01/17/10 11:58 - 31ºF - ID#50836

Cute new birdcage

After a trip to (e:chris)' honey hill pet store, we got a more fitting
cage for the birds. They still fight the whole day long.

Permalink: Cute_new_birdcage.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

01/16/10 03:47 - 34ºF - ID#50831

I can only imagine...

The marketing meeting that lead to this advertisement.

"if we get on face book the mall will be packed."

Permalink: I_can_only_imagine_.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

01/16/10 01:39 - 34ºF - ID#50830

I hate vehicles

Everyone parks in our driveway. The parking people don't even give
them tickets when the are there. The other day matthew got into an
argument with a city parking attendent who would not ticket someone
parked illegally.

Everytime I come or go on the weekend, I need to beep or get in a
fight with someone.

Then this afternoon, someone with a careshare car smashed into a
dancecamp car. It was clearly the non dance camp person's fault which
is kind of ironic considering how the damce campers are usually parked
illegally all over the street or in lane of traffic. Somehow, the
carshare car hit the parked truck at like a right angle. The way it
hit, it makes me think the car malfunctioned.

This happend two minutes before we were about to leave. No one was
injured and no one was even in the parked car that got hit but three
firetucks, two ambulances and a number of police showed up.

Then the tow trucks showed up and parked in our driveway right in
front of the no parking sign. It's especially redivulous because you
can see the available parking spots behind the truck right on the
street and closer to the accident.

Permalink: I_hate_vehicles.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: computers

01/15/10 12:07 - 39ºF - ID#50817

Servers and uptime - happy anniversary

At work I manage 7 linux servers. Include estrip and its 8. It seems to be growing but honestly the servers pretty much manage themselves. Managing servers is not really my job but I am good at it and the server techs are mostly a windows group that seem to generally dislike my love for linux. Luckily there is a guy on the network team who is my *nix guru whenever I get stuck. He has servers with years of uptime.

That being said I am getting pretty good at it and I've learned a lot but I have to say, centos itself rocks.

The main web app linux production server I manage at work: 366 days uptime.

Estrip linux server: 369 days

Work linux db server: 76 days would be 366+ but I rebooted 76 days ago to make sure the memory only databases would populate in case of a power failure.

The windows web app servers have tiny uptimes in comparison. For example our main windows web app server is set to reboot every night because no one can figure out the memory issues. It could be the OS, it could be the programs, it could be vendor products, who knows. But one thing is sure, it seems like they constantly need to be rebooted. I am torn on if its windows itself or that no one really understands the windows web servers. I do remember my windows comp needed rebooting all the time too.

Its an interesting situation. The reason the server team loves windows servers is for the support they get from Microsoft.

Its fascinating when I see emails from microsoft support suggesting the solution to a IIS app pool issue is to reboot the server. Is everything in windows solves by rebooting and isn't that a flaw in itself? Isn't the whole point of app pools in IIS to avoid having to reboot the server when apps act up?

Permalink: Servers_and_uptime_happy_anniversary.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

01/11/10 11:06 - 20ºF - ID#50799

Shrimp with Montreal steak seasoning

I love shrimp with Montreal steak seasoning and meyer lemons. I
defrosted them on Sunday so I has to cook them today. This was before
I came across those 8 lbs of ham. I would have never defrosted them
if I knew about the ham.

Permalink: Shrimp_with_Montreal_steak_seasoning.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: web

01/10/10 08:08 - 26ºF - ID#50791

European News That Suprised Me

I saw in the news today that China just edged out Germany as the world's top exporter

I seriously had no idea that Germany performed so well in the world market. How can they with the high standard of living, social welfare, baggage from WWI and WWII along with the lack of natural resources. You would think they would have lost all their productive competitiveness as America did.

According to wikipedia:

Germany is the world's top exporter with $1,498 trillion exported in 2008 (Eurozone countries are included) and generates a trade surplus of 165 billion.

As a side note, who knew the prime minister of the Ukraine was so hot. She wears her hair like this a lot. Here is her wikipedia page

Permalink: European_News_That_Suprised_Me.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

01/10/10 07:01 - 26ºF - ID#50790

Garret county spiral cut ham

If you like ham on the bone, this is the best. Its also free of
preservatives, hormones and antibiotics and nitrates. I bought it at
the coop but it comes from garret county farms

It was really expensive last week at like $5.99/lb or ~$52 for an 8 lb
ham. That same ham is now only $2.99/lb at $25 total. 8lbs is so
much ham, you have enough to eat for a week, plus make soup with the
bone and you can still freeze half. Its totally cooked and has a
delicious smoky maple glaze so it's also no work minus figuring out
how to eat all that ham. I mean that's competive with deli slices ham
prices and this is so much tastier and healthier.

Permalink: Garret_county_spiral_cut_ham.html
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Location: Buffalo, NY

01/09/10 06:11 - 10ºF - ID#50782

Our gas bill

You think it would be crazy expensive but with insulated walls, plastic wrapped
windows, closed doors and keeping it not very hot we manage to get the bill down to $230 and that real not estimated.