Loud ramblings of a Software Artisan

Monday 10 November 2008

Smith's Law

Smith's Law says this:

Murphy was optimistic

You bet! This morning, my "micro" server light was solid blue, server whose disk I had just replaced ; the console (still connected) was not responding. Reboot hard, freeze after 5 minutes (with a weird click when it happen). Disassemble, clean up the fans, check, as I suspected overheating, let cool down. Retry. Blast! Still the same, but with an even shorter uptime. I still hope it is not the hard drive that is DOA.

The problem is now, what to run the server on. I have a spare PIII that works well, but I want the hard drive as is. Problem it is a 2.5" IDE, I need the adapter. Problem, I need a car. The closest electronic store is La Source by Circuit City née Radio Shack[1], but they haven't had anything I need or want to buy in forever. Ah yes, because my car has been towed at the shop and I don't have a loaner yet, I can't get the needed adapter.

Update later, I can get a car, the dealership still has to work on mine, send the courtesy shuttle over, drive me there and provide me with a car. In the end I have the adapter, the "new server" is now more silent. It was not without pain. Old BIOS that can't boot on just any drive, grub that fail on said machine (know issue, I still know LILO, so no biggie), and udev mysteries that I solved by forcing to regenerate the "binding" to eth0 by MAC address.


[1] Hint: they just filed for bankruptcy in both the US and Canada

Sunday 9 November 2008

Murphy's Law

Nonwithstanding that it was the 3rd hard drive to die in a month, when I went to buy a new one, the car broke down on the return. And by broke down I mean the gear got stuck in 2nd. Fortunately it is a stick and I could safely stop the car to get it towed by the roadside assistance. I'll know more Monday when the dealership is actually open: the car is still under warranty.

Since you can read this, that means the hard drive is back in and he machine back up.

Saturday 1 November 2008

Do Androids dream of freedom? (take 2)

From this thread (Google will require you to login):

The G1 is aimed at end users, not system developers. For user security reasons the G1 will only accept properly signed system images. I'm not sure, in this case, who 'owns' the key, whether it is the carrier or the manufacturer, but one or both of them handle insuring system images are signed.

Cheers, Justin Android Team @ Google

Surprising? Not! Yet another chimera Google wanted people to believe in. And, people, don't point to the OpenMockup. The damn thing does not even do quad-band GSM, let alone 3G, non-withstanding the "port" is not done yet.

(Thanks to mako for the hint)