nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.
computersmoved from livejournalnuxx.net February 23, 2008

nuxx.net Back Up

Well, even though rowla.nuxx.net made it to an uptime of 500 days back on the 11th, that didn’t last. Today Waveform unexpectedly moved my box to their new data center, causing a bit of an unexpected outage. As you can see in the bandwidthd graph above there was a period of time during which the server was unreachable.

I was ssh’d in at the time talking to people on #llamasoft when things just up and went away. It seems that Waveform simply pulled the plug on the boxes and moved them. Thankfully mine came back up safely.

acquired thingscyclingmoved from livejournal February 23, 2008

Danielle’s New Bike

2007 Electra Townie 3

Here’s Danielle’s new bike, a lime green 2007 Electra Townie 3. That is, three speed, internal gearing, with a rear coaster brake and a front V-brake. It also has the optional black plastic fenders fitted, which I think look great. The thing I particularly like about the plastic accessory fenders is that should something happen to them, they can be replaced. Bikes which come with metal painted to match fenders would be really hard to replace should they get scraped / scratched / bent.

computersmoved from livejournalnuxx.net February 23, 2008

nuxx.net Is Down

Hey everyone… My server at http://nuxx.net is down, and no, I don’t know why. I think Waveform is moving locations, but they didn’t notify me, so I’m just not sure what’s up. I have a support ticket open about it, but they haven’t replied yet. So, we’ll see… I hope I don’t have to move providers.

computersmoved from livejournal February 22, 2008

Reverse DNS

Having stuff like this working is fun:

trashwall# arp -a
c-69-244-128-1.hsd1.mi.comcast.net (69.244.128.1) at 00:01:5c:22:71:82 on gem0
core-ap.home.nuxx.net (192.168.0.2) at 00:16:cb:c5:16:2f on fxp0
basement-ax.home.nuxx.net (192.168.0.3) at 00:11:24:05:7d:53 on fxp0
livingroom-ax.home.nuxx.net (192.168.0.4) at 00:11:24:0a:91:6d on fxp0
tivo.home.nuxx.net (192.168.0.6) at 00:11:d9:16:54:43 on fxp0
dhcp21.home.nuxx.net (192.168.0.21) at 00:1c:b3:b5:1b:77 on fxp0
trashwall#

The Trashwall and its associated article are nearly done. :D

around the housecomputersmoved from livejournal February 21, 2008

Fucking Comcast

Arraugh. So, I have Comcast service for internet access, but not television service. I have a TV, but I only use it for pre-recorded stuff / video games / etc. However, when I got home today I had a note hanging next to my garage which reads:

While performing work in your neighborhood, it was determined that the cable TV line and/or equipment inside your home does not meet technical specifications established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The problem appears to be a leak of the cable TV signal. Signal leakage has the potential to cause interference with with aeronautical, police, and other communications. Comcast is required by the FCC to record and promptly repair signal leaks.

Please call Comcast at 1-800-865-9787 to schedule an appointment for one of our technicians to repair the signal leak.

If you are unable to contact Comcast within three (3) business days, we will be required to interrupt your service until the necessary repairs can be made.

So, I called and told the operator that I only have internet service and then asked what should be done about the note. The operator then first told me that I should just ignore the note, since I don’t have TV service. When I reminded her that I have internet service and that the note says the service will be terminated if I don’t call, she put me on hold to talk to a supervisor.

After she returned to the line we began to set up an appointment, but there were only 9am – 12pm or 12pm – 3pm windows open for technicians to visit, all the way through the end of March. Even better, the end of March is the furthest out she is able to schedule visits.

Great, eh?

So, she logged that I called and suggested that I just call back tomorrow and see if another slot is open.

I’m not sure what to do now. Maybe wait and see if my service actually gets switched off? <sigh>

UPDATE: I rejiggered the wiring just inside the house so that there are no unterminated connections. Hopefully that will sort it out. The root issue may very well be my fault, but I’d hope that Comcast would have some more reasonable appointments available. Hopefully my service won’t be interrupted now that things should be sorted out.

acquired thingscyclingmoved from livejournal February 17, 2008

Second Honda Music Link For Auction

1Honda / Acura Music Link for Auction

After a rather complex day (good wandering around at the park, bad DIY experiences not at my house), I came home and went for a nice 5.11 mile bike ride around the neighborhoods, condos, and sidewalks around here. I was a bit limited by some non-cleared areas which still had 6″ of slush on them, but otherwise things were pretty good. I finished it off by riding one lap around my neighborhood as fast as possible, which left me plenty winded when I got home. That was nice.

After rather slowly carrying the trash out I headed downstairs and took some pictures of my original Honda Music Link, the one which prompted the Honda Music Link iPod Adapter Review and, to some degree, caused me to learn quite a bit about electronics, firmware programming, etc. Listing the auction was really simple, as I used my previous HML auction as a template. Here is the current auction, #290207606818, if you are interested.

Now I’m just sitting here sipping a tasty beer, which will be the subject of another post… Then maybe I’ll watch some Trailer Park Boys.

around the housemoved from livejournal February 16, 2008

Lint, Fuzz, Food, Whatever?

A mix of scary… stuff.

Something isn’t right with the recliner where Danielle normally sits in my living room. While it was turned over and I was looking into the problem I came across this, a many year old mismash of lint, hair, dust, food, pillbugs, and who knows what else, which had settled on one of the support pieces.

This recliner was originally my parents, purchased sometime in the 80s, so it’s seen more than its fair share of sick kids, cartoon breakfasts, spilled potato chips, and who knows what else.

So, next time you acquire a piece of used furniture, just imagine what could be in there… Possibly from people you’ve never met.

UPDATE: That said, it may not be as scary as this photo of a 9/11 memorial-on-a-pickup sent to me by .

acquired thingscyclingmoved from livejournal February 16, 2008

Still More Bike Stuff

Shimano SH-MT40 Mountain Bike Shoes

Today Danielle and I headed out to some bike shops attempting to find other places which would have the Electra Townie she wants. We didn’t have much luck, but did end up at REI, where a bunch of stuff was on clearance. I ended up getting that pair of bike shoes seen there for $54.93.

See, I normally wear boots. For the last 12 years or so, my standard shoes have been issue US military combat boots. They are comfortable, wear very well, and (now) are rather padded with cloth uppers and Gore-Tex lining. While I’ve been wearing them for biking, they really aren’t the best choice, so I had hoped to get some running or trail shoes. When at REI I decided to try on some bike shoes and ended up deciding to (eventually) purchase a pair of these Keen bike sandals. While wandering around and getting ready to leave I ended up coming across these Shimano SH-MT40 shoes in a size which fits me (12.5, of all things) at a rather nice discount.

It’s a bit odd to me to be wearing normal shoes, especially biking ones, but they seem pretty nice. They are snugly comfortable width-wise with the (expectedly) very solid sole, with mounting for cleats. I’m tempted to get some manner of pedal / cleat setup for it, but I’m not quite sure what I want yet. Shimano makes a nice looking platform / clip in combination pedal which I think would work well for my type of casual use. There’s also the reasonably priced Crank Bros. Eggbeaters at the other end of the spectrum, but I’m not sure about those either. If any of you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

I also ended up picking up a pair of Ergon GP1-L handgrips. After playing with these a few months back I’d been wanting them, and as expected they are really comfortable. I went for a short ride around the neighborhood after installing them and it’s just simply a lot more comfortable than using normal soft rubber grips. Here is a photo of those grips on my bike, without the endcaps fitted.

financesmoved from livejournal February 15, 2008

Advance America Redux

Remember my mentioning Advance America last month?

Well, here’s a little more direct about their usury: Advance America’s 10-K for FY2006

Highlights:

· Just over $4 billion in loans in 2006.
· Average payday cash advance was $353.
· Average loan length was 16.2 days.
· Average fees paid was $55. (Yes, that’s ~15% over the course of two weeks.)
· Average principle amount outstanding on loans during the period: $448
· Average principle amount of installment loan: $486
· Average charge to customer for originating and processing installment loan: $357
· 2853 locations across the US,
· “Our business is seasonal due to the impact of fluctuating demand for advances and fluctuating collection rates throughout the year. Demand has historically been highest in the third and fourth quarters of each year, corresponding to the back-to-school and holiday seasons, and lowest in the first quarter of each year, corresponding to our customers’ receipt of income tax refunds.”
· Net income: $70.15 million
· Total fees and interest charged to customers: $659.9 million

computersmoved from livejournal February 13, 2008

OpenBSD Bug Report

Yay, the bug report I submitted, #5372, for an issue I experienced during a headless install of OpenBSD/macppc has been posted. My workaround is here in the Trashwall article.

(In short, everything for a headless / via serial console install works automatically except setting up /etc/ttys so that the console goes to the serial port.)