Big window rattling storm blew thru last night. Not as much rain as I expected. It did cool things off and drop the humidity. 54F and 66%RH this morning. Mostly clear too.
Trade war with China (well, maybe we’re reversing our ‘retrograde maneuver’, deploy the ‘military’ (whatever that means) on the border, bring the troops home (again, we’re in about 100 countries at the moment, we probably don’t even have ROOM to bring them all home), and someone shot up youtube headquarters.
OR
Collapse our stock market in a pointless dick measuring contest with china, illegally deny entry of 1500 desperately needed farm and construction workers while violating posse comitatus and civil rights protections, while abandoning our allies in Syria and moving thousands of jackbooted thugs and their war machines back to the US to oppress the people, and something happened at youtube, but it’s not important, nothing to see here. Move along.
Y’all can guess which one matches my reality.
Stack it high folks. Some of the leviathans are moving in for the kill, the world is shifting under our feet.
And in other news, OFD has made definite progress. Long row to hoe ahead still, but definite progress. See the update on the project page if you haven’t yet.
nick
Aaaaaaand I’m screwed. I think. Maybe.
Oh, yeah – 38º and cloudy. Some say snowing, but I doubt it. We won’t get the record this year.
But back to that screwed thing. I came in this morning and dealt with a problem left over from yesterday, only to get to my office and find out a bigger problem was just waiting for me. Seems our 30 yo ERP software running on 15 yo hardware went teats-up sometime overnight. Nobody bothered to call or text (which they are supposed to do when that system goes down), so I had no clue. Yay.
It’s an old SCO unix system that ran out of space. Was fine on Sunday (the last time I looked at it personally), so something changed. Our Unix guru is on his way in. He’s worked miracles before. I’m hoping for another.
In the meantime, the replacement system (recommended & approved 2+ years ago after a 3-year search), is still sitting, awaiting board approval.
And once again, I’m thinking of going back to wrenching.
Prepping for a SuperVolcano ?
Seriously, if you are within a hundred miles you can kiss your ass goodby.
Anywhere between the caldera and the east coast will be toast in days from ash fall.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/940766/yellowstone-volcano-eruption-news-life-or-death-supervolcano-emergency
That is the one key to troubleshooting, and recovery… “What changed?”
That should always be the first question. Then listen hard and insist people only answer with what happened, not what they THINK happened. NO WHY just WHAT. Why comes later in the after action report.
Troubleshooting is a skill that takes effort and experience to develop. Good troubleshooters are worth their weight in gold.
I hope you figure it out and can recover. I’m also glad I don’t have those issues anymore.
n
(I once got a trouble call that a display system wasn’t working correctly. Since they were local and I had time, I just went in instead of wasting time trying to get factual “what changed” out of people I knew couldn’t provide answers. What I found was that my highly tuned and customized display system, which only works correctly when the EXACT right video driver is installed AND CONFIGURED properly, had been upgraded over the weekend. The source computers had all new, box stock, operating systems, that had defaulted to 800×600 VGA output. What changed? Nothing… But last time I was here, they were running 2008 server… oh yeah, corporate IT pushed an upgrade. [face palm])
“Seriously, if you are within a hundred miles you can kiss your ass goodby.”
There are lots of those scenarios, but at 200 miles, 400, etc still gonna be problems and you’re better off with food and necessities.
n
I love when that happens. Hopefully its something simple – like /tmp is full. Or /var/log isn’t on its own partition and it filled up /.
RE: Trouble Call
When I took over the role of Messaging Manager at the MCI offices in London, the second week I got a call from the executive VP ranting and railing about how our Outlook email system was crap and never worked and he demanded I fix it NOW !!!
We were in the same building so I went up to “mahogany row” and found his office. I introduced myself, stood quietly for a few moments while he berated me and my departments service, then asked the usual question, “What has changed since it worked last?” Answer NOTHING !!! I took a look at his PC. Outlook indeed would not come up. But neither would the browser or any other network dependent application. A quick look round the back of his PC found the network cable lying limply unplugged from the Ethernet port. I asked him if he had done this. Of course he had, he had wanted to move the PC and the cable wasn’t long enough so he simply disconnected it. He never accepted any responsibility nor apologized for his insults. The things we put up with in IT support.
I love it when the customers install their own solution, everybody who knew anything about it leaves or dies, and the call for help comes in. Which happened to me with, coincidentally, a SCO Unix system some time back. But no problem, because they had a fully configured backup system – until somebody decided to make it a windows file server because it wasn’t being used…
We did manage enough CPR to keep them afloat until they moved on to something supportable, but it was a near thing. Insurance. You don’t need it, until you do.
Backup systems. Yeah. Over the years I have had two customers where that went sooo wrong.
The most recent one: Didn’t want to pay their IT support company to monitor backups, because they had an in-house guy who was a good amateur IT guy. Only, he left the company and didn’t think to hand over the responsibility. 1-1/2 years later, some mysterious event totally trashed their disk. Serious mysterious, the disk was still healthy, but the data was destroyed. Turns out, the backups stopped working shortly after IT-amateur left. More than a year of business data – gone. Thankfully, the company was fundamentally paranoid, and had printed out literally everything and filed it, so it wasn’t a disaster, just a pile of work to recover.
As for replacing ancient ERP systems, yes, well. Sometimes the board needs a gigantic kick-in-the-pants. If they’re non-operational types, it’s all numbers in spreadsheets, and they may have zero clue how the company actually operates. Here’s hoping the expense of this failure will clue them it – meanwhile, good luck recovering the old system.
43 years ago today in a Courthouse in Idaho Falls Idaho with the snow falling outside, my Wife and I were married by a Justice of the Peace as two of my buddies from Navy Nuke Prototype School stood by. We then went to a small reception and party at the local Holiday Inn. The Wife of another of my Navy Nuke School buddies baked us a beautiful 3-tier cake that was the best wedding cake I ever ate. We all had prime rib as the wine and beer flowed freely. I had just started my long-change (3-days off) so we had a good time.
The families did not attend as they did not approve, neither did the Episcopal Church in town, and all predictions said it would not last. Neener-neener, it did and will continue.
Congratulations Mr DadCooks. I love it when predictions are knocked on their pants.
Aaaaaaaaand we’re back.
Unix Guy said “fsck it” and managed to recover the partition. Seems some of the unused files on the system (the stuff we migrated off of years ago) got trashed. But the business data is okay.
Incidentally, the backup system (another Unix box Unix guy acquired for us) was running but had an error so the data was not current. The OTHER backup (data copied off every night) WAS current, so we started copying the data over to the backup server while the primary was getting fsck’d.
Long story short – primary is back up. Belt was broken, but the suspenders were holding our pants up. Whew.
I sent a rather pointed email to the co-president in charge of that division. I pointed out that an orderly migration is much preferable to a panic migration. It would cost a lot less as well. I haven’t mentioned the wrench-bending option.
The families did not attend as they did not approve, neither did the Episcopal Church in town, and all predictions said it would not last. Neener-neener, it did and will continue.
Congratulations, Mr. DadCooks. MrsAtoz and I are on 27. We got married in Atchison, KS by a county judge. We were in our Army Class “B’s”. He made MrsAtoz walk in to the traditional wedding dirge while I waited. Irma and Agnes (court clerks) were called in to witness. Dinner at Wendy’s (manager paid!) and bingo at the O Club.
@dadcooks, congrats! That is quite an accomplishment that I’m sure took some hard work along the way.
I hope we make it that long, and longer.
n
I forgot to mention that my buddies and I were in our Navy Dress Whites. No way were we going to wear the “New Issue” Dress Blue “Suit”.
Thank goodness some years later the Navy recognized that that goofy looking suit was in no way a “Sailor Suit”. Too bad they didn’t fix their mistake until after I mustered out. I bought my Original Style Dress Blues on “the beach”. Around most Navy Bases of any size were a number of places that you could buy tailored uniforms (and other “stuff”) that were better quality than Navy Issue. When the Navy got rid of the original style Sailor Suit and Blue Dress it became real hard to get the old style, demand was so high.
It was good that the Navy did not forbid the wearing of the old style otherwise there might have been a mutiny.
When I was in the USAF in the summer of 1970 stationed at Langley AFB my friend and I discovered that the wearing of shorts in the summer was still a legal uniform. It was called the Air Force Summer Uniform. This was before the transition to blue (1550/1549 I think was the number) from khaki (1505 I think was the number). Knee length shorts, calf high tan socks, etc. We did some searching locally and found some legal shorts and the rest of the needed items to make the uniform legal in one of the USAF thrift stores.
So one day we donned the uniforms and went to work. A short walk to the mess hall and another short walk to the office. On the way to the mess hall we got stopped by a colonel, who stopped in a traffic lane, got out of his vehicle, made us stand at attention, and chewed us something royal. When he stopped we showed him the regulation that indicated the uniform was legal. Then he really got pissed off for being wrong and chewed us out because we set him up and made him look stupid. Uh, no, he did that himself.
We got to the mess hall, got in line for food, and were approached by the mess sergeant who proceeded to tell us to get out of his mess hall as we were not in proper uniform. We showed him the regulation to which he huffed and puffed his way up and down the chow line. We got lots of stares in the mess hall and the place was unusually quiet for several seconds when we entered the dining area.
Then the short walk to work. Got stopped by two captains who were walking together. They did not chew us out but asked what we doing in improper uniforms. We showed them the regulation and they quietly left.
When we got to work we showed our bosses the regulation and nothing was said. We did get some funny looks from others and I think it was my friend’s knees.
About three hours into work we got called into the HQ TAC commander’s office. He was a two star general who told us we were making a mockery of the uniform and that it was not going to be tolerated. We showed him the regulation and he stated he knew the regulation but was putting out an order that shorts could not be worn by anyone working in his organization.
Whether that was legal or could have been challenged was not considered. He could have made our lives miserable had we challenged his order. He was not in position to change the dress code and go against regulations. But discretion was the better choice. I also think that the first colonel that had chewed us out had made some contacts and was not about to be shown to be the fool.
So we threw away the shorts after only being able to wear them one day. Besides, it was a damn ugly uniform.
No TSA pre at the airport today on the way to Corpus Christi. What a joke. If you ‘had’ pre you got to keep your shoes on. And go through metal instead of the scanner. No refund on the good $$ we paid for pre. What a bunch of goons.
DadCooks wrote:
“It was good that the Navy did not forbid the wearing of the old style otherwise there might have been a mutiny.”
DC, can you provide a link to the various types of USN uniforms and when they can/should be worn?
And what are “undress whites”? Sounds kinda kinky.
This would be a good start.
Congratulations, Mr. DadCooks. It’s great to see a success story.
47 years ago this June, I flew a 16 year old girl to Memphis to marry her. I had paid an attorney to tell me where in the US a 19 yr old could marry a 16 yr old and he said Memphis. So we show up at the Memphis courthouse and they ask for her parents consent form. Turns out said lawyer neglected to mention that little detail. OK I am already on the hook for violating the Man Act so we flew to California and “shacked up” for a few weeks till her parents, convinced I had ruined their daughter, decided to give consent and let me make an honest woman of her. Like Mr. DadCooks, everyone said it wouldn’t last. She gave me two great boys and has been my constant companion as we worked our way around the world. Now in our mid 60’s we have rediscovered our interest in each other and our life is better than ever. Here’s to all you other success stories out there.
Prepping for a SuperVolcano ?
Seriously, if you are within a hundred miles you can kiss your ass goodby.
Anywhere between the caldera and the east coast will be toast in days from ash fall.
The UK papers love that story for some reason.
If you live in that corner of the country and feel the need to be paranoid about something, Fukushima has been and will continue to be a bigger problem than the Yellowstone Caldera.
Prepping for a SuperVolcano ?
Seriously, if you are within a hundred miles you can kiss your ass goodby.
Anywhere between the caldera and the east coast will be toast in days from ash fall.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/940766/yellowstone-volcano-eruption-news-life-or-death-supervolcano-emergency
This author thinks it will go bad for the ENTIRE lower 48. If the six plus feet of ash does not ruin your engines and power systems then the refugees will overwhelm you.
https://www.amazon.com/Ashfall-Trilogy-Mike-Mullin/dp/1933718749/
Recommended.
Miles_Teg said:
@Ray already got this but I repeat it to keep things together:
United States Navy Uniform Regulations NAVPERS 15665I
Buried here is the offical meaning of “Undress White”. But on the boat we sometimes referred to a sailor walking around in his skivies (underwear) as in “his Undress Whites”.
Uniforms of the United States Navy
For some further education:
Submarine Terms You Won’t See On Your Plans
OK … if you aren’t worried about a mega-tsuami wiping out the east coast or the Yelowstone super volcano bringing on an ice age, how about this …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5577117/New-York-overdue-earthquake-destroy-6-000-buildings.html
NYC is “overdue” for a skyscraper toppling quake. Sounds like a Dwane Johnson movie plot.
Yup, NYC is an active earthquake zone. There was a special on some years ago about a high rise that had to be retrofitted with additional steel. Also, the ironworkers union rules say that they can put in “temporary” non-rated hardware. It typically never gets changed to the specified hardware.
not where I’d want to be in a shake up.
n
Guess I’ll have to settle for New Madrid.
Congratulations @DadCooks and @Harold
If Yellowstone lets go, it’ll be a problem for the entire planet, not just the vicinity or the US East Coast. It probably wouldn’t be quite an extinction event, but likely the next best thing.
Congrats to DadCooks, and prospectively to Harold (in case I forget to say anything in June, which I will).
I just passed my 13th wedding anniversary. I can (and do) complain a lot about my wife, but have to say she’s a vast improvement over my first wife. If this rate of improvement continues, my third wife will be a keeper. Oddly, my second (and current) wife is annoyed at my demonstration of observation and logical reasoning.
re OFD, the news from Liz is good. Not as good as hoped, but a lot better than it could be. I just bought Dave another card*, but discovered I have no stamps, a situation which should be remediable but the way things have been going is likely to take a week to overcome.
* Strictly speaking, this is the first card I bought. Previously my daughter drew hand-made cards and then I wrote notes in English and Latin. My daughter also made a couple of fold-out cats we thought Dave might like.
* Strictly speaking, this is the first card I bought. Previously my daughter drew hand-made cards and then I wrote notes in English and Latin. My daughter also made a couple of fold-out cats we thought Dave might like.
Dude, you rock !
Congrats to DadCooks, and prospectively to Harold (in case I forget to say anything in June, which I will).
Me too and me too. Many congratulations.
My parents will be 59 years married this summer, Lord willing and creek don’t rise. Two weeks after my 58th birthday in June. In fact, my mother recently told me that I was five years premature. I’ve told the middle brother (I am the oldest of three boys) that since he griped so much about the 50th wedding anniversary party that Mum and I put together, the 60th is his responsibility.
Sinclair exec: Print media is ‘meaningless dribble’
I post this not because of the content, but because I’m pretty sure the semi-educated twit meant to use the word ‘drivel’.
OFD would’ve had a field day! 😀
We found each other rather later than usual, so we’re coming up on 24 years this year.
Still have my USAF uniform in the closet, for whatever reason. It probably won’t survive the next move – there’s really no point to hanging on to it anymore, and I am less and less of a pack rat.
Sent off my weekly postcard to OFD. It has a picture of an old wooden bridge in the nearby town. The thing is 200 years old, and regularly catches fire, most recently last week. Usually seems to be smokers tossing their butts, which get wedged in a crack with some trash.
Anyhow, it’s good to know from Liz that Dave is still at the medical center and cards and such are arriving. Gosh, a 2-year recovery time, that’s tough. Hope the laptop works out, so he can get some interaction going.
My Class A is in the closet. Sentimental reasons, nothing else. I still have a couple of BDUs and a field jacket, I think, but that’s more a matter of my sons and one nephew not haven stolen them yet than because I’m hanging on to them.
My uniforms went to the thrift store on base on my last day at service. Left the office 10 work days before my actual day of departure. Left on a Friday, weekend was time off, 5 days leave, weekend off, 4 days leave, went in to complete the paperwork for discharge and got paid for the last day.
Changed clothes in the bathroom after everything was signed, which was about 1:30 PM. Then took it all to the thrift store, everything I had, kept nothing. I had no desire to keep any of my uniforms.
My first eight years in the USAF was really good. The last two point five years really sucked as I was made a lot of promises by high ranking officers that were not kept or simply denied. A couple of incidents where truth was overridden by rank sealed the deal.
I suppose for some it’s like a wedding dress. Never gonna need it again, but still can’t get rid of it.
Or you just think you’ll be buried in it….
n
I’ll never wear it again. I could wear the trousers if I lost some weight (mostly fat but I’d have to starve half the muscle off my thighs as well), but the jacket would fit only after bonesaw surgery – my shoulders are several inches to wide to even squeeze in and my chest is at least four inches too big around for the buttons to close. I didn’t get into weight lifting until after I got off active duty.
I thought my one son would inherit the Class A uniform when he got commissioned, but he demonstrated the truly world-class priority setting skills he inherited from his mother and blew off an ROTC retention and scholarship board for a really really stupid reason, and washed out of ROTC.