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Hard run with the jogger (yesterday)

Posted by Mark Nyqvist Hjarding on
I wonder if I will ever get used to running with the jogger. It sure is hard work but I am sure it is good exercise too. Weather was nice, it wasn't too hot and not too cold. I could have wished for a little less wind but on the other hand it could have been a lot worse. Distance: 5.25 km Time: 26m:03s Average speed: 4:58 min/km Average heart rate: 174 bpm URL: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/8604926 Since I am having no more knee problems I think I can safely start increasing distance although I doubt I need to do that with the jogger. I do need to get my ass in shape for Erimitageløbet in October. I just realized that Erimitageløbet is the day before I need to hand in my thesis.....

Real men don't use backups.....

Posted by Mark Nyqvist Hjarding on
They cry like children when the data goes "bye bye". Yesterday I had an aweful scare. I have for the past 3 years had a dedicated server with Netdirekt and I have had no real complaints. I have had a some minor issues but none of great importance. My server had been up and running for 290+ days without a reboot (which is not uncommon for a Linux server at all) but when I got to work yesterday morning I couldn't access my email or connect to the server via SSH. A quick search on Google told me that I was not the only one having this problem. There was some speculation if this was a network or power problem but in the end people started reporting their servers coming back online but mine was still dead. I took it easy and assumed that it would come back online when it was ready. Several hours later I was still unable to reach it and I started getting worried. What if something like the harddrive had been fried or something. It is after all an old machine with old hardware. I tried going into my online server administration tool and rebooting it but that did nothing. Then I tried to boot it into rescue mode but that didn't work either. At this point I was starting to get really worried because all my email from the last several years are in Maildirs on that server and I access it all via IMAP so I have no local copy. I then wrote a hasty email to Netdirekt technical support and crossed my fingers that it was just because someone forgot to push the start button on my machine. After a little while I could check my email again, access the server via SSH and not long after I received an email that my server was back up and running. Thank you lord of computer hardware for not punishing this fool for not having backup. You would have thought I would have learned my lesson when a had one drive die on me in my desktop which was running Raid0. Luckily back then it was a new setup so I only really lost a little bit of configuration. Today I sat down and set up a simple backup system using rsync, SSH, tar and some simple shell scripting. Why on earth I never did that before I don't know. I even have rotating backups in case of corrupted or unintentionally deleted files. I used http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/113847 as inspiration for most of my scripts. But also the use of pg_dumpall came in handy to make sure I have backup of my Postgresql database. Now I just need a server out on the Internet somewhere with enough space to backup all the most important stuff from my home computers. All things in due time. I am hoping to be able to get my hands on a couple of 146GB harddisks for my IBM System p5 505. I have found some on ebay but the shipping and import taxes scare me a little. I want this computer up and running soon though.

Another early run with my coworkers

Posted by Mark Nyqvist Hjarding on
It was a very nice day, not too hot, not too cold and not too windy. Performance wasn't too good today. I felt low on energy which also shows on my elevated heart rate. Maybe I should have eaten more breakfast and or had a glass of juice before the run. Distance: 7.47 km Time: 39m:44s Average speed: 5:19 min/km Average heart rate: 181 bpm URL: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/8185519

Run with the jogger

Posted by Mark Nyqvist Hjarding on
Twig and I had to go to the doctor today. Twig needed his MMR (MFR in Danish) vaccine and I had to do a lung function test to see how my asthma was doing as it had been over a year since I last did one. Twig went in the jogger and I ran down to the doctors office. With a small detour it was just over 2 km. Twig got his shot and I did my test which showed that my asthma is responding well to my medicine. Then home we went again. Twig stayed awake for another km or so and then slept the rest of the way home. It was a good warm day with a little wind which wouldn't have bothered me if it hadn't been for the jogger. Pushing around 25kg extra sure takes a lot of energy. Distance: 5.83 km Time: 29:29 Average speed: 05:03 min/km Average heart rate: 179 bpm URL: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/7818323 Tomorrow I plan to do a bike ride.

Finally got my Netgear product returned

Posted by Mark Nyqvist Hjarding on
After fighting back and forth with Netgear and their service partner ANOVO Nordic I finally got some good customer service from TNT. Even though TNT says their agreement with ANOVO is that ANOVO needs to supply all the papers to include with the package a very nice lady helped me out and sent me an email with a PDF I could print out. I did so, signed the papers and gave package with the papers to the nice TNT lady that came to pick it up. Netgear: I as the customer do not care if it is you, ANOVO or TNT who is to blame for the issues here. Your customer service was not very helpful at all. I am not going to say I am the best customer you have ever had but I have been a loyal customer since I bought my first network hub in 1997-98. If you had provided me with good service this time around I would have continued buying your products and recommend them to everyone I know but I can not with good conscience do that anymore. I wish your customer service reps had at least been nice, helpful and apologetic for all my problems with this but not even that could I get from them. Sad sad sad.

Warm day for a run

Posted by Mark Nyqvist Hjarding on
It looked to be a very nice day for a run and indeed it was. It was a little warm (around 25 degrees C) which also shows on my elevated heart rate. But I enjoyed it. I haven't gotten to do any exercise since Wednesday except for some hard yard work for my parents on Sunday and some more work here at the house today. Distance: 5.33 km Time: 25m:44s Average speed: 04:49 min/km Average heart rate: 180 bpm URL: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/7725802 I need to get back on the bike. Maybe I will on Wednesday. Let's hope the weather will be nice!

A very nice day for a bike ride

Posted by Mark Nyqvist Hjarding on
I enjoyed my bike ride today very much. There was very little wind, the sun was shining and it was all around just beautiful. I still haven't gotten to increase my distance very much but I am also working on my running and I have seen good progress there so I am not complaining. Distance: 35.19 km Time: 1h:14m:05s Average speed: 28.5 km/h Average heart rate: 155 bpm URL: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/7506055

Netgear service or the complete lack there of.

Posted by Mark Nyqvist Hjarding on
I have had Netgear products since I swiched from 10BASE2 to 10BASE-T Ethernet with my friends back in 1996 or so. After using the 10Mbit hub we upgraded to a 100Mbit hub and later on a 100Mbit switch. My home network is running on a ProSafe 8 Port Gigabit Switch (GS108) and I have never had problems. On May 25th I ordered a Netgear WG102 ProSafe access point and I received it the following day. It worked fine for a week and a half but on the morning of June 6th it was dead, no lights, no nothing. I unplugged and tried everything I knew to try to get it working but nothing. Tuesday June 9th I was off from work and called Netgear support in Denmark and after 2 calls they concluded just like me that the device was dead. The lady I talked to said that usually devices that died within 30 days were considered DOA and should be returned to the store where it was bought. Since I had bought it in an online store she agreed that it was probably easier if we did the standard RMA process instead and she would get their service partner ANOVO to contact me with information on how to return the product. 2 days later (yes you read it correctly) 2 days it took ANOVO to issue an RMA number and send me information on how to return the product. Friday I found a box to pack the dead unit in and I did so during the weekend. Monday June 15th I called TNT Denmark to arrange for them to pick up my package and it was agreed that they would pick it up from my work place the next day. I took the package to work, labeled according to the email with shipping address and waited. The lady from TNT arrived to pick up my package but refused to take it since it was missing shipping papers or some such thing. I wrote an email to TNT customer service explaining what had happened and received a reply that they would look into the matter and get back to me. Today Thursday June 18th I had not heard back from TNT yet so I called them again and was told that ANOVO usually sent the shipping papers in an email for people to print and include with the package. I have now written an email to ANOVO about the missing shipping papers but have yet to receive a reply from them. I then went to Netgear and wrote to their support complaining about this poor service to which I get a reply, not saying how sorry they are for all my troubles and they will try to expedite matters but just saying I should return it to the store I bought it from since it was considered DOA. I then contacted the online store who said that their process was the same for them as for me and that they wouldn't send me a new product before they had received a replacement product from ANOVO in Sweden. I then wrote a very sour reply to Netgear asking them if they really think it would be a good solution for me to return the product to the store since I could only see how that would increase the time I had to wait for an access point with at least a week. I have yet to receive a reply from Netgear on this. Well I guess I have learned an important lesson from all this. Netgear products may work fine if they work but when they fail the process for having the product replaced fails as well. I am strongly considering buying 2 D-Link access points which would set me back less than this Netgear AP did. Then I can duct tape the Netgear AP to a large brick and return it to Netgear through their window in Ballerup!!!

Complaining

Posted by Mark Nyqvist Hjarding on
I recently sent an email to "Justitsministeriet" (Ministry of Justice or something) here in Denmark with a very simple question. What my question was is besides the point and so is the answer. It was the way they replied to me that left me kinda baffled. I received an email with the text: "Se venligst vedhæftede fil." (Please see the attached file). And what had the moron working there done..... attached a Microsoft Word document. Why on earth text cannot be included in a standard email is beyond me. Dear retarded person at Justiministeriet! I know that it is very common belief that email was designed to transfer Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets and Power Point Presentations but it is quite capable of including text. Actually the SMTP protocol that transfers email was designed to transfer text and nothing else. I don't want to go into the specifics of 7-bit ASCII and MIME encoding but just know that it wasn't a Microsoft invention to transfer their broken proprietary file formats. At least if you need to send attached files to people then don't use broken proprietary formats that requires a Microsoft Windows to view. Well if you do need to use something broken then at least use PDF which is more widely supported on different platforms. Sincerely A pissed of Linux user PS. I thought we here in Denmark were supporters of open standards. Why on earth don't you use open standards when communicating with the public.