Poofy Goof Rant-O-Matic

I never did find out what exactly failed with my DLTs, and lost data from the backup server itself. luckily nothing lost was critical, and I was able to rebuild my previous amanda configuration. backups are successfully running again.

when my backup server died a couple weeks ago, I figured I could replace the motherboard and continue on my way. I did just that, and replaced the VIA C3 with a Pentium Pro and continued on. the change in setup seemed OK, backups appeared to continue running, and it wasn't until attempting to recover from a root drive failure a week later on the backup machine that I found out the hard way that anything was wrong.

looks like my 800MHz VIA C3 machine has finally bit the dust. I must have a dmesg around here somewhere. perhaps not. if I could just get it going long enough to store off a dmesg to a USB stick or even floppy I could get a bit more... closure? it was Ben's machine, after all.

UUCP, Unix-to-Unix CoPy, is a store-and-forward protocol used primarily for mail, news, and copying files. the loose newsgroup network known as USENET was implemented largely on UUCP. since the advent of accessible packet-switched networking (AKA the internet), UUCP is now only used in rare cases. I still wax fondly over it.

I swear I posted this before but I can't find it... I have two motherboards with verified bad caps, and another that is suspect, although none of the caps are visibly bulging.

http://www.badcaps.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

I need 21 of these for the dual PIII machine:
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=493-127...

the via C3 needs some too, but I'd need to take the machine down to find out for sure.

Kris asked me about the microvax-II again. the one in the small-filing-cabinet-sized BA123 case. it comes up every year or so when any work is done on the basement.

"When are you getting rid of that thing?" she asks.

"It worked the last time I fired it up," I said. it's what I usually say. this time I had to think about it for a while, though. I can't exactly recall the last time it was fired up. it has probably been over five years at this point. I don't think I've brought it up since the datacenter racks were installed in 2003.

Joachim Buss has collected quite a nice bit of information on old DEC gear at http://www.xanthos.se/~joachim/index.html , including a DECstation in ATX enclosure. nice to see someone else keeping those old machines chugging along.

Vnetek is the exclusive manufacturer of Digital Networks products and offers a complete portfolio of quality Digital Networks networking products and accessories.

http://www.poofygoof.com/~agrier/computers/ contains a list of most of my computers. it's static (much like my collection) but it might be updated more frequently if it were easier to manipulate, say, in a database. per-computer histories perhaps? cycle counting? a "last-booted" date?