Friends- We have made reservations for Hawaii! We are going to the Big Island, from October 14 to October 20. That’s six nights, checking in Sunday and checking out Saturday.

I know I have asked a few of you if you’d like to go with us, so now would be a good time to confirm your availability and request time off from work, etc.

We have a short list (family mostly) that we want with us if possible, but not all of them will be available and so far there’s plenty of room. If you’re interested in joining us, let me know that you’re interested and I’ll get back to you to let you know if there’s still space available. I have reserved 4 bedrooms total (2 with king, 2 with double-queen) but there’s a chance to get more rooms if we act quickly.

The rooms are pre-paid using our timeshare, so you would only need to cover your travel, meals and entertainment (there’s a kitchen unit in the room).

Here’s a link to the resort info: http://www.hiltongrandvacations.com/hilton-waikoloa-timeshare.php

More monitoring is not necessarily better monitoring
What gets measured, gets fixed.
Are we measuring the meaningful stuff, or incidentals
Meaningful metrics: quality, quantity and cost
Incidentals – swap, disk space, anything targetted at a specific “problem” condition
There should be (at least) 3 levels of “severity” with appropriate corresponding actions
Major site problem – VIP not working, broken images, error messages, can’t place orders, etc.
Minor site problem – Slow response, error in rare cases, monitoring broken
Not customer-facing – One server or a small number have a problem but VIP is OK
Minor – Node is not down but some resources are out-of-bounds. (swap, disk, cpu etc)
Forensic, correlating – Should not notify anyone, but can be used for additional information
“Critical” is not necessarily important (e.g. NTP can be “critical” but not worth notifying anyone)
Too many minor alarms can mask important problems and dull our response

Problem: monitoring environment too complex for one person to fully understand
Recent monitoring changes put us at risk
Best subject matter experts don’t understand the monitors well
Monitoring specialist doesn’t know the specifics of each service
Monitoring specialist is not the best person to have the primary responsibility for monitoring
Someone should review the service and tune the monitors, using monitoring specialist as a resource
Every monitor should be well described, including impact, probable causes, troubleshooting info

Lots of monitors in red/yellow/orange state for a long time means it’s tough to find interesting/relevant problems.
Chronic, frequent problems that don’t need a response are good candidates for nuking.
Sheer number of monitors makes it hard to evaluate whether monitoring is working right
Periodic review of disabled monitors (automatic report would be better).
Disabled notifications should be tracked by a ticket; when closing, reopen if the monitor is still disabled.
Don’t disable “checking”, only disable “notifications”, system should keep checking/recording.

Does anyone know Flash here? I found out Shutterfly is seeking a Flash developer. If you are one, or know one, contact me, or email jobs@shutterfly.com and tell them gconnor sent you. (looks like they’re in a hurry for this one, hence the broadcast, but if you’re looking for other types of jobs, browse shutterfly’s jobs page!)
Sr. Flash Developer

I got a Playstation3 a week or so ago, along with DDR and a dance mat… and it turned out that the dance mat doesn’t work with PS3 directly. (The game itself works fine, if you count “works fine” as “you can play the dancing game with the hand controller if you want”… feh). Earlier readers may remember that I tried a normal “PS2 to USB” converter and this didn’t work… my “controller” lacks either a “PS” button or “Analog” button. Problem is now resolved. Read on…

I wanted to get a game machine so that I could play DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). I was pretty close to getting the PS2, but I noticed that the PS3 is available, plays PS2 games, also plays Oblivion, and has HD support (including playing BluRay disks). So, I took the plunge.

Apparently, DDR works fine in PS2 compatibility mode, but the dance pad/mat doesn’t work, even with a PS2 to USB converter. (Silly problem… PS2 controllers work with the USB converter, if you’re playing a PS3 native game, but playing a PS2 game causes PS3 to forget which controller is which, and you have to press the “PS” button on the controller after loading the game to assign a port number to the controller; the dance pad lacks this magic button) Which means I can use the mat for other games, but not DDR, and I can play DDR with the handheld controller only (not a great workout). I guess the people who were supposed to test that old controllers work and old games also work didn’t think to test these things at the same time? hmmm.

Anyway, according to shub-Internet, there is a better converter that actually has the “PS” button on the converter. So, another $20 and I will have what I need, I think. If that doesn’t work I will gleefully take back the nice new gleaming console and get the older model for 1/5 of the cost.

Job? Started.
Commute? Sucky.
People? Awesome!
Challenge? Huge.
Storage? Peta.
Docs? Wiki.
Machines? Two.
Desktop? Nice.
Laptop? Nicer.
Network? Wireless.
Email? Exchange.
Inbox? Thousands.
Filters? PLEASE?!
Tired? … tud.

Happy amcnh day!