After all this time, the web server has finally taken a pretty heavy hit. While the box is technically up and running the system is inaccessible and the hard drive doesn’t seem to be spinning. However, when I place the drive in an external bay it spins up so i know it’s not the drive. I think it might be that the power supply is no longer pushing enough power to spin everything up. It’s a long shot, but my other option is that it’s something on the motherboard. Seeing as power supplies are cheaper than motherboards, I am going to attempt that route first. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Monthly Archives: February 2010
Harmony is AMAZING!
Came home from work tonight and immediately grabbed the 880 off of its charger and fired up the Logitech software. After pushing the initial configuration to the device and trying it out, I can honestly say this remote is awesome! There is still some configure changes that I think I am going to make if I can figure them out, for instance the way my TV works is that to go to S-VIDEO I need to press the input button twice and the Harmony doesn’t seem to relay this. It does, however, allow you to press a “help” button and it walks you through resolving any issues. One of the things I found that I can configure and think is really cool, is the background of the LCD display that everything shows on, that’s a nice touch Logitech. But, seriously, this remote rocks! I now only need one remote instead of six!
Harmony’s Here
The Harmony 880 arrived today, it got here a lot faster than what I thought it would and I am pleased by that. I was hoping to get it all configured and start using it tonight, but according to the instructions I need to let the battery charge completely first. I am very happy that the auction description was accurate, this remote is brand new and was still in the factory packaging. I was able to install the software and begin configuring in my devices because the device configuration is apparently stored in the software and online in my Logitech account (which I had to sign up for) and will be retrievable if I ever wipe my computer. Getting all my devices configured took some time though, mainly because I needed to get model numbers off of them. The really neat thing is that I can add these devices to activities which will all be controlled by pressing a single button. For instance I set up an activity to “Watch Tivo” and assigned it to a hot key, now when we press that button (hopefully) what will happen is the TV will get turned on, it will be set to the appropriate input (AV1) and the stereo w ill turn on and be set to the appropriate input (Audio1), the remote will then control the volume (through the stereo) and changing the TV channels (through the Tivo) and have all the Tivo remote functionality (pausing TV, playing back pre-recorded shows, etc) all in one remote. If this all works tomorrow the way I think it should then I am going to be extremely happy with this remote.
Logitech Harmony 880
Today I won an eBay auction for a new remote for my TV, and every other remote using device in my entertainment center! For a while now I have been rather unhappy with the fact that I have six 
different remotes for the items in my entertainment center, but I had been dealing with it. However, the other day, a glass of soda got spilled on the remote for my stereo and it is now no longer functional. The device that I bought today should fix that issue and replace all the other remotes in my “collection”, including my Tivo remote. The remote is a Logitech Harmony 880 (no longer on their site, but here is the 900) and I have heard really good things about it, if it performs even half as well as I hope then I am sure I am going to be very happy with this remote. In addition to being able to control up to 15 devices, the devices that it can support are continnually expanding through its online database. You configure the remote by connecting it to the computer via a USB cable and logging in to a Logitech account. My buddy Will at work showed me his account (he has two different Logitech remotes and loves them) and it looks really cool. The image to the right is a stock image I found of the remote and its charging cradle. Can’t wait until this arrives so I can configure it and try it out!
Happy Anniversary to Me (and my job)
I just realized that today marks my 5 year anniversary with Thomson Reuters. When I first started working for the company (February 7, 2005) we were Thomson Medstat, then in 2007 Thomson purchased Reuters (Reuters Article) we became Thomson Reuters Medstat. Eventually after the acquisition was complete we eventually transitioned to what we are now; The Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters. Over the last 5 years my career has gone down a completely unexpected path. When I graduated from college in 2004 my hope was to become a Unix System Administrator, and while I do perform some work on Unix systems I am by no means a Unix administrator. I started out as a humble Operator in (what was then) the North American Data Center (NADC) for Thomson Healthcare and Scientific. I was working third shift (11pm to 7am) and performing mainly system monitoring processes along with data submission (getting customer submitted data off of various media and into our data processing and tracking software) and general data center monitoring. After a little under 2 years I learned that the NADC was moving to Eagan MN to leverage the Thomson West Law campus and there data center. Knowing that I would soon be out of a job, when they asked for someone to go to Eagan to add in the build out of the Healthcare Data Center infrastructure I knew I had to go. So making the sacrifice to be away from 1 year old daughter for 3 months, I packed up and moved to Minnesota; little did I know those three months would turn into almost nine. After all those long months of racking servers, running cables, configuring ILO connections, and trouble shooting hardware issues I came back home, to what I thought was no job. However the day I got home I received a phone call from Bob G. asking me to join his team and to become a Storage Engineer. I’d be responsible for ensuring corporate backups (using IBM TSM) and eventually NetApp and SAN disk. Over the last three years in this role I have managed to become one of the most knowledgeable and turned to TSM admin in the company and gained the title of Sr. Storage Engineer. Had you asked me 5 years ago where my career would take me, I can guarantee this is not the path I would have laid out; but I have embraced the opportunities that were presented to me and here I am. I wonder what the next five years will bring?
Blood Oranges
Every year I wait patiently for the end of January / beginning of February for one very reason, and surprisingly it is related to fruit; this is the only time of year that I can get Blood Oranges. I like regular oranges but only for juice, when it comes to eating an orange I much prefer these. Today I got to share my enjoyment with Kylie. I asked her if she wanted to have some blood orange with me and she “Sure.” But when she first saw the blood orange she thought it was strange and she said that she changed her mind and didn’t want any. I told her she at least had to try a bite of it before she made up her mind because it is good to try new things, guess what happened? She liked it, a lot! Kylie ate an entire blood orange after she tried it and even had some of Daddy’s.
Safety First
Riding season is almost here, well not really but I am already thinking about it, and one of the things I am thinking about is safety. Typically on nice days when I ride the motorcycle I don’t wear a jacket, not because I don’t have one but because it is not very comfortable. When I bought the bike the dealership threw in a Joe Rocket ballistics jacket, and while I am sure it would be effective should I ever go down (I don’t want to test this theory) I find it uncomfortable to wear, so I don’t. I typically wear it when the weather gets cold at the end of the season and I take the expressway to drop the bike off at my buddy Chuck’s house for the off season and that’s it. I have even rode the bike in to work on some rather chilly mornings without it because I don’t like the way to fits when I am riding.
Hopefully, today, I have fixed that problem. A friend at work was selling this leather jacket that he purchased from Hudson Leather and only wore twice because he didn’t like the way it fit him. The price he was selling it for was substantially less than the store price, and seeing as it fit nicely I decided to take my chance. I need to break it in some (as he literally only wore it twice) and get used to the weight of it, but it is a real nice coat. While I am still not positive that I will wear it all the time, especially on those really hot days as I am rather warm to begin with, I am sure it will come in handy on those chilly morning rides into work.
The next things I need to work on are: a new pair of riding boots (the soles of mine are pretty much worn flat, though I have had these boots for almost 9 years); a luggage rack for the back and the saddle roll to go on it. That way I won’t need to wear a backpack to carry my lunch to work.