Posted by jeremy, at 2008-06-30 08:55:04

backup
So, out there somewhere is a Linux box that I need to backup nightly. Recently, a friend asked how I did it. So, voila here is fullbackup.bash, which backs up the system to the USB drive and unmounts it when it is done. It also emails me a text file if there is an error, so I can fix it right away.
Now, the client also wanted a way to see if the backup drive had been detected when they plugged it into the headless server. So I looked up gnubeep, and made the machine play a neat little tone when the drive came online. The HDonline script runs ever twenty minutes through cron. view it here.
Nothing fancy, but maybe you can make use of it.

Posted by jeremy, at 2008-04-04 22:13:42

Garage Rebuild Status
The garage has been rebuilt. It's still in progress, but it's coming along nicely. You can read about it at garage_rebuild, and you can hear about it on April 5th, at Hacking Habitation. Wish me luck.

Posted by jeremy, at 2007-09-03 23:50:20

so long and thanks for all the fish
It's been nine months since I made an update to my blog. I've failed to note some good stuff: Thorwald is now using the Medtronic constant glucose monitoring system, and insurance is paying for it. I took a class in teaching law enforcement techniques, which was really interesting. I ripped the roof off of my garage and put on a second story (okay, that one is still in progress, and I will get pictures of the whole project up in the future). Gunnar is growing fast, so is Thor. Both boys are thriving. Work is good, though there is the threat of a strike looming. I'd love to say that I'll start blogging again. I don't know that I will. I tend to tell my stories to people I see in person, and then forget about them. When I do find free time, I tend to build things, or threaten people who are selling my Undergraduate thesis with a DMCA lawsuit. It works, too -- something about $500,000 lawsuits seems to convince people that they shouldn't be selling my lone work on serial killers. When work and family, and all my construction projects die down, then I'll write more I guess. Maybe once Thorwald has mastered some prose, I can cut him loose with doing updates. We've done some laser-lightening of moles for him, and that has worked well. Regardless, happy trails. I hope to be back.

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-12-15 01:15:54

verizon learns math
I use Verizon for my cell phone. I do not do anything data related on it. I'm rather glad I don't, because it turns out that Verizon doesn't know the difference between $0.015 and 0.015 cents. That's a difference of TWO ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE. Imagine being told that a car costs $15,000--but the bill comes in for $1,500,000, and the guys at the dealership argue that they never told you anything wrong. I honestly don't know if Verizon is training their CSRs to mislead people, but I suspect they are. Day after day we are given examples of major corporations lying, cheating and stealing--all in the name of a quick buck. There are some audio links at the page above that are simply mindblowing. Basic math skills are apparently dead in corporate America. Maybe _that's_ how we got the Enron fiasco, and the Savings & Loan swindle (as sponsored by Neil Bush, our illustrious president's brother)!

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-12-14 18:10:00

thor went on vacation
From the way Thorwald looks in this picture, I think he's enjoying his 3-day trip to my parents' palatial ranch. From the looks of it, he really _is_ going to be a civil engineer someday.

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-11-16 10:26:56

Aaaaaaaaaaaargh
So much for HealthPartners rubber-stamping constant glucose monitoring systems. We received our letter of refusal last week. I've placed a call into their Medical Appeals Line, at 1-800-331-8643, and am told they are obligated to call me back within 1 business day. I'm looking forward to hearing from them, since their primary reason for refusal was that the sensor is not FDA-approved for Thor's age group. Interestingly, the paradigm pump itself is not FDA-approved for his age group, but they covered it without questions. I would suspect that this will give me a good argument for getting the sensors covered by Healthpartners.

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-10-19 23:00:04

Is google evil?
Is google evil?. This is an interesting article which points out one of the great truths of American business: profit is king. Those gmail accounts that google is giving away? There is no free lunch, people. They're learning from your email, and they may or may not be tracking data specifically on you.

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-10-19 15:01:41

Guardian
It was a day to visit Dr. Voulgaropoulis, and we came away with excellent news. Thor's A1c was 7.4, which is excellent, so there was only one small recommendation towards Thor's basal rate.
The big news is this: The Minimed Guardian Real-time glucose monitoring system is now available. It's still new, it hasn't been FDA-approved for Thor, but Dr. V has tried it on himself and been very happy. Unfortunately, non-approved devices are rarely covered by insurance. The cost for us would be $300/month + the guardian itself.
On a lark, however, I called HealthPartners, and asked. They have a policy that real-time sensors are covered without question. My next call was a message to The endocrinology clinic, asking for an Rx, then a call to Minimed. Minimed was kind enough to ship over an Rx request to Dr. V, and with luck, the paperwork will get rolling today.
Angela and I are overjoyed. This is going to mean we only need to prick Thor's finger 2-4 times per day, and when we do the final check, the one we do before us parents call it a night...we only have to get within six feet of him!
This still will not be an artificial pancreas--human intervention is required to administer insulin and glucose. Also, high and low readings will have to be verified with finger-sticks. Regardless of that, however, we'll now have an accurate picture of what's going on--far better than we could have even with 8-10 checks per day.
It's a good day here. I hope yours is going well, too.

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-10-17 19:49:02

don't forget to write your name on your paper!
I always give my students a two- to three-minute spiel on how they HAVE TO WRITE THEIR NAMES ON THEIR PAPERS, particularly tests. Normally, I just give students a zero when they leave off their names. Why? The more I teach, the more I see the ability to follow simple directions as essential.

In my Linux Admin 2 course, however, I have very few students. I had one student, who is actually very competent, neglect to write his name on the production portion of the test, though he wrote it on the scantron sheet. This is the message I put on his test.

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-10-16 20:33:03

I am a nerd

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-10-14 10:35:17

words of wisdom
The other night, after a few beverages, my wife and I started compiling a list of Thor's choice phrases so far. These span the first three years of his life. We're not making any of these up. These are all things that he has just blurted out at some point or another.

• My pants aren't on right
• I'm just cross with you dada
• My diaper fell down
• Why is it? (to be asked several times in a row, and on a daily basis
• I made poops!
• My finger is in my nose because it itches
• I can't imagine why they closed the corner video store
• F-Bomb!
• Uncle E drops the F-Bomb a lot
• why does he?
• I'm just all worned out
• I have poop on my hand.
• Oh, look, it's [NEIGHBOR], Dada's favorite person
• I want to be the wife like Graham, so I'm in charge
• I like your legs (to the 12-year-old brunette wearing short shorts in the dentist's office)
• You have beautiful hair (immediately thereafter, and again to the brunette)

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-10-10 19:09:24

this is not me.
Seriously. This picture is not me. First of all, I have a goatee now. Thanks to jose_ for pointing out this imposter.

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-10-08 19:24:50

Home improvement success!
With Angela's help, I swapped out the woefully inadequate screen door on the North side of our house. It took me four hours to get it finished, but a lot of that was just because I wanted to get it right, and because my cordless drill went dead ten minutes into it. Deprived of my secondary drill, I spent plenty of time switching between #2 phillips and whatever drill bit I needed.
Prior to today, I also did not own a 9/16 drill bit. Need a 1/2 inch? I've got six of those. I must have five each of 1" and 1.5" drill bits. Not a 9/16 anywhere in the massive drill bit collection, though. Had I owned that bit, I think it would have been a 3-ish hour job, because I wouldn't have lost the time searching for the bit, and then running to Home Despot.
The door itself is a Larson, but I can't find it on the Larson website. Apparently, it's a Menards Special. Regardless of that, it's got a self-storing screen, a wood core, and a nice keylock handle. Overall, installation wasn't bad, and was a lot less screwy than I figured it be.
It's such a treat to have a storm door that won't have snow blowing in under it!

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-10-05 16:23:32

no news on thor? What the?
No news is good news, they say. In this case, it's been fabulous news.
Thorwald has been wonderful. We have done more laser-lightening on an outpatient basis (Yay!), and he generally recovers very quickly from it. The Candela GentleLase laser is really quite amazing (please forgive their IE-centric, coldfusion-driven website. They _do_ still have a good product). In Dr. Wood's hands, it breaks up the pigmentation in the various moles. Sometimes it takes several applications, but overall the progress has been amazing.
Potty-training is coming along well now, with only the occasional mishap. I had no idea how much my life would revolve around poo once I became a parent.

Gunny is pulling up on everything, putting anything he can find into his mouth, and screaming with remarkable volume. He is generally a happy boy, quick to anger, and even quicker to howl. Thorwald absolutely adores him, and is very good at playing with him and looking after him. Neither one of them sleeps properly if the other isn't in the room. I sincerely hope they continue to get along so well.

Posted by jeremy, at 2006-10-05 16:14:58

yet another use for a common kitchen item
My worst nightmare came true about a week ago. My cell phone fell into the toilet.

Why did I even have it in the john? It was on my stupid belt. I felt the urge to sneeze as I approached the Big White Phone, and reached for a kleenex. My arm brushed my cell phone holster. My cell phone launched itself through the air. I sneezed. I heard the splash.
*sigh*
So I fished it out, and set it aside to dry. After two days of drying, it mostly worked, but the '4' key was still out of action. Naturally, I called Verizon and explained my situation. They were polite, but pointed out that I had ruined my previous cell phone only 4 months previously, and that they would have to charge me for a new phone.
So I thought...can I get by without dialing a 4? I can still call my parents and my sister, and my wife's cell phone. I could not, however, enter my voicemail password. I sighed heavily, and the operator said, and I quote:

Dude, you know I did that once, and the phone was thirty-two days old. Too old for the one-month grace period, too new to get replaced for free. So I put it in a bowl with white rice and covered it with saran wrap for a day. The rice wicked the moisture right out of the keypad.

I thanked him, and having nothing to lose, I tried it.
Hot diggity, it worked. Whoda thunk? Well, who besides someone with a clue, that is. Why buy fancy dessicant when white rice works?
Note that I will NOT be using the toilet-water-infused rice for anything else.