The biting flies were out in decent numbers as well due to a breeze out of the woods. The combination of these factors made for a lot of trips back and forth between the lake and the cottage, without much loitering in between - for me at least. There were a few games of horseshoes played, and for quite a while, I was pretty wretched. I found my stroke eventually, and started averaging points on every third throw or so.

When I got back to work on monday, it was like I hadn't left. Lots of stuff to do, pressing issues everywhere. Wednesday sucked especially due to the events outlined in my previous post. I planned on taking thursday off due to the long day on wednesday, but something started going haywire with my monitoring stuff that was actually crashing servers, so I had to head into work to squash the bug. I think I found it, which is good. My day off ended being yesterday, for the most part. I did end up going in to work later on, but it was for a much cooler purpose - cleaning out the room that will soon become my office! Whee! I guess that means I'm cool now. Between last night and earlier today, another guy and myself cleaned the office, taped everything off, and put on a few fresh coats of paint to brighten things up. I'll probably be able to move in sometime in the coming week, which is cool. It should give me a lot more peace and quiet and less interruption.

family upnorth vacation work

Thursday, August 03 2006, 6:17 AM

There are few things that make me more irate than having to pick up a dropped ball, and then deal with its consequences. This happened to me tonight (yesterday?), and kept me on shift for a solid 18 hours. A ball was dropped on me just as I was getting ready to leave work. To the ball-dropper's credit, he was trying to pick up the dropped ball as well, but the situation was only made worse. This was after the ball had been kicked around on the hot dirty ground for a week. Yes, a week. Because of this, our customer was completely irate, and I don't blame them one bit.

So, to all you potential ball droppers out there - listen up. DON'T DROP BALLS. If you do happen to drop the ball, PICK IT UP.

That is all.

Edit: I feel as if I misrepresented one thing during my frustrated rant. The person whom I recieved the dropped ball from didn't really drop it. He merely handed it off to me, but it was a completely unexpected and untimely hand off.

frustrations work

Monday, July 17 2006, 3:50 AM

It's been a while, so I'll bring everyone up to speed. I've had a busy last week, in my terms anyway. I had another eye checkup on tuesday, and it confirmed something I've been noticing over the past few weeks - my sight is getting foggy again. This time it's a membrane behind the new implanted lens that is starting to fog up. The pre-op videos and information packets mentioned that was a possible side-effect, so I can't say I'm surprised. They seemed to downplay the risk though. From what I could gather from Dr. Saxe's words and inflections, it was is less a question of 'if' it will be a side-effect, and more of 'when.' Well, I guess when is now. He seemed pretty optimistic that the haze could be blasted away with a simple five-minute laser procedure, but I've heard that before. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but it's kinda hard when everything they've done seems to have a short-term benefit, with a subsequent regression in the not-so-long term.

Wednesday and thursday I demonstrated once again that I have little regard for schedules, clocks, eating, or sleeping when I get started on a project and want to see it through. I put in 16 hours at work on wednesday, and another 14 on thursday. I can say that I accomplished phase one of my goals, which is good. Phase two, three, and whatever number I decide to count up to are stil quite distant in their completion, so hopefully I won't be tempted to do any marathon sessions. That's a good thing, since I was pretty much dead on friday, with a nasty headache I can only attribute to lack of sleep.

The weekend has been a good one though. Yesterday (saturday) I cleaned up the apartment some, and then went with Jon to see the Shadows Fall concert, which was located in Detroit's sweaty asshole - Harpos Concert Theater. More on that in a later post. Today my family and grandmothers came up for a belated birthday dinner and giftgiving. Much good steak was had by all. My parents surprised me with gifts, which I've stated more than once aren't really necessary for my birthdays anymore, but they brought them anyway. I can't say I'm disappointed though. They bought me a gas grill, all the various utensils to go with it, and a nice grilling tutorial/recipie book. I'm no ace in the kitchen, so I'll need all the help I can get. I've been meaning to get a grill since I moved out of vegetarian hell and into my own place, but my tendency to procrastinate won out once again. Mom and dad came though where I fell short though. Thanks mom and dad!

family righteye work

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