Losing access to my main rig computer was teh s uck, but I got my new processor today and it is currently working to bring you this blog. Speaking of the blog, I fixed some server issues preventing scripts in /cgi-bin/* from running; the results, comments work, and I can use Greymatter. :w00t:

I am working on formatting the pages for the custom gear site. The image display needs a bit of tweaking. I think I'll make the thumbnails smaller, and I have to implement a "clicking on a thumbnail displays a full sized version of the picture" feature. I guess after that, I can start uploading content again. I am going to try to tone down the geek factor this time. Tech is reserved for how-to's and guides. Regular entries will be for pretty pictures and descriptive commmentary; maybe a spec or feature list for the geeks.

It really isn't that awesome, but I reapaired the fstab file on the server. Kernel Scurry noticed that FTP uploads weren't completing. Apparantly, the partition containing all of the client web files was dropped ffrom the fstab file, and since late summer of '03, people were uploading right to the /root partition! shocked

I had to reinstall Apache last fall and my mucking probably broke things. Embarrassing? Quite, but no data was lost and I now have a backup of everyone's content circa last July-October. LOL

I finally have a direction in mind for the ultrascience labs website. This means another overhaul, but with the skills I've honed on the the mdportal website, it should be killer site. So much to do, so little time.

After years of service, the GeForce 256 video card in the server failed. I replaced it with an older, but cooler running Matrox Millenium G200. A throwback from K6-2 glory days, but It still has fantastic 2-D image quality and utilizes passive cooling; no more dead fans!

Speaking of fans, the motherboard northbridge chip cooling fan died. I replaced the tiny heatsink/fan assembly with a modded CPU cooler. The new heatsink should make for an exceedingly stable system. A newly added adjustable speed fan blows cool air over the CPU heatsink/fan. As soon as I get my digi-cam back, I will post some photos.

I added more system RAM, too. I believe the current total is 320 MB.

We removed a DNS conflict and now the web server is functional.

Jerrod informed me of some more permissions errors. If anybody finds more, just drop me a line at bruce42@netins.net. You can fix these errors within your FTP client. If you are using Internet Explorer (works well), simply right-click on the file and set the permissions. TIP- check all of the boxes EXCEPT for 'group' and 'all users'. You don't want anyone editing your stuff. There is, of course, an exception- if the file needs to be edited by a script you should set permissions to '777'; that is, with 'group' and 'all users' checked.

The mail server will be running soon, and by Spring the ultrascience labs server stack should be ready for users and traffic. We'll have a new DSL connection, 700MB file quotas, and plenty of e-mail space for clients.