Lessons in Systems Administration… (learned the hard way by a n00b)

If you configure your system to stop and start a service once a day, make sure you verify that it works correctly.

Telling cron:
@daily dropbox stop (ie kill the dropbox process)
@daily dropbox start (and then start it again)
does not guarantee that it will execute in that order.

I know now to KNOW that @daily mean sometime near midnight, not necessarily in the order in your crontable.

A safer way to do the above is:
00 00 * * * dropbox stop (ie kill the dropbox process at 00:00 every day)
05 00 * * * dropbox start (and then start it again at 00:05 every day) (Yes, I know it looks backwards, but I checked it.)

The short version of the story is that my server was starting the dropbox service and then a second later stopping it.  Pity I didn’t notice several months ago when I made this change.

Lessons to take home:
1) Verify that changes work the way you want them to.
2) Assume cron will do it wrong.
3) Be more specific.   “00 00 * * *” may take more typing than @daily, but will guarantee (more) correctness.

New Blog

Hey look.

Jonathan started a new blog.  Please go read the first post for more info.

Consonant R Vowell

I have this habit.  I would not say that it is a bad habit, or something to worry about, but I do want to share it with you.

 

1) Think of a word.  Go to step 2.

2) Does it contain the letter r? Yes, go to step 3, no go to step 1.

3) Does it fit into this pattern: “consonant r vowel” with any preceding and following letters as is grammatically correct? Yes, go to step 4, no go to step 1.

4) Rearrange the letters such that it is now “consonant vowel r”.  Go to step 5.

5) Say the new word.  Go to step 6.

6) Post the new and old word in the comments below.

 

I’ll give you some examples:

Driving –> dirving

Minecraft –> Minecarft

Preceding –> perceding

 

I have found myself doing this on a fairly regular basis.  Then I started to think about it.  And that is where this came from.

 

Enjoy!

 

Challenge Tiem!

The Rosetta Stone is a ancient Egyptian artifact that was discovered in 1799.  It served a vital role in aiding the translation if ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.  The Rosetta Stone, and similar artifacts, are exceptionally valuable for archaeologists and historians.

Now, I present a challenge to you.  Prepare a text for a modern “Rosetta Stone”.  My hypothetical idea is to leave an artifact for future historians so that they can translate our languages.  Unlike the Rosetta Stone, you can leave a message for those who discover it.  The ancient Egyptians never knew that their artifact would play such a vital role in understanding their culture.

Your text must include all the letters of the English language, but not obnoxiously so.  Use plain grammar.  Be sure to say hello.  Don’t put your name in it.

On the Rosetta Stone the text appeared in three different languages.  Translate away!  We need this to appear in as many languages as we can.

The Rosetta Stone was inscribed on a slab of granite.  Discuss various materials to use.  Consider longevity!

Finally, the Rosetta Stone was found by accident.  Discuss where to leave our replacement.

Enjoy!

 

Xenocide

In Orson Scott Card’s Ender Series the concept of Xenocide is introduced.  Xenocide is when one intelligent species drives another intelligent species to extinction.  A direct translation is stranger killing.  In this case xeno- is taking stranger to mean alien, and furthermore, alien not of this world.

Xenocide, in my mind is the most barbaric, evil, and despicable act that can ever be done.  Consider for a moment all that would be lost if humanity was to be completely eradicated from existence.  The works of Shakespeare, Einstein, Beethoven, and many others would be lost.  Now consider what wonders would be lost if humanity were to commit Xenocide.

Let me go back to the word xeno-.  As I said it means alien.  Consider for a moment that alien simply means someone not of the country that you live in.  Consider the tactics that were used by the first Europeans to come to the New World.  I would argue that they very nearly committed Xenocide on the populations living here at the time.  That is a tragic thought.

My final point is very simple.  Humanity must never commit Xenocide.  Why?  Because if we are an intelligent species (and I do believe that we are) then to commit such an atrocity would serve as an argument agains our claim of intelligence.

If you want to consider this further, please read Card’s Ender series.  They are exceptionally well written, and I believe that everyone should read them.

 

Batman and Superman

There is a common argument that occurs as to who is the more superior super hero in regards to Batman and Superman.  I would like to draw your attention to some of the finer details that I feel often go ignored.

For the record I would like to say that I am more fond of Batman because of all the gadgets.  That said, I will not be focusing on the tools or abilities that the use, instead I will look at the methods.

Superman takes an almost lazy approach.  He waits until he hears/smells/tastes/gets hit with/etc. something before he acts.  From there he goes in and simply muscles his way through the problem.  It works well for him.  He always manages to prevent the disaster just in the nick of time and saves the world.  This approach requires a pretty good dose of luck and good timing.

On the other hand, Batman takes a more investigative approach.  He sneaks around at night spying on people and beating guys up in back alleys, learning as much as he can in the process.  He seems to always suspect that someone is plotting something.  Again he manages to prevent disaster just in the nick of time.

Now consider if the two were to switch tactics.  Consider if Batman were to wait until something hit him.  I think that it is unlikely that he would be able to prevent the disaster.  Likewise, consider if Superman were to take the more proactive approach.  All the villains and crooks would be beat up and in jail long before they could think of breaking the law.

Having said this, I must conclude that it is inappropriate to compare Superman to Batman.  They are completely different heros with completely different modus operandi.  If you really wish to compare heros, group them by “category” first.  Compare Spiderman to Superman or Batman to Ironman.  Compare superpowers to superpowers or gear to gear.  Just as in science, you cannot compare meters to seconds.  They are completely different units.

Now: Discuss!

 

First!

And here it is, the first post of the new year.  I feel like I should make some excuses followed by some promises.  I’m not going to.  I don’t want to disappoint you.

That said, posts should be resuming this Saturday, and I want to stick to a weekly schedule like I had been doing.

If there is anything you want me to post on, shoot me an email or leave a comment!

Thanks,

~J

 

Stein um Stein

Last week I wrote about the band Rammstein.  Today I am going back to Rammstein again.  Keep in mind that Rammstein is alway inappropriate, however I want to look at one particuar line from their song “Stein um Stein” (Stone by stone).

The first lines of the song are:

“Ich habe Pläne große Pläne        (I have plans, big plans)
Ich baue dir ein Haus”                   (I’m going to build you a house)

Looking at these two lines as if they were coming from God is a powerful thought.  He does have big plans, and he is building you a house.  It is a very encouraging thought.

Rammstein

In my Band Mold post I spoke briefly about the band Rammstein.  Now I want to go into a little more detail about the band.  The band is kinda sketchy, and I am going to briefly discuss some of these details.  I will try to keep everything “PG”.  Nevertheless, this post may be unsuitable for children.  You have been warned.

Rammstein is a German band.  The genre that they fall into is “Neue Deutsche Härte” (New German Hardness), and they are always inappropriate.  Always.  The best way I can think of to describe them is to compare them to middle school aged boys who think that yelling out human reproductive organs at lunch is funny.  As I said, always inappropriate.  However, if you can look past that and look at what the songs are about and what the band is trying to say, you may actually see something different.

The songs Rammstein writes are almost always inspired by a real world event.  I see it as the band saying: “You think we’re messed up?  Look at the real world.”

The song Tier (Animal) is about a father molesting his daughter.
The song Weißes Fleisch (White Flesh) is about rape.  (Loosely)
The song Spiel mit mir (Play With Me) is about sexual abuse from siblings.
The song Mein Teil (My Part) is about cannibalism and is written after an incident involving cannibalism.

Again, I need to emphasize that Rammstein is alway inappropriate, but this is stuff that happens in the real world.

Another side of Rammstein is their music.  The music is well written and has some interesting sides to it.  They rely heavily on the bass.  I like this.  At the same time they also incorporate some of the techno side of things.  They find a good balance.

The final thing I want to mention is the lyrics.  Looking past what the band is saying, and looking at the words they use, I am always amazed at some of the things that they pull off.  Their most popular song “Du Hast” (You Have) is a particularly good example.  The lyrics are “Du hast mich” (You have me), but the lead singer pronounces it more like “Du hasst mich” (You hate me).  This isn’t the only example of some of the things that they do, but it is the most appropriate of them.

What do I want you to take from this post?
1:  Don’t look Rammstein up.
2:  Don’t judge music based on it’s content alone.
3:  Listen to lyrics and appreciate the words that are used, especially when the song comes out of another language.
4:  Enjoy the bass line.

Nibbles

This post was brought to you by the number 5 and by accidentally the whole bottle.

1: I’m huge on your phone
2: Bag of Joy.  Same idea as the Box of Happiness.
3: Wouldn’t that be a trombone?
-No.  That would be a bottle with a stick in it.
4: Hooligans performing shenanigans
5: Oh my gosh!  It’s Paul Baloche!!!
6: Everything tastes better with rabies.
~J. Cunningham
7: Literally, Random, and Ironic.  Three of the most poorly used words in the english language.
8: BOOM! http://inception.davepedu.com/
9: The shatters will platter.  ~J. Cunningham on the subject of hard drives.
10: I can’t navigate your filesystem, there is a presentation in the way.  ~Anon.