Upside Down

So Apple had to pull back the iOS 8.0.1 update. And now there is the Shellshock BASH vulnerability.

Time to upgrade your Mac or Linux box to Windows for a secure computing environment!

Truth

I see things like this all the time... usually when someone demands something, it is impossible (given the current architecture or would take a year or a million dollars.) When someone starts by saying "I don't know if this is even possible," it turns out to be a simple request.

Home Data Center

I've added a Dell Mini 10 running Ubuntu and have a Frankensteined desktop that has replaced the one that died a while back. So I am slowly moving in this direction - the home data center.

(Who am I kidding? I'm all about being a minimalist now and I grumble enough about my electric bill.)

Via Data Center Knowledge via Slashdot.org

Running Man

Add an 11 pound jet pack and run faster...


Via The Blaze

Facebook Data

So the autoplay videos are eating up people's data plans. Rumor has it that at one local university, Facebook downloads are second only to the bandwidth used by Netflix. It's sneaky because you think you just loading "a page."

But #1 in your hearts

People who work in the tech industry say my school is number eight on the list of best business schools.

Transmitting from an Undisclosed Location

I'm not at the home base, so posting will be limited - as you've already figured out. It also doesn't help that the network connection here drops between 7% to 11% of the packets, average pings are 400ms, and maximum pings hit 3 seconds. I'm hoping they upgrade to a Sportster 56K soon.

Old School

Spent my day building a Windows 2003 Server with SQL Server 2000 (SP3a) on an old PowerEdge 2600. Good times. Don't be too jealous.

Universal Converter Box

I ordered one of these from Amazon today. If it had Lightning and RS232, it would be perfect.

From xkcd.com

Cow-Net

I saw this article about tracking cattle in order to understand their social networks. The really strange thing is I had a conversation last Wednesday with an organization that had, at one time, deployed a wireless network to track cows for a research project. Who knew that cow networks were so common? I can only assume that this means the NSA can find any cow at any time.

Customer Pulls Gun on Comcast Tech

No, it wasn't me. And for the record, I usually find the on-site techs much easier to deal with.

Customer Pulls Gun on Comcast Tech

And an Alarm Clock, too

I was thinking about how my phone had replaced my alarm clock this morning. I had an alarm clock that I used for the better part of 25 years. A while back, my daughter was playing with it and broke the snooze button. It kinda stressed me out - change bad!!!! I replaced it with a similar one, but I never use the alarm functionality on it. I still like to glance at the time in the middle of the night, but I suppose I could get use to doing that on the phone, too.

In just 20 years, a 200x reduction in volume, 1000x in weight, and 20x the speed & resolution! pic.twitter.com/BOEihvHLR5
— Bill Gross (@Bill_Gross) July 29, 2014

Windows Server 2003 EOL

Hey you! Yes, you! The one still running XP. Your Windows Server 2003 goes EOL in July 2015.

Xircom PE3 & Combo Card

I just read Gough's Tech Flashback: Intel EtherExpress PRO/100 Mobile Adapter. I installed a few of those back in the day. He nails it here:

"The connector itself is very small and has securing latches which “click” into place to engage with the card. It’s also very thin and protrudes from the card a significant distance. As a result, these things were a pain in the ass to use, as they can easily be carelessly yanked from the card at an angle, causing the connector to crack or be damaged."

It also reminded me of the Xircom PE3 Parallel Port Ethernet Adapter. If all else failed, we could always get a PC on the network with one of them. I never went anywhere without one or two in the tool bag.

(Pic from here)

We also liked the Xircom combo Ethernet and modem card. It took up both PCMCIA slots, but it eliminated the need for the dongles. Of course, this was all in the olden days before they started building all these things into the laptops.

With Friends Like Me

So a former co-worker was asked to document a system after a problem occurred that resulted in a couple of hours of downtime. From his description, it sounded more like a communications issue than a true technical issue. And this system is massive when you include all the moving parts - database, communication servers, web servers, client-server apps, PLCs, HIDs, printers, scanners, etc. Everything sits on top of an IP network, of course, with a Microsoft Active Directory infrastructure, so toss in potential problems with the Cisco hardware, DHCP, AD logins, etc. Even if they froze the environment, it would take years to document every component and potential problem. So given that he was asked by a seagull manager to document this behemoth*, he was a little frustrated I think.

I tried to help out by endorsing him for the "Software Documentation" skill on LinkedIn.



* I do think there are parts of this system that could use better documentation. I also believe in good postmortems, so you can avoid or minimize problems in the future. However, in this situation, I think the criticism of the manager's request is appropriate given the nature of the problem and the environment they are in.

Magic

Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic... teleportation.

Stream

For the children...

Yesterday, I posted change your font. Today, stream that movie instead of buying that DVD.

Middle Out Backups

Anyone doing backups in the modern era probably already knows about reverse incremental backups, but after watching yesterday's Silicon Valley, I'm going to invent the "middle out" backup and make millions!

Mary Meeker's State of the Web

Her annual report on trends... I found the following slides the most interesting.

Moore's Law type trends...

I'm surprised that DVR/VOD/DVD is only 23%.

Compute/storage get cheaper. Devices get smaller. Devices become more ubiquitous.

Hello Computer

To quote Mr. Scott's encounter with an old computer, "Keyboard. How quaint."


Via Alphecca