You may recall that I was lamenting earlier this week that several of my news feeds had choked and died. I don’t give up easily… Continue reading I R a Geeneus…
I R a Geeneus…
All posts by Kelly Adams
Server 99% rebuilt
Its official: the new server hardware for this site is now in place!
My apologies for the sporadic availability of this site during the last few days. All three of you are probably incensed 🙂 But as with any upgrade of this type involving hobbiest hardware and configurations, it wasn’t smooth.
There were a ton of bits and pieces that I had installed software-wise over the last year, some of which were critical to operating certain pieces of the site. Stuff like php-cli, nc, and other things of that ilk. But to add insult to injury, the new versions of several key pieces of the site (E.G. Apache, PHP) now handle configuration files differently. As “obvious” as certain directives no longer working, and as subtle as required environment variables now needing different initial values. So I couldn’t just copy over my old config files and call it a day.
With all of this hassle, you are probably wondering why I did this. I refer back to one of my previous entries here
The old server was an 866 MHz Pentium III. More than adequate for my needs. But now the server is running on a dual processor “2000+” (1.66 GHz) AMD Athlon configuration. Processing-wise, at least, I now have four times as much power. And a larger hard drive: nearly twice as big.
Of course, the most important thing is that I’ve freed up some hardware to use for building Irene a new computer. Yeah, that’s the ticket… 🙂
Site stability…
The website has been down quite a bit today. I’m installing upgrades and, as is often the case with such things, it hasn’t gone perfectly
Right now the server is running on the new hardware. I have to run some restart tests a little later…once that’s done and I’m satisfied its working properly, I’ll report here regarding what technical wonders have been deployed.
Darn news feeds…
Half of the “stuff” on my site seemed to break all in one weekend. And it wasn’t even my fault!
I’m referring to the newsfeeds I have here. Two of them died- my Google news (top of the page) and Slashdot (formerly lower left of the main page).
Google news normally sits at the top of the main page. The headlines are “scraped” from their site ever couple of hours (supposedly). Well, the RSS service I was using stopped being updated late last week. I think I’ve may have figured out why: based on some testing I did with some scripts I found for doing this, it looks like Google is blocking attempts to read the site with tools that don’t identify themselves as certain “standard” browser types. I hacked a workaround using php-CURL (which lets me change the client agent (browser) identification header sent when my server connects to Google. Unfortunately, its not quite working properly yet. Hopefully later this week- for now, those links at the top of the page are dead.
Slashdot…it seems my server has been “banned” (check this page out, and look for “My RSS reader tells me I was banned!” for details)for accessing their site “too often” or something. I have two web pages that used to do hourly refreshes. Barring something freaky, this shouldn’t generate more than two queries an hour…but maybe Slashdot has gotten more picky lately. Also, maybe someone has spoofed my server’s IP- I sent a message to Slashdot to see if they can give me some clues why my server has been banned. For now, I’ve turned my Slashdot feeds off.
Oh, and I have all the parts for rebuilding my server here (see my previous article), but between having to work this weekend, sick cats, and the problems mentioned here I didn’t end up with any time to spare).
Have you ever tried…
…to medicate seven sick cats? Two of which, in addition to needing antibiotics, also need forced fluids and feeding?
Well, it kind of works like this…
Sick cats, sick me…
The little cat Irene brought home seems to have been a feline version of Typhoid Mary. She came complete with some sort of upper respiratory tract infection that has spread through our other cats.
I can hear you saying “but don’t you keep new cats in isolation?” And the answer would be “uhm, yeah, sort of, well, for a few minutes, maybe.” I think there was an element of “the kitten is cute: she should meet the other cats” mixed with “it sure would be nice to get past this awkward stage where our house is totally disrupted” feelings. Anyway, she was only in isolation for about 24 hours. And she was sick within 48. Here we are a week later, and half the cats in the house are under the weather.
Rommel, of course, is the worst hit. I say “of course” because I am a firm believer in Murphy. If you are about to go on a long car drive, that’s the day your car will break down. If you have nearly maxed out your credit cards, thats just when you’ll lose your job. And, if a cat is going to get really sick, its naturally going to be the cat that is the worst possible patient.
Continued
Continue reading Sick cats, sick me…
Off to visit Mom…
I’m a bad son. I now live closer to my Mother than I have in years, but I rarely phone her, and months can go by between visits. I always feel guilty when she phones me after one of my extended silences to see if I’m still alive and kicking.
Essays and such added…
I’ve taken some of the essays and other content I had on my old website and made them available here.
Some of them are a bit out of date: even so, I was still able to find some value in keeping them around. I hope you find something useful amongst these pages.
It should have been buried…
If you have a strong stomach, you may want to follow this link
Are you back? Did you survive? That was my third or fourth website, and was my “main” web presence for several years. I cancelled my Geocities “Professional” account some months ago, and just sort of assumed that the website itself would go away. Instead, they seem to have reverted it back into the “free” (I.E.: advertising besmirched) Geocities service. Continue reading It should have been buried…
Computerholics Anonymous, here I come…
Hello, my name is Kelly, and I’m addicted to technology.
It all started innocently enough. Like a lot of youngsters, I had to try it out. Just once…it wasn’t like it was going to be a regular thing. That first Apple II was pure bliss…but it was the beginning of a never-ending spiral into some microchip-besotted hell.
What the heck am I rambling about? Well…
Continue reading Computerholics Anonymous, here I come…