Geeky Stuff

We received an IBM 8583 LTO3 tape library today. It's a pretty nifty gadget, having 73 media slots, two LTO3 tape drives, a bar code reader, and a 2Gbps FibreChannel interface. It also has an I/O door you can open to insert and extract tapes without interrupting operation of the unit! And each tape stores a mind-blowing 400GB. Too bad we don't have the media yet, and I was only able to test with 200GB LTO2 tapes we already had...

I set up a temporary machine named "kitsune" to figure out how to get it all working. Unfortunately, I could get nothing but lots of errors from the Linux kernel concerning the Emulex LP9000 FibreChannel host adapter. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it to see the attached tape library!

After tweaking settings for a few hours, I decided to upgrade the firmware on the card to see if that would help. Everything suddenly started working perfectly, and the library detected as a SCSI device with two LUNs!

Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: IBM      Model: ULT3580-TD3      Rev: 57F7
  Type:   Sequential-Access                ANSI SCSI revision: 03
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 01
  Vendor: IBM      Model: ULT3583-TL       Rev: 6.03
  Type:   Medium Changer                   ANSI SCSI revision: 02

Each drive has its own FibreChannel connection, so to use both drives you need to connect each one to an HBA port. The Library's configuration has an option where you can actually assign the medium changer to either drive, so it shows up as an extra LUN on that particular drive.

"Kitsune" is a pathetic Pentium III 550MHz with 256MB of RAM, so it is way too slow a machine to really test the drive's throughput (60MBytes/sec peak, supposedly); that's going to have to wait until we receive a set of SFP transceivers from IBM so it can be hooked up to the Bladecenter. After that, the next step will be to set up one or two of the blades as backup server(s), and set up a new Amanda configuration for the library.

Fibrechannel is pretty spiffy! It's just like SCSI, only the cables are a heck of a lot more manageable and it's a heck of a lot more expensive. You can also set up SANs, or "Storage Area Networks", in which you can assign individual devices to individual servers using software, and make changes without having to physically reconnect anything. Neat stuff; I just wish it were cheaper!

So I saw a link to "www.updateyoursystem.com"... Curiosity got the better of me, of course...

Check this out...

Holy crap! I'm infected with a Windows virus! Even though I run Linux!

Also amusing is the contradiction on that page; it says I'm running Linux Firefox, but also claims I'm running Windows...

Of course, the IP address that's attacking me is a multicast address! So whoever wrote this page doesn't know much about IP addressing. At least they didn't use a 10.x.x.x address...

OH NOS IVE BEEN HAX0R3D!!!!!!!!!1#!##!#!!#!#!oneonepoundone

Gotta love these scamsters. I can see your typical Windows drone falling for it, and then paying for this useless software...

Just updated this site to Drupal 4.6.x (it's about time, right?) and the upgrade seems to have gone smoothly, but if anyone sees any bizarre quirks, please let me know in a comment!

The quirk with logging in resulting in a blank page appears to have gone away. Other than that, I don't see any cosmetic changes or major changes on the admin side...

On other notes...

I got the p690 going at work a while ago. It is one hell of a beast of a box; right now it is partitioned entirely for Linux; all 31 usable CPUs and 256GB of memory.

It's hard to fathom a machine with 256GB of memory. I mean, this is so much memory that EVERYTHING you ever access on the machine's disk ends up in cache and STAYS in cache pretty much permanently! This causes the machine to always feel incredibly snappy once you've been using it for a bit.

I also managed to compile an entire Linux kernel in a bit less than two minutes. Normally compiling a Linux kernel takes about 20 minutes! "make -j 31" scrolls like no tomorrow, and the CPU time reported is around 23 minutes (since it adds up the time used on all of the CPUs)

It's a pretty fun machine to mess around with. }:)

Oh yeah, I was also at MetroZoo last weekend and took some photos. Well, I took a lot more, but these are the ones I'm showing off. The otters were a real blast to watch; they're totally adorable!

Oh yeah, this, and also this! Servals can jump pretty high.

Unusual past few days, it's been. Quick summary:

I've been wrestling trying to get an IBM p690 "Regatta" going at work. Basically an IBM POWER system about as tall as me (6'5") that needs three-phase power and sounds like a hurricane when it's turned on. The air blowing out is also hot as hell, which means it must be drawing a hell of a lot of power.

32 CPUs, and supposedly 128 gigabytes (yes, *GIGA*) of RAM, it is quite a sight to behold. Unfortunately, one of the fans isn't working, AND it's not booting correctly, throwing firmware CRC errors. Alas, IBM is coming out to look at it tomorrow.

I've also been messing with a BladeCenter, which is basically a big chassis that takes blades, which are self-contained servers with their own memory and disk. Yup, a 2.5" 10K RPM SCA SCSI drive. Didn't even know they existed until recently.

So what's the deal with Best Buy and $90 DVI cables? I was there Wednesday shopping for a TOSlink cable for my new HDTV receiver, and I can't believe some people actually pay that much. I also saw an $80 TOSlink cable. It's pretty disgusting, when you can get similar cables for around ten bucks online, in some cases including shipping. Will folks really pay $70 for a cable just to avoid waiting a couple days for shipping?!

Oh, and by the way: ABC's "Lost" in HDTV is sweeeeeeeeeeeeee*EEEEEEE*eeeet. I can't believe I can watch it and other shows in *above* DVD quality, received over a plain ordinary indoor antenna! Amazing. I need to find a way to RECORD shows in that quality; unfortunately all the devices on the market that can do so appear to either require tape (Ewww!) or subscription fees (DirecTiVo). I don't agree with TiVo's ass-kissing the TV studios, either, so they can be without my cash.

240/120 volts, 60Hz, split-single-phase.

Yep, 60Hz! Not 63.4 most of the time and 59.7 when the toaster is running. 60.000. Period.

Yup! 120 volts. Not 127.3 or 118.5 or 0.0 when it runs out of gas. 120 freakin' volts.

And 240 for the water heater, of course! Hot shower time tonight!

I saw the crew working on the feeder while driving home from work, so I knew tonight would be the night. All hail the grid! For without it, we are in hot sweaty darkness....

-Z

Well, I haven't updated in a while. Been distracted and all. Extremely distracted.

I got a new toy last weekend, a PalmOne Treo 650 phone. Or PDA. Or both. It does lots of things; to just call it a "celphone" is somewhat unfair. It's basically a Palm PDA with a celphone built in. With Sprint PCS service, it can do lots of neat things, like make and take calls, get on the Internet for web surfing, AIM, SSH (to log into those UNIX systems), E-mail, and more. I'm now well-connected wherever I go! I'm not sure if this is a curse or a blessing; we'll have to see. Luckily, it has an "off" switch, so I can still get away from it all if need-be.

On Saturday I went with Rieshal and Kitwickliff (who just moved here a couple of weeks ago) to Sawgrass Recreational Park. I haven't been there in a long time, and it was wonderful to see Monty the panther for the first time in about five months. He's gotten so big; you can see pictures here. Kit is really into photography and I lent her the Rebel for most of the trip; she seemed to like it. (Kit, I'm going to convert you to digital yet! bwahahahahaaa..) We also went on an airboat ride through the everglades, which was pretty neat. I was surprised to find the airboats are powered by two bog-standard big-block V8s normally used in Cadillacs. They are EXTREMELY noisy and hearing protection is pretty much required on the ride.

The rest of the day involved dinner at an Italian place and later on watching a weird cat anime and then the movie Brazil. Overall a fun day, and I got to meet someone new. }:)

Well, it's been a while since I've updated. Probably because nothing much too exciting has been going on, outside work and the usual beginning of semester craziness.

I got a tile floor installed in my room/office/mad scientist lab at home. There was moisture coming up from the concrete slab which was causing the carpet to smell funny, and I'd had enough. The new floor looks and feels great, despite the room being a little louder since the carpet isn't there to absorb sound from equipment anymore. There's always a downside to everything!

Lynxie seems to like the floor too. He can slip under the wall unit much more easily now, and it's funny to watch him slip when he runs into the room too fast and tries to stop. Silly kitty!

This was also a great chance to re-do all the cabling behind my desk. It was an utter snakepit before, and now it looks pretty good! Though I'm sure in a few years, it will be a big mess again as I hastly add and remove things withoug caring so much about neatness...

Oh, and this has got to be the coolest "cracked by" screen on any pirated game in the history of the universe. (Beyond Castle Wolfenstein)

On another note, I'd like to wish EVERYONE who lives/lived in the New Orleans area a speedy recovery. It's not going to be easy, and you guys don't deserve this misery. If you haven't found it yet, this blog is written by someone keeping an ISP up on generators right in the middle of all the chaos. A fascinating, if sad and a bit scary, read.

Okay, I'm not kidding, this has got to be the coolest optical illusion ever.

Make sure GIF animation is turned on, and click here.

Stare at the cross in the center for a bit.

Isn't that cool? The ring of purple dots sorta fades, and you just seen a green dot going around!

But there's no actual green in the image! Look directly at the purple dots and you can see the complete lack of green. But the animation still fools your mind into thinking its there...

Spiffy, eh?

Not too much has been happening lately. Work has been busy; I've spent this week upgrading miscellaneous daemons and services for security reasons, and brought our new backup server online, officially. It's been working well, backing up all the department disks at lightning speed.

The weather has been so hot and muggy outside during the day lately that I just haven't been motivated to do anything outdoors, Vanishing Species or otherwise. I've spent the weekends lazing around at home, going to the mall, and in the case of July 4th weekend, blowing stuff up with friends.

Yup, about $80 worth of fireworks went up in smoke on the 4th. Mostly bottle rockets, firecrackers, and mortars. It's always fun to set off the things yourself; those people who tell you to play it safe and just go watch the professional shows just don't understand the fun of playing with fireworks. Ignore them. }:)

I rearranged my desk at home, and retired the second monitor for now. It was simply getting too cluttered, especially with the HP 1150C multifunction scanner/printer they let me take home from work.