September 8, 2011

Application Server Troubleshooting tip

We recently ran across a problem in production that we could not replicate in lower environments. Since this is not only a high use application, but an exceptionally “chatty” app, searching the logs was an excersise in futility (*one* of yesterday’s production logs was 6,975,291 lines long, with multiple logfiles per app, multiple apps and multiple servers). So how do you find a needle in the haystack? Get a smaller haystack.

July 31, 2011

Looking for Beta Readers

Finally Finally Finally! Third revision of Ziggy’s first book is done. Now I’m looking for beta readers to read it and give me feedback on strong and weak parts of the story. Synopsis This is an autobiography of a man trying to find his place in the world. That world is the Kingdom of Willis, where Wizards are regulated, elves are under siege, Gnomes and Dwarves have locked themselves away, and an undying tyrant is feared by all.

June 18, 2011

Free hookah

With the purchase of any two ear infections and remember, pinkeye is still buy one get one. They’re checking now to see if they have any strep in stock… nope, out of stock. Oh well, i’ll have to make due with what I have.

May 22, 2011

Update: Wow!, I am disappoint (but not anymore).

For the last 9 years, I’ve been hosting this site and its predecessors out of my home. This is partially due to me being a control freak, and partially due to me being lazy. It was expensive, but the cost of a static ip comparable to paying for shared hosting someplace else. With this last move, the most economical way to accomplish this was to set up a Business account with WOW!

May 19, 2011

We’re Hiring…

My employer is currently looking for a sysadmin. If you’re interested, contact me for details. SR SYSTEMS ENGINEER ROLE IN FARMINGTON HILLS, MI Summary: We are looking for someone who will administer web hosting Linux systems infrastructure, including server hardware, operating system, enabling software, and application software/data for Internet-facing application systems. Direct other departments’ work on dependent systems such as network, firewall, load balancer, and external storage systems. Provide consultative expertise for our businesses to provide technical guidance, standards, knowledge and understanding of business and technology processes, and integration of technologies to deliver Internet-facing learning products and services.

April 10, 2011

SOLVED: Halp, “screen” is broken on CentOS on my Linode instance!

So while migrating some content to a Linode instance, I attempted to fire up screen ran face first into a brick wall. For context, this was on an up-to-date CentOS 5.5 instance running screen-4.0.3-3.el5. Steps to reproduce: logged in as my normal user typed in “screen” and hit enter console went blank for 5 seconds previous content returned, along with “[screen is terminating]” and my normal command prompt. Screen didn’t work for any regular users, however it did work for root.

March 15, 2011

Threaded Processing in Perl

Suppose you have a list of 1000 IP addresses that you wanted to scan and inventory. If each IP address took 10 seconds to properly inventory, scanning serially would take 166 minutes… That’s a long time for a server wth 16 gig of memory, gig ethernet and 8 processors. So rather than that, I’ve decided to parallellize my scan into 32 threads and feed in the IPs as threads free up.

January 30, 2011

Current Droid Apps

This is how the game is played… Here’s what I have installed. Task Killer – Kill background tasks when you’re feeling sluggish Wifi Analyzer – Find nearby wifi nodes and their source Lookout Mobile Security – Remote GPS locater and lock Titanium Backup – Awesome backup and recovery app Meridian Media Player – nice Widget player that only places a given directory My Verizon – Examine your verizon account WordPress – WordPress client for multiple sites Barcode Scanner – Scan barcodes, usually works pretty crappy.

January 21, 2011

Someone Stole My Monkey

So for whatever reason, I was googling around today and stumbled across this and saw that, damnit, someone stole my monkey. Not only that, but they’re linking directly to my server, and have been since 2006. I google more, and find someone using my security monkey to demonstrate an XSS attack. Now, the reason I created this image was for my security monkey shirt. I ask that everyone show their solidarity by spreading the work of the security monkey shirt to people most likely to buy one.

January 5, 2011

Releasing my Inner Rust Monster

It’s no secret Ziggy’s book is based off a DnD campaign that I ran many years ago, but due to the miracle of Intellectual Property law, I’ll probably have to obfuscate that in the book. The problem is identifying the legal lines in this situation;Â it’s unclear what I am and am not allowed to use. Let’s take the lowly Rust Monster in my book, Rusty. Wizards of the Coast does not appear to own a trademark on the term Rust Monster, however Gary Gygax did invent the creature for the first edition of DnD.