Green Vitriol

Robotics

2006-03-21T08:24:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I last posted. I realize all my adoring fans must be hungry for my laid back southern sensibility, charm and wit. Well, I am feeling all uninspired for words.

Check out the VEX Robotics kit being sold by Radio Shack. It is really great.

Networks are nice, but EdgeIrons suck

2005-10-20T00:30:00.000-04:00

Here's the deal. My favorite network vendor in the whole entire world has for many years been Foundry. No, I am not a Cisco kind of guy, but it hasn't always been that way. Like many IT people, I first bought into the Cisco way. Now I don't think that's a great way to go.

Maybe their stuff CAN work for some things, but if you want blazing speed, reliability and most importantly, kick butt support, go Foundry!

But don't buy the EdgeIrons... I have had problems with a simple but relatively heavily loaded administrative network with these things at the edge. I don't know why, but these things seem to induce strangeness. I haven't used them for long, just about 3-6 months total, but in that time I have suffered severe network issues where root bridges change without notice. It's like a distribution switch pair with span priorities set to 20k and 30k with edge switches set at about 32k (the default) taking root. The distribution switch pair often never even sees a TC Event, but boxes connected to the edge will start to rot away.

Sometimes I swear boxes not even connected to a given problematic edge switch would stop talking too. It's been a strange time. Anyway, I just got finished at the cage ripping those edgeirons out and replacing them with some on-hand stock of FES X448 base L3 switches. Yeah, they are supposedly over kill for this thing, but I have NEVER had an issue with a FastIron switch product.

Just like the ServerIron and BigIrons. And they have hauled many bits for the top 10 website I work for.

Now I wonder when I'll make it to the office tomorrow... *yawn*

The Triumph of a Good Son

2005-10-09T23:02:00.000-04:00

I'll spare you the whole "My son is great because..." speech. But I have to tell you, I went to school with as many assholes as the next overweight geek did. I remember how rough that was, and look back occasionally in horror at some of the things I did to overcompensate. Long story short, lots of them sell furniture and shoes, and I am a network engineer. I have always wondered how a kid of mine might react to the same bullys and buttholes...

Well, let me tell you. My kid kicked the bully's ASS. And that is what I am SAYING. Hell yeah.

My wife, son and I started taking Tae Kwon Do about a year ago. We're all around a green stripe belt for those of you who might know something about that. A little less than 1/2 to the coveted black belt. I am still no athelete, but I enjoy it. My wife is teaching classes now... my son... well, we've wondered how much he actually likes going. Whether he likes it or not, this story let me know he was soaking it in.

In the bathroom at school (1st grade) my son was accosted by a bully. He was trying to pee, and this kid threatened to pee on him. Thank goodness he didn't do that, but he did hit him in the back. Amrin turned around, did a fighting stance and yelled at the kid to stop or he'd punch him. When he turned back around to finish buttoning up the bully hit him again... then... this sweet little 1st grader turned around and drew blood from the lip of the bully. Quoted the hero "I taught him a Taekwondo lesson."

Why couldn't I have had the skills necessary to fend off the mean kids... the kind of villian who winds up in the gutter... or the white house... I mean, we all know how weak and inferior they are. I always just went the way of the tragic passivist.

I am proud of my son. Not that he got into a fight, but because I know a little more how I don't need to worry about whether or not he will be a good man. Fear did not enter into the equation. His equality with his fellow classmates did. That kid did not put the beat down on him and get away with it. I wish more of us had the guts to stand up to those who threaten us. I now know for sure that not only is there some power behind that punch, he knows how and when to use it.

He's going to be a great man. He's already the greatest boy.

2005-09-02T17:23:00.000-04:00

People who are not parents have no idea the challenges, risks and humor involved in the process of raising children.

2005-09-02T17:22:00.000-04:00

Up the nose

2005-09-02T17:21:00.001-04:00

Birghter Smile...

2005-09-02T17:21:00.000-04:00

Bright Smile?

2005-07-05T17:32:00.000-04:00

This deer was poopin'. I don't know how Ellyn captures nature with digital photography so well. She's got a knack.

2005-07-05T17:31:00.000-04:00

My silly family. Ellyn and Amrin outside...

2005-07-05T17:29:00.000-04:00

Here's one of my nephews. I think this picture captures him really well.

Is there a correlation between the rate at which clutter accumulates and the number of household items you own that resemble or contain carpet?

2005-05-14T11:11:00.000-04:00

This is a question that has haunted me for years. The primary reason that I am concerned with finding an answer is that my family and I chose to live in a smaller frame house in the country. This has been wonderful in that there are fewer "big city" concerns, and more peacful country living. However, and this is the reason for my concern, we have been challenged to find new and interesting ways to organize.

It seems that after 5 years of living in this house, the only thing that I have been able to determine that seems to have thrown us all out of kilter are area rugs. We've had plank flooring the whole time, with no appreciable covering of carpets. The house has always been neat and tidy. The grass, always cut.

Now it seems that after adding a runner down the hall, and eventually a big living room area rug, and then a dining room area rug, we have clutter.

I think there is a direct correlation. It has always been apparent that carpet, in it's general form, is very very fast. Consider the speed at which carpet disappears when you turn out the light. The experiment is an easy one. Stand by the light switch at night. Turn the light on. Observe the carpet for about a minute. Turn out the light. The carpet is immediately gone.

I call the time in which carpet takes to appear and disappear, 1 carpet time. I further assert that a single unit of carpet time, relative to carpet, is quiet a large slice of time.

The next part of this general theory of carpet time requires another experiment to illustrate. First, place an area rug under your dining room table. Push all the chairs up to the table in a snug fashion. Now leave the house completely. Lock the doors. Stay gone all day long. When you come back, maybe even the next day, check the chairs. Are they where you left them? I have observed that it is not always the case that the chairs are where you put them before you left. The same experiment can be done with a sock laid in front of the couch, on the carpet or rug. When you wake up from a deep sleep, chances are that the sock will be under the couch. This phenomenon can be referred to as the subluxation of carpet. I am stealing the term from chiropractors because while I feel chiropractic has it's place, they are very good at making up new terms, and so they should share their vocabularies with other scientists, specifically me.

Now, my assertion is that because carpet is the fastest substance in the world, that it may in fact leave a substantial wake behind or within itself, in the fabric of time. These ripples do in fact change the perception of animals and of course people around the carpet, and these people and animals are left in situations where they must rush out the door because they have become unexplainably late. They drop their dirty clothes all over, and don't clean up their dirty dishes. They leave books and magazines out all over the place, and small toys abound. The grass is longer.

This is my take on why the house is a wreck.

Hello!

2004-05-26T16:04:00.000-04:00

I don't know where this will go, but it looked cool. A good place to keep creative juices flowing.

Later,
Carlton