I replaced the Linux RAID config I was playing with to a standard, single-drive setup. I’ll just use it for backup. I’m going to explore hosting my domain from home….
If anyone sent a message to me yesterday, I ask that they try again. Some bogus email address with my domain got locked in a spam cycle. I had 1000 messages in my inbox as of yesterday. I just blew out the messages all together and blocked the offending username. All is good now.
My adventures into Linux software RAID were short lived. The box functioned as it should… except the hard drives had constant activity. Maybe too little memory, maybe not enough swap space, maybe just not ready for prime time.
I’m gunna try a different distro.
Wow. That creeped up quick, didn’t it. Things seem to be going well. I upgraded to a 8-port Gig switch to swap files around the house. I’m also in the process of building a Fedora Core 6 box for file serving. In fact I’m writing this message on it right now while I wait for it to download updates. It’s a poor old Celeron 733 with 256MB of ram… an old Micron FlexATX box. I threw in a Gig NIC for fun. This is my first journey into the world of Linux software RAID. I installed a couple of Western Digtial 320 GB EIDE drives, created “/”, “/boot”, and “/swap” in a RAID 1 config, and installed the OS. I’m going to use it to serve my 280+ GB music collection and use a Maxtor 300 GB USB external drive for backup. Now that I have my wireless link running exclusively on Linksys gear, I don’t have my dynamic DNS updating. This box will do that too. I might even go so far as to serve my website from home.
Speaking of websites… we had a few companies come in and quote a complete remake of the hospital’s website. Can we say $20,000 boys and girls? Ouch. I don’t think we’ll be going that way. I brought this little Micron in today and stuck it on one of the static IPs we have to see what type of speeds we could get by simply using our business grade DSL to serve the hospital’s website locally. I think it will work pretty well.
Too all my friends out there… have a Merry X-mas and a happy New Year!!!
Two days after I got my Blazer fixed, the damn thing started running shitty again. I’ve become quite the expert on taking off the EGR value. In five minutes I had the damn thing out and sure enough, a big piece of shit was holding the value open. By chance my dad went with the local junkyard owner to an auction. While he was there he picked a used EGR value. I blew out the intake manifold and let the damn thing run for a few minutes without the EGR value on it at all. I installed the different EGR value and it is running fine. I took some pictures of the old EGR value. I left the damn hunk of crap in it to show my wife. I don’t think the pics came out real well on the count of the shiny & black EGR value.
I’m wrapping up a contact/department directory at work. I also started designing my next application. Below is a screenshot. (Click to enlarge)
I’ve only been at my new job for half a year but people are very happy with my demeanor and the way I help people with their computer type problems. I was surprised and happy to receive a 100 dollar bill and a framed certificate. It makes me feel like I’m doing a good job and that organization likes me.
My POS ‘95 Blazer started acting up again. It blew a water pump gasket and the EGR value was stuck open with a hunk of carbon about the size of a kernel of corn. I threatened the damn thing and told it I was going to sell it before I knew exactly what was wrong with it. I told it that if it doesn’t give me an easy fix, I’m selling it. I had it fixed in an hour.
I ordered X-mas presents for my boy today. He’ll have a good X-mas.
We have a 250 person LAN coming up in Lansing on December 30th. It will be the largest LAN I’ve been to in about 3 years. I hope to have a good time.