Work

This week at work we’ve been experimenting with MogileFS ( link) which is a “filing system” capable of storing/retrieving many files across many hosts. It’s not a true file system, meaning that you can’t mount it and look at it with “ls” or “cat” files, etc. but using a custom perl module you can put files in and take them back out. Some interesting facts about it: It’s based on HTTP GET/PUT so I believe it would be a good complement to other systems we have at work (without going into too much detail, it’s no surprise to anyone that Shutterfly receives lots of picture files from users and stores them for later printing :) Also, the MogileFS tracker module takes care of ensuring that files are replicated like you want; for example, if you want 2 copies of each file living on different nodes, after the initial upload the file will be duplicated appropriately. In the event of failure of one of the nodes, other nodes that hold the same data as the lost one will duplicate the items again to ensure replication is maintained. ...

[Note: as of this writing, Greg is still unable to kill selected Wisconsin residents with the power of his mind.] Monday More information on this outage. According to the log, it looks like the dhcp service stopped running about 21:37. I think I figured out why the service stopped. The logs show a login as “root” from “maintain” at 21:30, a few minutes before the outage. This root session is still open as of this email. Additionally, there is a log file in /home/[username redacted] showing whether the daemon is running and who is logged in once per minute, and that file starts at the same time as the outage. ...

My company is seeking some DNS advice. This will probably be of the “consulting service” type of arrangement, where the consultants prepare a quote, work on a specific task, and bill by invoice. (If we can’t find a consulting service we like, we may also consider hiring an hourly contractor for a short period of time, probably 3-6 weeks). Approximate prerequisites are: Knows more about DNS than I do Exposure to multiple (at least 5) corporate IT environments with a role in managing or advising DNS infrastructure, preferably multiple “mixed” (unix/windows) shops Familiar with recent trends in DNS (such as dynamic updates, Active Directory, etc) and familiar with DNS best practices. Able to intelligently discuss choices that most IT organizations make with regard to DNS and articulate the pros and cons (i.e. don’t say “this is the only way”, rather say “here are the tradeoffs”) ...

I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here, to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world, without you. Some years from now, I may look back and wish that I had written more about this period, this week, this month.

I have accepted a contract position with SGI, to work on sendmail and spam filtering. I am extremely happy about this. I will be terminating at AV on 4/15 (or maybe 4/16?) I am happy about this as well. Unfortunately I had already signed up to have my transition extended to 5/31 so I will most likely lose my severance package due to voluntarily (wry grin) leaving earlier than my planned term date. Which means I forfeit the 3 mo. of pay I would have got by sticking it out another 6 weeks. But, I don’t want to risk losing the new opportunity. I will still get my “please stay until 4/15 bonus” on 4/15 though (which is about 6 weeks pay) and I will get vacation cashed out (3+ weeks). ...