Category: Site News

Web Site Back

It’s nice to have the web site back under my control so I can post updates on a daily, or even hourly, basis. Laura and I have been working on the look and feel of the new Gallery and have finally found something we like. The speed isn’t quite up to par, but I’m hoping that by the time of the final release that it is better optimized.

We have added some new pictures for the first time in months. We’ve added pictures of Washington, DC and will soon be adding more. Keep checking back for more updates!

I’m Back!

I’m now finally on my own broadband fiber connection. I do have to say that even though the install took a long time, the service provided by the technician was excellent. I’m now using full bandwidth! 15mbps up and 2mbps down. [did some speed tests on that and it validates it!!!]

Let me begin this new service by saying “Thank You!” to my friend Mike for allowing me to borrow a little space on his server during the interim.

I’ll be posting more as things come up.

Broadband Problem: Solved

We will soon be back up with more bandwidth than ever before. On August 17th, we are scheduled to have our new line installed so we’ll be back up then. But this just isn’t any old broadband connection. Oh no. This is Verizon FiOS [Verizon’s version of FTTP – fiber to the premesis]. What this does for us is provide us with a connection that is about 10 times faster than our old DSL link. Once it’s up, it’s supposed to provide us with 15mbps download speeds and 2mbps upload speeds. What this means for you is that the pictures in my photo gallery will load much much faster – almost as if you’re in my house.

I’m pretty sure we’ll be the first to have this kind of service in our neigborhood, so we’re pretty excited. It will certainly be worth the extra stress it took to track the service down once it’s up and running.

In other news, I’ve upgraded the web server to Fedora Core 4 and the Gallery software to version 2.0 RC1. Go look at the pictures… oh, wait. You can’t. At least, not yet…

Added Another State [Or Two]

Friday, for work, I drove out to the tail end of West Virginia to go to a customer site. I can now cross off another state on my “I’ve been to” list. [See my ::: travel map ::: page]. The terrain was very green and hilly and I can’t wait until I have a motorcycle to go up there in the mountains for a ride. Slowly, though… There are a lot of curves on that road…

Also, in looking at my state map, I noticed that I had left off Kentucky. I’d driven most of the way across the state many years ago and looking at a possible route for Laura and I, I saw some cities I recognized. So, I added it. I still have a few to go though.

Server Downsize: Part II

2012-01-08 23:29:14

I have now transfered my second server into a small form factor case. The web server now resides in a cube taking up about one fourth of the space that the old tower did. I must say, I like it. My next move will be to downsize my desktop case into a small box. Then, I’ll have just scads of room. Of course, it wasn’t all easy this time.

Last time, I had trouble finding Windows 2003 drivers for all of the hardware devices so I decided to take that box and use it for the Linux web server as there was more support for the chipset in Linux. First, I got a different Shuttle case for the Windows box and swapped the innerds [that’s how we say it in Texas, you know] into it. Once it came up, all was wonderful – all devices were identified and drivers found. That done, I then moved the Linux box parts into the previous case, which sports an nVidia chipset. Linux loves these. On install and boot-up, Linux discovered the changes and all went wonderfully… until: Bam. Something wasn’t right. I couldn’t load the site from my laptop. I wondered what was happening, so I switched my KVM over to my Linux box only to find strange error codes on screen. I restarted and the machine promptly decided to turn itself off.

After trying to figure out what the cryptic messages on screen meant, I walked over to the machine and noticed that it was quite warm. I thought that maybe something wasn’t configured right or my hard drive was just about to spin itself off it’s spindle. Upon opening the case, I began to disassemble everything. The poor little box was way overheated and I didn’t know why. It didn’t do this last time. So, I though that maybe I should re-seat everything and apply new thermal grease to the CPU heat sink. As I was removing the CPU fan I noticed a very strange thing: the fan WASN’T PLUGGED IN! Doh!

The fan is plugged in and all is cool now. It just goes to show: even people who do this a lot sometimes forget the simple things.

A Photo-Memorial For Jason

I have created a special album which contains all of my digital pictures of Jason. There is even a slideshow feature which will let you view the pictures in random order. This Memorial will stay on this server for as long as I own this site. These are pictures of Jason doing some of his favorite things and this is how we will always remember him.

If you have any pictures you’d like added to this Memorial, please email them to me. This will be an ongoing project.

Server Downsize

After my “catastrophic failure” of last week and a minor one this week [you may have noticed… or not], I have decided to replace certain parts of one of my servers. These being the case, power supply and mother board. Since the replacement is so wide-ranging, I’ve decided to go small. Yes, that’s right: small. Since the particular server in question needs all of these parts, this Shuttle box is now the way to go.

I’ll be slowly replacing most of my machines with these boxes to get rid of the full sized, loud towers most of them are in now. They are small and easy to manage. Best of all, I can have a TON of them without having to buy a server rack to put all my machines in! … I think I can stack ’em three high! [insane laughter]