Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to those random few of you who read this!
Customer Service
I love how customer service people work at some places.
I finally decided to leave Layered Tech, because of their (lack of) customer support. When I first opened up my account with them two years ago, everything about the company was amazing. Their ticket turn around times were great, the network was superb, but all of that seems to have turned around.
I had just ordered an extra 2 GB of RAM to put into my server for a total of 4 GB, which is pretty much necessary for a large VM based system such as mine. After being brought back up, he server only reported 3.2 GB. Having some background in computer architecture, I knew exactly what caused this, and knew how to fix it. However, I couldn’t because I didn’t have direct console access. So, naturally, I opened up a support ticket.
Fast forward 24 hours. I finally got a reply! The person had booted into the BIOS, seen all 4 GB, and marked it off as being fixed because the computer recognized all 4 GB. Wait! Hold on there a second! I know the BIOS sees it all! And the OS recognizes it all, but it can’t USE it all.
The reason for this is simple: Memory is mapped from the first register upwards, and PCI devices are mapped from the last register downwards. On a 32-bit system, the number of registers is exactly the number of bytes in 4 GB. So the hardware was mapped from the 4 GB mark down to about the 3.2 GB mark, overriding the registers that would have been used to access that ~800 MB. Now, one would think that on a server this wouldn’t be an issue. And in fact, on most any modern computer it isn’t an issue. One would also think that a provider wouldn’t sell 4 GB of RAM on a box that can’t handle 4 GB of RAM. However, I later found out that it wasn’t actually a server box. It was a HP Pavilion dc7600 Small Form Factor PC.
I opened up a KVM ticket so I could look at the BIOS myself and possibly enable the memory hole remapping option.
Lets fast forward 24 hours again. I still hadn’t received any reply on the KVM ticket. I then replied to them saying close the ticket, and I opened up another ticket – this time to cancel my entire account. I headed on over to SoftLayer and signed up there, and everything has been absolutely fantastic. These guys have their stuff together.
Some of the finer points:
- Fully integrated management panel for your entire account – and YES these are fully dedicated servers
- Two network cards – one public and one private segment, each on its own VLAN specific to my account
- Unmetered VPN access to the private segment for secure management and transfer of content
- Remote power and console access, so if the server’s networking dies, I can still log in and fix it
- You actually GET the bandwidth you pay for – I have pulled full 100 Mbit (~12.5 MB/second) off of this server without a problem when transferring my data over
- Super fast ticket turn around times – I have not had to wait more than 30 minutes for a reply to a ticket
I’m not even paying that much more than I was at Layered Tech. $293 a month for a P4D 3.4 GHz, 4 GB of DDR2-677 RAM, and a 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive, on a 100 MBit link with 2 TB/month of transfer. Pretty nice deal. I can run just about anything on this machine, which means that I’ll finally be able to start up my shared hosting business again, and do things right this time. If I’m lucky, it’ll start paying for itself.
Oh, and as for leaving Layered Tech? About 30 minutes after I opened up the cancellation ticket they tried to bend over backwards to fix all my issues. At that point, it was too late. It’s too bad because they were an incredible company when I started with them, but since then it’s just gone downhill. Hopefully they can turn it around, but I won’t be going back in any case.
The joys of servers
So, this server is a VMWare based machine. I set it up that way to make maintenance and backups easy – which it does a great job of. I have several VMs running on the box for various purposes. It works great – most of the time.
However, it seems that the host operating system decided it’s going to have issues booting back up after I do a reboot from time to time. I also realized that 2 GB of RAM isn’t enough for the stuff I run on it, so I decided to do a RAM upgrade. At that point, I realized that Windows Server 2003 Web edition doesn’t support more than 2 GB of RAM. I also started wondering why the hell I set this thing up with VMWare on Server 2003 instead of Linux.
At this point, my webhost probably hates me, because I have two tickets open – one for a server reload with Debian 3.1, along with data recovery, and another one for the RAM upgrade to 4 GB – and in both tickets, I reference the other ticket, saying if possible I’d like both done at the same time. So, hopefully this works out properly. If it does, everything will be a breeze to set back up. If not, well crap.
However, many thanks to Layered Tech for putting up with me for the past few years. These guys are great.
Finished Rig
I finally seem to have finished my guitar rig! I’ll probably change a few things over time, but it’s good to have a complete rig.
Top to bottom:
- Monster Pro-2500
- Marshall JMP-1 Tube Preamp
- T.C. Electronic G-Major
- Peavey Classic 50/50 Poweramp
Below is a picture of the isolation cab. Pretty sweet deal, close it up and it’s very sound proof. Cuts the noise you hear outside in over half, so I can really crank my poweramp up. It also eliminates almost all exterior noise from the recording, so I get high quality recordings out of it.
New site, once again.
I’ve switched the site around yet again! I’m going to try to move most of the old entries over, or at least the ones that are still relevant. It might be a while though.
2006 NBA Champions
It’s been 18 years… The last time was when my dad was coaching the Lakers in ‘88. I was three years old and I hardly remember it… I do remember one thing: Magic Johnson was trying to steal my damn cookies when we were on the championship float, and I wouldn’t have any of that.
Well, we finally did it. My dad coached the Miami Heat to their first NBA title… Tonight was the most incredible night of my life. Words cannot even begin to explain the pure natual high and the amount of joy and fun that we all had. After the game we all rushed down to the court and pictures were taken of all of us, then my dad gave his speech, followed by the players. This all happened in Dallas, and the Mavericks fans weren’t being very good sports – a lot of them stayed behind and booed us the entire time. Afterwards we went off into the back parts of the arena, and there were interviews, and lots of them. I was hanging out with Amber quite a lot throughout the partying. I pretty much just met her that night – I’ve met her before but only briefly. She’s the daughter of one of my dad’s good friends. Really hilarious and fun girl.
While we were behind the scenes, I gave Amber my camera for a few minutes to take some pictures. We now have a picture of my sister and I pouring out two full bottles of Crystal on my dad’s head while he was getting ready for an interview… It took him by complete surprise. After all the interviews and such we drove over to The Mansion – a resort/hotel in Dallas, and we had our championship party there. All the players were there, there was great food, music, some great speeches by the players, and honestly it was the most fun night I’ve had my entire life. It was just a magical night… Things like this happen once in a lifetime…
After the party ended around 4 AM, the team, staff, and all the family headed back to the airport for an early flight back home. All the family flew back on the team plane with the team, and it was very much a party plane for the three hour flight. That is, until about 7 AM when everyone save a few of us fell asleep. Eric was making fun of some of the other assistant coaches for falling asleep, then two minutes later he dozed off. Naturally I had to take a picture of him to prove a point.
When we got back into Miami at around 8 AM, there was a crowd of easily 200 people waiting outside the airport. The Miami-Dade fire department was there waiting for us, and they sprayed the plane down with their fire hoses as a welcome back. When we walked out, several of the fans yelled “Thank you Pat!” and then they all slowly broke out into a chant of “Riley! Riley! Riley!” Apparently I was on national TV on CBS that morning… If anyone saw me, let me know!
The parade is on Friday at 2 PM, so be on the lookout for me and my family!
Dream Theater: SCORE!
I flew up to New York city this weekend for the Dream Theater show at Radio City Music Hall. It was the most incredible show I’ve seen. The crowd was completely into the show, everyone was singing along, and the three hour set was incredible.
Set List
First Set
- The Root of All Evil
- I Walk Beside You
- Another Won
- The Afterlife
- Under a Glass Moon
- Innocence Faded
- Raise the Knife
- The Spirit Carries On
Second Set, with the Octavarium Orchestra
- Overture
- About to Crash
- War Inside My Head
- The Test That Stumped Them All
- Goodnight Kiss
- Solitary Shell
- About to Crash (Reprise)
- Losing Time
- Vacant
- Answer Lies Within
- Sacrificed Sons
- Octavarium
Encore
- Metropolis Pt. I: The Miracle and The Sleeper
That’s right. They played Six Degrees from start to finish. With an orchestra. It’ll be out on DVD sometime later this year, so I can say “I WAS THERE!” to everyone who buys it!
Caribbean: Day 4
Today was our last day of the vacation. It was too short… Anyway, I slept in as usual, and when I got up everyone was just about to head back to the beach to go to George’s for lunch. I have to say they have good burgers there. After lunch, my sister and I headed back to the boat and she decided it was time for some water sports.
Being the guy who likes to take lots of pictures, I grabbed my camera and hopped on the tender. I took 197 pictures. A lot of them were out of focus, so I had to throw those away. There were a few good ones though. Halfway through my battery died, so I had to go back on board and charge it. Thankfully, one of the crew members, Angie, had the same camera as me and let me borrow her charged battery! I don’t have the gallery up on this site at the moment, so ask me for the photos if you want to see some of them.
That evening we had dinner on board for our last night. We should have done it more often, because the chef was amazing. She made a wonderful filet, with a great presentation on top of that. For dessert we had a freshly made creme brulee, which was wonderful.
It was a nice relaxing evening, and then we had to pack up and get ready to leave the next day at 7 AM.
Caribbean: Day 3
This morning we set sail for Anguilla early in the day. It’s about a two hour cruise over, and we arrived around noon. On the way over, we had lunch on the top deck since it’s difficult to eat on shore when you’re cruising. After we arrived and the captain checked us into the country, we headed back over to Cap Juluca, a resort on the island.
We anchored out in the bay, and went in to the island for the evening. There’s a great bar and restaurant on shore called George’s, so we sat down there for a little bit, had some Pina Coladas, and just relaxed.
We went back to the boat, got ready for dinner, and then again back to the beach for dinner at Pimms, another restaurant. Dinner was so so, the striploin I ordered wasn’t the best I’ve had. I guess that’s what I get for being used to eating filet mignons and New York strips. It was a fun and relaxing evening though.
After dinner we went back to the boat, and everyone watched some movie. I don’t remember which movie because I honestly wasn’t paying attention to it. That was all for the day!
Caribbean: Day 2
Today was the second day of our trip. Everyone woke up earlier than me… I woke up around noon. We had already left the dock and were over at a wonderful cove. The crew set up a barbeque on the beach for us, and we relaxed there for a few hours. Around four we were all back on the boat, and cruised back to Port Gustavia.
We all relaxed and rested until around 8, and then headed out to the Eden Rock Hotel for dinner. It’s an amazing location. There are two restaurants, one on the beach, and another built up on a cliff. We were up on the cliff, overlooking the ocean. It had a really nice view. Dinner was wonderful, a great salad and then an amazing steak. Desert was just okay, it would have been better if they didn’t put a sparkler in my cake… Crazy birthday people. It had bits of metal left in it from the sparkler. They brought out another desert for all of us afterwards, which was amazing. I have no idea what it was, so I’m not going to try to describe it.
Tomorrow we’re sailing for Anguilla, and going to be staying there for the rest of the trip.