tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-110132122011-10-12T14:18:08.307-04:00Michael Oland's running blog on technology and life as a tech-addicted 30 something.uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.comBlogger611100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-89640780564093233442011-07-09T10:09:00.001-04:002011-07-09T10:09:22.362-04:00

So back in May I ordered a new mobile phone.  As much as I liked my old iPhone 3G, it was getting to be a little long in the tooth.  It worked, but was a bit on the goofy side when I tried to do certain things.  Plus, there was a bit of screw you AT&T for trying to buy T-Mobile in my choice.  I ended up with the Nexus S.  While I personally am new to the Android world, my other half has been in

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09538830736702476268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-84392937059325191572011-05-04T11:36:00.001-04:002011-05-04T11:36:42.599-04:00

Last fall I spent 3 weeks in Costa Mesa helping write the updated IBM FileNet P8 Platform and Architecture Redbook.  It’s finally done and posted (or more specifically it was posted about 3 weeks ago and I missed it.  Here’s a link: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg247667.html?Open

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09538830736702476268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-5515811066222057622011-05-01T09:40:00.001-04:002011-05-01T09:42:46.508-04:00

I finally broke down and switched mobile phones this week. I had been using an iPhone 3G (bought new and unlocked at duty free in the Rome airport) on T-Mobile. While not perfect it was a quite serviceable little phone, even though I could only use EDGE speeds for mobile broadband, not the 3G my wife's Android-based G1 used. For two years, the iPhone was exactly what I had wanted and was a joy

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09538830736702476268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-67709584434276464182011-04-15T00:15:00.001-04:002011-05-04T11:37:25.278-04:00

For those of you who missed my last post, I decided to take the old michaelandfelicia.com and convert it from a long disused home for our pictures and make it more of a life stream or aggregation of all our other social networking sites and blogs. What made this an interesting project was that I was able to pull out of mothballs my old FileNet WCM / eGrail virtual machine. It ended up being a

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09538830736702476268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-63636826383258745952011-03-28T01:22:00.001-04:002011-03-28T01:25:03.565-04:00

In an ongoing effort to keep both friends and people who don't really care up to date with what I and the family have been up to lately, I decided to take my wife and my website, michaelandfelicia.com, and turn it from a place were four year old content went to die and make it a one stop shop for following us and our life. Frankly, I would have liked to have used FriendFeed with a custom URL for

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09538830736702476268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-51798165095246793062011-03-12T12:54:00.001-05:002011-03-14T13:28:43.365-04:00

I hate it. I really hate it, but after seven years with Speakeasy as my primary Internet provided, I ended up having to switch to Comcast. There was just something increasingly wrong with my old POTS-based DSL line. When I first moved into the new house, I was getting a solid and very reliable 5.1 or 5.2 Mbps. While not the best, it was sufficient for my home office and enough to reliably do

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09538830736702476268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-12528904710559860372010-09-19T23:33:00.001-04:002010-09-19T23:33:36.394-04:00

So, in what appears to be an annual event, I’ve had to rebuild Mindy yet again.  This time it wasn’t a complete hardware failure that caused the refresh, though there was a minor hardware problem involved.  Turns out when I rebuilt her last year, I had picked up three Western Digital WD1001FAYS 1Tb hard drives to uses as part of the RAID configuration.  Unfortunately, those are desktop drives and

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-85533212434089049752010-03-15T22:54:00.001-04:002010-03-15T22:54:59.872-04:00

Was checking my newsfeeds on Sunday and happened to see that Newegg was selling a Silicon Dust HD HomeRun networked digital TV tuner for $75 (or $25 off the regular price).  I’ve been thinking of getting one of these for quite some time, so … what the heck, right? For those of you not familiar, the HD HomeRun is just a simple TV tuner that connects to your home network.  Then, with the right

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-5651648092974633652010-01-03T00:44:00.001-05:002010-01-03T00:44:32.946-05:00

For at least the past 5 years (and maybe more, I’ve kinda lost track), there’s been speculation that Apple will release a tablet-based computing device.  Each year, the pundits and everyone else take their time to pontificate and or pass on the latest inside information saying that the tablet is nigh. This last year was no exception.  Everywhere I looked, people were thinking it was coming soon

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-63376407820986624772009-06-26T10:03:00.001-04:002009-06-26T10:14:12.837-04:00

This is the first post in what I think may be a series of security snake oil e-mails and ideas that are forwarded my way. However, before reading this, know that the best way to handle your computer security is outlined here; Just received this forward on how to "protect" your e-mail address book from worms: How to protect your e-mail address book: A computer repairman says this is like having

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-64942048081228120652009-06-26T09:54:00.001-04:002009-06-26T09:54:12.531-04:00

I've seen a number of e-mails from friends and family talking about different ways to handle computer security and to ward off bad things. Almost every time what's recommended in these e-mails or articles won't help or are of at best dubious benefit. Instead of this snake oil, there are a number of things that you can do to keep your system safe. In fact, for the longest time, I didn't even use

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-66467550158634148472009-06-15T12:30:00.000-04:002009-06-15T12:31:08.296-04:00

So, about a two weeks ago now my server computer, named Mindy (named for the Animaniacs character), decided that it was too hot to work and died. Well, at least sort of died. When I got back from a trip, she was no longer responding to pings and when I tried to reboot her, she would power down after about 20-30 seconds. Best as I can tell, I have a temperature management failure on either the

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-50397701861696845992009-05-14T21:45:00.001-04:002009-05-14T21:45:53.548-04:00

I've started playing with Google's Chrome bwser. At first, I thought it was mostly a toy and not a good replacement for my trusty Firefox. However, the funniest thing has happened. I've started to grow to like it. Screenshot: Why do I like it? Well, there's no one compelling reason that I can point to that makes me choose it. Instead, it's a small number of little things. I think the biggest

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-39571099523353498272009-05-14T21:25:00.001-04:002009-05-14T21:25:15.835-04:00

So, something really interesting happened to me the other day. My wife and I were pondering which fridge to get to replace our then dead Frigidare. A couple of trips to Home Depot and Best Buy, plus plenty of web surfing later, I had settled on two: a Kenmore (Whirlpool/Frigidare/whatever) and an LG side-by-side. Both were about the same price and both were comparable in size. However, on

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-55459873999157998402009-05-12T00:12:00.004-04:002009-05-12T00:14:56.351-04:00

In playing more with Google Apps, I just discovered that you can use custom subdomain names for accessing services such as mail, documents and calendar. It's just a matter of logging into the Google Apps domain console -> Service Settings -> Service and under the General tab, clicking change URL under the web address. Once you have your address set, you'll need to add a CNAME to your account (

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-92043497703788371952009-05-07T08:37:00.001-04:002009-05-08T01:08:09.787-04:00

So, it's been one of those weeks here at the new house. Well, I guess the problems really started last week when the temperatures in DC hit 94F (34c) for about 3 days in a row. Those days revealed how warm the upstairs in our 1913 row house could get and really meant we had insufficient insulation in the attic.On Saturday, then, I finally climbed up to the attic to survey the situation. And yes,

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-67722698788857575052009-05-03T13:10:00.001-04:002009-05-08T01:09:49.321-04:00

So, I've been playing for the past week or so with consolidating and rearranging my domain names into a more cohesive set of services that Feli and I can use for e-mail, hosting and calendar sharing. Up to now, I've been using Speakeasy for my hosting and e-mail (as well as my DSL service). I've been rather happy with the, but the lack of a good calendaring service (and just needing to decide

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-28767081469059861262009-04-22T13:25:00.001-04:002009-04-22T13:25:24.053-04:00

The new windows are in and they look great. So far, I'm quite happy.

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-79908069628317019682009-04-22T08:54:00.001-04:002009-04-22T08:54:13.131-04:00

Not to worry, they're just where the old aluminum windows used to be. We have new windows being installed today (for Earth Day as it were). Hopefully the new ones will be quieter and more energy efficient (they're vinyl) than before. I'll post more pictures as the windows are installed.

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-68502272518747385102009-04-17T09:56:00.001-04:002009-04-17T09:56:21.070-04:00

It's taken a bit of doing, but I finally own the first page of search results for Michael Oland. Well, almost that is. There's apparently a Michael Oland in Halifax that seems to own the first result (his Facebook page), but other than that, It's almost all me.

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-82896312034562819512009-04-04T13:22:00.001-04:002009-04-04T13:22:24.121-04:00

So, I have four domains (http://www.uthanda.com/, http://www.michaelandfelicia.com/, http://www.michaeloland.com/, and http://www.feliciaciupeoland.com/ ). Each has served its purpose over the years, but now I need to decide what's next for them. I've been toying with building a FriendFeed-esque aggregator of all my online activities for one (and maybe I'll build a second for my "work/

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-45990424284537572962009-03-26T00:39:00.001-04:002009-03-26T00:39:49.346-04:00

So, I've lived with the Lenovo Ideapad S10 for about a month and I've just fallen in love with it. It's been nice to have on my month long trip to California. Now, I have a laptop that I can use to handle e-mail and personal stuff while leaving the work computer for what it's for: work. The size of the laptop is still a bit of an issue. I wouldn't want to write a novel on it, but for short

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-9272331797795554552009-03-24T01:21:00.001-04:002009-03-24T01:21:26.314-04:00

So, while in Europe, Feli and I ran into a couple from Australia (via New Hampshire). We chatted for a while, snapped a couple of pictures for each other (hey, when you have someone trustworthy, you want to take advantage of that). In the end, I found out that the husband is connected to the Dartmouth Computer Science program and works with a professor that's also an ex-IBM'er. Anyway, since I've

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-28118422271460819602009-03-01T20:04:00.001-05:002009-03-01T20:04:20.484-05:00

It's snowing here in DC, a real snowstorm (they're saying 5-9" of snow). See below pictures of the snowstorm:

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-34738825179275083852009-03-01T12:30:00.001-05:002009-03-01T14:40:50.210-05:00

So, I bought a new netbook the other day (a Lenovo Ideapad S10 if you're curious). And so far I really like it. It's just the right size to carry around and will make a great travelling companion. However, I'm starting to realize that the true purpose of one of these netbooks is a bit lost on me. I think the real purpose is that of a Facebook or Twitter companion for the digerati technoratti and

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-44485541501502249132009-02-25T22:53:00.001-05:002009-02-25T22:53:18.099-05:00

Just bought me a new toy. Well, it's a toy with a real purpose(ish). Picked up a Lenovo Ideapad S10 subnotebook or "netbook" as they're now called. Feli and I plan on using it for our travels and when just messing around town. It has a 160Gb HDD (or more than enough for our movies and pictures) and is about 2.2 pounds, a perfect companion for our cameras. It's a bit small for touch typing (you're

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-62212452267650078292008-11-24T23:21:00.001-05:002008-11-24T23:24:09.643-05:00

A quick tour or our new house (or at least soon to be new house). Of course, I would be remiss without a Quicktime H.264 version of the video.

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-62881145892002949512008-11-07T08:27:00.004-05:002008-11-07T08:37:40.466-05:00

A video review of our summer. Of course, I would be remiss without a Quicktime H.264 version of the video.

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-32524410617386112982008-11-06T22:21:00.007-05:002008-11-07T08:38:54.313-05:00

A short video review of our trip to Munich, Nuremberg and Berlin. And for the Mac or Apple people in the crowd, I have a Quicktime H.264 version of the video.

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-3211515563910459422008-07-03T11:18:00.001-04:002008-07-03T11:18:37.953-04:00

Just wanted to give everyone a quick heads up on using CD sticky labels. I created a series of DVDs about 3 years ago with some converted video. I then took the time to create labels for these DVDs using the aformentioned CD labels. Now, 3 years later, I'm trying to make backup copies of the DVDs, but so far, no DVD drive I have will completely read the discs. Of the 8 I have to copy, so far I've

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-92229642515264300172008-06-08T08:52:00.003-04:002008-06-08T08:58:51.481-04:00

With gas prices now averaging over $4 per gallon for the first time, people are starting to look at ways to handle this. CNN recently listed 6 ideas on how to reduce the price of gas. The ways included the following: Suspend the gas tax Tax the oil companies and give the money back to consumers Limit oil speculation Unfortunately, each of these attack the wrong end of the equation. By not

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-8097026595780607272008-06-08T08:46:00.002-04:002008-06-08T08:49:33.063-04:00

Well, it's finally here. According to CNN, gas prices finally hit the $4/gal average. I can't wait to hear all the SUV drivers whining as I drive by in my 40-45mpg Golf (or even better walk my them or ride by on the bus)

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-28527789663122558452008-05-29T23:38:00.005-04:002008-05-30T16:31:47.000-04:00

So, I got a new toy delivered by FedEx today: the Netflix Player by Roku. For those that haven't heard of it, it's a device that delivers Netflix streaming content directly to your TV. Finally, there's a good way to see the Play it Now content from Netflix in the living room. From the short time I've used it already, it seems to be a nice device. The unit itself is a bit lighter than I would

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-4583861485097096582008-05-29T09:18:00.001-04:002008-05-29T09:18:59.089-04:00

Quick whine for the day: I'm sick and tired of hearing about Michigan and Florida and the DNC delegates. To me, this whole thing is emblematic of the Democrats. The rules were set, Florida and Michigan broke the rules and now they're whining to not be punished as they were promised. I believe that in the end, the DNC will back away from their promise because it's politically expedient for them

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-85471541861832108812008-05-28T16:00:00.001-04:002008-05-28T16:00:44.979-04:00

Just found this article on BusinessWeek that points out a good way to decrease our pollution from automobile traffic is to make them not necessary. The best way to do this is increase the development of infill housing and mixed-use construction. See: Cities: A Smart Alternative to Cars Via: the Greater Greater Washington blog

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-48208376342992458122008-05-22T15:00:00.001-04:002008-05-22T15:05:12.626-04:00

I tend to be loyal to companies that have treated me well in the past. One of those companies is Nikon. Over the years I've collected a decent amount of Nikon products. A couple of weeks ago Feli and I purchased a new D300 (which is a great camera, BTW). Today I decided to place all my Nikon equipment together just to see what it looks like. And when I did that, I figured I'd take a picture. Of

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-37492272083578918592008-05-21T08:57:00.001-04:002008-05-21T09:02:28.165-04:00

Ok, so I've found yet another new toy to pick up (when will it end?). Netflix currently offers a streaming service for subscribers. It offers access to a growing number of movies and TV shows. The biggest limitation with the service to date has been its reliance on a computer for viewing. Or more specifically, it requires a Windows computer to view the content. While I haven't really been paying

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-74658879607989927752008-05-16T13:35:00.001-04:002008-05-16T13:36:49.054-04:00

Pretty cool music video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6kxDxLAjkO8

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-73037963048928113732008-05-16T10:15:00.001-04:002008-05-16T10:15:10.559-04:00

Quick link for the day. I've started using Zoundry Raven as my blogging tool of choice. It's free (or a zero Alex pick if you will) and seems to work rather well at least with Blogger. Let me know if you're using it and what you think.

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-25138323124655302012008-05-16T10:08:00.001-04:002008-05-16T10:11:36.145-04:00

So a while back I had a yearly review with my boss. You know those meetings, the sometimes useful, sometimes not meetings where you discuss your future with your immediate supervisor. In my case, it was a very useful meeting (as have most of mine because of the succession of really good bosses I've had over the years). The primary takeaway from the meeting was that I need to work on my

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-46254801718492385012008-05-13T23:06:00.001-04:002008-05-13T23:06:52.442-04:00

Just thinking back to when I was first learning to edit video. A simple 3 minute video could take a couple of days (especially if the footage was spread over a number of tapes). I remember spending a whole weekend working on editing a simple video for the youth group I was a part of. Today, by comparison, I was able to edit a 3:30 video in about 40 minutes. In HD no less. With titles. And

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-92080094347259004262008-05-01T15:43:00.001-04:002008-05-01T15:43:55.186-04:00

Sorry all. Gotta whine for just a second. There's currently a debate here about dropping the gasoline tax for the summer. McCain and Clinton both support it and Obama is against. Let me put in my 2 cents worth. The only long term solution we have for solving the energy problem in this country is to drive less and when we drive be more efficient about it. Dropping the tax won't help this and in

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-69697638447067813422008-05-01T14:06:00.001-04:002008-05-01T14:06:57.715-04:00

An interesting article in the Washington Post describing readers experiences in the city and the suburbs. The interesting thing it found is that despite living near the suburban ammenities, the residents were too busy stuck in traffic and dealing with life to enjoy them. On the other hand, the DC'ites didn't have quite the libraries or schools of our suburban bretheren, but we have time to enjoy

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-66946963756364635862008-04-26T22:47:00.001-04:002008-04-26T22:47:07.153-04:00

I was thinking earlier about some of the random things I've leared about editing down video from trips that people seem to enjoy. So, I figured I'd try and distill them down to something that may be helpful: 1. Good videos start when shooting This may sound a bit obvious, but if you get bad video to start with, you end up with bad video to finish. When you start recording something, be sure to

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-61371321212581517912008-04-24T16:57:00.001-04:002008-04-24T16:57:31.040-04:00

Oh, here's my real quick whine for the day. I really can't stand how random Windows programs can just jump up and take control of your desktop withou ... wait, excuse me Windows wants my attention ... as I was saying, grab control from the current application. For example, I was trying to open a number of connections to multiple systems using Remote Desktop. However, each time something happened

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-50835481455976025842008-04-23T11:33:00.001-04:002008-04-23T11:33:28.372-04:00

Via digg, it's a clock that spells out the name of the hour using 150 analog hands. http://www.christiaanpostma.nl/clock_3.htm

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-42621596999647824112008-04-22T15:05:00.001-04:002008-04-22T15:05:21.775-04:00

From Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/04/22/at-safeco-field-your-ds-can-order-beer-go-mariners

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-42625515228457603042008-04-22T14:29:00.001-04:002008-04-22T14:29:39.104-04:00

I have a problem. I admit it, but don't really like it. I have this really bad tendancy to leave an e-mail in my inbox that I should reply to and then never reply. The longer it stays in the inbox, the more I know I should reply but don't. After a while, it gets to the point where it just laughs at me every time I check my e-mail. So for all you out there (my brother-in-law specifically ... sorry

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-61868327588049977642008-04-17T22:47:00.001-04:002008-04-17T22:47:42.510-04:00

Ok, so I'm late again to the party ... This time it's Twitter, the microblogging, Web 2.0, whatever it is. My wife and I are both on there and she's dragging all her friends in there too. So now I get a constant stream of what's going on from tech-celebs and my friends a like. Follow me if you want @uthanda. :)

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-2627024049578608262008-03-18T09:36:00.002-04:002008-03-18T09:38:19.669-04:00

Ok, so I'm late to the party (but hey, what's new). Just listened to Jonathan Coulton's Code Monkey for the first time. It's great, but a bit too close to home. Sigh. Code Monkey gonna work now.

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-52231032460060928022008-03-03T10:28:00.001-05:002008-03-03T10:34:05.890-05:00

So, my old iPod Mini finally bit the dust (or in my case, took a flying header off my backpack to the hard concrete). Needless to say, it's now not coming back up. So ... I've been thinking for a while about whether an iPod Touch was worth the money, especially since the new 32Gb models were released. However, each time I looked at it and thought about it, I couldn't justify the money, as my

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-48346824225708440722008-02-29T09:43:00.001-05:002008-02-29T09:44:41.611-05:00

Now I'm seeing a real interesting problem. The clock on the local system is drifting. In fact, it's running really slow (lost 6 hours in the past week or so). I'm kind of wondering if that's the issue here. Must investigate more.

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-43190534476727358662008-02-26T10:05:00.001-05:002008-02-26T10:05:15.012-05:00

It's now looking like there's something more fundamentally wrong with the system.  Just tried copying 2Gb of files from my old HP (with a 100Mbit connection) to the base system with a 1Gb connection.  The 1Gb connection on Mindy took longer.  That shouldn't be the case.  Need to spend some time with the base system doing performance profiling to confirm what I'm thinking ... that I have a

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-53172450072963963212008-02-22T12:41:00.002-05:002008-02-22T12:43:27.275-05:00

So, I'm getting closer, but still not there. I'm still seeing I/O performance problems. They tend to manifest themselves in alternating bursts of speed and slowness. I can transfer a 2Gb movie in about 8 minutes, which isn't bad, but it seems to move in jumps, so something still isn't right. Guess I need to make a couple of posts on the VMware community and 3ware sites.

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-18355303197070246742008-02-18T21:46:00.001-05:002008-02-18T21:46:09.443-05:00

Ok, so I've only been playing with Mindy for about 24 hours, but this build is looking a bit more promising. Right now, I'm copying files to my file server, listening to music off my Roku (also from the same VM) and importing CD audio on a second and nothing seems to be bogging down like before. I still don't seem to get the write performance that I would want from the network. It still seems to

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-13318150568481171852008-02-17T16:34:00.001-05:002008-02-17T16:37:41.054-05:00

Found a new favorite band (at least for now).  Tremolo is a band featuring Justin Dillon (and others, though he's the one I know) from the old Dimestore Prophets from the late 90s.  Well the new album Love is the Greatest Revenge is available on iTunes and eMusic (where I got it).  The album's growing on me and I'd tell everyone who knows DSP and / or likes good alterative-pop/rock/singersongwrit

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-17469575679785305902008-02-17T16:05:00.001-05:002008-02-17T16:05:16.321-05:00

So, all my changes so far haven't resulted in a stable system. Well, stable yes, but performing ... absolutely not. Now that I'm back from my business trip, it's time to try again. This time I had planned on using Ubuntu 6.06.2 LTS amd64 as it's supported (officially) by both the 3ware card and VMware Server. However, that seemed to not like something about my configuration. All I got was a hang

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-9132765109298072172008-02-09T11:29:00.000-05:002008-02-09T11:32:29.579-05:00

No, not that kind of clock problem. I just finished rebooting Mindy with the "nohz=off" kernel setting and that appears to have solved at least 75% of my problem. I can now play music with my Roku, copy data to the server, download a Podcast on iTunes and still hear basically unbroken audio notifications from my WinXP virtual machine over Remote Desktop. (Granted I have gigabit ethernet), but

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-42997944265764630062008-02-08T15:19:00.001-05:002008-02-08T15:23:15.628-05:00

So, I guess I was wrong. Turns out the issue wasn't what I thought it was. It appears that it may be unrelated to the 3ware card after all. Brought everything back up this morning and I was still seeing the problem (sigh). So, I dug into the VMware community forums (gotta live the whole interweb community thing) and found this thread: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/109891?tstart=30

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-49277349512363116152008-02-08T00:09:00.001-05:002008-02-08T00:11:49.699-05:00

So, I set about this weekend doing a long-needed upgrade to Mindy ... She was given the gift of 3ware 9650SE 8-port SATA-II RAID card 2 additional 500Gb Seagate Barracuda drives (well 1 for now, the other still contains my backup) Replacing OpenSUSE 10.2 32bit with Ubuntu Server 7.10 64bitNow, I picked the 3ware card because of the good reviews and good support for Linux. Also, I was looking

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11013212.post-62175143026553279602008-02-07T23:40:00.001-05:002008-02-07T23:45:14.883-05:00

So, meet Mindy. She's my VMware Server host that's become the cornerstone of my digital office / media / life. I started building her about a year ago after having a couple near hard drive failures on my older systems (morella, ultra60, firewall and plumb). Also, at about the same time, VMware started giving away their VMware Server product, so I started thinking seriously about server

uthandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05965028341725075870noreply@blogger.com0