Saturday, June 21, 2008
Failing and webcasting |2:55 AM| Suzy's dedication and commitment of force is admirable.
I help do the webcast for a local sporting event. Problem is, my tech level is a bit limited on the server side. I rely on a different company for my bandwidth, and I only have one encoding box.
This means, basically, zero redundancy. If something goes wrong, the whole audience sees and I look like an asshole.
Later today I'm going to try to simulate a total failure of the transcoding box, (like some passerby tripping over a cable or the firewire card buying the farm, or spontaneous combustion) while I switch over to the laptop as a temporary server. This is a less than ideal solution as it complicates matters while not addressing the vulnerability of my setup to such failures. Also, few advanced technologies have backup systems that can be described as "Switching cables really fast and hoping you can click the mouse at the right moment". I've set the system up so I have 29 seconds to perform this trick before anyone notices.
I hate not having a 99% success rate on this, this is known technology. Instead, I average about one reboot per match. If this was a Blackberry Enterprise server I was running as my job, I'd likely have already been fired.
Our setup, our system, is all distinctly home brew. Hell, previously, I was running this on a Ubuntu box I learned to use in less than a week. The library lacks books on this specific subject, so I'm trying to learn from online sources. Apparently the big boys (like say, the local massive college sports department) have magic, $8000+ boxes that do their webcasting* by just being plugged in. That's called a "turn key" solution, is outside my price range, and anathema to my need to understand what's going on. If my fellow crew members want to take this show on the road, I've got to put this all together myself, and properly.
*(Or they're supposed to, I'm told by an informed source that sometimes they don't work and no one knows how/why)
(0) comments
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
I stayed within 100 feet of my house today |10:54 PM| Caught up like a son of a bitch on school work. Being awake at 4am and not being able to get back to sleep really screwed today up, though. I'm going to attempt to reset my sleep schedule forcefully, like holding my breath until I pass out.
In news related to: Naps
If I hadn't driven with Suzy to buy milk and eggs I would have been within 100 feet of my house for the entirety of today.
Note, when suggesting music, movies, media, etc to people, take a moment, and contemplate whether or not the methods you use to scour for new stuff would be a good fit with their methods. Like, oh, the bombardment method.
Got the job with the part time, corporate IT folks. This was the best paying of my options. Yeah, yeah, IT work. Pays the bills. I could be a hazmat diver, or a duck force feeder.
(0) comments
What the hell do they mean "Slickest" |3:05 PM|
I'm tempted to send in a photo of a guy covered in oil and seal skins but they might think that was some kind of twisted fetish.
(0) comments
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Towed |9:58 PM| I didn't do as well as I'd hoped on the oceanography exam, but that was expected. Riding around the same 3 blocks in hundred degree weather trying to find a car that you're pretty sure is gone is a great way to work up quite a fatigue, and a good storm front of frustrated anger. My car was towed without good cause, of this I am certain. I am also certain that getting compensation for it will be nearly impossible. I get to wait 10 days to check on the status of the "investigation". You should be allowed to shoot tow truck drivers, this is Texas, it's the equivalent of horse theft.
It has a tiny actual impact on one's life, but it's an excellent example of how utterly detached from accountability the government is from an individual, and how impotent we are against its machinations. Who will take to the streets over such a stupid, tiny, frustrating manner? What person can I, a single private citizen, be allowed to talk to who could get me my money, and my time, back?
I can't imagine how the wrongfully imprisoned feel. I would guess "like screaming" most of the time.
There isn't much to say about today beyond that. Just staying in the update habit. I went to a study at one of the UT labs today. Went alright, made a teeny tiny amount of money. Non-invasive, no drugs, just questions.
Update as of early Wednesday morning.
I wasn't going to bother to post this entry, since it's mostly bitching, but now today has taken on a farcical nature. I went on a bike ride to tire myself out, then came home, went to bed early for me, 10:30. This was an attempt to regain a bit of control over my sleep schedule, to start working out again in the morning, to get a jump on my (increasingly expensive) days.
At about 2:30am the power went out. The sudden silence and lack of air movement waking me. Jeff and I stumbled around in the darkness for a while, performing the little rituals of checking the neighborhood and calling the city.
Now it's 3:39am, and I cannot sleep. A terrible headache grips my skull instead. So much for fixing my sleep schedule. Perhaps I'll go meditate in the pool.
(0) comments
Forgetting the lyrics |1:58 AM| I should be pouring over my oceanography material. I will have very little time to do so before the exam deadline tomorrow of roughly 8pm.
I'm waiting to hear back from a couple of jobs. Heck, for all I know they're reading this very blog.
Getting back into this blog after an uneven period is something I blog about a lot, very meta. But, it does give me a chance to go back, and expand on old drafts (See "Expanded" or "Exiled" topics to see what I've been up to). I also read old comments I missed the first time around, and that can be a big pick-me-up. Some friends commented on my 13 days later post and if I had read them, I didn't remember. Glad to know I'm not fully an asshole. Or, that Pantaloons was still reading this blog.
Here is Ella Fitzgerald forgetting the lyrics to Mack the Knife. I'm not a big fan of Mack the Knife, but hearing her ad lib is so wonderful. Regina Spektor forgot the lyrics a few times at her concert, and it was very cute.
I told Suzy about my less-secret plan, and she asked me if I had an ear for music. I admitted that as of 5-6 years ago, not really, no. I know what sounds good, I can kind of adjust it on a sound board, but ID'ing a G from an F? That's been gone more than half a decade.
She told me that I was doomed. DOOOOOMED.
Eh. I'm thinking about posting on Craigslist:
"Computer tech needs music lessons. Will fix computers, and do yard work. Gutters cleaned, a specialty!"
Remember those cancer research fund raisers, where you'd do a shit-ton of math problems, and people would sponsor you for a dime a problem or something? Maybe I could convince someone to sponsor my time [Paying me in music lessons, maybe a few notes at a time] at the battered women's shelter, teaching people computers, and in exchange they teach me components of the chromatic scale. This is assuming I can get into one of the classes they make you take before you start helping at the battered women's shelter.
(1) comments
Parties |1:19 AM| I like the new color scheme Suzy whipped up for the site. For some reason it kind of looks like a fossilized version of TPL. As if someone 10,000 years from now attempted to reconstruct this at a museum as an early 21st century example of egomania.
10,000 years. If the human race makes it that far, the whole of stored information currently on earth would likely fit into a single bubble of some tiny handheld storage device.
I would be beyond dust, a fragment, possibly in some corn being grown in a hydroponic experiment for school children.
I don't have the pictures up from the "Can we actually pull off a party" themed party from Saturday, which went pretty well, even if it did interrupt my Oceanography studying. It went well, considering the mis-communication between Jimmy and I that prevented a large number of people from being invited, and a shit load of the harder party-ers either being out of town for family or having left town forever.
Upcoming is the conspiracy themed party, and I'm contemplating what to wear as a costume. Cas suggested a Diebold voting machine. I could go as the twin towers, that could unfold to show demolition charges wired up and down the inside of the support beams.
I could get my hands on some dress uniforms at the quonset hut. If I've got some extra money from some sales and jobs, I think I might just do that. A good air force uniform could be fun.
(0) comments
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Bookbinder |4:30 AM| I've been seeing a woman, named Suzy, for the past month or so. She is a book conservator, which is different than a restore-er. The important difference to me between these two words is that if I say she is a conservator she has no obligation to deliver a corrective bite to the shoulder, causing me to bleet like a sheep.
She works in the UT school of information, fighting tape someone put onto a letter from Sam Houston, carelessly 50 years ago.
She hates tape.
She keeps a lungfish, is a fallen vegetarian, and is moving to Illinois in August. We ride our bikes, we laugh at this image, make phone ringing noises at each other and try not to dwell on the ever present countdown.
There are also logic puzzles.
You enjoy eating all of your food.
And you enjoy Brendan being at your house.
And Brendan eats all of your fruity Cheeri-os when he is at your house.
Then does it follow that you enjoy Brendan eating all of your fruity Cheeri-os?
She bites "Like a crocodile" to quote Johnny Cash.
(0) comments
Sheel is leaving |4:13 AM|
Sheel is leaving. Has left, as I actually write this post, 2 weeks later. Above is a link to the gallery of his party.
I spent a great deal of time getting having teeth sunk into my flesh by the always morsitation delectatio SuzyOdaxelagnia.
The party was a blast. Perhaps not on the level of Christina's birthday, but I think such a blowout is hard to match, much less top.
Christina's was also a celebration of a birthday where as Sheel's was more a way to mark the end of...something.
I'm getting pretty good at this. That is, dealing awesome people I care about, leaving town. I'm tempted to drive up to Philly in the next 6 months or so, just to say hello.
Christina and Alex are going to Ithaca soon.
Suzy leaves in August.
August marks 2 years since, well.
The rest of you sons of bitches, the ones worth a damn, better not leave. Goddammit.
(0) comments
Failing and webcasting |2:55 AM| Suzy's dedication and commitment of force is admirable.
I help do the webcast for a local sporting event. Problem is, my tech level is a bit limited on the server side. I rely on a different company for my bandwidth, and I only have one encoding box.
This means, basically, zero redundancy. If something goes wrong, the whole audience sees and I look like an asshole.
Later today I'm going to try to simulate a total failure of the transcoding box, (like some passerby tripping over a cable or the firewire card buying the farm, or spontaneous combustion) while I switch over to the laptop as a temporary server. This is a less than ideal solution as it complicates matters while not addressing the vulnerability of my setup to such failures. Also, few advanced technologies have backup systems that can be described as "Switching cables really fast and hoping you can click the mouse at the right moment". I've set the system up so I have 29 seconds to perform this trick before anyone notices.
I hate not having a 99% success rate on this, this is known technology. Instead, I average about one reboot per match. If this was a Blackberry Enterprise server I was running as my job, I'd likely have already been fired.
Our setup, our system, is all distinctly home brew. Hell, previously, I was running this on a Ubuntu box I learned to use in less than a week. The library lacks books on this specific subject, so I'm trying to learn from online sources. Apparently the big boys (like say, the local massive college sports department) have magic, $8000+ boxes that do their webcasting* by just being plugged in. That's called a "turn key" solution, is outside my price range, and anathema to my need to understand what's going on. If my fellow crew members want to take this show on the road, I've got to put this all together myself, and properly.
*(Or they're supposed to, I'm told by an informed source that sometimes they don't work and no one knows how/why)
(0) comments
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
I stayed within 100 feet of my house today |10:54 PM| Caught up like a son of a bitch on school work. Being awake at 4am and not being able to get back to sleep really screwed today up, though. I'm going to attempt to reset my sleep schedule forcefully, like holding my breath until I pass out.
In news related to: Naps
If I hadn't driven with Suzy to buy milk and eggs I would have been within 100 feet of my house for the entirety of today.
Note, when suggesting music, movies, media, etc to people, take a moment, and contemplate whether or not the methods you use to scour for new stuff would be a good fit with their methods. Like, oh, the bombardment method.
Got the job with the part time, corporate IT folks. This was the best paying of my options. Yeah, yeah, IT work. Pays the bills. I could be a hazmat diver, or a duck force feeder.
(0) comments
What the hell do they mean "Slickest" |3:05 PM|
Hi Brendan,
FastWeb found a new scholarship for you. You qualify for:
Brickfish "As Slick As It Gets" Contest
Award Amount: $500
The Brickfish "As Slick As It Gets" Contest is open to students who are at least 18 years of age or older and residents of the United States and the District of Columbia. To be eligible for this award, you must create a video or upload a photo on the Brickfish website describing why you or someone you know is the "slickest" person alive.
I'm tempted to send in a photo of a guy covered in oil and seal skins but they might think that was some kind of twisted fetish.
(0) comments
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Towed |9:58 PM| I didn't do as well as I'd hoped on the oceanography exam, but that was expected. Riding around the same 3 blocks in hundred degree weather trying to find a car that you're pretty sure is gone is a great way to work up quite a fatigue, and a good storm front of frustrated anger. My car was towed without good cause, of this I am certain. I am also certain that getting compensation for it will be nearly impossible. I get to wait 10 days to check on the status of the "investigation". You should be allowed to shoot tow truck drivers, this is Texas, it's the equivalent of horse theft.
It has a tiny actual impact on one's life, but it's an excellent example of how utterly detached from accountability the government is from an individual, and how impotent we are against its machinations. Who will take to the streets over such a stupid, tiny, frustrating manner? What person can I, a single private citizen, be allowed to talk to who could get me my money, and my time, back?
I can't imagine how the wrongfully imprisoned feel. I would guess "like screaming" most of the time.
There isn't much to say about today beyond that. Just staying in the update habit. I went to a study at one of the UT labs today. Went alright, made a teeny tiny amount of money. Non-invasive, no drugs, just questions.
Update as of early Wednesday morning.
I wasn't going to bother to post this entry, since it's mostly bitching, but now today has taken on a farcical nature. I went on a bike ride to tire myself out, then came home, went to bed early for me, 10:30. This was an attempt to regain a bit of control over my sleep schedule, to start working out again in the morning, to get a jump on my (increasingly expensive) days.
At about 2:30am the power went out. The sudden silence and lack of air movement waking me. Jeff and I stumbled around in the darkness for a while, performing the little rituals of checking the neighborhood and calling the city.
Now it's 3:39am, and I cannot sleep. A terrible headache grips my skull instead. So much for fixing my sleep schedule. Perhaps I'll go meditate in the pool.
(0) comments
Forgetting the lyrics |1:58 AM| I should be pouring over my oceanography material. I will have very little time to do so before the exam deadline tomorrow of roughly 8pm.
I'm waiting to hear back from a couple of jobs. Heck, for all I know they're reading this very blog.
Getting back into this blog after an uneven period is something I blog about a lot, very meta. But, it does give me a chance to go back, and expand on old drafts (See "Expanded" or "Exiled" topics to see what I've been up to). I also read old comments I missed the first time around, and that can be a big pick-me-up. Some friends commented on my 13 days later post and if I had read them, I didn't remember. Glad to know I'm not fully an asshole. Or, that Pantaloons was still reading this blog.
Here is Ella Fitzgerald forgetting the lyrics to Mack the Knife. I'm not a big fan of Mack the Knife, but hearing her ad lib is so wonderful. Regina Spektor forgot the lyrics a few times at her concert, and it was very cute.
I told Suzy about my less-secret plan, and she asked me if I had an ear for music. I admitted that as of 5-6 years ago, not really, no. I know what sounds good, I can kind of adjust it on a sound board, but ID'ing a G from an F? That's been gone more than half a decade.
She told me that I was doomed. DOOOOOMED.
Eh. I'm thinking about posting on Craigslist:
"Computer tech needs music lessons. Will fix computers, and do yard work. Gutters cleaned, a specialty!"
Remember those cancer research fund raisers, where you'd do a shit-ton of math problems, and people would sponsor you for a dime a problem or something? Maybe I could convince someone to sponsor my time [Paying me in music lessons, maybe a few notes at a time] at the battered women's shelter, teaching people computers, and in exchange they teach me components of the chromatic scale. This is assuming I can get into one of the classes they make you take before you start helping at the battered women's shelter.
Labels: Corrected
(1) comments
Parties |1:19 AM| I like the new color scheme Suzy whipped up for the site. For some reason it kind of looks like a fossilized version of TPL. As if someone 10,000 years from now attempted to reconstruct this at a museum as an early 21st century example of egomania.
10,000 years. If the human race makes it that far, the whole of stored information currently on earth would likely fit into a single bubble of some tiny handheld storage device.
I would be beyond dust, a fragment, possibly in some corn being grown in a hydroponic experiment for school children.
I don't have the pictures up from the "Can we actually pull off a party" themed party from Saturday, which went pretty well, even if it did interrupt my Oceanography studying. It went well, considering the mis-communication between Jimmy and I that prevented a large number of people from being invited, and a shit load of the harder party-ers either being out of town for family or having left town forever.
Upcoming is the conspiracy themed party, and I'm contemplating what to wear as a costume. Cas suggested a Diebold voting machine. I could go as the twin towers, that could unfold to show demolition charges wired up and down the inside of the support beams.
I could get my hands on some dress uniforms at the quonset hut. If I've got some extra money from some sales and jobs, I think I might just do that. A good air force uniform could be fun.
(0) comments
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Bookbinder |4:30 AM| I've been seeing a woman, named Suzy, for the past month or so. She is a book conservator, which is different than a restore-er. The important difference to me between these two words is that if I say she is a conservator she has no obligation to deliver a corrective bite to the shoulder, causing me to bleet like a sheep.
She works in the UT school of information, fighting tape someone put onto a letter from Sam Houston, carelessly 50 years ago.
She hates tape.
She keeps a lungfish, is a fallen vegetarian, and is moving to Illinois in August. We ride our bikes, we laugh at this image, make phone ringing noises at each other and try not to dwell on the ever present countdown.
There are also logic puzzles.
You enjoy eating all of your food.
And you enjoy Brendan being at your house.
And Brendan eats all of your fruity Cheeri-os when he is at your house.
Then does it follow that you enjoy Brendan eating all of your fruity Cheeri-os?
She bites "Like a crocodile" to quote Johnny Cash.
Labels: Suzy
(0) comments
Sheel is leaving |4:13 AM|
 |
| From Sheel leaves us |
Sheel is leaving. Has left, as I actually write this post, 2 weeks later. Above is a link to the gallery of his party.
I spent a great deal of time getting having teeth sunk into my flesh by the always morsitation delectatio SuzyOdaxelagnia.
The party was a blast. Perhaps not on the level of Christina's birthday, but I think such a blowout is hard to match, much less top.
Christina's was also a celebration of a birthday where as Sheel's was more a way to mark the end of...something.
I'm getting pretty good at this. That is, dealing awesome people I care about, leaving town. I'm tempted to drive up to Philly in the next 6 months or so, just to say hello.
Christina and Alex are going to Ithaca soon.
Suzy leaves in August.
August marks 2 years since, well.
The rest of you sons of bitches, the ones worth a damn, better not leave. Goddammit.
(0) comments
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