General

dhcpd

By on Friday, May 9, 2008

Not a good day. And it didn’t even start good. I got a message from Erik that the Internet connection was down. I hurried over to check the pertinent server and found out that the disk was full. I noticed that the messages log was HUGE so I truncated it and restarted services. Presto! Problem solved. Or so I thought.

A few moments later, Erik told me that in addition to the Internet connection, DHCP clients were unable to acquire addresses. I checked the messages logs and a found repetitive stream of DHCPDISCOVERs, DHCPOFFERs, DHCPREQUESTs, and DHCPACKs: It was the reason why the messages log grew so big! DHCP clients were trying over and over to get an IP but couldn’t. I tried everything I (and Google) can think of and more.

All the while and even through working lunch, people were calling asking why there’s a problem and worse, telling me that it shouldn’t happen (duh!), and generally whining. I hate it when people do that. Can’t they see I was doing something?!? Can’t they just let the crisis pass then whine later?

Worse, by the end of the day, I wasn’t able to fix the problem. Instead we worked around it and just manually configured all the DHCP clients with IPs. What a pain!

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General

Iron Man

By on Sunday, May 4, 2008

I didn’t learn about Iron Man till about a month before it would be released. I didn’t see the trailer until about a week before it would be released. I wasn’t interested when I learned about it (not exactly a comic book superhero fan except for Batman). But when I saw the trailer (that part when he fires a missile at the tank then cooly walks away as the tank explodes) I decided it could be entertaining. So I went and watched and indeed it turned out to be quite entertaining.

The movie made sure to be as close to the current world as possible. Here, Iron Man begins in present day Afghanistan (Iron Man, of course, existed way before The War on Terror). Tony Stark, owner of an arms manufacturing company, was in the country to demonstrate his latest weapon. On his way home, he was ambushed by terrorists using weapons made by his company. The terrorists wiped out his guards and he was captured and forced to create a high-technology weapon. But instead, he created a jump-capable powered armor (yeah mecha!) that he used to escape his captors.

When he got back home, he resolved to completely stop manufacturing weapons (instead of trying to stop sales to terrorists which would have been more logical). But all is not what it seems and things are easier said (or resolved :P) than done. Lots of action ensues spiced up with a little bit of humor (this is Robert Downey after all, I actually wasn’t convinced he can pull the movie off but he did) and romance (with Gwyneth Paltrow). Like I said, quite entertaining.

Rating: 4/5

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General

Tech Support Blues

By on Wednesday, April 30, 2008

There’s this issue that had us stumped for quite some time. Our chairman had been complaining that he could never access his online bank account. He always gets an “under maintenance” notice. But whenever we go to his computer and access it, it was perfectly okay. Anyway, on the umpteenth time that he asked for help, I finally decided to watch how he accesses the site. It turns out that he use Google Mail as his home page and whenever he goes to any other site, he inputs the URL on the Google search field instead of the browser address bar. This does make sense from an ease-of-use point of view. But unfortunately, Google returns a link that turned out to be obsolete. When you click on it, you almost wouldn’t know it is obsolete because the page displays the exact same “under maintenance” notice as when it is really under maintenance. We really shouldn’t take for granted the actions users make.

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General

2008 April 26 to 27 Crystal Beach Resort, San Narciso, Zambales

By on Sunday, April 27, 2008

Finally got to try out surfing. And I think I like it!

A few weeks ago, when Crissy’s 29th (friends!) birthday was still coming up, I suggested that she celebrate it over the weekend closest to her birthday. And since I have been wanting to surf since last year, I also suggested surfing as part of the activities ;) She agreed saying Jim is also interested in surfing. So yesterday, we went with a bunch of friends and officemates, to Crystal Beach Resort in San Narciso, Zambales.

Crystal Beach Resort is a pretty big and spacious resort. They have a wide soft sand beachfront and the water is clean and quite shallow for quite a distance from the shoreline. Cogon-roofed huts of various sizes and purpose are line along the shore or interspersed between rows of pine trees. There is a liberal amount of concrete use but otherwise the whole place has a rustic feel to it. The only thing that spoils the atmosphere is the presence of videoke machines. I guess there’s just no getting away from these infernal machines anywhere in the country.

When we arrived, the waves were not strong enough so those who us who weren’t sleeping bummed around the beach. We finally started surfing late afternoon when the waves became stronger. We started on the sand with surfing theory then it was off to the water where the instructors taught us how to actually apply it. Of course, all that flew into the wind as we repeatedly mounted our boards, paddled to speed up (assisted by a push from the instructors), popped up, and wiped out.

After about thirty minutes of this, our skins were red and raw from all the chafing against the surf boards. It was then that, in a moment of enlightenment, I realized what a rash guard is for :P All the pain, however, is forgotten when you are able to catch a wave and ride it (not that I caught many, I think I really only caught two). Pure exhilaration!

Can’t wait till the next time.

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General

E10 Demand

By on Friday, April 25, 2008

This afternoon, I dropped by three Shell gas stations looking for E10. They all had none. On the third one, I gave up and decided to just top up with regular unleaded. As I was filling up, I chatted with the pump operator and he mentioned that a lot of people are loading up with E10, including even tricycles. Guess the price of gasoline is now at the point where people will actually look for, even demand, alternative fuels. It looks like we can expect an increase in the number of fuel-sipping diesel and hybrid cars. Currently there’s only the Ford Focus and the Hyundai Getz diesels out there. We can also expect more biodiesel and ethanol mixed with our diesel and gasoline, respectively. I sure hope alternative fuels continue gaining momentum so that we can finally bid greedy OPEC goodbye.

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