January 2007 Archives
There is a push on within the python “cloud” of users to link everyone in via the social networking site LinkedIn. I just read Guy Kawasaki’s LinkedIn Primer, all about how to improve your linked in profile. I can see the use of this kind of thing, but it seems like, well, work. And i know, it could be worth it, in terms of possible contacts etc. And it seems like more people i know are using too. Which means i really do have to sit down and spend some time writing a good profile. Sigh. I’m sure i’ll get to it eventually…
Tony pointed me to this thing. Amazing use of flash for two and three D graphics. He also made an excellent point about the interface for the creation of new “avatars” and how simple it is, and how able one would be to make their own crazy avatar. You can see one i created below. The movements are pre-programmed. Check out the number of other avatars in the audience, and the real-time blur that’s been used. Very impressive use of flash. Take the time to try out the interface for creating your own avatar too - its equally impressive. Wonder tech and UI design.
UPDATE Ok, after the Oh-my-god factor passes, you can see the steps that have been taken to reduce the load on the flash player. All the background avatars are actually in a single bitmap, which is then “played” like a movie clip. Well, each “group” of background avatars, anyway. So there is only the “main” avatar and the 5 or so “infield” avatars which are truly being manipulated in 3d. This doesn’t really take away from the coolness factor of it, but it does keep my brain from leaking out - i was dumbfounded as to how he had managed to get so many 3d poly’s on screen at once.
Well i’ve now got backup running for the important stuff - the email (thanks to rsync), the SVN repository (thanks to hot-backup.py) and the MySQL DB (thanks to ZRM).
I installed and configured awstats, so i could start keeping track of my web stats. I still need to figure out a log rotation and backup scheme.
Last night i also copied over the remaining email from the old server to the new one. I knew this would take a while, but i didn’t factor in the copying of all the sent emails too. So that took about double the time i had expected it too. Ah well, now it is safe, backed up onto several different hard drives.
The thing i’m now worried about is that although the new server is, well, newer then the old one, its still old, and the BIOS is so out of date that it doesn’t support large HD’s. So, sooner or later, i’m going to have to get a new server that supports bigger drives, and i’m going to have to rebuild it all over again. On the plus side, i’ve gotten it down to a pretty good science now, and i can save a lot of the config files. I’m hoping to put that one off for a bit yet.
Everything is moving along well. Email with the spam filtering is working. I’ve got the Subversion repository working via a secure url. I’ve also got the admin for my blog engine under a secure url. Due to my switch from microsoft’s IIS web server to Apache, i have access to all kinds of neat new tools and abilities. One is being able to proxy a url - a url like http://www.theorganization.net/mt now actually points to a different server, all without the client knowing. This stuff is pretty old-hat to most, but i’ve never really had an opportunity to play with it. I’m digging it big time!
You know, i’ve gotten pretty handy with setting up new servers. Ubuntu makes it pretty easy, with their Server CD, but even with that, i’ve become a pretty steady hand at rebuilding or reinstalling the server OS quickly. The one thing that does not come quickly is email. What a huge pain in the ass. I’ve gotten to the point where i can get Postfix and Courier to work, which is amazing to me, but getting any kind of spam detection working was just an exercise in pain. Until tonight. Somehow i’ve managed to hook MailScanner into Postfix, using SpamAssasin… I’m in shock. I have no idea how to tune it right now, but its working. I can send mail, have it scanned, and then put back into my IMAP inbox.
Note to any Ubuntu admins that are having a hellish time getting amavis or any of the other spam solutions working, try out MailScanner, because if i can get it working, so you can. As a quick aside, i would have used ASSP, which i’ve been using very successfully on my win2k box, but you can’t connect over smtp securely when using it. I wanted to be able to SSH/TLS into and out of this server.
Ok, well… Lets feed it some spam and see what happens! (Ok, actually what i should do is go to bed)
Its been a while. Christmas came and went - Conor got lots of nice gifts, as did Ciara and myself. All three of us suffered from a tenacious cold. Visited with all the family, Toronto, Brockville and Campbellford. Got out for a motocycle ride in January. Turned 37. And am rebuilding the server in the basement. Had a emotional-work-life crisis, but am now over it.
That about brings us up to date.
