nick’s site

Apple offers a way to create iTunes IDs without a credit card. This works IFF* you don’t already have an Apple ID.

There are cases where you have an Apple ID that isn’t associated with iTunes; whether it’s for developer accounts, discussion forums, registering your product, AppleCare, or Store appointments.

However, it doesn’t offer a way to convert/link an existing Apple ID with an iTunes ID without using a credit card.

This needs to change.

*If and only if

many times it seems like i’m not learning anything useful in school, applicable to someone who has been working in IT for a dozen years already. at first, it was learning to program and learning processes, then documentation and workflow. now i’m learning some basic nuts and bolts of how computing works, which is neat but doesn’t seem immediately applicable.

i was reminded last month that maybe school isn’t about tools or skills but instead about access; access to explore new ideas and figure out what you want to do. maybe it’s about getting pointed in the direction you’re interested. maybe it’s about teaching you to think about problems differently.

i’m nearing the end but still don’t feel like i have a direction. i’ve been reading the acm and sigcomm periodicals for ideas and inspiration. some graduate-level classes look interesting but i’m burned out with school. although, i feel when I pause, i won’t go back.

the pause is inevitable as i follow through on a commitment to my wife but the duration is undecided.

a few people have asked how we make our cold-brewed coffee.  we make it a gallon at a time, you can adjust quantities as needed.  it takes a while to make a batch but you can make the second batch while consuming the first.  :)

you need a pitcher, a sun-tea jar, a strainer, coffee grounds (medium or dark roast), and coffee filters.

medium-grind two cups of coffee beans, pour them in the pitcher, add water (seems to be about two quarts.)  let it stand at room temperature for 12 hours.  stir it every couple of hours if you remember.

after 12 hours, put your coffee filter in your strainer and place it on top of the sun tea jar.

pour the coffee concoction through the filter.  you can fill up the filter but it won’t flow outside the jar.  this is the slowest/hardest/worst part for us because we’re impatient.  pour the mix in and walk away for 10 minutes, don’t watch it.  repeat this until the pitcher is empty.  you can replace the coffee filters when they get too gunked up to pass coffee any more.

almost done!  use your fingers on the outside to gauge how deep the coffee is.  then add that much water.  chill.  enjoy.  it will be good for about five days but rarely lasts any more than two days in our house.

turns out you can’t migrate/resize/extend a 3ware lun without adding disks, at least on a 9650se controller.  i had 4x 750gb disks attached to a controller, no free slots.  i replaced one by one with 1.5tb disks.  i wanted to extend the 2.05tb lun to 4.0tb but the software won’t let you do it.

[root@schitzo src]# ./tw_cli
//schitzo> /c2 show

Unit UnitType Status %RCmpl %V/I/M Stripe Size(GB) Cache AVrfy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
u0   RAID-5   OK     -      -      64K    2095.44  ON    OFF

Port Status Unit Size    Blocks     Serial
---------------------------------------------------------------
p0   OK     u0   1.36 TB 2930277168 x
p1   OK     u0   1.36 TB 2930277168 y
p2   OK     u0   1.36 TB 2930277168 z
p3   OK     u0   1.36 TB 2930277168 a

//schitzo> /c2/u0 show

Unit    UnitType Status %RCmpl %V/I/M Port Stripe Size(GB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
u0      RAID-5   OK     -      -      -    64K    2095.44
u0-0    DISK     OK     -      -      p1   -      698.481
u0-1    DISK     OK     -      -      p2   -      698.481
u0-2    DISK     OK     -      -      p0   -      698.481
u0-3    DISK     OK     -      -      p3   -      698.481
u0/v0   Volume   -      -      -      -    -      2095.44

//schitzo> /c2/u0 migrate type=raid5 disk=0:3
Error: (CLI:008) Invalid ID specified. Found a specified ID already in use.

lame.  time to destroy, create, mount, and restore.

largely saving for reference

Today i ran into something very strange, a freshly set up VMWare Server 2.0 host wasn’t accessible by https and vsphere client.
I analysed the logfiles and came accross

[2010-11-06 13:35:09.843 'Proxysvc' 4128988016 warning] SSL Handshake on client connection failed: SSL Exception: error:00000000:lib(0):func(0):reason(0)

which seemed to be related to some SSL v2 Certificate thingie.
It didn’t work out for me to enable SSL v2 but as a quick hacky solution replacing all

“httpsWithRedirect” with “httpAndHttps”
in /etc/vmware/hostd/proxy.xml
then do a /etc/init.d/vmware-mgmt restart

atleast now lets me connect to the server without ssl encryption just fine.
I know its not 100% safe but on a local network server its acceptable to me.
Keep in mind instead of https://xxx:8333 you now have to use http://xxx:8222

thanks thorian

wanted to redistribute some static routes into eigrp, this is handled differently in nxos.  all redistributes need to use a route map, easiest to populate the route map with a prefix list.

examine your static routes…

n7k1# sh run | inc "ip route "

ip route 0.0.0.0/0 10.0.0.2
ip route 10.10.10.0/24 10.0.0.4
ip route 10.20.10.0/20 10.0.0.1
ip route 192.168.172.0/24 10.10.10.3

create a prefix list of subnets you want into eigrp..

ip prefix-list examplestatic seq 15 permit 10.10.10.0/24
ip prefix-list examplestatic seq 20 permit 10.20.10.0/20
ip prefix-list examplestatic seq 25 permit 192.168.172.0/24

create a route-map, add your prefix-list to it…

route-map examplestaticmap permit 10
match ip address prefix-list examplestatic

add them to your eigrp instance…

router eigrp 14
 redistribute static route-map examplestaticmap

validate whether the routes showed up on your other routers; this is a downstream ios device:

2911#sh ip route 10.20.10.0
Routing entry for 10.20.10.0/20
  Known via "eigrp 14", distance 170, metric 52224, type external
  Redistributing via eigrp 14
  Last update from 192.168.97.19 on GigabitEthernet0/0, 3w5d ago
  Routing Descriptor Blocks:
  * 192.168.97.20, from 192.168.97.20, 3w5d ago, via GigabitEthernet0/0
      Route metric is 52224, traffic share count is 1
      Total delay is 1040 microseconds, minimum bandwidth is 100000 Kbit
      Reliability 255/255, minimum MTU 1492 bytes
      Loading 1/255, Hops 4
    192.168.97.19, from 192.168.97.19, 3w5d ago, via GigabitEthernet0/0
      Route metric is 52224, traffic share count is 1
      Total delay is 1040 microseconds, minimum bandwidth is 100000 Kbit
      Reliability 255/255, minimum MTU 1492 bytes
      Loading 1/255, Hops 4

2911#sh ip route | beg 10.20.10
D EX     10.20.10.0/20 [170/52224] via 192.168.97.20, 3w5d, GigabitEthernet0/0
                       [170/52224] via 192.168.97.19, 3w5d, GigabitEthernet0/0

that’s it.  my examples show up twice because i did the redistribution on two n7ks.

there was a pinata game.  the pinata was shaped like a baseball, but filled with sex toys.

nate ended up with it on his head.

I don’t like unions.

That said, I see no reason government should be allowed to tell people how they can organize. I find it hilarious a bunch of people who claim to be for small government, want government to be able to dictate how people can negotiate. Further, there shouldn’t have to be laws allowing people to collectively bargain. In a free society that’s like having laws allowing people to breath.

there’s a couple decent tools to lab & test multicast routing.  one is mcast.exe and the other is VLC.  the third, i suppose, is to join a cisco interface to a multicast group.  dan mentioned a fourth tool, nortel’s multicast hammer.

symantec endpoint protection 11 disabled broadcast & multicast by default.  you will need to disable this if you have it installed. 

mcast.exe is a part of the windows 2003 resource kit.  in windows 7, you need to run your command prompt as administrator for it to work.  on the “source side”, all you need to specify is a source interface/ip-address and multicast group.  i usually test with more packets of obnoxious sizes.    overriding TTL gives you more testing options.

mcast /intf:10.11.13.2 /send /grps:239.192.1.101 /pktsize:65535 /numpkts:20000000000 /ttl:128

on the “destination side”, all you need to specify is a source interface/ip-address and multicast group.

mcast /intf:10.11.12.50 /recv /grps:239.192.1.101

another way to test is with VLC.  i’ve tested this in 0.98 and 1.1.  it’s easier & faster from the command line than the GUI.  on the “source side”, you need to specify a destination multicast group, port, and override the default TTL of 1.

vlc -vvv c:\media\SomeShow.S02E03.720p.HDTV.x264-CTU.mkv –sout udp:239.192.1.100:1234 –ttl 255 –loop

for the “destination side”, specify a multicast group and port to tune into

vlc udp://239.192.1.100:1234

i found an annoying nuance in VLC 1.1 or windows 7 for a client tuning into a multicast stream

vlc udp://@239.192.1.100:1234

last but not least, a cisco interface.

sw1(config-if)#do sh run int loopback 153
Building configuration...

Current configuration : 121 bytes
!
interface Loopback153
ip address 10.11.153.1 255.255.255.0
ip pim sparse-mode
ip igmp join-group 239.192.1.110
end

verify igmp memberships. maybe check pim rp if you’re up for it:


sw1#sh ip igmp groups
IGMP Connected Group Membership
Group Address Interface Uptime Expires Last Reporter Group Accounted
239.192.152.143 Vlan2 3d02h 00:02:57 10.11.12.110
239.192.1.110 Loopback153 00:01:56 00:02:49 10.11.153.1
239.255.255.250 Vlan2 27w4d 00:02:52 10.11.12.236
224.0.1.24 Vlan2 1w1d 00:02:51 10.11.12.4
224.0.1.60 Vlan2 07:09:12 00:02:53 10.11.12.9
224.0.1.40 Vlan1 27w4d 00:02:52 192.168.200.1

quotes of the day.

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

- stephen f roberts

and

If they say “Just God. I only believe in the one God,” I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.
- Ricky Gervais