I’m configuring it to have two VLANs; one for regular IP traffic and the other for our iSCSI network. I managed to lock myself out of the web interface by assigning all the ports to one of the two VLANs I’d created, and not leaving any ports attached to the default VLAN. This default VLAN had the management IP is attached to it.

Thankfully my new Acer Aspire X1800 desktop (which by the way, for $398 is a totally awesome Ubuntu desktop) has a COM port, so I connected up the serial cable and used screen to bring up a console connection:

screen /dev/ttyS0 38400

With this I could log in, then access the lcli command to give me a more meaningful console.

srw2024# configure
srw2024(config)# interface ethernet g24
srw2024(config-if)# switchport access vlan 1
srw2024(config-if)# exit
srw2024(config)# exit
srw2024# show vlan

Vlan       Name                   Ports                Type     Authorization
---- ----------------- --------------------------- ------------ -------------
 1           1                 g24,ch(1-8)            other       Required
 2         DATA               g(1-7,13-20)          permanent     Required
 3         ISCSI              g(9-12,21-23)         permanent     Required    

srw2024#

With that I had successfully removed the port from the ISCSI VLAN and replaced it into the default VLAN, making the web management console available.

I’ve never played around with Cisco gear before, but I suspect that this is similar to how IOS works.

I was happy that, even without any IOS experience, I was able to dig about inside the switch and get it back to being usable again. Now to try and attach g24 to multiple VLANs.

I’ve spent the last few days cleaning up around the house, doing some computer-related house-work, playing with the puppies, reading, shopping and even laying down a few laps in Forza 3. With Magdalena away on school camp for a few days, it gave me a unique opportunity to get some of the things done that I’ve been putting off for a while, without impacting on her. It also meant I could spend some time doing the chores that I’ve neglected for the past few weeks due to the hectic work commitments, and two lil’ black time sinks. Plus I snuck some time to myself, to play some Xbox and read some magazines and start my next book - Peter Pan and Wendy.

I’m glad I got to cap off my three-day-break with the visit to Josie - it was really relaxing and comforting. Emma and Mark are always down for a relax, and having Baby J in their lives now hasn’t changed that.

Tomorrow night Josie’s spending some time with Mags and I whilst Mark and Em go out. I am really looking forward to the responsibility, even though I know Josie’s going to lie there asleep the whole time, and I think it speaks volumes to the open parenting style Mark and Em have.

I really respect and admire them as parents, and I feel very fortunate to have them as role models.

Back then mixed martial arts, or MMA as it’s known, wasn’t super popular. In fact the sport was only just being invented, as various fighters began training across multiple disciplines, mixing strikes, wrestling and submission grappling to become a complete, rounded fighter. From the beginning, the TapouT brand has been associated with MMA, and I’d argue it’s become the defining brand, in the same way as Intel, Oakley and Coca-Cola each define their product space.

The three personalities behind TapouT were Charles “Mask” Lewis, Jr., Dan “Punkass” Caldwell and their tall friend Tim “SkySkrape” Katz. What’s with the nicknames you ask? That’s part of their catch, or gimmick, and it works pretty well. They each have larger-than-life characters that they play up to, and it’s given their business a highly appropriate public face. In March 2009, Mask was tragically killed in a car accident. The MMA world was full of grief, and the genuine friendships that Dan and Tim shared with Charles were exposed and explored for all to see. I was personally upset at the news, even though I’d never met Charles. At the recent MMA Awards, both Dan and Tim were still visibly moved when accepting awards on behalf of Mask and TapouT. They were a family, in all sense of the word.

As with all brands, when MMA hit the mainstream a few years ago, TapouT exploded. I started to see t-shirts popping up in day-to-day life; people in pubs or guys in the city - I even saw a bogan mum with TapouT head-to-toe the other day. It’s no longer a niche brand for those “in the know.” As with MMA, the brand is appealing to a large range of people now, and that’s not always a good thing. My fear is that MMA will become too popular and we’ll start to see the rules modified in ways that create a more exciting experience for the fans. What do I mean? More average people are watching MMA, and they want to see people slugging it out rather than rolling around on the floor. These kinds of people don’t necessarily understand the nuances of MMA and just want to see some fights, some blood and some knock outs. Check the footage of the crowd at any UFC event and you’ll see more blood-thirsty morons than ever before. And most of them are wearing a TapouT shirt.

Now that you’ve got some background, I can focus on my initial point - what drove me, personally, to buy a TapouT shirt. I don’t want to be associated with this meat-head culture, that’s for sure, so why dress like them?

There’s a few reasons, the first being that I feel like I have a better understanding of the TapouT company, including their intentions and influences, than the average person. I have watched a few TV series that the guys did where they highlight an up-and-coming fighter, and follow them through the preparation for their fight. In numerous cases, the humanity and genuine good will that Charles and the other guys showed was heart-warming. I hear the critics and cynics out there saying that they were just presenting a face for their show, and whilst that’s true to some degree, I never felt that it was manufactured. Often they’d genuinely help fighters, providing motivation, support, or even paying their rent in some cases. TapouT cares about MMA, because they were there at the birth. I admire that.

Secondly, I can relate to the almost whimsical approach the three friends had towards their business. Being a partner in a small business, I know how hard it can be to stay true to yourself, and not bend to other people’s expectations. The TapouT crew are eccentric, no doubt, and that’s hard to maintain when you’re running a business.

When people see me wearing a TapouT shirt, I want them to know the real reasons that I admire and respect the company. I want them to know that I am supporting, in my very small and own way, Mask’s legacy and his memory. I hate to sound like the guy that was “into the band before they were mainstream”; that’s not my intention. I want people to know that I’m supporting a brand because it supports a sport I love.

That probably won’t happen, and people will probably presume I’m just another meat-head who likes watching people get beaten up, but I can hope. Does this make sense, or do I just sound like an elitist?

  bwm-ng v0.6 (delay 0.500s); press 'ctrl-c' to end this
 /proc/net/dev
 |         iface                    Rx                   Tx               Total
 ==============================================================================
              lo:           0.00 KB/s            0.00 KB/s            0.00 KB/s
            eth0:         707.88 KB/s          707.88 KB/s          707.88 KB/s
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           total:         707.88 KB/s          707.88 KB/s          707.88 KB/s

I was wondering if there was a similar tool to monitor the flow of data across disks, and asked the mighty Google as such. Through the results I gathered that in bwm-ng v0.6 the tool gained this feature. I checked my local copy of bwm-ng, and sure enough it was v0.6, so I had this functionality I just needed to specify the input as disk (all disks visible to the system, including RAM disks) or libstatdisk (just the physical hard disks - much more meaningful):

mlambie@falcon:~$ bwm-ng -i libstatdisk

Results in:

 bwm-ng v0.6 (delay 0.500s); press 'ctrl-c' to end this
 libstatdisk
 \         iface                    Rx                   Tx               Total
 ==============================================================================
             sda:       11624.00 KB/s        11624.00 KB/s        11624.00 KB/s
             sdb:           0.00 KB/s            0.00 KB/s            0.00 KB/s
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           total:       11624.00 KB/s        11624.00 KB/s        11624.00 KB/s

Firstly, ever since I installed the iPhone SDK (software development kit; the tools necessary to build applications for the iPhone) I started getting an error everytime I tried to sync the device. Tony pointed out that leaving tethering enabled caused issues, and disabling it on the iPhone has meant this probem went away. I think it was just a co-incidence that I’d installed the SDK, but it might not have been; it didn’t cause that error previously when tethering was enabled.

More importantly though, in the last few months I’ve had more dropped calls, failed calls and general frustrations with the iPhone than I’ve ever had with any phone, ever before. There’s a specific section of Berwick Street that, without fail, will disconnect any calls as I drive through it. My tech-mind put that down to the phone jumping from one cell tower to another, and that made sense. Then the calls started to fail anytime I’d attempt to make them. Then they’d start dropping with a “call failed” error when people called me. Not to mention that the mic stopped working for a while, and I’d have to switch to speaker mode to talk to anyone, though I think that’s more to do with crap getting in the headphone jack (which I use all the time in the car, for music and podcasts) and it thinking that an audio cable is attached.

As you can imagine, this is all quite frustrating, considering how important my phone is for work, let alone socially. There’s little relief in the knowledge that it’s fairly well accepted that 3G on the iPhone uhh 3G isn’t all it’s cracked up to me. The problem is, who’s to blame - the carrier (in this case Vodafone Australia), Apple, or Infineon, the 3G chipset manufacturer?

My short-term solution has been to disable the 3G network, and stick to WIFI when I’m at home or in the office, and regular ol’ 1G (or is it 2G, or 2.5G, or 3.14G?) when I’m making calls. That works kinda OK, but it’s annoying having to go into the settings to enable 3G anytime I check Twitter at a cafe, for example. I know, it’s such a first-world-problem, isn’t it?

Earlier this morning I found out that the iPhone supports a field test mode, which you can access by dialing:

*3001#12345#*<call>

Don’t forget that last star - I was missing it off and getting a “Error performing request No Network Service” message popping up.

There’s a whole raft of information that’s available here, but the only bit that interests me is the signal strength indicator that appears in the top left corner, where the “bars” normally are. This turns into a negative integer, where the higher the number (closer to zero) the better the signal. For the mathematically-challenged, this means -60 is better than -80. According to TestFreaks (when they tested the Cell Ranger Port, an interesting signal amplifier):

For me, sitting at my desk in West Perth I get -81, which shows up as 5 bars. To be fair, the downstairs office is three walls of concrete, with three storeys of concrete above above, and a wrought iron clad window. It’s pretty much impervious to radio frequency signals. If I cover the antenna area (which is at the base of the handset, incidentally right where people tend to hold their phone) then the signal drops to -95, which is a significant change. I figured I’d check out the reception on Wellington Street, where to my surprise I get a solid -57.

OK… now we’re getting somewhere.

Further investigation also revealed an CNet article which suggests that you can boost the signal by attaching a piece of sticky-tape to the backside your SIM - it’s got something to do with the SIM making firmer contact with the phone. They also recommend using an eraser to remove any oxidation that might have ended up on the SIM. It’s all about the contacts, baby!

And then it hit me - a few weeks ago my phone reported that it had no SIM! I rebooted the phone and it worked fine, so I had just dismissed it as the phone being silly. Maybe there was a connection issue that was causing problems?

I dug out some scotch tape and found a paperclip on Hale’s desk, and went to work. I stuck two pieces of tape to the back of the SIM, just to be sure. I cleaned off the oxidation with an eraser. This changed resulted in -81 inside, -51 on Wellington Street, so no change inside, but a jump of 6 points outside. That’s not bad, but might just be a regular fluctuation.

As a last test, I checked the inside strength again. I saw the inside value change from -73 (momentarily) to -79, and then hover around -75. Then back up to -81.

The end result: I’m not sure that the hackery did much, in fact I don’t think it changed anything to be honest. I think what’s more likely is that Vodafone are being a little generous with their “convert signal reading to bars” function, and should be showing me less bars when I have a poorer signal.

Either way, I’m now armed with a snugly-seated-deoxidised SIM, and the tools to measure signal strength next time I get a drop out. I’ll keep you updated.

One of the activities we performed at the end of the seminar was an “in the hole” exercise. For this, we have five people starting “in the hole” on their backs with an opponent in their guard. The guard player has to sweep or submit their opponent, whilst the defender has to pass the guard or back out to win. The winner stays in, either keeping or taking the role as attacker and the loser joins the end of a line, from which new defenders cycle in.

I volunteered to be one of the initial hole dwellers, starting on my back with an opponent in my guard. I tend to like fighting from my back so this is an activity that I quite like. I worked my way through three or four defenders until my instructor, Adam, was in my guard. I figured my run would be up, and didn’t have any expectations of beating him. Similarly, he was aware that Robert was doing the exercise with us too, and everyone was anticipating the match up between the two black belts. I think Adam was a little distracted, and wasn’t as focussed on me as he might ususally be.

This was great for me, because as Adam started to pass my guard, I caught him in half-guard, which is a position I’m not very comfortable in. I find people pass through my guard into half, and then straight through to side control. However this time I locked him down and went for a basic half-guard sweep (reverse the positioning and place Adam on his back with me on top). He regained some balance (he has great balance, as you might expect) but I felt he was committed in one direction, so I swept him the other way.

It was only a minor victory, but in terms of my jiu jitsu journey, it’s a milestone. Sure Adam wasn’t at his peak, and if he was concentrating 100% on me then it might not have worked out. But that wasn’t the case, and I won this encounter, this time.

I think it’s what I really needed to kick-start my 2010 training. I have a goal for this year, and if I can string enough small victories together, then I’ll achieve it.

What are some small victories you’ve had in your life that had significance to you?

Well to be truthful, that’s only half of what I did. I also enjoyed dinner and coffee with Magdalena, Fitzy and Kirstie, but the last two hours were spent hunched over Magdalena’s broken MacBook Pro with my mini screw drivers and a plastic spudger. Nope, I did not make up that name, that’s what it’s called.

The replacement keyboard arrived today, just one week after we placed the order online. I can’t recommend iFixIt enough. They not only have great guides, but when I bought the keyboard, they “suggested” the tools I’d need, and offered to include them in the purchase. I thought this was a very handy up-sell.

All up the job was not too difficult, though I was scared for a second that the keyboard wasn’t sitting perfect in the top casing, but some jiggling and prodding saw it seat itself fine.

There were no screws left over, however a generic piece of black plastic did wriggle free from somewhere inside and fall out when the shell was disassembled. It doesn’t look important though, and has probably been floating around inside the laptop for months, if not years. No real loss.

I also thought that the back-light wasn’t working, meaning that the back-light cable was not re-attached correctly, or that there was further damage that the water had caused that I had not detected, but it was simpler than that. Magdalena had the checkbox for “Illuminate keyboard in low light conditions” unchecked. I ticked it and now the keyboard lights up like a Christmas tree.

All in all, Im very happy with how the repair work went and extremely happy with the parts, tools and service I received from iFixIt. Whilst I hope I don’t have to repair too many more Macs, it’s reassuring to know that there is a one-stop-shop with all the parts and tools necessary to get the job done.

Her MacBook Pro is a hand-me-down. I didn’t need two, so when we replaced our units at work last year, Mags got my old one. It’s about three and a half years old, which makes it six months since the extended Apple Care expired. On top of that, I doubt Apple Care covers liquid damage to the keyboard.

The good news is that the rest of the computer seems to be working fine, so a new keyboard should do the trick. I had a look around, and whilst it’s not easy, there’s definitely resources online that provide instructions on how to remove and replace the MacBook Pro’s keyboard. I reckon it’s a task I can undertake.

In the mean time, I’ve bought a wireless keyboard that Magdalena can use. Coincidently, it sits over the inbuilt (broken) keyboard almost perfectly, so it’s a great short-term replacement, as indicated by the thumbs-up in the photo.

The wireless keyboard won’t be useless after I repair her laptop. Tony’s been using one of the pairing keyboards recently and seems to like it, so I’ll bring it into the office when we’re finished with it.

Initially I had some problems with the Bluetooth keyboard not pairing with her machine, and I couldn’t install the system patch because it required Magdalena’s password, and one of letters that’s broken is used in her password. Talk about a vicious circle! Anyway, the patch was for Mac OS X’s Java install, so I didn’t think it would make any difference. I plugged in a standard USB keyboard and used that to get the patch installed, and when her Mac rebooted it was playing nicely with the Bluetooth keyboard. Maybe another coincidence, or maybe the patch was mostly an update to Java, but had other things, or maybe it just “reset” some bit on a chip somewhere. Either way, it’s all good now, and we have a replacement keyboard being shipped on Monday. It looks like I’ll be doing some laptop surgery in a week or so.

Maybe Emma or Chanel can lend me their scrubs and a face mask.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Snake-Eyes and Baroness (or maybe Baroness and Snake-Eyes; they didn’t have their collars at the time the photo was taken, so I don’t know which is which):

Initially we had planned on getting a little girl (I can’t bring myself to call her a bitch) but when we were at the breeder’s home a few weeks ago, when we were visiting Baroness at about 4 weeks of age, Magdalena got to meet Snake-Eyes. She had a play with him whilst I was nursing Baroness, and they hit it off. Then and there I knew we needed to get both pups, and we had talked about getting a second at a later stage - I just skipped the waiting part.

They’ve been getting on great and only whine when we put them back in their playpen before they’re exhausted. They’re eating properly and don’t appear to be missing their mum at all. I think having a brother-sister pair meant that they’ve got a friend to play with all day.

Magdalena’s doing a great job trying to toilet train them whilst she’s on holidays, and I can’t wait until they’re a little older and have had their next round of vaccinations. That will mean they can come into the office for a visit. I know the Epic crew will love to meet them, and maybe they’ll have a play date with Aaron’s dwarf rabbit, Mathilda, who’s sometimes found hopping around our office.

I’ve recorded a few videos of the puppies running around our back yard which I’ll upload to YouTube, allowing me to boast like a proud parent.

• “Animal Farm” by George Orwell
• “Emma” by Jane Austen
• “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley
• “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck
• “Persuasion” by Jane Austen
• “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
• “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen
• “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger

You might notice there’s a few Jane Austen novels in there - Amazon were doing a 3-pack for $8 which was hard to go past. We’ve found so far that we most enjoy reading books that you’d regard as classics for our book club, like George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty Four”, Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange.”

As a side project, I’m running another book club (of which I am the only member) where the focus is on classic adventure stories that boys should have read growing up. To be on this list, the book has to have been written before I was born. I wanted to read some of the books that my father read as a boy, and even some that his father might have enjoyed too.

Magdalena didn’t think she’d be interested in a lot of the titles, so I’m doing it solo. Feel free to play along at home if you’re interested - I’ll use lambie.org to keep you informed of the titles as I start them. There will be some cross over with “Lord of the Flies” and “Frankenstein” being on both the lists, however I have added (again, in alphabetical order)

• “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” by Jules Verne
• “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass” by Lewis Carroll
• “Around the World in Eighty Days” by Jules Verne
• “Casino Royale” by Ian Fleming
• “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson
• “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” by Jules Verne
• “Live and Let Die” by Ian Fleming
• “Moonraker” by Ian Fleming
• “Peter Pan: Peter and Wendy and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens” by J.M. Barrie
• “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe
• “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain
• “The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels and 56 Short Stories” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• “The Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells
• “The Swiss Family Robinson” by Johann D. Wyss
• “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells
• “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson

When I was a kid I had a pop up book about Tom Sawyer, and it was the most amazing book ever. I have such fond memories of it, but alas, it seems as though eBay, Amazon, and even Google don’t have a recollection of it. I guess it’s destined to remain a memory. Watching the recent Sherlock Holmes film was the final motivational push I needed to start creating a list of the all-time classic adventure stories that I really should find the time to read.

I’ve also seen the latest Bond film, Casino Royale, and know that Lewis Carroll was not on LSD when he wrote “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (though he probably should have been). In “Back to the Future III”, Doc Brown recalled with a great fondness reading Jules Verne’s work when he was a child, and that ol’ time-traveller knew what was what. I probably watched a Disney version of Peter Pan as a child. All up, that’s my experience with these stories, and I’m very excited about the prospect of changing that.

Call me sentimental, but I think it’s a romantic notion that one day my son, or daughter, will want to read these books too. If that day comes, these novels will be already waiting on the shelf, eager to be devoured by yet another generation.

Which of these titles have you read, and which would you like to read in the future? What do you think I’ve forgotten? Will you be playing along at home?