Caffeine makes me cranky. Irritable, argumentative and very quick to attack people’s opinions. So cranky you could define the crankiness by my behaviour. Usually the first attack comes on Saturday. See I’m trying to quit drinking the stuff so on week-ends I don’t drink any. The body notices the lack of stimulants and reacts by crankiness. Yes, I know that technically this is a withdrawal effect and not really influence of the caffeine. But that’s like saying that … I can’t find a proper simile right now but I think it’s quite clear what I mean. If I manage to go through the whole week-end without any caffeine then on Monday I go to work so cranky (it being Monday probably doesn’t help) that I usually give up my “giving up caffeine” decision and the cycle starts again. Recently I decided this doesn’t work so now I’m ingesting caffeine through the whole week, avoiding the worst of these mood swings. The problem is that it takes a whole week to get rid of all the effects of the caffeine on the body. Psychological addiction stays much longer, probably for-ever.

So here I am, looking for another method of stopping caffeine intake, probably slower than the “cold turkey” method since I’d rather avoid being cranky for a whole week.

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That’s rather shocking to me. I know that as a sysadmin you have access to passwords and privileged accounts but you’re given them for a very specific purpose not just for your amusement. It’s like your GP telling everybody about your sickness.

Since it looks like avoiding the bad sysadmins is going to be difficult, you have to defend yourself. The only sure defense in this case is not to use the computer at work for anything you’d prefer to remain private. You just can’t be sure otherwise. In many organizations IT staff who left may still have access to the company’s network. This increases your exposure even more. Like for example in this organization.

By the way, the research is already over a year old but it looks like it just got picked up by MSNBC and the blogosphere.

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Version 1.0 of Wine has been published today as well. Wine is a compatibility layer for running Windows programs directly in many Unixes, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Solaris.

Firefox team had announced the release date in advance and for some time the website from where you can download the new version of the web browser has been unavailable. Wine website was also down temporarily.

At this moment both websites seem to be up again but one wonders if this was the case of a bigger success than expected…

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My results:

ping: 26 ms

download: 5768 kb/s

upload: 538 kb/s

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I’m awake enough to realize that this was not really enough sleep so I try to fall asleep. Of course it doesn’t work because the harder I try the more awake I feel. After an hour or so I give up and get up. I wonder what’s the connection between “give up” and “get up”? By that time it’s almost 4 am so it doesn’t feel so weird to be up anymore. But still, what can you do at such an early time? Wash dishes - there are always some left from the dinner. And maybe clean the cooker - that’s also because of the dinner. And then? Hmm, how about writing a post on how it is to wake up at such a ridiculous time. Problem is, just because it’s early doesn’t mean I’ve got any great ideas in my head so the post is not going to be anything fantastic. And the worst part? Between 6 and 7 am I’ll probably start feeling drowsy and would want to fall asleep again. Of course at that time it’s a bit too late for that as I should be really going to work. Because, this story doesn’t happen on a weekend night, nope.

So here I am, wondering how to survive this day without ingesting excessive amounts of legal stimulants which in this part of the world equals caffeine. And no, taking a day off is off limits, I’ve got a very busy schedule. Hopefully the business (as in the process of being busy) will keep me from falling asleep. After all I did sleep more than 2 hours so it shouldn’t be too bad. Hmm, maybe I’ll do some exercise before going to work, this used to give me an energy boost.

I must admit I got distracted, I was looking for reviews of this laptop. Quite nice specs for this price. Even comes without Windows which is a good thing if you don’t want to give any money to Microsoft just because you’re buying a computer.

Actually it looks like the drowsiness came earlier than expected this time. I’m wondering if I should try get a few zzz’s before breakfast.

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Blow them out of the water.

First let us define what is meant here by a great blog post. I am assuming that if you are reading this post you are looking for ways to increase the readership of your blog and that is what I am going to focus on - how to write a blog post which will bring lots of readers to your blog.

Hook them and keep them.

The definitions are out of the way and now we can focus on the meat of the issue. You want to write a fantastic post which will result in lots of visitors to your blog. There are three parts to achieving this goal:

• hook - the readers find your post
• sink - the readers find the post interesting
• liner - the readers spread the word about your post

All three parts are essential in order to create a great post. They work best if combined together. Thanks to the synergy their effectiveness reaches its maximum.

The hook

First you need to somehow put the post in front of as many eyeballs as possible. The way to catch the attention of your steady readers is to start with a good title and follow with a great opening. Attracting new readers who do not know yet about your blog is different; use the right keywords in the post so it gets picked up by the search engines, then apply a bit of SEO. You can also place the links to your post in relevant online forums. Be careful as this method works best if the post is truly connected to the issues discussed on the forum.

The sink

People are starting to read your post. Now you need to make sure they keep reading till the very end. You can guarantee this will happen by thinking of a topic and a goal for the post before you start writing it. Both the topic and the goal have to be crisp and clear. You cannot afford to confuse your readers. After you have the post content written it is absolutely crucial that you edit it - this step is essential if you want to end up with a great post. Some of the content will be thrown away during editing, this is normal and expected.

The liner

The readers like your post and feel good about having read it. You want them to tell other people about it, to spread the news. They will be more likely to do this if your post is in some way useful to them and if the content is still current. These types of posts will bring traffic to the whole blog over a long time not only for a short while. They’re known as Pilar Articles, Flagship Content or Cornerstone Content. Regardless of the name you chose for these posts they will be the workhorse of your blog. They will be linked to by other people and they will rank highly in the search engines. All these factors will contribute to bringing you more traffic.

The synergy

Use effectively all three parts of the process to end up with a wildly successful post. Perfection is rarely achieved the first time; you will get better if you do it again and again. You’re bound to hit it true. Happy and successful writing!

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What do you need:

1. Linux, any distribution will do. Linux can be installed on the physical hardware or in a virtual machine (like for example VMware, Xen, VirtualBox or Virtual PC). It is important that you have access to a DVD drive. Otherwise you’ll have to first create an .iso image of the video DVD you want to convert. mplayer is also available for Windows so you could try the same process using Windows if you prefer.
2. mplayer. Installation of mplayer depends on the Linux distribution, some have it preinstalled, others require you to install it yourself. For most users the easiest option will be to find pre-built binaries in .rpm, .deb or other appropriate format and install them. I’m not going to go into details here, if you need directions drop me a comment.
3. DVD with the videos you want to convert. If your Linux installation can access a DVD drive you just need to insert the DVD disc, otherwise you need to create an .iso image.
4. Some program to convert .wav files into .mp3. Anything you use to convert CDs to mp3 can usually convert .wav files also.

Preparations:

1. Decide whether you want to convert the whole video or only some specific fragments.
2. Decide whether you want to convert the video into one audio file or maybe you prefer separate file for each chapter.
3. If you decided to do the conversion from an .iso image you need to create it.
4. Make sure you have enough disk space for the audio files. You need about 6 MB per one minute.

Conversion:

1. Create .wav files from your video using mplayer. The command to execute is:
   mplayer dvd://1 -chapter [first chapter]-[last chapter] -vc null -vo null -alang [language code] -ao pcm:waveheader:fast:file=[output file] -dvd-device [path to .iso file] -ss [start time in seconds] -endpos [duration in seconds]
   where:
   • dvd://1 usually is the correct option although sometimes (depends on the DVD) it will have to be another number instead of 1. The number corresponds to the DVD title on the disc; usually 1 is the main video.
   • [first chapter] - is the first video chapter to start the conversion from.
   • [last chapter] - is the last video chapter to finish the conversion with; in case your video has no chapters or you want to convert the whole video into a single audio file you should skip the whole -chapter [first chapter]-[last chapter] fragment of the command; in case you’re converting each chapter of the DVD to a separate audio file the [last chapter] must be the same as [first chapter] and you need to run this command for each chapter (with a different output file each time).
   • [language code] - code of the audio language, this is important if the video has audio track in multiple languages; for example English is en, Spanish is es, Hungarian is hu.
   • [output file] - the path to the output audio file including the .wav extension.
   • [path to .iso file] - the path to the source .iso file of the video; in case you are converting without first creating the .iso file you should skip the whole -dvd-device [path to .iso file] fragment of the command.
   • [start time in seconds] - this option can be used to specify how many seconds at the beginning of the video should be skipped; you should not use this option if you want to convert the whole video.
   • [duration in seconds] - this option can be used to specify how many seconds of the video to convert; you should not use this option if you want to convert the whole video. This option together with -ss is useful when you want to do a trial run and convert just a short fragment first to see if it works or if you need to skip some fragments at the beginning or at the end.
   Some examples:
   • Save audio of chapter 4 of the DVD disk as file chapter4.wav:
     mplayer dvd://1 -chapter 4-4 -vc null -vo null -alang en -ao pcm:waveheader:fast:file=chapter4.wav
   • The same but from an ISO image:
     mplayer dvd://1 -chapter 4-4 -vc null -vo null -alang en -ao pcm:waveheader:fast:file=chapter4.wav -dvd-device image.iso
   • Save audio of chapters 2 to 14 of the DVD disk as file chapters2-14.wav:
     mplayer dvd://1 -chapter 2-14 -vc null -vo null -alang en -ao pcm:waveheader:fast:file=chapters2-14.wav
   • Save the last 10 seconds of the first minute of chapter 3 from the DVD disk as file chapter3.wav, this time we want the Spanish soundtrack:
     mplayer dvd://1 -chapter 3-3 -vc null -vo null -alang es -ao pcm:waveheader:fast:file=chapter3.wav -ss 50 -endpos 10
2. Convert .wav files to mp3 format or any other you prefer using a program you like.

That’s it. Enjoy the new mp3s!

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From my occasional interest and pursuit of bodybuilding I’ve collected the following information about how to gain muscle mass. To build the muscles you need to do high resistance and low repetition count exercises, which basically means:

• Train each muscle group (for example biceps) once per week. Don’t do it more often as the muscles need time to recover and grow.
• Regardless whether you use machines or free weights, the resistance should be selected such that you can do no more than 3 series of 8 repetitions in each series. Some people recommend an even lower repetition count.
• Each repetition should be done very slowly, let’s say 10 seconds for the concentric movement (in which muscles get shorter) and 5 seconds for the eccentric movement (in which muscles are forced to elongate). The movement should be steady and controlled.
• Give yourself a couple of minutes of rest between the series.
• The last repetition in the 3rd series should trigger thoughts like “There’s no way I can do this even one more time even if someone puts a gun to my head and says ‘Do it again or I kill you’”. The muscles should hurt. No pain - no gain.

Progress:

• Each week you should be able to add a few extra kilos until you reach your physiological limit. So keep track of the weight used each week.

Diet and sleep:

• Very important is also the diet. You need high protein content. More than the usual 80-100 grams per day. Basically if you want extra kilos of muscles you have to get extra N times that of proteins in your food. So you probably have to at least double your daily protein intake. Make sure your kidneys are OK as they will have more work filtering your blood.
• During the exercise you’ll use lots of energy in a short time so you have to eat carbohydrates a few hours before. Something like pasta with tuna is good as it has carbohydrates and proteins. Avoid sugary foods as they lower testosterone levels and you need testosterone to gain muscles. There are other things to avoid like caffeinated drinks and fried foods, more about it here.
• Get enough sleep - during sleep is when the growth hormone is produced and you need it for the muscles to grow. That’s also when your imagination can roam free and show you in advance the benefits of your new improved body…

Safety advice:

• If it hurts anywhere else than the muscles you’re at the moment exercising, especially chest pain, stop immediately. I’m not counting the painful faces of other gym members…
• Remember to breath properly all the time when exercising otherwise you can get problems with high blood pressure.
• If you’re unsure about your health consult a doctor.
• If you’re unsure about your exercise program consult a professional trainer.
• If you’re unsure about your finances, go read some other blog…

That’s about it. Now go and move your butt.

Or … you could stay a bit longer and read a few more posts on olivetalks.com.

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According to a new research published in Nature Neuroscience the MRI scan can show your decisions a few seconds before you are aware of making them at all. So if you think that you really make your choices, like for example whether to read this post or not, it can be really disappointing to find out that by the time you are thinking about deciding something your brain has already done the job. The decision has been already made and now it is time to do the PR act, I mean tell you what is the decision while making it look like you are the one in charge. Maybe you will even have some reasons and justifications for the choice, it will look logical and reasonable. Nonetheless it was done before the conscious machinery of your brain even started on this task.

More about this research co-authored by John-Dylan Haynes can be read in wired.com. The experiments raise some question abouts the existence of the free will. That’s why you had to read this post…

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So who would be able to pull such a scam on the whole planet? Well, the same people who created European Community which has its base conveniently placed in Brussels. They want us to believe Belgium not only exists but that it also is the best country there is. All that to make the EU look better.

Very devious! So how were they able to hide the truth? Surely someone must have noticed that this imaginary country doesn’t exist? Well, if you have enough resources you can make people believe in an imaginary country. Brainwash some, put others in some kind of Matrix-like pods, slightly modify the history books and maps and nobody will be any wiser. For the full list of these nefarious methods visit The TRUTH About “Belgium”.

By the way, that also means that your mother was (and still is?) part of the conspiracy. After all she was trying to feed you Brussels sprouts!

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The server has a Quad Core Xeon CPU E5440 and 4 GB of RAM. The storage needs are covered by a MD1000 disk array connected to a Perc5/E controller. The controller supports different RAID configurations: 0, 1, 10 and 50. I’ve tried most of them plus different combinations of software raid and hardware plus software raid. In the end I’ve settled on RAID-5 on 3 disks.

As the operating system I’ve installed CentOS 5.1 which is basically a free copy of RHEL 5.1. It comes with Xen 3.0.3 and of course I’ve installed that too. I want to convert the existing servers we have at work to Xen guests and have them running on this new machine. This will let me update OS on all the servers to the same version without bringing the whole office to halt. And once the servers are virtualized it will be much easier to deal with maintenance of the physical servers. Maybe I will even set up some cluster to host all these Xen guests. I didn’t have time to fully explore this idea but it sounds like it could offer further advantages.

So far I was able to convert one physical server to a virtual one with rather short downtime. I followed the instructions described in my Xen p2v post. The virtual server has been running fine for several months already. In terms of performance there are no problems - it helps that the Xen host has more powerful hardware and this server doesn’t need much I/O.

Besides this P2V conversion I’ve also created a Xen guest with Fedora Core 8 to run our CruiseControl server. The previous installation was running on a Fedora Core 5 host. I’ve used the occasion and upgraded CruiseControl to the latest version. Installing CruiseControl took me a long time. Mostly because I couldn’t find proper instructions. I’ve tried few different ones from the CruiseControl website, from IBM and some others. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get it to work. So in the end I’ve just duplicated the setup we had before. It’s not perfect but it works and I don’t want to spend a week on that.

Third Xen guest I’ve created is a very small installation of CentOS 5.1 running with only 64 MB of RAM. It serves as a license server for some applications we use. I’ve minimized the amount of the services running to reduce the memory footprint and the virtual machine uses only 41 MB of RAM.

So far all three guests are running nicely together. I’ll be adding more of them in the future.

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What can you do now? One suggested approach is to use some kind of USB over IP solution. That does involve spending some money though. USB over IP devices are about €300, a well known example are products from Digi International. Unfortunately I didn’t find any device of this type which would work with Linux clients so this looks like a bad direction to go even if it was cheaper. Another solution mentioned is using a software version of USB over IP. Again, they mostly support Windows clients. I was able to find only one that includes a Linux client - USB Server. At this point it’s in beta so it could be unstable - better test it before you use it on a production system. It includes a kernel driver (released under GPL 2) and binary only programs for the client and the server. It’s not a perfect solution since you still don’t know what’s inside of these binaries.

There are also people working on a similar solution in USB/IP Project. According to them “It is still at a *very* early development stage.” and is not stable.

I’ll try out these options and report here my findings. In the meantime if someone has experiences with any of these two solutions please comment and let us know.

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• SGS 320 has four LAN ports, one WAN port and no VPN support
• SGS 360 has eight LAN ports, two WAN ports and no VPN support
• SGS 360R is like SGS 360 but wih VPN support

Here’s a video (Flash) which shows differences between these three models in more detail.

SGS 360R comes with 10 client licenses for VPN. That means you can have maximum 10 people using VPN at the same time. Unless you use some other VPN method like OpenVPN for example. The VPN client software is only available for Windows and there are two issues I’ve found during usage. First it doesn’t work when Windows firewall is enabled. Third party firewalls work fine, problem is only with the built-in firewall of Windows XP. The second issue is that after installing the VPN client on a laptop the Remote Desktop functionality on the same laptop stopped working. This has occurred on all the machines where the VPN client was installed. I haven’t had the time to exclude the possibility of the culprit being actually some other application since all the PCs had a very similar set of programs installed on them.

SGS can be easily configured using a web browser. It has multiple security features like SPI firewall, IPSec VPN, intrusion detection and prevention, anti-virus policy enforcement and content filtering. It can also be extended with a wireless card to allow WiFi access.

At this point SGS is a bit old as a product, but it looks like it can be still bought.

A few months ago we started having some additional problems with this router. For example, it would drop connection to Internet from time to time (every couple of weeks or so). I’m actually suspecting that the problem was somewhere outside our office since recently we’ve moved and now the problem is gone (ain’t I the Sherlock). We’re even using both WAN ports for load balancing and redundancy. In one of my previous posts I talked about another router Linksys RVS4000. We bought it because of the intermittent connection loss on SGS. For a week or two the Linksys router was working fine but then it died after a firmware update. It wouldn’t connect to the Internet at all. We still had SGS and I was able to put it back in action in a few minutes. Then I connected the second WAN line and everybody noticed speed improvement on downloads.

So what’s the overall verdict? Symantec SGS 360R works fine. Now with double speed.

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I think I should start with a redundant file system to be free from depending on the 100% availability of a file server. The redundant file system should possibly be clustered so extra redundancy can be provided for the services and load balancing where necessary.

I’m not sure how to go about it in an efficient way. I’d like to hear from anybody who’s done something like this before and is willing to share their experiences.

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