So long ago I read an article from Joey Hess on keeping ones home directory in CVS and was attracted to the concept but never quite got arround to it and the later read his Subversion article and then just before going on holidays found this tutorial which had some nice explanations on how to layout the repository for maximum flexibility.

Well with a new job and some new and some recently reinstalled computers I was looking at having to maintain 8 shell accounts day one and probably a few more over time so this was the ideal time to take the plunge. Only my account on loughan had any real amount of tweaking done so it was the one it imported first.
Everything went very smoothly and adding a new host to the system takes just two commands.

I figure the productivity gains I have made in the last week alone have justifed it and I expect it to make my life much much easier in the weeks and months ahead.

So I got this new job thing with Magnet Networks in their Network Development team. I started last Wednesday and it was a pretty hectic first few days. Monday was my last day with HEAnet and it was wierd to think I won;t be working there anymore after two years fulltime and just over three since I started INTRA there. It was the longest I had ever worked in the same job and I will miss the people but time for a new challenge.

So just for the record Magnet build fibre to the home networks (henceforth ftth) and then deliver voice, video and data services, the so called triple play over this network. The entire network is IP based, so all the voice stuff is SIP, the TV is multicast MPEG2 and the data is just IP over ethernet, no PPPOE, no BRAS, no ATM switches. I get to have a tv on my desk for testing purposes. I work with three other engineers in the team who I knew to a greater or lesser extent before I started which was a nice way to begin. Best of all it is only a short cycle from home.

So your still laughing at my claim that the TV is for testing right. Well just to prove you wrong last thursday Boyan (head tech on the team) asked my to work on getting the set top boxes (STB) software upgrade system working. So I was given a STB that had no software image installed and some initial guidance on how the provisioning system worked. One of the Video guys had setup the servers which multicast out the software images on two differnet groups and all I had to do was to get the stb to learn these group ids. Well after much faffing about with tcpdump and ethereal victory was mine and the STB was happily letting me watch Wimbledon.

This whole multicasting out software upgrades is very clever and will be really usefull when we have to push upgrades to 20k+ STB at a go. This is a good time to point out that I can send commands to all of the STBs in the network at the same time. Thats right folks I get to make everyone watch the Colin Appreciation Channel whenever I want. I think I will like this job.

So you are standing on a knoll which you have identified on your map despite the fact that you can see no more than 5 metres due to heavy mist / fog. Now your next control is 200 metres away due east so you pull out your trusty compass only to discover that the needle is spinning in the housing. Thats right folks this here hill is littered with magnetic rocks. This day can only get better.

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About to leave for the airport to head to Scotland for LAMM with Peter. Transport details have worked themselves out and we are sharing a hire car with a couple from belfast. Should get us to the event centre before 19:00 rather than the 22:00 it was looking like by train.

The weather forecast is looking good and I think we have a better equipment setup than last year so fingers crossed. For those who are curious you can follow our progress on the LAMM website over the weekend. Our team number is 462.

Ball was lots of fun. Got to try out some of my dance moves with the LadyFriend on a dance floor we had all to ourselves which was lots of fun. The dress did indeed go swish lots. At some point during the visit we also watched The Princess Bride which was part of my birthday present from the LF.

Ben Folds on the Tuesday evening was a great gig and was worth the wait. The LadyFriend’s boss offered to give me a lift to the airport last night which avoided the whole bus / train / taxi shuffle which was all good.

I think this trip will score Two Enthusiastic Thumbs Up.

No greater proof of how much I like the LadyFriend can there be than my being up at 4a.m. to go visit for the summer ball, which was when this whole adventure began last year.

Also on the cards for this longer than usual visit is a Ben Folds concert that was originally secheduled for last november and the tickets took considerable effort to obtain. I am stuborn enough that I wasn’t going to miss this concert no matter when it was scheduled.
I believe my role as postman for the young ladies is set to continue also.

Anyhow Charles (my taxi driver) is here and so I must depart.

So I mentioned in the previous post that I had a new machine intended for use as a sever at home. This is a shuttle that I ordered on monday from komplett with a 1.75GHz AMD CPU and 1GB of crucial ram. I had planned to raid 5 three 160GB Hard Disks which had been retired from the heanet ftp server, two of which had been running in a raid 1 setup in my desktop fine.

But alas the hard drives have decided not to play nice and the raid 5 array has gone kaput. Just ordered a pair of 200GB SATA drives which I will raid 1. This frees up the 5 1/4 inch bay which will probably get a DVD burner in due course.

Current planned list of services includes DHCP, DNS, Samba, subversion, audio playout device, shell accounts for my brothers to play with. Depending on how my connectivity pans out it may do some routing and firewalling. Anyone got any suggestions for other usefull services for a home network?

So I have a new computer (A shuttle I plan to use as a small server for home) and so it needed a hostname. Now would be a good time to mention that my naming system to date has been female names (they just sound nicer) and so it became orly.netech.ie joining grainne, aine, sorcha, imelda and sarah in the pantheon of my computers.

With the new job I will be getting two new computers, a desktop and a laptop, and so I am beginning to think about names for these machines. Normally when naming sets of machines I would try to use releated names, e.g. the names of two girls who are good friends and who you would think of together in the normal scheme of things.

So I have a pair of names in mind but will the ladies in question approve?

Myself and Peter took part in this event last year and it failed to kill us so we are going back to try again.

Due to various reasons not enough training has happened this year but hopefully the weather will be kinder.

At least I hope so.

1. Alison Krauss & Union Station - The boy who wouldn’t hoe corn
2. Nickel Creek - Reasons Why
3. U2 feat. BB King - When love comes to town
4. Sister Hazel - Your Winter
5. Johnny Cash - Hurt

I don’t have a copy of Hurt but I heard it yesterday on the TV and I was reminded of just how great a song it is and how powerful Cash’s delivery can be.