It being "30 Rock6x09
"Leap Day"Jack learns to appreciate Leap Day while Tracy takes the writers to a restaurant to spend an almost-expired gift card. Liz helps Jenna seduce a billionaire online.Leap Day" today, I've worn blue and yellow to work. Well, a cream-ish t-shirt that looks yellow, if you view it in the right light - I don't have any yellow clothes it seems. One person commented that I wasn't wearing my usual purple, but didn't know the reference. It's not really that surprising, but still... I thought it was reasonably fun in any case.

The past few weeks have been pretty manic, and I've not really had any opportunity to rest at work. It's quite tiring, and still frustrating that I've not managed to get much done. However, things may start to calm down. I've still got a lot of things to clear up, but next week might get back to more 'normal'.

I had a dream this morning that, some years ago, mum and dad had been going somewhere and they'd never arrived. Eventually they were declared dead and I had found it hard to remember that they had been around. It was a bit sad really.

I took a few pictures when I set the case up. So for the record, I'll put them up here so that I have them in the future. Plus, it's quite neat.

I've got a Dell Precision workstation that I bought off Picsel when they were trying to get together money to pay us, prior to administration. It's not a great server, but it's better than I had before. It could possibly do with more memory, but it's otherwise fine. In the server there are:

• 1 Hauppauge DVB-S2 receiver card (decodes from the satellite input)
• 1 Hauppauge DVD-T receiver card (decodes from aerial input, not used at present as the aerial here isn't aligned well and I don't care enough to fix it).
• 1 eSATA PCI-express card, based on SiI 3132 (2 eSATA connections)
• 1 eSATA PCI-express card, based on JMicron controller (1 eSATA connection)

It also has a USB thermometer connected on the back (as the Dell has no linux supported temperature monitoring, other than the CPU core temperatures), and the USB input from the APC 'Back-UPS 500' UPS (to control shutdown in the case of power failure, and prevent blips causing issues).

The eSATA connectors were wired to two external boxes, which have an eSATA bridge board connected to 5 drives each. The external boxes came from Span as a single case solution. The cases are for 5 1/4" drives and come with rails for mounting 3 1/2" drives. It's all relatively painless to set up - the important thing is that the controllers (the SiI 3132 and the JMicron) must support 'port multiplier' ('PMP') in order for the drives to be accessible.

Span also do a RAID version of the bridge board, which I found later but is less useful to me. Because I'm adding drives as I need them, having RAID isn't as useful. RAID generally needs the drives to be similar sizes and adding drives to an existing RAID can be difficult (and I don't think it's supported with that particular hardware controller). Additionally, I want to be careful with the power usage, so spinning down drives that aren't in use is important to me. Because the media that's stored on the drives is divided up into different types - series in one group of discs, films in another, etc - the number of discs that need to spin up is reduced. These could be separated by using different RAID sets, but that's still multiplying the issues.

At the time I got the first box, the Linux support for eSATA with port multiplier wasn't in the mainline kernel, so I had to build a special kernel with the development patches for port multiplier. Fortunately they were integrated soon after and I continued with the mainline kernels, building my own as I needed features (as the DVB cards were added, they too needed extra drivers). One issue with not using a stock kernel is that you have to assume that the system you're running will actually work with it. Which isn't a great assumption - but is usually ok. It also means that just plugging something in that might be common might not be present on your special kernel that you've built for your own use. It's all a tradeoff really.

One problem with these boxes is that the drives aren't hot-swap. You can turn the power off on the case and the bridge vanishes. After about half a minute of retrying, the Kernel gives up and the devices are unavailable, effectively removed. I have a special script which will auto-mount any devices connected as they appear, so turning the box on again will initialise the bridge, then probe the drives and when they're all ready the discs are mounted.

The script that mounts them actually does a little more than that. It runs an fsck on the drives if they need it, sets the drives to sleep after an hour unused, and mounts the disc in a directory based on its label (assuming the former two commands worked). At the end, it emails me to say that the disc was mounted (or that it wasn't mounted and the fsck problems it encountered).

The other issue with the boxes is that to get at the bottom most drives you have to remove the others. That's annoying when you find that the bottom one has failed. There's a lot of unscrewing and re-screwing to be done. This frustrates me .

Having multiple boxes also impressed on me the need to know where the drives were. I've got a little script now that tells me how the devices are connected - it's not particularly complicated, but I couldn't find anything similar. At the moment (in the new system) it looks like this:

justin@buttercup:~$ disc-interfaces.pl
Interface pci-0000:00:1f.2:
  music,home,boot    : WDC_WD10EACS-00Z   : 0:0:0:0
  terry              : WDC_WD10EACS-07D   : 2:0:0:0
  mythtv             : WDC_WD5000AAKS-0   : 3:0:0:0
Interface pci-0000:02:00.0:
  external4          : WDC_WD10EACS-00C   : 0:0:0:0
  external2          : WDC_WD5000AAKS-0   : 0:1:0:0
  external17         : WDC_WD20EARX-00P   : 0:2:0:0
  external7          : SAMSUNG_HD154UI    : 1:0:0:0
  external6          : WDC_WD10EADS-00L   : 1:1:0:0
  external8          : WDC_WD15EADS-00P   : 1:3:0:0
  external10         : WDC_WD20EARS-00J   : 1:4:0:0
Interface pci-0000:03:00.0:
  external5          : WDC_WD10EACS-00Z   : 0:0:0:0
  external11         : WDC_WD20EARS-00J   : 0:1:0:0
  external16         : WDC_WD20EARX-00P   : 0:2:0:0
  external15         : WDC_WD20EARX-00P   : 0:3:0:0
  external12         : WDC_WD20EARS-00M   : 0:4:0:0

Whilst this isn't perfect as a way of identifying things, with the boxes that I had, finding the correct bay that I needed to use was easier when the drives were in the right order - 0 at the bottom, 4 at the top. When dismantling, however, you don't always know which drive was which, so it is quite important to label the discs as they go in as well. All of my discs are given an incrementing number, with no duplicates - if a drive fails and is replaced it gets a new number, rather than replace the old. A permanent marker for the drive number on the drive itself means that if you get confused you can check which it is. This means that the number implies the drive's age, and ensures that you don't accidentally swap drives around - if that mattered.

The numbering is also very important when it comes to accounting for the drives. Knowing where you bought them from, and therefore who to return them to, matters. I keep a simple text file that contains the drive number, source, order number, date of purchase, and model for each drive. From this I can see whether there's a pattern to failures and the like - not that I've had enough to really say much. On the other hand, I've got 3 failed 2TB drives, 2 x WD20EARS and 1 x WD20EARX, whereas the earlier drives - the 1TB and the 500GB drives are still going. It's a bit early to say whether this is really a pattern, but maybe something to be cautious of.

Anyhow, the system worked, and handled 10 discs quite well. Every time I needed more space, however, it meant swapping out a drive - a smaller drive replaced by a larger one. That meant less overall gain.

I wanted something that would:

• Retain the hardware I currently have, where possible.
• Avoid the need to offline a large number of discs when performing maintenance - hot-swap bays, essentially.
• Allowed some more extensibility into the future.

After looking at a number of forums, I came across the Norco 4220 case, which has 20 bays and space for some smaller boot discs and an optical drive as well. Very nice, and I was quite interested, until I saw they also did a 24 bay variant which was even better, as I didn't really care about having optical device, and I would (at least initially) be retaining the Dell server. Eventually the motherboard from the server could move to such a case, but not right now.

This is actually a 4U rackmount chassis, but as I don't have a rack, it can sit on the floor - that's not going to hurt really. In the UK, X-Case are one supplier of these cases, recommended off one of the forums. Span don't do these cases or anything of the same type. There are other cases, but the prices rapidly get silly. I realise I'm into more enterprise-level storage now that I'm going beyond 10 drives (about 16TB), so I have to be realistic about what the costs will be - but not go crazy.

X-Case actually do a Home server version of the 24 bay case, which is less deep. You lose the option to fit very large motherboards, but that probably doesn't matter, and for me it isn't important as I'm not moving the motherboard yet (and when I do, I'll make sure it fits).

The case itself, when it arrived, looks something like this:

Features of the case that are important are:

• There's decent sized fans in there to keep the system cool - I've always been concerned about the heat produced by these systems, even when the server used to sit in the eaves in Reading.
• There is a backplane that connects the drives through SFF-8087 cables.

The backplane makes things a lot easier from a connection point of view. It connects to the drives and presents a single SFF 8087 connector and single Molex power connector for each row of 4 drives. The drives connect to the backplane and it worries about the hassle of showing the drive activity and power lights (through the caddy), and routing the SATA connector and power to the backplane connector.

There are 6 of these backplane modules fitted in the case, each handling a row of 4 drives, so at a minimum that's 6 Molex power connectors and 6 SFF-8087 connectors coming off the bays. The backplane actually has 2 power connectors per module - so that you can fit a second power feed from a redundant power supply if you felt like it. This is enterprise-type kit after all - I didn't .

The SFF-8087 cable provides a single connector for 4 devices. The cables can come in one of 3 forms:

• Single connector at both ends; a regular cable. These are used which a SAS controller which directly takes SFF-8087 connection. The advantage here is that there's only 1 physical cable going from controller to backplane.
• SFF-8087 at controller, 4 x SATA to drives; a forward breakout cable. These are used where you have a SAS controller and want to connect directly to SATA devices (ie not what I'm doing).
• 4 x SATA at controller, SFF-8087 at backplane; a reverse breakout cable. These are used where you have a controller that takes SATA but you need to connect to a backplane or other device that takes SFF-8087.

The first of these would be useful in the future, if I upgrade to a SAS controller. The latter of these is what I have, because I'm reusing the eSATA controllers and bridges that I have, and they take SATA connectors. I bought an extra eSATA bridge board (as otherwise I wouldn't have any more expansion over the old cases), and 4 SFF-8087 reverse breakout cables. The 4 cables give me 16 connectable bays, although as I only have 3 eSATA bridge boards, I can only connect up to 15 drives at present. That's not a problem right now - this is an upgradable solution. In the future I may continue with eSATA or decide that I want to move on to a SAS controller and be cleverer - I have options.

As the eSATA bridge boards in my cases have a SCSI connection mounting points, as a smaller board, so I also needed some little PCI brackets in order to fit the bridge boards to the new case at the PCI slot holes.

The fun thing (oh yes, it is fun) is that with all those SATA cables, there's a lot of cables to connect up. Each cable (at least those I got) has a number on it to indicate the port that it goes to - P1,P2,P3,P4. That helps for the individual port, but if there are a lot of these cables then there will be a lot of fun trying to work out whichP1 the cable is associated with.

As I was trying to fit the cable I decided that I needed a solution that was easy for me to understand, and clear. Initially I thought I'd write the row number on the cable. There's not a lot of room on the cable, so I didn't even try that. Instead I put a number of lines on the cable. The bottom row's cable has 6 lines on it. The next row up has 5 lines on it. The next has 4, and so on. I put the lines on both sides of the cable so that it didn't matter which way around the cable was in order to see which cable was which. I also made a break between the lines if there were more than 3 lines - this just makes it easier to count, as groups of three are naturally simple to identify, so a 3 and 2 is very quick, whereas 5 lines and 6 lines can look very similar at a glance.

I think I should have tied the cables together in the case, but it's easier to see in hindsight. They cannot be tied together towards the controller as the cables may go to different controllers. Because there are 4 cables per row, and the controllers have 5 ports, each controller will span multiple rows and thus multiple cable groups. Not a big deal but it means that some cables need to go in different directions.

Once set up and I was happy with the way that it was wired up - but with no drives in - I tried to power up the system. As I mentioned previously this didn't work because the ATX power supply needs a signal from the motherboard to turn it on. This is just a couple of pins connected together, but I've borrowed the controller board from one of the old external boxes which works.

Moving the drives to the bays is a 'simple' matter of removing them from the old boxes (lots of unscrewing as mentioned before) and screwing into the bay caddy. The bays are set up so that inserting them makes a good connection and is locked in place. Removing them similarly makes a reliable release - you press the button on the front to unlock and the drives can be pulled out by the handle.

As I've mentioned I needed to upgrade my Kernel to 3.2.7 because 2.6.38 didn't support hotswap devices with the particular bridge board that I've got. It's not a big deal but it's useful to be aware of. It does all work - and plugging in the box or inserting new drives picks them up, mounts them and all is great.

As some drives hadn't been checked in a couple of hundred days, when I first connected them up in the new bays they had to do their fsck. This took a while but wasn't excessive. However, it did make for some pretty lights:

Previously I was monitoring the temperature in the individual bays by using the SMART temperature monitoring for a single drive in the box. That gives a reasonable measure of the drives. I also monitored the number of spun up discs in the box, as this had a direct relationship to how hot the drives would get.

In the new server I have a number of choices. I could get a USB temperature monitor with remote probe and place it in the case. That would get the case temperature. I might pursue that later. For now I'm using a single drive in the box as an indicator of the temperature. In general, the drives are now about 10 degrees cooler than they had been in the other boxes.

I needed a way that I could identify which drive was which. Locating the drives using the 'disc-interfaces.pl' script only told me which controller the drives were on, but that isn't very obvious for the new case. So, one evening I knocked up a little script to produce a diagram of the rack and the bays, obtaining details from the devices, from the filesystem and from SMART.

This diagram uses the SMART 'uncorrectable error' entries to report whether a drive has failed or not. I knew that 'external13' was failing, and had done an Advance RMA for it, and 'external17' had been delivered from Western Digital to replace the failing disc. It looks quite neat, with the little red highlight of a failed drive, and the labelling on each drive showing the filesystem label, the size and usage.

The table only gets updated once a day, as there's really no need to do anything more than that really. I might consider using Nagios at some later point, but I'm still unconvinced that its necessary on a home system.

The only real issue with it is that those big fans do make a lot of noise - I have to leave the living room door closed so that it's not annoying when I watch TV. But that's not a big deal, really. Fortunately there's nobody else to annoy with its noise so that's ok.

Anyhow, that's what the case is and how it's set up. It's not particularly complicated, although it took me a long time to decide what a good solution was going to be for the case and connectivity. I now understand a lot more about the RAID controllers (although I'm not using them yet), how to connect the drives and the different types of cases.

So, I'm upgraded to new Kernel - 3.2.7 - and hotswap drives now work. They correctly wait 10 seconds after they fail to initialise and then they recognise the drives just fine. Whee. I did have a little problem initially as I seemed to have an old binutils installed, but once that was fixed, all was well .

I've been a little extravagant and bought myself a new case to replace the old external cases I was using. It's a little excessive but it should keep me going for a while. Having been frustrated by the issues with having to offline an entire box and then faff with removing all the drives, I wanted something that had caddies and could take more discs than I currently have; a more expandable solution.

After a bit of looking around I settled on an X-Case Home server 24 bay case. It should last me a little while. It has a backplane that connects the drives and presents them as 6 SFF-8087 connections (alone with the power). As I've got eSATA at the moment, I opted to reuse the bridge boards and controllers, so I use SFF-8087 reverse breakout cables to connect from the SFF-8087 on the backplane to 4 SATA ports. Each SATA bridge-board supports 5 SATA ports, so they don't match up controllers to rows, but that's not a huge problem.

There's a lot of cables, though - I've got 10 drives at the moment, and with 3 bridge boards, I'm able to control up to 15 drives without any other changes. I've got 4 SFF-8087 cables, so they supply me with 16 SATA connections, for now.

Getting the cables to the right place, past the fans was interesting. Getting the power to the right place was also interesting, once I finally fitted the power supply. The screw holes didn't quite line up, so it wouldn't sit right, but I've got it in anyhow.

Then, whilst I was trying to move things from the external boxes (which had been turned off and disconnected), the server decided to crash. I don't know why - I was only listening to music on it. Admittedly I was listening to Ride On Time, by Black Box so it could have been just refusing to play it on grounds of taste, but I don't think it's that sentient yet.

Anyhow, I restarted it and left it running - it ran fsck for a while before finally coming back. Fed up, I ordered chinese.

At this point I was ready to plug in the server. And... it did nothing. Which was really disappointing. Fortunately a few friends suggested that the problem was probably that I'm not using a motherboard, so there's no connector to make the PSU turn on. Each of the external bays has a little board that has the motherboard power connector and inputs for the main power switch and the power LED.

So I transplanted the little board to my case and turned the PSU on - and nothing happened. Then I pressed the power button on the front of the case and it came on! ... and went off again when I released the power button. It seems that the power button on the front is only a momentary press switch, rather than a latching switch. Someone has already suggested just shoving a paperclip between the two connections that need to be made to turn the PSU on. Rather than that, I placed a jumper in place of the switch connector on the mini-board and that appears to have done the job. The power switch does nothing, but the power LED is controlled properly.

I'd kinda like to get a similar board which could go in place of the one that I've taken from the external case (as the case is now not useful) but for now, this suffices.

The fans are very loud, when it is running. That might be annoying, although I'll probably decide to just keep the living room door shut.

I tried sticking a drive in, from one of the bays, with the eSATA cables connected. Another set-back. It didn't recognise the drive. Not was it recognised after multiple attempts. The debug output says that the port was retried 3 times before giving up. A quick google around pointed to problems with the Silicon Image 3276 port multiplier chip - as is used on the bridge boards - when hot swapping. Since previously I was bringing up the discs and the controller at the same time, that gave the drives time to start up.

Apparently this has been fixed, in Kernel 3.2rc2 and later - and I'm using 2.6.38. So I can't get the fixes until I rebuild the Kernel, and make a few jumps in version number at that, too. So for now I've got a system that can be made to work - I just have to turn it on with all the drives present, I think - but which doesn't solve my original problem.

Hey-ho... there's bits everywhere now, and I've got to tidy them up tomorrow because it's late now.

'cause all I really want is to be with you; Feeling like I matter too. If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago, I might be here with you. [ Hey Jealousy, from New Miserable Experience, by Gin Blossoms ]

I've had a rather oldies session with music this evening. Well, before the server stopped doing its thing.

I slept very badly again last night, and woke up a few times, the last couple I was dreaming about feeling unwell and driving somewhere but feeling worse and worse. I wasn't sure I'd be able to go to work afterwards, and then I woke up feeling unwell too. Fortunately it passed, which wasn't too bad. I was going to go to the post office this morning, but I was just too tired, so slept in.

I often get about three quarters of the way home and find myself wondering why I'm rushing and what there is left to go back to. It's not like I'm really rushing to go home, anyhow, but there's nothing there. That always brings up the obvious thoughts of why I'm doing what I do... it's always feeling like it's just something to pass the time until I can let myself do something that I want. No that's not quite right... Passing time because I'm not able to have what I want? Something like that. But anyhow, it's not really like there is much that I can have.

Ah well.

Chris is moving to a new place, which looks really quite nice. He's sent me some nice pictures of the new place.

I was dreaming last night of running away from the police. Well, maybe not running, but evading them. I had things to give them - information, and help, but I didn't want to be caught. So I had to slip out of hotels, and through shops without them seeing me. I passed some printed papers to them by giving them to a courier to deliver to where we'd arranged to meet. I remember I was on my own, though, and there was nobody to help me.

I've decided I want to do something a little more exciting with the server, so I'm going to replace the boxes I have with a whole new case that should be expandable for at least the next few years. The eSATA port-multiplier external cases have done well, but they're not quite as expandable as I would like. Hopefully everything will all work perfectly in the new system - but it's going to be pretty fun to get it there.

Managed to get a little bit written this evening, so I let myself watch Fringe (2008, FOX)Action and Adventure/Drama/Science-FictionTeleportation. Mind control. Invisibility. Astral projection. Mutation. Reanimation. Phenomena that exist on the Fringe of science unleash their strange powers in this thrilling series, co-created by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), combining the grit of the police procedural with the excitement of the unknown. The story revolves around three unlikely colleagues - a beautiful young FBI agent, a brilliant scientist who's spent the last 17 years in a mental institution and the scientist's sardonic son - who investigate a series of bizarre deaths and disasters known as "the pattern." Someone is using our world as an experimental lab. And all clues lead to Massive Dynamic, a shadowy global corporation that may be more powerful than any nation.Fringe. It's all a lot harder to write now. It's not that I'm fed up of doing it, but that it's not as interesting as it was. There are still some interesting areas to write about, but they need energy and I'm lacking in that. Quite tired today, which may have had something to do with not sleeping so well again last night.

Fringe (2008, FOX)Action and Adventure/Drama/Science-FictionTeleportation. Mind control. Invisibility. Astral projection. Mutation. Reanimation. Phenomena that exist on the Fringe of science unleash their strange powers in this thrilling series, co-created by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), combining the grit of the police procedural with the excitement of the unknown. The story revolves around three unlikely colleagues - a beautiful young FBI agent, a brilliant scientist who's spent the last 17 years in a mental institution and the scientist's sardonic son - who investigate a series of bizarre deaths and disasters known as "the pattern." Someone is using our world as an experimental lab. And all clues lead to Massive Dynamic, a shadowy global corporation that may be more powerful than any nation.Fringe episode "Fringe4x12
"Welcome To Westfield"Peter, Olivia and Walter come face to face with a mysterious and terrifying Fringe event as they get trapped in a town that there’s no escaping from.Welcome To Westfield" this evening was a very X-Files (1993, FOX)Drama/Science-FictionThis long running FOX drama lasted nine seasons and focused on the exploits of FBI Agents Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, John Doggett and Monica Reyes and their investigations into the paranormal. From genetic mutants and killer insects to a global conspiracy concerning the colonization of Earth by an alien species, this mind-boggling, humorous and occasionally frightening series created by Chris Carter has been one of the world's most popular sci-fi/drama shows since its humble beginnings in 1993.X-Files episode, albeit having a little less in the way of explanation. The floating objects when the cars stopped could have been lifted from the X-Files (1993, FOX)Drama/Science-FictionThis long running FOX drama lasted nine seasons and focused on the exploits of FBI Agents Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, John Doggett and Monica Reyes and their investigations into the paranormal. From genetic mutants and killer insects to a global conspiracy concerning the colonization of Earth by an alien species, this mind-boggling, humorous and occasionally frightening series created by Chris Carter has been one of the world's most popular sci-fi/drama shows since its humble beginnings in 1993.X-Files and may have actually been (I've not looked back).

I'm tired this evening and feeling rather low, which might be due to being tired, but probably it's just a whole bunch of things. Plus I've got the theme to Super Gran (1986, ITV)ChildrenIn a small British town, there is an old lady who is making the best of her weak condition. However, the small time criminal mastermind, Scunner Campbell, has stolen a new invention that he hopes will grant superpowers to himself; as soon as he makes it work that is. However, a botched firing makes the beam go astray and it hits the Grannie instead. Suddenly, the lady gains super strength and speed to become the local superhero, Supergran. Now, Supergran protects her town from the forces of evil, although Scunner Campbell is not exactly a major challengeSuper Gran going around my head due to James' mentioning of it earlier in the week. Damn it!

My replacement drive's arrived tonight, to replace the dead-on-arrival drive that I got last week. So I'm copying things across now from the disc that it's going to be swapped for. The original drive that I need to get replaced is out of the case now, so I need to get that RMA'd with Amazon as well. However, Amazon's currently showing 2 RMA requests, when I only had one - and one of them should have gone away anyhow, as I've returned the drive.

I'm no doubt going to have to talk to someone at Amazon, I guess. Gah.

I've finally got around to swapping out the dead harddisc for its replacement. I had to wait until the drives weren't in use before I could swap it out, though, which can take a little while. As nothing else was happening with the system I also took the opportunity to do some upgrades and restart Apache. At least that should keep things a little newer than they were.

My left eye's tired, and doing its twitching thing again, which is annoying me. It's probably best just to shut it and forget about it. I've not really done a lot this weekend. I've watched some more Burn Notice (2007, USA Network)Action and AdventureCovert intelligence operative Michael Westen has been punched, kicked, choked and shot. And now he's received a "burn notice", blacklisting him from the intelligence community and compromising his very identity. He must track down a faceless nemesis without getting himself killed while doubling as a private investigator on the dangerous streets of Miami in order to survive.Burn Notice which is still amusing, and I've realised its a more modern version of The A-Team (1983, NBC)Action and Adventure"If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire: THE A-TEAM." These words open one of the most famous TV series of all time. The A-Team was about 4 escaped fugitives from a crime they did not commit: Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, their heroic leader, in charge of making the plans, Lt. Templeton "Face" Peck, the team's conman and womanizer, Cpt. H.M. "Howlin' Mad" Murdock, an insane pilot who acts as a comedy relief, and Sgt. B.A. Barracus, played by Mr. T in his role of a lifetime. Together, they fight evildoers, escape the military, and create catchphrases in the process. A classic for all ages, The A-Team should be watch by everyone.The A-Team. But also I've been play testing a game for Alex, which has been quite fun, albeit frustrating, because I suck quite a bit at it .

Helen at work has complained that all the Jelly Beans end up gone, and she likes them. So I got her a bag of Jelly Babies on Friday. They're not quite the same thing, but they were the closest Tesco's had. I said that she had complained, so I got her them, so she said she also wanted some diamonds and a pony and... I told her that I'd already got a friend (Ian) a pony, and they then had to explain to their colleagues why someone had sent them a pink My Little Pony by post.

I think Ian said that the pony got given to a niece, so at least it went to a good home. Not unlike the Jelly Babies which were gone within an hour. I have to remember that not everyone eats their sweets as slowly as I do!

This said, I'm now wary of buying things for Helen (or anyone else - but nobody else says much to me about non-work things...) as it looks a little odd. I guess whilst I'm at work I tend to try to focus on work things. Hmm. Or really I don't have much time to consider non-work things. I don't even get chance to follow the talker much when I'm at work - I get to look at it just before I leave work and say 'off home' after a whole day's worth of scrollback, which isn't very fair really.

I'm not sure I'm prioritising things as well as I should at work, because I'm always finding I've not had time to do things, and have to rush to get them ready. I think I finished at 8pm on Friday, which is the latest I've been for a while - and I still hadn't started on the thing I was meant to be focusing on that week. And there were still things that I need to get done, but I was too tired by then.

I've not done enough writing on the rambles this weekend, so I don't get to watch Fringe (2008, FOX)Action and Adventure/Drama/Science-FictionTeleportation. Mind control. Invisibility. Astral projection. Mutation. Reanimation. Phenomena that exist on the Fringe of science unleash their strange powers in this thrilling series, co-created by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), combining the grit of the police procedural with the excitement of the unknown. The story revolves around three unlikely colleagues - a beautiful young FBI agent, a brilliant scientist who's spent the last 17 years in a mental institution and the scientist's sardonic son - who investigate a series of bizarre deaths and disasters known as "the pattern." Someone is using our world as an experimental lab. And all clues lead to Massive Dynamic, a shadowy global corporation that may be more powerful than any nation.Fringe. A bit of that is being strict with myself, but also, I'm tired now and don't want to fall asleep in it.

I had a dream last night that it was my birthday. I'd got my presents - a yellow dumper truck, a steam roller, and some films. I was watching one of the films, sitting on the bed with Caroline. For some reason this was a bed on the grass verge at the side of a suburban road, and the steam roller was parked next to the bed. Someone came around from work to check that everything was ok, too. That's most of what I remember. Oh, except that I had to get changed to go out and had to hide behind a skip so that I wouldn't be seen, and nearly got run down by someone pulling into a drive.

One of my hard discs started reporting read errors on Friday, so I ordered a couple of replacements - one to replace the dead disc, and one to replace an older, smaller disc. They arrived yesterday and in excitement I set about plugging them in to back up the drives they were replacing, using the USB-SATA interfaces I've got. Which is when I discovered that I'm missing a Molex-SATA lead for one of them. I guess I must have used it in the server at some point.

So, I could only deal with one disc at a time. I started on the one that's failing and set it running. It's only copied at 20MB/s, so it should take about 23 hours to copy the 1.6TB from the failed disc - longer because some sections would retry due to the read problems, etc.

Eventually it finished around 9pm the next day (today). I had a look, but it seems that the drive box in use, with open files, so I can't replace the failed disc just yet. I'll wait until it's not in use and then I can turn off the drive box and replace the drive. So in the meantime, I decide it would be useful to backup the data on the other drive.

On plugging it in, though, it makes a nasty sound like grinding, clicks a lot and doesn't do much. Linux recognises that it's a disc and the model comes out OK, but that's all. I can try to write the partition table to it, but if I disconnect and reconnect it the clicks happen and it doesn't seem to have written any data.

Repeating the process with Windows detects that I've connected a harddisc, but it never appears in the disk management windows. Retried with SMART on the media box (which has a later version of the Kernel and I can install a later 'smartmontools' without breaking anything), tells me nothing useful except that it didn't seem to identify the disc properly. It reports the model but that's all. I even tried installing the smartmontools on Windows to see whether there was something peculiar about my linux, but it said that same thing. Replacing with the working drive (the first one I had backed up to), smartmontools is happy to report lots of details.

So... I've contacted Amazon for a replacement - it's pretty convincingly dead-on-arrival. The thing I've learnt from this, though, is that Amazon's returns are pretty easy to navigate. Amusingly (or not) the drive that failed was one I bought around the time of the Thai floods from Amazon as well. So it's not lasted that long - but now I know it's easy to do the replacements, I can get it returned as well.

Maybe there's something about WD20EARX drives. I generally have reasonable trust in the Western Digital drives. I've had a few fail over the years - and Ebuyer have pissed me off by selling drives that are from the US and then refusing to do anything to replace them when they fail. Ebuyer did it once before and were very sorry, and replaced the disc when it died - the only reason I kept using them was because of that, and when they supplied an 'out of region' drive the second time but refused to do anything about it, I refused to use them any more. Hence why I bought the last couple of drives from Amazon.

But the Western Digital drives have been pretty good to me over the years. There is an argument that I should be using RAID, rather than messing around manually recovering stuff from the dead disc. However, that adds more to the cost, and requires that the discs that are used be of similar capacities. So either I buy a bunch of discs of the same size all at once, which is going to be expensive and I cannot utilise them immediately, whilst the price of discs goes down. Or I buy a smaller number of discs at one time and add discs to the RAID with a suitable controller.

The solution I'm using at the moment - individually accessed, un-RAIDed discs in an external box, accessed over eSATA with port-multiplier - is expandable but only to limit. The port-multiplier only supports 5 SATA discs per device. The bridge board costs about 50 quid, and the PCI express card to control it costs about 20 quid for 2 eSATA ports. The case plus bridge board costs about 70 quid, though, so that with the PCI card isn't unreasonable. I have 2 cases, both fully populated. It means that any discs that fail, though, have to be removed by turning off the external box (dismounting all the discs first), dismantling the case to get at the drives and then replacing it.

It would be better to get a caddy-based case. Those tend to be more expensive. But probably a bit more practical. Similarly SAS based solutions are probably more sensible, but also more expensive.

I've added a little comment button to the rambles, so that every paragraph can be commented on. It's only intended to be used by people reviewing the rambles before I release them, but my hope is that it makes it simpler to just throw a few words down which are directly related to a paragraph.

Back at work again today, too. I really want a bit longer break, but oh well.

It's chilly today. Hasn't got above 0 degrees outside, and there's now snow all over the place. I've been just trying to stay warm in the living room really - not that it's that bad. I've got my heater and stuff to eat so it's not a big deal. However, I thought this evening that I'd have a nice warm shower and go to bed, in the hope that it'd relax me and I'd sleep better. Only... the water isn't getting hot.

On the boiler the pilot light had gone out, so I turned it off and re-lit it again. I ran the tap and it stayed on for a bit and then went out again. So... I've given up for now. It's not a big deal and it's late so I want to go to bed rather than fiddle with it. I've left it all off anyhow so I shouldn't get gassed in the night.

Hopefully tomorrow it will work fine, or I'll have to do something about it. It's about -3° here now - it got down to about -8° at 6am till about 8am.

It wasn't really a great January. I got 48 minutes in before being in tears. Not a good start to the year. I didn't really feel up to doing a whole lot and so I've just been trying to get from day to day without feeling like chucking it all in. As a result, I've not been around a lot, and work's been a lot harder than usual.

Surprisingly, a few people commented that I seemed a lot better for the break and was very smiley. I guess my work-face is far better than I give it credit for. I managed to get to the end of the month anyhow, but I've just had a week off to try to get some rest and hopefully improve my mood. I was mildly amused that when I told to both Helen and Lavender at work they independently said that it wouldn't be the same without my smile there. Maybe that's just them being nice, but it does help .

Maybe it's not surprising that I'm smiley when fed up... it's one of those things - you have to smile or you'll cry.

Anyhow, I've watched some telly and it's kept me amused for a bit. Julian suggested Suits (2011, USA Network)DramaOne of Manhattan's top corporate lawyers sets out to recruit a new hotshot associate and hires the only guy that impresses him - a brilliant but unmotivated college dropout. Though he isn't actually a lawyer, this legal prodigy has the book smarts of a Harvard law grad and the street smarts of a hustler. However, in order to serve justice and save their jobs, both these unconventional thinkers must continue the charade.Suits to me, so I tried that. It's from 'USA Network', who also produce White Collar (2009, USA Network)DramaWhite Collar is about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years. Neal Caffrey, a charming criminal mastermind, is finally caught by his nemesis, FBI Agent Peter Burke. When Neal escapes from a maximum-security prison to find his lost love, Peter nabs him once again. Rather than returning to jail, Neal suggests an alternative plan: He'll provide his criminal expertise to assist the Feds in catching other elusive criminals. Initially wary, Peter quickly finds that Neal provides insight and intuition that can't be found on the right side of the law.White Collar, Covert Affairs (2010, USA Network)Action and Adventure/Drama"Covert Affairs" centers on a young CIA trainee, Annie Walker, mysteriously summoned to headquarters for duty as field operative. While Annie believes she's been promoted for her exceptional linguistic skills, there may be something or someone from her past that her CIA bosses are really after. Auggie Anderson is a CIA military intelligence agent who was blinded while on assignment and is Annie's guide in this world of bureaucracy, excitement and intrigue.Covert Affairs and Psych (2006, USA Network)Drama/ComedyPsych follows Shawn Spencer who has developed a keen eye for detail after being instructed by his police officer father to note even the most minute details of his surroundings. After Shawn calls in a tip on a crime to the police, he is actually accused of committing the crime. To try to clear his name, Shawn convinces the police that he is a psychic and he begins solving cases for the police force.Psych, so I'm not surprised that it's something I like.

Suits (2011, USA Network)DramaOne of Manhattan's top corporate lawyers sets out to recruit a new hotshot associate and hires the only guy that impresses him - a brilliant but unmotivated college dropout. Though he isn't actually a lawyer, this legal prodigy has the book smarts of a Harvard law grad and the street smarts of a hustler. However, in order to serve justice and save their jobs, both these unconventional thinkers must continue the charade.Suits is about a hot-shot lawyer who has to hire an associate to work with him, and who hires a drop-out who has an eidetic memory. The close cases, together whilst trying to hide the fact that he's not actually got a law degree. Makes it a little similar to White Collar (2009, USA Network)DramaWhite Collar is about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years. Neal Caffrey, a charming criminal mastermind, is finally caught by his nemesis, FBI Agent Peter Burke. When Neal escapes from a maximum-security prison to find his lost love, Peter nabs him once again. Rather than returning to jail, Neal suggests an alternative plan: He'll provide his criminal expertise to assist the Feds in catching other elusive criminals. Initially wary, Peter quickly finds that Neal provides insight and intuition that can't be found on the right side of the law.White Collar really, which is about an con-artist who has to work with the FBI, and who has to hide the face that he's doing stuff behind their back.

Despite the similarities (and a slightly more soapy pair of romantic attachments) it's quite good, and worth watching. Louis' constant hounding and trying to trip Mike up is a bit irritating, but I can put up with that, I think. I've seen the first season now and it's still worth following, so I'll catch the second as well. As I discovered that all the shows were on the same network, I decided to try Burn Notice (2007, USA Network)Action and AdventureCovert intelligence operative Michael Westen has been punched, kicked, choked and shot. And now he's received a "burn notice", blacklisting him from the intelligence community and compromising his very identity. He must track down a faceless nemesis without getting himself killed while doubling as a private investigator on the dangerous streets of Miami in order to survive.Burn Notice as well, which is also from 'USA Network'. It's also quite fun, so far. Spy gets cut off and has to take little private jobs in Miami whilst he tries to work out why he was 'burned'. Also has an interesting first-person narrative over the top, covering the stuff that you might need to know if you were watching it as a basic training video. It can be a bit variable at times, but it is quite fun to see Gabrielle Anwar as the 'girlfriend' - otherwise known to me as 'Sam from Graphics' in Press Gang (1989, ITV1)Children/Comedy/DramaPress Gang was a teen programme that followed the trials and tribulations of a group of teens setting up and running a young people's newspaper "The Junior Gazette". Ego's clash, professional and personal feelings collide and lots of one-liners and "crazy" situations made this every teenage-plus person's top of the list viewing. Shown as a prime time children's programme it was actually ahead of it's time socially. With mature and occasionally controversial storylines it shaped a lot of it's viewers minds those few precious years.Press Gang.

Chuck (2007, NBC)Action and Adventure/Comedy/DramaChuck Bartowski, ace computer geek at Buy More, is not in his right mind. That's a good thing. Ever since he unwittingly downloaded stolen government secrets into his brain, action, excitement and a cool secret- agent girlfriend have entered his life. It's a bad thing, too. Because now Chuck is in danger 24/7.Chuck has finished, and didn't really set itself up for a great ending - albeit it was a worthwhile ending. I've certainly seen worse, and having Jeffster doing Take On Me in front of a whole concert hall was really cute. Yeah, really cute. Just hearing the first strains of that made me laugh quite a lot. Oh and the section with Devon and Chuck's Mum...

Devon: Grandma, what did we say about baby Clara seeing firearms? Mary: It's a no-no. I'm Sorry. (to Clara) your me-me loves you! [ Guns in front of the baby; Devon and Chuck's Mum; Chuck ]

... yeah that was fun. The whole end villian thing was really a bit poor, but as a set up for the final mission worked out pretty well.

I came across Todd and the Book of Pure Evil (2010, Space)Comedy/FantasyTODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL follows a book of awesome power that makes teenagers' deepest, darkest desires come true, but at a horrifying cost. It's The Book of Pure Evil and it's loose in Crowley High. Thankfully, one horny teenager stands between the book and the end of the world as we know it. His name is Todd Smith and he will save their asses whether he wants to or not.Todd and the Book of Pure Evil somehow. Probably because I was looking for Canadian TV shows that were a little less, well, American, as they tend to have to be mass appeal or they don't make it beyond a few episodes. It's a bit different. Sort of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997, The WB)Action and Adventure/Comedy/Drama/FantasyIn every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer. Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as Buffy Summers, The Chosen One, the one girl in all the world with the strength and skill to fight the vampires. With the help of her close friends, Willow (Alyson Hannigan ), Xander (Nicholas Brendon), and her Watcher Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) she balances slaying, family, friendships, and relationships.Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if it had a whole lot more swearing in it, less occultness, and a lot more blood. It's a quite a bit of fun.

I tried to find a Sci-fi TV series that might be worth watching and came across a series called Threshold (2005, CBS)Science-FictionThreshold, from producers David Heyman, David Goyer, and Brannon Braga, and written by Bragi Schut, revolves around a female government contingency analyst who leads a team of scientists and military personnel who get in contact with a mysterious alien lifeform. Blade writer/director Goyer is on board to direct the Paramount Network TV pilot. He also will exec produce with Heyman, producer of the Harry Potter movies. Schut is co-exec producing with Mark Rosen.Threshold about an alien encounter. It got canned in its first season, but it wasn't too bad. As with many of these things, it's the interesting stories they bring that make or break the series. I'm not sure that it had enough to bring things in. It felt a little like Odyssey 5 (2002, Showtime)Drama/Science-Fiction"We saw the Earth destroyed, and in a heartbeat everything and everyone we knew was gone. There were five of us, the crew of the space shuttle Odyssey and we were the only survivors. A mysterious being who called himself The Seeker rescued us and sent us back in time. And now we have five years to live over, five years to discover who or what destroyed the Earth, five years to stop it from happening again..."Odyssey 5 but with less gratuitous swearing, but certainly having some of the same themes to it.

Fringe (2008, FOX)Action and Adventure/Drama/Science-FictionTeleportation. Mind control. Invisibility. Astral projection. Mutation. Reanimation. Phenomena that exist on the Fringe of science unleash their strange powers in this thrilling series, co-created by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), combining the grit of the police procedural with the excitement of the unknown. The story revolves around three unlikely colleagues - a beautiful young FBI agent, a brilliant scientist who's spent the last 17 years in a mental institution and the scientist's sardonic son - who investigate a series of bizarre deaths and disasters known as "the pattern." Someone is using our world as an experimental lab. And all clues lead to Massive Dynamic, a shadowy global corporation that may be more powerful than any nation.Fringe and Nikita (2010, The CW)Action and Adventure/DramaWhen she was a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known only as Division, who faked her execution and told her she was being given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country. What they didn't tell her was that she was being trained as a spy and assassin. Ultimately, Nikita was betrayed and her dreams shattered by the only people she thought she could trust. Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation. For the time being, however, Division continues to recruit and train other young people and turning them into cold and efficient killers. One of these new recruits, Alex, is just beginning to understand what lies ahead for her and why the legendary Nikita made the desperate decision to run.Nikita continue to be be interesting, although the former seems to be a bit odd. The worlds are in danger and yet they're concerned with 'small' things. Not that I mind too much, because I like to small stories that bring in little things and advance the general arc a little. The latter's pulled a few interesting switches recently, which changed things around, and whilst that's useful from a story point of view, you have to keep with the same theme for a while or the audience (well... me) gets tired of it.

Castle (2009, ABC)DramaRick Castle is one of the world's most successful crime authors. But when his rock star lifestyle isn't enough, this bad boy goes looking for new trouble and finds it working with smart, beautiful Detective Kate Beckett. Inspired by her professional record and intrigued by her buttoned-up personality, Castle's found the model for his bold new character whether she likes it or not. Now with the mayor's permission, Castle is on her case and in her way. Kate's initial disdain for Castle turns to grudging respect as he quickly proves that a background in plotting murders can be a valuable asset in catching killers. As they solve a new crime together each week, their partnership grows as does their love-hate relationship. These two may not always see eye to eye, but together they might just write a whole new chapter in crime-solving.Castle continues. Though it's fun for its single episodes it seems to have less memorable things in it. A few stories recently appear to have been using more gimmicks than seem plausible, such as the death at a dog show ( "An Embarassment Of Bitches"). It felt a lot like Pushing Daisies (2007, ABC)Comedy/DramaPushing Daisies centers on the life of Ned, a pie-maker gifted with the mysterious ability to bring dead things back to life by touching them. There are some conditions to this somewhat unusual talent. Ned quickly learns that if something is revived for more than exactly one minute, something of similar "life value" in the vicinity drops dead, as a form of balance. Additionally, if he touches the revived person or thing a second time, it falls dead again, this time permanently.Pushing Daisies episode "Pushing Daisies2x08
"Comfort Food"Ned brings back to life Colonel Likken, who was mysteriously deep fried to death. His world-famous original recipe has gone missing and Likken asks Ned, Emerson, and Chuck to find who stole it.Comfort Food", although that was a far more fun episode.

Which reminds me - Chi McBride appeared as Emerson Codd in Pushing Daisies (2007, ABC)Comedy/DramaPushing Daisies centers on the life of Ned, a pie-maker gifted with the mysterious ability to bring dead things back to life by touching them. There are some conditions to this somewhat unusual talent. Ned quickly learns that if something is revived for more than exactly one minute, something of similar "life value" in the vicinity drops dead, as a form of balance. Additionally, if he touches the revived person or thing a second time, it falls dead again, this time permanently.Pushing Daisies, and as a judge in Suits (2011, USA Network)DramaOne of Manhattan's top corporate lawyers sets out to recruit a new hotshot associate and hires the only guy that impresses him - a brilliant but unmotivated college dropout. Though he isn't actually a lawyer, this legal prodigy has the book smarts of a Harvard law grad and the street smarts of a hustler. However, in order to serve justice and save their jobs, both these unconventional thinkers must continue the charade.Suits (as well as a few other things, but it's the latter that reminded me).

30 Rock (2006, NBC)ComedyEmmy Award Winner Tina Fey writes, executive produces and stars as Liz Lemon, the head writer of a live variety programme in New York City. Liz's life is turned upside down when brash new network executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin in his Golden Globe winning role) interferes with her show, bringing the wildly unpredictable Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) into the cast. Now its up to Liz to manage the mayhem and still try to have a life. 30 Rock has got off to a pretty poor start, really. There have been some good moments in it, but aside from the passing reference to Maulik Pancholy (Jonathan in 30 Rock) being on Whitney, nothing really stands out that much. Oh, there was some odd thing with Kelsey Grammer as a fixer in a suit, which I'm not sure I get - I guess it was related to something that he'd been in that I just don't know.

Person Of Interest (2011, CBS)Action and Adventure/DramaPERSON OF INTEREST stars Jim Caviezel, Emmy Award winner Michael Emerson and Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson in a crime thriller about a presumed dead former-CIA agent, Reese, who teams up with a mysterious billionaire, Finch, to prevent violent crimes by using their own brand of vigilante justice. Reese's special training in covert operations appeals to Finch, a software genius who invented a program that uses pattern recognition to identify people about to be involved in violent crimes. Using state-of-the-art surveillance technology, the two work outside of the law, using Reese's adept skills and Finch's unlimited wealth to unravel the mystery of the "person of interest" and stop the crime before it happens. Reese's actions draw the attention of the NYPD, including homicide detective Carter, and Fusco, a cop whom Reese uses to his advantage. With infinite crimes to investigate, Reese and Finch find that the right person, with the right information, at the right time, can change everything.Person Of Interest doesn't seem to have got back into its stride after the cliff-hanger hiatus ending. I'm hoping it'll find its feet a bit more soon as it has potential. Sadly, it's still not Human Target (2010, FOX)Action and Adventure/DramaIt takes a brave, selfless man to make himself a "human target" in order to save the lives of those in danger. Christopher Chance is a unique private security guard hired to protect. Call him what you like, because for Chance, it's about one thing only: saving his clients' lives. He puts himself directly in the line of fire as he races against time to save his client, while unraveling the truth behind the mission. With every new danger, Chance's dark history will also unravel. Does anyone know who Christopher Chance really is, or what secrets lay buried in his past? What would make a man willingly become a human target?Human Target (which also had Chi McBride in).

Still haven't watched either Sherlock (2010, BBC One)Action and Adventure/Drama/Mini-SeriesSherlock Holmes and Dr Watson's adventures in 21st Century London. A thrilling, funny, fast-paced contemporary remake of the Arthur Conan Doyle classic. The update maintains some traditional elements of the stories, such as the Baker Street address and the evil Moriarty. Although the events of the books are transferred to the present day, existing elements are incorporated into the new characters to "ground the forthcoming tales in reality, and appease ardent fans of the classic tales"; for example, Martin Freeman's Watson has returned from military service in Afghanistan. When speaking to The Sherlock Holmes Society of London and discussing the fact that the original Watson was invalided home after serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880), Gatiss realised that "It is the same war now, I thought. The same unwinnable war".Sherlock or the Christmas Doctor Who (2005, BBC One)Action and Adventure/Science-FictionThe Doctor looks and seems human. He's handsome, witty, and could be mistaken for just another man in the street. But the Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living - more of a hobby actually, and he's very, very good at it. He's saved us from alien menaces and evil from before time began - but just who is he?Doctor Who, as they just have too many associations I'd rather not have around at the moment. I'm sure I'll get around to it, but it's certainly not things I want to try this week whilst I'm trying to relax and settle a little.

I decided to try some music that I've had for a while but haven't really listened to. Scrolling through the list, I spotted the name Conjure One and thought 'wonder what that's like'. The answer is... quite likeable. Reminds me of a few things, a little like What Goes Around, by Celtus in places, a little like Mike Oldfield in others (from various eras), a little like Ray Of Light, by Madonna, a bit of Just Another Day, by Jon Secada, a bit of Metisse as well, and something about it makes me think of Collide, too. There's a whole bunch of other bits, but it's got a lot of reasonable lyrics and singing, and instrumentation is very likeable.

Conjure One is still easier to get into than Extraordinary Ways, by Conjure One, but that's not to the detriment of the latter. I just don't think it was as easy to listen to after hearing the first album - once you're listening to something new and liking it, moving to something else new is harder, at least for me.

The number of really good tracks on the first album does make it harder to get into the second. Favourites have to be Center Of The Sun, Tears From The Moon, Manic Star, and Sleep. Although the whole album doesn't really have anything I'd say was bad.

On the other hand, I Believe, from Extraordinary Ways seems rather out of place on the second album - it stands out, and it's likeable but... it seems wrong. Extraordinary Ways, from Extraordinary Ways on the other hand could be Dido.

A few choice lyrics (as I like them and haven't done any lyrical bits for a while)...

'Cause what I have (what I have) Means so very little to this world A promise that I kept and a bridge that I saved before it burned The sacrifice that I made Brought me to my knees A choice that cost me everything and set somebody else free But what I have Is the value that you see in these things. [ Extraordinary Ways, from Extraordinary Ways, by Conjure One ]

And she sings 'They say the most horrible things But I hear violins, when I close my eyes I am at the center of the sun And I cannot be hurt By anything this wicked world has done' [ Center Of The Sun, from Conjure One, by Conjure One ]

Sometimes when I drive my car I feel trapped like a bee inside a jar Grains of sand is all we are Crawling on our manic star One tiny person In one shiny car Spinning on our manic star [ Manic Star, from Conjure One, by Conjure One ]

(although it's a little strange that Manic Star shares the same theme as the 'bonus' track Premonition)

Anyhow, that's been a good amount of music I've been listening to, and some of the telly.

I've written a bit on the rambles, and seem to be making better progress on removing the 'fixme' areas that I need to write stuff in. Still 129 to go, so ... well, we'll see.

Whilst looking at some things, I stumbled upon the google 'schema.org' metadata system and their 'Rich Snippets' tester, which can present more information in search results than might be there otherwise. I've tried adding some of that to the website, the most noticeable effect of which should be that the top of all the pages now contains links to the pages leading up to the current one - the 'breadcrumbs', as they seem to be known (Hansel and Gretel, I believe ).

If I've done things right, there should be a rich snippet if you search for me and the result for the 'about' page comes back. The test tool shows that it should have a little picture of me, and my location on it. However, it does raise the question of whether that should be a secondary page. Whether it shouldn't be reduced a little more so that the front page is more descriptive. It does look a little old in its style, although I still think that it can retain its usefulness, as it does have a reasonable structure. Just not in the way that many pages are set up now.

That's about it. I'm just trying to rest, and not feel unwell. I keep thinking that there's something up with me other than just feeling crappy, but I'm sure that's just paranoia.

It's got chillier right now - it's kind of amusing that the warmest place in the UK, according to the Met Office stations on its website, is Baltasound in the north of Shetland (at 5.8° C). It's about -6° C here. Even the server room (well closet) is cold - it's down to 20° C, whereas it usually sits around 24° C.

Anyhow... nearly time for sleep. Haven't been sleeping well, again. Oh well. But it does mean waking from some strange dreams - which I cannot remember right now.

I had thought about having some kind of New Year's Resolution, but given how New Year's Eve went I decided instead to just get through one day at a time. That seems like a good plan, for now.