WordPress is failing me. Something has changed recently, and I’ve not had time to figure out what, but wp-cron is no longer running and posts that are scheduled aren’t getting through. I’d thought this was isolated to my photoblog, but now the other blogs I oversee are all having the same issues. Bah. I’d hacked together a launchd job to rummage about and run wp-cron for me every 5 minutes, but that was set to hit the photoblog.

I’m seriously tempted to just write my own damn CMS. I know that’s a path to ruin, but it would save me time.

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The BeagleBone Black is my newest electronic toy. It’s a single board linux machine that can run off a USB socket for power (and serial console access), and boots reasonably quickly into a graphical interface. I’ve of course disabled X on the system, as I don’t want it wasting cycles running a widow server that will never be used.

It’s going to be the model as I expand my home network for a small programmable interface to hardware, software and the network. There are lots of tasty GPIO pins to be used for controlling lights, relays and other devices; it can easily drive a USB sound card and be a network audio receiver; it can be wired up to a temperature sensor or four and be made into a weather station that feeds Graphite metrics and data about the world around me. It can also be plugged into a GPS unit and turned into a very accurate network time source.

All of these and more are on my list. Once I find the time and energy to work on them. Oh yeah, and the USB sound card, and the active GPS antenna, and the soldering kit, and the random assortment of resistors and caps needed to regulate power.

Ingredients

===========

– 2 lbs habeneros

– 2 large yellow bell peppers

– 2 large red bell peppers

– ¹⁄₂ cup brown sugar

– 1 ¹⁄₂ cups brandy

– 2 cups white vinegar

Preperation

===========

– De-stem all peppers

– Blacken peppers on grill

– Cut large peppers into 2″ strips

– Cut small peppers in half

– Put all ingredients into a pot on the stove

– The level of the liquid should be under the level of the peppers, but not too much under

– Bring the mixture to boil

– Stir, stir, stir

– Let it boil for 15 mins

– Turn down the heat and let it simmer for 45 mins

– Scoop out the mixture and blend to desired consistency

– put it in jars and let it cool off

Notes

=====

– The sauce is a lot hotter when it’s cooking than after it’s cooled. So be wary of taste-testing, especially when using high-test peppers.

I won’t be posting about the new job here – at least not directly. As I learn lessons about application frameworks, monitoring, notifications and other fun things, they will land here, but things directly tied into work won’t. I’ve not gotten a clear sense of what is a good idea and what isn’t, and until I do, I will err on the side of caution.

There is some content coming soon about API design and data interchange, but I’m drinking from the firehose at the moment and I need more free time before I write at any length.

And so begins a new adventure, and my first foray into the private sector.

Today is my last day working for North Carolina State University. I’ve had a lot of fun over the last five years, and I’ve learned a lot about the profession of systems administration from my coworkers here. There are lessons about operating at scale that you can’t learn other than by doing.

My new position looks to be just as rewarding, but in new and different ways. I’ll be back in the drivers seat for networking and storage, two areas that I really enjoy, and working for what looks like a focused team of very sharp people. It will take a little while for me to establish exactly what the rules are for sharing details of what I’m doing there, so this blog will sadly be quiet for awhile longer.

I’ve long neglected the archive pages of the GuruFoto site. This madness has now ended. Behold!