Tuesday 30 January 2007 at 2:23 pm
Seems to be very little information on picking a data-center to host your infrastructure servers - plenty of information for collocation, website hosting etc but not a whole lot to help you pick someone to entrust with your core kit.
If you're interested in a DIY data-center these sites contain some useful information:
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Good guidelines (if a little dated) for Data-center requirements (cooling, power, security, connectivity and staffing/accessibility)
*
Data-center Resource Site
* Sun's guide to
Planning a Data-center
Some great remote management kit is available too - remote control your systems via Web-browser:
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Raritan 64 Port IP KVM - even allows you to dial in via modem in an emergency when your LAN link dies
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Raritan 20 Port Power Strip
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OpenGear 8 Port Serial Console Server - make out of band adjustments to your switches, Unix and SAN gear
Monday 29 January 2007 at 2:47 pm
Found via the
Nagios site:
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Servprise WebReboot - looks really useful if you can't get direct access to your gear and need to physically kick your systems.
In a similar vein:
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Dataprobe iBoot - web enabled power strips and sockets.
Along with a console server and/or an IP KVM to provide remote control (particularly out of band depending on the situation) being able to have some control over when systems go up or down is pretty vital if you don't have convenient access to your kit.
Friday 26 January 2007 at 3:02 pm
We're lucky that our Telco provides a unified corporate WAN solution that encompasses everything from plain old POTS to high-speed fibre interconnects. They're also a mobile carrier - when you combine their mobile 3G with their WAN solution and delegated Radius administration it means you can offer your clients seamless LAN access at 3G speeds from their laptops (which they love because they find VPN complicated).
With these two gizmo's setting up ad-hoc offsite LAN's is going to be a whole lot easier (although your wallet may feel the pain depending on your 3G data-plan) -
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LinkSys Wireless 3G Router
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D-Link Wireless 3G Router
Thursday 25 January 2007 at 06:28 am
YAVM (Yet Another Virtual Machine) -
VirtualBox goes open-source. Looks like it runs Vista and is cross-platform (Windows & Linux with an OS X alpha).
Ex Java developer doesn't regret moving to Cocoa -
In Which I Think About Java Again, But Only For A Moment.
Humour -
Get a Firstlife. Piss-take of
Secondlife (popular Virtual Reality environment).
For the luddite in you -
P-Mail. Like email only slower. I'm tempted to send these through the internal mail system instead of email.
Fascinating -
The making of an Al Qaeda Operative. The insight into groups of young, smart disenfranchised men congregating to find some meaning to life is a little frightening (shades of 'Fight Club').
Looks like theres now a Asterisk (Open Source VoIP/PABX) ISO -
Asterisk. It looks like a few small
companies are starting to offer Asterisk as an out of the box solution to businesses too.
Another X10 like solution for your home -
Indigo. Looks like a nice solution if you have a spare Mac Mini. I'm surprised this technology hasn't been 'consumerised' by now.
Fantastic -
anti-consumerist ATM splash screens.
Open source -
Docvert - convert Word documents to open formats.
If you're after a simple DIY appliance for web/email try out this
CentOS (based on RedHat) / BlueQuartz (based on the old Cobalt appliance) ISO. I installed it via VMWare and was impressed by how straightforward it was - one thing I did miss was SAMBA for basic workgroup file-sharing but it seemed to cover everything else and you can always install SAMBA from an RPM.
Genius -
Self-charging smoke alarms. Great idea.
Also over at Make -
How to photograph smoke.
Tuesday 16 January 2007 at 4:35 pm
I'm not a huge
Fugazi fan (although '
In On The Killtaker' is a great album) but something about the groove on this track from their first album is totally infectious and you'll be rewinding and playing it over and over again just to hear the syncopated groove and stop-start rhythms -
Waiting Room.
Sunday 14 January 2007 at 3:51 pm
Useful services you can trust from friends & colleagues - almost all of them are based in the UK but theres a few NZ ones in the list:
* IT Consultation & Help in Cambridge, UK -
Cambridge Helpdesk
* Scientific & Technical, Design Documentation & Help Authoring in Cambridge, UK -
ScriboScience
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MacVector - Mac DNA/Protein Sequencing - recently spun-off from
Accelrys
* Internet Security & Consulting -
Liverton - Web/Mail Marshal & SEEMail specialists among other things
* Web Design, Development & Hosting -
Face
* Handyman Services -
MrLex
These are all firms either started by people I know or who have a key part to play in the services they offer.
So be sure to support small business
Wednesday 10 January 2007 at 08:43 am
Apart from the
iPhone, Apple also gave more details on its
AppleTV.
I guess once you switch to an essentially x86 PC architecture you've got to start coming up with some other ways to innovate. Hopefully this diversification won't affect Apples core business areas (Mac OS X & Macintosh hardware).
Wednesday 10 January 2007 at 07:26 am
From MacWorld 2007 -
iPhone.
I wonder how good/bad it will be ? Looks promising so far.
Big risk for a small company (comparitively speaking of course) to get distracted by telephony . . .
Tuesday 09 January 2007 at 1:23 pm
Configure the /devices directory to make physical disks available for use:
# drvconfig
Creates /dev entries for hard disks attached to the system:
# disks
List available disks and format them:
# format
You can activate the ZFS web gui:
# /usr/sbin/smcwebserver start
Access it via your browser:
https://hostname:6789
Create a mirrored disk:
/usr/sbin/zpool create -f testfs mirror c0d1 c1d1
Replace device in mirror:
/usr/sbin/zpool replace -f testfs c1d1
Create the snapshot:
/usr/sbin/zfs snapshot testfs@test_snap
Access a snapshot through the .zfs/snapshot directory at the root of the filesystem.
Excellent
ZFS cheat-sheet over at Unix Admin Corner.
A useful step-through for adding disks to Solaris over at
KernelTrap.
Great blog with tips on using Zones with ZFS and securing your Solaris system -
Clingan.
Thursday 04 January 2007 at 09:56 am
Aaargh - why oh why is 80's fashion making a comeback ?
Don't children (teens, tweens and young adults) realise how stupid their parents looked back then ?
Big hoopy-frame sun glasses & earings, grey jeans, wide belts, silly boots, stripey tops with pastel t-shirts. All we need now is a resurgence in perms, leg warmers and shoulder pads to complete the picture.
Lets hope 2007 sees a throwback to the relatively normal 90's.
Sigh.
Wednesday 03 January 2007 at 5:20 pm
Truly a sad day.
Some excellent obituaries from
Popmatters: The Last Soul Brother - James Brown,
Pitchfork and the
BBC.
Lots of good stuff on YouTube as well - you to can experience the
genius of the Godfather first hand
Wednesday 03 January 2007 at 1:41 pm
Some interesting Kiwi artists -
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Michael McCormack - you get a wonderful feel for a variety of Wellington locations from this Island Bay artist.
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Michael Riley - definitely a nice slice of Kiwiana in his photorealistic
Weatherboard paintings. You gain a whole new appreciation for weatherboards once you have to strip and repaint them.
Theres some cool stuff available via
Affordable Art too.
