A friend has convinced me to build an E-Commerce site with him (he is a good sales person, which was part of the deal!).  Technically this is really not that hard seeing how I have done this before, however the cool thing is that I get to design the system from the ground up.  Which means I get to ‘do it right’ from the get go by making the site secure, scalable and easy to administer.  Two new tools I am using for this project are Puppet and Ruby on Rails.  Combined with KVM for the many servers, I am really enjoying this.  Especially when the person I am working with understands that I will do this as inexpensive as possible and when I mention the need for a VM server, instead of pushing back… conferences calls some one who can help get resources.  Still, it is really fun to be able to get some pretty redundant systems for very little money.  I mean, how beefy does a firewall have to be… all I ask for is a 1U case with hot swap disks, dual power supplies and a LOM

The VM server is a bit more difficult as you have to really look at the processors to ensure KVM is supported.  AMD is pretty straight forward. I wish Intel was the same.  Though with how inexpensive 1TB SATA drives and Linux having software RAID 6, my goal is to keep this server under a grand.  Like I said, I am having fun with this.

On the political side, Portland’s local government is going off the deep end with Hayden Island.  On one side of the island they want to take away land with the CRC.  Then Adams’ ‘Hand Picked Yes People’ spent 17 months and $500,000 doing… well no one knows?  Then it is becoming politically to popular to speak up for sexually exploited teens, which Dan Saltzman started making noise about during his re-election.  My question is where was he and the rest… oh, a year ago?

Speaking about asleep a the wheel.  Portland city council did what we know they would do with lawsuits against the city that they know they can not win… settle.  One would thing that the former and current police commissioners would make it to the council session to vote and give guidance about why it took 4 years and $1.6 million.

One good thing, all of this tech that I am doing is gearing up for some really cool stuff for the local elections in 2012!

Categories: Linux, Portland politics, Puppet, Ruby, city council, geek
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I had an interview that had me nervous, in a good way, when I woke up yesterday.  I try really hard to have my resume reflect all that I have done.  Most of the time I know that I am one of the most technically adept people in a given room.  Though I am pretty humble and not cockey about it.  Yesterday I had an interview with a group of people that contribute to a really cool Sys Admin tool called Puppet written in Ruby.  Some times I can kick my self for missing projects like this.  Anyhow, this group is on top of their game and really know their stuff.  The job is one that I can totally do and grow with.

After the interview I was off to the old hood to visit RevPhill.  It was great catching up with him and he gave me a piece of great advice to answer friends questions about my past year… make a Zine and carry copies with you.  This is brilliant.

Then it was off to get some post interview thank you cards… but I just could not send some lame piece of paper that essentially is a reminder of my name… I would not want to be treated like that.  So for the same price of cards I found a cool tattoo book and sent that instead.  Which was had a cool serendipitous outcome as at the Main postoffice I ran into a campaign volunteer who was kind enough last year to drive me home after I had about 5 too many beers.  I love how Portland is small like that.

So today my goal is to clean the kitchen (which needs it bad), then fill the green yard debris bin and get the trash to the curb… my rewards shale be outline my Zine, write a tiny rails App and install play with puppet on some VM’s… I guess I could update wordpress as well.  I am also digging this Sci-Fi book that I got for $1.00 from Powells called Salt.

UPDATE: Amazing how much time CLEAR tech support takes trying to get a static IP.

Categories: Puppet, Ruby, SciFi
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About ever year I remember I have a domain name.  The reminder is in the from someone wanting me to change my registrar.

It has been a non-stop first part of this year, which means that I am not much for updating this blog.  Well that and I was honestly surprised at the number of people who were attacking me this time last year. Now that the politically motivated attacks are stopped I guess it is safe for life to get back to normal.

Well, I am still in Portland and thanks to my good friend Steve, I have been learning Ruby.  Why I did not do this years ago I do not know why.  This language is as fun (and less annoying) than PERL.

Categories: Ruby
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I have been a solid Linux user for more than a decade now… and have never had a virus.  Granted I am a Unix\Linux systems admin and the last (and only) time my system was hacked was by a co-worker who found a bug in the backup software we were using.

Anyhow, Mary has to use Windows (which I understand, though can not wait to get her a Mac).  I really feel bad for Windows users with all the malicious code out there.  For the longest time I have believed that local governments and schools cold save a lot of money in time and licensing by using something like Ubuntu (my Linux flavor of choice, hey- it is a Debian variant).  Why are we giving money to Redmons, WA… when we have OSDL just down the street from us?  No too mention that that money could go to local consultants and stay in our local economy.

But back to Mary’s system.  Wow, this bug on it was straight up nasty.  I had to use my fallback  Linux rescue boot disk, mount her disk and remove files that way.  Now that Spybot Search and Destroy is running, all should be good.

Categories: Linux, Portland politics
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Sunday I had the pleasure of having a great dinner with Karin Hansen and her husband Tom Potter.  The made special veggy food for me that was so good.  We talked about our love for eastern Oregon and concerns for Portland.  I learned so much from that meal.  Not to mention that I got to talk about how cool District 9 was when I saw it at the Avalon last week.

Tonight Mary and I were in the glass studio working things out.  She was doing art and has a piece in the kiln right now.  I got to zone out and cut glass while listening to a Screeching Weasel CD I slipped on her Ipod.

In the realm of Hulu (as we do not have cable)… I was really stoked to see the new Legend of the Seeker.  I was really impressed and entertained with last season, not to mention that I kinda relate.

Not to mention that WWeek just posted RandyLand part II!

Categories: Music, Portland politics, SciFi
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What a busy weekend cleaning up the house with Mary.  Slowly I am getting my life back in order after moving for the 3rd time this year.

It feels good to listen to a some Sisters of Mercy, relay with a glass of wine and see what city council has in-store for us next week…

And there it is:

*1562 Authorize Grant Agreement with VOZ: Workers’ Rights Education for $50,000 to operate and maintain their day labor hire site in Portland as approved by Council  (Ordinance)

Good ‘Ol Randy slipping something by in the consent agenda that is politically unpopular.  Now I am not saying that there should not be a Day Labor center… just that the citizens have a right to have a say on this issue.

But enough with city stuff right now.  I have some PERL code to write for Forward Support to do credit card processing with A.net that will collect all the SOS requirements for political contributions.  I kinda look forward to this as it has been some time since I have used some of my code-fu.

Though for those that are really looking for a good time… check out ORESTAR for the new candidate filings… oh how I love transparent government.  Which remnds me of yet another PERL script I need to write for FS.

Categories: PERL, Portland politics, geek
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I got the gear that I lent to Amanda’s campaign back and am getting it set up for a project that me and a few friends are doing.  Today was mainly getting the PowerCom KIN-1500AP UPS up and running.  I ended up having to write some code to get the shutdown working properly.

See:

#! /usr/bin/perl

# little script that will wait till batteries are almost dead to power down
# if power comes back before then then NUT is restarted

# min battery level to start shutdown
$min_battery_level = 80;

# seconds to wait between poll of UPS status
$poll_interval = 10;

$upsc_bin = "/bin/upsc";
$logger_bin = "/usr/bin/logger";
$upsname = "black@localhost";

$ups_status = &get_ups_status();
$ups_battery_level = &get_ups_battery_level();

`$logger_bin -t $0 "called by NUT"`;
`$logger_bin -t $0 "UPS_STATUS is $ups_status"`;
`$logger_bin -t $0 "UPS_BATTRY is at $ups_battery_level"`;

while ( &get_ups_battery_level() > $min_battery_level ) {

   ### The UPS is back on line and we can exit
   if ( &get_ups_status() eq 'good' ) {
      `$logger_bin -t $0 "UPS_STATUS is good."`;
      `$logger_bin -t $0 "Restarting NUT and exiting $0"`;
      `/etc/init.d/nut restart`;
      exit 1;
   }
   else {
      foreach ( `$upsc_bin $upsname` ) {
         if ($_ =~ m/ups\.status/) {
            `$logger_bin -t $0 "$_"`;
            $ups_battery_level = &get_ups_battery_level();
            `$logger_bin -t $0 "battery.charge: $ups_battery_level"`;
            sleep $poll_interval;
         }
      }
   }
}

# If we get to this point the battery is really low and we need to shutdownp
`$logger_bin -t $0 "battery.charge is below $min_battery_level"`;
`$logger_bin -t $0 "Shutting system down"`;

`/sbin/shutdown -h -P now`;

########################################

sub get_ups_battery_level() {

   foreach ( `$upsc_bin $upsname` ) {
      if ($_ =~ m/battery\.charge/) {
            $charge = $_;
            $charge =~ s/(.*)(\:\ )(.*)/$3/ ;
            chomp ($charge);
      }
   }

   return $charge;

} #End of sub get_ups_battery_level()

sub get_ups_status() {

   foreach ( `$upsc_bin $upsname` ) {
      if ($_ =~ m/ups\.status/) {
         if ( $_ =~ m/OL/ ) {
            $status = "good";
         }
         else {
            $status = "bad";
         }
      }
   }

   return $status;

} #End of sub get_ups_status()

The CNC machine is working great.  I am still learning the intricacies of CAM and gcode… well that and waiting for the variable speed controller and mill ends to arrive.  I emailed the city to find out the process for selection on the CRC.  This week they are reviewing the applications and the beginning of December is when they will interview.  Jonathan over at Bikeportland.org posted a very telling story of why I feel that Citizen oversight of the police service is necessary:

PSU Cycling Club president Reuben Vyn and Officer Pryce. (Photos: Peter Welte, Story: BikePortland.org)

Categories: CNC, CRC, PERL, geek, police
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Yesterday I biked down to City Hall to turn in my application to be on the CRC.  While on the steps talking to D on my cell phone Les was walking in.  I only had time to say ‘Hi’, but it was really good to see him.

On the way home I stopped by Free Geek to get some shielded cable and DB25 connectors for the CNC machine.  Free Geek is such a wonderful resource and maturation of Open Source.  It was nice to see all the Ubuntu CD’s gone and the thrift store full of people recycling.

I the rest of the night soldering a protective circuit for the limit switches and getting the pinouts right for the shielded cable.  I was listening to Countdown on MSNBC with Micheal Moore really resonated with me.  People keep their jobs because of health insurance.  I have known many people that loath their jobs and\or employers… yet keep their job only because of health insurance.  His premis was that this stifles people by locking them in a job that they do not like and away from occupations that they could excel in.

Categories: CRC, Free Geek, geek, health care
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Today was really good.  I feel as tough I have got the garage all set up.  It feels like a really work shop and now that the computer with the real time kernel and wifi is up and running.  It is on to the the finishing the CNC machine.  The belt drive system is so cool and takes a time to fine tune… but I did build it all myself.

It was really cool to explain to my housemate what drives me.  I can see a cool plan.

Categories: Political, geek
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Wow what a really busy summer!  Which is why I have not posted much on this.

The most driving things for me right now is filling out my application to volunteer on the Citizen Review Committee.  It is vital that government be legitimate to citizens.  Having citizen oversight is essential for our Democracy to flourish… no only if there were public hearings on the Wall Street bailout happening right now.

In the geek realm I am building a CNC machine for a project that will most likely use some cool open hardware.  It feels so good to work with my hands and tools after years of doing Systems Administration.  I very much feel as though I am in a transitional period of my life into the political realm.  I still enjoy and believe that technology is available to do great things for people… but only if the technology is open and affordable to all.

Categories: geek, police
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