Richard’s Personal Blog

Remember that my server was recent almost completely filled up a few weeks ago? Good timing on the purchase of the NAS — I had backed up about 1/3 the data onto the new server when the old server took a dump and crashed.

It would no longer mount the RAID-1 drives.

And I couldn’t remember the dámn root password.

Nor could I remember the grub password.

Since the hard drives wouldn’t mount I couldn’t even boot into single mode.

It took me until 1:00 in the morning to get past the lack of passwords.

It’s been four days and I’m still lacking basic IT services: email, iTunes, and access to pr0n.

Not to mention that stupid laptop that I finally declared virus/spyware-free as of last night. It took, what, two weeks to clean?

Things just keep getting better. I can’t even begin to figure out how to spell the frustrated noise I am making as I type this.

Didn’t get as much done as I wanted to this weekend:

• published Devowelizer v1.10 on WordPress
• upgraded family wiki to use the latest version of DokuWiki
• upgraded Richard’s Ramblings to use the latest version of WordPress
• (hopefully) finally cleared off the viruses from the laptop, taking almost five days to fully clean
• almost got within 200 feet of a geocache

Cleaning up that dámn laptop has cost me an incredible amount of time this week; at this point, I’d happily support the death penalty for virus/spyware creators. Better yet, put all their computers in a driveway, and let me and my Jeep spend some quality time with them.

Hope your weekend was better, Sean. Happy Birthday!

I found lots of stuff to get done while off work after the visit to the emergency room:

• Updated blackrockstreet.com to indicate that the house is no longer available for rent.
• Updated woodmontway.com to indicate that the house is no longer available for rent.
• Upgraded home MaNGOS server
• Updated software from revision 5578 to 6559.
• Updated MySQL database to support the MaNGOS upgrade (145,645 changes!)
• Extracted 3,500+ maps from the v2.4.3 client so the server is in sync with the client.
• Created a simple custom WoW launcher, and a corresponding web page to feed it.
• Updated organogoldcoffees.com to remove reference to the prelaunch.
• Helped filmwise.com migrate to their new ISP.

All good, wholesome, stress-free tasks.

The last 30 days have been unusually interesting, and quite expensive:

• Our family was trapped in Mexico for an extra three days due to tropical storm Julio. ($1,050)
• One of the family cars had an almost total meltdown. ($3,200)
• The network server hard drives filled up, requiring extensive upgrade. ($1,014)
• One of the laptops was infected with several viruses. An hour or so later, the network hub died. Coincidence? ($325)
• I took a trip to the local Urgent Care facility due to moderate chest pain. ($15)
• Then there’s the subsequent ambulance ride. (unknown, but probably high)
• The rest of the day in the emergency room. (unknown, but undoubtedly insanely high)
• Dinner at Outback Steakhouse to celebrate my “release”. (priceless at only $86)

Total (so far): $5,690. And, of course, that does not include all the normal stuff — mortgage, gas, utilities, regular bills, school clothes, etc. It is so dámn hard to keep up with all these never-ending crises.

I’m pretty much fine, or as “fine” as I usually am. Yes, I have a series of cardiac tests scheduled starting next week, but I doubt anything serious will be discovered. Beginning to think that my priorities are off a bit.

I will update the costs above after I get the bills.

It’s not every day you say, “Ðámn, I can’t have falafel for dinner because I’m out of hummus.”