Musings of a Mildly Misanthropic Technologist.

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So it's not a secret that I am a big fan of Debian Linux, and also not a secret that I am a big fan of NetApp's storage technology (I did go work for them when given the chance after all), however in the "Enterprise" world Debian is kind of a second class citizen. Most people have heard of it but RedHat kinda rules the day... Thankfully if you do it right Linux is pretty much Linux from a compiled binary standpoint.

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| I have been spending a lot of time lately with the handy NetApp Data ONTAP 8.1.1 cluster mode simulator, including getting a lab setup at home. It's a fantastic product and stands to be a very disruptive revolution in the way enterprises manage and think about storage but all of that has been covered over and over again by people more articulate on the messaging than I. But since I monitor all my personal IT infrastructure with Nagios already I wanted to monitor my cluster (even though it is a simulator) as well.

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So NetApp is starting to push Data ONTAP 8.1 running in Cluster Mode as the Next Big Thing in storage technology because among other things is brings scale-out to our already industry-leading storage management technology.

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So I've been playing around with getting the Data ONTAP 8.1 simulator running on my MacBook Pro under VMware Fusion 4.1 and during the initial configuration I realized that there was no obvious way to determine the IP address automatically assigned to the host only network (vmnet1) during installation. Unfortunately it appears that VMware does not expose this from the UI. There is not a lot of good information via Google or on the NetApp Simulator Communities website that I was able to find so I figured I'd write it down in hopes that Google's spider notices.

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I recently have been re-architecting my network at home and one of the big transitions has been back to NFS home directories across my Linux systems. I previously used NFSv3 shares to provide this functionality years ago but now that modern Linux systems (I am running mostly Debian 6.0 (squeeze)) support the more secure, performant and robust NFS version 4 I standardized on that. Thanks to my use of nss_ldap for user authentication it has been pretty straightforward but there have been a couple of interesting gotchas.

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Thinking back at the first 12 or 13 hours of my flight training I have to say it was mostly an experience of pretty constant enjoyment. My instructor has a mission based syllabus so all the lessons up until now have been go somewhere do something missions which I really enjoied. It means I got to go through the process of a typical flight: plan, brief, pre-flight, and execute the mission. Going somewhere (usually a nearby airport or landmark) means I got to go through the phases of a typical flight (departure, enroute/cruise, arrival) and the differing work loads associated with them. I'd exersize my skills (such as they are at this point) in various tasks such as pilotage (navigating by looking at a map and out the window), radio communication (not with ATC yet, but CTAF certainly), straight and level flight, airport operations, etc...

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So, if all this technology worked right this should actually post as I am leaving ROC for ORD, my only stop enroute to NRT (Tokyo, Japan). Over the last few weeks people have been asking me if I am still going to Japan on holiday and my answer has been an unwavering yes. Granted things looked a little sketchy for a bit there, the trains from Narita into Tokyo proper were running at reduced rates (and even briefly closed) and I admit I was not really liking the idea of tossing down 23,000円-25,000円 ($280 - $310) right out the gate for a taxi, or rolling around in a bus for 2 to 3 hours after flying for 20 but if that was the price I was going to have to pay I was willing to pay it. Once the trains resumed service last week I felt confident that the trip would be problem-free and the anxiety was left behind. I have full faith in both the Japanese government, people and the international group of scientists that are working on the problems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as well as the relief workers bringing aid to the victims of the massive earthquake and tsunami. Along with donating to the Red Cross, bringing in a little tourism money and showing some faith is about the best I can come up with to do to help.

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The hardest thing about vacations is coming back home and getting used to returning to the daily routines. I had a fantastic time in California as has come to be expected by now. There are a few new pictures over in the gallery. The highlights were the AOPA Summit in Long Beach and the spirit tasting and pairing at the St George Spirits distillery in Alameda. I had a fantastic two weeks visiting with wonderful friends, eating more than my share of awesome food (Izzy's steakhouse has my vote for best steak ever and Gather in Berkley for best healthy meal ever) drinking my share of delicious wine, beer and spirits and got to take in more of California, which is never a bad thing.

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Statistically speaking flying (even General Aviation) is pretty darn safe to life, limb, and property (AOPA has some nice statistics here) however it does pose a significant risk to your wallet. Flying is of course not a cheap hobby to have in the first place but it is all the ancillary costs that you don't factor in. Yes, you DO need that $1100 headset, yes you DO need that 'I fly' doormat you saw in the latest catalog that randomly showed up at your house because the FAA publishes certificate holder information publicly, and YES, you do need to get in the big sky buses to go to various aviation related events in all parts of the globe. Flying isn't a drug or an addiction, flying is something that was always there in your blood that you woke up and now that it is awake it is no longer something you can ignore.

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Today marks ten hours in the log book and a little over a month of flying lessons. I have been to (and landed at) two airports other than my home base and am starting to get comfortable with the multitude of tasks that you have to complete while operating an aircraft. The ground operations are pretty solid (preflight, planning, taxi, run-up, getting around the airport) and on smooth days I'm pretty confident during climb, cruise and descent.

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I had my first honest-to-goodness-fly-the-plane flight lesson last week and I swear I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. I have no trouble understanding the science of flying, it all makes perfect sense to me. The best part of science though is always practical application. Sure, theorizing about the Higgs Boson is fun but when you get down to the part where you are slamming subatomic particles together at nearly the speed of light something totally different happens. Similarly when you are going down the runway at full throttle and the plane gets light and you get the nose up above the horizon it is just something you can't quite get out of your skull.

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Earlier this year I had the good fortune to visit some friends in California and take my first ride in a light airplane. In spite of the 29,000+ miles I have flown this year the smallest plane I had been on prior was a twin-turboprop Delta Connection flight out of IAD to ROC so this was a really unique experience for me.

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Introduction, or Why I care...

I have been meaning to install ESXi on a server I have sitting in the house for a while but a lack of CD-ROM drive has been stalling things for a while so I wanted to see if there was any chance of booting the ISO image from the network.

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What a whirlwind week, last Tuesday I flew from Rochester to Edinburgh to finally meet a friend from one of the IRC channels I frequent. So I landed early Wednesday morning and we spent some time wandering around Edinburgh. I can report in that in fact Haggis is actually pretty good, and in spite of what I've heard about the Guinness the USA gets being different from the real stuff, it's really not.

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