PSA: Workarounds for CentOS 7.3 Problems with SE Linux 2.5
PSA: If you update to CentOS 7.3 and see odd errors like this resulting in a hung boot: Failed to start Import network configuration from initramfs and/or work still pending FAILED Failed to start...
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Vulcanair 1.0 Training Airplane
I wasn’t aware that Vulcanair bought Partenavia out of bankruptcy in 1998, and has built an EASA-certified Cessna 172 clone, the Vulcanair 1.0, for almost half the price. The 1.0 is a...
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PSA: Acer Aspire D150 Netbook Still a Viable Notebook
While my Macbook Pro was getting the battery replaced recently, I used my Acer Aspire One D150 netbook daily. The Acer Aspire is an Intel N270 Atom-based 800×600 notebook running Windows XP, so I...
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Fix for Apache httpd Update Causing WordPress Redirect Loop
The recent Apache httpd 2.2 server update changes the envariable HTTP_HOST from ‘domain’ to ‘domain:port’, causing cookie domain match and redirect issues with web apps, especially in a reverse proxy...
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Safety-critical Realtime with Linux
LWN has a nice article on “Safety-critical realtime with Linux.” The intro has a good overview of real-time concepts, and the rest of the article has a summary of Linux implementation techniques....
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Amazon Waterproof Kindle Oasis
Interesting news that Amazon is selling a waterproof Kindle, and that previously Jeff Bezos used Kindles in a one-gallon Ziploc bag in the bathtub. I worked on the Cloud backend for the discontinued...
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Redis and CentOS 7
Redis is a feature-packed cache that’s easy to install and work with. Here’s some notes on installing and using Redis with CentOS 7. Install available redis package from your available yum repos: # yum...
View ArticleFascinating Transfer of Bombardier CSeries Airliners to Airbus
The unfolding story of the transfer of Bombardier CSeries CS100 and CS300 airliners to Airbus is one of the most fascinating business cases I’ve ever seen. A short summary is: The Bombardier CS100 and...
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Linux zero filesystem bash script
This is a short linux bash script I wrote that’s adequate for zero’ing a filesystem for on-premise server storage. Note that the only “secure erase” is to destroy the physical drive because of various...
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The Awesome Cloudify Orchestration Tool Roundup Slides
Cloudify and Gigaspaces wrote a really useful slide deck titled, “Orchestration Tool Roundup – Docker Swarm vs. Kubernetes, TerraForm vs. TOSCA/Cloudify vs. Heat” dated June 11, 2015. There’s 3 things...
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Internet Latency and Multi-Master Database Transactions
There’s 2 common misconceptions in engineering West Coast – East Coast data centers: that packets travel at the speed of light that database transactions must be 2-phase commit, and two masters cannot...
View ArticleTechShop Closes November 15, 2017
I was a supporter for TechShop, but always wondered how it could operate in expensive urban locations like Silicon Valley. Well, it closed today. Here’s the announcement.
View ArticleDatabase Blob Normal Form – Blob NF
I propose a new normal form for databases, Blob Normal Form (Blob NF.) Definition: A database is in Blob Normal Form (Blob NF) when all fields containing binary data or long arbitrary text are moved to...
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How to Autoscale AWS RDS Read Slaves
I don’t see a lot of links on autoscaling AWS RDS read slaves. Is the reason: AWS RDS users are simply content with relying on features as they arrive? users could just be upsizing RDS masters or...
View ArticleWordPress Community Scheduler Interval Bug
I opened WordPress Bug 42866: “WordPress Community Scheduler Interval Bug.” I found that when writing the RackPing Monitoring widget, scheduled tasks frequently run up to 45 seconds earlier than the 15...
View ArticlePSA: Upgrade Early Macbook Pro Notebooks Now
Macbook Pro 2010 notebooks came pre-installed with Snow Leopard (10.6) Mac OSX. As of Dec. 2017, very little popular software will work or update on anything older than Mavericks (10.9): Several...
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Postgresql and pgloader
Recently I migrated a small but non-trivial (25 tables, about 500 columns, no triggers or SPs) MySQL schema to Postgresql using the Open Source pgloader utility. pgloader supports migration from...
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PSA: Intel Security Bugs and the DBA
There’s at least 4 problems related to the on-going Meltdown and Spectre serious CPU security bugs (AWS announcement) that impact the Database Administrator (DBA): in shared environments, like AWS or...
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Part 2: Migration Notes from MySQL to Postgresql Using pgloader
This is a multi-part series starting with Part 1. After perfecting the schema and data migration with pgloader rules and getting the application sessions and login code working, it was time to convert...
View ArticleLast USA 747 Passenger Airplane Retired
The last 747 has been retired from passenger service in the USA. I’ll miss the 747 because it was the only widely-used airliner built for trans-oceanic flights: For safety reasons, I’d rather have 4...
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