Archive for January, 2010

Google is Center of the New Post-State World

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

It’s a grandiose title to this post, but I can’t imagine any other way to think about it. Google has more impact in my day-to-day life than my local government. And I trust Google a whole lot more (witness the Obama vs. House Republicans encounter here – hilarious – until you realize these people rule us).

This is a report of the briefing Google gave at Davos on Friday, made by the author of “What Would Google Do?”. While I have my quibbles about the intellectual depth of the book – once you read the title, do you need to read anything more? – I’m completely behind the treatise of the book, and it makes Jeff Jarvis the perfect person to report this.

Apple’s iPad

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Yesterday, Apple unveiled it’s latest creation, the iPad. I am less interested in the technology than in the backroom politics of digital media here. The iPad is essentially a giant iPhone without the two year contract. The new A4 processor does not allow multitasking, the apps will run like the iPhone apps, etc. It’s just bigger and brighter.

My point of interest is if this will really be a book reading machine like the Kindle, with 100’s of thousands of titles available to purchase, download and read immediately. It looks like it might be. The next question is if the files set up for the iPad are also readable by the iPhone. I have no problem reading on my phone, as I’ve mentioned before. And I’d be more than happy to read them on my handy, always-by-my-side cellphone.

Apple's iPad

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Yesterday, Apple unveiled it’s latest creation, the iPad. I am less interested in the technology than in the backroom politics of digital media here. The iPad is essentially a giant iPhone without the two year contract. The new A4 processor does not allow multitasking, the apps will run like the iPhone apps, etc. It’s just bigger and brighter.

My point of interest is if this will really be a book reading machine like the Kindle, with 100’s of thousands of titles available to purchase, download and read immediately. It looks like it might be. The next question is if the files set up for the iPad are also readable by the iPhone. I have no problem reading on my phone, as I’ve mentioned before. And I’d be more than happy to read them on my handy, always-by-my-side cellphone.

Saving our Server

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

About two weeks ago, our fair server (home to steussy.com, Chris’ IB History Topics, Helen’s new blog, my business websites, etc.) shut down for no apparent reason at 4am. Panic!

I spend the day combing through log files, searching for hints of an intruder. The shutdown scrambled several log files, so I decided to rebuild the system from scratch. Right in the middle of doing so and, coincidentally at 4pm, the computer shut down again. Argh!

Again, assuming a South Korean hacker was coming for my lovely family photos and insightful rhetoric, I downgraded the software to a slightly earlier version, assuming that the bugs would be ironed out of that. Installing the earlier Linux operating system solved the problem. For two days. Then another 4am shutdown.

I got the bright idea that the computer might be overheating. There are sensors already in place inside most computer equipment these days to measure temperature and shutdown if it gets too high. Accessing the sensors is easy with the MacOS, but a bit more complicated with Linux. I installed lm-sensors (a data extraction tool) and sensorsd (a separate tool to query lm-sensors and provide a log). The CPU is showing 67º Celsius (152º for you Fahrenheit people). Is that high? Querying Google, I find an engineering doc from Intel that rates the Celeron processor in the server at a maximum temperature of 67º. Hmm.

I take the casing off the computer. I move the server down to the garage. Winter in Temecula means outside temperatures between 34º and 65º Farenheit, so the garage location should cool it down a bit. I also blow some compressed air around the insides of the computer and particularly around the fan connected to the CPU.

Temperatures go down for awhile – 57º, 59º, 65º, 57º – but then spike again after a few days – 65º, 67º, 69º, 67º. What’s going on? Do I need to get a new computer?

Last night, about 9pm I return home from taking Daniel to his periodic ultrasound exam. He fell asleep in the back of the Toyota before we got back. I check the server. 72º C, right at the edge of shutdown. I go to the garage with a can of compressed air and a flashlight. I tilt the computer over 45º and shine the flashlight directly into the spinning fan that sits on the CPU. What do my eyes behold but a solid mass of lint, plugging every single cooling vent on the heatsink, packing it with dust and lint. The dust and lint were completely invisible when the fan wasn’t running, but under the flashlight with the running fan, they stand out like dog poop on a red carpet entrance. I take five minutes cleaning with compressed air and some tape to remove the larger particles.

This morning, after running for 12 hours, all temperatures are at 38º, with a 4am spike of 56º. Our server is safe again …

Testing New Structure

Monday, January 25th, 2010

This is a test of the new data structure of the blog.

After the Storm

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Colts at the Superbowl!

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

The Colts beat the New York Jets, and are off to the Superbowl!

I’ll admit to some personal conflicts on this victory. By default, I had the Jets in the family pool (the only team not chosen by anyone, so they fell to me). They did pretty well, considering!

Don’t mind Veronica. She normally naps while watching football with Dad.

Joy Robbins

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Joy Robbins, one of my speech coaches in high school and a major influence, passed away after a long fight with cancer yesterday.

UPDATE: Obituary is here.

Jogging Again

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Today is the first morning in a week that we’ve had no rain. An excellent time to go jogging! I wasn’t the only one who thought so. I met at least twenty people on my run today – other shut-ins who’d been dying to get out and run, walk or otherwise exercise.

The map above was created by the free app, RunKeeper, on my iPhone. Click on it to see a more-or-less accurate map of my speeds, locations and elevations.

Pappy has a sore back leg, so he’s not been going with me for the past few days.

More on Scott Brown from Massachusetts

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

So, why did he win? I took a look at some of the campaign commercials. Heck, I might have voted for him based on some of these. I love the truck ad. Below the fold.

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