todo: try Mongo GridFS

I've been thinking about traditional file systems mkfs'd on block devices vs distributed file systems and I would like to set some time aside to play with Mongo GridFS. It looks like given a sharded mongo installation you can use the API to save a large file and it will split it across multiple servers. This looks like a nice way to store a large data set across multiple machines as opposed to having a large file system attached to one server which requires an occasional file system check.

persistent connections within cisco firewall

Our cisco firewall tears down old connections so I sometimes modify the kernel to send keep alives on tcp connections:

[root@server ~]# tail -2 /etc/sysctl.conf
# keep persistent connection (so firewall doesn't tear down)
net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time = 900
[root@server ~]#

prgmr.com

I like the approach that prgmr.com offers to being a hosting company. Also, their prices seem very reasonable.

Disclaimer: I am not yet a customer. All I can say so far is that this looks like the kind of hosting company that I'd like for my personal server.

at

Good old at is handy:

me@box:~> at now + 15 minutes
at> echo -e "remember that at(1) is your friend" | mail -s "at: `hostname`" me@tld.com
at> ^D
job 2 at Mon Mar 28 15:11:00 2011
me@box:~>

Pylons

I am experimenting with pylons. Fedora made this easy:

yum install python-sqlalchemy python-pylons
paster create -t pylons HelloWorld
cd HelloWorld
paster serve --reload development.ini
firefox4 http://127.0.0.1:5000

and then I was able to directly go to the examples in Chapter 3 of Definitive Guide to Pylons.

firefox4

I am now using fedora's firefox4 package as my main browser with the following plugins:

• firebug
• https-everywhere
• tree style tab
• vimperator
• web developer

Professional IT Community Conference

I'll be attending the Professional IT Community Sysadmin Conference