The Comms Room

Dan

14:00

@pauska In my experience it's pretty efficient, yeah

thoguh all my USB sticks suck

ewwhite

10 minutes so far..

Stack Exchange

Standalone Sysadmin: Sick of hearing about DevOps? It hasn't even started.

posted on June 04, 2014 by <a id='post_author' class='fn' itemprop='name' …

I got a lot of flack about my last post from people who are jaded and tired of hearing about things that they interpret as being "what we've been doing forever". If that's the case, I'm sorry that you're getting annoyed, but you should know - this is about to blow up in ways that […]

ewwhite

@StackExchange Meh, I'm tired of hearing about devops.

Not every firm is developer-driven

Dan

@ewwhite Truth there

ewwhite

15 minutes...

Dan

14:09

Ah, you'll just have to wait I'm afraid

ewwhite

@Dan what if I didn't capture the image properly? What if I'm a fuckup?

Will my thin client come out running OS/2 Warp?

Windows CE?

MikeyB

@ewwhite Hackproof.

Journeyman Geek

@ewwhite only in a VERY special type of hell.

Tanner

@JourneymanGeek Hope he doesn't talk on his cell phone at movie theaters...

ewwhite

I do believe the last remaining OS/2 consultant is quite wealthy...

Journeyman Geek

14:16

@Tanner: you'd need to do that, kick kittens, give kindergarden kids wedgies, and steal their candy and pee in the pope's cornflakes

ewwhite

Ooops, I think I accidentally clicked "Factory Reset" @Dan

Dan

@ewwhite It would have failed :D

@ewwhite I don't recall ever seeing or using that option..

ewwhite

It's on the Linux devices

Dan

Oh, I'm sure it'll sort its shit out

MikeyB

"If you are attempting to install Warp on a hard drive greater than 4.3GB, or your are attempting to install Warp Server for e-business on a hard drive greater than 30GB, then the Installation diskettes must be updated."
Ah, I remember installing OS/2 back in… 1997? 1998?

Journeyman Geek

14:20

lol

MikeyB

Dem 4.3GB drives are HUGE, man.

Journeyman Geek

When I got my vm, I just found a preinstalled VDI

I've installed it before. PITA. You need a specific boot floppy

Bob

@ewwhite that winking gif...

ewwhite

@Bob you like it?

Dan

@ewwhite Image gone out yet?

ewwhite

14:26

@Dan no

Dan

:(

ewwhite

it's been 30+ minutes

WTF?

Bob

@ewwhite heahea.org/img/677-That_makes_me_moist.jpg (yea don't open that at work)

ewwhite

@Bob oh, I don't have a job... it's just me at home, and my dog doesn't mind.

Dan

@ewwhite Any network acticity on the HPDM box, and can anyone confirm what's on screen of the client?

Nathan C

14:30

@MikeyB "diskettes"

ewwhite

@Dan client isn't pingable anymore

Dan

@ewwhite Don't panic about that as I don't think i tis in the imaging environment

Tom O'Connor

Why the fuck would a backend engineer give a toss about UX

Back End Software Engineer

Capital One

osbbpeljsmssl

You’re an accomplished Lead Software Engineer. You know all about UX design. And you’ve got an in-depth…

Posted on Careers 2.0 on March 31, 2014

ewwhite

@Dan Um...

Dan

So what's happened there is that the machine hasn't booted back up and checked in within the timeout

ewwhite

14:34

it's pinging now

Dan

So it may have just taken a while

If you VNC on, is there anything you can look at to check if it's got the newer image?

ewwhite

"successfully executed imaging task"

Dan

There you go then

Just a bit slow - storage or network probablt

Although it does do a sysprep style process which may have just tipped the timeout over the egde

ewwhite

and damnit

Dan

But it worked on the source?

ewwhite

14:38

yes

how do I know if the image is different?

Dan

unless there's something specific you've changed, you don't really

Basil

morning

Fucking FC. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm ready for converged...

We have such an amazingly complex way of shunting fiber around our datacenter that it takes two specialized employees. And it's so complex that occasionally they make mistakes.

Journeyman Geek

lol

pauska

@Basil You should talk with @Chopper3 about this.. they switched (or are switching) from FC to FCoE

Chopper3

@Basil we did indeed, well we still have just over 50% of our kit on traditional FC but all the new stuff is FCoE

Dan

14:42

What's the key advantage of FCoE vs iSCSI?

Basil

@Chopper3 So you need special host connections, same one for FC as IP?

CNA, I think I remember them being called

ewwhite

@Dan moar better.

But in reality, I haven't seen FCoE anywhere

Basil

@Dan FCoE has in-order delivery and is lossless, for the most part

Nathan C

@ewwhite Can you connect to the console session?

Chopper3

@Dan latency certainly, there's no IP involved and also because you have to 'data centre ethernet' or whatever it's called these days you get some inherent benefits it brings

Basil

14:45

iSCSI doesn't fail gracefully in lossy situations

I don't know that FCoE does, but FC does and that's what I think they were trying to bring it into ethernet for

Dan

Interesting, cool

@Chopper3 I think that may have been my confusion - I was seeing at FCoIP

Which it clearly sin't

Chopper3

@Basil we use HP BL460c Gen8 blades that ship with 2 x 10Gbps CNA's on the mobo, you carve them up however you like - in our case usually either 5Gb/s for regular IP and 5Gbps for FC) or some other mix like 6/4, 2/8 etc. depending on the requirements

MikeyB

@Dan FCoE provides guarantees, iSCSI is best effort.

Dan

@MikeyB Just like my installs

Chopper3

@Dan ah, not, we do use that but less and less, that's what you use to do array-based replication between data centres if you don't have dark-fibre

@Basil you're right in that FC deals with failure better including in-order guarantee etc

Basil

14:52

@Chopper3 Have you heard much about how AIX and Z/OS handle converged networking? Now that I think about it, can you even do FICON on a converged switch?

BigHomie

@Basil all I read was ...womp womp wompwompwomp womp womp...

Chopper3

@Basil Not at all sorry, we're 98% OEL/RHEL in VMs sorry, very little physical stuff these days (DBs and LBs), and ESXi handles all of the CNA stuff 'blind' to the VMs

BigHomie

@TomO'Connor You didn't give it a chance. The next line was:

> Now you’re looking for a new challenge;

Chopper3

@Basil and no, FICON is FICON, not part of the FCoE spec soz. The lovely thing about FCoE/DCB is the whole thing is in one very short cisco book

ewwhite

@dan Does this look right?

Dan

15:02

Yeah, I just worry that it's not going to do both properly - I've never tried it with two rules in honesty.

But that's exactly what I'd be trying

BigHomie

Iain

@MichaelHampton so who made that change ?

Michael Hampton

@Iain No idea

It doesn't tell us things like that

MikeyB

^ MMMmmm nice little appliance here.

Iain

@MichaelHampton it's sorted anyway

ewwhite

15:09

@MikeyB ???

Michael Hampton

@Iain I took care of it

ewwhite

@Dan It turned out client had some thin clients unplugged because.... he ran out of ethernet cables

MikeyB

@ewwhite xyratex.com/products/clusterstor-1500

ewwhite

@MikeyB should I just come work for you?

MikeyB

@ewwhite Yeah man totally :)

ewwhite

15:12

@MikeyB Oh, but Canada :( Everything I see on Love it or List it makes it seem like Canada is full of slums and poor housing stock.

MikeyB

@ewwhite Pretty sure it's just Toronto and Vancouver on the show

ewwhite

@MikeyB What else is there in Canada? Fredericton?

Oh yeah... Sexy Montreal

MikeyB

@ewwhite comfree.com/…

OOOhhhhhh baby yeah beta.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?PropertyId=14329595

ewwhite

@MikeyB lots of room to spread out

not my style :)

Dan

@ewwhite :D

MikeyB

15:20

@ewwhite I think I'd need to hire staff to mow the lawn

Nathan C

computerworld.com/s/article/9248792/…

HopelessN00b

So much for that thing about open source being more secure than closed source.

BigHomie

@NathanC Not the best season for TLS

Bob

@NathanC So, when's it NSS's turn?

HopelessN00b

Yup. Lately, it's been safer and more secure to do your communications in plaintext, eh? Not sure if that funnier than it is sad, or vice-versa,

BigHomie

15:30

@HopelessN00b I'm migrating to PLSL

> PigLatinSocketsLayer

HopelessN00b

ROT13 for lyfe, bitches.

Bob

@BigHomie How about RTSL? (RotThirteen)

BigHomie

@Bob I can roll with that, nobody will ever think I'm using anything that simple

Bob

@HopelessN00b Might not be secure enough, though. We should be using ROT23400

BigHomie

It can't be they'll say

He's too security **conscious** they'll say

Nathan C

15:33

@HopelessN00b ROT13 100 passes

BigHomie

I don't think so Tim. Actually, I do think so, I just couldn't help but say that. — BigHomie 8 secs ago

Dan

@NathanC I rolled up some actual encryption into one of my products I figured I'd just set the iterations nice and high. Took about 3 minutes to process :(

mossy

wasup peeps.

BigHomie

there he is

@Iain uhh, weird, apparently we're supposed to get the same thing.

MikeyB

ah ha ha ha:
From my wife: "Apparently your daughter gave a life lesson to the (kindergarten) kids in her class today, by advising her friends they were mistaken when they said boys and girls could only get married to each other."

@BigHomie go for the 13-rounds of ROT1.

voretaq7

15:40

@Iain Stop breaking things :-)

(nothing is broken until someone discovers the breakage)

Iain

@voretaq7 by that definition then I broke it :)

voretaq7

@Iain Exactly. ~~Home~~ Software-wrecker!

HopelessN00b

Ugh. Someone please shoot me in the face.

Dan

shoots on @HopelessN00b's face

5

HopelessN00b

IN, not on, dammit.

BigHomie

15:44

That escalated quickly.

MikeyB

@HopelessN00b …

Nathan C

ewwhite

Dan

certs?

ewwhite

@Dan I dunno

only seems to impact certain users

pauska

15:59

using UPN?

ewwhite

no

and this is one of the ThinPro Linux devices.

so this happens when people enter the wrong password

HopelessN00b

Tell them not to enter the wrong password, then?

ewwhite

That's some bullshit...

h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Workstations-Thin-Clients/…

MikeyB

@ewwhite … so what's the problem? The misleading 'protocol error'?

ewwhite

Users will see the error and click "Change Domain Password"

HopelessN00b

16:07

That is pretty ridiculous... good luck getting it fixed, though.

MikeyB

@ewwhite … which changes the password the client is trying to use for the connection?

ewwhite

@MikeyB who knows what it will do?

:)

MikeyB

Truly, that is one of the worst error dialogs I have EVER seen.

2

ewwhite

I don't even know what to do about that.

voretaq7

@MikeyB @ewwhite Yeah that's pretty awful.

that's right up there with "VERB!"

MikeyB

16:11

@voretaq7 ACHTUNG! PASSWORD IS ERROR! HITLER DEMANDS CHANGE! would be a better error message.

3

voretaq7

@MikeyB VERB!

(that's an actual error message)

HopelessN00b

@ewwhite Switch to Dell? =D

voretaq7

ewwhite

@HopelessN00b the Windows thin clients don't do this

voretaq7

"When the servers ripen we pluck them and ship them. We smoke the rest of it."

HopelessN00b

16:13

@voretaq7 I prefer the Error: Error message not defined errors myself. Those always make me wanna blow up a bunch of developers.

ewwhite

and I just can't trust Linux for this... quirky shit like this error message

voretaq7

@HopelessN00b "Error 14."

(then you look in the error list in the back of the book and there's 1 through 13, 15, 16, 17....)

Dennis Kaarsemaker

@MikeyB openssl is a lot like the nazi's enigma: overly complex, looks secure initially, but broken by intelligence agencies for years...

MikeyB

@ewwhite Oh please. Don't blame Linux for that. HP wrote that bloody awful interface, not Linus.

HopelessN00b

@ewwhite OH, so these are Linux thin clients? You'd think they'd... well, I guess Linux+domain has always gotten less attention than it deserves.

voretaq7

16:15

@HopelessN00b As a developer I often had an error message buried in my code: "Error #xxx: This can't happen. What did you do?"

HopelessN00b

@MikeyB Right, but obviously HP didn't care to devote any QA time to testing their Linux clients against a domain, because no one seems to bother with that, for some reason.

voretaq7

(I was a good developer. I even checked for evading every possible constraint check and creating a situation that is impossible given the program's control flow.)

ewwhite

but most people seem to buy these HP ThinPro Linux clients for RDP

voretaq7

@HopelessN00b "For quality assurance and training purposes, this developer may be kicked in the testicles, or ovaries."

HopelessN00b

@voretaq7 Until a patch changes the program flow, of course. :)

ewwhite

16:16

according to my vendor

voretaq7

@HopelessN00b Then you'll trip the error and we'll know to add additional logic to the handler :)

@ewwhite That's right up there with "But the recruiting officer said..."

(The role of the error dialog will be played by R. Lee Ermey)

Bob

2

voretaq7

Hey, speaking of Dell, what ever happened to their pothead spokesdweeb?

@Bob I especially like that the error message doesn't fit in the goddamn dialog box!

HopelessN00b

Ben Curtis (actor)

Benjamin Bowmar Curtis (born November 2, 1980 in Chattanooga, Tennessee), also known as the Dell Dude or Slacker Steve, is an American actor and former promoter for Dell Computers. Curtis was prominently featured in the popular "Dell Dude" ads from 2000 to 2003. Early life and education Curtis is the second of two children, and has an older sister named Molly. He attended and graduated from the McCallie School, an all-boys school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after completing elementary school at Saint Nicholas School, also in Chattanooga. At four years old, Curtis met illusionist David C...

Lotta not-a-whole-lot, seems like.

Dennis Kaarsemaker

@ewwhite got some time to help me with a somewhat sensitive recruiter situation? I really need another pair of eyes on this. (Not related to børking)

voretaq7

16:23

@HopelessN00b eh, that's better than most spokesdweebs

ewwhite

@DennisKaarsemaker yes

you know my email

Dennis Kaarsemaker

thanks, incoming mail in 2 minutes :)

BigHomie

@HopelessN00b Dude, you're gettin a Dell

ewwhite

So I guess I messed up. I bought a bunch of HP Thin Pro Linux thin client units. This error does not need to have a fix.

mossy

You see some weird shit if you go to Walmart around noon on a weekday.

Saw an old fat lady on a scooter and her ~13 old kid on her lap

just scootin around

Then i saw this guy park his mustang in the middle of the parking lot. Didnt give a shit. Got out, went shopping.

voretaq7

16:29

@mossy peopleofwalmart.com

mossy

When i say middle. I mean, he was just right smack in the middle. blocking everyone.

Soviero

If you were going to be placed on a deserted (but safe) island forever, and could only bring one book, which book would it be?

BigHomie

voretaq7

@Soviero The Joy of Cooking Anything.

BigHomie

@Iain

How big are Croquet balls?

voretaq7

16:32

@BigHomie Apparently 3 5/8 inches

BigHomie

@voretaq7 Welp, I'd say those hail stones are about that, you?

voretaq7

@BigHomie they probably don't meet the weight or roundness requirement

but if you can find a 4-inch hailstone we can probably shave it down...

BigHomie

voretaq7

(Reason #87 I don't live west of the Mississippi or south of the Mason-Dixon line: "Hail stones big enough to dent metal.")

BigHomie

You sure, cuz...

Dennis Kaarsemaker

16:34

@BigHomie dayum....

voretaq7

@BigHomie am I sure I don't want to live where hail stones could wreck my car? Yeah, pretty sure :-)

BigHomie

Well it's head to the midwest, and after that, well take a guess ;)

voretaq7

@BigHomie It'll lose steam over western NY.

BigHomie

One hopes

voretaq7

It's got a looooong way to travel (over land) before it gets to me :)

BigHomie

16:37

> A derecho — a squall line of damaging winds along a path several hundred miles wide — was possible Tuesday night and through Wednesday afternoon along parts of eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and perhaps as far east as Illinois and Indiana, according to The Weather Channel.

several hundred miles pretty much covers the 5 burroughs I'd say

voretaq7

on rare occasions we get pea-sized hail out here. that's notable.

BigHomie

I couldn't imagine driving when those things are coming down

voretaq7

@BigHomie Meh. there's barely red over ohio.

flatlanders will absorb the storm's fury. God hates flatlanders.

Also does anyone else find it amusing that Alaska has like NO weather radar coverage?

radar.weather.gov/Conus/alaska.php

BigHomie

@voretaq7 That's b/c it's a military testing facility

voretaq7

@BigHomie I thought it was because it was cold and nobody wants to live there to service the weather radar. (Also Sarah Palin.)

kce

16:45

@voretaq7 - The weather is so damn hard to predict that most pilots go VFR, seat of pants

I never fly in small plane without floats

BigHomie

@voretaq7 The person w/ tweeted that hail pic got tweeted by every news outlet in the country wanting to use that picture. What kind of job allows someone to scour tweets all day

voretaq7

@kce Nonsense, I can predict Alaska's weather very reliably.

Summer: Cool.
Spring/Fall: Cold.
Winter: *Fucking* Cold.

kce

@voretaq7 - You'd be surprised at the variety of different conditions in that spectrum

but you also forgot:
Summer: Light all the time
Spring/Fall: Grey all the time
Winter: Dark all the time

Skyhawk

@kce Oh, come now, we have IFR in Alaska. Two kinds: I FOLLOW ROAD and I FOLLOW RIVER.

kce

@Skyhawk - HAHA. Yeah.

HopelessN00b

16:49

This is crap I never should have tried to help with, right?

-1

Q: How do I become root on a remote server until I am disconnected from that server?

So far I have this: sshpass -p "password" ssh -q [email protected] " [ "$(whoami)" != "root" ] && exec sudo -- "$0" "$@" ; whoami ; [run some commands as root]" I keeps giving me username as answer from whoami. I want to be root as soon as I am connected to the server (but I can only co...

linux

BigHomie

@HopelessN00b hahaha ahh

Skyhawk

@kce Of course, in your part of Alaska you have to be IFF equipped. Not because of the Russians, but to unlock I FOLLOW FJORD.

mossy

So on a scale. 1 - 10. How awkward is this? youtube.com/watch?v=nDwEFvOh9co#t=2333

3

That's what happens when you tell your kids that they can be anything they want. JUST GO GET IT.

kce

@Skyhawk - Yeah. In the interior it's a bit different but flying in a 180 on wheels always makes me nervous. Where are you going to land when the ceiling drops to 200'?

Generally speaking... the side of a mountain.

BigHomie

@HopelessN00b I think they call that a slow motion train wreck

voretaq7

16:52

@Skyhawk Stop whining, all your airports have GPS approaches now :P

HopelessN00b

@BigHomie Oh, no doubt, but I really should have seen that coming, for how basic and dumb the question is.

kce

@voretaq7 - For big planes. I'm not sure about small craft. I'm not a pilot.

The problem will all the GPS stuff is you can get up above weather and get to your destination and then have no way to land.

voretaq7

@kce If you invest in the $8-10k GPS (and the $3-5k for the avionics shop to install the damn thing) you can fly GPS approaches in small planes

kce

@voretaq7 - Again. Not a pilot but don't you have to be able to reliably see for at least 500' for your landing?

BigHomie

> "I'm also a super-genius, like yourself"

mossy

16:55

@BigHomie i can't believe he did that hahaha.

he would have better luck asking for a million dollars.

Iain

@HopelessN00b I think it has a better home on Unix & Linux

BigHomie

@mossy amazon.com/Roy-Philipose/e/B005CHUS94

kce

BigHomie

@kce demecho?

Skyhawk

@voretaq7 Take a look at @kce's GPS approach. Especially the MDA, keeping in mind that the airport is down at sea level. 155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1406/01191RV8.PDF

kce

16:58

@voretaq7 - Pretty standard weather. Except the mountains are anywhere to 3000' - 8000' which easily hit your visibility ceiling. I just don't get how GPS can help you land when you can't see anything. I guess you trust the maps, follow the dotted line and fly IFR?

@BigHomie - Pardon?

voretaq7

@kce generally you need to be able to see the runway from around 500-600 feet above it (e.g. this one generally requires ~550 ft to the cloud base & a mile visibility), like @Skyhawk said though sometimes the minimums are higher (e.g. if you're in a valley)

MikeyB

@kce get your networking sorted out? Seemed like you just needed to have an 'ah hah!' moment and you'd be good

BigHomie

Derecho

A derecho (, , from , "straight") is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a land-based, fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms. Derechos can carry hurricanic or tornadic force and can deliver heavy rains and perhaps flash floods as well as strong winds. Winds convection-induced take on a bow echo (backward "C") form of squall line, forming in an area of wind divergence in upper levels of the troposphere, within a region of low-level warm air advection and rich low-level moisture. They travel quickly in the direction of movement of their associ...

yeah yeah I misspelled it

Back End Software Engineer

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