Griffey to White Sox?

It seams that it is true.  The Reds have traded their best asset in selling tickets, and merchandise, and have decided to trade him to Chicago.  What did they get in return for the 6th all time home run hitter?  A no name pitcher, and an infielder that hasn't played a single big league game this year, and had a .230 average last year.  Woo Hoo.  Its a dark day in Cincinatti, and it may be quite a long time before I ever buy another ticket.

Network Monitoring Utilities

Looking for a quick, cheap, simple network monitoring utility?  Who isn't?

I've tried a few different setups.  I've tried Netsaint/Nagios, Zenoss, straight MRTG, and now Cacti.  Nothing really has everything that I'm looking for in a peice of software to do this work.

What am I looking for?  Well I see two important peices to good network monitoring: trending, and alerting.  Some would say that the ability for the software to executre remote functions or scripts is also important.  Its important, however not in my top two.

Netsaint/Nagios - Nagios, the current product name, has been around for around 7 years or so is some version or another.  It meets both of the top level requirements.  It does a great job of service trending and alerting.  It is a bit weak on the network utilization trending, but you can always bolt MRTG onto the web interface and get something workable.  It has a great builtin web based data reporting interface, but can be quite cumbersome to get configured correctly.  It requires a lot of work with individual text files, profiles, templates, etc.  All in all, once its running its a great utility, but for those of us that have semi-dynamic networks it can become quite an arduous task to play keep up.

Zenoss - Zenoss is an open source project.  Zenoss like Nagios has a pretty impressive web interface, and is capable of both service trending, and alerting.  Through the use of some additional third party host agents, like informant, you are able to get quite a bit of data through the web interface with minimal customization.  The issue with Zenoss is its lack of simplicity.  The way that the graphs and hosts are displayed can be quite confusing, and at times almost impossible.  I do believe that with some tweaking of some of the web layout, and a few changes to the config, it could be a bit more user friendly.

Cacti - Cacti is also an open source project.  Cacti is extremly good at monitoring service trends as well as network utilization trending.  Basically, anything that you can point an SNMP query at and get a response, it can trend.  The only problem with cacti is that it doesn't alert, or I haven't found a way to get it alert.  The interface is awesome, and the graphing layout is totally customizable from within the application itself.  No Perl required!  Cacti runs on Linux, and is also available as a virtual appliance to run on most virtualization platforms.

All three packages have their strengths and weaknesses.  I personally like Cacti, and am looking for some type of bolt-on alerting module, as I believe it has the most intuitive interface, and is easily deployable on a virtual infrastructure.

Thinking about getting a motorcycle

Ok, so the bug has hit me again, and there isn't much I can do about it.  My wife, of all people actually suggested that I get one to save on gas money back and forth to the office.  So, now, I have a quest.  To locate a great starter bike, and give it a try.  I am pretty set on getting a Buell Blast.  Why Buell?  For one, they are an American Made product.  They are built in the East Troy Wisconsin plant.  Buell is also owned by Harley Davidson, another great American Motorcycle product.  The Blast seems like it would be a good starter bike.  Its just under 500cc, is very road capable, and weighs in at about 360 pounds.  Now, the hard part!   Trying to find one has been an arduous task.  Neither of the dealerships near me have any in stock, new or used.  The new 2009 models just came out, so maybe they will get a shipment in soon.  I can't wait.

For more info on the new models, or Buell itself, check their website.

http://www.buell.com

How to hack everyday electronics

Really cool CNet article.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-9994305-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Cool iPhone Apps - Something's missing

Even though I can make my phone a light saber, it can't actually deter crime.

Enjoy.

Really Cool Nagios / R2-D2 Integration

I found this while looking for the latest nagios package over at nagios.org.  Its a really cool video of some geeks using Nagios and an R2-D2 Projector to track alerts.  Take a look!

10 Best Practices for Safe Computing

I came across this list on the UC Santa Cruz website.  Its a great list of best practices, so I thought I would share them.

1.) Use cryptic passwords that can be easily guessed - and protect your passwords.  This is essential.  The first line of defense for your sensitive information, etc, is your password.   Adding complexity to your password or pass-phrase increases the work it takes to crack by an exponential factor.  I would also have to add, to use multiple passwords for different services.  Don't let your online banking password be the same as the password you check your email with, etc.  That way when  you lose one password, the attacker doesn't get into everything.  Its risk management 101.

2.) Be cautious when using the internet.  There are tons of bots, trojans, and keystroke loggers that can be installed via the web browser without you knowing it.  Make sure that you are only visiting sites that you know, or are run by companies you trust.

3.) Practice Safe Emailing - Don't open attachments from folks you don't know, or really from folks that you do know without confirming they meant to send it to you.  This is taken care of mostly by mail clients and AV software today, however we are about due for the next rendition of the I Love You virus.

4.) Secure your area before leaving it unattended.  Don't leave things out with sensitive information.  If you must, lock the door.

5.) Secure your laptop computer at all times.  This means every time you walk away, you lock the console.

6.) Shutdown, lock, log off, or put your computer to sleep before leaving it unattended, and make sure it requires a password to start up or wake up.

7.) Make sure that you have AntiVirus, and the latest patches for your operating system installed.  New patches are available on almost a weekly basis for most operating systems.  You don't want to leave a well documented whole open in your defenses.

8.) Keep critical information in more than one place.  A hard disk failure can be catastrophic if you haven't backed up that thesis paper, or the materials for your major project.

9.) Don't install unknown applications on your machine.  This is pretty self explanatory.

10.) Secure the backups of your data.  Use encryption.  Put tapes into a safe deposit box.

The full list can be found at http://its.ucsc.edu/security_awareness/top10.php

VMWorld Coming Soon

VMWorld 2008 is coming very soon.  Check out www.vmworld.com for details.

Quick Diet Update

Since getting the news from the doc to try a low-fat, low-sodium diet early in June, I have now lost 15lbs.  I started June at 265lbs, and am starting July at 250lbs.  My goal is to hit 210lbs by the end of the year. I think I can do it.  Cutting out all of the fat though, is quite a bit harder than I thought.  Just finding lifestyle compatible food without hidden saturated fat grams is incredibly hard.  I have however found a few good resources.  One is FitDay which I spoke about last week.  Its a great fitness/dietary journal web app.  See my other blog entry for more details.  Second is the number of decent fitness blogs out there that are run by folks like myself.   www.fit36.com is a decent one, and he has quite a few links to some others.  Finally, Mens Health magazine has got a great database of great things to eat, and simple recipes to follow.  I will post another weight update at the end of July.

Leadership Changes at VMware

Well,

I will always remember her as the incredibly enthusiastic lady presenting at the VMworld key note addresses.  It looks like Diane Greene's time at the company she founded may have come to an end.  I don't know if she decided she wanted to do something else, or what happened, however I do believe that she is one of those people that are incredibly successful at pretty much anything she does.

Here's the VMware Press Release.

http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/executive_leadership.html

iPhone 2.0 - 24 hours

Ok,

So I have been using 2.0 for about 24 hours now.  Here are my first thoughts.

1.) The battery life with push enabled is horrible.  It went from about 30 hours between charges to less than 12.  I have now gone in and setup "Fetch every 15 minutes" for my exchange mail info, however I don't know where or if I can do the same for contacts/calendar.  I can turn push completely off, but I still need those two items to sync, so I may be trapped.

2.) The apps are awesome.  With quite a few apps out there and available via the first day, I was pretty impressed with the quality of most of them.  I have installed a few, which I will review.

2.1) AIM - Free, as in beer.

One of my biggest beefs with 1.1.4 was that there was still no chat client that didn't eat up SMS messages.  In the past week or so, we have AIM, and the Google Talk Web App.  Both are still a bit buggy.  The AIM client works great, as long as it maintains focus on the phone.  As soon as you run a different app, you start missing IMs, or they come in blank.  Perhaps this will get fixed in a update.  iTunes also tracks software updates for each of the applications that you have installed.  The AIM Client was free, so I won't harp too hard on its issues.  For a Rev 1.0 app, it does alright.

2.2) MLB - At Bat - $4.99

This is by far my favorite app.  It works just as demoed at WWDC.  I used it to watch my Reds spank the Cubs yesterday.  Griffey sure had a nice three run shot.  Anyways, the only thing about this app, is that when you purchase it, MLB only guarantees it to work through the 2008 season and playoffs.  My bet is that there will be another one for next year, and follow the same type of pricing as MLB.TV, etc.  The good thing, is that none of the clips have any ads.  Which is always a plus.  It also scales the video quality to the connection type you are using, which helps videos load faster.  Another plus.

2.3) Google Mobile App - Free

This app rocks.  Its like Google Desktop for your iPhone.  It searches the web, messages, other phone data, etc.  Very good app.  Video below shows it in action.

2.4) Mobile News from AP - Free

Cool little app.  Works exactly as demoed at WWDC as well.  You can pull top AP news stories, the newest stories, and even pull data based on your Zip to get relevant local news as well.  It also utilizes the camera, and allows you to submit stories, or more info to already published stories.  This app has a lot of potential.

3.) Exchange Connectivity with Exchange 2007, has been flawless.  So far I haven't had any issues with over the air syncing of contacts, mail, or calendar.  Well, other than the noted battery longevity as explained above.

So far.  Its been a pretty good experience.  I went ahead and downloaded the early release firmware via the appleinsider post below.  It worked well.  About a 20 minute procedure to do the upgrade, and copy my 1200 songs back to the phone.  Now, if I could only get a 16GB 1st gen phone, I 'd be set!

Windows for Workgroups 3.1.1 Finally Dies

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9988708-16.html?hhTest=1&part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Great CNet article about Windows For Workgroups 3.1.1's support from MS finally ends.

Who still runs this stuff?

iPhone 2.0 for the brave

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/07/10/apples_iphone_software_v2_0_available_early_for_brave_users.html

iTunes 7.7 Released today

So will we get 2.0 today as well?  I am upgrading my iTunes to 7.7 as I type this.  It should include access to the new App store.  I can't wait to get the MLB live app on my iPhone.  Being able to see the games in real time is going to be awesome.

Tracking Food Intake to Assist in Weight Loss

I don't know who isn't trying to lose weight out there, seems like everyone.  I have found a great site for using as a food diary.  FitDay (http://www.fitday.com) is a great web based food diary.  It allows you to enter each of your meals, along with specifying nutrition information for things that may not be in their large database.  You can also track your exercise, create goals, track your goals, and pull great reports on just about anything.  They also have a PC client that you can purchase if you don't feel like saving your info to the web.  

Give it a try.

Managing Nagios Config Files

I've been using Nagios in my professional life for about 8 years now.  Well, it was called Netsaint back in the early days, but its still pretty much the same utility.  

One of the hardest things when getting started with Nagios is learning to work with the configuration files.  In the more recent versions of Nagios, this has gotten a little simpler with the introduction of templates.  Now in version 3.0, the templates are even easier to use.

I always just modify the sample config files, and add my own templates for contacts, hosts, and services.  This way I can give visibility to each group of servers based on a contact group that is specified in the host definition.  

You can further simplify your config by using hostgroups appropriately.  When properly grouped hosts are together, you don't have to worry about typing every hostname into every service check.

More info can be grabbed at www.nagios.org.

SAPGUI on MacOSX 10.5

One of my ongoing challenges with making the switch to a Mac has been getting my Business Applications to run.  Until recently I wasn't able to find an SAP GUI client for Mac OSX.  A few days searching the internet, and the SAP Support forums, etc, I came across the Java Client.

It works great.  It is a little tricky to setup, but once done it is rock solid.

First you need to obtain the SAP GUI Client for Java Environments.  I am using version 7.10 Rev4.  You can get this from Service Marketplace on the SAP site.  You must have an SAP account in order to download.  See www.sap.com for full details.

Once you have the .JAR file, you can run it via Finder, and it installs.  Answer the default questions, and the installation should complete rather quickly.

Now that it is installed, you can run it.  If you are in an environment with quite a few of these clients installed, lucky you, ask your administrator for the config files.

If you are the first one, you can setup your connections to SAP systems manually rather quickly, and then save those profiles in the client.  Once the client is open, click new.  Give the connection a description.  From there, click on the advanced tab.  There you can manually specify a particular server to connect to.  The string should look like this.

conn=/H/server.domain.tld/S/3202&fast=true

I use port 3202.  Substitute the port that you use in place of 3202 in the above string.  Your system number determines the port for most folks.

Click Save, and you should be done.

Great 4th of July

Well. there's nothing like coming back to work in IT on a Monday following a long weekend.  

The family and I had a great July 4th weekend.  We spent our weekend camping out with my wife's parents at a camper that they own.  We spent the weekend eating, building camp fires, eating, sleeping, fishing, and made quite a few trips to the local playground.  We also gave the kids a few bike drawn carriage tours of the local camp.  It was a great technology free weekend.  

We did have some severe weather blow through on the 4th during the day, so we took the kids to town and caught WALL-E.  I didn't make it on that trip, but I heard that the movie was a little boring.  Maybe a Pixar short that went just a  little too long.  

No 2.0 yet!

Well,

Another day passes, and no 2.0 iPhone software getting released.  I guess we are all going to have to wait until the 11th.  It would be funny to launch it today, crash all the phones, and close tech support until Monday :)  Well, I am off to the woods for the weekend.  I will pick up posting again next Monday.  Everyone have a safe 4th of July!

Radio - Field Day 2008

I am an amateur radio license holder.  Each year, the world of amateur radio puts together Field Day.  This contest is quite unique, as you must leave your well built shacks, and take to the outdoors with all of your portable equipment.  You then spend 12 hours or so, putting up portable antenna structures, setting up portable power, and drinking a few beers.  

This year, I spent field day with my father, and the Flying Pigs QRP club at Ceaser Creek park in southwestern Ohio.  The cool thing about this group, is that they use very little power to do their communications.  QRP by its nature is a low power mode of operating.  All of the stations were battery powered.  We had several stations running CW on 20 and 40 meters, as well as a station running RTTY and PSK.  I manned a 6 meter rig hooked up to a quad.  The quad sat on top of about 25 feet of masting in what was one of the coolest portable mast kits I've seen.

Everything was set for a great field day, except for two main ingredients.  1.) Solar conditions were horrible.  2.) The weather included several severe thunderstorms, as well as "not severe" thunderstorms :).  One of the severe storms actually knocked several large branches down and onto our GOTA station's enclosure with a few folks in it.  Luckily, no one was hurt.

Between the brats, a single 6 meter fm contact, and few hours drive each way, a good time was had by all.  Here's hoping that FD 2009 won't be quite so wet.

Flying Pigs QRP Club website is located at http://www.fpqrp.net

Entourage 2008 - 30 Day Review

I am a switcher.  I have been running a Windows business desktop for the better part of 12 years.  Over the last year, I have been trying out an Apple Macbook Pro.  I purchased it along with VMware's Fusion product, so that I could still run my Windows Only business applications while I tried out Mac OSX.  Slowly over the past few months I have migrated to Apple versions of the business products I used daily.  Everything from MS Office to SAP's Gui client runs well on OSX.  The one thing that I had been hesitant about moving to was Entourage.  I have used outlook so long that all of the key combo's macros, etc, are second nature.  But, in the interest of giving this experiment its just due, I made the change over to Entourage.

At first, the change was pretty rough.  I have a little over 60k items in my mailbox.  Over a Gig connection it took roughly 3 days in the office to get Entourage caught up to my Outlook.  I think this may be due to how Entourage talks to Exchange, however it seemed very inefficient.  Rather than updating new items, and then backfilling the older data, it did the opposite.  This pushed the test back three days while I waited for it to be at a usable point.

Once I was able to begin using Entourage, I was pretty surprised.  The interface is decently different from that of Outlook, but its a good blend of Outlook and Apple Mail.  Everything works in and out of the client as it should.  Attachments I think actually work a little better because all of your options are displayed without having to click on any single item.  

Calendar is pretty close to Outlook.  Very easy to use with a straight forward interface.  It can also be setup to use SyncServer to push your Entourage appointments, and contacts for that matter, to your iCal and Apple Addressbooks.  This is useful if you plan on getting this data to your iPhone or iPod device. 

It will be very interesting to see if this ends up working with MobileMe, etc.  

Mac OSX Update Today

10.5.4 was released today.  Its about 60 mb or so.  Looks like about 13 security updates, and some other patches.  CNET has a great breakdown of the patches, as well as the Apple Support site.  Still no iPhone 2.0 software, maybe tomorrow!