Watchdog

I need to figure out how to setup a watchdog timer on my linux systems.

While Ginny and I were out on a mini-vacation this weekend … gondor, my main web server, went weird on me.

It would respond to pings … but none of the servers would respond. I could telnet into the specific port, and it would connect, but the server itself would not respond.

So we cut our vacation a little short and came home (Gondor is kind of important) … when I looked at the system it wasn’t locked up (which I didn’t expect, because it still responded to some things), but it wasn’t doing anything.

Nothing serious was showing up on syslog, but the system was still hung up.

I ran a bunch of diagnostics, which didn’t indicate any problems… so I’m pretty much at a loss. Diagnostics were run on memory, the main-board, and the hard drives. I should note that one of the hard drives is making an odd whining noise … which indicates to me a potential problem … but the diagnostics didn’t indicate a problem.

Once I can figure out how to get a watchdog running, if the system goes weird on me again, it will at reboot itself. Not a prefect solution, but workable until I can figure out what is going wrong.

[tags]Linux, hardware, diagnostics, Dell, watchdog[/tags]

Windows Install Complete

Well, the window installation is complete.

In general, I’m quite pleased. The windows are exactly what we wanted … very sold, very secure, and they look pretty good too.

It took a little longer than originally promised, but that was because the installers were using power tools and it started to rain on Friday. They came on Tuesday and completed the job.

I only have two real gripes …

  1. They put a half inch quarter round trim piece on on the inside of the windows … which makes it almost impossible to reinstall the old blinds the way they were. I kind of knew this was going to happen, but I think there should have been a way to put a trim piece up without making re-installation of the blinds difficult.
  2. I was a little annoyed when the installation coordinator didn’t return my call when I needed to change the credit card, but she was able to void the original charge and resubmit on the correct card.

The installers were absolutely the best … a father & son team. Both from Poland. The father didn’t speak a lot of english, but his son was easy to interact with. They installed the windows neatly and securely. They even helped out when I was trying to figure out a way to remount the window blinds. When they were done with the interior, they cleaned up better than our cleaning service.
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FISA and Bush

I guess justice isn’t blind after all …

A federal judge ruled today that the government’s warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

– Judge orders end to NSA wiretapping — Baltimore Sun

In her ruling, Judge Diggs states:

“In this case, the President has acted, undisputedly, as FISA forbids. FISA is the expressed statutory policy of our Congress. The presidential power, therefore, was exercised at its lowest ebb and cannot be sustained.”

[tags]FISA, spying, easedropping, bush, national security[/tags]

Brookfield Zoo

Well, as you can probably guess, Ginny and I went to the Brookfield Zoo today. It was a really nice day … not too hot, a bit cloudy (but not too bad).

Of course, one of the major reasons I wanted to go was to work with my new camera some more. It’s fairly different than the old one and I still need to get used to it.

One of the things I really wanted to check out is the frame rate (number of frames you can shoot in a second). Now it’s not entirely normal to refer to a frame rate for a SLR cameras, but in this case it’s applies. Actually, the proper term is probably ‘Drive mode’. As I have mentioned before, the frame rate on my old camera was quite low … 3 frames per second with a 4 frame buffer. The frame rate on the new camera is quite nice … as illustrated with this picture of a dolphin jumping out of the water. I was able to set the film on it’s fastest drive mode with the auto-focus in “AI Servo” mode (which means the auto-focus is constantly adjusting itself instead of trying to determine if the subject is moving), and I was able to catch a LOT of action.

I had to increase the light levels on the dolphin pictures, as I was using a pretty fast shutter speed, and the light in the “Seven Seas” exhibit was kind of low, but I’m pretty pleased with the result.

[tags]Zoo, Brookfield, dolphin, Canon 30D[/tags]

Phishing Response

Today … like most days … I received phishing spam … nothing new about that.

Just out of idle curiosity, I clicked on the link they indicated (a bogus E*Trade site) to see what it looked like … this is a screen shot of what I saw …

afraid-org-banned-user.jpg

I have to tip my hat to Joshua Anderson, who runs afraid.org … his response to the phishing attempt was absolutely the best thing that could be done.

I wish other service providers responded in similar fashion.

[tags]phishing, spam, security, isp, tos[/tags]

M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night ShyamalanIf M. Night Shyamalan wanted to really freak people out … he should make a movie with a totally predictable plot.

People would constantly be looking for hidden meaning in each plot point … which won’t be there.

Maybe he should throw in a few red herrings … plot points that are just coincidence.

[tags]Movies, Shyamalan[/tags]

I Hate CostCo

Ok, maybe ‘Hate’ is too strong a word.

Dislike, maybe … prefer to avoid, yeah, that’s pretty close.

Mind you … I don’t hate the generally poor layout of the store, nor do I hate the fact that non-name-brand merchandise is generally garbage … I don’t even dislike the throngs of people who, while pushing a huge cart down the isle, stop (in the middle of the isle) to chat with someone.

What I don’t like about CostCo is the checkout lanes … and the fact that, on any given weekend, there is just not enough of them open.

Today I went into the Schaumburg CostCo to purchase three things. Toilet paper, A copy of Photoshop Elements 4, and maybe a portable dock-able speaker unit for Ginny’s iPod. I found what I was looking for within 10 minutes.

As I was wandering down to the checkout lanes … I realized that I would be there another 30 minutes just standing in line. I also noticed that they had at least FIVE unmanned checkout lanes (that didn’t include the two that were practically buried under junk).

Maybe I’ll stop by tomorrow on my way from work.

[tags]costco, rants, stores, crowds[/tags]

Beat the Heat

In your house, is the upstairs hot while the downstairs pretty cool?

This is the case at our house … but Ginny and I have found a pretty nifty way to help alleviate the problem.

I had a small Vornado fan at my office … but haven’t used it in a while (the new office is much cooler than the old one), so I brought it home. This fan is pretty powerful when set on it’s highest setting. We put the fan at the bottom of the stairs going and pointed it up. When the fan is set on it’s highest setting, it pumps cool air up the stairs which helps to cool the upstairs quite nicely.

It does create a bit of noise … but it’s not too bad. A side benefit is that it helps move air throughout the rooms in general, which can’t hurt at all.

[tags]heat, cool, fan, circulation[/tags]

Canon 30D

I bought a new camera this weekend … a Canon 30D.

As much as I really like my Digital Rebel, the frame rate has been really bothering me … especially when I’m trying to take wildlife photos. I can only get 3 frames per second … with a 4 frame buffer. This means that I can only get a little more than a seconds worth of shots before the camera has to dump it’s buffer to the flash card (which can take a long time).

The Canon 30D can do 5 frames per second with a 20-30 frame buffer (depending on the image quality). Plus, I can take pictures in raw mode and it will write two image files … a RAW file and a JPG. It’s got a great hand feel, and good controls. I really like it.

The picture above is from a photo safari Ginny and I took to the Morton Arboretum this weekend … pretty nice, eh?

Oh yeah, it also has a setting that won’t let me take pictures without a flash card inserted.

[tags]Canon, photos, nature, 30D[/tags]