Category Archives: Uncategorized
SCALE 13x Linux-IO Presentation Video
I recently attended the SCALE 13x conference in Los Angeles. It was my fourth time attending SCALE and as usual I found it to be an excellent event. Unlike some previous years I didn’t work in the expo hall (no … Continue reading
Dealing with a panel lotto with a ThinkPad
Every laptop I’ve owned in the 21st century has been a ThinkPad. Factors important to me include build quality, reliability, warranty support, and the keyboard, and all of these are typically excellent on ThinkPads. Moreover, major components are typically made by … Continue reading
Saving on your cell phone bill by going prepaid
My Cheap home phone service with VoIP article garnered a lot of interest, so I thought I should write a similar post about saving money on cell phone service. By switching to a prepaid phone plan you can very likely save … Continue reading
Apache CloudStack Troubleshooting Video
I’m a committer for Apache CloudStack and earlier this year I attended the CloudStack Collaboration Conference in Denver. Besides checking out a bunch of great sessions and networking with community members, I had the opportunity to present. I work with … Continue reading
Cheap home phone service with VoIP – Obihai versus Ooma
For the last few years many budget-conscious folks have been using an Obihai VoIP adapter with Google Voice for completely free VoIP telephone service. It worked great, although it did not support emergency service (i.e. calls to 9-1-1). Unfortunately, earlier this … Continue reading
Mass blocking of evil IP addresses with iptables and IP sets
When running a Linux server or firewall it may be useful to use iptables to block a list of known “evil” IP addresses. There are many organizations maintaining “block lists” of such IPs, such as Spamhaus, DShield, and OpenBL. Blocking … Continue reading