I'm currently building a new server for our colo facility to host streaming video. It's a nice machine, quad-core Xeon processor, 4Gb of RAM, 750Gb of RAID-1. When compiling PHP I kept running in to a problem with the gd library configuration. The shared object files are installed into /usr/lib64 (because it's a 64-bit operating system), but the header files are installed into /usr/include and are not being found.
If you tell the configure script to --enable-gd=/usr it balks about not finding the libgd.(a|so) file. If you rerun configure and use --enable-gd=/usr/lib64 it finds libgd.so, but then doesn't pick up the header files.
Turns out the problem is pretty simple to solve: add --with-libdir=lib64 to the configure script and it will fix everything. It's just not obvious when reading the configure help, especially when you come from a primarily 32-bit background.
I spent the morning in Spokane at the CRM 4 launch event, put on by Automated Options. I've been using CRM since version 1.2, and have to say they're headed in the right direction. I still have a few gripes about it, but overall I have to say it's been good.
And since I wasn't too far away from where Jared works, I took him out to lunch. We had KFC.
Today is my brother Jared's birthday. He's one year younger than me and has five kids. I'm glad I'm not him, except at tax time.
I don't think he comes by here, but just in case, happy birthday dude.
Yes, once again, it's time to bust it up with the Carts. Hallelujah.
…one of these this close to me.
You can read more about coconut crabs here.
If so, this is for you.
I've got a box of 10 bottles full to the brim with Miller's Pub barbecue sauce. I wish it could have been me going there to pick it up, but I'll take what I can get.
Two of my favorite things.
I bet these cookies would be great. I'm going to have to try them.
It's amazing how many things are fixed by just rebooting them. In my line of work, I often get emergency calls about something-or-other not working right. Half of these problems are solved by my waiting about five minutes before following up on the problem—it just "went away."
Most of the rest of the problems I see are solved by reboot. Computers are fickle things, and hard to keep happy. Very few of the problems I fix day-to-day involve anything more complicated than hitting Start, Reboot. Last week I had a server stop responding to SMB requests (Windows shares). Since it runs Windows Storage Server 2003, I figured it just needed a reboot. Voila, two minutes later everything is peachy.
Last night I worked on a car navigation system that has bluetooth support for hands-free phone use (for my wife's cousin, Kyndall). She had a phone connected to it, replaced the phone with a new one, and now none of the bluetooth features were working. Removing the old phone profile didn't make any difference, but once the reset button was hit, the unit rebooted and everything worked great. Phone connected in a couple of seconds and calls were going through just fine.
So in the end, save your technical friends a lot of grief, and reboot the machine first. If you really want to be nice, take them off speed-dial, too. And buy them pizza.
Any questions?
Guess where I'm going to be this September 20-21?
We're getting even more snow as I write this. Looks like at least an inch today.
Today I both relaxed and got some work done. It felt really nice. I put our new address sign under our mailbox. I (finally) got around to stuffing the Christmas boxes lying about up- and downstairs to their proper storage place under the stairs.
Lorien bought an oval frame so we could hang the oil painting my mom gave me for my birthday while we were just down visiting her in Portland. The painting needed a 16x20 oval frame, which supposedly is a standard thing. Michaels had one for about $49—but the picture didn't fit inside it!
I ended up using my router (that I had somewhat recently acquired) for the first time to widen the back of the frame so the canvas would fit. You can see the end results here:
I also played some Guitar Hero 3 and Zack & Wiki, too. Plus, I drank a bottle of Mexican Coca-Cola I got at Costco. They're currently stocking that cane-sugar-sweetened beverage for the first time up here that I know of.
Last night I saw The Forbidden Kingdom.
It was awesome.
Ever since I saw my first Jet Li movie back in 1994, I've wanted to see him together with Jackie Chan. That's a long time to wait. That wait is now over.
The movie was good—more than your typical gungfu movie. It has a story that is more than just an excuse to move from fight to fight. But it is also full of a long of gungfu movie cliches.
Jet Li did an excellent job playing Sun Wu Kong (Sun Goku), the Monkey King. The fight scene between Jet Li and Jackie Chan was awesome.
All in all, if you like action movies, this is one of the best I've seen a long time ago. Don't miss it.
Woohoo! It's almost time to go see The Forbidden Kingdom!