I finally decided to follow on the problem of not getting notified when problems occur. The person to whom I talked about the problem of the lost messages investigated and found that there had been an error made that prevented the messages from being delivered. It is unsettling to find out that there had been a problem for so long but the good thing coming out of it is that future problems will actually be acted upon much earlier.

We have been having problem with one of the tires on the car; it had developed a slow leak. Well, today, that tired decided to replace slow with fast. Of course, it had to happen in the pouring rain as my wife was going to her doctor's appointment. She was able to drive to a nearby service station and fill the tire with enough air to get the car to Wal-Mart were we were able to get the spare tire put on the car (Wal-Mart could not, in the short time left to their work day, fix the tire). At least the car can be used again. And tomorrow we will get the tire fixed (and the oil changed as well while we're at it).

Good night!

Dealing with problems on a "best efforts" basis only works if you can be made aware of the problem. The reason I am bringing this up is that I had to go in today to fix a problem with one of our backup servers: the problem had started late yesterday afternoon and went almost 24 hours undetected!!! If the monitoring that we have set up had worked properly, someone should have been called within an hour of the problem taking place. But somehow part of the process that gets the alert to the right place did not happen.

And it turns out that the problem was that the power went out in the room where the server is located. The server itself is on a UPS, but it turns out that the terminal that is used as the console is not. And that means that, when the power goes out, the terminal shuts down and if the server key is not in the locked position it acts as if it had received a break signal and goes to the "ok>" prompt (this will make sense to people familiar with Sun servers). Suffice it to say that the server is basically stopped when it is at the "ok>" prompt. All that needed to be done was type "go" and the server resumed processing!

Turns out that I have spent most of the day away from home: Church from 10:30 - 15:00 (service and meeting) and then I had to go to work (3.5 hours worth).

Good night!

"Fall back, spring forward"

Well since we are now in the Fall, I guess the clocks are being moved back an hour tonight. I always find it funny that people say "We get an extra hour of sleep!" where actually it is more like "I got to stay up an extra hour." So this is what I am doing (it is actually 1:25am [well 12:25 in new time]), using that extra hour to get a little more work done. By the way, you can sort of ignore the post time; if it is after Midnight I usually will set the time to 11:58pm so that it looks like the entry was made on the previous day since that is the day I am talking about in the blog.

I am checking the backups this weekend and it looks like we have more media servers that are misbehaving. Two of the media servers decided to freeze all the scratch tapes - which of course means that there is nothing left for everything else. Fortunately, it appears that I caught in early enough (and also that those servers begin their backups late enough) that not many clients were affected. Thank God for small favours!

Good night!

Looks like we were just on the edge of filling a whole tape with the catalog backup as it has started failing again after being successful for three days. I knew this day would come as the catalog keeps growing but I had hoped for a longer reprieve. I guess it is time to implement the workaround suggested by the vendor.

As mentioned yesterday, we went looking for a case for my new Palm. It actually went like this: my wife did all the leg work and then picked me up for lunch and took me to the one place that had the best selection. Just as I had surmised there no longer were any cases designed specifically for the VIIx (after all the design is over 5 years old), so I ended up buying a universal neoprene case from Belkin. It has a belt loop - but I think I am carrying enough stuff on my belt already (2 cell phones).

Good night!

I guess this is not news anymore but the catalog backup was successful once again. Glad to see I was able to fix a problem. I am not having much luck trying to fix the media server not responding. The consensus seems to be that the backup software on the master server will have to be stopped and restarted before things start to work.

My PDA (Sony Clie T415) has been slowly falling apart. I bought it used and have had it for at least a couple of years. It is missing a couple of screws and the digitizer has been getting worse, which means I have to re-calibrate it frequently. My wife noticed that a liquidator in town had older model Palm PDAs on sale. So I went and got myself a Palm VIIx. Next thing to buy will be a case for it.

Choir practice tonight so I did not spend much time at home. Therefore not much else to say.

Good night!

This is turning into a work related blog. I don't know if this is what I had in mind when I started this blog, but it certainly seems to be pretty much all I write about.

And that brings us into work related stuff :). So the catalog backup has now worked for two days straight, and the cleanup routines have also been working properly. I guess I can stop worrying about those things for the time being. The next thing to tackle is our new media server that does not seem to be willing to do any backups. It seems to talk to the master and other media servers okay, but if you start a backup job using that server as the media server, it just goes into a queued state and never gets going. Another mystery to solve. I don't mind saying that it is exactly what I like to do best.

Another quiet day at home - I was at home all evening for the first time this week! My youngest daughter fixed a Mexican casserole and it was very good. I don't know that she is too keen on repeating the experience, but that is mostly because of all the preparation involved. She had thought that it would only take 20 minutes to get the whole thing together but it took her an hour. But that has a lot to do with the fact that she is not used to working in the kitchen so everything took longer. There was also the nervousness about whether or not the casserole was going to be edible but as I mentioned already (but it bears repeating) the casserole was very good. I really had to refrain myself from getting way too many helpings.

Good night!

Turns out that changing the tape that was being used for the catalog backup made it possible for us to get a successful catalog backup. Even though I know it is just a short time fix, it is good to once again have a valid backup of our catalog database as it had been over 20 days since a good backup had taken place. I did set up then next phase, which is how to continue to get backups of the database once it no longer fits on a tape.

Did not spend much time at home today as I had a finance committee meeting at the church that took most of the evening. So unfortunately there isn't much to say on the home front.

Good night!

I am starting to think that maybe we should try another tape to do the catalog backup. After all I have managed to get the catalog cleanup to work as it should, and the size of the catalog is the smallest it has been in a month, but the catalog backup still failed. I just cannot see how this could still fail as I just know that we have successfully backed up the catalog when it was that size before. I think it is time to change the tape - something I will do tomorrow.

Not a whole lot to say about the rest of the day. It worries me that my wife is still suffering from whatever ailment she has and does not seem to be getting much better. Hopefully the rest she is planning to take tomorrow will help put her on the road to recovery.

I have found this new puzzle game: Su Doku. I saw a report about it on CNN Headline News and decided to give it a try. I think I will like playing the game but that is not much of a surprise as I like logic puzzles. I am still just working on the easy puzzles, and I am slower than average, but I think I will get better as I get more practice. I think everyone should at least give it a try.

Good night!

Today I was able to get the other host to perform its cleanup. Interestingly enough, the first host was again giving me grief and I had to make the same change to both hosts so that the cleanup would complete without crashing. I find that very weird. Also, the catalog backup is still failing although I think I have gotten the catalog almost as lean as possible. I guess I will give it one more try on Monday before giving up on this particular method and moving to the recommended method for catalogs that are too large to fit on one tape.

This has been a pretty quiet day, with church in the morning and then just sitting in front of the computer playing games and watching the cleanup process to see if things were progressing. That suited me fine as I did not feel like doing much of anything today. Probably still recuperating from the cold I had the last couple of weeks. I don't think I am over it just yet, but things are getting better I think.

Well I better close so I can get a good night's sleep before work tomorrow. The teachers are back at work tomorrow which means that I will have to fight the crowds of students going back to school tomorrow. It has been very nice not having to worry about being on a bus stuffed to the gills with people but tomorrow it is back to the old routine. Oh well....

Good night!

This entry is the 100th for this blog. I would celebrate except for the fact that this occasion should have happened much earlier in the week. As I mention in my other blog, I thought that I had this daily blogging down - but obviously not.

There is not much to tell. I did work on work-related things today. We have been having trouble getting a backup of the NetBackup catalog lately. This is due to the fact that the catalog is now larger than what can fit on one tape, and NetBackup cannot handle a catalog that size. The problem, however, stems from the fact that the catalog has not been cleaned up for the last couple of weeks. It would appear that we have some corruption in the catalog which prevents the cleanup from completing. I was working on that today and it would appear I got half of it fixed. We had two hosts whose catalog entries were corrupt and I was able to fix one of them. I am hoping that once I fix the other one on Sunday the cleanup will complete and we will be able to get a good catalog backup.

Good night!

I did end up going to work on Monday - although I should say I tried to go to work. There were pickets in front of my office building so I did not cross the picket line and went home. That was the day of the big union rally in front of the Parliament buildings. Just as I had thought, I got a letter from my employer today (all of us got one actually since we all refused to cross) saying that since I did not show up for work I would not get paid. Duh! Also, there is some vague reference about being subject to discipline if we refuse to cross again (apparently we cannot refuse to cross an illegal picket) but I have not been able to get an answer as to what kind of disciplinary action they are referring to. I certainly would like to be able to make an informed decision if there is another picket in front of the building.

Good night!

I had been seriously considering going to the union rally tomorrow - but then I found out that the bus drivers will most likely be off the job as well which means that there is not easy way to get downtown. I think I will just go to work and gripe instead.

Of course that does not mean that I am all better as far as the cold front is concerned. That just means that I have decided that I have been off work long enough and it is time for me to go back and see if I get sicker.

Good night!

Well only as far as work is concerned. I have been staying home sick all week. Today was no exception (I guess it would not have been all week if I had gone to work today) and the only real reason I am still up is that this is the best I have felt all day - I actually feel pretty good! I know it is not going to last so I am enjoying it while it lasts.

I have slept an average of 11 hours the last two nights; that is significantly more than I would normally be sleeping so I guess this is my body's way of making sure it can work on getting rid of the cold. I plan on giving my body all the sleep it wants tonight as well.

Not much else to talk about so I will close.

Good night!

Took this test as a lark - and I find it very interesting that my results are very similar to my son's....

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who have a split personality - cold as ice on the outside but hot as fire in the heart. In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored. You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring. You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please. Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

I have been home sick all week. It is just a cold, but because I have high blood pressure I cannot use cold remedies. Which of course means that I cannot mask the symptoms while they run their course. Which makes for a rather uncomfortable 7 days (which is, from what I understand, how long it takes for a cold to run its course). Another incentive to see if I can work on getting rid of the high blood pressure.

One thing I ran across while I was just surfing is this web site: PocketMod. It is a clever way to make a small 8 page notebook out of a regular 8.5x11 piece of paper. You can decide what is going on each of the pages, and when you're done you just print it, fold and cut, and you end up with a nice small 8 page notebook. Give it a try, you may be impressed.

Good night!

When I wrote "nursing a cold" it struck me as funny that I would want to nurse a cold. After all, all I really want to do is get rid of it. I guess "fighting a cold" would have been better.

In any case, I have come down with a cold - on the weekend, again - but this time it is hanging on and spilling into the work week. I did not go to work today (Tuesday) and do not intend to go to work tomorrow (Wednesday) either. I do feel sort of human now that I am taking medication for the cold, but the problem comes when I try to do any kind of work - I really have no stamina at all. Which is why I will not be going to work tomorrow as I want a chance to recuperate.

So today was a day to try and survive the cold as well as possible. I did try to do a couple of things which showed me that I should not try and do too much until my body has had a chance to fight this cold.

Good night!

Another Sunday, another slow day. Of course, that is how I like my Sundays; that way I get to take it easy and rest. After going to church in the morning, I did very little besides reading mail, playing games, taking my older daughter to/from her work. Which of course means that there is very little to say and/or write about.

But I should not forget to mention the excellent Thanksgiving dinner that was prepared by my wife. She did the bulk of the work with the rest of us helping with little things like salads, gravy, and cleaning up. She made her famous cornbread dressing and I have to confess that I ate entirely too much of it - but what can I say it was very good!

Good night!

I managed to give myself somewhat of a scare today. We were talking about having our cell phones while we were driving to pick my older daughter from work when I reached over to make sure mine was on and noticed that the phone, and its holder, was not on my belt. Trying to call it only managed to show that it was not in the car. Of course, I could not remember seeing my cell phone since early in the morning when I took it off the charger. By then it was 6 hours later and we had been all over town. We did find my phone when we got back home an hour later - it had fallen off of my belt when I was sitting at the living room table. Lucky for me! I had visions of never seeing that phone again - and of course I am in the first year of a three year contract.

I was going to say that I did not do much today, but that would be a lie. I, keeping my wife company, went many different places in town: grocery store, library, bookstore, Wal-Mart, drugstore, coffee shop to name a few (well most of them). And when I was not out and about I was either proofreading a slide presentation of putting another one together. Busy day I guess.

Good night!

There has been a lot of talk about spammers being able to harvest email addresses from messages that are put in public forums. This has spawned a multitude of ways to try and give your email address but without actually typing your email address. Some examples would be "myname AT gmail DOT com" and "myname@NOSPAM.gmail.com". But just like the word verification used in more and more web sites which ensures that it is a real person trying to sign on, the latest way has been to have an email icon. One of the ways to do this is to go to the E-Mail Icon Generator web page. I think this is a great way to do it. I will be putting one of those icons on this page soon.

On the great news side of things, my wife is home. YAY!!! I have taken a few days off from work to spend some quality time with her.

Good afternoon!

By this time tomorrow my wife will be here... YAY! It will be great to have her back.

Did you know that there are mail web sites that offer lots of space for your email? If you are using Hotmail, they give you 250Mb of space for your emails. One site where I am slowly moving as my main email address is offered by Google and it offers you (at the time of this writing) 10 times that amount. Two other sites that I found out about today offer 120 times and 400 times the amount that Hotmail offers! Of course there is nothing that says those 2 latter companies will be around tomorrow, but it certainly is amazing to see how much space there is available.

You can email me here: cthibodeau AT 30gigs DOT com if you would like more info. The reason I say this is that two of the three require an invitation to join.

Good night!

Another non-hectic day today. Well it was a little hectic at church this morning when we were trying to make sure that the slide presentation for the service was actually there, but once that mini-crisis was over things were pretty much smooth sailing from then on.

I got to talk to my wife today - and she reiterated once again how hot it is down there. Whereas we have a temperature in the 50sF here, where she is it is in the 90sF. I have this feeling she will not even mind the rain when she comes back home. Only two more sleeps!

Forgot to take the laptop back to the office tonight (I usually take the laptop to the office on Sunday night so I don't have to lug it on the bus on Monday morning). Fortunately for me, my older daughter is working just after 10am tomorrow morning so I will just work from home for a couple of hours and then head to the office with the car.

Good night!

Ah the weekend. How I love thee. Saturdays have to be my favourite day - only because it is the one day of the week where I can sleep in. So sleep in I did. I did not get up until 10am, and then I immediately plopped myself in front of the computer and did not really move from there until we went out for lunch (we were going to eat in, but could not agree on one thing that we could all have).

I think I have recovered mostly from my cold, most likely because I have been getting more rest. So it would behoove me to go to bed at a decent hour tonight so I can keep up the getting more rest part. But knowing me, I probably will go to bed at some late hour (like 2am or something) - the only saving grace will be that if that happens, I do not have to get up on Sunday until 8:30am.

Chatted with my wife (Hi gorgeous!) on MSN today. Her sister and brother-in-law arrived safely but the airline did manage to misplace one of their suitcases. I hope that this will give my wife a chance to unwind a little bit - I think she was stressed out having to take care of her mom by herself. The great thing is that she is coming home on Tuesday. Yay!!!!

Well I better quit and go to bed.

Good night!