Unscheduled websrv01 Downtime

Published on October 20, 2009 in Server: websrv01. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Update: Oct 21 2:24AM
websrv01 is currently back online. Diagnostic tests are currently running on the server as we speak (thanks to Greg), but initial reports indicate that 1 of the 2 hard drives on websrv01 has died. Luckily we run a RAID 1 (mirror) configuration, so the other drive is picking up the slack (whew). Dell is aware of the issue and will get back to me later in the day to schedule a time for them to visit the data centre and investigate further. I will post more information as it becomes available.

Initial Report: Oct 20, 11:03PM
websrv01 is currently off-line. It is highly upsetting to say that; however, we are currently experiencing some major hardware issues / failures. I am currently working with Dell and our co-location provider to resolve the issue; however, we expect that the server will be down most of the day on Wednesday while we recover service.

Unscheduled websrv01 Downtime

Published on August 27, 2009 in Server: websrv01. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This morning we experienced a short unscheduled service outage on websrv01 due to spam attack that took place early in the morning. This incident could have easily been avoided if a select few users had e-mail address passwords that were not incredibly simple. If you have a simple e-mail address password, please change it immediately. Passwords should be alphanumeric and contain a minimum of 6 characters, and no dictionary words.

Image Of The Week: Nellie Belly 2

Published on August 9, 2009 in Image Of The Week. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Unfortunately I have not been keeping up with my Image Of The Week for the past few months. I have no excuses really, I am not sure what was going on. Either way, I am trying to once again focus on what is important to me, so here you have it: Nellie Belly 2

We have had Nellie now for about 4 months now, and she has grown tremendously in this time, as puppies do. She has been spayed, had her first hair cut, and is an all around happy attention seeking member of the family. Nellie and Dyna are also now best buds, who much to our dismay wrestle almost constantly. Dyna’s initial hesitation to the new family member quickly faded.

Looking back at our experience to this point, makes me very happy that Karla and I decided to get another puppy for our home.

Unscheduled websrv01 Downtime

Published on July 23, 2009 in Server: websrv01. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

We are currently experiencing an unscheduled service outage on websrv01 due to what we believe may be a hardware issue on the server. In fact, I think this could be the same issue we encountered on April 25th, and I hate to say it but our co-location provider *still* has not resolved the misconfigured the power port that our server is plugged into, so I am still unable to reboot the machine.

A technician has been informed of the problem, and someone is going down to the server to reboot it right now. Luckily, I am told there are people in the building today, so it should be back shortly. I will post an update as soon as I know anything.

Update 9:29AM
Data centre technicians are making their way to the server right now to fix the APC switch and restart the machine.

Update 10:26AM
I’m still waiting, and getting more angry by the minute. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Update 10:50AM
websrv01 is back online after the technician finally rebooted the server, I apologize once again for the inconvenience. I am fairly certain that they assigned John to my support ticket:

Data Centre Technician John

Data Centre Technician John

Unscheduled websrv01 Downtime

Published on April 25, 2009 in digitalorphans.org and Server: websrv01. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

We are currently experiencing an unscheduled service outage on websrv01 due to what we believe may be a hardware issue on the server. Unfortunately our co-location provider misconfigured the power port that our server is plugged into, so we were unable to reboot the machine ourselves. Currently we have a technician assigned in Montreal who is on his way to the data centre to reboot the server and investigate further. We will update this post as more information becomes available.

Update 3:53PM
We are still working with our co-location provider to determine the exact cause of the problem. One theory currently being investigated is that we may be experiencing a distributed denial of service attack on the server. As soon as we have any further information, we will post it.

Update 6:20PM
The problem has now been resolved, and all service has been fully restored. It does in fact appear to have been a distributed denial of service attack, which fortunately ceased on it’s own. We sustained 1Mbit of http traffic to websrv01 for only a short period of time before the server was unable to handle the requests. The 1Mbit wall continued until just after 6PM when it stopped just as mysteriously as it began. Further investigation is on-going and any new information will be made available.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Image Of The Week: Nellie Belly

Published on April 7, 2009 in Image Of The Week. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Karla and I have been talking about getting a new puppy for quite a while, and when we stumbled upon a photograph of a litter of Lhasa Apso puppies for sale on Kijiji, our minds were pretty much made up… we wanted the one with the white boots!

We drove 3.5 hours to meet the breeder (Heidi) and the puppies on a Friday evening, and everything went really well, so we picked up our new little friend the following day and headed for home.

On our journey home I happened to round the corner of an off-ramp a bit too quickly, which caused our new puppy friend to take a rather large tumble in her kennel. Karla’s first reaction to this first boo-boo was “Woah Nelly”, and from there we named her Nellie.

She has been integrating into our lives and routine with surprising ease. We already have a 10 year old Lhasa Apso (Dyna), who has been a huge help so far with the training process, much to her dismay. We were a bit worried about how Dyna would react to a new puppy, and at this point my guess is she’s neither here-nor-there. Some days she is very excited about having a friend to play with so they tug on ropes for hours at a time, and other days Dyna will have none-of-it while Nellie bites her ears and generally harasses her. It is funny to watch, and I am sure they will grow to be great friends over time.

So that’s our exciting news. Puppies are cute, this one especially… and I look forward to posting the dozens of comedic photos we have taken so far. There is also this really funny video I took of Nellie learning how to go up and down stairs, I will throw that on YouTube over the weekend.

Image Of The Week: Irish Grasshopper

Published on March 17, 2009 in Image Of The Week. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Spring is in the air, can you feel it? The sun is out! I’m not cold! I’ve seen a robin! I’ve seen a few insects! Oh, and most importantly today is a great day because it’s St. Patrick’s Day, hence the Irish Grasshopper title.

While this photograph is far from the best technical shot I have ever taken, I am using it this year to celebrate the season, and the day! Enjoy.

St. Patrick’s Day fact from National Geographic:

In the United States, it’s customary to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. But in Ireland the color was long considered to be unlucky, says Bridget Haggerty, author of The Traditional Irish Wedding and the Irish Culture and Customs Web site.

As Haggerty explains, Irish folklore holds that green is the favorite color of the Good People (the proper name for faeries). They are likely to steal people, especially children, who wear too much of the color.

Image Of The Week: Grandmother

Published on March 2, 2009 in Image Of The Week. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

This week I would like to write a poem to pay homage to my Grandmother who sadly passed away last week after a long and eventful life. Now I have not written poetry in years, so I only hope I would not offend her with my lack of elegance. I only recently discovered that she was in fact a poet laureate, and a published poet.

My grandmother was a caring woman,
a wife, a mother, a friend.

With days of patience, and miles calm,
she carried with her until her end.

These traits live on through her family now,
through her children’s children, down the line.

For these gifts we give thanks, and remember you,
as our grandmother for all of time.
- Matt Simpson

We love you Grandma, may you rest in peace.

Image Of The Week: Ms. Valentine

Published on February 18, 2009 in Image Of The Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

While I realize it was Valentines Day last week I still wanted to post my image of the week, which I was previously unable to do simply because I ran out of time before being away for the long weekend.

Ms. Valentine, who is more accurately referred to as Mrs. Simpson is the my sweet wife Karla. Due to unfortunate circumstances we were not able to spend Valentines Day together this year, but instead we celebrated with a nice dinner at our favourite Kingston restaurant on Monday.

A Solution to Earth’s Overpopulation

Published on February 11, 2009 in Poor Comedy. 1 Comment Tags: , .

It is no secret that we have an over population problem here on Earth, in fact by 2050 based on the current rate of growth the expected human population on Earth will be well over 9 billion. It is also a fact that the way in which we live now is entirely unsustainable in every imaginable way, and based on what I see between our insistent need to “have” (me not excluded) and in some cases complete disregard for our planet, we are truly asking Mother Nature to grant us unimaginable devastation or worst.

I have a thought that may at first sound odd, but ponder this:

Homo Sapiens Minimus, This is Ed

Homo Sapiens Minimus, This is Ed

Meet “Homo Sapiens Minimus” a genetically modified homo sapiens sapiens (human) who is a 1/10th scale model of our current selves. Could we genetically modify humanity to simply reproduce smaller versions of ourselves; therefore, requiring less space, less resources and ultimately lesser of a foot print?

There are definitely going to be some harsh critics of such an out-of-the-box solution to our troubles. To interject before they can begin, I have come up with solutions to the top 5 concerns:

  1. What will we do with all of our current houses? They will be way too big if we are 1/10th our current size.

    True, modifications would need to be made to current houses, but think about it this way… all current houses could be then turned into apartment buildings; providing affordable housing for everyone. Any new houses built will obviously be much smaller, roughly the size of flats currently being built in England.

  2. How will I get to work? My current commute is already over an hour.

    Ah yes, the commute. Well my friend, in the future when we are all 1/10th the size everyone will fly to work in [currently] miniature airplanes! You see the reason we all do not all fly to work now is simply because we are too heavy to economically transport ourselves through the air due to Earth’s gravity; moving 7KG through the air is significantly simpler.

  3. Won’t my pet eat me when I am small?

    Depending on the type of pet you have, yes, there is a chance that your entire family may be eaten by Mr. Boots, whom you’ve loved for all these years. That is a sacrifice we as homo sapiens minimus will have to make.

  4. Will we not become less intelligent when our brains are 1/10th the size?

    No, we will be 1/10th scale in every way, which makes this argument irrelevant. Besides, are 1/10th scale model trains less intelligent than full size trains? No, we will just be smaller and not toot as loud.

  5. Will homo sapiens minimus play basket ball? I love bascket ball?

    As stated in concern #3, homo sapiens minimus will have to make certain sacrifices to make certain gains; unfortunately basket ball will no longer be played. Think of this as an opportunity to invent new games, ones that perhaps we don’t currently miss, only because we have not yet thought of them.

So these may not actually be the top 5 concerns of people who are concerned about miniaturization, but it did provide some comic relief none-the-less.