Diary of a Network Geek

Hey, I get paid to be a geek, right?

So, I've been having some issues with my network and several Windows XP machines. In a nutshell, these machines seem to lose connectivity after approximately nine hours and fifteen minutes from the last restart. In other words, when my crazy-dedicated engineers work past their ninth hour, their machine slows to a crawl and eventually locks tighter than a Catholic school-girl's knees. In any case, after weeks of troubleshooting this issue, I've come up empty. The best that I've got for these guys is either a) Don't work such long hours or b) Reboot the machine at lunch.
In a further attempt to fully understand what is happening and at what level, I've gotten one of these machines and I'm going to install Windows 2000 on it. If we have the same issue, I know it's hardware. If I don't, I'll be certain, within a reasonable percentage of sureity, that the issue is some arcane aspect of Windows XP. Either way, I should be closer to a real answer.

But, before I wipe my current experimental machine, I decided I wanted to back it up. Naturally, I turned to my old friend, Linux. A quick Google turned up a blog entry titled "Cloning XP with Linux and ntfsclone". So, with a few modifications for my own environment, I followed the instructions there. Incidentally, I used the latest version of Knoppix as a boot CD.

First, open up a terminal/shell session and create a mount point with the following command:
# mkdir /tmp/server

Then, because my DHCP server didn't give the Knoppix virtual machine the right DNS information, add your server to the /etc/hosts file.
Next, mount the network share that you want to dump the images on.
# mount -t smb -o username=administrator //server1/share /tmp/server

Check how your live CD sees the partitions you want to save with the following command:
# cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name

8 0 78150744 sda
8 1 76211608 sda1
240 0 1939136 cloop0
I want to save that 80 GB disk sda, which has a primary partition sda1. First I saved the partition table and the Master Boot Record this way:
# sfdisk -d /dev/sda >/tmp/server/images/cad1r-sfdisk-sda.dump
# dd if=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 of=/tmp/server/images/cad1-sda.mbr
and then the partitions:
ntfsclone -s -o - /dev/sda1 | gzip | split -b 1000m - /tmp/server/images/cad1-sda1.img.gz_
Note that this saved disk image in 1G files, in case the way I mounted the share to the network server didn't allow for large files. Sometimes that can get tricky going from Linux to a Windows 2003 server and back, so I decided not to take any chances. It makes a mess of files, but at least it took the guess-work out for me.

Coming soon, the restore process! Keep an eye out!

I can cook, damn it!

Okay, mixing a sauce together may not constitute actual cooking, but I did put it over asparagus.
Remember two weeks ago, I mentioned the Men's Health Grocery List? Well, last week Thursday I finally got around to shopping and I got most of the things on the list. Since that included asparagus, that meant I had very limited time to cook it before it went bad. Today was pretty much the limit, even if I wasn't all that interested in cooking tonight. In any case, I made a quick sauce with stuff from the List that turned out quite well.

Uncle Jim's Super Easy Quick Sauce:
Combine three heaping teaspoons of reduced fat mayo with two heaping teaspoons of dijon mustard and a single heaping teaspoon of horseradish sauce, for kick. Blend in an exotic spice in the cabinet that smells good with what you have so far. (I used the McCormick's Gourmet Collection Szechwan Seasoning because it was there and, honestly, had the right color to it.)

I spooned that over the asparagus tips that I steamed in the microwave and added my left-over chicken and rice from the weekend. I was so pleased with myself that I even lit candles!  Oh, and that sauce?  To die for!
Ah, well, now it's back to the writing. I have to figure out how to get my characters out of the room they're in and the conversation/interview they've been having.
Pray for me.

Today, someone found my website using the search terms "proofing the sponge".

And, what sort of sour, un-American kind of person doesn't like ice cream enough to put "none" as a flavor?  Why, you'd have to be a damned inhuman ...  Oh, right.
Never mind.

Oh, and I know I'm off to a dismal start on NaNoWriMo, but I did some research today and actually have a plot all of a sudden, so I have high hopes that my word counts will start to improve.  Of course, as I write this, I'm stuck at work, so, we'll see.

When I optimize a site, I do it with Google in mind.

Over the past two years, or so, Google has slowly introduced a new site-search protocol called Sitemaps. Basically, it's a special XML-based index that lets Google more efficiently catalog your website, which theoretically increases your PageRank. Now, there's a public specification for the Sitemap protocols, but, well, it's kind of a complicated thing to make by hand. Luckily, they've got links to tools to make Sitemap files for you: Google Code - Sitemaps Third Party Programs.
And, of course, if you use WordPress like I do, there's the Google Sitemaps Plugin. Some people say it's a resource hog, but I like it!

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

This is National Novel Writing Month.
Or, if you're one of the cool kids, NaNoWriMo. In case you're new to it, the idea, in a nutshell, is to write a book in thirty days or less. Or finish that monster that you've always meant to get around to again. Either way, the goal is a completed novel by the end of the month. Frankly, it seems impossible to me, but the guy who puts this on every year is also the author of No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days, so, maybe, just maybe it's possible to accomlish.

Not sure how far I'll get this year, but, well, I might as well give it another try!

Well, NaNoWriMo is almost here!

Gee, why do I feel like Linus trumpeting about the Great Pumpkin?
Anyway, the votes are in and I'll go ahead and write about magic as a blood-borne pathogen.  I think I even a have a plot idea or two that I can hammer into shape.  Eh, we'll see, I guess.  To be honest, I'd be happy to get a couple of workable short stories out of this, but I'll give it my best go anyhow.

Well, I'm off to set up my OpenOffice file and do some last minute research.  Good luck everyone!

You've got one last chance to vote on this year's NaNoWriMo project.

A friend told me once, when I started with the surveys on the blog here, that I didn't need to do market research on my readers.  Well, that's true enough.  I can write whatever I want and not worry about anyone else's opinion, but I like to encourage reader participation.
Tomorrow, I will start this year's attempt at writing a 50,000 word, or better, novel in the space of a month.  Before then, I'll change the survey to something else, though I'm not sure what.  Either way, you'll only have until later this evening, sometime, to cast your vote.  If you'd like an explanation of the shortened ideas in the survey, check out the original post where I introduced the survey.
So, vote!  Vote!  Vote!
And, why not try NaNoWriMo yourself?

So, my television died yesterday.

I've had this old Panasonic 27-inch tv for somewhere over ten years and it's finally died.  Saturday night, when I shut off the cable box, the tv, which I usually leave on, went to a blue, video-feed-like screen instead of just going dark.  So, naturally, I shut it off.  The next morning when I went to turn it on, all I got was a weird, high-pitched buzzing sound, but no picture.  I tried unplugging it and letting it "rest", but that didn't seem to make a difference, so I have no choice but to assume that it's dead.

Now, I suppose, I could try to get it repaired, but, frankly, it's so old that I doubt it's worth the effort.  And, it's not like I don't have a smaller television in the bedroom that I don't normally use which could replace the old one.  But, still, it's not the big tv that I've gotten used to watching.
And, with the recent increases in Comcast's pricing, I have been thinking about scaling back my cable bill.  I mean, what's up with them reducing the number of channels then increasing the price, anyway?  Besides, I've been watching too much television anyway.  That damn glowing box lures me in and sucks all my productivity right out.  So, it costs me in two ways.

But, here's my dilemma...  I've been saving the revenue from the ads on my websites toward a nice digital camera.  Now, I'm not talking a simple "point-and-click" here, but an actual digital SLR.  The kind that you can change lenses on and adjust all kinds of settings and so on.  I used to take regular film pictures with an old, old Nikon F3.  But, I never took a class on how to develop film, never taught myself, and got tired of taking my film to an expensive, busy camera shop to get the film developed.  I especially got tired of them always telling me that I'd over, or under, exposed the film.  I mean, I knew I wasn't doing it right, which was the whole point of the experimentation.  I was trying to figure it all out, as usual, on my own using my own methods.  In fact, even though I gave up on that, I still have the camera.
In any case, I've been doing well on revenues and I'm getting close to the purchase price of either a decent Cannon or an even better Nikon.  I've been reading up and pricing them and have settled on either the Cannon Xti or the Nikon D80.  They're fairly close in features, and not too far apart in price.  The kicker is, though, they're both about the same cost as a replacement television.

So, do I make do with less so I can get the camera sooner?  Or, do I put off the camera again for months, so I can suckle at the glass teat now?  Or, do I get the camera now, cut back my cable bill and save that and the money from the web advertising toward a better television a little later?

Well, the one thing I do know, is that I shouldn't make a decision when I'm agitated about it, so I'll be sitting on that for a bit.  But, I should probably make a decision soon so I can cancel services on my cable account before they start charging me for a bunch of stuff I don't use.

No, not my house.

Though, that is a fair way to describe my house right now, I meant me. I'm the dating/relationship equivalent of a "fixer-upper". Sometimes, I think that's a good thing, but others... Well, let's just say that, two years after my divorce, I'm about as open to change as a man can be. Personal change that is. I'm willing to accept that there are some fundamental things wrong with the way I approach relationships and dating and, yes, even sex, and I'm willing to consider alternatives. Oh, I'm sure I could spin that as an asset, but is it? Do you really want to date a "project"?

Think of the possibilities here, ladies. A man who's willing to be molded, to a certain extent, into a "better" person. Who's ready for a little "behavior modification". Willing to listen, really listen, to you tell him what's wrong with him and suggest solutions. Of course, just listing what's wrong with me, or us, and not suggesting possible solutions is how I ended up divorced, so that's something to bear in mind. I don't do well with people crtisizeing me without adding suggestions. And, change takes time, so patience is a virtue.

You may be familiar with a metrosexual.
You may have met someone claiming to be an Ubersexual.
But, ladies and gents, I am here to tell you that I'm a retrosexual. (Okay, some folks might label me a technosexual, but, well, most of them are mean spirited, as well as wrong.)

That is all.
You may now resume your regular Interweb tube viewing/downloading.