SysAdmins are like Auto Mechanics

I feel like an auto mechanic working on a lemon. I’ve never encountered so many problems with my server. All within 12 hours:

- MySQL’s user table corrupted, MySQL crashed, /tmp/mysql.sock link vanished, MySQL wouldn’t start
(this ruined our plan to feed some ducks at Mission Bay)
- Apache crashed for no good reason, but restarted on second try
- My apache error log reached 2 GB and started overflowing
- I found that my HTTPS service was dead all night long!
- My datacenter decided they won’t do kernel upgrades anymore, so I did it myself, borked it and then had to learn to fix grub.conf

I usually don’t have this many problems in a month! I’ve learned a few things though and that’s good.

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The Charity Million

I’ve been working on a charity site with one of my clients and friend in the UK called The Charity Million. The goal is to raise £1 Million ($1.7 million) every year for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. You might have seen pixel ad sites before, but as far as I know we’re the first to set one up in partnership with a major charity. The idea is for companies and families to make donations in exchange for an ad on the homepage. If we get enough press coverage the homepage ad space will be worth quite a bit and companies will be running in with their donations and pledges.

March 10, 2006 Press Release

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Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Last September 27th I hosted a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to inaugurate my new office. When I first started working in August I walked into a disaster zone, the furniture was ages old and every thing was disorganized and cluttered. I got rid of the clutter in about a day, most things went to the trash. Then my boss told me “new furniture” was on the way. When it finally arrived I was thrilled, it is mostly black, my favorite color for decoration and light maple. I love it! My favorite part is all the pictures of my baby love. Lotsa pictures, flowers, candles, a teddy bear named “Granola” …ah! and an ocean view.

“Post- its and more post-its”	Sweet “Granola”
Steven took this picture	The Ryan Library Family

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New Business Name

I took our move to La Mesa as an opportunity to change the name of my business to DreamDolphin Media (formerly Dream Dolphin Enterprise). The name is more compact and better reflects the nature of my business (web site development).

We’ll have pics of our moving day and our new place shortly!

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