Posts

Posted on

HyperMiling

2003 Toyota MatrixI conducted an experiment this morning.  I drove to work 5 Mph slower to see how much gas I would save.  I was impressed by the difference.   I didn’t have a real accurate way to measure the actual gas mileage.  I had to go by the gas gauge itself.  It usually takes me almost a 1/4 of a tank one way in Amy’s Hyundai Santa Fe.  It gets about 20 MPG on average.  This is thanks to the AWD option which is great in the rain but hell on gas.  This morning I did the trip on 1/8th of a tank.  It was half, or almost half the gas, I would normally burn at 75 mph.

2004 Mazda 3This got me thinking some more about the idea of hypermiling.  Now the guys who go out and buy a Nascar ice vest so they never have to turn on the AC are ridorkculous.   Everyone was talking about their gas mileage when we hit $4 a gallon.  Now it’s back under $2 and no one cares.  I have the cheapest gas in Wake county 4 miles from my house at $1.38 as of this AM.  With a commute of 42 miles one way, I still care.  I spend no less than $48 a week on gas even at $1.40 or less.   I reached a high of $130 a week at the price peak in the ol’ F150.  Never again.  My goal is a preemptive strike against possible rising gas prices.  I’ve resolved to monitor my gas mileage while trying not to become obsessive about it.

Mazda Protege 5.jpgI will start by making sure I buy the right car.  This has become a challenge lately since I’m trying to avoid financing with a bank and all the used econo cars got sucked up during the $4 a gallon era.  I tried to buy a 2004 Civic.   It was salt corroded beyond hope.   I’ll still look for one but I’m starting to set my eyes on some others, specifically the Mazda Protege5, the Toyota Matrix, and Mazda3.  All three are gas sippers and are suppose to hold up under heavy mileage.  I need to make my decision and a purchase by no later than January 15th.  I have to travel down to Manning, SC that weekend and can’t leave Amy without a car.

Posted on

End the Fed

“In 1910 Rockefeller and Morgan banking representatives, along with government officials, boarded a luxurious railcar owned by Nelson Aldrich, Senator from Rhode Island, who became quite wealthy representing the interests of the moneyed class. They were journeying from New Jersey to Jekyll Island, Georgia for a secret conference at which “the Federal Reserve was conceived; the birth of a banking cartel to protect its members from competition; the strategy of how to convince Congress and the public that this cartel was an agency of the United States government.”– The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin

Then they went on to fund the establishment of central banks in Japan and Germany following World War II.  John F. Kennedy was wise to their game and worked diligently to end the Federal Reserve up until the convenient timing of his controversial assassination.   I’m no conspiracy theorist but you’ve got to admit that for all the vague ballistics evidence that pointed to Oswald a motive for his actions have never been made clear.

Everyone fears the Federal Reserve.  Legislators, the judicial system and local and international governments alike bow to their whims without scrutiny into the depths of their intent.  Why do we still have the Fed?  Because they said so.  Why does it take an act of Congress (and almost and act of God) to regulate the actions private banks take with lending terms, creative finances and disclosure of their activities with investor deposits?  Because they said so.

America is a society producing little or nothing trying to trade paper to substantiate our liquidity.  As real estate prices drops the few liquid assets we still have become of less and less value.  The Fed and the markets are trying to reinvent liquidity through investment.  Problem is there’s nothing at home to invest in.  So banks need revenue.  Where are they going to get it?  By gouging their customers, meaning the consumer credit base, as much as possible in the coming years.

You are a slave to maintaining you bank account and credit card balances.  Who among us thinks that consumer credit does not hold sway over daily life?  FICO score anyone?  The banks have come to require your allegiance for everything from renting an apartment to getting a job.  Of course, your FICO score won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on once everyone is down and out, unable to pay.  The so called deadbeats are increasing exponentially.

How do we combat it?  Simple.  Pay off credit cards and cut them up.  This is the same way, the only way, there is to beat drug dealers.  Destroy the demand for the product.  This is the only way out of our recession which will be a established period of deflation by the beginning of 2010.

Posted on

KVM Battle Part II – Raritan vs. Avocent

I’ve had so many email requests regarding the outcome of the KVM testing at the American Kennel Club (see: Part 1) that I decided to post a follow-up to detail the conclusion of the testing and selection.

To cut to the chase in the end we went with Avocent and here’s why: We needed to support remote power cycling to 3-phase 208V power distribution units.  Raritan did not have a 3-phase 208V PDU that could be controlled to the individual outlet level through their web based “Command Center” interface.  Once again the “Command Center” is actually a 1U server appliance that must be purchased seperately for the environment.  Avocents DSVie3 is a licensed and installed service based component.  We spun up a 2003 server on ESX to host it.

Avocent Cyclades PDU’s were originally Server Technology PDU’s (and were OEM’ed that way by Avocent before the application of the Cyclades brand) and therefore Avocents DSView3 was immediately compaitble with the Server Tech serial interfaces which can be daisy chained three PDU’s deep.  We daisy chained two Server Tech 208V PDU’s per rack to the Avocent serial switches and tied per outler outlet interfaces to the Avocent IP switch ports specific to each server.   This gave us the ability to remotely power cycle A or B power to any server remotely.

In Raritan’s defense their Command Center does support individual PDU outlet to server association.  It also supports power cycling to individual outlets.  What they do not support well is 208V PDU’s which is quickly becoming the standard of data centers everywhere.  My guess is they will have this fixed soon.

Raritans Command Center also did not support as many types of authentication to the Command Center gateway.  AD and LDAP are supported if that’s all you want.  We were impressed that Avocent DSView3 supported RSA Secure ID token based authentication which we were already running for VPN access.  There is a bit more licensing involved with Avocent than Raritan and it can get frustrating to configure and activate on-line.  If you’re someone without the 208V power requirements and hate the act of on-line licensing you may find Raritan is in line with your requirements except for one thing….

The mouse latency.  This is where you will hear most complaints about IP KVM remote consoles.  Both manufacturers supported ALOM ports for SUN, and IP serial interfaces where required.  Where Raritan really fell short in out opinion was the cursor control during remote sessions through the Command Center gateway.  It was better to go to each switch individually where the latency controls made the cursor usable but not exciting.  With DSView3 we did not have such a horrifying experience.  There was latency but it was tolerable and fairly adjustable.  Raritans Command Center fell short on performance as far as we were concerned.  Now take in to account that we were working under the “cost be damned” project control doctrine.    If cost is a factor you’ll find yourself taking a much harder look at Raritan.  Neither of these units would serve well as a day-to-day remote administration tool.  MS Remote Desktop, Citrix sessions and PuTTY will not be replaced any time soon by any IP KVM on the market today.

Posted on

My 2008 Forecast in Review

Last year, on January 2, 2008 I posted my 318th entry titled “1st Annual Forecast – My Predictions for 2008”. Now I’m going to look back at it and see how close I was.

“Financial: A major US recession is coming due to the massive credit bubble bursting, an inability of the central banks to continue using credit to create a false sense of prosperity, and continued stagflation. Look for expanded government backed plans like the sub-prime mortgage rate freeze to combat the falling value of the dollar.”

While there was never a sub-prime mortgage rate freeze passed as legislation the rest of this prediction was, well, right on the money.

“Health: Health care costs will continue to rise during a long period of stagflation as health corporations attempt to increase profits or reduce profit loss for their shareholders.”

I guess that was pretty open ended. I don’t know that costs rose exponentially but I’m pretty certain they didn’t go down.

“Politics: My prediction is that the race will be tight. It will be a race between those who support Holy Wars against Muslims and legislating morality verses those who know that if we keep this up “Fascism will come to America wrapped in a flag carrying a cross”. – Sinclair Lewis”

Well it was close (up until the end at least) and after 8 years logic and common sense prevailed over failed fundamentalist ideology. Finally.

“Music: Look for me at any nearby shows performed by KT Tunstall or The National.”

Neither one of these acts came anywhere close to Raleigh. So sad.

“Technology: Microsoft will continue to take a beating for creating Vista and if the new 2008 Server is released it will not be embraced at any influential rate…

Look for more touch screen cell phones to flood the market in response to the iPhone rage…

Flat panel LCD and plasma TV’s will fall below $750 for a quality 42″ 1080p model…

Playstation 3’s will fall to a steady $299 this year and Wii’s will be more widely available as Nintendo increases production…

IBM Network Services Division contractors should be wary of the coming acquisition by AT&T. This could mean more layoffs in Research Triangle Park…”

These weren’t exactly predictions made on the level of Nostradamus but I nailed every freakin’ one of them… Boo-ya! Makes me a little more comfortable going into 2009 since I am suppose to be technology literate by trade.

Posted on

I have entered the stereotypical, statistical parenting phase of my life.

I stood in line to pay $60 for the “hottest toy of the season”, Elmo Live.  I also went in search of the best price on a Playstation Portatble (PSP).  Then I bought the games, memory card and every other damn thing the sales kid told me I had to buy for it to work.  I argued for an item in a toy store…and won.  The smile on my face was quickly replaced with a blank stare as I realized my own mediocrity.

Some ultra-wealthy parents buy their kids cars, apartments, ponies or spa memberships.  And lots of ultra-granola parents buy their kids a tree to plant and a card memorializing the contribution made towards saving a gorilla in their name.  Not me.  I go straight for whatever I’m sold by the capitalist marketing machine.  Stir the economy stupid.  However there is one big difference in how I operated this year compared to the majority of American consumers: I paid cash.  There will not be one credit card debt in our household as a result of this holiday season.

So what if I bought my child portable attention deficit disorder (see PSP) when he didn’t even ask for it.  I know he will wear the paint off the buttons.  And if Logan only laughs at Elmo singing and dancing for 15 minutes well, that’s what I paid for.  And don’t get me started on what I spent on Amy.  She’s getting less gifts and for more money than either of the kids.  If it wasn’t made by a brand name designer or personalized she isn’t getting it.

Ya I’m a mediocre consumer drone and I don’t care.  I give the gifts people want without pretending that I’m giving them something they need and won’t give a damn about.  Christmas is about want, not need.  Don’t ask me what I “need”.  I’ll buy what I need.  You get me what I can’t or won’t buy for myself (my dad is pretty good about following this rule).  That’s the real spirit of Christmas, like it or not.  That is unless you are the purist of Christian and genuinely celebrate the season based on it’s original intent.  I don’t know too many of those people anymore.  That is, I really don’t know anyone who would display the same “spirit” of Christmas without giving or receiving gifts.  Do you?

Posted on

DOWNTIME…

So it took me a while to get around to troubleshooting why this web server wouldn’t boot. It was a video card issue. I just swapped cards. I really have just been too busy to give a damn about fixing it for the last couple of days but it was constantly nagging in the back of my mind. So tonight after I got Connor in bed I bit the bullet and got out a screwdriver.

Keeping servers and more importantly information services available is my job. I get paid to do it. Forgive me if I didn’t feel like living my job while out of the office for a couple of evenings. It’s not like I’m making any money writing this stuff. If I were, this server would have been up and running within minutes of going down. In reality, if money were involved there would have been enough redundancy built in that it could have never gone down in the first place. So sue me. Blood..stone…you know…

Posted on

Gotta have it…

dl650-thumb.jpgI’m really trying to talk myself out of this but I can’t.  I test drove a new 2008 Suzuki V-Strom 650 during lunch yesterday (don’t tell Amy).  As badly as I should buy a car, more specifically a truck, I really want this crazy cool dual sport.  First I’ll list the reasons why I probably shouldn’t pursue this:

  1. I’m in my mid to late 30’s.
  2. I have small children.
  3. I commute 40 miles one way to work.
  4. The last time I owned a motorcycle I almost lost the use of my right leg in a violent fiery crash (not at fault).
  5. People will tell me it’s irresponsible.

Now I will try to justify my desire against the intelligent, rational logic above:

  1. I’m in my mid to late 30’s (30 is the new 20 ya know).
  2. Connor and Logan will think I’m the coolest dad alive.
  3. This thing gets 51 mpg.
  4. I rode a motorcycle exclusively without owning a car for 2 1/2 years before the accident plus I’m about 15 years older now.
  5. When was the last time I cared what anyone else thought?  Besides, soon I can pay cash for this and I despise consumer financing.

The real reason I may buy a bike is because I want one.  For some reason I cannot bring myself to get excited about the prospect of car shopping or a new car or truck.  I don’t even have the motivation to go look at them.  The idea of this dual sport commuter gets me pumped.  I can’t remember being this enthusiatic about anything in a while.  So should I do the responsible, conservative thing and insure my safety for the sake of my family at the sacrifice of my own enthusiasm and happiness?  Or do I get my ass back in gear again and live?  Decisions…

Posted on

Trimaco’s MPLS Network

This morning I started the deployment of Trimaco’s MPLS network through AT&T.  It will be replacing the older IPSec site-to-site VPN currently in place between two corporate offices and two manufacturing facilities.  Once the site connectivity is in place all locations will be configured to share a common internet gateway verses the individual gateways now in place.

I need to identify a good proxy server to put behind the existing PIX firewall that will act as the common gateway.  I also need to get to work on some network schematics because my predecessor at Trimaco knew almost zero, hardly one damn thing, about subnetting.   There are illegal subnets all over this network.  Not classless but pure illegal, as in multiple 192 class C address spaces with /23 net masks.  Please God, help the untrained who make it up as they go along.  Or better yet just stop them.

Here’s what I’m thinking…

LAN IP address blocks delivered via Windows 2003 Server DHCP:

  • 10.10.10.0/23 = Durham
  • 10.10.20.0/23 = Manning, SC
  • 10.10.30.0/23 = Phoenix, AZ
  • 10.10.40.0/23 = St. Louis

The servers address spaces at 192.168.1.x will stay in place on their own subnet.  This will require routing between VLANs on our Nortel Baystack 5510-48T but that’s bad medicine when a layer 3 switch is available.  An inexpensive router with two Gigabit ethernet interfaces would also be able to handle this.  I do want to change the subnet the servers are on from /23 to a legal /24.  I need to look at how much configuration change this will require to accomdate the PAT and NAT entries at the gateway.  My guess is little or no impact.

The end result should be dynamically assigned 10.10.x.x addresses to the workstations by location CPE with their default gateway ultimately being 192.168.1.250.  I have to make sure that 192 subnet is available to all other subnets via routing tables before the switch can be flipped.  I’ve also got to start shopping proxy solutions.

braindump(config-if)#>exit

Proudly powered by WordPress