Thought-Blorg

Servers and Stuff

Daniel Enman — Sun, 30 May 2010 04:02:44 +0000

So, I am sure you all remember my previous post where I finally caved to the pressure and created a Linode server? Well, as a comparison, you might recall I looked into StormOnDemand as well. I’ve created a StormOnDemand server (for work, but I get to play with it!), and now I can give you my thoughts.

While I still have my Linode, and all of my sites and services are still hosted on it, I was tasked at work with creating a server that we can use for our upcoming sites and projects. After some further investigation (it came down to a choice between SoftLayer and StormOnDemand) I decided to take the plunge with Storm. So far, so good. They’ve got good things going for them. They’re support is good, I’ve had to open to trouble-tickets so far, one for more IP addresses (we have a lot of eCommerce heavy websites) and one because the Java console was acting up. Both requests were handled quickly and professionally. They’re “panel” is easy to navigate and you can get to where you need to be with minimal clicks. One area that I find they are lagging behind is their available OSes. Currently, they only offer CentOS, Debian, and two old versions of Ubuntu. Luckily the Debian image is up-to-date to 5.0.4, but I was looking for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (or at least 9.10) so that we could keep all of our Linux servers the same.

Will I be moving my stuff over to Storm any time soon? Maybe, but I really like Linode. I’m always looking for other options, and right now I am checking into RackSpace (I’m using them as a CDN currently). Everything on the CloudFiles loads quickly and controlling the files with their API is a piece of cake. They’re pricing is great too. Certainly can’t go wrong.

Anyway, look forward to more blogging from me in the coming weeks and months. There are going to be a lot of interesting things happing very shortly. Until then, be safe.

Timing… timing….

Daniel Enman — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:09:29 +0000

For the last couple of weeks, this computer would shut itself off periodically. I had figured it was either an issue with the CPU being too hot, or the PSU. One day, I decided to take the machine out of my “server stack”. (It’s actually a stack… of computers… that I use(d) as servers. Maybe I’ll post pictures). The machine used to shut off every 3 days or so, but now it would barely start up before it shut itself off. So after I hauled the computer out, I took off the cover, I hooked up the plug, and turned it on. Upon doing so, I notice that one of the chips is starting to glow. At first, I think it might just be a light that

Holy crap! It's on fire! Run!

normally turns on when the machine turns on.

Then I smelled the burning electronics smell.

Then I noticed the light was getting bigger.

Crap. Well, it looks like I might have to look at increasing the side of my Linode, or deciding if I want to go with Storm. I do still have one other server locally, but I may use that for development and computations.

Oh well. It was a good run zeus/derrial/uner2-1. I’ll miss you. I will make good use of your parts. Promise.

* Photo taken from http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/09/fix_an_old_ibooks_video_proble.html

Choosing a host

Daniel Enman — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:07:39 +0000

I recentely migrated a lot of my websites from a self-hosted solution (with a server that constantly shuts down) to a much more stable VPS with Linode. I’m really enjoying it thus far – everything is great. It’s quick, it’s stable (as in, it doesn’t shut down every 2-3 days without any warning!) and it’s got a really nice management console.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I really liking Linode thus far, and it suits my needs at the present time, but I decided to do some looking around and I found a very interesting host. Storm seems to also have some very competitive pricing schemes.

I’m not looking to move from Linode just yet, my needs are met perfectly just here. Storm however, does look like a very viable option if/when I do decide to move.

Or, maybe I’ll just open my own Data Centre. Who’s with me!?

Computational Physics lab 8

Daniel Enman — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:57:39 +0000

So, I’ve decided that to start the content of this blog off, that I would put some of my Computational Physics labs up. I want to stress that these labs could (and likely *do*) have errors in them, and should only be used when trying to figure something else for yourself (ie. don’t plagarise!).

So, without further adieu, here is the lab, complete with the source code files. Hope someone learns something.

Note: rk2 was adapted from rk4

Just testing some code stuff

Daniel Enman — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:53:21 +0000

int main()
{
	return 0;
}

Just testing the LaTeX

Daniel Enman — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:27:32 +0000

I like Math. I do Math. Sometimes, I want to share my math. I just want to check the LaTeX plugin, and make sure it works OK.

Hi there

Daniel Enman — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:26:23 +0000

Hi there!

Welcome to my blog. The first couple of posts might be bare – I’ve got a lot going on – but I wanted to get the ball rolling now that I’ve bought myself a nice and shiny Linode