Redundant VPN Tunnels via Different ISPs

About Scott

I'm a computer guy with a new house and a love of DIY projects. I like ranting, and long drives on your lawn. I don't post everything I do, but when I do, I post it here. Maybe.

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Redundant VPN Tunnels via Different ISPs

By Scott • 2019-04-23 Computers

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RAID HDD TCO Calculator (Total Cost of Ownership)

By Scott • 2019-04-05 Computers

A while back I created a HDD TCO worksheet showing the relative costs of certain drives in no real context. This spreadsheet aims to calculate the total cost of ownership for a RAID array, which is a much more involved affair. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dM2vO08gmX3VwYyJtTE5D1Gu75TTU-nUW95j1_DVx8c/ That’s a read-only version, but you can easily make your own copy to play with: If you have a Google account and are logged in, you can just hit File -> Make a Copy.. to save it to your own Google Drive. If you hate Google sniffing into your private affairs, you can hit File -> Download As and grab a copy in the format of your choice. I hope I’ve provided enough of an explanation as to … Continue reading

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Yes, the Dell Compellent SC220 Chassis AND Drives are Generic!

By Scott • 2019-01-18 Basement, Computers

The Compellent SC220 is the disk set on top, followed by an HP D2700, an HP MSA 70, and a Dell MD1220.

I found a great deal on eBay. A Dell Compellent SC220 chassis filled with 24 x 600GB 10K SAS disks for $350 including shipping. Obviously if you’re reading this years later that will seem like a terrible price, but as of now 600GB SAS drives are selling for about $30 each (used). So it’s roughly $720 worth of drives alone. The SC220 is basically an MD1220 in sheep’s clothing (though sheep are generally naked so who knows), and those are selling for about $120. Like I said, a great deal! But there was one question that needed answering: Did the Dell-branded Compellent HDDs have some kind of special firmware that rendered them useless with a standard RAID or JBOD controller? … Continue reading

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Apparently myisamchk Doesn’t Understand 2-Digit Numbers (MySQL)

By Scott • 2018-02-13 Computers

myisamchk If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’re trying to run myisamchk on a large table and you want to set the –sort_buffer_size to some large value. That’s advisable, of course. However, it seems that some versions of MySQL don’t understand a 2-digit value for that parameter. I was trying to do the following: myisamchk -f -r –update-state –key_buffer_size=4G –sort_buffer_size=16G –read_buffer_size=32M –write_buffer_size=32M /var/sql/myisam-temp/mastersitedb/applicants_master_search – recovering (with sort) MyISAM-table ‘/var/sql/myisam-temp/mastersitedb/applicants_master_search’ Data records: 0 – Fixing index 1 myisamchk: error: myisam_sort_buffer_size is too small MyISAM-table ‘/var/sql/myisam-temp/mastersitedb/applicants_master_search’ is not fixed because of errors Try fixing it by using the –safe-recover (-o), the –force (-f) option or by not using the –quick (-q) flag If you’re getting an error like that, try using … Continue reading

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An Open Letter to Amazon and Netflix

By Scott • 2018-01-10 Rants

Dear “New Media” Companies, Two years ago I decided to take the plunge and purchase a UHD TV. But I thought twice about it, deciding that I would hold off until there was adequate 4K content available. At that time the 4K market was weak. UHD Blu-rays had yet to be released, and other than some YouTube content and perhaps a few shows from your companies, there wasn’t much available. Finally at the cusp of 2018 I decided to make the move. There’s much streaming media currently available in UHD (as you’re obviously aware), as well as a plethora of UHD Blu-rays. So I now have a very nice Sony OLED hooked up to my HTPC. But the sad part … Continue reading

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Disregard: Sealed Lead Acid Battery Longevity Log

By Scott • 2017-12-11 Computers

Edit: ACTUALLY, NEVERMIND It’s now June of 2020, and I figure it’s time to put a big “disregard” in the title of this post. While my objectives were indeed grand, there’s a fundamental flaw in my methodology: Most of the UPSes in question do not perform battery self-tests. As such, I really only find out about bad batteries when there’s an actual power failure. And those happen very inconsistently, and infrequently. (Which is good for me overall, but bad for this “log”.) For example, my power just flickered briefly and one UPS shut down as soon as the power went off. The batteries were dated as replaced on 2017-12-10. However, that UPS survived the last power outage some months ago, … Continue reading

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Amazon Echo Look – Teardown

By Scott • 2017-11-04 Computers, Videos

Amazon Look - Teardown - All Parts - Top - YouTube Cover - Attempt 01 - 1080p

The Echo Look I’m working on a full review-type-thing of the Look, but who really cares about that? I’m sure people will want to see the insides of it, though. The most interesting two things on it are an Intel RealSense SR300 module (minus its visible light camera), and what’s basically a full Intel PC motherboard. In fact, here are the main specs: Intel Atom x5-Z8350 (SR2KT) @ 1.44Ghz (1.91Ghz burst) 8GB Samsung eMMC Flash NAND Storage 8GB Elpida LPDDR3 RAM Broadcom 802.11ac + 802.11b/g/a/n + Bluetooth (Not sure of the version) The hardware is fantastically made and well put together, and overall is very clever considering they stuffed all of it into a diminutive cylinder! The Reassembly I did … Continue reading

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ZeroFiller: Nearly Fill Up a Disk with Zeroes for Snapshot Backups

By Scott • 2017-10-23 Computers

ZeroFiller - Some Source Code - Screenshot

ZeroFiller (for Windows!) This might be a relatively niche utility, but I figured I’d share it because it might help someone in the same situation. File Version Description ZeroFiller-v0.8-20171023.zip v0.8a2017-10-23 The ZeroFiller executable only (requires .NET 4.5.2) ZeroFiller-src-0.8a-20171023.zip v0.8a2017-10-23 The ZeroFiller source code (requires >= Visual Studio 2017, probably) Backups I run a lot of VMs and I’m a bit obsessed with backups. I do high-level backups (meaning files, DB data, configs, etc.), as well as low-level backups of the actual VM disk images. The raw virtual disks get snapshotted on the host system, then the snapshot’s raw data is backed up using dd, gzip, and rsync. It’s not fancy, and it basically grabs the machine in a crashed state … Continue reading

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Like Bees, the Yellow Jacket Power Strip (by Coleman Cable) is Terrible

Video

By Scott • 2017-09-28 Rants, Reviews, Videos

Another sh*tty power strip

Welp, they’ve done it again. Any by “they”, I mean people that make poor quality electrical devices. Specifically Yellow Jacket, which is a Woods brand, which is a Coleman Cable brand, which is probably somehow owned by either Warren Buffet or the Koch Brothers.

I got this for $16.22 during an Amazon lighting deal, and even though that’s not a terrible price, the poor quality construction and the basic lie about the materials is what really angers me.

Join me as I disassemble and then curse at this poor excuse for a power strip, in my newest installment of first world problems.

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Enterprise Network Switches for the Home: Ramble feat HP Procurve 5406ZL

Video

By Scott • 2017-09-25 Basement, Computers, Rants, Videos

The HP Procurve 5406ZL and…

…a whole lot of other crap, vis a vis my opinions on used enterprise-grade networking hardware for the home (or small-ish business).

I purchased an HP Procurve 5406ZL on eBay mainly because I “need” 10GbE on my home network, which is almost recursive because it’s for editing 4K video, which I need for editing this video.

The bottom line for me is that you can’t beat the feature/price ratio when it comes to equipment like this. That is, if you can afford the resultant power bill.

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