February 2012

Dear Client,

We had the main hard drive powering our web server take a dive last month.  This affected 90% of our websites, and it took about 24 hours for us to restore from backup and work out the usual ‘this didn’t restore right’ issues.  We have been working on migrating the webserver content to a newer server which we’re still planning to do.  That wasn’t how we wanted to do it, though.  Until this is completed, this machine now has mirrored drives underneath it.  This failure was unexpected as this particular drive wasn’t more than a year or two old.

Outside of that, last month was pretty quiet.  We upgraded our mail server and the website statistics server with no issues.

The recent floods in Thailand have put a significant crimp in the supply chain for hard drives.  Most of the hard drives used are manufactured there, and the plants were under 8 feet or more of water.  The supply chain has now dried up (no pun intended) and drives are getting scarce (and the prices have gone up as a result).  Even the Fry’s Computer ads don’t have drives mentioned any more.  This will take several months to get things back to normal.  Fortunately we have several burned-in spares if needed.

On the political front, a major push by the recording industry to push through Congress a bill to give them cart blanch authority to shut down any website they felt was a threat to them, without due process, came to a screeching halt when many major websites rose up against them in unison.  You may have noticed a number of websites on a single day had their title content blacked out.  It made an excellent point and both the Senate and House shelved the bills they were about to pass.  Well done.

On a personal note I’ve continued working to complete the workshop from last season.  I now have a dust collection system in place.  Next will be extended compressed air to the shop, but am running out of excuses not to start on something productive.   I hate when that happens.

We also planted a winter/spring garden.  It’s almost too late here for that, but we started with transplants this time.  That hopefully will give us a head start (spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, etc.).

The gopher saga never seems to end.  Got another one, but others have gotten in, done damage, and left.  Little buggers.   We did add 6 trees to the back yard.  That should provide some privacy in a few years.

Best wishes!

Sincerely,

Ben Conner