Miscellany
For those who want to read what I've written recently, a manual trackback to Andrew Sullivan responding to a remark of mine on Iran. (I must say that his argument is quite unconvincing to me. It seems to turn on a distinction -- that international Communism was not a religious ideology with an apocalyptic-Utopian bent -- that is hair-splitting at best and at worst simply false. But it is a distinction that seems real and relevant to some people. Enh.)
In other news, the Sox lost last night and Papelbon (who might be the ninth most valuable player in baseball) gave up his first run of the season (!). ukelele and I were there on random free tickets from my boss, but missed the exciting ending due to its being much too late.
And finally a PSA for all you techies out there. The weather is warming up and now is peak season for HVAC failures. Please remember to check whether your server case fans are running (and, equivalently, whether your fan speed sensors work). This will save you from having to find out whether your backup-recovery plan includes how to recover your boot volume (include, crucially, the master boot record), discovering that it doesn't, and going through eighty kinds of recurring heck to rebuild your system manually. In fact, consider throwing an extra fan or two into a critical server. It's cheap and easy and it might save you a lot of time and trouble. Any genuinely critical server should have an intake fan blowing over its drive bays as well as the usual processor, power supply, and exhaust fans.
In other news, the Sox lost last night and Papelbon (who might be the ninth most valuable player in baseball) gave up his first run of the season (!). ukelele and I were there on random free tickets from my boss, but missed the exciting ending due to its being much too late.
And finally a PSA for all you techies out there. The weather is warming up and now is peak season for HVAC failures. Please remember to check whether your server case fans are running (and, equivalently, whether your fan speed sensors work). This will save you from having to find out whether your backup-recovery plan includes how to recover your boot volume (include, crucially, the master boot record), discovering that it doesn't, and going through eighty kinds of recurring heck to rebuild your system manually. In fact, consider throwing an extra fan or two into a critical server. It's cheap and easy and it might save you a lot of time and trouble. Any genuinely critical server should have an intake fan blowing over its drive bays as well as the usual processor, power supply, and exhaust fans.