May you be in heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you’re dead.
I’m not questioning your honor, Lord Janos. I’m denying its existence.
I freakin’ love this commercial/skit on SNL last night. I’m STILL laughing every time I see it.
Here’s another track I like from the Mass Effect 3 Soundtrack. Very moving.
JKS To PEM
I stumbled across a nifty trick today for converting JKS to PEM (thank you Stack Exchange) and thought I’d shamelessly re-post it here. It’s basically a two step process…
1) Use java keytool to convert the JKS file to PKCS#12 format:
keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore example.jks -destkeystore example.p12 -deststoretype PKCS12
2) Use openssl to convert from PKCS#12 to PEM:
openssl pkcs12 -in example.p12 -out example.pem -nodes
Obviously you need to be conscious of security practices when doing this. So if you don’t know what you’re doing, STOP. :)
Holy hell. I recently stumbled across artwork by Patryk Garrett and it’s phenomenal. Check it out now.
Strong candidate for man cave art.
More art I like - Justice League
Alright, I finally get what mariosk8s is talking about. Above and Beyond has some good stuff. Here’s a nifty track from their Group Therapy album. I like how the ambient suspense builds on this one.
Examining Load Average
It’s nearly six years old but this article is still one of the best written explanations for how load averages work.
Highlights:
The load averages differ from CPU percentage in two significant ways: 1) load averages measure the trend in CPU utilization not only an instantaneous snapshot, as does percentage, and 2) load averages include all demand for the CPU not only how much was active at the time of measurement.
Authors tend to overuse analogies and sometimes run the risk of either insulting the reader’s intelligence or oversimplifying the topic to the point of losing important details. However, freeway traffic patterns are a perfect analogy for this topic, because this model encapsulates the essence of resource contention and is also the chosen metaphor by many authors of queuing theory books. Not surprisingly, CPU contention is a queuing theory problem, and the concepts of arrival rates, Poisson theory and service rates all apply. A four-processor machine can be visualized as a four-lane freeway. Each lane provides the path on which instructions can execute. A vehicle can represent those instructions. Additionally, there are vehicles on the entrance lanes ready to travel down the freeway, and the four lanes either are ready to accommodate that demand or they’re not. If all freeway lanes are jammed, the cars entering have to wait for an opening. If we now apply the CPU percentage and CPU load-average measurements to this situation, percentage examines the relative amount of time each vehicle was found occupying a freeway lane, which inherently ignores the pent-up demand for the freeway—that is, the cars lined up on the entrances. So, for example, vehicle license XYZ 123 was found on the freeway 30% of the sampling time. Vehicle license ABC 987 was found on the freeway 14% of the time. That gives a picture of how each vehicle is utilizing the freeway, but it does not indicate demand for the freeway.
Moreover, the percentage of time these vehicles are found on the freeway tells us nothing about the overall traffic pattern except, perhaps, that they are taking longer to get to their destination than they would like. Thus, we probably would suspect some sort of a jam, but the CPU percentage would not tell us for sure. The load averages, on the other hand, would.
Custom SNMP Monitor For SendMail Queue
I came across an interesting issue the other day: How to leverage snmpd to monitor a sendmail queue. Here are the basic steps (courtesy of google, serverfault, and some research):
1) Create a small bash script to determine the number of messages in the queue. For example:
1 2 3 | #!/bin/sh # Check the default mail queue and extract the deferred message count. mailq | head -1 | cut -d'(' -f2 | cut -d' ' -f01 |
2) Add extend queuecheck /root/queuecheck.sh (change the path to reflect where you have the script) to /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf
3) Bounce snmpd: service snmpd restart
4) At this point the SNMP service creates/assigns an OID that provides feedback for the check. You’ll need to use a utility to retrieve it (e.g. snmpwalk, MIBWalk, etc)
Once you have the OID, you’re all set. =)
I recently stumbled across the Final Fantasy X soundtrack again and a wave of nostalgia hit me. Such a great soundtrack. Such a great game.
15 Second Review - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Volume 2
This weekend I caught up on issues #1-8 of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Vol 2 (because I spend my time wisely). I must say, it’s been an enjoyable experience. I initially had some concerns but its been refreshing to see an entirely new web crawler in the universe and struggle with the duality of being a superhero and a kid.
It’s definitely worth a read.
Final Verdict: Strong B+
More video game art I like.
30 Second Review - Action Comics #7
By now you might be thinking that I’m being a little too harsh on some of these comics. If that’s the case, check out the following quotes from issue #7 of Action Comics and honestly tell me these aren’t ridiculous:
“Superman” isn’t here to save us, Lois Lane. Fortunately, I am. Because only I have the alien’s cellphone number on ringback.
- Lex Luthor
It’s like “Under The Dome” AND “The Simpsons Movie”
- Jimmy Olsen
So what does your evil alien B.F.F have to say?
- Lois Lane
These are actual quotes; no exaggerations or alterations. I rest my case.
Final Verdict: C-
