Lookie at all that recording potential...
I've taken on a little side project at home. I'll have a full post on it later, but the basic gist is this - Solaris + ZFS = sexy.
We use Solaris extensively at work. At first, I hated using it - Solaris 9 really, really sucks in some ways. It's not that it doesn't work - it works insanely well - but it has virtually none of the sexy stuff you expect from Linux by default. Administration is, essentially, more annoying.
Updating the jumpstart server with some quality open source software and upgrading to Solaris 10 has changed my entire outlook on the matter, though. Solaris 10 is the most powerful operating environment I've ever used - in large part due to its resource allocation and container solution (i.e. zones), its replacement for the antiquated SysV init (SMF), and - of course - ZFS.
ZFS really is everything you've heard about it - it abstracts everything in marvelous ways. It combines the best of solstice disk suite and tools such as LVM, and it presents everything as tidy little logical units.
I've been running Solaris 10 x86 at home for a couple of months on my spare Dell box (in a former life, it was coltrane, my kitchen web/mail server). I've come to appreciate the power - and I have to say that I'm sold on Solaris. I've come to the conclusion that if my hardware can run Solaris, it will run Solaris - excepting workstations and the special purpose stuff that just HAS to be Linux (i.e., MythTV).
The project - a 5 x 500 GB RAIDZ array. 2 Terrabytes of usable storage (+ parity). I'll let you know how it goes.
One hell of a year this has been.
I bought a house. I moved in. Annie moved in. I quit my job. I unquit my job.
It's been one hell of a year. My resolution for '07 is to catch back up with... well, everything else.
I'm just taking a second to mention that I'm really happy with how things are going right now. Personally, professionally, everything. I'm especially happy, though, with Annie, who I must say I really like on so many levels.
I keep trying to reign in the optimism a bit, because after all, we've only been seeing each for a little bit over a month, and realistically there's a not insignificant chance that it just won't work out for whatever reason. However, if it does... well, she's something truly special. I had an odd moment the other day where I could envision a future there, and it just felt... right.
I'm no Don Juan or anything, but I'm giving this one my best effort, that's for damn sure. I'll just have to see where it all takes me...
I've always seen mediawiki as a great gift to the universe - it's an amazing way to collate knowledge from disparate sources and make it available to the world.
It wasn't really until I had a chat with a co-worker (a guy for whom I have a hell of a lot of respect) that I really started to consider other applications. I must confess that I feel a bit dull for not considering the personal use of a wiki a long time ago, especially given my frequent assertions that I have no memory, that I'm not detail oriented, etc. The fact is, a personal wiki can be a great replacement for a brain.
Of course, the inner geek in me loves the notions of documenting, templating, and categorizing to my heart's content; silly little activities from which I derive a perverse pleasure. But really, the wiki serves a much more valuable purpose - it's a living document whose knowledge expands as does my own.
At any rate, once I realized the immediate and practical benefit to having such a device, I installed it on coltrane (which, incidentally, is the machine to which you are now connected) and had at it. I've not gotten very far, but, you know, you can always stop by and take a look.
I found out that Annie (the really great woman from eHarmony), among numerous other good qualities, actually went dressed up as Kaylee to the premier of Firefly.
How cool is that? Seriously. I hate to get overly optimistic this early in a relationship, but she's really something else. I hope it works out.
Wow, I've been busy lately.
I met a really great woman on eHarmony. We've only been out a few times, but things have gone pretty well - I remain cautiously optomistic.
Aside from that, let's see... cycling of course... screwing around with my guitar... looking to buy a kayak.
It feels good to be tired.
Average speed on a 27 mile ride. I was drafting the whole way, but I kept up.
I feel pretty fucking good about myself right now.
Well, I just purchased my prettiest bike yet - the Trek 2200. I'm up to 4(!) bikes, which means I REALLY have to find a new home for my old mountain bike.
The difference between a true road bike and a touring bike is a lot more noticable than I realized it would be. This thing is FAST - when you stand up and pedal it just takes off. The weight difference is pretty large, but it still seems like it would be insignifigant compared to my total weight.
I think the largest true difference here is the wheels, which are completely different - much lighter, MUCH thinner. That means the ride is nowhere near as smooth, and even little pebbles can mess up your day, but you FEEL incredibly fast and glued to the road.
I'm not ready to give up the touring bike yet - if anything I appreciate its sturdiness and comfort a bit more now, and it can go places that the racing bike couldn't dream of going. But when I have the need for speed... I can now be satisfied.
It remains to be seen whether this will have any impact on how much I suck relative to Craig, Jeremy C, Mike, etc - but I at least feel like a big man now. And hey, the bike is red, so at least I look fast...
I broke down and figured I'd give eHarmony a chance to augment my pool of potential dates.
Results are generally... interesting. I've met a couple of people in person already, and I'm at the "open communication" stage with a bunch of others.
eHarmony is no magic bullet. It's not going to magically find your soul mate and send out your wedding invitations. However, I've found that I can trust it this far at least - it's only paired me up with people who are at least intelligent, likable, and generally worth talking to, even if there's no immediate chemistry or romantic vibe going on. This alone is a pretty big step up over relying on random in-person encounters, which seem to have a much lower success rate.
My general strategy has been to meet people in person ASAP if they seem to have any interest at all in doing so. I don't trust the internet with this sort of thing - I know I'm MUCH more eloquent when I'm sending emails than when I'm sitting there in person, so I tend to expect the same in return.
I have a feeling that my personality profile is not strongly typed AT ALL, as it has usually been in most Myers-Briggs tests I've taken, and I'm getting matched up with DOZENS of women (where most of the women I've talked to have been provided MANY fewer matches, and men on message boards I frequent have sometimes been classified as "unmatchable"). My guess is that landing in the middle has opened up matches on all sides of the spectrum, and that can't be a bad thing. Being weakly typed has always meant I've been a sort of wishy-washy person with fickle interests - I almost always end up with INFP, but other than N all the letters are so weak as to be almost meaningless. To a large extent, who I am and how I act is always defined by the people I'm around, and while that generally means I'm well liked it also means I don't leave much of an impression or stand out particularly in anybody's mind. This has always been my weakness with women - they don't want a person like that, they want somebody who will take command of a situation and impose his will upon it. That's just not me...
I forgot how expensive dating was. I've already blown the $140 I won playing poker on Friday - hey guys, at least your cash is going to a worthy cause!