Currently it has:
Hosts:354 Data-Sources:16943 RRDs Processed:8744

And has hit a limit with Disk i/o.

What I plan to do is: Move it onto a temp virtual server. Completely rebuild the old dell with two RAID 1 sets each on 2 disks – One for the RRA and one for the DB and see how it put up with that. The rebuild should help on the disk layout too – due to all the network changes and low disk space its likely the disk could have a few few frags.

If this doesn’t work and it still struggles, then I’ll use one of the various other spare dells (might have to be one without a raid card – so it’ll be software raid) and stick the database and possibly front end on it.

Once we have it stable again – I suppose I better look into a better way of coping with gigabit Ethernet cards in windows – currently we use the SnmpProxy2.pl hack – may just be a case of limiting it to Windows servers some how and not all 64bit Ethernet counters.

1. Ability to record digital TV as it is broadcasted without any additional compression
2. Ability to record more than one channel at once (preferably more than 2 some times)
3. Ability to overlap program recording where needed
4. Ability to Record radio stations
5. Backend front end system where by I can schedule/view/control the system from another computer
6. Ability to record one, two or more channels on any mux using one TV card (there’s no point having to use two TV cards to record channels on the same frequency.
7. Do this all in the background on a Debian Sarge (+ selected extra apt-get sources) System
8. A TV like interface I could fire up. I don’t mind if I can schedule or tune from this interface, but I’d like to see now and next info, change channel, pause live TV, hit record etc. I don’t need the ability to play games nor watch DVDs etc from it. I just want to channel surf sometimes or fire it up to watch something at the spur of a moment.
9. Scheduling would be nice, but as long as there some easy to use interface, I could plug in my current scheduling system

I currently use DVB Daemon + webdvbd (with some changes to give me a webinterface I can hook my scheduling program up to) + DigiGuide (via wine).

Its a bit of a bodge but gives me the most important features and is relatively stable (I do occasionally have scheduling issues even with two cards) and about >1% of the time I get a duff recording (picture drops out before the end or picture is too scrambled to watch), but this may be a driver issue.

What the current system lacks is clash detection (I can tell if I’m paying attention – but only for manually one time only added programs – they won’t appear if there’s a schedule problem). It also lacks a GUI and TV live interface. I can watch TV live but its not easy to do (I have to use dvbstream and mplayer – so can’t change channels using my remote). If I had more time, and more experience in this I may be tempted into making and interface, but I suspect MythTV will finally put up with the pain of breaking things and written in decent dvb support first.

On sunday I listened to the following talks:

1. John Leach – Everyone Loves Eric Raymond
   Another one of the talks I’d knew would be quite funny. Pretty informative too
2. Matthew Garrett – Linux and Laptops
   I have a laptop and linux, so hey might and well listen to this one. Turned out to be one of the funiest talks of the weekend too. By the way don’t buy an Acer……
3. Richard Moore (IBM) – IBM and Open Source
   We have quite a lot of IBM stuff at work, so I thought I might pop along. It would appear IBM and Microsoft have defiently switched place, IBM is the company that is listening and doing lots of interesting things while Microsoft is the company telling customers what they want and how they should do things.
4. The Hour of Power — short demos of cool stuf
   Basically interesting stuff to look at.
5. Mike Hearn – Packaging and Autopackage
   I liked the sound of this to start with, but the more I herd the more I disagreed. Yes we do need to make things easier to install in linux, but not without loosing all the advantages. Nearly all the improvements auto packager offers could easily be implemented in the likes of apt.
6. The LugRadio team – Thankyou and goodbye

The end of the show. Left wanting more as everything good thing should.

At the end we went back to the hotel, wasted a few hours then went down to the bar. Started outside, but then grew too big and moved inside when the Lug Radio presenters joined the rest of the people at the Quality Chin. A good night of drinking, talking and the odd glass of champagene. Another late night and off to bed tired and drunk again, once the last of the presenters had gone, and nearly everyone else had called it a night.

Anyway when we did get down there we where waiting in a small queue and then into the venue. It was a reasonably sized student union, although as its actually part of the rest of the uni building and not a separate building it was hard to gauge it size. The bar was open and plasma screen where displaying some pictures and a now and next off what was to come. A small intro from the Lug Radio team and the event kicked off.

There where 5 room – The main room and bar, with the 2 BOF points and lan gaming off to the sides, and exhibition room which forms the rest of the bar (if it was open), The Chin and Beard rooms (for smaller talks) and the third and last bof point. The talks I attendants on Saturday where

1. Gervase Markham – How to Destroy the Free Software Movement
   An entertaining talk on well how a fictional company was working on Destroying to free software movement
2. Matthew Somerville – MySociety and Pledgebank
   I did try and see Ewen Spences talk, but he never turned up so I went to see the MySociety talk. It was quiet interesting – especially as I’d already used part of the site and not realised
3. Stephen Lamb (Microsoft) – Microsoft and Security
   Should have really gone to another talk to be honest – felt a bit lectured to and bored during this one
4. Lunch – Unfortunately we turned up on mass to a very busy and understaffed Varsity and missed the mass debate, but it was decent enough food at least
5. Des Burley (Mills & Reeve) – A lawyer on open source
   Interesting talk on the problems facing open source law wise
6. Matthew Bloch (Bytemark) – Virtualisation
   An interesting talk on a technology I’d like to play with but haven’t found a reason (The stuff we could use virtulisation for at work unfortunately is all done on Microsoft stuff)
7. Ian Lynch – The OpenDocument Fellowship
   Some details on the way the OpenDocument Fellowship is working. Would be nice to switch to an Open format at work – but need to wait for Microsoft to get their word pluggins sorted first. Assuming they do one for all the version of office we use.
8. Bruno Bord – This Talk May Contain Swearing
   AKA LugRadio Live and Unleashed warm up talk An excellent talk, especially given English isn’t the speakers first language.
9. LugRadio Live and Unleashed

All in all a great day. The Bar was well used, the aircon was a little ineffective but it wasn’t too warm. Its colder than my office at work anyway.

After the main event we all got very wet walking back to the hotel, stayed wet while a few of us got a KFC. Showered changed then off to the party.

Party – Was better than I was expecting, attendance was down from the main event of course, but still pretty well attended. Unfortunately the bar eventually ran out of Guinness, Cider and Grolsch so I ended up having to have a pint of Stella at one point, but at least been a Student union it was cheap. The DJ wasn’t bad – but given he was a club DJ was lacking in the wide range of Music demanded by the crowd, so the dance floor remained fairly empty most of the time. His rock selection was worst of all having to resort to repeating a few tracks. Next year I’ll pay attention and bring a cd with a few decent tracks (No Rammstein I promise – unless anyone else wants some played). The SU tried to kick us out early, but Jono sorted that out and we stayed till just before 2 and headed back to the hotel for a quick chat with a few people then off to bed for the night.

A great weekend it was too.

I got down there about 5ish Friday, then waiting about 30min for Junior ‘s (sward) train to arrive (he missed the one he was meant to be on). As it was the first time either of us had been to Wolverhampton we took a taxi to the Quality Hotel (via the wrong one thanks to a taxi driver who miss-heard sward). We both checked in and went to unpack. I got into my room and bloody hell it was hot. I found out later they had heating problems and the heating was jammed on full which given the weather really didn’t help. The room was pretty good, especially at the cheap rate Jono from Lug Radio had secured for everyone.

Predictably we headed off the bar for a drink, and ended up drinking a fairly warm pint of Murphy’s – main due to that fact that was the only thing worth drinking, plus given the heating issues everything was generally warm. We hung around for a while and eventually bumped into a few other people who where down for lugradio. At about 8 we set off in a big group walking into Wolverhampton, through the grubby subway system a few times. We arrived at the Hogshead and had another drink, and then went out for something to eat. The eating party soon split up into 2, one lots went for a curry and the group I was in when for a Chinese all you can eat. It was pretty good and much needed – I always get very Hungary after a long journey. We went back to the party at Hogshead for another few, but after the filling Chinese and the fact I needed sleep we headed off back to the hotel – getting a bit lost on the way back. Took the wrong initial subway, ended up in the right second lot anyway, but then went up the wrong side off the exit and headed up the wrong road. We eventually got back to the hotel after realising what we had done and backtracking. Spent the next hour talking to some people outside the hotel who where here for lugradio and then headed off to bed (well into the oven).

Home:
This site
Shift the email system of my old server onto the new one (olds running Exim 3 other Exim 4)
+ Loads of other stuff

Anyway Windows Whinge 1:
Why have and add remove programs system which 1) Doesn’t list who added the program or when it was added – especially given the fact that even on a locked down 2003 system some user still managed to add a silly net game to the system. I mean ok because of the locks downs in place it was a pointless task for the user to have done (They had no way of running the programs once the installer had quit.), its still annoying to think a program that in effect was only in the users profile should have shown up in the add remove programs. God knows what else its done.

I Graduated from the University of Manchester with a 2:2 in Computer Science despite Gigs, Drink, House Parties and Diablo II.

I currently work as a Senior Technical Analyst for part of the NHS. Basically I am part of the Second Line support team which is also involved with install and maintaing IT equipment and software.

My Hobbies include Computers (obviously), Music (listening not playing) and Backstage Work (Lighting and Sound).

Why: Well why not?

A better answer is the other type of the blogs/rants/newsgroups forums aren’t really suitable for this kind of post I feel. Plus as I didn’t want to re-invent the wheel (I’ve done it enough already) I’d thought I’d look into some CMS system. Along came WordPress which seems to fit perfectly and do everything I need for now.

How Often Will this Get Updated: If my previous works have anything to go by – in spurts of updates followed by long periods of nowt.

Plans: Well the plan for now is to get the site laid out with all the computer related gubbins. Maybe a history of my computing experience along with some of the Software/Hardware I currently use at work at home. It might also mean I get around to releasing the odd bit of code/scripting which makes my life just a bit easier.

Any Other Business: I have a really bad habit of getting ahead of myself when thinking of things to type. This often leads to missing out keywords – so the sentences don’t make a lot of sense unless you’re thinking on the same lines as myself. If this ever happens please point it out to me and I’ll try and remember what the missing words where and add them back in so things make sense again.