ramblings of the village idiot

This is a long-ish rant about why I will never use Travelocity to book a ticket again; it’s a wonderful tale of incompetent customer service. If you’re interested.. read more!

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For the last few years, I’ve been doing my best to make sure that each laptop and desktop monitor I purchase has an excellent quality high-resolution display panel. In general, resolution-wise this means 1920×1200 (WUXGA); however, with the advent of 1080p HDTV’s, I am also seeing some displays at 1920×1080. There are also the ultra-high-end displays (which are quite out of my price range) like the Dell 30″ displays (IE, the 3007WFP) which have a massive native resolution of 2560×1600. With my first 1920×1200 display (a Dell Inspiron 6000), I had lots of issues finding nice wallpapers available at that resolution. Since then, I’ve started using multiple monitors at 1920×1200, and need multi-display wallpapers. I’ve put together a list of sites I have found that offer free high-res backgrounds, and am also starting to post some of my own pictures as wallpapers; I hope you enjoy these and find them helpful! Please feel free to comment with any additional sites, or if there are any specific subjects you’d like to see available as a wallpaper.

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As of 2009/Nov/20, I’ve also decided to start offering some of my own backgrounds – I hope you enjoy! Please let me know if you’d like to see other resolutions available.

Background #1: John Cooper of Skillet in front of Pyro (blog post):

1680×1050: Single display at 1680×1050
1920×1200: Single display at 1920×1200
3360×1050: Dual displays at 1680×1050 each
3840×1200: Dual displays at 1920×1200 each

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• http://www.mandolux.com: A nice variety of wallpapers, including dual-screen and tri-screen wallpapers. Each is available at a crazy number of resolutions, from wussy (1024×768) to extreme (2560×1600). A few of my favorites:
  • Cisco/California: A nice shot of Cisco PCB’s
  • Scanner/Busted: Assortment of film strips
  • Master: A Master Lock doing it’s job. Unfortunately, the door did not.
  • STAR: Abstract sprinkler
  • Slowness: Fire! Fire! Fire!
  • Letter Opener: This is my kind of letter opener
  • New Year’s Eve: A beautiful cork
  • Axed: No comment!
• http://www.rpeterclark.com/Wallpapers.asp: MacOS and Windows-centric, but still kind of neat.
• http://www.plasmadesign.co.uk/widescreenabstract.htm: Abstract stuff, not my cup of tea, but you might like it!
• http://www.interfacelift.com/wallpaper: One of my favorite wallpaper sites – lets you sort by resolution, which is handy!
• http://www.graffitiwallpaper.com: Nature type stuff, pretty nice.
• http://www.veer.com/ideas/wallpaper/: Lots of various wallpapers, all available in 1920×1200.
• http://1920-1200-wallpaper.blogspot.com/: This is a blog where the author adds things on a regular basis.. nice!
• http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/articles/wallpaper.aspx: Tons of macro photos. Beautiful!

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If you know of any other great wallpaper sites, please comment!

RANCID, the “Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ” (nice backronym, eh?) is a program that periodically goes out and fetches the config files from your routers / switches / many other devices that it supports. If you manage any of these type of devices, and do not currently use RANCID, well, all I can say is.. do it!

Why am I bringing this up now? We had a switch failure at work lately, and somehow while replacing the failed component, the switch managed to wipe it’s configuration (how? no idea.) Without RANCID, we would have been trying to figure out at least 4-5 months of configuration from the last time that the file was copied off the switch. We do have a RANCID server, which was unfortunately behind the switch that failed.. but fortunately, the server was being backed up by our BackupPC server, so we were able to hop on the web interface and grab a day-old config file. Even if we hadn’t had the BackupPC server, however, it would have only been a 15-minute job to recable the RANCID server onto a different switch and grab the config file from there — much better than the multi-hour job to rebuild the config of the failed switch. However, this does tell me that it’s actually not a bad idea to set up a job to regularly sync your switch config files from your RANCID server to an off-site machine.

In short: RANCID rocks! Use it!

uh, ok?

…this used to point at a flash version of Guitar Hero, but it’s disappeared. Ah well. You’re not missing much..

The other day, I ran across oDesk, which is a site where contractors (“Providers”) can offer their services and clients (“Buyers”) can find them. Providers can take free tests to show their skills. The site also facilitates payments, etc.

Quite interesting – I’ll have to try it out at some point. One thing I notice is that many of the providers are from other countries, and their rates are dirt cheap – it’ll be interesting to see what the quality of their work is. It would certainly be tempting to hire someone for $10/hr to do some menial labor..

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of XenEnterprise as a virtulization platform, as it’s based on open source software, and just makes it a lot nicer to manage. For some reason, it just seems to make a lot more sense to me than VMware ESX when I’m trying to debug a problem between the two – I think it’s just because I know the OSS Xen hypervisor very well, and can understand what’s going on behind the scenes a little bit more.

In any case, Citrix just released a new version of XenEnterprise – 4.1. There are lots of new features (like very tight Netapp integration, which is cool), but the biggest one for me has to be support for live migration on fibre channel storage, which is huge. I’ve done extensive testing of it starting with 4.1 beta 1, and am pleased to report that it works quite well in my environment. Highly recommended – if you haven’t tried this yet, go give it a shot!

Last night, Minneapolis was the first stop on Skillet’s Comatose tour, with Thousand Foot Krutch and Decyfer Down. It was at Club 3 Degrees, which is a small Christian club on 1st and 5th downtown. Tiff and I went with a friend, and met up with one of my coworkers and a couple friends at the show.

The doors were set to open at 6:30, we showed up around 6:40 after parking, and the line of people was wrapped around the block. I took a look at the number of people, tried to figure out how in the world they were all going to fit in the club, and then decided not to worry about it. ;) We finally got in around 7:00ish, and found a spot that wasn’t too crowded off to the side. The sound wasn’t the greatest where we were, but the view was much better than the shorter people in our group could have gotten from the floor.. next time I go to the club, I think I will have to pay the $50-$75 for a private table on the first row of the balcony, however.. get a great view and good sound from up there.

Decyfer Down opened up. I’d never heard of them, and I think I will still maintain I’ve never heard of them. Just didn’t interest me.

After about a half-hour set change (eesh), TFK came out. Their show rocked! They were really able to engage the crowd and keep things moving. Unfortunately (for me!), most of the songs they sang were from their new album, which I didn’t even know existed until yesterday afternoon.. but they did pull out a couple of their old songs, which was great.

Then came Skillet. From the moment they got on the stage, they had the crowd moving – it was great. If you’re not familiar with Skillet, they are a bit of a unique band – the lead singer (John Cooper) plays bass, they have another guy on guitar (Ben Kasica), John’s wife Korey is on keyboards and guitar, and they have an unbelievable female drummer named Jen Ledger. They also have an cello and violin in many of their songs, which is pretty awesome – how often do you see a rock show with strings other than guitars? In any case, their entire performance was unbelievably sweet – by far the best concert I’ve been to. I just wish I had gotten there an hour earlier, so we could have gotten a good spot on the floor – but ah well. ;)

If you ever have a chance to see TFK or Skillet in concert, all I can say is do it!

So, SuperTarget had asparagus on sale for $.99/lb. Tiff and I both love the stuff, so even though it wasn’t in the greatest shape, we picked some up. I usually buy asparagus in the frozen, ready-to-steam bags, and it tastes good. However, this time it was fresh asparagus, and I couldn’t find our steamer. I thought about blanching it, and finally went meh, and tossed the asparagus in a hot skillet with some olive oil and kosher salt. The results were AWESOME. I probably cooked it for 2-3 minutes in total; not long at all.. instead of being kind of mushy, it’s nice and crisp, and the flavor just explodes out of it. I love it.

Tiff prefers the mushy stuff, unfortunately.. ah well, I can mush hers up after I cook mine. ;)

A few weeks ago, a coworker pointed out Mosso, which bills itself as “The Hosting Cloud”. Looks like a really interesting service – basically like shared hosting that will scale forever; no need to worry about individual servers, etc.

If you are just hosting a generic php/rails/etc site that gets a lot of traffic, it looks like this would be a pretty sweet (and affordable) solution. Unfortunately, most of the stuff I do (both personally and at work) is too complicated to host on this – ie, it requires third-party software like solr or other java apps.

If anyone has tried it out, let me know how it went for you!

Last week, my HTC Kaiser dropped off my belt in a cold, cold parking lot, and sat there for about four hours before I was able to come back and get it. Gah! It worked OK, except for a big crack on the bottom half of the screen. Gah! After a couple days, the crack had spread, so I can’t see anything on the display. This makes the phone pretty much useless. Sigh.

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I put an order in for a new phone yesterday, but because it’s a Saturday, I won’t get a new phone delivered until Tuesday at the earliest. All my spare phones have been sold or eaten (my dogs + electronics != bliss), so that means I can’t make calls or see who’s calling me until a new phone comes. I figured I could probably deal with this.. but today I was at Target, and noticed that they have AT&T Gophones, which are pre-paid cell phones. On a whim, I picked up a $20 GoPhone (Motorola c168i), figuring I might be able to pop my SIM card in and make it work. Got home, tried it out, and what’dya know, it works!

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It’s a junk phone (it’s only got GPRS – not even EDGE networking, horrible interface, etc), but at least I can send and receive calls, texts, etc. ;) I’d expect that this would also work for any other company that is GSM (I guess in the US that would be, er, T-Mobile).. if this helps you out, let me know!

ok, this site is cool:

http://www.revfad.com/flip.html

So.

I was hanging some speakers in our living room.

And managed to punch a hole in the wall. [I was pounding in an anchor, and the wall gave way. Sigh.]

This weekend I decided to patch said hole.

I learned some things about myself and drywall patching:
1) If the piece is just a little bit too big, never try to push it into place. Bad things happen.
2) When trimming to put a new piece in stud-to-stud, don’t accidentally cut a few inches too far on one side. Bad things happen.
3) When taping, be sure to get enough mud under the tape. Otherwise, bad things happen.
4) Don’t let Nate do drywall. Bad things happen.

In any case, it’s mostly cleaned up now — just need to sand it, paint it, etc. Sigh. ;)

I really should have taken some pictures.. sorry, I’ve been sucking at that lately.

A friend invited me to a new site – Notchup. Basically, you set up a profile, post some details, and in theory employers who are looking for employees like you will actually pay to interview you. Interesting! I might be a little bit more interested in listening to recruiters if they are willing to pay me for my time. ;)

Place of purchase: Surdyk’s
Title: Champignon Brie (Mushroom)

Description:
Champignon Brie is a German import with a rich, mushroomy flavor and a silky interior. Enjoy with a German Gewurtztraminer wine and crusty french bread.

Comments:
I haven’t ever been a huge brie fan, but Tiff and I figured we’d try this one. Still not my favorite cheese ever, but I probably just need to work up to brie! Fairly strong flavor, with a hint of mushrooms. Enjoyed it more than the brie I’ve had before in any case..

Place of purchase: Surdyk’s
Title: Marieke Gouda, Thorp, WI

Description:
This farmhouse gouda is crafted from raw milk by Marieke Penterman, who learned to make cheese in Holland. This is the most authentic gouda made in the US: the sweet and nutty flavor intensifies with age, making it an excellent pair with toasty beer like Oktoberfest or Winter Ale.

Comments:
Gouda was probably the first real cheese I ever had; I don’t count the generic processed stuff we generally put on hamburgers. ;) This cheese is like the Gouda I remember, but so much better. It has a rather mild flavor, but is still strong enough to stand up with good wine or beer.

Place of purchase: Surdyk’s
Title: Porter Cheddar, Ireland

Description:
Irish Cheddar from Cahill Farm, lightly flavored with Porter. Butter and caramel flavors in finish.

Comments:
We first had this one at Kevin and Amy’s, and like it enough that we picked up some in our cheese outing. We were just as happy with it the second time. It’s a nice, firm cheddar; not too sharp. The porter gives it a nice, caramel-like finish. Highly recommend it!

Tiff and I recently did dinner with Kevin and Amy. It was excellent. Tiny chickens are good! In any case, they got us totally addicted to two things: cheese and lambic. Both are highly recommended. ;) In any case, this is just a note that we’re planning on trying out various kinds of cheeses, and actually posting reviews on them. Kind of similar to what Paul does with wine, but I’m my own person, so it’s different. Right??? Oh, yeah, we’ll also try to do wine reviews, with occasional Lambic thrown in. ;)

In any case, enjoy. And yell at me if I don’t post enough reviews!

Where I live (Savage, MN), I don’t have much of a choice for high-speed internet other than Mediacom. They are the local cable company.. I don’t qualify for DSL, the wifi services in the area don’t reach me, and a T1 is just too expensive (and slow!).

Unfortunately, they have been having outage after outage (they are down right now – this is the second outage that has lasted over four hours in the last two weeks), they don’t have battery backups in my area, so if power goes out, they go down, etc, etc. When they are down, they also refuse to give an ETA of any sort on when it will be back up, and I’ve had employees be extremely rude when I ask about it.

I really, really wish I could get some other provider that is actually reliable (and/or actually cared) for under $400/mo.

Well, the project that I’ve been working (with a large team) on for the last two months or so at work has finally gone into public beta – check it out at slantly.com.

Basically, slantly is a site where you can post an opinion, and other people can either agree or disagree with it, and provide supporting arguments. It can either be very interesting and informative (ie, most debates on NPR), or degenerate into a big mess (ie, the Jerry Springer show.)

In any case, enjoy, and let me know what you think! Be sure to check out the ‘About’ page to see who’s working on the site. We’ve got a pretty good team on this one!

Oh, and the team has lots of cool features coming soon to a Slantly near you.

I think at some point I’ll post some technical details on the developer’s blog too.

I’ve received a few requests over time about how to manage a Dell PowerVault 660F from Linux hosts, most recently from a nice guy named Robert. He reminded me that I really should post some information on this here, as it can be hard to find.

Standard Disclaimer: If you follow any of my tips and it breaks your array, I can’t help. It’s been a long time since I’ve touched one of them. These instructions are for informational purposes only.

Basically, all I can recommend is to scrap Dell’s OpenManage utilities. They make it very hard to manage the array in a way that lets it be used easily for Linux-based hosts. The RAID controllers are actually Mylex FFX controllers, and you can download the OEM software (eArray Director) from:

http://www.engenio.com/support/profibre_downloads.html

It makes management of these arrays just like most other arrays — it allows you to set up the LUN’s, map the LUN’s to specific connected hosts, etc. Makes life way easier. Oh, yeah, it also runs on Linux.

Also, if you are not running a recent firmware version, upgrade! If I recall correctly (it’s been awhile since I’ve used my array; it’s actually in my basement waiting for eBay right now), the most recent “Dell-supported” version is 7.82. There is also an 8.40 image available that I’ve read works. I’ve put a few images up at:

http://www.natecarlson.com/downloads/powervault-660f/

Let me know how things go!