wolfwings: (Default)
Casually discussing a technical problem with a house-mate that works in IT as well: Just upgraded the core switch at a friend's house to gigabit, had someone in the house make a quick test to/from the NAS I set up for them, still only getting 5 megabytes/second throughput. Mention 'whew, there, ethtool set up... yeah, the NAS is running gigabit' casually, and start discussing it with my housemate. Only option since the other server we tested from, under Linux, claims gigabit support at full and half duplex.

So I mention, "Either the cable's lost one of the non-crucial pairs on the home-run or his patch cable, or the plugs have a fouled pin somewhere along the way." Housemate mentions, "No, that'd stop even 100-Base," and it degrades quickly when I mention, "Um... 100-Base only requires two pairs, gigabit requires four pairs," as he thinks 100-base-T also requires all four pairs.

I just got quiet, pulled up the spec, and verified. Nope, 100-Base-T requires two-pair CAT-5 or better cabling. 1000-Base-TX requires four-pair CAT-5 or better, with CAT-5e or CAT-6 recommended to improve tolerances. Mention this, apparently that was pushing too far... =-.-=

I just saw a technical question, with a possible technical counter-point raised, and so I figured, "Go check the spec," while my housemate saw it as, "RAR! Won't stop arguing until you admit I'm right!" mentality, and I didn't realize it could be interpreted that way. *sighs* Sorry?

Anyways... yeah, rant over.
wolfwings: (Default)

This can technically cover a NAS, a file server, a web server, or anything else. In my case, it's being used as a borderline NAS/file server/media server for a household.

All drives are hot-swap, the RAID is heavilly growable (from 4-8TB usable w/ 5 drives up to 16+TB with more drives, all hot-swap), and this is based on the newest tech out there so things are fast, stable, and I'm focussing on the 'easy' side of the 80/20 equation: I'm putting in the 20% of the work that gets 80% of the benefit, so please don't make recommendations like "why didn't you use XYZ file system, or set ABC tunable based on I, J, K, and L aspects of your syetem?" because my answer for all of those is: Because I didn't need to eek out 100% performance.

Even with sub-7200RPM drives, and only five of them, this RAID array built in about 5 hours, and reshapes to/from RAID 6 in around 8-12 hours. A rebuild takes about 6-8 hours, using these relatively slow but modern drives. With a 4k-chunk size, aligned with the 4k sectors, I'm seeing write speeds in excess of 90MB/second, and read speeds in excess of 200MB/second, so this thing can theoretically saturate a single Gig-ethernet link pretty handilly as a file server.

First, this is based on Gentoo. I go with Gentoo because they have a rolling-release schedule, versus a backporting schedule. This server was based on the 29th March 2010 sync-point. It varies very little from the normal Gentoo Handbook. I reconfigured the hard drives in fdisk to 32 sectors per track, 128 heads per cylinder, and adjusted cylinders-per-drive accordingly. This results in 2MB cylinders, which also align with the 4K sector size on newer hard drives no matter what you do in fdisk at that point. All partitions are normal, none of them are the 'RAID automount' type.

MDADM is included in the autobuilt install-CD, so I just used that to configure the RAID initially, then made a filesystem and installed normally on top of it. I specifically tuned the file-system to reserve 1% of the resulting 5.3TB available for root only, instead of making a seperate 'operating system' partition. So there's two partitions on each drive: 1) a 40MB 'boot' partition RAID1 across all drives, and the remainder of each drive as the 'system' partition in RAID5 or RAID6 (your choice, you can change this choice later) for the 'system' partition.

All of this is fairly simple, and the normal Gentoo Installation Handbook steps are taken with one exception: Manual Kernel Configuration, to include initramfs support and add mdadm support.

First, we need to set two packages to include the 'static' USE flag, which forces their binaries to be statically linked so they can be safely included on the initramfs easilly.

1) Make a directory on your new system during the installer:

mkdir /etc/portage

2) Then run these commands:

echo sys-apps/busybox static >> /etc/portage/package.use
echo sys-fs/mdadm static >> /etc/portage/package.use
emerge busybox mdadm

That'll rebuild busybox, and install mdadm as static-linked binaries. Next, a few options to enable on the kernel:

Enable initramfs support, but disable all forms of compression of the initramfs, because the entire image (including the compiled-on initramfs) will be compressed at once instead. I pointed it at the /usr/src/initramfs directory for where to pull the initramfs from. Now, configure that directory:

mkdir -p /usr/src/initramfs/dev
mkdir -p /usr/src/initramfs/proc
mkdir -p /usr/src/initramfs/sys
mkdir -p /usr/src/initramfs/newroot
cp -a /dev/{console,null,tty,tty1} /usr/src/initramfs/dev
chown -R root:root /usr/src/initramfs

Copy your busybox and mdadm binaries to /usr/src/initramfs:

cp `which busybox` `which mdadm` /usr/src/initramfs

Now, you need to write your 'init' for the initramfs as a shell script. Yes, a shell script. It's tricky to get right, so here's a full copy of the one I use. :-)

#!/bin/busybox sh
/bin/busybox mount -t proc proc /proc
/bin/busybox mount -t sysfs sys /sys
/bin/busybox mdev -s

# We have a basic /dev tree configured now. We can manually assembly the md* devices:
/bin/mdadm -A /dev/md0 /dev/sd?2
/bin/mdadm -A /dev/md127 /dev/sd?1

# We need to 'rebuild' the /dev tree before the md* devices will show up though:
/bin/busybox mdev -s

# Now we can mount the root file system, and drop the temp file systems:
/bin/busybox mount -t ext4 -o ro /dev/md0 /newroot
/bin/busybox umount /proc
/bin/busybox umount /sys

# And finally... switch to the new root filesystem:
exec /bin/busybox switch_root /newroot /sbin/init

# Oh-shit panic code, to drop us to a minimal busybox shell to examine the wreckage:
echo Failure! Press enter to boot a shell instead...
read
exec /bin/busybox sh > /dev/tty1 < /dev/tty1 2>&1

Make that owned by root:root, and RWX permissions for root as a user at least, and you're set. You can now compile your kernel like normal, though it'll end up just shy of 1MB larger than normal due to the initramfs. This is assuming you compile your hard-drive drivers into the kernel, and I recommend leaving your USB drivers as modules so if you leave a USB device plugged in it won't error on you strangely. This is a first-pass init script, better can be done, and note this isn't using LVM's but just raw MD devices for the RAID.

wolfwings: (Default)
...someone with a few grand can still one-up all the multi-hundred-thousand-dollar racing teams.

Seriously. $500 craigs-list BMW with NO EXTRA CREW AT ALL takes third place at WRC Mexico.
wolfwings: (Default)
...with two souls passing before their time to remember on this day from now on...

Hopefully next year I'll be working this day, so it can pass me by without having time to dwell too heavilly on it.
wolfwings: (Sad)

Like many others, I have an anniversary. That of [livejournal.com profile] evil_dwagon's death by DUI, or as more among my friends know/knew of him, Furp, or Patrick Reed. A year ago today, he was taken from us. And I've been working to give him a proper memorial in the only way I know how... this is the first step, it's a shortened re-mix/re-blend of a VNV Nation song, Beloved, from their full version and their 'official' short version down to one that's just under 3 minutes long now when I was done, rendered into mono since for the intended purpose stereo would provide no advantage.

Now... construction and planning of the rest begins. I had hoped to have it done for FC this year, but realized getting it done right is infinitely more important than getting it done by any artificial deadline.

Beloved - Heartstring Mix - VNV Nation

It's colder than before... The seasons took all they had come for.
Now winter dances here; it seem's so fitting don't you think?
To dress the ground in white... And grey...

It's so quiet I can hear... My thoughts touching every second, that I spent, waiting for you...

Circumstances afford me, no second chance to tell you... how much I've missed you...

My Beloved, do you know?
When the warm wind comes again,
Another year will start to pass.

And please don't ask me why I'm here...
Something deeper brought me, than a need to remember...

We were once young and blessed with wings!
No heights could keep us from their reach!
No sacred place we did not soar...

Still greater things burned within' us...
I don't regret the choices that I made...
I know you feel the same.

My Beloved, do you know? How many times I stared at clouds, thinking that I saw you there...
These are feelings that do not pass so easilly; I can't forget... what we claimed as ours!

Moments lost and time remains! I am so proud of what we were!
No pain remains, no feeling... eternity awaits!
Grant me wings that I might fly; my restless soul is longing...
No pain remains, no feeling... eternity awaits!

wolfwings: (husky)

There's a song that I'll admit I've adopted, sorta sworn by just before FC, and I think is one reason I've (for better or worse) taken less shit from others lately and inparticular one of the reasons I've more-or-less blown off people trying to blame me for the various drama that happened at FC that I was involved with.

It's not the best singer, I love the song though, and I'm tempted to try to record my own version if I could find someone to play music for it. It... fits a lot of folks in our fandom, I think. For better or worse.

Nick Granato - Color Outside the Lines ) Download (4.0MB)
wolfwings: (red alert)
I just realized... I've made (or committed to making, technically, though basically just holding final payment for delivery in both cases) two seperate $2k-ish purchases.

One of them, I'm working patiently to be meticulous about getting every detail right, for multiple reasons, then will hand off final approval and get out of the way as the final piece is made. And by patiently I mean I'm willingly taking extra months here and there to let the concept-artist work out details until they're happy with the options they make, and then we discuss the options, lather, rinse, repeat until we're both satisfied.

The other? I basically handed the money across, and am waiting for the product to very loose specs. Species, name that indicates an easy-to-integrate theme without specifying how to integrate it, etc. No concept art, just 'get to it!' and let the artist chart their own course on things.

I just... something says it's the 'right way' to do each of these commissions, but I wonder am I really that odd to try to take such a hands-off, no-bother approach with the artists I commission as much as possible? Even on the detailed one, I'm quite happy biding my time while life works it's kinks out and moves along around the commission.

Dunno why I'm being so introspective lately, but between that, and someone commenting that my ratio of credit cards to bank accounts is backwards compared to most folks, am I really doing things that out of whack with how most people think they should be? =^.^=
wolfwings: (Default)
There's a $10k contest for anyone able to avoid being found for one month.

Someone tell me if I'm insane for considering applying to this or not? I have no clue if my job would even allow it, but gods... this sounds so tempting to me...
wolfwings: (Default)
...finally have a 'new year' resolution: Getting more in shape for endurance.

I'm in far better shape than I thought I was for raw strength of body, and better shape overall for endurance than I hoped. I was able to carry another suiter (Clementine/Vitani) on my shoulders from the headless lounge all the way to the main ballroom, including jogging/sprinting part of the way. And that was after carrying her around on my back like a horse for a'while to boot. And I was able to do various high-kicks and spins in fullsuit as well, though a good portion of that is simply being able to hold onto my fursuit feet with my real feet so they don't fly off when I do crazy shit.

So my goals:

Next FC I'll tote someone around on my shoulders while I'm in full fursuit for the full parade.

Next FC I'll manage a free-standing handstand in full fursuit.

So... now to go buy a weight vest, and build up the weight I can carry around between now and next year.
wolfwings: (PotC3)
I bought plenty of gear to be ready for damn near armageddon in my Yaris; good extra-skinny winter tires, heavy-duty snow chains (which I have used to chip the ice off of a friend's street, amusingly, without harm to the chains), heavy gloves and coat and hat, etc.

This entire trip, I haven't run into so much as snow on the ground. The closest I came was deep mud in one friend's driveway that I stopped at along the way. Nadda else, at all. Even here in Denver, Colorado, it's bone-dry and staying that way all day today so my drive down out of the mountains will be sedate and boring.

I'm not complaining about the hassle-free drive, and my tires/chains have saved my bacon once or twice already back in Kansas City, but I bought them all for this trip... and ended up not using any of them. *laughs* Ah well, at least all the gear's gotten use a few times, and proven itself useful; just not for it's intended purpose.

How does that old song go? You can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need... I definately needed this gear in the last couple months and upcoming few more months, but not in the way I thought, or wanted.
wolfwings: (Default)

...since before I could reply to either of your questions on the [livejournal.com profile] furcon group the post was simply deleted:


First, [livejournal.com profile] flaredragon, we honestly didn't know we were negatively impacting anyone. Nobody, not in suit, out of suit, when we were in the headless lounge, at the piano outside headless, or walking around the 2nd floor, not once did anyone approach us and request we stop.

It wouldn't have required desuiting and running to con-ops, to be frank. Send someone, in or out of suit, anyone, to stick their head out and holler, "Hey! We're practicing for a skit, keep the noise down please?" even and we'd likely have suddenly become very mute sheep, grabbed sharpies and starting making Wile E. Coyote 'baaa' signs instead in the creator's lounge.

And as a note, all of us were sitting front-row right in front of the projector screen, still in suit, listening to your memorial and applauded as best as were able along with everyone else when it concluded.


Second, [livejournal.com profile] bush_rat, you're right. You were there first. We should have stopped. If we knew we were annoying anyone. See above. Nobody approached the group that I saw at any time to ask us to stop, if anything we had folks watching the reactions when a husky or what-not would suddenly bray and they'd start cracking up at the strange looks we'd get.

Hell, we had many people start joining in on the braying. The flock did, indeed, grow larger over the course of the night. That made us think folks were enjoying the sillyness. None of us were drunk or anything else, we simply found a simple-to-make noise that all of us stuck in suit could make. Suiters can't clap, and most other animal noises just get muffled to uselessness from the heads, so it was part 'Eureka!' and part 'Yay, a bunch of other folks to goof around with!' rolled together at once.

So, yes, directly walking up and saying, "Hey, this is annoying me. Please stop," is more-or-less what I think you should have done. If the 'perpetrators' don't know the fun they're doing is causing someone harm, and it's purely audible noises they're having fun making? They won't know to stop.

wolfwings: (Default)
Getting in early to help with the load-in let me really re-focus myself, finding my way if you will... but the rest of the con, just went so flawlessly I was able to relax with friends, but even more importantly make some new friendships and reinforce existing ones quite heavilly.

I left work on Friday at midnight, and immediately drove to Oklahoma. And got stuck in the mud of a friend's driveway. Upside: Learned my car has a full set of four recovery points hard-mounted to the unibody frame stock, seperate from the tow-hook point available for heavy-recovery situations and seperate from the dingy-towing mounts and tow-hitch mounts the car comes with as well. That's better than most Jeeps. =O.o= Upside: Took the tow-truck driver all of 6 seconds to pull the car free when he had all those options to work with so easilly.

So... Saturday I spend there, enjoy a wonderful meal and conversation with friends, and then headed west to New Mexico. That was remarkably uneventful, though I gave my hosts a bit of a surprise when they needed us to go down a dirt road and I didn't go all namby-pamby but just hauled ass and skittering gravel the whole way up and down their driveway each time. *laughs*

Sunday spent with them, I headed off again, and caught wind of a truck that goes by Sandman that I'd seen off-and-on every since Oklahoma City in a yellow-cabbed truck with two GIANT green machines on his flatbed. Thanks to him and his routing, we made some EXCELLENT time through New Mexico, Arizona, and all the way to California where he dropped down to 55 while I could keep going 70. Yay! First sign of stupid California laws encountered! Oh, how I missed loathed thee...

Anyways, that burned Monday along with picking up [livejournal.com profile] batnwolf and [livejournal.com profile] whyrl, and Tuesday I managed to get us up between the storms. My mom drove most of the way as I'd racked up the last 2200 miles. Got up to the bay area, and found crash space thanks to my friends up there before we could check into the hotel on Wednesday morning and sleep s'more!

Now... the con itself was an outright BLUR! A wonderful, excstatic, hyper blur of labor at first, then some bit of time that just didn't seem to really exist... I managed to bump into [livejournal.com profile] jurann finally, along with Skant and [livejournal.com profile] jaelyn during the con, which was nice to touch bases/catch up/etc with all of them. Saw drama-bombs land around me, but none really impacted me directly thank the Goddesses. Quite a few folks, I will say, I both wish I knew better so I could have been there for them, but admittedly a shard of myself was glad I didn't so I at least knew the drama didn't involve me.

Then the part I will never forget which began at the fursuit parade. I'd encountered the 'elevator hell' of heavy loads and the fursuiters not combining well so I went to the parade in Lumi Kelluke as a partial instead of a fullsuit, my usual gray gryphon-emblazoned sports-coat ensemble. Met up with pretty much all the other Soki suits at the con: Kahlua, Malibu, Serpy, Silver R. Wolfe, [livejournal.com profile] tdiwolf, and Tuxedo Kitty all in the parade. Someone suggested we get together and do a Soki TwoPaws photoshoot, so texts went out, etc. Gunnar, and Balto Woof both joined us, though Serpy couldn't make it, and a deer I can't find on the Fursuit Database that was also by Soki joined us. So we had 9 suits total, ended up in a really awesome 3x3 pose showing everyone off.

After that, de-suited, ran around like a loon on Sunday, then got into suit at about 18:00 as Dealer's Den closed with the recurring tradition of a Dealers Free Pizza Feed I enjoy helping fund each year. While that was going on, I ran into Serpy, Vex, Clementine, and a small additional herd of suiters whose names didn't stick very much I'll admit. =-.-= Serpy had had their phone off so missed the reminder/text about the photoshoot, so me, her, Clementine, Vex, and company all headed over to the photoshoot area. Along the way, we all became sheep! BaaaAAAaaaAAAaaa...

And once we get to the photoshoot area, even more sillyness ensued between the photoshoot area, piano outside the headless lounge, and in the headless lounge itself. Good grief, I'm sure dozens of photos and videos will pop up of the lot of us, including TDiWolf when he joined up with us in suit as well. We gave the photographer full reign over posing us, and ended up with some really marvelous shots as a result. We also got a good video of me carting Clementine around on my back like a horse, which was fun if tiring. Also carried her on my shoulders to the dance, but I don't think anyone caught any proof of that unfortunately. Need to work on that more for next year, so I can maybe lug someone on my shoulders for the fursiut parade itself. =^.^=

But after that, danced a little bit but the music just wasn't catching any of us, so we all ended up back in the headless lounge for a'while until the rest of the herd decided to de-suit, but I was still feeling good so I went off again... It all became a blur again of hanging with TDiWolf for quite a'while until... gah, around 4am when I finally fell over and passed the fuck out after de-suiting and gorging on what became my daily ritual meal for FC: Ultimate Cheeseburger w/ Cheesecake and a Large Dr. Pepper from Jack-in-the-Box.

Monday... actually ended up much the same, amusingly. There was remarkably little to be done on Monday, as the bottleneck wasn't people to move stuff or carts to move stuff, but places to move stuff to. So most of the rooms were closed by compacting them into other rooms... then waiting for the final staging space to clear for the final shuffle. So for a good chunk of the day I spent time with friends, snuggling closer ones I knew or want to know better and impact-hugging everyone I could. At 18:00 again, I pulled on Lumi and headed down to the Dead Dog party, and kept up much the same, the night turning into a very sweaty, wonderful, hyper-chaotic blur of dancing, panting, and finally using a taxi-cab as a boom-box for half an hour and running around the streets outside the hotel with a horde of other fursuiters getting random photos taken of the mob of us being lunatics but never quite breaking any laws or being too stupid or dangerous thanks to the handlers keeping an eye on things. Oh, and I was able to offload that bag of firecracker-ultra-hyper orange glow sticks on Clementine, I don't think I've ever heard such a perfect 'schoolgirl on helium' squeal in my life before she saw one get lit off in front of her, nor have I had the air crushed out of my for a change before that either. =^.^=

After that... well, it's Tuesday Morning, I have to check out of the hotel in a few hours, and [livejournal.com profile] whyrl is in the shower now. I'll hop in next, we have a nice late checkout of 14:00, then a bit of driving ahead of us today once we pack up the car and what-not.
wolfwings: (Default)
Room #1708 in the Fairmont.
(785)WLF-WNGS
(785)953-9647

Google Voice account, so hit it with phone calls or text messages to your heart's content, it should work.

(310)735-7838

Primary cell phone: Use if you need to, it may be busy if/when I'm using it for internet access instead of dealing with the failboat that is the hotel WiFi.
wolfwings: (Default)
...since we're snaking up north between the storms, anybody have room for me, [livejournal.com profile] whyrl, and my mom [livejournal.com profile] batnwolf to crash at their place until we can check into our hotel room at the Fairmont on Wednesday afternoon?

EDIT: Safe crash space located and plans finalized. Zzz...

Please? =^.^=

FC Meme!

Jan. 13th, 2010 03:58 pm
wolfwings: (arylkia)
Are you hosting any panels?
Nein. I'll be at quite a few panels when I'm not fursuiting my tail off.

Where are you staying?
Fairmont with [livejournal.com profile] batnwolf and [livejournal.com profile] whyrl in the room with me.

Who will you be with?
Often running around by myself, feel free to use my contact page to get a'hold of me in a hurry.

Do you do trades?
If ya' need some kind of web-coding, I'd be happy to tinker.

What is your gender?
Male.

How old are you?
Old enough to appreciate Jim Croce, young enough to be carded.

Can I touch you?
Hugs are great! Especially when I'm in fursuit of any sort. =^.^=

Can I talk to you?
'Sointly, though we warned that if you inform me of a problem you are having, my instinctual reaction is to consider the problem as one I'm to seek a solution for. If you DON'T want that reaction to kick in, tell me, or avoid informing me of problems.

Can I buy you lots of drinks?
Moderate teetotaler and designated driver, though I'm not against tasting a drink you may offer. Please don't be offended if I then spit it out instead of swallowing, even if I compliment the taste. I occasionally (deeply) enjoy a balsamic martini in the evening to wind things down, but as a while I don't partake to speak of.

Can I give you lots of money?
To quote Pathia: In exchange for what? Wait, don't answer that question.

Can I hug or snuggle with you?
Hugs are pretty much always fine, just please, for the love of all that's unholy, SHOWER! Snuggles depend on more variables.

How tall are you?
5'11"

Are you nice?
I endeavor to be, even to both sides of a conflict. I'm not Switzerland, by any stretch, but I endeavor to be neutral ground as much as possible.

Are you cliquey?
Not that I know of. Busy? Yes. Hard to pin down? Yes. Hard to get a'hold of and voice your concerns to? Nope.

Can I stalk you?
Good luck keepin' up! But feel free if it strikes your fancy. =^.^= My positive reaction is not guaranteed however.

How long are you going?
All of the con proper with change to spare.

Do you have an artist table?
Nope, but I try to swing by and make sure the few artists I know are well supplied with food of their choice.

Do you like parties?
Yes, but not the ultra-loud rowdy 'drunken frat-boy' type parties usually.

If I see you, how should I get your attention?
Hollering, "Wolf Wings," is likely to get my head to spin 'round. Just 'Wolf' will get my attention in smaller groups, but in the hotel proper I usually filter it out due to non-uniqueness. Random arm-grabs and the like are okay too.
wolfwings: (Default)
Heads up for FC folks that like glowsticks and dancing: I'm going to have 50 "firecracker" 30-60 SECOND glowsticks in bright orange. They're not kidding either, they're utterly burnt out in 5 minutes or less. I want to get a horde together to light them all off one evening on the dance floor at once, track me down at the con if you want to use one or more.
wolfwings: (Default)
...do not like. And I've yet to find a single map that whichever side is playing soldiers doesn't end up utterly dominating a side with a lot of demo-men on it. I've played at least a dozen different maps, from payload to CTF to CP, even TC_Hydro. And every single one, in 12-24 players playing, if 50% of each team were demo or soldier... the side with soldiers just steamrolls the side with demos. Bleah!

And there's no way to NOT end up spawn-camping the HELL out of the other team with this much explosives flying around. So... congrats, Valve. I'll play less than ever, at least I have a reason to play Left 4 Dead 2 now instead of just TF2.
wolfwings: (Default)
Current LiveJournal Status

They're pretty good about updating that whenever there's issues, like the earlier notification-delays that everyone was going, "Hey, this broken for you?" about earlier... they had a note about the problem up on that status page. =^.^=

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