• Category Archives Work

  • Netgear

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    OK… so here at work I have been working on getting some SNMP monitoring up and running… and today I ran into the roadblock of our Netgear switches that we have deployed.

    We have a number of GS748T’s, GS752TXS’s, and a couple of older switches in the mix. All of these switches all SNMP monitoring if you enable it. However, in order to take full advantage of the power of SNMP you really need a MIB file that tells you where everything is. So does Netgear have these MIB files published on their website?

    No.

    Bastards.

    Why the hell wouldn’t they have something like that published on their website for users of their equipment to work with? No. In order to get the MIB files you had better hope that you have held onto the CD that came with the switch, because that is the only place they are located.


    Work

  • No Title

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    A handy technique I found was that whenever a programmer balked at giving an estimate, I’d ask, “What questions can I answer that would make you more confident about giving an estimate?” By getting him to be specific, I gave him the opportunity to confront the fear or frustration he might feel, which allowed me to help solve his problem.

    — Making Things Happen, Scott Berkun

    Found this passage to be quite enlightening, and I have got to remember to use it if the case presents itself!


    Work

  • Parking at UF

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    I work at the University of Florida. We have to pay to park here and do our jobs. Yes, a university that supports 55,000 students forces the employees (and faculty…they don’t get a free ride either) to pay for the privilege of working here.

    Why am I bringing this up? Because of a news bulletin that just popped up in my email:

    Effective Monday, November 4th, the Blue decal parking in the first level of Garage III (29 spaces in the Med Plaza Garage) will be replaced with Medical Resident parking.  In addition, the Blue decal parking in the two lots north and south of the Shepard Broad Building (Building 462) will be substantially reduced.  These changes are the result of the construction of a new building (the Harrell Medical Education Building) on the lot between the McKnight Brain Institute and the HPNP buildings.  We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause many of our customers.  You will find available Blue parking in Garages IX (next to the helipad) and XIII (Transportation and Parking Services garage).  We realize these changes may be uncomfortable and appreciate your understanding and flexibility.  Please feel free to contact our office with any questions or concerns.

    Notice that there is NO mention of additional parking being built in order to eventually alleviate this problem. Oh no, that would be insanity.


    Work 📎and tagged

  • Sir Edward Chilton

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    So, this morning as I was sitting in a staff meeting at work, I looked over at a bookshelf in the room and found a giant book called “The Blue Book” from 1976. Basically this was one of those “Who’s Who” books that they used to publish every year (and still are, I suppose, though why is beyond me.)

    I opened it up to see just what kind of content it actually had in it, and the page that I happened to open it up to just happened to be the one with Sir Edward Chilton’s biography in it. This was kind of surprising to me, or at least serendipitous, because I have read an awful lot of history concerning the Battle of Britain. I remember Chilton’s name popping up in at least one or two books that I read as a kid (either it was in The Dam Busters or Reach for the Sky by Paul Brickhill.)

    Just wanted to relate that little moment to the world.

    Actually, there was another moment during the same meeting where someone spoke the word invalid, which got me thinking about a story my mom told me of when she went on vacation in Ireland. Apparently she had to to go the bathroom, and when she went inside, there was a stall with a sign on it stating “invalid”. She puzzled over this, wondering what was wrong with the stall, and used a different one. Only after she had left the bathroom did she realize the other meaning (and pronunciation) of the word “invalid“.


    Flying/CAP Me Work 📎and tagged

  • A quote

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    OK… I didn’t actually hear this quote today, but I thought it as I was sitting in our weekly departmental meeting…

    “The less a user knows about the underpinnings of the cluster, the better”

    Basically, what I am saying here is that users should just use the cluster for their work, and not mess with anything else unless told to. If they have a problem, they should provide a distinct request with as much information about the problem as they can, and if we identify what the problem is we come up with a solution that we provide to them, and they use that solution. They don’t need to know that there are some switches to MPI commands that might make their program run a bit faster, because most likely they are going to screw it up and cause bigger problems than they would possibly be solving.


    Work