Month: February 2005

diskcheck

Fedora Linux ships, among many, a very useful utility – diskcheck. This RPM installs only two files:

/etc/diskcheck.conf – small and asimple configuration file for the script
/etc/cron.hourly/diskcheck – the script itself

diskchek periodically (hourly, by default) checks free space on all partitions and sends a notification email to the administrator (root) reporting any partitions with less than 10% of free disk space. If all paritions have enough disk space it will just keep silent. Which partitions to check/skip, how much free disk space to consider as a warning point, and where to send the email – all of these can be easily tuned via the configuration file.

This tool, while being extremely small, provides a great service – proactive notification. Thing like this can solve lots and lots of headaches while troubleshooting strange behaviours.

Kill Bill Vol.1 soundtrack

For the third day in a row I can’t get off the Kill Bill: Volume 1 [Soundtrack]. I am usually not that much into music, but this time I simply can’t stop. And the strange thing is that I liked the Vol.2 movie more than Vol.1 .

All of the compositions on the disk are excellent but these are giving me the most pleasure: “Bang Bang” by Nancy Sinatra, “The Grand Duel” by Luis Bacalov, “Twisted Nerve” by Bernard Herrmann, “Green Hornet” by Al Hirt, “Battle Without Honor Or Humanity” by Tomoyasu Hotei, and “Woo Hoo” by The 5.6.7.8’s.

Update on our pregnancy

Olga and I are just coming from our caretaker. (We do weekly checks now.) She said that Olga looks very good and she is totally prepared for the birthgiving. Olga’s belly is moving down and she can give birth any day now. Yes, that means even today!

Anyway, our estimated date of delivery is February 24th. Which is Thursday of the next week. Because the baby is growing good (he is now about 3,700 grams, probably very long too), Olga will not be given any opportunity to deliver later. If the baby won’t come out by himself, Olga will be put into hospital and stimulated for delivery. As far as I know, the process of stimulation is actually pretty routine and possess no risks.

Our next check is scheduled for the 22nd of February, which is exactly in one week. If Olga will still be pregnant, arragements will be made for her to go to the hospital on the evening of 23rd.

So, here I am – not like many future fathers I guess. I have a really precise schedule for when I will become one. “Old man”. “Father”. “Dad”. “Papa”… I am not scared or anything. All my worries are regarding Olga’s delivery and the health and well-being of the baby. Hopefully, everything will go without surprises. Other than that, I am sleeping very well. Actually, I am pretty amazed by myself. I thought I would be more nervous. I guess I made of steel then.

How can you prove that LP player is not a bomb?

I was talking to a friend of mine on ICQ today. He said that he wants to bring his old LP player (that is if you remember what vynil is) from Russia to Cyprus. I warned him that he might have some troubles passing the customs. The equipment is too sensitive to be send with luggage, so he would have to carry it with him. But noone can recall anymore what these things are and he might be very well suspected to be a terrorist with some explosive device. It took him like quarter of a second to come up with the excellent expanation for the customs officer. Don’t you just hate some people’s sharp thinking?

His explanation was: it is a special mixing/baking device for pancakes. The one you use to distribute cream evenly. LOL! That’s something. :)

My phone is back

Today I went to CYTA to pay for my mobile. Somehow everything went very quickly. There weren’t too many people in their offices at 7:30 in the morning when I came. All the clerks were still fresh and smiling and very polite. It turned out that I didn’t need any ID or any papers at all. I just came straight to the cashier who asked me for my phone number and told me how much I had to pay. I paid and my mobile was useful immidately. I mean I didn’t even step away from the cashier when I checked it.

It might sound strange for those of you living in technologically advanced countries, but I was pretty much surprised. Government body is using a computer system which works and is integrated as low down as the cashier clerk. Fantastic!

Even middle of nowhere, like Cyprus, can’t avoid progress and global computarization. That’s an excellent thought to ~~start~~ continue your day with.