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What a bunch of days.  On October 6th at around 3:20am I got an email from JetPack informing me that my site was down.  I was asleep at this time.

I woke up, saw it, and saw a follow-up from JetPack.  I immediately assumed it was the “Everything is OK now” email.  It was not.  As I started about my day I made my coffee I checked and saw that my site was still down.  Both of my sites were down, in fact.  They’re both on the same Digital Ocean droplet.  Greatttttttt.  I was already running on nil sleep, and it was going to be a day.  Thursday wanted to put up a fight.

So I log into Digital Ocean since I can’t ping or SSH into my host and find that it is, in fact, running.  Crap.  If it was off that’d have been a simple solution.

This was going to be anything but simple.

I used the Console connect utility and ran ifconfig.

Horror.

All I saw was lo, the loopback interface.

What.  The.  Hell.

I ran uptime.  6 hours.

Double What The Hell.

A little more digging and I saw some feedback from lshw -c net: I had 2 new network adapters: ens3 and ens4.

Weird.

I edited my network config file (/etc/network/interfaces) and renamed eth0 instances to ens4.  No dice.  Still no networking.

I then re-edited my network config file and renamed the ens4 to ens3.  This fixed it.  I don’t know what the hell happened, but I was confused as hell.  Total down-time: approximately 9.5 hours.  Thank goodness this isn’t a really super serious server.  Blah.

Now that I was sitting down with a working box, I decided to delve deeper.  Around 3:15am I saw a random “reboot” command issued to my droplet via the console.  I looked through the logins, thinking that SOMEHOW someone got access to my account.  No logins except for my IP address.

SOMEONE (or something) at Digital Ocean rebooted my droplet.

Why this reboot caused eth0 to become ens3 I do not know.

It has something to do with Ubuntu distro upgrading, but I upgraded to 16.04.1 a few weeks ago.

Super frustrating.

So: if you have a VM and find that you have lost network connection and your network adapters are missing: check the output of  lshw -c net and verify that the interface is named what you think it should be.

-M, out

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Back to our regularly scheduled programming.  I’ve written a lot of not-quite-technical posts in the past few weeks.  I know I did this week (because the gas tax has me furious).  All that being said, I decided to make a right-proper one this time because I’ve been toying around with this project at work and information is pretty slim because it’s out of date.  We needed a web server.  A small web server.  Apache, PHP, MySQL.  PhpMyAdmin to make part of the project super easy.

Well, the tiny part was easy.  Damn Small Linux.  Base install less than half a gig.

Adding Apache, PHP, MySQL, and PhpMyAdmin: not so much.  All the instructions were hand-wavy and the newest installer scripts don’t work on the size of disk I wanted.

So I present to you: Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL, PhpMyAdmin: <768MB total install size.Continue reading

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I was having difficulty coming up with something to write this week. In fairness, I’ve been distracted by car woes (and work woes, and woes in general) and my time has been largely occupied. I was submitting another request to MakerBot for an update to a subject when a topic came to me: Help-Desk Auto-Reply Messages.

I’ve been entering tickets with SolarWinds (for Web Help Desk) and Makerbot (for a Replicator 5th Gen) for over a week to get a few issues resolved.  My frustration initially came from SolarWinds.  I entered the support ticket and immediately got a receipt of the ticket in my inbox.  In fairness, I did indicate that the ticket wasn’t a high-priority, nor a rush.  That being said, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a non-automated answer within a business day.  I entered the ticket on Sept 23 @ 12:11pm.  The ticket stated:

Hello,

We deployed the Solarwinds Linux OVA file to our ESXi infrastructure several years ago. It is running VM Version 7. We recently upgraded to a new ESXi infrastructure. In order to do Snapshots we need to upgrade to VM Version 11.

Is there any problem with upgrading to VM Version 11?

Please let us know. There is no rush.

On Sept 27th at 1:40pm I entered a comment on the ticket asking for an update as to whether or not they were even looking into it.  At this point, I had not received any email other than the automated email.

Finally, on Sept 28th at 8:01pm I received a reply from a tech answering the question for me (hint: it’s ok and I don’t need to be so paranoid about it).

All that being said the time from ticket entry to first response was low if you count the initial “We got your ticket” email that is now automated by 90% of ticketing systems.  The time from ticket entry to first helpful response was absurdly high (over 3 business days).  Again, granted, I said no rush, but some non-automated contact over 5 days (3 business days) is absurd.  Even a simple “I’m looking into this for you” would have kept me appeased.  An automated response: not so much.

Let’s try and keep this in mind when we work on ticketing solutions.  An automated email does not (or should not) count as customer contact.  If you’re including it in your metrics (which some places do, oddly enough) then you’re probably using poor metrics.

I don’t like metrics to begin with, but if you’re going to use them (and I know you will) then some useful ones are:

  • Time from ticket entry to time of first human-contact.
  • Time from ticket entry to time of first feedback (request for more information, request to try steps for a solution) which may be the same as above.
  • Time from ticket entry to time of resolution.
  • Active time spent on the ticket (if you can measure it).
  • Customer feedback on support job.

These seem like the most valuable metrics to me, especially #2, #3, and #5.

For example on a scale of 1-5 (1 being worst, 5 being best) when dealing with Solarwinds:

#1, 2: 1 [Took way too long to hear anything from a human]
#3: 2 [Resolution was achieved quickly and easily]
#4: 5 [Time spent to fix it was minimal]
#5: 3 [Pretty much average considering]

That’s pretty dismal numbers in my book.

MakerBot had different issues. I’ve had two different tickets with them.

The first ticket was to register new warranty to the 3 MakerBot devices.

On the same 1-5 scale for this ticket:

#1, #2: 1 [I heard from them within the day with what they needed from me to get the steps done]
#3: 5 [The full resolution took over 2 weeks due to delays in registering the warranties]
#4: 5 [A lot of waiting time and the system kept trying to auto-close the tickets]
#5: 4 [Dismal]

The second ticket was to get actual support for one of the 3 MakerBot devices.

#1, #2: 1 [I heard from them within the day, they gave me diagnostic steps and information to check]
#3: 2 [Within 2 days the diagnosis was confirmed and parts were shipped]
#4: 2 [2 days is not as great as 1, but well within the overall time frame]
#5: 2 [Good job overall!]

Of course, just my 2 cents.

-M, out

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Not in the method you might expect.

I’m talking about realizing when you’re capable of doing work that people want to charge you for, and thus doing it yourself in order to be more cost efficient.

As with most things: there’s a story here.

On Monday 9/5 I started hearing a loud screeching from my car when I was driving.  It’s happened before, so I ignored it until I got to work, figuring it would go away.  By the time I drove home from work that day, the sound had largely subsided.

On 9/6, the sound came back.  This cat and mouse game continued until I got fed up and called the dealer on 9/12 and said I’d like them to do some diagnostic service.  They agreed, and scheduled me for 9/15.  On 9/13 my car decided to all but quit on me.  Thankfully, I was able to get it to the dealer.

They came back and said:

Here’s the deal: to get you out the door, you need new belts.  Fine, do it, I need to get out the door.

That being said: Your AC system needs a recharge (I agreed) and dye (I agreed again).   They wanted to do brakes and rotors for the front tires.  I already knew they were needed, and the parts were already ordered.  I passed.

Then comes the real kicker: the ball joint on my drivers side is shot and needs replacement ASAP.  They quote me $500.  I balk.  With good reason.

A 5 minute google search (and RockAuto search) reveals the part is $40 shipped, and is all of 3 bolts.  I balked for a reason.  I can handle 3 bolts.  My guess is you can too.  The process is:

  1. Park car and put on parking brake.
  2. Jack car up on one side.
  3. Remove wheel.
  4. Loosen bolt attaching control arm ball joint to the wheel hub.
  5. Loosen remaining two bolts.
  6. Remove.
  7. Reinstall new part in opposite order.
  8. Torque bolts to manufacture specs.

I balked hard, because this to me seems like… An hours worth of work for ME, with hand tools, and no lift.  For them? 20 minutes.  Tops.

The part (for them) is ~$150.  The Alignment is $100.  That means labor and shop fees was $250.  For 20 minutes of work.

Seriously.

I went to Rock Auto and bought both driver and passenger control arms for $80 shipped.

I got them in a day.

I went and bought impact tools to make my life easy.

So now here’s the cost/comparison.

Dealer:

  • Control Arm, Driver’s Side
    • $395.00
  • Control Arm, Passenger’s Side
    • $395.00
  • Alignment
    • $100.00
  • AC Recharge + Dye
    • $139.00
  • Brakes & Rotors, Driver’s and Passenger’s Side
    • $375.00
  • Belts
    • $199.00
  • Total:
    • $1,603.00
  • Total, with Tax:
    • $1,715.21

What I paid:

  • Dealer:
    • AC Recharge + Dye
      • $139.00
    • Belts
      • $199.00
    • Total:
      • $338.00
    • Total, with Tax:
      • $352.08
  • Control Arm (Driver & Passenger), Brakes & Rotors (Driver & Passenger)
    • $238.07
  • Impact Socket Set from Harbor Freight
    • $48.11
  • Craftsman Impact Wrench Set
    • $70.22
  • 5-Year Alignment (PepBoys)
    • $125.00
  • Total:
    • $833.48

Savings: $1,715.21 – $833.48 = … $881.73

I saved over half.  OVER.  Half.

Yeah, my time is involved in my way, but honestly: assuming it takes me an hour to do each control arm, an hour to do the brakes, and an hour in waiting for the alignment: That’s $200 an hour I’m paying myself.

And that is damn impressive.

Plus, I get to keep the tools! 😀

How I’m Feeling:

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As some may know, I love to fish.  Absolutely love it.  I’m not amazing at it, but I’m not horrible at it either.  Last year, every time I went out I caught SOMETHING.  Maybe not a keeper, but definitely brought a fish up, took a picture, measured it, and put it back in the water.

All that being said, other than my two trips to the Manasquan Inlet this year, I’ve had pretty crummy luck.  I didn’t catch many fish at all this year.  All my usual fishing spots were taken.  Even when I went to Michigan I didn’t get so much as a bite.  It was a very frustrating year.  I honestly began to question any ability at fishing I thought I had.  It all started when I broke my main fishing rod.  Everything went downhill from there (between using a hand me down,

Until yesterday.

Yesterday was perfect.  Joe and I got to spot near Kingston and did some fishing in the Millstone River around 6:30am.  Joe and his dad had fished that spot a lot, a long time ago.  He said there were carp, catfish, even some bass.  We’d been to this spot twice before today this year, and caught barely anything.  Last year we had better luck at that spot, but this year it felt dried up and empty.  Yesterday turned it around.

Following some advice from r/fishing I went out equipped and intending on catching panfish (sunnies, crappies, rock bass, etc) on a light cast line, while setting up my (new!) main rod for it’s maiden fishing trip for catfish.

Success!

After casting my main rod out (with hot dogs) I turned my attention to second light rod.  I put some Gulp Hawg on a small hook with a bobber waited.  Within a minute, I saw the bobber dip. And dip again.  And then took off.  I yanked in hard, and felt resistance.  Fishie!   I reeled it in, and was thrilled to see an 8″ crappie on the end of the line.   It wasn’t the one in this picture (which is maybe 6″) but nevertheless, here’s an example.  We initially thought it was a rock bass, but it was a white crappie in hindsight.

2016-09-04 07.16.30

Mission accomplished.  I was happy.  I caught a fish.  I put it back in the water and could have walked away happy at that point.

The Millstone had other plans.

Ring, ring, ring.  The bell on my main line began to jingle.  I ran over, yanked (not hard enough) and felt resistance.  I began to reel in.  The resistance disappeared.  Fish gone. Bait gone.  Sad.

I put more hot dog on the hook, cast off, and went back to the other line.

I cast, and within a minute: a sunnie.

2016-09-04 08.25.41

It was an even better day.  This continued for about two hours, before even the crappies and sunnies stopped biting.  Oh well.  I decided to give the main line some attention.  As much as I enjoyed hearing the bell ring and find no fish on the end of it, I was getting tired of it.

I cast with fresh hot dogs, and waited.  I was standing around talking with Joe when I felt a tug.  It went away immediately.  A minute later, another tug.  I yanked hard on the rod, and felt a twang.  The line stayed taught.  The line started to move.  I had a fish.  I started reeling in.  It took about 2 minutes to pull it in.  I got tangled in Joe’s line.  He grabbed the net.

2016-09-04 09.37.37

Catfish!

3lb, 18″ catfish.  That’s going in the keeper bucket.

It’s now in the fridge.  Well, it’s filets are in the fridge anyway.

Things picked up right after then.  Joe switched to the Gulp Hawg and caught some crappie and some sunnie too.

When all was said and done we had caught:

  • 4 Crappie (3 for me!)
  • 15 Sunnie (7 for me!)
  • 1 Catfish (that one was mine!)
  • 2 Hooks (all Joe)
  • 1 Branch (that one was mine haha)
  • 1 Clamshell (all Joe)

What a great day, a great way to end the summer, and a great way to spend the Labor Day weekend.

-M, out

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The past week has been a frustrating series of events from vendors and end users.

Here’s a collection of some of them, and my responses (that may or may not have been said to the perpetrators).

Ticket:

The desktop in <Room> and the <Other Rooms> need the <Program 1> and <Program 2> installed – these were on my profile last year.

Additionally, my students access <Program 1> from the desktops <Room> and laptops <Cart>, and will need access during the first week of school.

If you have any questions, please ask <Old Tech>. She assisted me in ensuring both programs have worked properly.
Thanks so much.

Response:

<Program 1> is already installed in <Room> and <Cart>.  Our notes show that it was not installed in <Other Rooms> last year.  We have completed the install in <Other Rooms>.  <Program 2> is a website interface and does not need installation, it runs in the browser.

Thoughts:

Don’t ask for software to be installed if you haven’t checked if it’s been installed yet.  Certainly don’t lie to us about where it was installed last year.  We keep notes.  We have job history for all the computers.  We know what was where and who put it there.  CERTAINLY don’t ask for a website to be installed, because we will laugh about it to your face.  Give us the whole story, let me know what you are attempting to accomplish, what you feel the steps to get there are, and let us come up with a workable solution.

Situation:

We ordered brand new virtualization infrastructure hardware this summer.  Yay! Shiny toys! 😀

We ordered brand new hardware that comes default with 1400W 240V power supplies.  We run 120V power.  This is America.  D:

We ordered replacement power supplies for said hardware (4 hosts, 2 power supplies each: 8 total power supplies).  They arrived today.

4 of the 8 are the 1200W 120V power supplies we expected.  The remaining 4 of the 8 are 1400W 240V power supplies inside 1200W 120V boxes.

We attempt to return the erroneous devices.  Vendor hassles.  They are not the same hardware for the box, so they won’t accept them.  They are what you shipped us!

Thoughts:

We’re already 2 weeks behind here.  Stop yanking our chains.  Seriously.  We just want the hardware we need to get this stuff up and running.  Don’t lie about the hardware requirements, and don’t send us the wrong boxes of equipment.  It’s 3 days from go time and we don’t have anything working because you keep yanking us around. Most certainly don’t make it seem like we’re trying to scam you: you sent us the wrong stuff.

Situation:

New ticketing system setup requires all people to select their location in their profile settings otherwise you won’t see the queues to enter a ticket into.  User emails saying they do not see the queues and cannot create a ticket.  I reply notifying them that if they cannot see the queues then they should read the messages that pop up every time they login to the ticketing system.  User replies that they did read them and do them.  I check: no, you did not.  You either didn’t set it, or you didn’t log out and log back in.  I can tell.  There’s the log.  You haven’t even been to the profile page.

Thoughts:

Don’t like to us.  Specifically, don’t lie to people at all.  You make it impossible to properly troubleshoot the issue.  If you tell me you did something, and the system disagrees with you, I’m going to believe the system. The system is incapable of lying to me.  Funny, once you make the change the system says you make the change and the queues show up.  Funny, could have sworn you said you did that already.

Situation:

New printers arrive.  Yay!  More shiny new toys.  They are brand new.  Like, the manufacturer does not even list them on their website kind of new.  Cool beans.  We dig through their website and install their latest version of the drivers for them.  Cool, everything looks swell.  “Trainer” arrives the following day to show the staff how to work the printers.  Trainer has problems demonstrating the setup.  Claims we do not have the driver installed.

Thoughts:

The driver is very much installed.  We installed both versions, the CD-ROM you provided and the latest we could find on the website.  It’s there.  It works.  We tested it.  You’re having trouble with it.  Somehow it is our fault.  Yes, this makes a lot of sense.  Just admit you weren’t aware of the changes with the driver and the new model of printer.  No one will fault you for it.  Don’t try and make your problem into my problem: I will call you out on it EVERY time.

Situation:

Email we received:

Hey guys,

<Script Tool> at <Building> does not appear to be running correctly at <Building>.  This is likely because the permissions are not set correctly on the <Script Tool> log folder and files.  On every desktop I’ve checked, the <Log 1> file and the <Log 2> file are blank.
The <Previous Year> Software Installs on the <Building> image server has a job that will create and set proper permissions for these files, and it contains logic to set the necessary permissions if the folders already exist.  I would like to run this job on all desktops in that building, but I want to check with you guys first since you’ve been handling imaging and package deployment in that building.  Is there anything I should be aware of?
FWIW, this does not appear to be an issue with the desktops at <Other Building>.
Thoughts:
So, the VERY first thing you jump to is to assume that our imaging and images are the problem here?  Did you do ANY troubleshooting?  No, clearly you didn’t.  Clearly you were out to make a message, since you CC’d our boss about it without doing any research.  As my coworker pointed out: No, the reason why the script is not running is because your scripts are improperly formatted.  There is an extra “if” clause.  It causes the whole thing to bork.
You just assumed that our work was shit, and you called it out in front of our mutual boss.  Thanks.  Thanks for that.  That’s real cool dude.  Good job.

Their Follow-Up Reply:

Did you guys reimage the administrator desktops at <Building> today by chance?  If so, that would be one heck of a coincidence and account for my confusion.  I was thrown off by the entirely blank files on the three workstations that I checked (which all happened to be admin machines since they were already powered on).
Thoughts, Expanded:
I don’t know.  Why don’t you check the image server for that information?  Or the spreadsheets that show exactly when we did what work.  It would have taken you 2 seconds to explore and find that yes, we in fact did image those machines just today.  And that is why the logs are blank on those specific machines.
Good job.

This has been a rant-tastic week.

That being said: EVE is going Free To Play, so if you’d like to fleet up some time let me know. 🙂 Deus Ex Mankind Divided is still as fun as ever.  I’ve also been enjoying Rainbow Six: Siege a lot too.
-M, Out.

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Disclaimer: PC Master Race. I own a PS4, an Xbox One, an Xbox 360, and custom-built desktop PC. Of the 4, I prefer gaming on the PC. I always will.  That being said, there’s a frustrating trend in gaming that I’m seeing and I’d like to talk about it a bit, especially since I’m STILL waiting for a game to be launched.

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Disclaimer: I hate ads. You won’t ever see ads on my website. I run uBlock Origin (and you should too).  The other day Facebook fired the first in what I can expect to be a long line of shots: they attempted to circumvent the ad-blocking system that users have installed on their computers.  Facebook made the claim that this was because “ads support our mission of giving people the power to share and making the world more open and connected.”

AdBlock plus makes a different claim, calling it “a dark path against user choice.”

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