Scott Nolan’s Rants, Raves, and Meandering Thoughts
{ Monthly Archives }
Used Dreamhost’s easy to use one click install to upgrade to WordPress 2.5, and it looks much easier to edit on the fly with embedded HTML code. The dashboard is very different, may take getting used to; but it puts the most important stuff on top (useful on a short, wide display like a laptop).
FYI - for those who are still using Blogspot; Google has done something silly to the capcha code that blocks comment spammers, and I cannot comment on your Blogspot blogs anymore.
My new employer has several Apple XServe 1U rack-mount servers more than they actually need. Is there any interest in XServe G5 hosts? What value do these things have?
Each is a dual 2.3GHz G5 with 4GB memory, gigabit ethernet, multiple firewire slots, and two to three hard drives.
I cannot sell them for Ruckus - but I can put you in touch with the corporate comptroller who can. He knows nothing about how to move older server gear on the open market.
There are three sitting near my desk that can move right away, and we have as many as 40 in use around the country. If we get enough, it becomes worthwhile to exchange the ones in production today with something else, and sell those too. If they are not worth much on the market, we’ll be lazy and leave most of them in service.
This video popped up on Ruckus.com this morning, and I was instantly smitten with the music:
Rodrigo y Gabriela have their own website, and a first CD.
Turns out the AppleTV burns 21 watts when in screen-saver mode and 22 watts when in use, only 18 watts when sitting at a menu. It’s not huge, but it’s annoyingly high for something that has no on/off nor sleep mode switches.
Grrr.
Apple needs to fix this.
Update: As Brian kindly pointed out and per this Apple technical document, if you hold the Play/Pause button for 5 seconds, the Apple TV goes into standby mode, which does use a little less power. Mine settled to 18 watts, which is better, but still kind of high. Keep in mind the DishPVR 508 we have “powers off” to 29 watts (32 watts when powered up and playing shows). I also wish the Apple TV could be configured to drop into standby mode automatically to save power.
More independent music available for free (though they’d love it if you bought some MP3s or CDs as well). This time from the inspirational Gaia Consort. They encourage you to download or stream their music to see if you like it and share it with friends. They love it if you bought it too, and frankly it stands up to the listen first test and I am buying some.
Hat tip to Poly Weekly for playing the excellent song Three on the podcast, which was enough to hook me. Nice viennese waltz, by the way!
I am a big fan of independent artists and fresh, new music from innovative talent. A friend is helping several new artists get started at NewIndieArtists and they have links to samples of their music and CD Baby and iTunes in case you want to buy some music in either MP3 or CD format.
While hitting CD Baby, I went ahead and ordered a couple of Jonathan Coulton CDs I have been interested in for weeks.
Notice anything funny about this:
gromit:~ snolan$ ls -la /opt/local/sbin total 72 drwxr-xr-x 4 root admin 136 21 Feb 14:10 . drwxr-xr-x 12 root admin 408 14 Feb 11:56 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 0 9 Jan 22:48 .turd_MacPorts -r-s--x--x 2 root admin 35564 21 Feb 14:10 fping
In UNIX sysadmin lingo, a “turd” is an unneeded file left around by a careless fellow sysadmin or user.
Hat tip to Dave for pointing it out.
Newsflash: the campaigns for the presidential term starting in 2009 are over and done. Obama won it by a vast margin on Tuesday, March 18th when he made his “More Perfect Union” speech in Philadelphia.
At this point Clinton and McCain are simply going through the motions to save a little face.
We should all be trying to figure out how to make his first term as successful as is possible given the huge and difficult to repair damage that the Bush administration has left us.
Update: So it turns out that I am not alone in this sentiment and prediction. Other, much more prolific writers than me have expressed similar opinions:
I am kind of intrigued by the upcoming: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead which should appeal to Sutragirl as a vampire story and appeals to me because I loved the original “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead” and the whole play within a play within a play thing (which reminds me of Being John Malkovich today).
The music seems interesting - even if the trailer looks like a typical T&A movie.
Hat tip to prehensile_wit for mentioning the forthcoming flick on her LJ.
I had already decided that my vote was going to Barack Obama, partially as a result of the process of elimination (initially I wanted Wesley Clark, then Evan Bayh or Bill Richardson, then John Edwards. One by one all those candidates dropped out of the race, and I was left with Barack Obama as the most logical choice remaining.
I have always been excited by the real chance for change he offers us, but that was offset by doubts about how much experience he brought to the table. I was hoping in 2004 that Kerry and Edwards would win, then Barack Obama could succeed them in 2012… alas, we got more more years of failure.
Today I no longer have any doubts. Barack Obama’s speech shows me what an excellent and realistic leader he will be as President of the United States. Now I am voting Obama not because he is the most logical choice remaining, but because he is the right person for the job and he is inspiring me to work harder at uniting, rather than dividing America.
Update: Link to full text and video of the speech is at: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBbKG.
