thatlinuxbox.com

Phychic Reading?

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:25:53 -0500

thatlinuxbox new logo and a comment on purple themes

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:14:43 -0500

I have been spending time in the Gimp making graphics for my wife's web site, so I decided to make a logo for my blog. It is not fancy, just a retro tech font with a transparent background. Here's what it should look like in the header bar for thatlinuxbox.com:

I like the way the new logo text looks against the purple background.

Apparently so do the Ubuntu folks. It looks like the next Ubuntu (Lucid Lynx 10.04) will also use a purple theme. I am certain that the Ubuntu fo...

irssi + dtach + Droid + ConnectBot to stay connected in IRC

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:01:46 -0500

My favorite IRC client is "irssi" because it only requires a shell / terminal window to run. I can leave it running on a reliable machine and logged into the IRC network for long periods of time. Staying logged into IRC allows me to catch up on recent activity in my favorite channels whether I am at home, at work, or on my Droid.

Many people use "screen" to detach from their remote SSH login sessions and re-attach from a different computer. I found that screen has some quirks with irssi and tons of features that I do not use.&nbs...

Server Racks after the Cleanup

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:16:10 -0500

In a previous story, I showed What NOT to do in your server room. Over the past year I have been able to improve that server room a little bit. In addition to a general rack cleanup effort, I installed a whole new rack with square holes and plenty of cable management. The following pictures show the results.

Here are the racks from the front:

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Serial Console Settings for IBM pSeries RS/6000

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:10:58 -0500

I like to document things that seem to be harder to find on the Internet than expected. One such piece of information I needed the other day was the connection information for a serial console connection to an IBM pSeries server.

Step 1: Dig around in your server room storage bins until you are lucky enough to find a cable labeled "pSeries Serial" like this:

This special console cable plugs into the front of the server. I used a DB-9 serial cable of some variety t...