Six Degrees of Separation

I now have two examples proving the Six Degrees of Separation theory is correct.

WARNING: Bad grammar ahead.

  1. A person who works for my Dad is married to a woman who works for a company that is a MKS customer … and the womans supervisor is an ex-MKS employee, who used to be be a co-worker of mine.
  2. A few weeks ago another co-worker of mine asked if my Dad’s name was Sheldon, and was he the controller for such and such company. I confirmed that it was his name, and he does work for that company. Turns out her husband is a contractor for the company my dad works for.

It is truly a small world.

This was a bad weekend

This weekend was supposed to be a nice quiet, calm, time… I had planned to spend it getting some files organized in the two filing cabinets I purchased from MKS (getting rid of old stuff in anticipation of our move to new digs).

Friday was the company holiday party … it’s always been enjoyable … even if I don’t like dancing (Ginny ends up dragging me onto the dance floor a few times). This time, unfortunately, Ginny’s dinner didn’t agree with her… so we headed home early.

Once home, I made sure Ginny was comfortable … and went downstairs to dink around with the computers.

I then made my fatal error.

I decided to upgrade the main linux system to Fedora Core 3. I figured it would be fairly straight forward to upgrade from Redhat 8 to FC3.
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New Server


I got a new server … it’s a Dell PowerEdge 420SC … I’ve named it Gondor.

I originally tried to install Fedora Core 3 on it via NFS mount, booting from a compact flash disk, but it didn’t take. Not sure why.

So I burned the CD’s and installed from there. Worked like a champ.

I think I screwed up the Dell diagnostic partition though … or the master boot record. I’ll have to play around with that.

I’m going to slowly migrate stuff over to the new server … it’s not going to be an easy pick-up and drop-off like it was with the last server migration.

What is a Speedlite?

The other night, as Ginny and I were driving to dinner … she asked me what I wanted for Chanumas (the odd congomeration of Chanukkah and Christmas that we celebrate).

I told her I would like a Speedlite.

She then asked me what a Speedlite was … I explained it is an external flash unit for Canon cameras.

I explained the various features I wanted (not too many, mainly the tilting flash head).

We then went on to discuss other topics … and I commented that the street lights were wobbling due to the wind.

She didn’t think it was due to the wind … she thought the bulbs in the speed lights were going out because she didn’t see all the street lights wobbling.

It took a moment for us to realize her fauxpau … and then we both burst out laughing.

Ok, yeah, we’re easy to amuse.

Out of disk space

Had a minor emergency today … my main linux machine completely hung up (for no apparent reason at the time).

My first indication that a problem was a foot was when Ginny asked me if there were any problems with our internet connection.

I didn’t think so, but I checked … I could get to DSLReports without a problem … I was even able to run a speed test (with respectable results).

Ginny told me she wasn’t able to get to her blog. So I went over to the actual machines and checked out TheShire to see if something was wrong. Something was. I wasn’t able to logon as root.
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Happy Thanksgiving

Well I hope everyone who reads this blog has a happy turkey day. At least those in the states. Those not in the states, well, have a happy day anyway 🙂

We’ll be heading over to my aunt & uncle’s house today for dinner … pretty much a tradition in our family. Lots of good food, talk, etc.

Ginny will be making some of her famous Dilly Bread, which I just love. Hmmm, wouldn’t it be a shame if we forgot the bread at home and didn’t remember until we got to their house? 🙂 Naw, wouldn’t be fair.

Blizzard!


It ain’t just winter … it’s a Blizzard!

Here’s a picture of our front yard around 5:30pm today.

Of course traffic coming home was horrendous … luckily, since it’s the Thanks giving holiday, not as many people were on the roads … at least the roads I was traveling on. None the less, it took me at least an hour to get home. Thankfully, Brian (my boss), let us go home a bit early.

Got home without any big problems … and immediately started up the snow thrower to clear the driveway off. No problems there either.

I’m a bit worried now … no problems with either the drive or the snow thrower … I think I’m due.

Update 11/25 … went out and got some pictures today before the snow all melts … check ’em out at my gallery.
Update 12/01 … This picture is the one we chose for our holiday card.

It’s Winter!

Well, the calendar does’t say so … but the snow that’s falling from the sky does.

It’s winter in Chicagoland.

I just hope we get enough snow this year that Ginny can go cross country skiing. We we only got out once last year.