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I just spent 50 minutes on the phone with Ebay customer support. All I wanted to do was update the phone number on my account, as I was about to make a purchase. I don't use eBay much, once every couple of years, but I've been registered since 1999.
The web site let me log in, let me update my shipping address, but gave me cryptic errors about confirming my registration when trying to update my phone number, which is odd since I've been a confirmed and registered customer for 12 years. When I tried to have the confirmation email re-sent, I received a generic error message that looked like technical difficulties on their end, not that anything was wrong with my specific account.
I called tech support, and the first guy took 20 minutes to determine that my account appeared to be marked for pending deletion, but had to transfer me to another department to get my deletion cancelled and my account reinstated. Fine, I haven't used it in a while, guess you can delete my account...I'm sure that 10KB that my profile takes up is really straining your disk usage...
The second support department took 5 minutes to tell me that my account is already deleted, and there's nothing they can do. Um...I can still log in? That doesn't seem very "deleted" to me. Oh, and you say you sent me an email notification back in May that said you were going to delete my account unless I logged in within 30 days? Yeah, I'm absolutely certain that didn't look like spam at all, and made it past Google's spam filters into my inbox. Second tier could tell I was a little miffed; they were quick to end the call.
Frustrated, I searched the eBay account closing information on the support section of their site. It says I have 180 days from pending-delete to full-on deletion. Okay, May + 180...I should still be OK?...
I called customer support back. This time, an efficient gent took my call, who confirmed my pending-delete status quickly, and tried to fix it. He was not able to, stating insufficient access (and I believe him, he tried repeatedly for 10 minutes). He bumped me to Tier 2. This tier 2 person confirmed my account status. However, instead of telling me that she couldn't help me, she took 10 minutes and actually fixed my account, which the initial tier 2 person said couldn't be done. Hmm...
Thank you competent tier 2 support person Nina. No thanks to the previous incompetent or lazy person. And no thanks to eBay for having misguided policies regarding account preservation. Your customer support image is everything; don't tarnish it.
]]>Linksys WRT54G v3.0 reflashed with DD-WRT firmware
Static DHCP entry for Dish TV receiver, because you can't set a static IP on the POS (DHCP only), and it tends to wander about, which makes the Logitech Revue angry because it expects the Dish box to stay on its original IP address. How Logitech and Dish expect the average consumer to not be frustrated by that, I don't know. (Not relevant to downloading games, but something that's been bugging me, and OEM firmware didn't have static DHCP capabilities)
Wake-On-LAN enabled on PC, NAT entry with ARP hack set up on Linksys per http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/WOL
Android WOL app because it's amusing to use my phone to power up my PC, and because it saved me from having to fire up another computer to test my WOL. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.benfinnigan.wol
RDP passthru to home PC.
Never again will I fail to have a Steam game pre-downloaded and waiting for me when I get home from work!
]]>(These tests were performed with Veeam 5.0.2.230 64 bit against a VMware ESX 4.1 Update 1 patch level 348481 host with vCenter 4.1 Update 1 patch level 345043)
What if I have an existing VM snapshot (Snap1) before the Veeam backup starts?
Veeam will take an additional snapshot (Snap2), lock the disk file from Snap1, stream data from that file plus the base disk, then commit (delete) Snap2 when the backup is complete.
What if I have several VM snapshots open?
Same behavior, all "parent" snapshot files are locked while the backup is operating.
What if I try to commit (delete) my snapshot (Snap1) while Veeam is running?
VMware will throw the error "Unable to access file
Is Veeam doing a "Delete All" then?
No. If you have additional previous or later snapshots in the tree, they will still exist when Veeam is done.
So...can I take three snapshots, start a Veeam backup (creating a fourth snapshot), then delete snap #2?!...
Yes. You'll get the lockfile error and snap #2 will disappear from the list, and when Veeam is done snaps #4 and #2 will commit, leaving snaps #1 and #3.
Can I take a snapshot while Veeam is performing a backup?
Yes. Veeam will not touch your snapshots. As stated above, it doesn't do a "Delete All", it only commits the snapshot that it took.
If you have an existing snapshot when Veeam starts a backup, does it force Veeam to take a full backup?
No. Veeam happily performs an incremental backup.
Final notes: We've had various problems with Quest (Vizioncore) vRanger's behaviors surrounding snapshots in the past few years, to where we always suspended vRanger when we had snaps open. It's good to see that Veeam handles snaps gracefully. Current versions of vRanger may have improved snapshot behavior; I probably won't have an opportunity to test.
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(skip to about 1:25, from Pretty in Pink)
"Blane? His name is Blane? Oh! That's a major appliance, that's not a name!"
I spell it differently, so I'm safe. It's a name.
]]>Maybe. It depends on your goal, your equipment, and your workloads.
At the basic byte-counting level, you get 1460 bytes (1500 byte payload minus 20 bytes of IP and 20 bytes of [minimal] TCP) of iSCSI payload out of a 1538 byte iSCSI frame (1518 byte frame plus 8 bytes of preamble/SOF and 12 bytes of interframe gap), which is 94.93% efficient. With 9000 byte jumbo frames, your iSCSI payload is 8960 bytes out of a 9038 byte frame, or 99.14% efficient, a 4.21% gain. Not huge, but not insignificant.
However, the biggest potential gains of jumbo frames is not on the wire efficiency side, but on the host processing side. Each packet requires checksum calculations and protocol computation overheads. If your main CPU is doing these calculations, the conversion to jumbo frames can provide some CPU relief. TOE (TCP Offload Engine) functionality in your NICs (with O/S support) shifts some or all of those calculations to the NIC hardware, and TSO (TCP Segmentation Offloading) and LRO (Large Receive Offload) support can also bring CPU relief. An important note is that VMware does not currently support most TOE functionality, but does provide support for TSO, and support for LRO for a very limited set of NICs (which are conveniently the Intel VT and Broadcom 5708/5709 cards commonly found in Dell servers). See KB 1006143.
But the single most important question to ask yourself before going down the jumbo frames road is this: Am I intending to push my servers and storage so hard that I need the gains from jumbo frames? I support a fairly large number of setups, and I’m rarely designing anywhere near the edge of equipment performance. I like comfortable performance buffers, and so do my customers. I also like having excess performance capacity for growth. If you’re at the performance edge, perhaps the more appropriate question is whether your core design and core equipment are the right choices. Perhaps you need to step them up a notch. If you’re deeply concerned about the CPU load from software iSCSI, buy hardware iSCSI HBAs (but be sure to verify them against the VMware hardware compatibility list!). Also note that some new NICs are being listed as “NIC w/TOE iSCSI”, but these are not the same as a full iSCSI HBA, and you will not get the hardware offloading of iSCSI that you desire.
The best community posting I’ve found on iSCSI with vSphere:
http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/09/a-multivendor-post-on-using-iscsi-with-vmware-vsphere.html
TOE, TSO, and LRO support by VMware:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006143
--Blaine Kahle (blaine AT blaine kahle DOOT com)
]]>If you can't hack (remote hack dart), in section [HackPrototype] (83% of the way down the file, at line 15467 for me) type "HackAction" after the key of your choice. Example:
[HackPrototype]
.
.
.
V=HackAction
If you are using the Scrounger ("Search again" when looting) Gene Tonic but have remapped your "R" key to something non-default, you'll need this: In section [ContainerUIActive] (about 11% of the way down the file at line 2199 for me) type "ReRollContainer" after the key of your choice. Example:
[ContainerUIActive]
.
.
.
G=ReRollContainer
"Dave Proefke, a vehicle security engineer at General Motors Co... [said that] keyless ignition benefits older people who have difficulty removing keys from their pockets or turning a key in a lock."
These people should not be driving a car if their physical abilities are that low, Mr. Security Engineer!
"...she isn't sure how to shut off the engine in an emergency. 'I don't know if I ever read it in the owners manual or not,'" said Marsh"
Then Read The Friendly Manual!
"'This car isn't stopping," [Brithinee] told a passenger as he felt panic swelling in his chest. "I really didn't know what to do at that point.'"
Shift to neutral! I also wonder why the California highway patrol guy who died didn't shift...
]]>Then I fired it back up yesterday for one quick go. I was amazed at how utterly terrible the interface felt, not believing I'd endured several hours of it previously. It was worse than I remembered. "There's no way this is proper." I said to myself. Perhaps it needed to be played with a gamepad (due to poor control scheme porting), like a GTA game (driving a car with the mouse? Ha!) or Ghostbusters.
Nope, it just needed vSync turned off. Load times went from 30+ seconds to near instantaneous. All moving and aiming sluggishness and acceleration problems disappeared. Suddenly, the game was fun.
How could such a critical flag be:
??
Granted, vSync is a standard graphical flag, but never have I seen it impose such a drastic penalty on all aspects of a game by being on. 2000% longer load times? How does it even factor in to that???
]]>Blaine's PAX2009 trip photos. (high-res versions of specific photos available by request, 3072x2304 max on most)
We also brought back three different illnesses! Mike with bronchitis, me with some flu-ish bug, and Bryce with the H1N1 (a H1Nerd1 winner!).
]]>RPTS WIFE BROKE PHONE & PULLED HIM OUT OF HOUSE BY HIS EAR
Owned :)
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I'm surprised "666" didn't make the DMV's list of prohibited sequences. I wonder if "SEX" or anything else will ever pop up.
However, my hands are now performing the wrong light switch operation maneuvers for the room they're in. I'm trying to click in a traditional switch, and I'm trying to flick up a flush, flat button. Fail.
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