Hello 2009, you lookin fine!

Out with the old and in with the new.
You can't live in the past.
Live for today.

Happy New Year my faithful readers, may the coming calendar year bring you all kinds of good fun and enjoyment.

Hope you are all having a safe holiday!

Yoshimoto cube kicks ass!

Feast your eyes!

Don Hertzfeldt

A few friends from middle school/high school used to do an underground comic a few times a year called pencil wars. It was mostly teen violence/angst lashing out against the oppressive school administration. They were so cool. This is what I imagined they looked like in my head.

You Might Be Elitist #2

If you do things the hard way just on principal... you might be an elitist.

Example: I'm in the process of some infrastructure shifting for a small business. They currently use Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 RC2 using Windows XP SP3 workstations.

In order to simplify things they are moving to a more homogeneous environment (all workstations will be exactly the same, there are only 4 so its not as big of a deal as it sounds).

Now I COULD stick with the SBS2003 installation, but there are a lot of things that I don't like about it. It DOES work pretty well, most of the time. Here is a list of things that I wish I could change:

• Remote management WITHOUT having IE

  SBS2003 uses the RWW (Remote Web Workplace) in order to allow you to connect to a secure website and do things like check email (Outlook Web Access), Run Reports (status/use reports for server) and connect to the server & desktops. Most people look at the RWW as the strongest feature you get in SBS that you DON'T get in other Server environments (Either Microsoft server or any other server installation). For me it is a hindrance. I don't run IE, because I use Ubuntu for my OS. If I need to remotely administer or remotely connect to any of the computers at this location I have to start my XP virtual machine and connect from within there. It is the last "gotta have windows for this" thing in my migration from Windows to Linux.



• Expensive client licensing

  Small Business Server 2003 Standard costs $639.99 according to Newegg.com. That includes a whole 5 CAL license. What does that mean? It means 2 things: 1. you have to choose user/machine licensing scheme. 2. you can only have 5 connected to the server at one time. This is pretty limiting. If you want 6 computers you need to spend an additional $349.99 according to Newegg.com This very quickly drives the cost of the server up, this is completely exclusive of any desktop costs. Oh yea... if you want to include SQL in the package the cost goes up more. Though at some point around the 15 user mark the cost of cal's becomes more then the cost of the server, even with SQL, so the more people you have the less it matters.



• Unused services

  This is not as big of an issue for me as the other two items previously mentioned, but it is still something I would like to see addressed. Something I realized, running your own mail server is stressful. A lot of a business' ability to function hinges on access to email and telephone. Even if things are critical in other areas of the infrastructure if you have access to email and telephones you can hobble along. This is the primary reason we moved our main mail services from Exchange over to Gmail. The $50/user/year cost was acceptable to us in order to ensure that critical part of our infrastructure was operational. Once we had transitioned from exchange TO Gmail there was no "clean" way to remove exchange from our environment. In fact if there is no good way to not install exchange. The SBS components are SO tightly integrated that things begin to break down once you remove one part of it, even if it is not completely necessary. There are a bevy of things that are similarly required arbitrarily. Updating, backup, firewall, faxing.



• Backup Solution

  SBS2003 does backups, but it misses the last critical step. Firstly it favors setting up full system backups, and the reading materials strongly suggest a daily schedule. In my sittuation that means a daily single file of about 30-40 GB. Now that excludes a few folders like the updated service packs etc that are easily accessible online and are not "installed apps" per-se. I have a drive on the server that I use to backup the server to, which is a sub-optimal solution. The real trick... and the killer for most backup scenarios is where is/are the off site options? My solution is not great, but it works ok. We purchased 2 500GB external hard drives that connect to the LAN. These are switched out weekly. We keep 2 weeks of daily full system backups (10 x30-40) plus as many weekly full system backups that will fit on each of the drives. In this sittuation the most we would ever lose is 1 week of data if the building burned to the ground on a friday. This scenario works ok, in theory, but all of the scripting/logic that is used to copy the large files over the network is coded by hand... by me, and I am not a coder. So it fails on occasion, and that is bad for a backup scenario. What would be better would be Weekly full backups and daily (or a few times a day) incremental backups directly to the NAS. This is NOT possible without the purchase of more software.
  

There are plenty of things that I like about SBS2003, but they are all things that are central to Microsoft's polcy of non-interoperability vs the fact that Microsoft has an inherently better product. They certainly do seem to be backing down from that stance with the release of some API's that make the ability of projects like SAMBA to interact more successfully with Windows.

So what is my alternative? Well I have two that I am actively pursuing, both of them Linux solutions to this common "Small Business Server" problem.

• SME Server

  this is a prepackaged Cent-OS distribution that takes most of the hard parts of setting up a small business network out of the equation. It supports things like Roaming Profiles, User Startup scripts, mail, vpn, backup etc. It is a great package that brings it all together pretty well.



• Do what Linux does best

  And that is to provide a customized solution to my specific problem. I found a few tutorials online that have helped me to get to the point where I can have users logging on to my Domain, hosted on a Linux domain controller. I can install/configure/uninstall any of the components in the SBS equation that I do not need, and switch out the ones that are present for something that fits my needs much better. It comes at a great cost however, and that is time. The amount of time it is going to take me to setup and get working the way I want is several factors more this way, but the solution is exactly what I want... in so far as the technology allows for.

So as you can probably guess, I'm opting for the fully customized Linux alternative. I'm still in the testing phase at the moment, configuring a virtual lab of computers that are acting as server and clients (both Linux and Windows) in order to hammer out my plan of attack. This is not to say that I am 100% set with this option, but the main advantage of testing the most desirable/most difficult solution first is that if it ends up not working, you will usually be pleasantly surprised at how little time it can take to implement one of the other solutions.

I'll try and keep this blog updated on my progress, so far I am impressed with how cool learning about this stuff has been.

Trying out something new

I am trying out a few new looks for the site. If you notice something funky it is probably just a temporary thing.

Support change in our political process!

Lawrence Lessig gives a good overview of why change in our political process is needed (in his view) and how to effect such change. Plus he has a great presentation style.

Christmas'ed

DIY Canon for Christmas!

How does this guy still have a tv show?

This guy is an idiot. Another fine example of his idiocy.

Will it Blend? LIghters?

Yes we can!

Swarm bots FTW!

These robots are super cool. They self-organize to form a team in order to accomplish a goal that none of them could perform individually. The best part is they do it without being told specific instructions. They are modeled after "swarm" type insects (ants, bees, etc). In this case they are "rescuing" a child. While the practicality of these specific robots may not be all that useful I can imagine LOTS of scenarios where a swarm of robots can be used to provide services.

Someone fell through the ice in the lake... dump a few dozen diving robots in the water and they will communicate with each other and organize a search of the treacherous underwater scape in order to find/pull to safety someone in danger. Obviously that is just one example, but you can see how something kile this might be very effective.

You Might Be Elitist #1

If you thought this type of ignorance (like racism) had disappeared long ago. Sadly neither is true:

http://allforlinux.com/2008/12/it-teachers-kicked-her-student-because-of-linux/

Look! Snow Idiots

Hilarious video of people being stupid in the snow. This is a Western Washington tradition. I hope no one got hurt.

What to do about the stock market sittuation?

Wait it out, in the long run it will likely benefit you.

That is what A post over at Get Rich Slowly is claiming and the reasoning seems to apply. Statistically at least the market will rebound from this lull/recession/depression/retirement evisceration.

If you are younger (20's or 30's) now is a great time to throw some money into the stock market. If you are a bit older, your risks are hopefully shifted to protect you from these types of troubles (bonds/cd's/etc).

About the only people who should not be throwing money at the stock market at this point are those with a lot of debt, or people who believe the financial system is on the verge of collapse, in which case what are you doing reading this? Shouldn't you be off preparing for the anarchy/lawlessness that is yet to come?

Antikythera Mechanism Flippin Cool!

Antikythera Mechanism Flippin Cool!

Drum & Bass robot, is to Sexy for its Beats

So Awesome! WANT!



via: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/2998

The ole bait and switch!

Men (boys?) can be so pathetic.

Chamomile Motha Fucka!

Shooting!

Out shooting today with Laura. First we went to freeway park, now we are headed to uw to shoot some of the cool buildings. FUN!

Hitler Hates Nikon

Pretty funny!

Pooping Camera

Yet to be named

IMG_5226


Originally uploaded by fotophly

New cat! need to name her!

Rent vs. Buy in/around Seattle

A while back I was looking into buying a condo/townhome in/around the Seattle area. There is appeal in setting up shop in an interesting neighborhood. The problem was two fold, I had a credit issue (college was tough, and it is repairing) and the cost of living in Seattle is so darn expensive. According to this article over at Seattle Bubble renting is in fact cheaper then buying in the long run (contrary to everything you usually hear). The trouble comes in actually socking the savings away. That's always been my trouble...save save sa... oh look at that shiny new widget.

That is my struggle.

Lego WANT!

These are so cool. Lego rings made from silver that you can put ACTUAL Lego bricks on! ZOMG!

http://gizmodo.com/5101650/lego-silver-rings-will-brick-your-marriage

Drupal Skillz!

I would love christmas if it were like this.

This is pretty hillarious. Santa Clauses gmail inbox!

http://gizmodo.com/5101296/santa-claus-gmail-account-exposed

At war in the stars!

War vs. Trek

Great Poetry