One of the challenges that has faced our company, and most probably many other companies,  has been the lack of adoption of any inventory management system. When things are done in a hurry, as was our case, key system management tools were completely left out. Its not that they were not thought of, it’s just that they were deemed less important.

Two years down the line, the money dried up and the (greatly exaggerated) profits to back the business cases for expensive proprietary hardware and software have not been forthcoming, the questions are starting to be asked – “What hardware do we actually have?” and “how can we utilize it elsewhere in the environment?”. We also hear on almost a daily basis – “There is no money for hardware next year, we will have to make do with what we have got.” While still big plans to roll out ludicrously expensive software platforms are still being entertained and IBM p570 systems are left to rot.

Some of it is amusing and some of it is depressing, especially when useful open source tools performing important tasks like monitoring – which were never present before – are described by top level management as ‘freebies’… :S

One tool that has caught the eye of management though is GLPI. It is a web based inventory / asset management tool written in php using a MySQL db backend. It has a very impressive array of features and is very simple to use.

Our deployment involved integration with the equally excellent OCS. This allows an agent to run on each and every server in our environment to regularly update the inventory information. GLPI then comes along and helps itself to the information collected. It will pick up almost every little detail about the server from the serial number to the speed of the RAM.

GLPI has built in support for LDAP / AD  as well as offering POP3 and IMAP as user authentication mechanisms. GLPI also offers the ability to associate assets with documentation and maintenance contracts, capable of alerting when contracts are about to expire. An array of plugins allow for functionality such as IP address management and dynamic architecture diagrams make this application a very very useful tool.

There is also built in help desk support for ticketing. It is very simple but provides the ability for tickets to be logged against assets. GLPI can be configured for managing assets in various locations and various states. For example you could have a server that is not yet deployed and GLPI would be able to capture that it is in storage and where it is physically. This is useful for determining whether servers are in production, testing or QA. GLPI also has support for devices such as modems and phones, providing a handy way of managing resources that have legs.

In an environment where every resource needs to be squeezed to the limit and every asset accurately accounted for, GPLI provides us a comprehensive platform to manage our equipment.

Don’t you just hate it when you go through the Fedora install, specifically select KDE as your desktop manager and yet you are still faced with GDM… It used to be the case where you could edit a sysconfig file, but for reasons best known to the gnome zealots at Fedora, it is well and truly hidden.

Well, fear not. edit :

/etc/X11/prefdm

and change the order of the display managers in the sript.

Total fail imho.

Magic Mouse

Awesome. Being a sufferer of the previous (mighty) mouse, I have been waiting a long time for this device. The Magic Mouse is effectively an extension of the glass touchpads on the iphone, the new macbooks and macbook pros, to the mouse. The same glass surface has been ported to the mouse, giving the user a multi-touch interface in their hand.

Apple no doubt think that this will open new worlds for people, but quite frankly I can’t see it. People will continue to use a mouse as a traditional point and click device. Numerous mice have come and gone with millions of buttons and wheels, but basically 99% of people use the mouse for nothing more than point and click.

The magic mouse is not a revolutionary device. It is evolutionary. Apple realised (belatedly) that mechanical parts are useless. Things go wrong with them. The mutli-scroll wheel on the old mouse was forever sticking and frustrating the hell out of me. I even attempted an unsuccessful operation to open it up try and clean it.

So what is so good about this new mouse? And why should you shell out the cash for it? Maybe you are like me – I for one was so frustrated at the previous mouse that I was desperate for the new one. But that should not be the sole reason to buy one! The mouse I find, is ergonomically sound for general use. And as you would expect with any Apple product, it is slick in it’s design.

There is no scroll wheel with this mouse, but that is because the whole mouse is a scroll wheel! The surface, being touch sensitive, allows you to run your finger over the whole mouse and it will detect your motion as scrolling. This eliminates any problems as explained above. The mouse has one button but depending on where you click will activate whether you want right or left mouse click – depending on which hand is your preference.

Another nice feature is that although the mouse takes two batteries, they are not in series as most mice – but are actually in parallel. Meaning that you only need one battery in it for it to work!

Out of the box the multi touch features do not work – it does require that you have a connection to the internet to do a software update for it all to work. After the update is installed then all the multi touch features work.

One down point is that I do not like the fact that there is no ‘middle click’. This is a bit of a let down for me, but thankfully this is not a mechanical issue as the mouse can be programmed (in future) to accept something like two finger click for middle click.

I cannot see how the multi-touch features will catch on. I find it tricky and unnecessary for things like ’swiping’ to be honest – but overall the size of the device, the design and the new surface is a huge plus for me. I am enjoying it very much but I am very scared about dropping it – being made of glass and all…

$ryanFamily = 3;
while ($inNigeria == TRUE) {
&eat; $ret = &makeBaby; &sleep;
if ($ret > 0) {
 $num = &uSoundScan;
 $count = 1; 
 if ($num > 1) { 
  while ( $count <= $num ) { 
   $ryanFamily++; $count++; } 
 } else { 
  $ryanFamily++; } 
 print $ryanFamily; 
 }
}

Today I had the misfortune of reading this drivel by Farhad Manooj. It is no secret that I am not a fan of the other OS. Those who use it – good for them. What works for one may not work for the other. This I clearly understand and I generally try to avoid the ‘who’s got the biggest ‘ arguments. However, Mr Manooj’s article is hopelessly flawed and sounds like someone who is screaming out all the right notes to either please his boss or sponsor. If anyone bumps into him, please do him a favour and wipe that brown stain off his nose.

‘Get Windows 7′ is the title of his article. First failure. Why must I go and get it? How much does it cost? Is it worth it if XP has been doing a good job for me? Is it another vista? Which version is right for me? There are no answers to these questions… just get it.

He warns you not to listen to people who claim the new OS to be ‘perfect’ – This is good advice. I will offer one further piece of advice : Ignore Mr Manooj’s (and anyone else’s) claim that it is the best OS on the market.

He then rattles on for next 422 words on how great it is, how it’s not only the best OS but how it is so impressive, so intuitive, so fast, better than snow leopard in several important ways! (but without ever mentioning what those important ways are). He then actually goes back on himself later in his post and say that the new OS and OS X are roughly equal. The funniest point he makes at this point in his article is that it ‘pretty much’ never crashes. Sorry, should that be a selling point? And hold on… what does ‘pretty much never’ mean?

Firstly, Mr Manooj’s supporting arguments looks like it might have been minimized to one page to keep in line with his intended audience’s attention span – but here are his highlights:

His favourite thing about the new OS is how it helps him navigate his overcrowded screen. He does not actually say how it helps him do this, just that it does it. Does it use the sun and the stars? Maybe it relays to him his longitude and latitude at regular intervals? Who knows? Maybe if his desktop was not by default taken up by an enormous clock and other useless junk, it would be less cluttered! He mentions how the new OS pulls ahead of OS X – again without actually saying how. Once more, this statement is totally undermined later in his article that the new OS and OSX are roughly equal now.

His salivating over the new ‘libraries’ feature is also amusing. No doubt, it is a nice feature – one that has been available in OS X for some time called smart folders. He does actually preempt the inevitable rebuff from Apple fan bois by saying that the new OS’s implementation is more intuitive. He argues that smart folders are not customizable enough. And here’s me wondering what all these options are when I create a new smart folder in OSX. By default, OSX does exactly what his libraries example does without having to customize anything.

Also, the task bar is better than the Mac OSX dock – ‘in amazing ways’ – according to Manooj. One amazing way he suggest is the ’innovation’ called aero peek. Hmmm… now where have I seen that before? Oh yes. It looks suspiciously like a feature that has been in KDE4 for donkeys now. I suspect that he would not know what KDE4 is. And Mr Manooj – multiple firefox windows?? are you kidding me? Tabs dude… tabs. One of the key indicators I use for knowing at what level I must engage with someone, technically, l is by the number of browser windows they utilize. The higher the score, the slower I have to speak.

Jump lists are a new feature, true. But the new OS again was not the first. Right mouse click on the Mail icon in Snow Leopard and you are given options to compose a new message, get new mail or compose a note. Admittedly, there are not a lot of applications that have enabled this functionality so far, but as time goes on more applications will.

If the taskbar is that much better why do I not see anything like stacks in the ‘Taskbar’? so how Manooj gets to ‘pulls ahead’, I have no idea.

Overall, instead of giving some insight into the new OS that would actually be useful to consumers, he sounds like he is part of the well oiled machine that is the Redmond PR / Marketing department. Making plenty of statements but backing it up with no substance or context. He could of course be trolling to generate more hits to the site – Which in turn may generate more searches using the website’s ‘Bing’ search engine

As I said before, he then goes and makes the claim that the new OS and OSX are now roughly level with each other and that with the new OS sufferers no longer need to look on with envy at Linux and OS X users. But I ask… are they really level now Mr Manooj?

Does the new OS have integrated exchange support out the box?  No. I am not even sure that there is a built in mail client.

Can the new OS offer a backup utility that is as intuitive as Time Machine out of the box? No.

Does the new OS offer a photo management application that has facial recognition and GPS tagging built in out of the box? No.

Anything like itunes out of the box? No.

The truth is, although redmond do not want anyone to say it, the new OS is nothing more than a service pack for vista with an amateur looking UI. Mr Manooj obliges them by using up column inches with his drivel about DNA comparisons between monkeys and humans. An effective smoke screen to this whole illusion. He further appeases the gods at Redmond by bleating that the new OS is on a par with OS X now and that it is full of innovation. He has the nerve to even suggest that the new OS is more intuitive – again without backing the statement up with any substance.

Mr Manooj, do a test of OS intuition for me – share a tethered 3g internet connection via a wireless LAN on the new OS and then try the same trick with OS X and THEN tell me which one was more intuitive.

On a final note – the new OS has Home, Premium, Business and Ultimate editions. Basically take an OS, keep removing features and at periodic intervals give it a version name. Stop when you are left with the skeleton of an OS that cannot encrypt file systems, join domains or even backup over the network – and then charge $120 for it.

The best on the market? I will have some of what it is you are taking please…

</rant>

Caelum attended his first football practice  on Saturday morning. It was a great morning for both him and me. He loved the running around, kicking the ball and I loved just being able to watch him do it. A little over a year ago we wondered whether it would be possible for him to do such an activity – and to see him running and kicking the ball with other friends was something of pure joy. He gets stronger and stronger everyday and it is truly amazing the recovery he has made. We thank God every day for his recovery. By the way, the practice ended with a game of ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf!’

Click the thumbnails for larger images.

We have just recently returned from our trip to the U.K. visiting family and friends. Somehow we managed to time our visit with a tremendous spell of weather! Two whole weeks of sunshine – in Scotland! It has to be said that when the sun is out, Scotland is one of the most beautiful countries on the planet!

We had a fabulous time and so not to bore anyone with ‘what we did on holiday’ I will just list the best things about our holiday:

• Surprise visit at the airport. Having travelled from Lagos to Glasgow via Dubai, I thought it was going to be another few hours until I saw everyone – only to walk out of arrivals with Anelda, Caelum, my Mum and my step brother, Neil waiting there for me. It was a great surprise and I am glad they did it!

• Quad’s birthday night. It was my brothers’ and sister’s birthday on the Friday we arrived and we ALL went out on the town in Montrose. My dad, my step brothers – Anthony & Neil, Anelda, myself, Helen, Georgina, Natasha, Matthew, Richard + girlfriend, Leigh and Phillip. It was quite a laugh and quite a mess! Here are the photos

• Spending time in Montrose. We originally had the plan to go somewhere in Scotland, book some place for all of us… but in the end we stayed put in Montrose and it was the best thing we did. It meant that we could spend more time with everyone and visit some of the wonderful places that surround Montrose such as Lunan and Edzell.

• Mum’s 50th birthday. Great party. Typical ‘Ryan Wild Style’! Photos

• Seeing Fred, Rick, Nan & Jane, even if it was for a short while.

• Fishing with my dad and Anthony – even though we caught nothing!

• The Montrose Highland Games

• The long evenings in Montrose – mostly spent feeding the horses in the fields next to Mum & Days house.

• The day trip to Edinburgh Zoo – photos

• Seeing Roland, Emma & Rufus and going to the botanical gardens in Edinburgh

• Going to Belfast and seeing Joe, Edel & Leo.

• Caelum spending valuable time with all his family in Scotland

It was such a great holiday and we are so lucky to have such good friends and family. We can’t wait to go back!

Finally did the upgrade to Snow Leopard this week. At the first look you would would be hard pressed to notice much difference between Leopard and Snow Leopard. There are many, many reviews about the changes – by people far more geekier than I, and they will tell you ALL of the differences. So I will restrict this post to the things that I found interesting or important.

Time Machine – It is a lot quicker than what it used to be, especially for new time machine setups.

Startup / Login / Sleep – All a lot faster.

Bluetooth Menu Bar – This used to be a real pain in the backside, but now it seems to work properly.

Some of the other things that I discovered was:  Upon investigating why my Cisco VPN client no longer worked, there is now a built in CiscoVPN client in the network preferences.

CiscoVPN Client

Similar to what is already available on the iPhone, Snow Leopard now has native support for Cisco VPNs. Something that ‘The other OS’ will never have! It supports certificates and group authentication, just as the iPhone does.

The last thing which almost put a spanner in the works was that my Huawei EC226 modem no longer worked. Fortunately there is a work around and I was able to get it working again.

I removed all the connections to the Huawei modem in the network preferences and then went to :

 /System/Library/Extensions

I removed the HuaweiDataCardDriver.kext and the USBCardCantWake_Huawei.kext extenstions.

Inserted the Modem and waited for the internal disk to mount. There is usually a mobile partner application supplied with the modem on the internal drive that you can drag into the Applications dir, but if you right mouse click and select view package contents, you can navigate and find the installer pkg and re-run it.

I have not included the details as it will look different to every modem / provider. My one is  MultiLinks Telkom branded application, but the are all probably similar. After running the installer, I was able to now see the Huawei interfaces again in the network preferences.

It does require that you reconfigure your dial-up settings, but it is better than it not working at all.

Overall, Snow Leopard was all the changes that are necessary for the next big upgrade. Really Snow Loepard was primarily done to remove all of the legacy support for PPC and pave the way for the next big cat. But there are some really useful tools and enhancements that have come along with it.

Ghana

One of the reasons that we decided to come to Lagos was that it would present a great opportunity to see other parts of Africa. Due to the Eid festival this weekend, Monday & Tuesday were declared public holidays here in Nigeria, so we used the opportunity to dash to Ghana for the weekend. We flew into Accra on the Friday evening and headed to Elmina – a fishing village just west of Cape Coast. The Coconut Grove Beach Resort provided comfortable accommodation, spectacular sea views and amazing, fresh seafood!

Using Nigeria, and inparticular, Lagos as a benchmark for other West African destinations is probably not a good idea. The smooth, un-chaotic roads; the pleasant shops; restaurants and side street bars made Accra look a million miles apart from Lagos. It is hard to believe that it is only a 1hr flight difference between the two cities. It really show you how corruption, fighting and bad governance can really drag a country down. Nigeria, with all it’s wealth, should be streets ahead of neighbouring (and dare I say all other) African states. But unfortunately for the majority of her people, non of Nigeria’s wealth from their natural resources is finding it’s way anywhere remotely close to them.

Anyway – leaving the comparison to Nigeria aside (as we could be here all day), it is understood that Ghana is a relatively peaceful nation with a stable government and economy. We certainly found the arrival at Accra airport to be a welcoming one. With information for tourists, ATM machines, restaurants and taxis all close by, it felt that Ghana is doing it’s best to hold it’s arms out to people and say “Come on in!”. First impressions evidently last. Let’s hope and pray that the the recent finding of oil in the west of country has a positive impact for them. When we arrived in Accra we stopped at “Papayes” which is said to be the best chicken takeaway in Accra. And there were no objections to that statement as the food was excellent.

The drive to Elmina was long and a bit treacherous. The roads, although smooth and well sign posted, are single lane and most people we encountered on our journey to Elmina did not seem to have any regard for the ’solid line’ in the middle of the road. We were lucky enough to dodge a car coming towards us, head on in our lane! A good piece of advise would be to drive during the day.

Ok – this is one of the reasons why we came to Ghana:

Ghana Coast

Simply stunning. Miles and miles of unspoilt, pristine coastline. You would have to be mad not to enjoy this.

If you like seafood, then you can do a lot worse than this:

Snapper & Plantain

Part of the attraction of Elmina is it’s long and partly gruesome history – the worst of it can be told by a visit to the Elmina castle. The Portugese and the Dutch really knew how to disregard the value of human life back in the day.

Condemned Cell

This is the entrance to what was known as the condemned cell. No food and no water until you died. If you were led to this cell, you would not see the light of day again. The only way you left it was when your carcass was removed and I cannot imagine that that would have been done in any hurry after you eventually died.

The castle and the guides are fantastically informative, the best has been done to convey the harrowing history and stories that the castle has to share. It has been recently renovated by the local government and sponsor groups and has earned the status as a world heritage site. If you have the chance to go, it is well worth the visit. At the time of our visit entrance was GH¢9 ± $6 for an adult.

Elmina also offers a close up look at the hustle and bustle of a West African coastal village. From the resort it is a few minutes walk to the fishing landing site where you can witness the women hard at work preparing the fish – salting and smoking using traditional methods. Continue along the road along to Elmina and the it soon opens up into a free-for-all market, trading in anything from Chelsea shirts to huge cooking pots!

It is quite safe to walk around and soak up the hustle and bustle. The majority of your energy will be sapped from negotiating with traders and fending off people wanting you to sponsor their ’soccer school’…

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Elmina, Ghana

Elmina Fishing Boats

On our way back to Accra we stopped at the side of the road to witness someone cooking ‘grasscutter’. From my earlier post I included a photo of a West African man selling grasscutter at the side of the road. Well now I had the privilege to witness it first hand:

Grasscutter - Before

Grasscutter - After

I had the problem recently with spacewalk not correctly displaying the virtual machines and the hosts that they belong to. For example I would register a host machine – in this case, a Xen Hypervisor. The machine and all it’s details would show up, but then there would be no information about the guests under the virtualization tab.

My setup is that I am running a CentOS5.3 environment and am using spacewalk to manage updates and packages for all machines – real and virtual.

It took me quite a while to figure out what my problem was. Firstly, the host machine must have rhn-virtualization packages installed. Probably not a common mistake, but one that I made.

# rpm -qa | grep -i virtualization

rhn-virtualization-host-5.2.0-5

rhn-virtualization-common-5.2.0-5

# rpm -qa | grep -i virtualization 
rhn-virtualization-host-5.2.0-5 
rhn-virtualization-common-5.2.0-5

Once that was sorted out the other thing that I needed to make sure of was that I create 2 activiation keys in spacewalk – one for the hypervisors and one for the guests. Using the rhnreg_ks command I could then register each machine with the activation key that corresponds to the machine type that they belong to:

# rhnreg_ks --activationkey=1-14bd43a98cb9a4d25d976748f9daf01f --serverUrl=https://spacewalk.server.com/XMLRPC --force

Once that was done, I could then see the virtual machines associated with the host.