Chasing Nuts

I am working on deploying a shiny new iSCSI SAN (Storage Area Network) for EMOL and I have run into a bit of an annoyance. First why does Intel make so many different versions of the Intel PRO/1000 card? We purchased a server with two on-board Intel PRO/1000 cards and added a PCI-X Intel PRO/1000 card with the plan to Ethernet Bond the two on-board cards and use the add-on card for server management.

This is a plan that definitely did not come together. First the main board manufacturer thought it would be a good idea to use two different Intel chips for the two Ethernet controllers. One is an Intel PRO/1000 PL the other is an Intel PRO/1000 PM. The add-on card we purchased is an Intel PRO/1000 PT. So it turns out the Intel cards are far from the same and I am not happy about that. It took me much Internet digging to find this out.

Intel PRO/1000 PM - does not support jumbo frames
Intel PRO/1000 PT - supports jumbo frames in Microsoft Windows operating systems only when Intel PROSet for Windows Device Manager is installed and only up to 9238 bytes.
Intel PRO/1000 PL - support jumbo frames larger than 9238 bytes.

So what are my options? Well I do not run Windows, and I would like to run at a minimum two network ports teamed. Which means now I need to order an additional Ethernet card or a two port Ethernet card. What I do know is it will likely not be a Intel Pro 1000.

Six years in a row now I have spend one Sunday more tired them most any other.   This is the Sunday night after Penguicon and this year was no exception to the rule.   Penguicon 6.0 has now come to a close and my head is swimming with all the great memories of this weekend.  First I have to say that the Tech guests of honors totally rocked.  All the guests of honor and nifty guests totally rocked the Penguicon house and I am thankful they agreed to take time out of their busy schedules to come. 

A few highlight from this weekend was the weather, the people, and Giant Singing Tesla Coils.  There have been Penguicons where a blizzard has dumped inches of snow during the event; this year we had plenty of great spring weather.  What I like most about Penguicon is the chance to meet and talk with exciting people.  As an organizer I am fortunate to have Thursday night and often times Sunday night to interact with the guests on a bit more personal level.  This year was no exception and the food and company for my Thursday and Sunday dinner was terrific.  This year at Penguicon we introduced a new guest type, Hack of Honor.  The inaugural Hack of Honor was no other then the Giant Singing Tesla Coils.  I really did not know what to expect but I can say that any expectation I had was completely blown away!  The amazing spring weather with the beautiful lighting and fun music was one of the most interesting experiences I have ever had.  The music was a selection of video game music, popular tunes and a bit if classical.  If you ever get a chance to see the Giant Singing Tesla Coils in person I would not miss it for anything. 

I am very tired after the weekend and will write more about the weekend in the coming week. 

Penguicon is only a short week away and I have already started packing.  It seems the closer the convention the more stuff I manage to bring.  It does not help that I have always brought much of the AV equipment needs for the last five Penguicons.

If you are reading this and have some time this Friday I am looking for volunteers to help load the AV into the truck and then unload it at the hotel.  The plan is to meet in the Hotel Lobby at noon on Friday there I will pass out directions to the warehouse about four miles away where we need to load the truck.  Once we loaded the truck we will head back to the hotel where we will unload the truck and get the equipment staged to go into each room at 3pm. 

My laptop screen has never looked so interesting and it is all from a little water. I have a backpack that I have had for years that I keep my laptop in. I also have the backpack loaded with miscellaneous other item, you know usually backpack stuff: papers pens and, most days, my water bottle.

The water bottle is where things went all wrong yesterday. I filled it up as usual in the morning and tossed it into my backpack. When I arrived at today’s work location, I opened the backpack up and was a tad surprised to see an empty water bottle. I remember thinking to myself: hmmm I thought I filled that. Not yet alarmed, I went to grab my laptop and this is when the horror struck me. I pulled my laptop out of my to have it draining water all over the floor. I look into the bottom of the backpack and see that there was over 2 inches of water in the bottom. I was suddenly impressed with Eddie Bauer Backpacks. This one is over 10 years old, and with a half liter of water in it, the backpack was nearly completely water-tight. I took the backpack over to the sink and poured out all the water. I wiped it out and it has never been cleaner.

I run back to the laptop which is still dripping and pop the battery out, but to be honest I had written the system off at that point. It was still dripping and it sat hard drive-end in the water for at least 10 minutes. I started wiping the laptop down, opening every cover and ejecting the battery and drives. The hard drive was soaked, and I thought there was no way this thing would ever work again. I let everything dry out for 12 hours and put it back together and crossed my finger. I was shocked! The system booted up and the only problem as a resulting of its bathing is a funny pattern on my screen.

I am grateful that the laptop is working because with Penguicon only a week away I do not have time to operate with a broken laptop. I would guess that the patern is from water stuck in the screen and that it will dry out better with time.