2010-03-10T12:09:22Z Andreas Klinko Copyright 2010, Andreas Klinko SPHPBLOG http://www.evildre.com/index.php?entry=entry100227-193340 2010-02-28T00:00:00Z 2010-02-28T00:00:00Z
I took upwards of 200 pictures, but not all of them made the cut. I lean pretty heavily on the auto focus on these cameras, and the auto focus sucks almost as much as the steadiness of my hands. Some of these were just barely out of focus and were easily fixed with a quick sharpen, but others were just horrendous. In the end, I think there are only 110 photos left.

So ... link is in the bar on the right. Enjoy!]]> http://www.evildre.com/index.php?entry=entry100213-212646 2010-02-14T00:00:00Z 2010-02-14T00:00:00Z
I imagine it will be more depressing than last year's Auto Show. i hear Ford had a very good display at the Detroit Auto Show, so I expect something good from them this year. Toyota, not so much; from what I've seen they're leaving the FT-86 out, and that's the one car from them I really wanted to see. Honda's bringing the CR-Z, which should be interesting to look at. They'll undoubtedly have the Crosstour, which doesn't photograph well but looks amazing in person.

Anyway ... looking forward to running down tons of batteries and filling up memory cards. ]]> http://www.evildre.com/index.php?entry=entry100210-191853 2010-02-11T00:00:00Z 2010-02-11T00:00:00Z
At the moment, we're using X-Lite. It's a gateway drug, as it were -- a free application that provides users with the "most popular" features of eyeBeam and Bria, CounterPath's paid products. It's a separate, standalone program.

The problem is that this is an additional program to support. Additional programs require additional how-to guides, additional application knowledge, additional licenses, and so on. if the softphone component is integrated into an already-familiar application, that's one less thing to worry about. For example, everyone in the office knows how to use Skype for voice and IM. Why not have a separate tab in the Skype interface that allows the user to place and receive alls via our own Trixbox?]]> http://www.evildre.com/index.php?entry=entry100201-203406 2010-02-02T00:00:00Z 2010-02-02T00:00:00Z
I don't know if I'm patient enough to wait for T-Mobile to release their MyTouch Eclair update, but Cyanogen is still based on Donut. That may leave loading a generic Eclair ROM ... which may not necessarily work well.

In other news, I signed up for Twitter. No surprises on the username I chose ... trying to figure out the point. ]]> http://www.evildre.com/index.php?entry=entry100120-214409 2010-01-21T00:00:00Z 2010-01-21T00:00:00Z http://www.evildre.com/index.php?entry=entry100117-124449 2010-01-17T00:00:00Z 2010-01-17T00:00:00Z
In real life, we generally don't deal with code that is completely our own. Often, the code is not particularly well documented; this is where education kicks in. Common sense is also required, as uncommented code cannot remain that way.

Now, with that said, it's still fun to do. Can be a little frustrating if the creator of the code did things in a not-so-straightforward manner, but still fun and quite satisfying when it works.

Why am I posting about coding? There's going to be a bit of it this year. Maybe not on this site, because color scheme changes don't need code updates, but for other sites I've been working on. I really want to nail down a new design for Images on Ice, for example.

Anyway, I'm rambling now.]]> http://www.evildre.com/index.php?entry=entry100109-173021 2010-01-09T00:00:00Z 2010-01-09T00:00:00Z
To me, it didn't feel like Christmas this year (just like it didn't feel like Thanksgiving a month ago). My family has always celebrated Christmas on the 24th and there were lots of people (including Julie, due to work) missing from that celebration. It felt like the holiday snuck up on us this year. We were also kind of rushed yesterday because Julie works today and tomorrow, so we had to get home at a decent time so she could wake up early enough to get to work. Snowplows haven't been out yet, and it's 8:45.

With all that said ... I really didn't tell anyone I wanted anything this year. No hint dropping, no lists ... really the only thing I wanted was a set of four 2TB hard disks, but that wasn't necessarily for Christmas ;) I did get New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a Nerf N-Strike Rapid Fire AS-20, some cash, and assorted gift cards. I gave Julie a SingStand iPod karaoke mic, some shiba inu gear (T-shirts and such), and comfy pajamas.

2010 is less than a week away now. On the one hand I'm wondering where 2009 went ... but on the other I'm glad it's over because it was a stressful year. Granted, there are others among my friends and family who have had more stressful years, but I'm sure they're also happy to see 2009 go. In less than a week there will be a clean slate ... still doesn't feel like it, though.]]> http://www.evildre.com/index.php?entry=entry091226-084655 2009-12-26T00:00:00Z 2009-12-26T00:00:00Z
However, until today I had no experience in virtualizing a machine. By that I mean I have never converted a physical computer into a virtual machine. Sure, I've set up a virtual machine with a configuration identical to that of a physical one, and I've migrated the roles and applications over with the purpose of decommissioning the old hardware. Today, though, I took a machine that was up and running and essentially moved it from its physical hardware to a file on a disk.

Think about that for a second. Here I had a pretty low-end server (Pentium 4 3.0GHz w/HyperThreading, 1GB RAM, two 80GB IDE hard disks in software RAID 1 with 72GB used, Windows Server 2003 Standard, SQL Server 2005 Developer, SVN, IIS, blah blah blah) and, after just under an hour, the physical computer could be turned off with no loss in data or services. As an added bonus, because the host's processors and hard disks are ridiculously quick (dual Xeon E5540s and a RAID 60 composed of thirty 146GB 15,000RPM SAS disks), the virtual machine is actually faster than the old physical one.


So ... here's a machine that stood on the floor of a server room, taking up roughly 2.85 cubic feet of space (18.5 in x 10.25 in x 26 in, specifically). Now that this conversion is complete, that floor space is free. The machine now exists as a single 80GB file on a disk array in a server rack. It no longer consumes any physical space. The machine's power supply is no longer drawing current; instead, the current draw of the host machine rises a little bit. The fans are no longer dumping heat into the server room; instead, the heat output of the host machine and its disk arrays increases ever so slightly. Hardware that moves and stores bits has become just that -- bits. So freaking cool.

Now, I know I did pretty much nothing in this process apart from loading and configuring the operating system on the new host machine, installing the software that made this P2V conversion possible, and entering the usernames and passwords required to perform this task. But, in the end, it's damn cool, and I can say I've done this now. There's another, identical (hardwarewise) old server sitting on the floor of the server room right now. That is the next one on the P2V list. After that ... there are 4 more old servers remaining. One will be replaced by a virtual machine (rather than P2Vd itself), one will be replaced by new hardware, one will simply be shut down, and one needs to stay as-is until a certain specific plan is completed.]]> http://www.evildre.com/index.php?entry=entry091208-203428 2009-12-09T00:00:00Z 2009-12-09T00:00:00Z
If I really wanted to, I could wrap lights around the roof completely. That's one of the reasons I love the LEDs -- you can connect up to 29 strings of lights end-to-end, as opposed to 7 for the standard bulbs.

In other news, I'm on call this weekend. I am extremely happy that nobody called while I was on the roof -- I could only imagine the thoughts going through a customer's head if I had to tell them "hang on a second, I need to climb off the roof." It would be even worse if I slipped off the ladder and broke something, and then had to tell the customer I couldn't fix their problem on account of injury :) However, after all is said and done, I've had three calls so far: two were wrong numbers, and one was a customer with a genuine problem that I helped solve.

Thinking of putting up the tree today, but Julie is still asleep. I wonder how Daisy will react to the presence of the tree, as this is her first Christmas ... and I wonder if she will react to it differently when the lights are on. ]]> http://www.evildre.com/index.php?entry=entry091206-090919 2009-12-06T00:00:00Z 2009-12-06T00:00:00Z