Author: Karel Kerezman

It’s Almost Like I Know What I’m Doing
I just completed an important and long-neglected task: The backups for my webserver have been reinvented and improved. This isn’t to say I haven’t been making backups previously, mind you! I had a (somewhat) cumbersome system of weekly tarballs and nightly rsync-over-ssh jobs going on. It was a bit I/O intensive, though. The opposite of efficiency.

The new system consists of:
- My home QNAP with the rsync app.
- My home firewall configured to route rsync traffic to the QNAP, but only from my webserver’s IP address. (There’s still a good username/password involved as well.)
- A group of organized, nested target directories on the QNAP.
- A string of rsync commands in a nightly cron job script which update the QNAP’s copy of each of the websites, each email account’s mail store, the website database dumps and a few key configuration directories out of /etc.
This setup should cut down on disk I/O on the webserver as well as nightly transfer rates. (I look forward to not seeing any more Sunday morning “hey, we noticed that your disk I/O is higher than normal” alert emails from the fine folks at Linode, if nothing else.) Note that this backup scheme is in addition to Linode’s nightly server snapshots for disaster recovery.

I configured the IP address for our home as a ‘hosts’ file entry, so when (inevitably) Frontier changes it on us, all I have to do to fix the backup job is to update that entry appropriately. (A near-future project: Detecting and alerting on communication errors in the backup script…)

Next up? A bunch of software upgrades and migrations, particularly now that the Gallery Project has shut down. D’oh!
19 December, 2015
For those about to shop, I salute you.
I’m changing it up a bit this year. Mind you, I’m not actually asking people to shop for me for holiday-type presents. There’s nothing I need all that badly, and almost everything on the lists linked below could best be described as “frivolous.” And yet, since people have asked, here we go:
- Elfster wishlist – This was suggested to me as an alternative to trying to stuff everything into an Amazon wishlist. It’s good for things not actually available on Amazon. Now all I need to do is… come up with things to put on the list. But there it is.
- Amazon wishlist – This is what most of you are probably going to actually use. There are no bad options on this list, so hey, go wild if that’s your thing.
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Again: I’m providing this by way of a reply to various folks who’ve inquired along these lines, but I’m not expecting, insisting, or suggesting that anyone do any holiday shopping in my general direction.

Thank you, and happy holidays to you all.
28 November, 2015
Gundam It All

You know those time lapse things I’ve been doing? Here’s something a bit more along the lines of what I’m really hoping to do with the technology. (Well, that and a lot more cloud shows. Because seriously. Clouds!)

Let’s be clear: I am not a skilled model assembler by any stretch of the imagination. (The less said about that chest sticker, the better.) But “doing things on camera” like this amuses me, so expect more of it as I find more things to do along these lines…

5 October, 2015
Not a bad start to the day, not in the least

I walked out the door this morning, backpack on my shoulder and trash bag in hand. As I reached the bottom of the stairs I looked to the East to see what kind of sunrise we were getting.

Well.

Yeah, that wasn’t too shabby. Then I turned toward the dumpsters and looked up to see… This.

No, but seriously.

I tell you what: Hillsboro Oregon gives fantastic sky, sometimes.

25 September, 2015
Thyme Laps Video

I bought a new tablet. I installed Lapse It Pro onto the tablet, and this afternoon the clouds were rather pretty and scudding across the blue sky quite nicely and… this happened:

Not bad, eh? Now, for this video I basically just propped the tablet up on top of one of the living room bookshelves, opened the window, started the recording and walked away for an hour or so.

And walked back, and walked away, and walked back, and finally decided I should go play a game or something for a while because otherwise I was going to be tempted to tinker with things while the recording progressed. Ahem.

I’m hoping to do more like this, but I’m mostly looking (once the tripod mount arrives) at doing some time lapse “build” videos, such as for assembling one of the very small Gundam models whose boxes have been collecting dust for a couple years now. (A devoted modeler I am not, apparently.)

Why not use the Pentax? Because I don’t want to assemble these videos from a pile of raw images by hand, that’s why. The additional expense of shutter timer equipment is also a factor.

So here we are. A guy needs a hobby, right? It’s not so much about the Gundam model as it is about what kind of video I can make out of the process of building the model…

20 September, 2015
Standard Support Screwup

The script you’re about to read doesn’t detail how every interaction with a particular vendor’s tech support staff goes, but it’s very, very indicative and common…

Me: Hello! A problem has occurred with your product. Now, having worked with this product nigh onto a decade now, I’m aware of the usual issues and have gone through the knowledge base articles numbered Such and Such. I can confirm that the state of the usual problem-causing factors is nominal. I am looking for alternative avenues to pursue to remedy the problem.

Ticket: *remains unassigned for hours*

Me: Hello, Support Manager! I can’t help but notice that the High Priority ticket I submitted has gone unassigned. We, ah, kind of need this problem resolved ASAP.

Support Manager: I have assigned your ticket. Please be aware that we do not post support SLAs.

Me: That’s nice, but five hours without assigning a ticket isn’t about SLAs, it’s about “if we treated our clients like that, we’d be put out of business.” But whatever.

Tech: Hello, I have been assigned to your ticket. Judging by the environment, you should read knowledge base article numbered Such. It will resolve your problem.

Me: Had you actually read my ticket (*), you’d know that I already referenced and followed the instructions in that article. Next?

Tech: Have you tried rebooting the system?

Me: …yes. The system has been rebooted. Next?

Tech: You are using the wrong kind of credential (**). Change that and you’ll probably be all set.

Me: Tried that. Tried two variants of that, actually. Still not working. Next?

Time: *passes*

NewTech: I see that you are trying to use the product in a particular environment. Please see knowledge base article Such, it will remedy the problem.

Me: Hello, NewTech! If you’d read my ticket notes, you would know that I have already addressed the possibility detailed in the second article. Next?

Time: *passes*

Me: *sighs*

And that’s where things stand.

(* – If I had a dollar for every time this vendor’s techs utterly failed to read the text of my ticket submission, I could treat both of my girlfriends and their families, all together, to a very nice dinner out.)

(** – This is a domain controller. The credential account was technically shown as a “local” account but since it’s a domain controller, its local accounts are domain accounts. Idiots.)

25 August, 2015