aaron

Linux Software RAID and LVM

I wanted to create a RAID 5 array with four 1tb drives. I only have three, but I have a 750gb and 320gb drive lying around. I figured there was probably a way to combine them into a 1tb drive that I could use with the others. Using Linux’s LVM, I can create a logical partition from the two smaller drives as big as the 1tb drive. $ pvdisplay Lists all physical volumes managed by LVM. First we have...

aaron

DIY Power over Ethernet Cable

I am setting up a security camera mounted under the eve of my roof. Rather than running an ethernet cable and an extension cord up there, I figured I could use the four unused wires in an ethernet cable to provide the camera with power. The camera only uses 9v, so it should be pretty safe. I had a couple extra 1ft patch cables lying around, so I spliced the transformer into two patch cables. This will...

aaron

Another raid5 scare, and how to recover an apparently trashed array

This morning after waking up to lots of thunder and lightning, I got a text message saying my raid5 array had failed. Only this time, 2 of the 3 drives were missing. Since both of those drives were actually mounted via a vblade share (on a different physical machine), I assumed that the other server had freaked out during a power surge. I quickly rebooted the machine to bring back the vblade shares, but...

aaron

Choosing a laptop for a graphic designer

This is primarily targeted towards graphic designers, although anyone can benefit from the information here as well. This post focuses on the hardware of a laptop rather than the software. I figure I’ll save a talk about software for a different day. To begin, I would stay away from anything that isn’t Dell or Apple. IBM and Toshiba are good too, but they typically market more to corporations...

aaron

Phone as a Wifi access point!

This is pretty much the coolest thing in the world! I am posting from my laptop which is connected to my cell phone’s wifi connection, using Sprint’s EVDO connection to the internet. The software that enables me to do this is called wmwifirouter. Earlier this month they released their first final version of the software, and started charging for it. It’s not outrageously priced, but you...