Author: cdwan

Geek question: What is the appropriate profanity to use when one discovers that the “best practices” use of a particular piece of file storage gear is to leave “at least 20%” of it free, or else “MAJOR PROBLEMS” will occur? I couldn’t decide, so I just used all of my favorites. “MAJOR PROBLEMS” apparently includes total system crashes.

I mean, seriously. If it just doesn’t f-ing work beyond 80%, then don’t f-ing show me that f-ing space as available. Okay? Is that so hard?

Anyway, I got the damn thing working again after it crashed again, since the user who had filled her entire allotted space went ahead and resumed work, like we told her to. Quotas? Oh don’t be silly. Your puny quotas can’t protect you. We have a hybrid “script to check on it” and “scare the users silly” approach, which ought to hold while I beat an apology and a patch out of the vendor for their crappy product.

Blah blah, 120TB of storage back online, blah blah, 300MB / sec transfer rates. blah blah.

Time to go get on a plane, again.

Well, here’s the first salvo I’ve seen:

Some Voting Machines Chop Off Candidates’ Names.

Specifically, James Webb, the Democratic candidate, will be listed as “James W. ‘Jim’”. No “Webb.” This is the guy who is trying to unseat the racist moron who is locally famous for calling black people “macaque” while on camera, and for displaying a confederate flag in his office. Oh yeah, and everybody’s party affiliation will be truncated.

The districts affected? Only the richest and (presumably) most liberal in all of VA: Charlottesville, Alexandria, and Falls Church.

True, it’s only on the “summary page,” where voters confirm their choices … but still. Wow.

In related news, the construction worker who lambasted Bush out of nowhere at the sushi bar last night was telling stories of typos on voting registrations in Florida, similarly centered in traditionally liberal districts.

Admittedly, the effect will be small in raw terms. Maybe a couple of percentage points. Of course, that’s all it takes to swing an election these days.

The fix is in.

The solution to the NASA problem wound up being a very particular, poorly documented command. I knew it. They were back online before lunch. We spent the rest of the day building “the fastest damn 80TB array we could.”

They took my hair gel at the airport. “Sorry sir, this is 3.5oz, and the limit is 3oz.” “But I’ve USED a bunch of it!”

In the random lotto which is car rental via Priceline, I got a minivan.

At the sushi restaurant tonight, I sat next to two huge, redneck, construction workers … one of whom turned to me out of nowhere and said “this country is being led by a bought and paid for imbecile, who can barely speak … but who sends our young men to die overseas by the thousands. The thing that really gets me though is that he’s going to steal the next election, just like he stole the last two!”

I have hope. All is not bad.

Here’s a rough one: Crash kills 86-year-old, driver faces DUI charge, 2nd accident kills EMT who tried to aid victims. The reason that I bring it up is that the EMT who was killed was the son of a friend-of-a-friend.

Yet more evidence that I’m a rock star:

NASA called yesterday. Their 60TB disk array has melted down. I’m on the 6am flight this morning.

In other news, the whole world as far as I can see, is dark at 4:30am.

My company is having a 7am meeting in Woburn, MA tomorrow morning. Woburn is about 2 hours north of my house, by car. That would require me to leave at unacceptable:00 to arrive on time. However, due to a fortunate turn of events, we decided to rent a suite at a Marriott “Residence Inn” for the meeting. The original plan was to show up in the morning, get the room, and then use a “late check out” the same day. In a flash of insight, I decided to *sleep* in the room instead, meaning that I took a leisurely drive up here this evening … stopping off for some mad Katamari at capital_l and technolopes house. Two guesses as to who carved the pumpkin.

Who lives like this? That’s right. Rock stars live like this. It’s the only explanation, really.

Today was remarkably productive. For the first time in memory, I finished all the tasks I had listed off for the weekend. This included:

* Got the beer-fridge running in the basement. I now have a *chilled* keg of homebrew on tap.
* Fixed the dryer vent
* Installed the buddha of the splice, who revealed himself to redmed.
* Fixed stuff around the house. Puttered.
* Went over finances with redmed, enabling the purchase of holiday travel, Haiti tickets, and so on.
* Canned the sauerkraut. 7 quart jars. For those who need to know such things, it’s worth noting that Michael’s has broad selection of mason jars, for sale as singles.
* Mowed the lawn, possibly for the last time this year
* Tried out the chiminea.

Woot. I’m going to sleep. Unacceptable:00 plus two hours is still damn early.

The wine is settling nicely, and a young man’s thoughts turn to bottling … and to total vs. recurring costs of this hobby. I’m about to order about $200 worth of supplies from Northern Brewer, including:

* 4 cases of awesome, blue bottles (two cases slope shouldered, two of the more sturdy looking bordeaux style). I plan to start saving bottles for re-use now … in case I need more than 48 bottles. technolope and capital_l, you’re welcome to help.
* a corker
* corks
* inkjet labels

Combined with the two buckets of juice I already bought, this brings the total cost of this particular batch to around $300 for 10 gallons. That’s 50 bottles (give or take), for a cost of something like $6 a bottle. If I remove all the reusable components from that cost. The recurring cost per bottle (which assumes that I get most of my bottles back, and I can replace from store bought empties) is around $2.50.

Interestingly, beer costs between $0.6 and $1.10 a bottle (recurring) when I make it. Undoubtedly, this is because of all the processed ingredients. Beer is relatively expensive compared with the cost of going to the store, but wine appears to be dirt cheap if I make it myself. Of course, it’s actually all about the joy of serving homebrew, not the cost, but it’s an interesting bit of math.

I happened upon a 5 gallon carboy, sitting outside of an antique store, labeled with an $8 price tag yesterday. I was unable to resist … so I purchased it and brought it home. Now, I see that it is far too filthy to ever be allowed to hold any of my precious fluids … so I plan to fill it with small objects as a sort of “artistic commentary” on the holding capacity of glass vessels.

Thus I hereby announce the “what shall I put in the carboy” contest. The winner will be mentioned by name, every time I speak of the carboy. Here are some initial thoughts as to things that the carboy might contain:

* corks
* colored sand, artfully arranged in layers
* marbles
* chipmunks (easier than it sounds: If I put a layer of thistle seed in it and leave it behind the garage, I will have mice and chipmunks by morning
* pennies
* insanely powerful magnets

Give unto me your ideas!

Here are my predictions for national politics in the coming months:

1) Gas prices dip below $2 just in time for the election. They will then rocket back up to around $3 (by January)

2) Dirty laundry will continue to be aired. I’m betting on accusations of homosexuality and cowardice … just like I hear from the kids in karate class.

3) We’ll see “surprising republican gains” in districts which use Diebold electronic voting machines. It’ll be just enough for the republicans to maintain control of both houses.

4) Just after the election (in December), both Iran and North Korea will come bubbling to a head, overflow the pot, and spill out into regional disturbances.