LISA ’13

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Today was the first of a six day run at LISA ’13 for me. I had a full day training class with Rik Farrow on Securing Linux Servers. I learned a few new tricks to add to the layers of defense that we apply to slow attackers, and passed some of my own on, hopefully for the benefit of my classmates. I have three more days of training, followed by two days of talks and presentations. I expect to take a lot of useful info back to work with me.

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Last night, Marcia and I went out to celebrate our decade in this house. Yup, Hallowe’en was the actual anniversary of the contract closing, but we started moving in on the first and second of November, 2003. Pretty darn amazing, you ask me. We *really* like our life here, y’know.

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Gladly, there are no US casualties that have been reported by DoD in the last week. Let’s see if we can keep that trend going, while we work on getting everyone home… Ciao!

Winter inbound

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We’ve had frost on the ground the last three days running. It’s not been much below freezing, since the hanging baskets and roses on the front porch are all still alive … but Winter is coming.

A productive weekend: remote work and chores ate almost all of it. All standard stuff I’ve talked about a dozen times. Boring, but productive.

Tonight I had a nice chat with my oldest friend (not elderly: but I’ve known him since I was four). Highlight of the weekend, really.

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Our condolences to the family, friends, and unit of Lance Cpl. Christopher O. Grant, 20, of Richwood, Louisiana, who died on Oct. 20 while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Pi tricks

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But first, 0630 EDT on Saturday the 26th day of October, 2013, was brought to you by the word “Fahrenheit” and the number ’28’. Brrrrrr!

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I got home from work yesterday evening, and found Marcia watching something that probably first appeared on an obtangular Philco Predicta television in the late 1940’s. I threw an ENOTINTERESTED exception, then I came upstairs and started mucking about with the Raspberry Pi.  The little credit-card sized computer, named Dortmunder (for REASONS), has languished in a corner for quite a while. I first discovered that my phone life-extension battery (acquired at VMworld, thanks VMUG) also happily powers the Pi:

Pi, fully mobile with battery pack

Pi, fully mobile with battery pack

It’s worth pointing out that the 2200 mAh pack will probably only run the Pi for around 3 hours, since a 10 Ah battery’s been tested out to 15 hours. So, not a LOT of value there, but certainly a momentarily fun test. You can also see the size of the wireless adapter from Edimax, lit blue out of the USB housing at the top of the Pi.

More about Dortmunder: I’d considered buying a case for it pretty much from the day it arrived. I was an early Pi adopter, and at the time of purchase there were only one-off prototype cases spun up on someone’s 3D printer. While that’s cool and all, I didn’t have THAT much of a need for a case. After all, for months Dortmunder hung on a hook in my wiring closet, wired to the switch there.

With the recent addition of that Edimax miniature wireless adapter (see last Sunday’s post), the Pi can now sit comfortably with just a power connection anywhere I want. But the camera, hanging out there at the end of a 14cm ribbon cable, is not trivially stable. Nor is it easy to handle the Pi without risking static damage. So instead of going to Element 14, or Adafruit, or one of the many other Raspberry Pi resources online, I headed down to the woodshop, and noodled for a couple of hours with hand tools and scraps. I came up with this:

Dortmunder's hobby horse

Dortmunder’s hobby horse

There’s a couple of tweaks to adjust the operation and positioning of the camera on the “head”. I’d like to be able to get a good angle up (or down) to aim the camera properly. I have to think about that. But the circuit board body is quite firmly stable in the hand-cut grooves in the three wooden uprights. Fun little project, and the inexpensive accessory camera takes really sharp pictures:

Brian snapped by Pi camera

Brian snapped by Pi camera

Let’s just assume that’s NOT a halo, mmm’kay? It’s almost certainly the light that sits on top of that cabinet over my right shoulder.

Fencing, continued.

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Yesterday, I got all of the left side front fencing replaced. Today, I executed the decorative arches on those sections:

Arching the fence sections.

Arching the fence sections.

I set a horizontal string line across the sections, and measured down, sinking a screw at each bottom end of each arch. I then used a quarter-inch thick, 7′ long cutoff from a piece of cherry, braced against the screws and pressed upwards in the middle to describe each parabolic arch. A quick swipe with a pencil marked each arch. I cut them with the circular saw, first plunging in the middle, then working along the curve to each end. The final bits I completed with a jig saw. That side of the fence now awaits stain/sealer.

I’ll also pressure-wash the gate and posts on this side, and the posts on the other side, to get a better match with the stain/sealer when that’s applied.

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Today’s Solaris patching went off without any hitches. The best answer for the task is Martin Paul’s Patch Check Advanced. I can audit my systems for needed patches, apply them to snapshots of the root filesystem (these are called Boot Environments, and I can patch the copy while the system is still running, yay), and then make the patched copy the next Boot target. This makes Solaris patching a much less impactful event, compared to the days when a patch set was downloaded and staged, then the system was brought down to single user mode (no services running) for the entirety of the patch cycle. Much better service uptime this way.

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Also this week, I picked up an Edimax EW-7811Un USB wireless adapter from Amazon, for use with the Raspberry Pi. An excellent, miniscule little product, works like a champ for my purpose. It’s also worth noting that setting up wireless on Linux distros these days is shed-loads easier than it used to be. I added two lines configuring the WPA settings to the /etc/network/interfaces file, and on reboot the network came right up. It makes the Raspberry Pi a much easier thing to work with, since I don’t have to tether it to a wired LAN connection.

*       *       *

Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Staff Sgt. Patrick H. Quinn, 26, of Quarryville, Pennsylvania, died Oct. 13, in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when the enemy attacked his base with small arms fire.
  • Sgt. Lyle D. Turnbull, 31, of Norfolk, Virginia, died Oct. 18, in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, from a medical emergency.

Fencing

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At 1100 this morning:

Front left fence, before work started

Front left fence, before work started

The gates are staying. The four fence sections, two to each side, they’re toast.

I cut them off the posts. The posts are in fine shape on this side of the house. So I measured and cut and clamped and screwed new horizontal 2×4 PT lumber onto the posts, then nailed PT fence boards up. Fortunately, I’m using a nail gun, instead of a hammer. Otherwise I might still be out there now. Instead, at 1530 EDT:

New fencing installed

New fencing installed

I might have kept working, but it was starting to rain, so I hauled all the tools inside the shed, instead. I’ve still got to get the top detail done, arching the tops to roughly match the gates. In a couple of weeks, if the lumber’s dried out a bit, I’ll coat them with an Olympic Maximum stain/sealer in a natural cedar tone tint. Also, there’s the entire left right front fence still to do, and I know I’m replacing at least one post on that side.

Tomorrow’s weather looks sane, so I may give it a go. Ciao!

Edit: Whoops, no I won’t be working on the fence tomorrow. Tomorrow is a Solaris patching day for me. And it’s the front fence on the RIGHT side of the house that still needs doing…

Downs and Ups

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In one sense, it was a really bad week. Hours after I posted last Sunday, I became violently ill, almost certainly due to something I ate. After about 24 hours, I was able to start re-hydrating, and taking in such challenging foods as soda crackers (in small quantities – I had ten crackers, all of Tuesday). Wednesday was slightly better, and that night I slept through the night. So I went to my one day of work on Thursday, and got enough done.

The upside of the week was Capclave, which I attended on Friday and Saturday. It was going on today as well, but I am still not fully recovered, and decided to lump Sunday and holiday Monday together into another period of recuperation instead.

Capclave was, just like last year, awesome. I had a lot of fun hanging out with a bunch of really smart people, many of whom write F&SF or work with writers, from editors to artists to publishers. Clearly, I’d get even more out of the conference were I in the biz, but time for that sometime later. Because I’m not nearly as much of a George R. R. Martin fan, I was able to spend more time learning about new writers, and other fun stuff. Last year, with John Scalzi as GoH, I frankly spent more time in squee mode, to the detriment of the balance of my conference. Capclave peeps, I thank you for a wonderful Con, and I’m already looking forward to next year.

*       *       *

Mmmm, rain. I almost left this out. Since last Monday, we’re just shy of 5 inches of rain in our back yard. That brings our 11-1/2 month total to 44.06 inches, just over the 30-year annual mean rainfall for our area.

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My message to Congress: Do Your Freaking Job!

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Lance Cpl. Jeremiah M. Collins, Jr., 19, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, died Oct. 5 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
  • 1st Lt. Jennifer M. Moreno, 25, of San Diego, California, died Oct. 6, in Zhari District, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked her unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Sgt. Patrick C. Hawkins, 25, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, died Oct. 6, in Zhari District, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Sgt. Joseph M. Peters, 24, of Springfield, Missouri, died Oct. 6, in Zhari District, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Pfc. Cody J. Patterson, 24, of Philomath, Oregon, died Oct. 6, in Zhari District, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Angel L. Lopez, 27, of Parma, Ohio, died Oct. 5, in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire.

Fall II = Summer?

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Hmmm. Six plus hours working in the yard yesterday, and nearly broken as a result. Why? It was nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit  out. I was slamming the H2O and got through it. The garden beds are cleared, turned and mulched with leaves harvested from the front yard:

Gardens put to bed before winter

Gardens put to bed before winter

After that was done, I mowed both front and back.

Today I got the shopping done, then roasted coffee and cut my hair, and wrapped the day’s chores by washing the car. That’ll bring rain. I should probably wash the car more often if it does, since we’ve had only about 3/4″ or so since late June.

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Many of the evenings recently, I’ve been working my way through Michael Jang’s RHCSA/RHCE certification study guide. While I’ve been using Linux for a long time – about 18 years now – there’s lots of features that I don’t know because I don’t use them. I want to know more both because I might learn something actually useful in my day-to-day work, and because the certification will be useful to the business when it comes to proposal responses and such. Right now I’m about a quarter of the way through the book. I’m taking my time and doing even the stuff that seems obvious on the face of it, because there are likely details I’ll want to grok. Michael Jang knows his stuff and communicates it well – Recommended!

My other connection to Michael Jang is this book: Linux Transfer for Windows Network Admins: A Roadmap for Building a Linux File Server. You can see that while Michael is listed on the cover, Amazon still lists me as the author of the book. I was in negotiations to write that, but declined to sign a contract that required me to write the book on spec with no advance. I hope the book did well for Michael.

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I have no condolences to offer for fallen warriors this week, as DoD hasn’t claimed any casualties in the last week. It’s possible that reporting is sluggish due to staffing issues during the US Government shutdown. But let us hope for the best – that there were no US casualties to report in the last week.

 

Fall Yard Work

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Yesterday I worked in the front yard, cleaning out some stuff from the beds, giving all the shrubs a haircut, and mowing the grass. I found this bird’s nest while I pruned the forsythia, and want to know if there’s a recipe. This isn’t, I think, the right type for bird’s nest soup. To give you a sense of scale, this would comfortably hold but one golf ball…

Bird's Nest. Soup?

Bird’s Nest. Soup?

Today, I worked in the back yard. I pulled out about 10 pounds of potatoes, a couple of shopping bags full of peppers … and that’s about all she wrote for this garden. Three of the beds are cleaned out, four left to go. I had the iPhone propped up on the fence playing me music while I wielded the shovel. After a while, I noticed the music, it was gone. This is the iPhone’s excuse:

iPhone's gotta fever!

iPhone’s gotta fever!

So, rule of thumb – don’t leave the phone sitting in the sun, it’s not a happy place.

*      *      *

Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Staff Sgt. Liam J. Nevins, 32, of Denver, Colorado, died Sept. 21, at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire while conducting range training in Gardez, Paktia Province, Afghanistan.
  • Staff Sgt. Timothy R. McGill, 30, of Ramsey, New Jersey, died Sept. 21, at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire while conducting range training in Gardez, Paktia Province, Afghanistan.
  • Lt. Cmdr. Landon L. Jones, 35, of Lompoc, California, died Sept. 22, as a result of an MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter crash while operating in the central Red Sea.
  • Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan S. Gibson, 32, of Aurora, Oregon, died Sept. 22, as a result of an MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter crash while operating in the central Red Sea.
  • Staff Sgt. Thomas A. Baysore, Jr., 31, of Milton, Pennsylvania, died Sept. 26, in Paktya Province, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire during combat operations.

Liaden Book Time

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  • Agent of Change
  • Carpe Diem
  • Plan B
  • I Dare

These I have read (relatively quickly, given how busy I am these days) – books written by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I came across Agents of Change when it appeared in the Baen Free Library. I devoured it, and went to Baen to feed the habit. I ended up buying the Korval’s Legacy Collection and the Phase Change Collection direct from Baen. Good pricing, ten books full of awesome. Taken together, the four books named above are a galaxy-spanning space opera that brought me to mind of the best of E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith and Heinlein. They make me very happy. I’m also partway through Fledgling, which is set in a different part of the same universe. Tie-ins? Of course, at least a bit.

Why didn’t I know about these when they were written? Del Rey first published Agent of Change in 1988! That was admittedly a frantically weird part of my life, but I’ve almost always found time for great science fiction. I just … missed them, some how. I’m so glad that Miller and Lee not only wrote these, but have kept on writing: Exciting Times for the Liaden Universe® tells us that there’s plenty more to come, and I still have lots to read from Korval’s Legacy and Phase Change. Highly Recommended!