ZFS has a couple of very useful functions, zfs send and zfs receive, which allow you to serialize a complete ZFS dataset and recreate it in a different location. They can also be used to serialize a delta between two snapshots and apply that delta to a previously created copy of the dataset. You see where I’m going with this… That’s right, incremental backups of a ZFS dataset or even an entire pool to a different ZFS dataset or pool. Continue reading “ZFS-to-ZFS backups”
More Advanced Format drives: Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen and Seagate Barracuda Green
I’ve acquired a couple more 2 TB Advanced Format drives: a Seagate Barracuda Green (ST2000DL003) and a Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen (HD204UI, no data sheet available online). Continue reading “More Advanced Format drives: Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen and Seagate Barracuda Green”
Stalkers
I don’t get Google+.
Much of it looks like a better facebook, with e.g. far better photo
handling and a more nuanced relationship system—where facebook tried to
patch the black-and-white “friend” concept by adding “pages” and
“groups”, Google+ simply generalized it, eliminating the need for such
hacks.
However, I don’t understand why Google+ allows people I have never even
heard of—including people hiding behind pseudonyms and whose identity
even a Google search (hah!) can’t reveal, so much for their
controversial “real name” policy—to push updates into my “Incoming”
stream. I thought the idea was to let me decide who I wanted to
follow, not the other way around.
I almost feel like I’m being stalked, except it’s a weird sort of
reverse stalking where, instead of following me around and poking their
noses into my private life, the stalkers follow me around and grind my
nose into their private lives.
Who the hell are you people?
Unanimiter et constanter
Today, there are no roses to be had in Oslo, for love nor money.
* * *
I am standing by the fountain outside the City Hall. With me around the fountain are hundreds of others. Around them are thousands more, and beyond those, tens of thousands. I do not know precisely how many, and to be honest, I do not think anyone does. A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Three hundred thousand? Most of them with a rose in their hand, many with two or more.
This is our finest hour. Continue reading “Unanimiter et constanter”
Pi
More-or-less aimless surfing brought me to an old blog post about math in movies, which mentions Pi and Contact. This mostly coincidental juxtaposition reminded me of the conclusion of the novel behind the latter.
When I first read the book, a zillion years ago, I thought the ending was pretty clever. Then I realized that it was incredibly dumb. It later occurred to me that it might actually be intentionally dumb, and therefore incredibly clever, because Carl Sagan really ought to have known better, but… I don’t know. I think he either genuinely goofed or assumed (probably correctly, in most cases) that his readers wouldn’t notice. Continue reading “Pi”