A very common question I get asked is “thanks for setting up my shiny new systems, now what do I do with the old gear.” Once upon a time I would fire up Google and search for an e-waste recycling depot close by. But these days it’s much easier. My first response is always to wipe the disks, and then write zero’s a few times – or to remove the disks. Beyond that, if the gear can be sold then I’m a strong proponent of trying to eek out a little more ROI by flipping it (Reuse) on a used site such as the Recycler, Craigslist or eBay. That’s sometimes…
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Website Changes
I removed the ads for now. I was looking into where those speed issues were coming from and it was the stupid ads. Temporarily, they’re gone. I also cut down the number of articles that show when you first hit the site. Result: site loads waaaaay quicker. Now I’m off to bed.
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Southern California Linux Expo Soon!
I’m pretty sure this will be the first SCALE that I will not be attending or speaking at. I do wish I could go, but alas, timing is bad… But since I can’t go you should go. It’s a great little conference (although far bigger year in and year out). To Quote Them: Free and Open Source software can save you money. Whether you’re running a business or are a computer user, FOSS software is high-quality software that can be quite inexpensive. Smart organizations know that, and they come to SCALE, and sponsor SCALE. And because the FOSS community continues its vibrant growth unabated, there were more than…
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Moving Day
I am deep in the throes of moving into my new house. Which makes me think about moving racks. One should always, always, always make sure to take all of their servers out of the rack when you move it. Don’t move full racks (or trust movers with full racks)… I must admit I usually leave the UPS in there, but hopefully it’s sitting on the bottom and actually increases the structural integrity of the rack (or so I say to myself while staring down the barrel of having to pull one out of a rack)… I don’t have an issue leaving fan assemblies or PDUs either. But not the…
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Mac OS X Shared Memory
There’s a nice new article explaining shared memory on the 318 TechJournal. Pat on the back to our guys for a great explanation.
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Slight modifications to the site
Dropped the alpha channel for the background so it’s not as busy and added a new logo to the middle of the bar. Still playing with logos. If you can think of something better than what I have send it my way… 😉
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MinneDemo
MinneDemo is going to be hosting tech demos and reviews of Minneapolis based IT companies in town on February 8th. I’ll be moving that day so won’t be able to make it but really wish I could, and if you are able to make it, you should definitely swing by and check it out!
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Emerald Edge: Video #2
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iTunes: Make Ringtone for iPhone
Doesn’t work with DRM material, but to create a ringtone, do a Get-Info on the song and click on the Options tab. Then add a start/stop time and convert it to AAC (Advanced Menu -> Create AAC Version). Next, save the file to your desktop, remove it from iTunes and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r. Now drag it into your Library, click on the Ringtone list and you can use it right away.
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On the Road: All Nighters
I have to admit, the all nighters I’ve pulled in my career probably netted me more in terms of serious “in the trenches” know-how than anything else I’ve done. But boy they can wipe you out. Those holiday weekends can be the hardest. With Xsan volumes reaching into the hundreds of terabytes now there just isn’t much of a good time to do a migration. But when things go a little funny, you have a finite amount of time to complete a given set of tasks. Often, those holiday gigs were planned months in advance given the severity of the upgrades and if you can’t shoehorn all those bits and…