Having just been to the Holocaust museum in Washington DC (Part of the Smithsonian, I believe), we saw this little guy on the street. I know they’re almost like birds here, but I’m not used to seeing them so often, so here is one of my many photos of them.
S9600.
So, my wishlist has changed. I’d always passed off rackmount equipment for being too expensive compared to the equivelent tower cases etc. Seems it’s not as costly as I had imagined.
It will cost me approximately $3000 USD to acheive a setup similar to the one seen left. Talked to Kelly about it, and she supports it. (I think mostly because it is so clean and tidy!)
This is where it gets geeky:
A 4U case to house a new Windows based quadcore PC. Several gig of RAM and a 400GB hard disk, primarily will be used for audio and video editing, as well as gaming.
A 2U case to house most of the current PC (Athlon 3200+) with upgraded RAM and new hard disks. This will run Linux and function as a webserver, IRC server, and in-house file/print server.
A 1U case to house a new VIA-based firewall. Running an 80GB hard disk to store the cache for a transparent proxy, log files, and other more dynamic information. Primary operating system information will be on a read-only compact flash card.
2U will be taken with a rackmount UPS (probably APC, whatever is worthwhile but cheap at the time).
A 1U network switch, 10/100/1000Mbps, probably 16port (don’t need that many, but it’s as small as I can find rackmounted). Also a 1U patchpanel for the network, 24 port.
That accounts for 11U of rack-mounted storage. I would probably get a 16U case, to allow for future additions – possibly seperating the server into the two internal and external functions for security, or implementing a PABX (using asterisk) for internal house phones and such.
The $3000 budget also allows for 3 identical 20″ Widescreen 2ms LCD screens, 2 of which would attach to the Windows PC, the third would be KVM’d to the firewall and server (because I know I’ll need a monitor and keyboard for them at some point, and dragging things around isn’t ideal or tidy), as well as being available to plug into my laptop(s), or when repairing computers for friends etc.
This will leave me with a P4 3GHz server (still missing parts), a Celeron 2.4GHz desktop PC, a P3 866 smallform PC, and an empty ATX case. It’ll also leave me with 4 external drives (after purchasing 2 external cases for the drives presently in the 866 and the Athlon) – 2x 320GB and 2x 160GB – more than enough for good mobile storage.
I’ll likely upgrade the CPU in the celeron to the highest P4 it will take, add some RAM and give it use as a media PC, patched to the server for storage. I’d also like to rebuild in the then-empty ATX case a PC intended for mobile use, but a little gruntier than most laptops. Whether used for on-site video editing, or for media projection etc – this is not accounted for in the upgrades.
The $3000 covers:
Following on from yesterday: With reference to yesterdays photo, the train is just crossing it as the video begins. Was in Broadway with Kelly when I took the photo and this video and was very excited to hear the horn a ways off. Initially I was just going to take photos, but I was surprised to see it moving as fast as it was.
Filmed with the S9600.
OK, this is from a few weeks ago. It’s a private crossing in Broadway, VA, across the Harrisonburg/Mt. Jackson branch of the Norfolk Southern.
Nothing really interesting to say about the photo, I just like the contrast, and that it includes the 3 primary (light) colors – Red Green and Blue.
Taken with the S9600.
A while ago I did a stop motion video using our whiteboard, don’t think I ever got around to posting it for the world to see:
As mentioned previously I’m a New Zealand Citizen, have lived in NZ since birth, moving in April so as to get married, live and work in the United States. Now, I understand that in a country this big, some things just move slowly. But anyone who claims that getting married in order to gain green cards or citizenship is the easy route, I would disagree strongly (even to the point where it is annoying that people believe this is the case).
Following all the rules, I arrived in April. Kelly and I were married in late May, we visited the USCIS office in Washington DC (as advised on the website that we should) – after waiting an hour or so, were told that we needed to mail our paperwork to Chicago. Frustrated, we drove home, rechecked everything another 3 times and sent as instructed.
Our paperwork was received on July 2nd, and processing began. We were requested to provide extra information, which was sent and received on August 14th, and we were also requested to visit Alexandria, VA, to provide fingerprints.
This is all fine, this is as expected. I have been monitoring our case online, however, as well as watching the case processing times, and am growing disappointed. The case processing time for the National Benefits Center (where our case is) shows three months from point of reception. By my calculations, 3 months from July 2nd is October 2nd, allowing 2-3 days either way. Today is the 25th October, and still nothing has been heard. The other application, the information received in August, says there will be an update or decision (in writing) within 60 days. August 14th + 60 days = October 14th, give or take a few days. Again, no communication has been received.
“Call them and see what’s happening??” I hear you ask! Well, I did. After navigating through their (fairly well designed) computerized phone system I was able to hear the same case status information as is provided online. Asked the phone system to let me speak to a customer services rep, and it said they will only take complaints or update requests if the case status is either more than 30 days beyond the processing date and hasn’t been updated in the last 60 days. I guess I’ll have to wait another couple of weeks.
<zEkE_> anyone who gets deeply offended by text written by people they hardly know has problems and needs a new hobby
<Midorikawa|Psychosis> exactly zeke
<Ninex> zeke your a queer
<zEkE_> but so do the people who push their buttons in attempts to offend them
<zEkE_> Ninex, i married your ex.
<Ninex> hahahahaha, ohh
<Ninex> yeah
<zEkE_> unless you were queer with her, i think that counts against your previous statement
<zEkE_> 😛
<Ninex> *shrug* i never saw the plumbing
<zEkE_> lol
<Ninex> man, I so totally can’t believe you just made that uber personal
<zEkE_> haha
<zEkE_> you called me queer 😛
<Ninex> lol
<Ninex> fair is fair
Oops, I guess we both voided our rights to be offended by agreeing to the first statement.. I guess the theory isn’t perfect. Then again, I guess Ninex and I know each other a little better than alot of people who would typically be offended on IRC..
so [censored], why don’t you talk more? I mean I can understand living with your parents, heck if I could do that without giving up my life I would.
be a lot easier
have my mom cook all my microwave dinners for me, spend more money on stuff I want.
games, guns and etc.
put more money into my car
buy top of the line computer equipment as soon as it came out
are you just that offended by me? or us?
do you have psychological disorders?
erectile dysfunction?
your just going to ignore me aren’t you?
act like I haven’t said anything.
Ok [censored], heres some stuff on me you can use. I’ve been arrested three times in the past 2 years on driving related charges.
i’m a recovering alcoholic that has a hard time putting down the bottle.
I’ve done some of the dumbest stuff in the history of dumb in my life.
i have a hard time paying my debts, and I still am paying off debts from like, years ago.
I’m just sayin man, be real.
I don’t agree with everything that comes across IRC. I think if you’re deeply offended by someone you hardly know, typing words into a keyboard from 1000 miles away, you have personal problems that you need to get dealt with. I also think that when you’re typing those words you need to remember that there are real people reading them. At the same time, being honest is important in any relationship, online or not.
This is not about offending people, this is about being a whiny little bitch. Personally, I think the dude this was aimed at has had it coming for a while. He is afraid of girls, and ignores anything he doesn’t wanna hear – often attacking people by suggesting they die, often by his amazing gun-shooting-skillz.
If this matches you, I have some advice – firstly, get a life. If you spend all your time online chatting, maybe you need to get out more. Stop complaining that all the girls you like are getting boyfriends when you don’t bother to talk to them or let them know you’re interested. Secondly, if you’re offended by things that people say, consider why they said them. Try responding respectfully – “I disagree with your statement because … ” – not “You have a big mouth. Shut up.” Third, show some level of intelligence. We don’t like you, mostly because we know you’re smart but all you can do is try and prove otherwise – to the point where we almost believe you. Grow up. In this case, the dude is in his late 20’s. Get over yourself.
That is all. My rant is done.
EDIT: This was found this morning: http://www.rocktownweekly.com/news_details.php?AID=32235&CHID=1 – We’d suspected he’d gone to 259 to try and go for the West Virginia border, but he didn’t make it that far.
So tonight, after watching American Carol (funny movie with an interesting message, btw..), and visiting CiCi’s pizza (and not eating much), and socialising with my in-laws, Kel and I dropped by the apartment to grab some things before coming up to Broadway for the night.
That was all well and good, got the laptop and some clothes, etc. Anyway, we were leaving our street, and turning right onto Mount Clinton Pike, and a black SUV with blue lights flashing comes past towards VA-42 at speed. We’re just thinking “Wow…thats weird…”, and turn to follow a little, and hear lots of sirens coming at us from the opposite direction. There was a white Bronco came up Mt Clinton with a large amount of smoke coming out.. followed by approximately 8 police cars of various descriptions. We were nearly hit by the first SUV as it U-turned on Mt Clinton to join the chase.
We carried on toward 42, where a further 4 police vehicles were encountered – a black SUV which took the right-turn at speed (crossed the center line in front of us), a cop with lights off sitting in a parking lot, a state cop and a city cop with crossed the tracks and turned onto 42-North (later U-turned to go south and up Mt Clinton Pike as well).
We continued driving, expected it had moved away from us. Anyhow, arriving in Broadway, about 15 mins later, 2 cop cars were sitting at the South entrance to Broadway on VA-42 conversing, and about 4-5 minutes after passing them (and parking up, discussing what had happened with Kelly’s parents and brother who were a couple of minutes ahead of us) we heard the chase come back through Broadway heading North – this time vehicles sounding in much worse condition.
I’ll be watching Google News a lot, as well as keeping an eye on the news sites (CNN as well as more local places), but if anyone has any idea what was going on, it would be interesting to know! There is speculation it was drug related, and there are reports within the last 24 hours of drug busts made this week, but whether this is related or another matter entirely remains to be seen.
Dear Stupid Neighbors,
We understand that your incompetence regarding internet is not apparent to most, however we believe that when providing a service (as you are), you are obligated to ensure the reliability of said service is maintained, or communicate that it cannot be (with reason).
Please consider the following:
– Providing us with the correct name of your wireless access point.
– Ensuring that the access point is available 24 hours a day, or close to it (just because you work 9-5, doesn’t mean we do)
– If the service is not available, restart the modem, restart the router, and if it doesn’t fix it, let us know.
– If it’s down for a period of time, call Comcast, your provider. You pay them for a service that they aren’t providing. We then pay you for a service that you aren’t providing. If Comcast can’t keep up their end of the deal, perhaps it is time to change..
– We can’t afford to pay for a service we can’t use. If service and communication fails to improve, we shall maintain log of when we could and couldn’t use internet, and pay the appropriate proportion for the month.
Regards,
Us.