Apple’s new OS Leopard has a new icon representing a PC. When small it looks like a CRT monitor with a blue background. However when I hit get info on my Samba powered Linux box I see this:
Yup you guessed it… a classic BSOD.
IMAP finally comes to Google. Yay! I hated having my email “downloaded” to my iPhone and not being in sync with my gmail account. This is finally taken care of.
Glad that Google caught on to using IMAP. Enable your IMAP today by going to your gmail settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP and then click enable IMAP.
I mentioned in my last post that I procured 4x 500GB at a very good price. The intention the entire time was to build a cost effective but reliable NAS in order to store my various files centrally instead of a copy on the iMac, a copy on the laptop and another copy elsewhere. Not to mention that all these systems only had one hard drive, meaning one single failure could wipe out some of my data (with exception to the iMac which has a 250gb firewire drive to which it syncs data every night with my own little written rsync script).
There are some software solutions that have been released that purely focus on the ability to quickly create a NAS. I had simple requirements. I needed Samba for my Windows based laptops, NFS for my Linux workstation and AFP for the Macs. FreeNAS was the first thing that came to my mind. Openfiler was out, one because it hadn’t been developed in over a year (doesn’t show developer commitment in my mind then) and NAS lite required you to have a hardware RAID controller. While ideally that would’ve been the nicest, there are some software solutions that do a very well job. Unfortunately FreeNAS was not reliable. The latest RC missed a ata.timeout flag, which caused my disks to get “detached” because the spinup too longer then my 5 seconds. I tried the beta which did include this functionality but after the loads were without any clear reason why at 2.x - 3.x and my file transfers were moving like molasses, I rebooted the machine. It never came back up. The restart process literally damaged the software based RAID. At this point I let the idea rest for 3 days until I decided that I didn’t need a dedicated NAS solution/package to get my NAS to work. I have enough experience now to get my own machine together and it’ll be exactly what I want.
My current job requires me to use Red Hat and Solaris. Both are very well developed operating systems (I’m even going to a Solaris training camp in December paid by my work) but they aren’t my choice of operating system. My last employment had me use Debian and I really like how Debian works and is setup. DEB packages are fantastic and aptitude (apt-get previously) makes it even better. It is, in my opinion, years ahead of RPMs and the Yum software. So I downloaded the 140MB Debian 4.0 Netinst CD and I was on my way to getting Debian rolled onto my old desktop.
Just another day at my new job. This is the type of stuff I missed doing at McGraw-Hill. How often can you say that you load HP DL365 G1s in the back of your car.
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So here is the new and improved office layout until I tidy it up in the weekend (it seriously needs some tidying and perhaps a new desk).
Well I did something this weekend that I haven’t done in almost 4 years…. and that is build a computer. It all started last week when a colleague at work offered an incredible deal on 4x 500GB enterprise class hard drives for only $120. It was the kind of don’t ask where they came from type offer. My plan: to use an old computer in my closet and get FreeNAS installed. On Thursday night I bought a PCI based SATA controller at Fry’s with 2 ports on it as the motherboard already had two and this is where my crazyness started. The cheapo card would bring FreeNAS, a FreeBSD based NAS solution, to a screeching halt. At this point I had 3 options:
1. Get SATA to PATA converters so two of my drives are seen as PATA drives ($50)
2. Attempt to find a decent PCI 32bit / 33Mhz card ($180)
3. Use my current PC as NAS and build a new computer as its 4 years old and needs replacing ($500)
You can only imagine what I did. I chose #3. My PC was getting 4 years old and I definitely noticed when I tried to play the first computer game in a year about 3 months ago on it (Command & Conquer 3). Not a good thing for a computer nerd. Plus the idea is that this PC will last me at least another 4 years. I thought the craziness ended there until I went to Costco and saw a Samsung 216BW on display for $259.99. Somehow that ended up in my giant cart.
Thank god Christmas is still 2 months away so I can recover from this :-).
This was part of Bill Maher’s new rules tonight on his show Real Time on HBO.
“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell
Bill’s reply:
“doubt for lack of a better word is good. it suites human nature. doubt is what makes you care for. doubt is what makes you open to change.” - Bill Maher
Oh so true.
Last Monday (August 27th) I started my new job at Classmates.com coming on board as a sys admin there. I liked working at McGraw-Hill but realized that there is no way up for me unless I want to move out of state to places like Columbus, Ohio or Heightstown, New Jersey. Doesn’t sound very appealing to me. My new job has a whopping 7 minute commute, down from an average 45-50 minute commute. My car will probably be very happy with me. The job does come with a bump in pay and a very healthy benefits package. My last act at my old job was getting in touch with my, then, previous employer (now previous to my previous job) and getting a line of communication started for them to host; kind of ironic.
The way I figure, if I’m going to be switching jobs I better switch up, however I also need to stay on board somewhere for 4-5 years, I just couldn’t see myself doing that at McGraw-Hill unless I wanted to move up north.
Yvo
By no means am I financial analyst or economist, the only background I have is setting new records in fake stocks in my economics class when I was in high school (everyone started out with 75,000 in “fake money” and I ended the quarter with over 2 million in cash). I always find it funny when I see stories regarding the slight decline of Apple stock like this, this or this story. Yesterday Steve decided to cut $200 off of the 2 month old iPhone. Nothing very typical regarding cell phones (The Moto RAZR was introduced at $400, and you can now get buy one get one free offer on a much later and less buggier revision), Apple users got upset (ugh… some people just don’t understand that there is always this type of risk when you buy technology) and the stock dipped.
I’d rather own Apple stock then say… Dell stock… Here is a nice 5 yr comparison with Apple’s stock splitting once in Feb 05 and Dell’s stock being splitless the entire time:
I think yesterday’s dip and today’s dip can partially be explained by the iPhone cut but I also think its the rich people getting richer by selling at a high point and re-entering the market (buying back) at a lower point 24-48 hours later.
I jumped on the iPhone band wagon thanks to Cam. Apple gave her a free iPhone and she gave it to me with the promise that I’ll cover some of her laptop that she is planning to buy in the next 6 months. I think thats a fair trade.
So now I’m looking forward (sarcasm) to two giant bills, one from Sprint for cancelling and another from Cing… err at&t for joining.
The phone itself is great, yet lacks a few features that I hope they will add over the next few months. I mean if they are trying to combine three devices into one, at least do a job… right? The phone app is remarkably stable, but Safari and the iPod app… they need some tweakin’.
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