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Article posted on Mar 31

Finnix 87.0 Released

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 31, 2006, 10:24 am

Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian testing. Today marks the release of version 87.0 for the x86, PowerPC, UML/Xen, and iPod platforms.

Finnix 87.0 contains new features, including Linux kernel 2.6.16, full automatic LVM detection, console mouse support, SMP support for the PowerPC release, dynamic filesystem overlays, improved IDE DMA support, and a utility to assist with creating a bootable USB thumb drive with Finnix. Finnix can now also be installed on the popular iPod hardware, for a total of 5 platforms Finnix can be run on, though this new platform is still considered experimental.

Home page: http://www.finnix.org/
SourceForge page: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/finnix/
Download: http://www.finnix.org/Download
Release notes: http://www.finnix.org/Finnix_87.0_Release_Notes
Finnix for iPod: http://www.finnix.org/Finnix_for_iPod

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Article posted on Mar 29

No Title

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 29, 2006, 11:14 am

I <3 mirrors.kernel.org.

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Article posted on Mar 28

No Title

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 28, 2006, 11:01 pm

Videos of the Diggnation Reno episode are up. I wasn't there during the taping (and regret it), but my company (Twelve Horses) sponsored it and got mentioned several times, as well as buying all of their drinks and getting them WASTED.

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Article posted on Mar 28

No Title

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 28, 2006, 12:52 pm

The knowledge about rlwrap is slowly spreading to the masses...

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Article posted on Mar 27

Yes, I collect SATA cables

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 27, 2006, 6:12 pm

I collect SATA cables, originally uploaded by fo0bar.

I imagine there are probably 200 SATA cables in that bin, plus a couple SATA-related things (backplanes and accessory cables).

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Article posted on Mar 23

Ever been too lazy to paraphrase?

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 23, 2006, 12:00 am

Pasting from IRC rant because I'm lazy:

<@fo0bar> also: I have a server that is now almost 55 hours without failing
<@fo0bar> this server has been nothing but a pain. data corruption under high load combined with high disk activity
<@fo0bar> I have systematically RMAed nearly every component
<@fo0bar> I had the feeling through all of this that it was the RAID controller, but I even replaced that, and the problems would still occur... so I guessed that it was maybe the driver's interaction with this line of systems
<@fo0bar> 3ware even sent me experimental drivers to compile/use, but nope
<@fo0bar> it would almost always fail within 24 hours of testing, and has never lasted beyond 60 hours
<@fo0bar> the CPUs were the only component that were not replaced (dual xeon 3.6s)
<@fo0bar> this week, out of desparation, I tried removing one. I didn't think it would matter, since I never saw segfaults or booting issues or anything, it was always disk corruption
<@fo0bar> but now it's surviving... after another night or two of testing, I'll swap out the CPUs
<@fo0bar> if it fails then, we have the culprit. if not.... SMP problem maybe? (nah, since the individual procs are hyperthreaded)
<@fo0bar> and I'm rambling
<@fo0bar> which brings up another interesting point... has anyone here actually RMAed a defective CPU?
<@fo0bar> the only broken CPUs I've dealt with were ones I broke (carelessness, dropping, etc)

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Article posted on Mar 15

No Title

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 15, 2006, 10:49 pm

The new LCD is here, installed, and is quite kickass.

BTW, this also arrived today. In addition to allowing your Model M to function as a USB keyboard, it also allows you to hook up a Mac to a standard PS2 KVM. I had a similar device before, and for some reason it would not be recognized on a Mac. But this one works perfectly.

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Article posted on Mar 14

2005FPW Update

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 14, 2006, 10:20 pm

Monday, 3:23PM: Ordered LCD
3:24PM: Email: "Confirmed! Your LCD has been ordered and will be shipped out within 5 business days!"
3:25PM: Email: "We have received your order request, and it will be confirmed within the next 48 hours."
Tuesday, afternoon-ish: Web site: "Order is being sent from the warehouse to the distribution facility."
9PM: Web site: "Order has been shipped! Your UPS tracking number is xxx" ... UPS web site only shows "billing information received", doesn't show where it's being shipped from. (If it were east coast, it would take a full week for ground. West coast is 2-3 days, depending on location.)
9:30PM: UPS page changed to "in transit", origin location is, get this, Sparks. (Sparks is right next to Reno, and is Reno's UPS facility.) Estimated delivery is tomorrow, so it looks like they don't plan on holding it hostage for days, as they sometimes do when it takes less time to arrive than what you pay for.

2 days from order to delivery. That's very... uncharacteristic of Dell.

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Article posted on Mar 14

Ummmm....

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 14, 2006, 11:25 am

Exhibit A

Question 1: What software does this site describe?

Question 2: Where do you download the software?

(The answers ARE somewhere in there, just buried under mountains of crap. Once you do find the tarball, download it and see what the guy's "software" is -- it's hilarious!)

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Article posted on Mar 13

No Title

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 13, 2006, 3:43 pm

I am now $380 farther in debt ($361 + tax, grumble), but shall soon have a sweetass display.

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