ub[3]rgeek.net

Well it looks like the evil has gone ahead and sucked me back in. I was in the Stress Test Beta for WoW and enjoied myself but havn’t played since. I sort of have ADD towards video games in that if I put them down, no matter how much I like them, I’ll pretty must stop caring.

Well, Anorak (my Beta Dwarf Paladin) is back on Stormrage as a (currently) level 14 Dwarf Paladin.

Also, Ukie bought a new copy of Animal Crossing last night… looks like I’ll be getting back into that….

Screenshot: WoW on Istari (Linux Slackware 10.2) – in Goldshire

Almost a year after the beta…
Original Post about getting into the stress test

It is not without a small sense of loss that I have put the RX-7 away for the coming winter months. This month the car turns 21 (Build date: 10/1984) and has 90,100 miles on it. Oddly, and without any premeditation today is also a historic day for motorsport. It is the second Chinese Grand Prix which is the last race in the Formula 1 season so we will have to wait until next year to once again get to enjoy the absolute peak of motorsport; however, most importantly it is the last time we will get to hear the sweet song of the 900+bhp, 18,000RPM, 3.0 litre V10 engines, which will be replaced by a new V8 package next year. It is also of note that next year, the 7 time FIA Formula 1 World Champion will no longer be wearing the number 1 on his car for what could be his last season. He wore the championship number for 199 Grand Prix starts in a row, and now will turn it over to the new, youngest-ever, world champion.

Thanks for a great year of racing, guys. Hope to see you all next year. And have a nice warm winter, my RX-7, next season won’t come soon enough.

I’m finally replacing hermes, it’s clearly time since the poor thing is falling apart. Since this is the second Dell Latitude in three years that has fallen to bits on me, I think it’s time to go with another manufacturer. I’ve picked up an IBM Thinkpad R40 2722-GAU laptop to take over as taker-of-my-abuse ;) I believe I’ll call it “Istari”.

In other news, I think I’ll be moving bdr01 (my border router / firewall) over to OpenBSD shortly. Linux has done well, but I think some of the features of OpenBSD’s pf will be quite useful.

More info on this as it unfolds.

Today, at 90,039 miles my RX-7 received an oil change, coolant flush and fill, rear end gear lube change, plugs and wires.

I’m pleased to say that everything went swimmingly and the car runs quite a bit happier now. The old plugs came out and were the picture perfect brown flecked with black.

…driving myself into a corperate grave.

Is it too much to ask for people in this country to stop asking who’s going to take care of them and take care of themselves. These god-awful GM commercials touting OnStar as some wonderful fix-all safty feature for the mentally and spiritually weak make me want to vomit.

Thank the Lord Almighty that I do not, nor ever plan to own any American made automobiles.

I am not….ever….going to pay someone to have the ability to trace my every move with a 10 meter or less resolution.

Onto other things, I did see Nine Inch Nails at Koolhaus in Toronto earlier this year. I didn’t write anything about it until now because a) I’m too frelling lazy to update this and b) a Nine Inch Nails show in Toronto, with about 3000 people in attendance shouldn’t really need any kind of a write up to explain it’s sheer splendor.

I’ll be 24 soon.

I _love_ my RX-7.

So.. One would think that even in “Hard Drive Marketing Speak” 250GB (250 * 10^9) would == 250,000,000,000 bytes, which while substantially (18,435,356,000 bytes) smaller than 250GiB (250 * 2^30 == 268,435,456,000) would be common for all drives carrying the capacity statement of 250GB.
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte for more on Metric vs Binary units)

Ah, but this is indeed not so. No, not even close.

Maxtor’s 250GB drives have an LBA of 490,234,752 sectors. Now sectors are 512 bytes in size, so a simple division brings us to a capacity of 245,117,376 GiB (roughly 5GiB from 250… which is acceptable loss in the metric to binary unit conversion)

Western Digital, however in their infinite wisdom gives us an LBA of 488,397,168 which gives us a capacity of 244,198,584 GiB.
Some more simple math shows us that Western Digital is actually shorting us 918,792 MiB vs the Maxtor drive.

Of course most people won’t care, I mean hell Windows XP needs almost that much space to install, but those of us trying to resynch a RAID-5 array are going to be very upset.

First off, let me apologize for the recent instability of my webserver. I *think* I have the problem tracked down to a failing CPU fan on CPU2. I have removed the CPU (and fan) and while the system is now only running on 1 CPU, it should be stable. I will replace the Heatsink / Fan module and see if that helps.

Also, I have ordered a new 250GB harddrive to replace the failed one in the RAID array, hopefully bringing the system back to capacity, and speed.

Once everything is stabilized, I plan on getting a pair of 40 – 60 GB IDE harddrives and another 3Ware RAID controller to replace the QLogic FC-AL HBA and drives. I will also remove the Adaptec SCSI controller and the IBM Deathstar SCSI harddrive that I’m using as /. This will hopefully allow me to have a mirrored /, and /home. (Meaning 100% Storage redundancy)

Updates as things stabilize. I sure hope the system stays up now.

-Matt

So slackware doesn’t have a package for nethack that doesn’t require X11 or Qt or some gayness like that. This cannot be.

I built a package, if anyone wants it, please feel free: nethack 3.4.3 (i486, Slackware 10.1)

Any comments can go to mernisse at ub3rgeek dot net.

I have been picking up on some of the projects I’ve had on the back burner.

1.) I’m upgrading to Slackware 10.1 on all the servers I run (last upgrade was to 9.1).
2.) I’m working on installing a Soekris as a firewall between the Wireless LAN and the hardwired LAN.
(See details: www.ub3rgeek.net/~mernisse/soekris/)

3.) I’m revisiting the Cobalt RaQ2+ that I have and pressing it into service as a backup LAN DNS server and failover DHCP server.

4.) I’m switching my MX servers to use graymilter to perform graylisting.

5.) My Xyplex MX-1600 terminal server is up and running and I’m in the process of getting it cabled to the devices with serial consoles for more effective remote managment.

That about wraps it up,
work work work :)

So, I no longer have a default route for my IPv6 tunnel, I’m using the BGP view that Hurricane is providing as the routing table, so far it’s worked seamlessly.

Of course I now have over 600 routes in the table, but such is life :)
mernisse@bdr01:~$ /sbin/route -A inet6 | wc -l
677

I’m thinking of getting another tunnel provider and seeing if I can advertize my private AS via that link and then have 2 views of the IPv6 internet.

Just a thought, mostly filler.

I’ll be posting configs eventually for bgpd, I’m using Quagga so it’s pretty Cisco-like.

First:
[17:11] z i’m pretty sure you’ve seen pigface four times, matt
[17:11] z the first one, two in 2003, and this one

Second:
I forgot to mention that blue dude also swalloed a condom. By swallowed, I mean put it in his nose and spit it out his mouth. Then he shoved it in his mouth and blew it out his nose. By blew it out, I mean it came out his nose and then inflated to full size. Of course he then wagged it at the girl on stage.

Thankyou Luke for reminding me!

So I got to see Pigface (for the 3rd time I think) last night at Waterstreet Music Hall in Rochester, NY. The music seems to get worse and worse everytime I see them, but the show seems to get more and more entertaining.

Allow me to explain:
We got there and Voodu was playing — the band was pretty not good — ok stage show, for an opener, but the chicks’ vocals were flat and unintresting.

Luke and I sat outside for the next 2 acts — so I have no idea who played or whatnot. Then Sheep on Drugs came in and played like 5 songs. The only one I knew was 15 Minutes of Fame, the rest were off their new CD (!!) F**K. (No, I did not censor myself, that’s what it’s titled!) That was a fun bit, I’d never seen SoD before so I was kinda psyched about that.

After SoD, I noticed a dude covered in blue paint back stage and didn’t think anything of this — mistake.

So Pigface comes on and does some stuff, and we notice that this dude covered in blue is taking a grinder to a hatchet — sparks going everywhere and shit. I thought cool, and then he dissapeared and I forgot about it — mistake.

So the show goes on, it’s an ok show so far, some songs I know, some I don’t. They played Godlike (since En Esch was there) which was awesome. So blue dude shows back up with a cross, and he’s waving it all around and shit and they’ve got lightup crosses on stage going and it’s kinda neat, until blue dude swallows the cross.

Now, let me explain that statement. The cross was a 3′ long metal cross. Dude shoved it down his throat like it was no thing — sword swallower style.

I was a bit awestruck at that, but again dude dissapeared. This time I didn’t forget about him right away, but since he didn’t show up next song, I figured that was it and stopped looking for him — mistake.

So 2 songs after the cross bit, the dude comes out on stage and is waving a hammer around at people and shit — I thought it was kinda weak, until he takes an 8″ long nail and drives it through his nose.

At this point the Mosh pit stopped and everyone was staring at a dude with a nail driven into his face through his nose hole. Again he wanders off but comes back pretty quickly with a power drill. I bet you can imagine what’s gonna happen now. Yep, power drill through nose hole into face. That made me cringe a bunch, I couldn’t fathom how that didn’t fucking hurt a bunch.

Now to the best part. Dude comes back on stage (I had not forgotten about him at this point) with a chainsaw, and starts flailing it at people and whacking thier legs and generally filling the place with smoke and chainsaw noise. That was pretty cool! But then they started playing their second to last song and he dissapeared.

Well I was all getting into the song and shit and then I started smelling 2 cycle oil again… I didn’t think anything of it, since dude had just been on stage w/ a chainsaw and maybe it was finally wafting my way.

Mistake.

Suddenly I freak out cuz I hear a chainsaw and feel something hard and metal whack against my leg! It’s the dude, complete with a pig mask, chainsawing at my leg! He wanders down the row of people (including my friend, luke) and chainsaws their legs!!!!!

The mosh pit was just a total stand still at this point — the band still playing and this dude, covered in blue with horns and a pig mask chainsawing people!

Wow.

Fun show.

Next show:
5/10/05 – Nine Inch Nails, Toronto, ON

I’m hoping Micronaut makes it here this year, I’d like to see them.

That brings the totals to:
Sheep on Drugs – 1
Sister Machine Gun – 1
Christ Analogue – 1
Manufactura – 1
Prick – 1
Pigface – 3
KMFDM – 2
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult – 1
Radiohead – 1
Gravity Kills – 1
Ben Lee – 1
Splashdown – 3
Tori Amos – 1
Moxy Fruvous – 1

Friday was my 1 year anniversary with my wonderful girlfriend. We had a wonderful long weekend together.

We saw the Bourne Supremacy, which was pretty good — a little light on the acting but the action was pretty good.

Not much else going on, looking forward to moving in October.

I got to see Sister Machine Gun last night. It was a pretty awesome show. SMG had a new drummer with them, and Charles Levi (of Thrill Kill Kult fame) was playing bass, very cool stuff. The show only had about 150 people there, but it had a pretty cool vibe going. I got to talk with Chris and Miguel after the show a bit, and got them to sign my ticket. It’s also worth mentioning that Christ Analogue is pretty neat, tho not as impressive live as I’d hoped, maybe because I couldn’t hear any vocals….at all :( Also opening was Manufactura which is an outstanding solo project that involves alot of sub-harmonics and freaky bass lines. All in all an outstanding show.

That brings the totals to:
Sister Machine Gun – 1
Prick – 1
Pigface – 2
KMFDM – 2
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult – 1
Radiohead – 1
Gravity Kills – 1
Ben Lee – 1
Splashdown – 3
Tori Amos – 1
Moxy Fruvous – 1

I think that’s it… anyway, off to recover and then go see Van Hellsing :)

Well, I have a job interview set up for Wednesday morning which looks promising…it’s crap work, but it’s work. Jim wants to keep me on here part time and I’m concidering it, the occasional extra paycheck for doing security updates and building random computers wouldn’t hurt — and I wouldn’t be dependant on it, so it’d all be fun money. I’ve got a plan to upgrade the main server since I’m running out of disk space, I just need to start collecting parts and go ahead and do it. The sucky part will be upgrading the OS, but it’s gotta be done. My 6 month anniversary is coming up this friday so I’m looking forward to that.

Well, wish me luck on the job hunt.

I really don’t know why I put personal websites like this up, I rarely ever touch them and I somehow doubt anyone reads them :) I’ve been bored and looking around for certifications that I should be holding, based on my experience and knowledge and have come to this conclusion: I should have at least a CCNA if not a CCNP, and at least a SCSA if not a SCSNA (Sun Certified Solaris [Administrator | Network Administrator]). I really should also be carrying a Linux Certification, but… the whole thing is pretty bleak. Maybe Novell will offer a certification in general Linux knowledge that won’t suck ass (see: RedHat). Anyway back to doing nothing at work, since there’s nothing for me to do here at the moment. I suppose I can check windowsupdate AGAIN for security patches…who knows, I might be suprised.

Well, Friday was the KMFDM/Pig & Bile show. As expected, it was a freak show of annoying preportions. Halloween seems to bring out the worst in people, clothing-wise, and a KMFDM show never helps the matter! Anyway, Bile, as usual sucked absolute ass, and tried to cover up their sucking with head-pounding drum loops that just never changed, and loud screaming. It didn’t work. They sucked. KMFDM was nifty as usual tho I was deaf for a day or two afterwards because of the LOUD. I’m suprised that I wasn’t blind to since the light show relied heavily on attempting to send the audience into seizure.

Pigface is coming up in something to the tune of 11 days and I’m excited, that will make 5 shows this year and unless someone else cool comes will be the last show of 2003 I see. Of course Pigface is always a rocking good time so it’ll be worth it.

Matt’s 2003 Concert List:
Pigface (United Tour)
Sarah Slean
King Missile
KMFDM (WWIII Tour)
Pigface (United II Tour) (11/14/03)

In other news, I found a rockin birthday present for the girlfriend, hopefully she likes it, and if she doesn’t…well…she’ll just have to suck it up and lie to me ;)