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July 2005 Archive
Saturday, July 23, 2005
[Comments: 2] 5:49 AM - we-have-IPs
Maybe our network engineer is just too busy to make getting us IPs any kind of priority, but after months of waiting and very careful allocation of IP addresses to customers, so as to conserve enough to last us until we were granted a new, larger block, we finally have a brand new /20 block of IPs.
/20 represents the "mask" of bits specified in the 32 bit binary address. That means that the first 20 are "known" and specified in our block and we get all the possible combinations that the last 12 bits can make to issue to customers. 12 bits worth of addresses is two to the twelfth power, or 4096 IP addresses.
The way we finally accomplished getting them is a bit sad. Karl managed to find out who was responsible for analyzing our justification paperwork at ARIN and after some direct contact, found that our application was stalled not because they were generally being difficult, but instead because things weren't being pursued as diligently as they probably should have been. After a couple quick back and forth communications and some final paperwork, we have our full allocation available immediately.
Now all that remains is the start of the process of migrating the old IP blocks to the new space. Ultimately we have to return our old blocks of addresses as they were not directly assigned to us, but instead delegated to us by upstream providers. Once most of these addresses are returned to their respective owners, we will be able to request more addresses from ARIN as necessary.
I personally expect that now that we have enough addressing space to sell servers again, it's going to lead quite immediately to our running out of address space again, so we're going to have to go for a reasonably swift migration process so we can request another 4096 IPs by the time we will absolutely need them.
[Comments: 3] 5:36 AM - mercury-rising
Well, the forecast as of yesterday for Sunday was 100 degrees. As of today, Saturday, they're now calling for 102 degrees. This will beat the previous record by nearly ten degrees, assuming they don't raise the forecast another 2 degrees by tomorrow and that the high temperature doesn't end up turning out hotter than forecast. It's going to be one unpleasant day to be outside, and every plant that hasn't already died from lack of rain is going to get a nice baking.
Also, gotta wish my Mom a happy birthday here, since I know she reads my blog.... Happy Birthday Mom! :)
Friday, July 22, 2005
[Comments: 8] 8:44 AM - stir-gently-over-low-heat
I just mixed around some random elements of the site in ways you will probably never notice, unless you kept careful notes about where everything was and how the HTML was previously organized. If you can actually find any particular change and are the first to comment on it, you will win a prize! The prize is a either a hug or a firm handshake (depending on the appropriateness of either action based upon my current relationship with you) awarded at the next time I see you in person.
If you actually happen to notice anything that's not working, let me know. For that, I might even hug you twice (or shake both of your hands simultaneously). I'd appreciate a test trackback to make sure I didn't break anything there, if anyone is so inclined.
Oh, I also took some time to rewrite some of the text on the about page. Go have a look.
[Comments: 1] 5:39 AM - I'm-melting
So, this is in store for Sunday:
...EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY MORNING TO LATE SUNDAY NIGHT...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY MORNING TO LATE SUNDAY NIGHT.
WE EXPECT THE HIGH TEMPERATURE ON SUNDAY TO REACH 100 TO 103 DEGEREES IN MANY PLACE IN NORTHERN ILLINOIS AND NORTHWEST INDIANA. THE RELATIVE HUMIDITY WILL BE NEAR AND ABOVE 40 PERCENT SUNDAY. THIS WILL GIVE HEAT INDICIES OF 100 TO 114 ACROSS MOST OF THE NORTHERN ILLINOIS AND NORTHWEST INDIANA ON SUNDAY.
I still don't exactly understand why the National Weather Service seems to feel that typing in all caps is necessary for such an advisory.
In any case, a day like Sunday could tip the power grid to the breaking point and give our datacenter another good power backup test. I just hope we can keep power and air conditioning on the whole day so that I don't have to experience that sort of heat.
Why has this summer been so cruel to me? Give me some 80s and a few inches of rain already! :)
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
[Comments: 0] 7:30 PM - buh-da-buh-buh-buh
Last night I was at the datacenter late, so we ended up running down to our usual 3 late choices, McDonald's, White Castle, and Miller's. Ray wanted quick, and Karl wanted food, so that left us with just McDonald's. Unfortunately, in spite of their cups claiming otherwise, the nearest restaurant is not open late. The Drive-Through seems to close at 11 or so.
Still wanting to go to McDonald's, we recalled that there was one on the way to Lou Malnati's, specifically this McDonald's, open 24 hours, which is without a doubt the largest and nicest one I have ever been in. The architecture is interesting too. They also have a nearby parking lot, so we can go there in my car and not have to worry about street parking.
In other, unrelated news, I dug up the information on getting the few quirks with my laptop fixed and finally got it in for service. The power light on the front does not light up anymore for some reason, and sometimes the touchpad doesn't respond properly. I delivered it through Radio Shack because it's easier than me trying to organize shipping for it. They'll ship it to Compaq, get warranty repair, and then let me know when it's back. They said it should be 5-10 business days.
Finally, I saw rain today! I know it's rained a little bit off and on for the past 60 days, but this is the first time in a while I was actually outside when it was raining. Still, not as much as we need, but even if got this much daily, it would get us back to some semblance of normality.
Post-finally, and to my particular disgust, rather than getting rid of the stupidity of daylight savings time, we are just going to prolong the agony and screw up all the hardware that already knows about the old method. If we have to do that, why can't this be the event where we kill DST, once, and for all. At least most hardware supports turning off DST magic. Pratically nothing is going to natively support changing when it happens. Nope, instead Bush just has to sign a piece of paper to extend the time range so that it's March through November. Argh!
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
[Comments: 8] 6:34 AM - spam-be-gone
I've converted the "Email" field on the comments pages to a "Link / Email: (optional)" field. The old email addresses will still show up, but they'll now be a little bit munged in order to ensure that they are harder for spambots to harvest. In addition, the field is also and preferably where you should put a link to your personal web site, so I know where to go to read every little thing I never wanted to know about you.
However, I've disabled field validation, so if you really want to, you can just leave your name with your comment, and sadly, I'll never be able to reach you or find out who you are.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
[Comments: 5] 7:08 AM - wet-stuff-falling-from-the-sky
It looks like we're finally going to get some rain around here. My rough estimate is that in the past 45 days we have had about one half inch of rain. As I love rain, and especially thunderstorms, I'm kind of annoyed. This is the best time of year for those things. This weather is atypical for Chicago, thankfully, so I don't have this to look forward to every summer for the forseeable future. :)
For the past few days I've been asking people down south being hit by the hurricanes to send one my way. It looks like the remants of Dennis have listened, and they're here. The forecast says we might get up to an inch out of this deal.
It's amazing that in 24 hours we'll quite possibly get more rain than we have in all of the past 45 days combined. The main question for me, though, is whether this will pass and leave us another 45 dry summer days. I hope not.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
[Comments: 0] 3:56 AM - bicycle-brigade
Maybe it's just living in a city, which I never have before, but I've seen such weird things since I've moved down here. Things just seem to randomly contradict what I expect. Maybe the idea is just to keep the "city folk" on their toes.
This early morning, we got off to a very late dinner, and in search of somewhere to eat, we ended up deciding we were down to two options: White Castle and Miller's Pub. Miller's pub was the choice, but Ray was tired and didn't want to wait for the bus, so he went back to the apartment. Karl and I waited for, and got on the #N4 bus, which arrived within reasonable time of our wait. I believe we got to the bus stop at 1 AM, and waited 20 minutes, which isn't bad for the N4 (since it's a low-service late-night only run). Anyway, we got up about 4 stops and then we stopped at a traffic light... while we waited for several thousand bicycles to ride by. Most odd was they allowed the city bus to approach the road from the south and left us little choice but to sit there and wait for about a half-hour for cyclists to go by. Other vehicles were passing us to make a right turn, but no one could go straight or left. Worse was the people they allowed to enter the line of cars trying to go southbound on Michigan. These people were allowed to approach the same intersection, only to be completely blocked from going any direction, including the ability to turn around and find another route.
There was a guy on the bus who seemed to know what was going on, but he was nearly unintelligible, so that didn't really help any. Eventually, the bikers all got across the intersection and we were able to complete the run for the last serveral stops. I'm glad it finished when it did, because the guy on the bus was starting to get kinda creepy and I wanted to get away from him fairly quickly.
Research seems to indicate that the Friends of the Parks have an annual LATE bicycle ride.
After finally getting to Miller's we learned that while it is open until 4 AM, the kitchen closes at 2 AM. We got in just under the wire there, but we'll have to keep the kitchen closing in mind for the future unless we just want to go drink at the bar. :)
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
[Comments: 1] 7:39 AM - yeah-yeah-I-know
In case you didn't notice by the timestamp of my last post, I have failed miserably at adjusting my schedule back to something reasonable.
I'm going to keep trying. :)
[Comments: 2] 7:10 AM - happy-sixth-of-July
Happy Independence Day! ... Okay, so I'm off by 2 days...
Anyway, for some reason here in Chicago, they chose to have the fireworks on the 3rd of July instead of (or possibly in addition to; some people were asking where the fireworks were on the 4th) the traditional actual holiday. I guess that's fine, but they closed all the roads going downtown and were routing traffic oddly (and slowly).
As a result, S. Indiana Avenue was completely loaded with traffic. We decided that we should eat at Applebee's that night, and we needed to go southbound to get there, but to leave the apartment parking lot, you have to go northbound, since the road is divided. From the parking lot to the first intersection where I could turn around was a good 5 to 10 minute wait, followed by a right turn down a very narrow side street and eventual reemergence on Indiana going southbound. It's sad when it takes more than 5 minutes to go one block... especially when you don't even want to go that way.
The road was about as bad on the way back, and of course, there's no other way into the parking lot than on Indiana. I had to wait till we inched far enough up to make the turn. I'm glad we weren't going downtown that day.
The previous day Karl and Ray had gone to the Apple store to check out some powerbooks, since Ray has been looking at getting a Mac. They were going to meet me downtown and we'd go to Miller's Pub for dinner. I waited about 10 minutes for a #3 bus before getting tired of waiting, and I started walking north. As I got closer, the traffic was getting increasingly bad, and I actually passed (rather than being passed by) two #4 buses going northbound by the time I got to the right place. I never saw a #3 going northbound. I did see 7 #3 buses going southbound, which is never helpful when you're going downtown from the south side. :)
This has become a routine problem for us. We always take the #3 into downtown Chicago, and whenever we're waiting we always see two to five buses go southbound before we ever get a northbound bus. Sometimes we wait over an hour. This seems clearly wrong. On the 4th, we were headed to a relatively local place, so we were going to walk, and what did we see? A #3 bus was there just in time to pick us up. The irony was stunning, since we didn't need the bus. Then we found out the restaurant was closed. Rather than track back and wait for another #3, which could well have been a long wait, we hopped on a #4 on Michigan Ave which came reasonably promptly. We're probably going to do that from now on, since there are more lines that run on Michigan than Indiana.
We've been trying to figure out how there are always more #3 buses going southbound than northbound. One theory we have right now is that they build the buses in northern Chicago, then run them southbound and dump at least half of them in the lake. Single use buses might indicate why the CTA is having such a budget crisis. :)
Saturday, July 2, 2005
[Comments: 0] 10:53 AM - on-schedule-however-weird
I'm all off-kilter for some reason, but I've decided it's time to return to my weird definition of normal. I realize it's 11 AM, but I've been well oversleeping lately (about 8 AM to 6 PM) and I think I need to try to normalize things by pulling a short sleep now, from 11 AM to 2:30 PM, then from this point forward trying to make sure I'm in bed by 6 AM and up by 2 or 2:30 PM every day.
If I can restore that routine, I should get much sanity and efficiency back in my day... and actually be awake early enough to get to places before they close. :)
[Comments: 1] 9:46 AM - more-music-is-better
I have always been fairly fixated on the maintenance of a playlist of songs I like in order to ensure that my most favorite songs would always end up being played, but I recently "won" an iPod Mini at HostingCon ("won" meaning Ray won it, but he has an iPod, so he gave it to me).
Since I've started using that, due to its 4 GB size, I am just barely able to fit all my music on it. However, I had trouble getting my normal playlist set up correctly on it (that's partially because I use a Winamp plugin instead of using iTunes and I still have to dance around the bugs), so I deleted it, and I've been listening for several hours on shuffle now. Some of my music is rather odd, but I realized that I actually like most of my music... and therefore it doesn't make sense for me to be making a list of songs I like. Instead I'm going to work in the other direction:
Songs that I really dislike will go off the iPod, but everything else will stay eternally in the full rotation. I think I'll get to enjoy a lot more of my music this way, and that's definitely a good thing.
