The bug bit me

I've been down with some naso-respiratory bug for the last week or so. Usually something like this gets me once a year, and I really don't get better, I just get less lousy over time until after a while I stop noticing just how crappy I feel. Usually I go back to work before that, because being at home, the things I am not doing weigh heavily on me.

While at home I got the home network server back alive, using Windows Home Server - and along the way have made most of the available mistakes, because instead of reading the book,, I built a server based on what I know about other windows servers - and this pup is different.... But I managed to emerge with something that seems to work well, satisfies me in terms of recoverable redundancies, and still has enough to be tweaked that I'll not get bored for a couple of months or more.

I cam back to work today, and so far have managed to do nothing at all useful - there were no requests for me, nobody called and demanded something (except that I move my car, about which more later) so I spent the bulk of the day doing the Windows Home Server research that I should have done before starting the build.

I also discovered that I have managed to trash something in my router setup, and will have to put it back to factory defaults this evening and then let WHS reconfigure it so some other stuff will start to work.

I did get my binary robot working - and if you are lucky enough to have the Verizon FIOS connection, you can fill up all the disk space in the known universe far faster than you can categorize what is being pulled in there. I started it up one night, told it to scan the binary newsgroups for Eureka, Hopalong Cassidy (I'm old, so sue me!), Highlander and a few other old TV show episodes - and filled up a 250 gig drive before I got back to check it a day or two later!

I have to learn how to make the filters tighter on Newsbin - or I'll end up deleting 80% of what I pull down. But I guess that isn't a bad problem to have.

So for tonight, I have to get out the book and get web services started so folks can find the place again - and so that I can get in from work and watch what's going on.

I also have to get some other stuff working, or else get myself decommitted from it. We'll see which happens first.

One of the nifty parts of WHS is that it will back up PC's on the network - so I also have a few laptops at home to start backing up. I'll have to record NCIS and watch it later...

I was hoping for a few motorcycle days this week - but it looks like disappointment will be my fate. Maybe next week. By this time next week, I'll have turned 67, and will be starting my 42nd year of marriage to my first (and only) wife. We'll probably celebrate the following weekend, since the days involved are some of the busiest for both of us. Celebration will no doubt consist of dinner and a return to watch the bull riders, although maybe a movie instead - if I can find anything we'd both like to watch - or maybe we'll do a movie night at home, since I have a couple on the DVR that have been there since almost this time last year waiting for a night when we could watch them together without one or the other of us going to sleep. As we get older, energy tends to run out earlier in the evening.

More folks here at work are departing, some I am certain under duress. Alas, some of the departed are those that should have been kept and elevated to better positions - but I guess that's a universal truth, and I've been watching it happen here for a long time. I'd like to work through 2012 (or maybe a bit longer if I can) if only to increase pension amounts, but I'll go earlier if Phyllis decides to retire, too. As long as she works, I might just as well work and soak up the money. Besides, I still want to get that sidecar for my Honda, and maybe get a new cruiser to replace the big Kawasaki before the days for buying those toys are eaten up by reality. I'd kinda like a new Harley - but I'm not holding my breath.

It's within an hour of going-home time, so I'd better get some real work done, or I'll think badly of myself.

Have a good one, y'all - more on WHS tomorrow or the next day.