FortKnox's Journal: Bummed

Server crashed... hard. My little mud took up so many resources that it filled up the harddisk (I shoulda expected it. Letting an amateur coder coding it on a linux box with only 2.4GB of space). So, the website being down isn't because I'm ready to put up my java version (hell, I'm having trouble, having enough empty space, to get tomcat AND java installed to even start coding the java version).

I guess this gives me more of a kickstart to get stuff moving, but I gotta save for a new HD first...

Spare 40

[gmhowell]

I think I have a spare 40 GB drive. Interested?

Re:Spare 40

[FortKnox]

If you have one lying around you are gonna use, heck yeah.
40 would be more than enough

Re:Spare 40

[gmhowell]

Just gotta check with my brother. He had first dibs, and hasn't mentioned interest or not. (He honestly doesn't need it, but he did something for me, so...)

Re:Spare 40

[FortKnox]

I understand... just shoot me an email if he isn't interested.

Re:Spare 40

[jawtheshark]

You have *spare* 40Gig drives???

Wow, biggest spare IDE drive I have is about 1Gig or so. I spent 99Euro four months ago in order to get a 20Gig harddrive for my second server (20gig was smallest I could find). If I just had known people have *spare* 40Gig drives...
My main workstation has a 40Gig drive, plenty of space unless I really start to get into DivX and MP3. Well, my sis is into MP3 and she still didn't fill up the 30Gig drive I gave her.

My main server here consist of a frankenbox using 3 harddisks: 1.5Gig, 500Meg and 1Gig plus a CD-Rom. I think the 1.5Gig is starting to fail. I get a lot of errors in my dmesg. *sigh* Luckily I have a spare 9Gig Ultra Wide SCSI disk, but no spare SCSI controller. Anyone got a spare SCSI controller? ;-)

Re:Spare 40

[gmhowell]

Seriously, I may have a spare SCSI controller. Not Ultra Wide, but maybe.

The tale of my 'spare' 40 Gig drive follows:

Built box out of parts. Old Windows motherboard, old case, etc, etc. Had separate drive for /home. I also have about 300 CDs. So, last spring, I picked up a slimp3 (www.slimdevices.com) and got about ripping all the CDs I could find. I filled the original 15 Gig drive in a few weeks. Replaced with 40 Gig drive. Filled that by the time I got through 300 CDs. Pulled that out to use in an external enclosure. Due to a service snafu, my brother had two 60 Gig drives. He let me have one. I bought a couple of DVD's with old time radio programs. Well, needless to say, this brought 40 Gigs up to 60 in a heartbeat. Bought a 100 Gig drive, and things seem to be stabilized at around 58% usage. The 60 will go into the external USB enclosure. Since a few people have helped me out online, I figure it's only right to share the wealth. But first I have to see if my brother wants the drive back that I got from him.

I've got some kind of tekram based scsi controller. Interested? I used it for my scanner, but since I last had the scanner plugged in, I've realized that said scanner is a piece of crap. I get better results scanning at the Kinko's. If I buy a new scanner, it will likely be USB, so...

Oh, erm... You spend in Euros? I'd have to give you a bit of info. No idea what shipping is like, but it might be more than the value of the card. Still, if you're interested. I'd probably ask for some beer coasters, or an interesting tap handle from your local pub if you are in the UK or Germany in exchange.

Re:Spare 40

[jawtheshark]

Wow... That slimp3 thing kicks major ass! I want one! Guess that I'll have to buy a bigger harddisk.

So you bought in succession a 15, 40, 60, and now 100Gig harddisk and nearly put them all in USB enclosures. Okay, why didn't you plug them all in the same machine and mounted them in the /home directory structure where your mp3's reside? A extra cheap IDE controller would have done it if you didn't have enough IDE channels.
I do understand it. I myself optimize my machines with my "spare parts" too. About all the computers here have become pure frankenboxes ;-) Reminds me I have to shut down my server to upgrade the memory. Have 128Meg lying around.

I do thank you for your offer for the SCSI controller. You're right, it will probably cost more to send to Europe than the value of the card. Of course you could always send it to Spirit00 [slashdot.org] and she brings it along in March ;-) The worst part it that I could have *sworn* I had a good Symbios SCSI controller somewhere. Alas, I think I plugged it in a computer to connect my Jaz when I was helping someone out. Since I always drink a lot when helping people (it's my pay...give me beer, I fix your computer), I might just have forgotten it.

As for beer coasters: you want some? I can *easily* get you some from Belgium and Luxembourg. There even are some very funny ones (Hoegaarden springs to mind). You're lucky, you just met a fellow beer lover! Getting my hands on "tap handles" probably isn't as easy as getting beer coasters though. If you didn't try it yet: drink Belgian beer. We have more beers per square mile than Germany you know. (I'm a native Belgian, living in Luxembourg) And good stuff! Go over to the KBS Beer Bottle collection [tolsun.oulu.fi] and see for yourself.

Re:Spare 40

[gmhowell]

I never bothered to figure out how LVM works, so I didn't know how to slave multiple drives to a single directory. Also, that machine has three hard drives, two CD-ROM drives, and an ATAPI tape drive. There's no room left! It's been cheaper to get a new/bigger drive than to buy a new case, figure out LVM, etc.

I didn't buy the... 60, I think. One of the drives was a freebie from my brother. I also only have one USB enclosure. I never put in the 15 (heck, maybe I'll send that one to FK if I can find the sucker. My desk is a mess). The 40 is in now, and I might switch to the 60. Funny thing is, when I bought the motherboard that is in there now, it only had ATA33 onboard. That was when it was a Windows machine. When I switched things around and bought a drive for /home (the first 15, I think) I spent a couple of dollars and put in an ATA100 controller. If memory serves, almost no drives share an IDE channel. I know I set it up so that drives likely to be in use at the same time (tape drive and anything other than CD, CD and /home, etc.) were on different channels.

I'm a bit of a homebrewer, so my journals occasionally feature brewing notes. I also make labels for my beer. They are posted here [refundersrefuge.org] if you are interested.

I try to buy some commercial beer a couple of times a year. Problem is finding new stuff to sample. Found one store that sold Lindeman's Framboise Lambic. That's some good stuff. Certainly a more interesting thirst quencher than American 'Pilsner'.

I've seen that page before, and marvelled in jealousy at someone who was able to amass such a collection. And not just the collection, but the fact that he has drank each of those varied beverages.

Yeah, if you have any interesting coasters, and a cheap way to get 'em to the US, it would be pretty cool to add to the collection. Check on that SCSI card, and if you need it, I'll send it off to spirit00.

Re:Spare 40

[jawtheshark]

I don't know anything about LVM either. I was more thinking in the lines of using your (probably) already existent categorization to mount them. One hd on /home/mp3/rock another on /home/mp3/classic, etc...
But it's okay. I understand your concept...

I've never been a homebrewer. I have made country-wine though back in the day. Well, not that long ago. I have some really nice bottle from diverse fruits. I cannot show you the label we use because it probably is on a harddisk that resides in a cardbox (long story, but it's not a "spare"). It's a picture of our house that my brother made when he was a kid using some PCX editor on DOS (Those were the days). I have a postscript version too, which I made by hand when we had to learn Postscript at University.
The name we gave our wine is "Kajoli", which is a concatenation of the two letters of each of my siblings (and myself) first names. If you speak it out, it sounds like "Cas Joli", which in french means "A beautiful case".
I liked your labels with the Harry Potter theming. Pretty cool! Nice labels!

As for the coasters: they are just paper. Put them in a big enough envelope, a bit more postage on it and you have them in no time. Of course I need to frequent pubs a bit more in order to get them (I don't go out much). I might be able to get the coasters of my favourite Luxembourgish brand [bofferding.lu]. They have a really cool marketing campain going on currently. You can see their current (and former) coasters here [bofferding.lu]. Next time I'm in a pub, I'll try to think of you... promised!

I indeed have to check out that SCSI card at my friends parents. Especially I have to get back to them because they had a defective DIMM which I brought back to the shop. That was back in september and that shop never contacted me back! *cencored expletitive*.
If I feel in a joyful mood I might even send you some good local beer... ;-) Who knows, what spare material have you got to trade? *grin*.
(Postal stuff isn't that expensive, I once send 256Meg RAM to a friend in Bulgaria).

Re:Spare 40

[gmhowell]

You know what? Your idea for dividing the MP3's makes a good bit of sense. Wish I had thought of that before...

I like the coasters. Funny, even in a pub (which we don't really have in the US, just bars) in the US, many of those coasters, especially for 'Condoman' wouldn't go over well at all.

Re:Spare 40

[jawtheshark]

Don't forget I live in Europe. The coasters you are referring to were in the context of an AIDS-prevention campains. Usually when we have these campains, there always is a male genital in erection covered with a condom.
Usually we even get free condoms at these times too. Yup, yup, Europe is very very differnt. How the heck do AIDS-prevention campains look in the US, then? I mean, this is really quite straightforward. :-)

Re:Spare 40

[gmhowell]

We have truly bizarre AIDS prevention campaigns. If we have them at all. Certain elements of society (Republicans) would prefer that we ignore reality, and pretend that things are perfect. So we wind up with campaigns something like this:

"ABSTINANCE, ABSTINANCE, ABSTINANCE, ABSTINANCE.

And if you have to, please wear a condom."

You used to be able to buy syringes over the counter in the US. Nope, that helps the war on drugs (and diabetics, but to hell with them). So now you need a scrip (prescription). For a short time, schools gave away condoms. Not so much now, because that would encourage sex out of wedlock. Yeah, because teenagers just couldn't wait to get their hands on condoms. That's when they started humping like rabbits.

We were founded primarily by puritans. A bit of that streak has remained, even though the other half of the Europeans to come to the US were coming for the lovely prisons.

Re:Spare 40

[jawtheshark]

ABSTINANCE, ABSTINANCE, ABSTINANCE, ABSTINANCE

I know.... I have been subjected to that point of view. *sigh* ;-)

What can I say? People in the US should loosen up a bit and kick those puritans in the butt. Because, really... aren't they just a vocal minority? (Or a bunch of hypocrites) I don't know. I know here we have kids at 14 and younger screwing, but at least they know about the protection and can easily get condoms. Only heard of two cases of teenage pregnancy here (A girl at my highschool, made quite a scandal. A friend of my sister..but she *wanted* the kid in the first place).
And then you have sexually transmitted diseases. I have heard from several trustworthy sources that other means of intimacy were quite current while avoiding "direct intercourse". Yeah, as if that's going to stop SD.
Oh, well, guess parents in the US who oppose to puritanism should just educate their kids early enough *and* give them condoms. If I'd live in the US, and had kids, it's exactly what I would do.

Don't know if your statement about the prisons is true. I know it's true for Australia, but we just sent the really poor and "religiously abnormal" over to the US ;-)

Re:Spare 40

[gmhowell]

Part of my family wound up in the southern US (the Carolinas, I believe) because of some bad debts in Wales.

Teen pregnancy is supposed to be pretty freakin' bad around here. And I can't count the number of 'women' who have children with a guy, but won't marry him because "I don't want to make a committment". There weren't any pregnant teens in my high school when I graduated in '91 (at least none who would admit to it), but my brother graduated in '94, and he said there were many by then.

Also, from what I've heard, the numbers have gone down drastically, as 'oral gratification' has taken off amongst US teens. Hey, I like a BJ as much as the next guy, but there's nothing wrong with wearing a rubber either.

I live on the East Coast. Certainly around me, there isn't much of that Puritan mindset. My understanding is that it's a bit stronger in the central part of the country, but I suspect that is just bullshit and the whole thing is a political ploy. In the US, the squeaky wheel most definately gets the grease.

At least when I was in college, you could get free condoms almost anywhere. Health center, RA's (students who lived on the halls to keep some level of peace. And pass out birth control:), the women's groups, and just about anyone else. Even if you weren't sexually active, you probably had one or two condoms lying around. Granted, they weren't the greatest quality (a bit thick for one thing) but hey, they were free. And some guy running down the hall wearing a towel, knocking on doors asking for a rubber at 3 in the morning isn't likely to be picky:)

Re:Spare 40

[gmhowell]

Who is Christine Watkins?

Re:Spare 40

[jawtheshark]

Ah, that questions pops up every once in a while. The anwer is here. [slashdot.org]

It's obscure and stupid, I know.

Re:Spare 40

[jawtheshark]

Hehehe.. Well, don't go to Wales, they might ask you to reimburse with interests ;-)

Actually, when I said "other means of intimacy", I did mean "oral gratification". My whole point is that this does not prevent sexually transmitted diseased. Since I never got a blowjob in my whole life (and not likely to get one anytime soon), I just don't know how it compares to the real thing.

Oh, well... My personal opinion is that AIDS prevention campains should show what it's all about. Keeping things veiled, is not a way to inform people.

Re:Spare 40

[gmhowell]

I knew the name sounded familiar. And I feel ashamed for not knowing, after all, I have the movie poster hanging in my living room.

Re:Spare 40

[FortKnox]

The label with your son is great!
Gave me a giggle.
Where'd you find the small tux??

Re:Spare 40

[gmhowell]

Mother found it somewhere. Think she did a google search on 'children's tuxedoes'. I think this [instylekids.com] is the site.

I have no idea why he looks so stoned in that picture.