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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

  • It’s a Very Monday Monday

    This week is getting an early start on kicking my ass:

    • Sunday Night Insomnia with a vengeance.
    • Remembered to do dishes and take out garbage this morning, forgot to grab lunch.
    • MAX train broke down one stop away from where I needed to go. (The operator had to be talked through cycling the breakers. That’s right: They rebooted the light-trail train.)
    • BurgerVille’s closed today, so no high-octane breakfast to boost my energy levels.
    • Half the office is on vacation or out sick.
    • The link between two of our key work systems is broken for no reason I can determine.

    Is it too late to throw my hands up and head back to bed? (Yes. Yes, it is.)

  • End of an Era

    Post tagged:

    Farewell, Node1 server.

    Long live Node2.

    Email has been on Google Apps for a couple weeks now with no problems, websites are all migrated to the new box, and nothing remains of any use on the old system. So, I just turned off and removed the Linode VM of the old server. Had to do it by month’s end or get dinged for another $75, so today was a good day to make that happen.

    It’s always a bit of a downer, shutting off a server you worked so hard to build in the first place. But that’s the way of things.

  • WordPress and comment email

    Post tagged:

    I… may have only just a few minutes ago fixed a setting that prevented WordPress (and anything else PHP-based) on this new server from sending email.

    Whoops. No comment notifications, for instance.

    On the upside, if this is the worst mistake I make throughout this process then I’ve done pretty damned well.

  • New Server, New Email Service

    Post tagged:

    If you can read this, then the website migration worked.

    If I get email notification of any comments left for this post, then the email migration worked.

    Okay, the email migration worked and I know it, because I got my daily Ello “inspirational” email newsletter today. Oh, Ello, when are you going to become something people other than froofy artsy-fartsy types will actually want to use?

    Anyway. The email accounts are over on Google Apps now, and all but one of the hosted websites are migrated to the new Linode server. Hopefully I’ll have the last website and the NTP Pool configuration done in a couple of days and I will be able to turn off the old server. Huzzah!

  • Migratory Fowl

    Post tagged:

    It’s been a bit quiet here because this month I’ve started on a long-overdue project: Migrating the webserver to a… new webserver.

    I’ll try to sum up.

    The current webserver, aka Node1, is a legacy Linode system. It’s a 6GB virtual Linux server of a configuration they don’t even offer anymore, and it started life as an Ubuntu 10.04 LTS system. I upgraded it a while ago because 10.04 LTS went out of support… last year.

    I’d like to get to the current PHP and MySQL versions, but that means either doing a lot of crazy backporting or doing an in-place upgrade. Considering I upgraded from 10.04 to 12.04 and had… issues… I don’t like the idea of performing yet another in-place major OS upgrade. So, I’ve purchased a second Linode system, a 4GB rig this time, and if I can get everything moved in the next two weeks I won’t need to pay the full monthly price for the old box and new box combined.

    We’ll see how that goes.

    Since the 4GB box costs less, I’m using the cost difference to fund getting email into some kind of hosted environment, because damn me but I’m tired of wrangling mail server configurations. Pay someone else to handle that headache? Yes please.

    So that’s what I’m up to. Once this is complete, then I’ll be looking into a couple of creative projects. Honest!

  • Still Watching Anime: Snow White With The Red Hair

    Just because i deleted the unused anime blog and just because I spent most of the last three years barely using my CrunchyRoll account doesn’t mean that I’m not still an anime fan.

    For instance!

    Starting up this month is the second batch of episodes for a delightful fluffy gem of a fantasy-romance show called Snow White With The Red Hair.

    What’s it about, really? In short: A spunky redhead who wants to be an herbalist comes to the attention of a sleazy local prince who tries to force an indecent proposal on our heroine. She promptly cuts her hair and kites off through the forest toward a neighboring country. Along the way she runs into trouble and is saved by… the younger prince of that country. Sparks fly, adorableness commences, adventures are had, hearts and minds are won over, and so on.

    Let’s be clear: This is fluffy stuff. Sometimes it almost looks like it might get a smidgen dark, but that’s been averted every time so far. It’s just that kind of show. Bad things do happen but the show doesn’t make a grimdark deal about it.

    And you know what? I adore the show. It’s nice to get a relatively uncomplicated romance with two young, determined, smart, devoted people surrounded by similar smart and devoted mentors and minions. If Snow White can’t make you smile, you may need to consult your doctor about a heart replacement.

    You’ll find it on Funimation‘s streaming service, which runs you something like five bucks a month. Honestly I’d say it’s worth it to be able to watch Snow White and Arslan alone, never mind whatever else is in their streaming catalog.

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