Working all by my lonesome this week. My coworker is on vacation, so I have 3 long 12 hour shifts all by myself. One of the few times I’ve done this, I almost joined the Air Force. Right now, I’m kind of on a Navy kick, so I hope I won’t end up joining the Navy. I have a book and a few things to do, so maybe I can keep my mind straight. Still debating about going to Times Square next week. It’d be an experience, but I don’t think I’ll enjoy it. Not very shawndo. The friend I was going with called me today, and sounded like he didn’t care one way or the other. So I’m still debating.

I finished reading the Bourne trilogy from Ludlum. I can’t beleive it took me so long, but it really sucked! Maybe Clancy is a tough act to follow, but damn! I can’t believe this series was successfull! I don’t consider myself an expert on CIA or Special Operation or anything but there were times through that series that even I was yelling “BULLSHIT!” (Not unlike Tom Clancy’s commentary on the Sum of all Fears DVD) If it’s that easy, I’m gonna give it a shot. I’m gonna put some effort where my mouth is. Watch for a novel from Shawndo!

Its Christmas today, but otherwise is the same ‘ol stuff going on. Sleeping weird hours. Watching TV and reading. Only not all the shows are on because of Christmas! My mom asked me what I wanted, and I just said maybe some cologne and some mittens. Then she told me to send her links to show her exactly what I wanted! On top of that, they “scolded” my sister for not knowing exactly what she wanted from them, and having the links ready. Is it just me that thinks there is something a little strange about this? I didn’t get anyone anything. I got presents for everyone throughout the year. I think this is better because there is no deadline, and you can get something genuine. As opposed to meeting the shopping deadline. For my father, I am building that website though, and that was at the end of the year, but that happened to be the timing.

Messing around with the whole syndication thing. I just heard of RSS newsfeeds for the first time. I finally understand what this backend.php does. I put a Shawndo block on The-Drews.com Now I’m just trying to get the image correctly, which is part of the reason I’m adding this entry Just want to make sure I didn’t screw up my backend.php file so much that it stops updating. We’ll see!

By the way, for future reference, syndic8.com is a good resource for finding newsfeeds.

After trying a bunch of additions to oatmeal to make it bearable, I finally found something. And it fits the shawn-style. I kept on trynig different fruits, bananas, strawberries, etc. But for some reason, it didn’t do it for me. And, if you know me, I don’t like going to the grocery store too much, so I like to buy alot of crap to minimize the visits. This however has a negative effect on “fresh” foods. So I pretty much have to get storable foods. So I found these little cans of fruit cocktail. This is very Shawndo. I mixed one of these with a bowl of oatmeal, and it is finally edible. Damn cholesterol.

Working on a new site for my dad. The-Drews.com Basically a Drew family site. Still working on it, so its not presentable just yet.

I’m thinking about the layout for another site as well. I bought “setilab.org” a while ago, and now I have pictures of all the computers involved in running seti. Just trying to decide what other content will be on there.

I got a call back from the guy selling those 500K condos. Apparently they are only for people aged 55 and up. So even if I could afford it, I couldn’t get one. That’s still crazy.

Just got sick over the weekend. Haven’t gotten sick in a long time. Last time I can remember getting sick was 1997. After first moving to Austin, the change of the climate or something hit me. But moving here didn’t do a thing.

I saw a couple great movies. I’ve been watching IFC and Sundance lately. Legend of 1900 and Shadow Magic. Watch ‘em! “If you do have the means, I highly recommend you pick one up” What movie?

I drove by some newly built condos for sale on my way home from work (which means they are actually closer to work that my current 7 miles) They looked pretty nice, I thought they would be a little expensive but still in my price range. It’s possible they didn’t put the listings up yet (I hope) because I did a search for the agent, and found some of his listings. They were all 500K and up! I am hoping these aren’t the same condos. I’m calling to find out for sure, but damn. Freakin MA!

In other news, my D1000 actually works! I got all the parts I needed, and put it all together. works great! Totally worth the 200 bucks or so that I paid for it.

I read more about the Cable Chaining Technology (C2T) that I was complaining about yesterday. It’s actually pretty cool, but it just doesn’t fit my situation. Its basically a built in KVM for Netfinity’s, and the modern xSeries IBMs. So I retract my previous complaints about it.

I received all the crap I ordered from ebay over the last week. So my projects were:

1- 1U IBM netfinity to replace my old login box

2- D1000 jbod drive array to replace my old 711 Multipack

3- Replace my Fileserver with a rackmountable solution

Here is how it played out this week:

1- Got the Netfinity fine, looks like it turns on fine. BUT freakin IBM and its proprietary crap. it uses something called Cable Chaining Technology (C2T) for future reference. So I need to buy a converter to be able to hook up a monitor,keyboard, and mouse to this thing. I can’t really blame the ebay seller because IBM doesn’t ship this with the systems by default. So This whole project is stalled until I get the “break-out” cable from IBM.

2- D1000 came, and it was totally screwed up. I did get a suspiciously good price, and now I see why. The controller board didn’t even plug into the backplane. Plastic was broken all over the place, and the cover didn’t even want to stay on. There was a big fat “SCRAP” sticker on the front of it. Doesn’t look good. The rack-option was made of metal and it was contorted around the body of the case. As I am the laziest person in the world when it comes to mailing things, I figure I’ll try and fix this before I pursue a return. Meanwhile, I need a differential controller and a drive to plug into this thing. I previously thought my Multipack drives would work. And they would, except they are full-height and wont fit correctly. So I call up Workstation.net (GREAT parts place) and overnighted stuff I needed. Back to the D1000. I pull out my vise grips and bend the rack kit back in to shape so I can remove the D1000. I take it all a part, and see why the controller isn’t plugging in. Some pins on the backplane are bent, and it looks like the previous owner just tried to force the controller in harder to no avail. So I bent everything back into place, and coaxed the controller in there correctly. Which finally did go in. I plugged in all the other parts, and all looked good. plugged in an old sun drive, just to see if it powered up. Plugged everything in, and powered up, and wonder of wonders, everything looked like it powered up good. Super-glued the front on, and looks to be holding. It’ll be workable, and worth the price I paid. Another funny thing, is that it had an Enron sticker on it
3- Still need to get a rackmountable case for my Gateway. Looked at the motherboard, and it is a standard ATX motherboard. So I was thinkin. My Alienware workstation has a rackmountable case. So I thought about switchin. Problem was it Alienware has a dual-Xeon setup, and needs a power supply that has some extra cables (which my gateway doesn’t have) The sizes were different so I couldn’t switch around the power supplies. So I’m stuck with either getting a powersupply for the gateway that will fit a dual-Xeon setup, or get a rackmount case, and leave my alienware as-is. I think I’m going to just go for a new case. Supermicro is definitely the way to go for this, but I have to find “just the right” one.

Alright, enough geek-talk. I was drivin around in this snow storm the other day. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be. My car kicks ass, by the way. The AWD is where its at ! But I still have yet to see the “blizzard” maybe it won’t be so bad. The thing that sucks about snow is trackin wet slush every where you go. Luckily I have rubber mats in my car.

Went to NJ for thanksgiving. It was good. We cooked the turkey a little bit better, but I think I can do better. We didn’t get all the hardware for frying the turkey, so we had to roast it. NEXT TIME! That damn elusive fried turkey! I also got the chance to hang out with Pedro, a friend i had when I lived in Elizabeth, NJ from 1980-1984. Our mom’s kept in touch, so I still was able to get a hold of him. We went to a bar in Manhatten. It was pretty cool. I had a great time. I rarely “do” anything, and it was fun. So I set up a budget and thought all was good. BUT after I did the whole category thing, and figured out my spending habits for the past few months weren’t all that great. Evil EBAY! Anyway, I’m gonna do some “discipline” and get myself in a good situation again. We’ll see how I’m doing in a few months.