2006-09-17 23:42:57 (in Berlin, Germany)
Finally - an update
It is done. I replaced a machine that was scheduled for demolition for
years. The gate went into service around September 1998 to be
my ISDN dialup masqurading/NAT gateway to the outside world (with
bind8, dhcpd). It was also a vbox-based answering machine and an ermergency X
terminal (in the hall).
It was based on SuSE 6.4 or 7.0 and ran with Linux 2.2.21 since about June 2002 and was upgraded for DSL somewhen. It was powered with a 133 Mhz Pentium, 96MB RAM, had a 3-COM and a ne2k NIC (the RTL-8139 committed suicide), an AVM A1 (Fritz) passive ISDN controller (ISA), and an ISA board with 4 additional serial ports (totalling 6 for one Wyse terminal and a mouse). It was rebooted only for kernel upgrades and about once a year for a .25 second power outage the local power company seems to like. The VGA board stopped working around mid-2004 (with the BIOS actually beeping on reboot because it couldnt find it anymore).
Ever since about March 2004 I was waiting for the 1 GB Quantum Fireball HDD to crash and force me to move to other hardware. The disc had an automatic spin-down and was powered off most of the day, which seems to have increased the life expectancy. However, back in the day this Fireball was known for being easily damageable.
So for 2 or 3 years I was literally waiting for the machine to fail. I bought a replacement already (blackbox based on a VIA Nemiah barebone) but had to replace the Maxtor disc already, losing all data without prior waring (smartmontools where running).
Since yesterday blackbox is serving NAT and other stuff (DNS, dhcpd, printer, NFS, Samba for the guests, ISDN (AVM B1 active card) and whatnot alone. I had to switch so that I could have VPN access to some place that uses un-tunnelable protocols.
Lessons learned: (1) There's life in the old dog yet. (2) Never touch a running system (3) ...unless you have to.
I just _know_ the prematurely switched-off hardware will seek revenge. gate was still good and it knows it. I'm so afraid. I will post funeral photos once I get myself a mask. There's enough dust in and around the case to feed several billion mites for a decade.
It was based on SuSE 6.4 or 7.0 and ran with Linux 2.2.21 since about June 2002 and was upgraded for DSL somewhen. It was powered with a 133 Mhz Pentium, 96MB RAM, had a 3-COM and a ne2k NIC (the RTL-8139 committed suicide), an AVM A1 (Fritz) passive ISDN controller (ISA), and an ISA board with 4 additional serial ports (totalling 6 for one Wyse terminal and a mouse). It was rebooted only for kernel upgrades and about once a year for a .25 second power outage the local power company seems to like. The VGA board stopped working around mid-2004 (with the BIOS actually beeping on reboot because it couldnt find it anymore).
Ever since about March 2004 I was waiting for the 1 GB Quantum Fireball HDD to crash and force me to move to other hardware. The disc had an automatic spin-down and was powered off most of the day, which seems to have increased the life expectancy. However, back in the day this Fireball was known for being easily damageable.
So for 2 or 3 years I was literally waiting for the machine to fail. I bought a replacement already (blackbox based on a VIA Nemiah barebone) but had to replace the Maxtor disc already, losing all data without prior waring (smartmontools where running).
Since yesterday blackbox is serving NAT and other stuff (DNS, dhcpd, printer, NFS, Samba for the guests, ISDN (AVM B1 active card) and whatnot alone. I had to switch so that I could have VPN access to some place that uses un-tunnelable protocols.
Lessons learned: (1) There's life in the old dog yet. (2) Never touch a running system (3) ...unless you have to.
I just _know_ the prematurely switched-off hardware will seek revenge. gate was still good and it knows it. I'm so afraid. I will post funeral photos once I get myself a mask. There's enough dust in and around the case to feed several billion mites for a decade.
2006-09-12 08:44:53 (in Berlin, Germany)
*Seufz*
Es wird alles immer schlimmer. Erst verliere ich meinen
Fahrradcomputer mit ca. 2600km fuer dieses Jahr drauf und dann folge
ich ein paar Links und finde eine Verhandlungs-
bzw. Zuteilungsstrategie, die Shotgun heisst. Amerikanisch,
natuerlich :)
2006-09-04 21:29:00 (in Berlin, Germany)
Everybody, settle down ...
...silence, silence; I have an announcement to make: Yes, it was good
fun with all the FUD and the treehuggers urging you not to buy another
SUV, the gas prices and all the hassle about China needing oil (and
the wars about it in the middle east). We (the U.S. citizens actually,
but we friendly nations will be influenced as well) can stop worrying
now and increase our energy demand even more.
As I was watching CNN (International, the realevil patriotic
stuff is not broadcast to us friendly nations) some minutes today
there was a report on Shell exploring the commercial possibilities of
extracting oil from oil shale. Apparently there is an oil shale
reserve in the U.S. midwest with the capacity of more oil than the
Saudis ever had. Tha'll show 'em and their other god.
Now, if Shell actually manages to extract the oil by 2008 (or -10?) without risking too much ground water (or respective laws are changed, whatever comes first) - the international plans to reduce energy consumption will come to a complete halt. On the one hand, because everyone (especially we .de folk) wants to sell SUVs to the U.S. - on the other hand because we friendly nations will be bound to the U.S. even more (we'll want their cheap oil then, not get our men killed in the middle east). Angie will take care of that.
I hope I'm, being too pessemistic here. Unfortunately I cannot provide a link to the CNN story - it's obviously not important enough to show it on a website. Seems that poor australien croc hugger makes the news today. I hope for Telepolis' Craig Morris to cover this story in his column on future energy.
As I was watching CNN (International, the real
Now, if Shell actually manages to extract the oil by 2008 (or -10?) without risking too much ground water (or respective laws are changed, whatever comes first) - the international plans to reduce energy consumption will come to a complete halt. On the one hand, because everyone (especially we .de folk) wants to sell SUVs to the U.S. - on the other hand because we friendly nations will be bound to the U.S. even more (we'll want their cheap oil then, not get our men killed in the middle east). Angie will take care of that.
I hope I'm, being too pessemistic here. Unfortunately I cannot provide a link to the CNN story - it's obviously not important enough to show it on a website. Seems that poor australien croc hugger makes the news today. I hope for Telepolis' Craig Morris to cover this story in his column on future energy.