Nice php site for rpms (under rhel or centos):

http://phprpms.sourceforge.net/mssql

Duing the server migration, I needed to get php-mssql working. Once again, cake under CentOS.

Grab this rpm:

Install freetds from yum, and you are ready to go.

Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 sucks. At least the x86_64 version. php gives gd and mysql errors. up2date is as miserable as getting kicked in the groin for an hour straight.

Grab these:

[root@wintermute upgrade]# ls -l
total 824
-r--r--r--  1 root root  20091 Jul 26 20:33 centos-release-4-3.2.x86_64.rpm
-r--r--r--  1 root root   3592 Jul 26 20:33 centos-yumconf-4-4.5.noarch.rpm
-r--r--r--  1 root root  81569 Jul 26 20:33 python-elementtree-1.2.6-4.x86_64.rpm
-r--r--r--  1 root root  38989 Jul 26 20:34 python-sqlite-1.1.6-1.x86_64.rpm
-r--r--r--  1 root root  93760 Jul 26 20:34 python-urlgrabber-2.9.6-2.noarch.rpm
-r--r--r--  1 root root 189951 Jul 26 20:34 sqlite-3.2.2-1.x86_64.rpm
-r--r--r--  1 root root 392645 Jul 26 20:34 yum-2.4.2-2.centos4.noarch.rpm
[root@wintermute upgrade]#

Run these:

rpm –import RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4
rpm -e -–nodeps redhat-release
rpm -Uvh *.rpm

then

yum upgrade

Works beautifully. yum is the far superior tool. Courtesy to Fixlinux for the instructions

The heat in Connecticut is nearly unbearable; so much so, that whatever the blistering temp was outside, my basement (and server room), was 20 degrees hotter.  This is roughly the surface temp of the sun.

Which was too much for my firewall.   I gave my Dual PIII 550 to Ben (to cut down on power usage), and did the server shuffle.

I moved the Athlon 2200 (previously a workstation), and migrate that machine to the fileserver.  The Athlon 1800 was migrated over to the firewall. and The P4 was migrated to the secondary workstation.

This worked great  for about 3 days.  Then both athlons melted.  The 2200’s power supply took a crap, and the athlon 1700 just stopped working altogether.   For the first time in almost 8 years, I had to use linux as a firewall.  My file server has around a terrabyte of data on it, so a quick reload with openbsd was not not an option.  I had to use iptables (for the love of God, please port PF over).  I spent the next two hours stumbling over the arcane, and deliberately confusing syntax to get my network back up and running.  At two in the morning, it is as if Rusty is trying to drive you mad.
As a linux user since the early 90’s, I have a great deal of love and respect for the software, but, IP TABLES SUCKS. There are no two ways around this.  It feels kludgey, configs like something on an AS/400, and at the end of your painful relationship, it actualy punches you in the head.

PF lays it down, and works it over like Scott Peterson in prison.  PF has a great single config file with decent syntax, variables, and easily to remember rules.
Thankfully the poor experience I had with IP Tables, helped motivate me to fix my Netra X1, and upgrade it to OpenBSD 3.9 (Sparc64).  I really wish PF ran on everything.

So we are thinking of getting a pup. We have the yard, and I really believe that all kids should have animals (Dogs and Cats). The cat aspect is covered (with Xander and Angel), we just needed a dog.

I started digging around petfinder, and found most rescues wanted a ridiculous amount of money ($300 and up) to adopt a pet. I am of the opinion that if you are trying to get rid of of animal, a decent home is all that is needed. I read these horror stories about people adopting dogs and them selling them for medical research. That’s sorta like the razor blade in the apple thing. It probably happened once, or twice, and it has graduated to an urban legend.

Anyway, I found an ad for a wonderful little beagle. Sniffy. Sniffy is a two year old beagle. He’s trained, neutered, AKC (although that matters little now that he is snipped), and is need of a good home. We are going to go take a look at him sometime this week.

Hopefully by the end of this week, we will have family dog.