Tag Archives: Gadgets and Nerdery

Mind Threads

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I can’t tell you how many loads of laundry and dishes I’ve done over my weekend.  I say my weekend, because my work schedule shifts my days off to Sunday and Monday.  Hence, my weekend is not the same as everyone else’s weekend.

I’ve mostly caught up on the laundry, and have entirely caught up on dishwasher-safe dishes.  I’ve spent nearly an entire day shopping and putting away the procured items from said purchasing craziness.  When you live paycheck-to-paycheck, the day of your wife’s student loan’s arrival can be a second Christmas, let me tell you.  Speaking of, it also allows us to finally purchase, put together, and schedule each others’ belated holiday gifts.  I’m trying to find the best local spa that is certified to massage pregnant women so that she can be pampered for a day, and she’s creating (as I type) a blanket with fabric that I picked out.  She has warned me that the blanket is just Stage 1.  Exciting!

I have some hopes regarding work that I’m going to keep to myself for a bit.  I can’t stop planning and trying to improve the systems in which I find myself, it seems.  I’ve got my fingers crossed that my ideas will (1) be adopted and (2) turn out for the best.

I’d like to thank Izzy for my replacement mouse.  My Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse 5000 bit the dust in such a way that its sleep function would randomly enable.  Reading forums and blogs turned up that this is a common fate for that model.  Izzy happened to have upgraded recently, and I now have a shiny black and purple Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3000.  I do enjoy using that which can no longer be used by previous owners.

In the photo, Cian is sitting on the bench behind my computer desk.  He often shouts suggestions that I show him videos and pictures of people that he knows.  It makes both of us a bit happier to see the people tied to us by blood and by friendship.

La la la la, I can’t hear you!

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“Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals,” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

I had so much to say when I finished my shift yesterday, and I didn’t get any of it down. However, I -did- get PixelPipe downloaded to my G1. So, while I’ve lost of the earth-shattering (and trust me, these lost thoughts WERE that) revelations, I’ve now got a tool that will allow me to jot the newer, better(er) thoughts down as they happen.

This is SuperWhy. Someone may tell you that it’s Aidan, dressed up as SuperWhy, but don’t believe the naysayers. This kid has (and he will tell you that he has) the power to READ. Also, a cape. You cannot deny the cape. Can NOT.

I’m not really any better at dealing with understanding things that I don’t want to agree with than Aidan is. We both want to put our fingers in our ears and sing out at our loudest volume, “LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU.” I think that it’s fair to note here that we both actually do this on occasion. This is totally counterproductive to being a member of an educated citizenry. Sure, I don’t like what I’m learning. Sure, it totally undermines the reality that I’ve constructed for myself. But knowing the truth IS better than not.

How can I speak out if I’m not speaking the truth?

Predictable AND Updated

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So, I had:
– ColecoVision
– Sega Dreamcast
– PlayStation 2

Now, add to the list:
– Super Nintendo Entertainment System

I’ve got quite a few games for the SNES, some PS1 and PS2 games for the PS2, and four or five games for the ColecoVision. That’s a big enough library to work through for a while. I would like to pick up something for the DreamCast, though. The local independent gaming store didn’t have HydroThunder… I wonder if the intertubes have it.

Probably fairly predictable

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TV/VCR combo with broken VCR – check.

Coleco Vision hooked to coax through adapter made by brother from twenty-five year old parts, powered up, and tested – check.

Video and stereo-to-mono y-adapter plugged into the front auxilliary port and into RCA/S-video switch box – check.

Sega Dreamcast plugged in, powered up, and tested – check.

PlayStation 2 plugged in, powered up, and tested – check.

And I thought getting rid of the SETI@Home graveyard would lessen the prevelance of ancient, and yet awesome, electronics in my basement cave.  Huh.  Now I’ve just got to get this SNES fixed…

SETI@Home Graveyard

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Server, he has fallen! Please do the needful!

Looks like Snarl has suffered complete hard drive failure. No hard drive should make those noises, I’m just sayin’. Looks like my post-kid-bedtime activities involve swapping hard drives, installing bare-bones Debian, and installing BOINC.

Ironically, this is the first problem I’ve had with these ancient boxen since I went through and re-tested all of the RAM in the most sensitive of boxen – the Mac. I’m going to go through my HDs and find the smallest one that I can use, just because. :) I think I’ve got some 2GB drives in there somewhere…

For reference, Snarl is the second one in from the left.

Hopefully, you have noticed nothing.

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Anything different around here?  Well, I hope not.  Though the last month or so have seen some major changes on the back end of the site.

We’re no longer hosted by LiquidWeb.  Still being part of Michigan’s unemployed has brought monthly bills to the forefront.  So, we’re now with a small, local start-up company called VPS4ALL.  (Full disclosure – I’m one of the people starting it up.)  Moving from a web-interface hosting solution to one that was command-line only really made me flex some geek muscles that had been out of practice.

All of the differences are behind the scenes, so to speak, in Linux Land, and I hope that it remains that way.  If you notice any strangeness with the way that the site behaves, let me know. :)

Birth of a company.

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A few weeks back, I posted this to a forum called Web Hosting Talk, and I thought that you might want to read it.
—
I’d like to introduce you to a new VPS company.

If those words strike terror into your heart, I understand. With all of the get-rich-quick fly-by-night operations (and I use that word loosely) that come and go, it’s difficult to see a new VPS company come onto the scene without cringing.

So, let me start our introduction off by letting you know that my partner and I are terrified. Mortified. Petrified of being seen as one of those fly-by-nights. We want to succeed, and we want to do it by offering a solid, reasonably priced product that’s backed by reliable knowledge and experience.

You can only prove your reliability and experience over time. Since we’re only now starting to offer services to the public, we’re left with the task of convincing you to take a risk on us. Not easy, especially with all of the get-rich-quick nonsense that’s out there.

Here goes anyway.

We’ve taken this rant to heart. We’ve set aside sufficient funds for business expenses to maintain our servers for the foreseeable future. What this means is that if we don’t don’t find a niche in the public market, we have the funds to continue operating while giving our customers the time they need to find other hosts and migrate their data.

We’re not expecting failure, we’re confronting the ugly possibilities first.

We are making a fundamental pledge to never oversell our servers. You get what you’re paying for, no more, never less.

We’re straightforward. Neither of us are tricky or salespeople, and sometimes we’re too blunt for our own good. If something breaks on our end, we’ll tell you what it is, why it happened, what we’re doing to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, and we’ll own up to our mistake. On the other side of that coin, if it’s something that’s outside of our control, we’ll tell you. We cannot bend the entire internet to our will, nor can we prevent backhoes from cutting fiber.

As an example of our straightforward candor, let me share a little bit about our setup. Both my partner and I reside in Lansing, MI. We’ve colocated our first server at Waveform Technology, in Troy, MI. We’re running Proxmox to manage virtualization and server clustering. We both see this as an opportunity to further our city and our state in their transition from auto manufacturing to technology services.

We’re both idealists, me more so than my partner. While there are harsh realities in the business world that must be faced, I believe that success can and will come without deception and without trickery. I don’t want to pillage my customers. If I did that, how could they pay me the next month? Or upgrade when the need arose? How could they recommend me to others in good faith?

We’ve got a collected 25+ years of professional experience when it comes to information technology. I have years of hosting-specific experience. I’ve seen how some providers do things, and I want to do better.

As the rant that I linked to earlier says, any customers should grill any possible host with questions. I look forward to being grilled, and welcome both the opportunity and challenge. We want you to take a risk on us. We’re sure that we’re up to it. So, hit us up, ask us questions, and pick the host that best fits your needs.

David M. Crampton, CEO
VPS4ALL
http://vps4all.net
dave@vps4all.net