The Always-Outsider

So, gurukuli.co.uk has just had it’s tenth anniversary:

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 19-May-2000
Renewal date: 19-May-2012
Last updated: 24-May-2010

I haven’t even lived in the same country for that long! [...]

I’ve been playing with a no-name router i picked up for free from a friend. This router seems to run an OS very similar to OpenWRT (linux 2.4 kernel, busybox, dropbear), though with a few annoying proprietary modifications. I am attempting to make OpenWRT work on this router. It has the following specs:

BCM947xx SoC
16 MB [...]

RRDtool is insanely useful. If you’re looking after lots of servers like I have to, it helps to be able to graph various system stats both to placate management, and to plan for upgrades, failures, etc.

I got the following plate of multicoloured spaghetti by graphing the User CPU of a whole bunch of servers using [...]

This is basically what I gleaned from my time trying to work remotely from Vrindavan. I think the Indian mobile Internet services at the time are just starting to take off, so the phone guys mostly know how to set it up, but a lot of western visitors are still in the dark. A lot [...]

The ReadyNAS 1100 is one of Netgear’s small business ‘NAS’ solutions. Cheap NAS devices became popular a few years ago when people started realising you didn’t need a Windows NT or 2003 server plus CALs just to serve files. They’re usually a Linux or *BSD machine with a couple of extra Ethernet interfaces. This is [...]

Who on earth gets it into their head that some like this was a good idea to build? Whatever you plug it into, pain will result!

I was just shown something by a friend of mine (FrostyCoolSlug). Google Spreadsheets has the ability to incorporate live data from teh intarwebs in the coolest of ways:

=GoogleLookup(”Query”, “value”)

This allows you to do such things as:

=GoogleLookup(”London”, “population”)

=GoogleLookup(”India”, “GDP”)

…and also:

=GoogleLookup(”Water”, “boiling point”)

I certainly wish I’d had the ability to use tools like this for homework. This [...]

Apple: “hey, fanboiz, here’s a computer with no monitor”

fanboyz: “here, Lord Stevie, take our money, TAKE IT!!! Just please give us prettier computers than our PC using cohorts”

far eastern manufacturer: “O HAI GUISE WATS GOIN ON IN HERE”

Apple: “fuck off, we’re innovating”

far eastern manufacturer: “O RLY? WERE IN UR MANUFACTURIN PLANT STEALIN UR INAVATINS AND [...]

Want!

Right then, I know I’m a bit behind the curve about this, but I’m pretty sure that the Agora Pro handset from Aussie odd-company Kogan is going to give those bastards at T-Mobile a run for their money. I’ve been looking for a way to get an Android handset on Pay-As-You-Go since before it [...]

Greetings, Blogosphere. Yet more anti-commercial/anti-microsoft blathering. Sorry. I just feel like i’ve got something i want to say, and maybe someone else will agree with me.

So, I’ve been using this Hyperic thing, which is a Nagios style monitoring appand i’ve run into a wall. There’s a tendency among ‘commercial software vendors to release a crippled [...]