Network Outage

Update: at 9:15PM EDT all issues have been resolved

We are currently experiencing a network outage to one of the important switches providing support to stewart.vectec.net. Late last night, the switch that provides network connectivity to the primary Linux server (pancake) and NAS (toaster) malfunctioned, and requires replacement. The ETA to full recovery is approximately 8:00PM EDT/5:00PM PDT/5:00PM AZT.

During this time, the following services will be effected:
Pancake:

• NFS Server (Backups and Builds)
• XMPP (Jabber) Server
• Asterisk Server (VoIP phone system)
• HTTP(s) Server
• MySQL Server (Unified Authentication)
• Jenkins Build Server
• CIFS Server (Roaming Access)
• MythTV
• Munin Hardware Monitoring
• Quassel IRC Server

Toaster:

• UPnP Media Server
• CIFS Server (Media)

Not effected:

• Windows Home Server (Windows Backups, Build server)
• Printing
• Temperature Monitoring

During this time, phone calls outbound will be unavailable, incoming calls will be redirected, and remote phone system access will be unavailable.

A New Home!

I’m currently in the process of moving my webhost from A Small Orange to Web Host Canada. It’s cheaper, fully Canadian, and provides 20x the disk space. To go with that change, I’ve registered “Vectec.CA”. Vectec.NET still works, most of my other sites are still located on ASO. The eventual goal is to transition everything over. The blog may be accessed with either Vectec.NET or Vectec.CA.

I’m mostly impressed with WHC, it provides me 25000MB of disk space, ASO provided me with 1500MB. The only drawback is I can only have 2 “addon” domains. This means that Vectec.CA is the primary domain on the account, and I can add Vectec.NET, and two others (I currently have 2 additional domains, so I’m not sure what I’m going to do there).

In short, so far so good. WHC has a rather impressive list of clients, such as Concordia, Desjardins and Montreal. I’ll let you know how it works out.

Goodbye Gentoo

I’ve been a Gentoo user for many years now. I’m not exactly sure how long, but I think it’s been about 3 years or so. It started off as more of a hobby, something for me to play with. I had enough time in university to be able to run updates and maintain it. Under the suggestion of Nick, I decided to switch to Funtoo when I got my newest laptop ‘Eggo’. A lot of things have changed in my life, I now work full-time and Scarlet has moved in with me.

The fun of maintaining Gentoo has slowly gone downhill for me. The Arduino cross compiling has been completely broken for a while (bug #377039). When HAL got deprecated, I had to switch to evdev for X11 input. When this happened, entire X setup became flakey, sometimes it would recognize my mice, sometimes it wouldn’t. Since evdev, if I try to connect a bluetooth device, X crashes immediately the first time. Right now it’s having a habit of completely freezing up when the laptop monitor goes to sleep. My USB has also suffered, sometimes it’ll stop working completely, and I have to unload and reload the module. I’d submit bug reports, but the Funtoo community is very sparse, and the feud between the Gentoo and Funtoo people really blocks my ability to report bugs. My recent update attempt contained a lot of blocked packages due to incompatibilities between versions. Sure I could unmask the broken packages, but why would I want to do that? Unfortunately it seems (afaik), that Gentoo won’t do a partial update. If you don’t want something right now, you have to manually update the configuration files to mask out the broken updates. Of course while this is possible, I have to then remember that I did that, and periodically check to see if things are going to work again. I just don’t have the time to do this anymore.

I’m now looking for a Linux solution that ‘just works’. So far, that’s been Ubuntu. I used to use Ubuntu, but was frustrated with out how out-of-date things were. Now that my laptop is less of a hobby and more of an appliance, I think that not being on bleeding edge won’t bother me as much.

Holy Tank Batman!

For those of you don’t know, my iPod went through the wash the other week.  There was a lot of water, it filled up half the screen.  Not gunna lie, I totally thought that I just had exchanged my perfectly functioning iPod for a paper weight.  Scarlet suggested I put it in rice for a week or so, so I did, on top of my laptop’s powerbrick as a source of heat.  A week later, I turned it on.  To my surprize, it booted!  I was immediately taken back to 1969, because either the wash or the water reset the clock in the inside, however, everything else was functioning with a full battery.  Well that is, except for the screen:

Once again thinking the screen was a gonner, Scarlet, being the useful gal she is, suggested again I put it back into rice.  So I did for a little over 24h, and when I turned it on today to check it out, the spot went away!  I’ve reset the clock and updated the apps and you wouldn’t have any idea anything happened to it.  Very impressive!

Moral of the story:

• Listen to your girlfriend
• If you wash your iPod, don’t assume it’s dead
• Rice is excellent for drying out wet electronics
• Don’t seal the container of rice, Scarlet suggested I leave it open to the air, and it worked well
• If it doesn’t work well at first, put it back and keep waiting
• Put on a source of heat! Not like an element obviously, but a warm harddrive or on top of a laptop power brick seemed to work very well.  I read one article were a guy suggested putting it on the back of a TV.  Be careful with that one though, old school TVs have non-trivial magnetic fields, so if you have a device with magnetic memory (hard drive), don’t try that!  Scarlet told me that her father once used the warm air from under a fridge too with great results.

Not Dead!

Hello everybody!  Yes it’s been a while, sorry!  School this year has been beyond crazy.  I haven’t really had the time available to write a decently coherent blog post.  Not that that hasn’t stopped before, this blog is full of half-baked blog posts.  I’ve been meaning to write a post on the replacement of my (horrible) HTC Touch Pro with Scarlet’s Blackberry Bold 9000.  I even have pictures and stuff!  I’ll have to keep that for another day.  Both fall and winter terms have been nuts, but the neat thing is (for me at least), that this winter I get to write an operating system for one of my classes from scratch.  Tres cool.  Lots of Arduino work for my thesis too, which is also always really fun (check out my Flickr).  That’s all for now, I’m sure I won’t really get back into blogging until after school (after April sometime), I just wanted to say HI! and that this blog is only temporarily taking a break.

Work – Sometimes You Just Gotta Laugh…

Well, it’s been a pretty rough week for me and I sure could use a good laugh!  While cleaning out a bunch of old emails, I discovered one that did give me a chuckle!  So, thought I’d share a little…

First, some background.  I work in Human Resources and do a ton of recruiting.  Most of my interviewing is conducted by phone, so I rarely actually meet the candidates and have to make a lot of preliminary decisions based on a persons demeanor, phone etiquette and of course their answers to my questions.  Recruiting/interviewing is probably my least favorite thing I have to do at work.  I would be QUITE happy if I never had to conduct an interview again.  But think!  If that were the case?  I wouldn’t have these gems to share!  They are all 100% true with NO exaggerations!

HR department "pinkboard" art LOL!

Advice:  Don’t put “hula dancer” as a skill on your job application unless you are applying to actually BE a hula dancer!

When applying for a job and the application asks for additional information, don’t say “I look cute in a uniform.”

Application quote:  “I was the cash register at Burger King.”

When the interviewer asks about your pc skills, don’t tell the interviewer how your spouse ran off with someone they met in a chat room in 1997…

Ramble at your own risk!  A rambling candidate bragging about their children said, “They all went to college!  They have bachelor’s and doctrines and master’s even!”

Understand the difference between good pride and bad pride… “I’m a hard worker and have a lot of PRIDE!  I’m PRIDEFUL AND IT SHOWS!”  (Ohhh honey was she EVER prideful!)

I tell candidates that they can ask me questions during the interview rather than wait till the end.  Recent response, “So I can interrupt you?”  Which, he proceeded to do… repeatedly…

Don’t assume you know the age of the interviewer… “Oh you sound so YOUNG when you get to be MY age, I’m 55(!) you just wanna move out to the wilderness!”  (Ummm ok thanks… but I LIKE indoor plumbing!)

Don’t flirt:  “Oh you have such a sexy voice!  *sigh* but I bet you’re way too young for me…”  (This was during a reference check, but it still applies!)

Interview quote:  “It’s hard to be managed by someone you coulda given BIRTH to!”

Interview quote:  “I’ll work for you for 90 days and if you’re not completely satisfied, you don’t have to pay me!”

When I asked a recent candidate if he was ready for our phone interview he said that he guessed so – that he’d never had a phone interview before.  He then exclaimed, “I could be NAKED!”

When I asked a recent candidate if he’d had a chance to visit our website, he told me how busy he’d been with his recent job and said, “I’ve only had time for COFFEE and PEE!”

In case you didn’t know, I HATE mornings.  I’m truly a night owl.  At a recent 9am interview I was told I sounded so CHIPPER!  The candidate proceeded to say how she’d been up since 6am and she got all her laundry done already!  (Ugh!)

Hope these made you laugh too!  Luvs ya!

OMG Torch DRAMA!!!

As you know, I’ve now had a Blackberry Torch for a little over a week.  I told you about all the hours that went into setting it up, too.  Oh but it gets better…  well, ok, it actually gets horribly worse, if you want to know the truth!

A couple of days ago, I noticed my phone seemed dead.  The social networks seemed eerily silent…*hears crickets chirping*  I pulled the battery for a hard reset and suddenly received 18 messages!  The silence was broken and I heaved a sigh of relief (I hate crickets!)  Whew!  Unfortunately, in the midst of a text conversation this evening, things abruptly went silent again and an incoming text message hung only half received.  Hm.  Not good.  I tried using QuickPull to reset a couple of times.  I tried removing the battery.  I got a phone call (ignored it for the moment)… but nothing else seemed to work!  All text, email (4 accounts), IM, Twitter, Facebook… DEAD!  NOOOOOOO!!!!!  (I hear more crickets – where’s that exterminator!)

I spent about 2 hours or so trying to determine and resolve the problem.  I confirmed with Q that every social networking site on the planet didn’t suddenly implode all at once and continued my quest.  (Well, it COULD happen!)  The only thing I was able to discover is that my phone was not connecting to the Blackberry Internet Service consistently.  However, even if I shut off all connections and then reconnected, the phone wouldn’t always connect back to the service.  Even if it DID connect, nothing was fixed.  Still those damn crickets chirping!

I gave up.  I called my cellular provider for help.  After playing silly games with an overly apologetic but completely non-helpful customer service rep, I was transferred to someone who had a hint of a brain.  She had me run a diagnostic test on the phone which told her that my phone, in fact, had a factory defect.  Joy.  She told me that a number of phones came from the factory with some sort of problem that made the internet connection fail.  She said that RIM was aware of the problem and was working to fix it.  Bad news, though.  The only way to resolve is to wipe the phone and the problem could recur.  Ugh!  She never said exactly what the defect was but said that likely a future version of the OS would include the fix.  =(

I quickly backed up my data and wiped the phone.  *sigh*  Fortunately, I was able to restore the phone with minimal difficulty.  Thank GOD the backup worked or I would’ve lost tons of stuff already!  The restore also seemed to repair problems I was having with the cellular provider’s address book feature, so I’ll have to see how that works out.  The rep had me do a number of things to test the functionality of all email, text, and internet service and all was well.  I asked the rep a number of other questions but she didn’t know the answers.  Apparently, the phone is still too new and some she just didn’t know.  I’ll also have to reinstall QuickPull, but it appears things are up and running again.  Yay!  No more crickets!

Blackberry Torch Requiring My Attention =(

By conservative estimate, I’ve wasted about 13 hours either setting up or fixing this phone.  I’m not sure what you’d consider normal, but I am pretty sick of it already.  Otherwise, I have been enjoying this phone.  I’m getting better at the touchscreen in spite of my long nails and the other features are pretty easy to get the hang of.  I have had to add a password to my phone so that I don’t accidentally dial someone when I remove it from the holster or even just pick it up.  It’s far too easy to do that.  I also find the camera shutter button very stiff and hard to press which makes it hard to remain still when taking a picture.  Hopefully I’ll get better at that as well.  My phone just vibrated.  It’s asking me for a NEW password?  Huh?  *sigh*  I guess I’ll have to tell you about that another night. =(  I need sleep!  Wish me luck… seems like I may need it with the Torch…

Luvs ya!

New Blackberry Torch!

New Blackberry Torch 9800 with installed privacy screen.

Hi, all!  I am already at it again *sigh* just can’t keep away (even though I’m supposed to be doing homework eek!)

On Monday (Happy Labor Day!) I got a new Blackberry Torch 9800!  Upgraded from the Blackberry Bold 9000.  WOW!  Such a huge change!

First of all, the Torch has a lot of cool features that the Bold was lacking.  The most obvious difference is the Torch is a slider with both keyboard and touch screen.  The camera, which I’m sure you know by now is SUPER important to me, is about a million times better than the Bold.  We’re talking 5MP vs. 2MP along with various modes, orientation sensor, and more stuff I haven’t even discovered yet.  The Torch is definitely heavier than the Bold, but it’s a slightly smaller frame… always nice when purse space is at a premium!  Also, the Torch interface is definitely much sexier than the strictly business look of the Bold.

As I’m still learning the phone I’ll check back and let you know more of my impressions!  I still think the Bold was an excellent phone – very reliable overall.  My biggest complaint, aside from camera quality, was that battery life eventually became enough of an issue with my daily social networking that I had to carry a spare.  Small issue compared to problems my friends have had with some of their (non-Blackberry) phones.

I must say, however, that so far I’ve been horribly disappointed with the cellular store where I made the purchase.  For the most part, they happily take your cash, pat you on the head with a smile and send you on your merry way.  Ignorance is bliss, you know.  Then when you get home, all hell breaks loose.  The minimal instructions the smiling happy sales clerk gave you are a mere fraction of the doctoral degree-sized knowledge base you must have in order to successfully transfer all your data from your old phone to your new phone and get every feature to function smoothly.  What I really want to know is why on EARTH must I remove the battery or have an application in order to reboot my phone?  WHYYYYY?  I simply do not understand that.  If you have a logical explanation for me, feel free to share!  LOL!

It’s not like I’m a total moron, either.  Under this fashionable girly pink exterior is a heart clad in heavy glasses and a pocket protector!  Well, ok, maybe not quite that far.  (More like sparkly Judith Leiber glasses and a Kate Spade pencil case!  *giggles*)  But seriously, Q will attest to my skill set!  Having said that, I spent roughly 6 hours setting up this phone and I still have some kinks to work out.  Blech!  The peeps at the store are NOT earning their keep!

Sadly, my homework is beckoning me and I must heed it’s call!  Happy birthday to me (by the time you read this) and I’ll catch ya later! ;p

Luvs ya!

I’m the New Girl…

Hi, everyone!  My name is Scarlet and welcome to my very first ever blog post! *giggles!*  Won’t be my only one, either, so I hope you like them!  I expect I’ll be chatting you up about music, life, school, work, tech… all kinds of stuff!  As Q will tell you, I’m a PROUD American (but I especially love my Canadian friends!) ;p  I don’t like politics, so you won’t likely hear any of that from me.  If I hear it from you… well, let’s just not go there, shall we?  Otherwise my interests are pretty broad and I love learning new things!  But enough about me for now…

Right now I’m listening to some FAWESOME Daft Punk and staring at the pix I took for my photography class!  Just started in Digital Photography 1 last week.  I have to say I’ve been really mixed about this class.  I mean, I want and need (desperately!) to learn how to REALLY use my camera (Kodak EasyShare Z980) and make it do what I want it to do, but honestly?  I just want to take pretty pictures!  Call me superficial, but I don’t give a rat’s a** about making a political or social statement.  That’s not what I’m about.  I’m all about making things look pretty and that includes pictures!  I’m totally into macros and super macros.  The finite details that you never really see are sooo cool I think.  Also, I have to actually GO someplace to get a decent landscape, so let’s face it, I’m just way too lazy for that!  (Especially when it’s a bazillion stinkin’ degress outside!)

My Kodak EasyShare Z980 as taken by my Kodak EasyShare M580.

Having said that, I am wondering how this class will progress.  Been to one already and… well… frankly not that impressed.  If things don’t improve I’m worried I’m going to be like one of those old Tom and Jerry cartoons where they used toothpicks to prop open their eyelids when they were tired and bored!  LOL!  Thus far, too much emphasis on modern art and artists with minimal focus on cameras and photography basics.  We shall see!

Did I say I’m listening to Daft Punk?  ;p  I LOVE them!  I love all kinds of music but in particular dance, techno, and pop are my faves.  I AM hoping to get out to the country bar this weekend and do some 2-stepping, but not sure if time will permit.  Wanna come? =)

I could sit here and chat with you for hours; you’re such great company!  But I DO have a life that I have to get back to *sigh*  Hope you’ve enjoyed my first installment and ttys!

Luvs ya!

Hello Eggo

It’s here, it’s here! My Asus G51JX-A1 is here! It arrived via UPS this morning in a giant box. Inside that box was another plain brown box. Inside that contained the laptop box. Inside that, it’s precious cargo: Eggo. It’s too early to give a review, but the initial impression is very positive! Thing thing’s chewed everything I’ve thrown at it. I installed the Halflife 2 demo and was able to run it at full resolution (1920×1080). It has no problem playing HD trailers from the Apple website either. It looks like this’ll be pretty solid. It’s a quad core, but each core has hyperthreading, so it shows up with a logical 8 cores. With 6GB of ram and a 1GB dedicated graphics card, this should last me a while!

More pictures and articles will follow.

Edit: Oops, the resolution is 1920×1080, full 1080p