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For my web homies I have moved a bunch of directories from your home directory to /home/domains/whatever.com/. This is being done in preparation for possibly sending web requests to a different server in the future (after the files have been synchronized of course). Mostly this should not affect you. I have left symlinks in the old location pointing to the new location, so if you just cd where you expect stuff to be, you’ll be taken where you need to go. The web pages should still all be functional, though you may want to take a moment to verify that everything is still working. ...

Exercise log for July Sat 7/1: none (weight 275.6) Sun 7/2: exercise bike 30 laps Mon 7/3: none Tue 7/4: walk 55 min Wed 7/5: exercise bike 35 laps Thu 7/6: none Fri 7/7: none Sat 7/8: none Sun 7/9: exercise bike 35 laps Mon 7/10: none Tue 7/11: exercise bike 30 laps Wed 7/12: exercise bike 45 laps Thu 7/13: exercise bike 50 laps Fri 7/14: none Sat 7/15: exercise bike 30 laps Sun 7/16: exercise bike 50 laps Mon 7/17: exercise bike 45 laps (weight 274.8) (last 7 days 30+ avg!) Tue 7/18: exercise bike 32 laps (weight 274.3) Wed 7/19: exercise bike 30 laps Thu 7/20: exercise bike 30 laps Fri 7/21: none Sat 7/22: exercise bike 32 laps Sun 7/23: exercise bike 50 laps (avg 31.2 min for the week) Mon 7/24: exercise bike 36 laps Tue 7/25: exercise bike 32 laps Wed 7/26: exercise bike 30 laps Thu 7/27: exercise bike 60 laps Fri 7/28: exercise bike 30 laps (weight 272.4) Sat 7/29: exercise bike 30 laps Sun 7/30: none (avg 31.1 min for the week) Mon 7/31: exercise bike 50 laps

Two years ago, I started as a contractor at SGI, herding unix machines and with the general guideline of “do cool things and train the rest of the team on sendmail, when you have time”. I was hired into a group of five sysadmins, one “monitoring” guy, two “remote access” folks, one security guy and a manager. Since that time I have: deployed a spam appliance trained people on spam deployed a dhcp management interface and 4 dhcp servers trained people on dhcp taken over “monitoring” (read: nagios and munin) from the “monitoring guy” when he left trained people on monitoring seen two sysadmins get laid off got converted from contract to perm right near a layoff, hard to do taken over design/architecture roles when 4 designers left within a couple months seen our manager leave and not get replaced taken over “remote access” when the last remote access person left (a @!*&load of busy-work) ...

Those who were interested in my “pusher” script, here is a “sneak preview”. Pusher Pre-Alpha Preview Right now it knows how to install ~root/authorized_keys, push a firewall script and run it, and push apache2 config files. It is very debian-centric and will need some tweaking to allow alternate handling of /etc/init.d scripts for other platforms, as well as taking some templates and variable definitions and putting them in a central “global template” location. ...

One thing I still miss about AV is “fetch”. Fetch was not just a program; it was a freakin’ way of life. All machines ran fetch. All machines obeyed the great and powerful fetch. Fetch was a perl script made for configuring a lot of machines identically. It could literally install, configure, and start up all the services needed on a new box. Pretty much all we had to do was install the server using the OS CD (DEC or Linux), teach the new machine its hostname, and download and run this program. ...

Posted for review, comments and entertainment value. If this is interesting, please comment, or just point and laugh; it’s okay. Casual Sysadmin Hosting Service “Don’t ignore your domain. We’ll do it for you!” Service overview We host a handful of vanity domains for ourselves and friends. We try to do everything as cheaply as possible and we pass the savings on to you.

I find that I am growing weary of maintaining my own servers at home, but I’m still way too independent to turn control of my domains over to a “web hosting” service. So, I am starting to look at some of the “virtual server” hosting options. These are services that you pay something like $20-40 a month and you get a “virtual” server (it runs linux, so you can run mysql, mud/mush, procmail, spamassassin, apache, php, gallery, and all the fun stuff you would run at home without having a space-heater in your spare room 24x7. It’s not a “real” server in the sense of dedicated hardware, it’s really a virtual machine running on a larger, beefier machine and capped to a small slice of cpu and memory. ...

We need to find homes for some items. Please let me know if you’re interested in any of these. (email addr on my profile works best). Queen size futon bed frame: This is a bed frame designed for a queen-sized futon (no mattress included, just the frame). It does not fold up into a couch; it is a full-time bed with headboard and footboard. Light maple in color. Might work with a normal mattress but results may be a little weird… you could try it with mattress and box spring but it would be pretty tall. Bolts are missing so you will need to go to the hardware store to get some parts. Stereo components: Amplifier/tuner, subwoofer, speakers. These are probably 6-8 years old but should work fine. They support 5+1 surround. There is an “optical digital” input but it might be for an old standard or might not work at all, but if your tv/dvd/dvr has 6 rca sound outputs it should work fine. In good condition at last use but has been sitting in the garage for over a year. Has been claimed. Desk: Standard computer desk including hutch. Made of oak, not pressboard. In good condition except for where the front molding strip has started to come off, so we put in two large wood screws on each side. TV stand: Looks like it’s made of pressboard or MDF, laminated with a faux-maple finish. In good condition. Exercise bike: Has given good service to us, and to the previous owner, but frankly we didn’t use it as much as we should. It is a pretty standard exercise bike, variable resistance, tracks time/distance/calories and takes your pulse, electronic features are powered by pedaling. (We are looking to get an elliptical machine instead). 400 cd player/jukebox: Loads up to 400 CDs, plays them by programming a track list, or you can arrange them into groups and choose shuffle on the groups. In good condition at last use but has been sitting in the garage for over a year. (Note: I’m ready to part with this item but my weety may not be, so she will have the final say in whether it stays or goes.) Has been claimed. The rules: I would like to give these items away to a friend. I will take requests on a first-come first-served basis from among my friends list, and if nobody on my friends list wants it, I’ll consider any requests from others (friends of friends, etc). You must be willing to come take the items away from my house (in the 95132 area). ...

This is Sophie, Killer of Socks. She has just bravely killed not one, not two, but four pairs of socks. Not only did she kill them, but she dragged them out of the basket, from the nightstand to the bed, down to the floor, then down the hall to the top of the stairs, where she did the low “mroouw?” that says “I’ve killed something, come and see!!!1” ...

Exercise log for June Thu 6/1: Fri 6/2: Sat 6/3: Sun 6/4: Mon 6/5: Tue 6/6: Wed 6/7: Thu 6/8: Fri 6/9: Sat 6/10: Sun 6/11: Mon 6/12: Tue 6/13: Wed 6/14: Thu 6/15: Fri 6/16: Sat 6/17: Sun 6/18: Mon 6/19: exercise bike 30 min. doctor visit. wt 282 (yow) Tue 6/20: exercise bike 30 min. Wed 6/21: exercise bike 30 min. wt. 278.4 Thu 6/22: none Fri 6/23: exercise bike 30 min. Sat 6/24: exercise bike 30 min. Sun 6/25: exercise bike 30 min Mon 6/26: none Tue 6/27: none Wed 6/28: exercise bike 30 min, evening wt 280.4 Thu 6/29: morning wt. 278.6 Fri 6/30: none