I've recently gotten an Apple iPod Shuffle 2nd Generation. It's only a 1Gb player, but I can forgive that limitation for the simple fact that it is:

• Tiny - VERY tiny!
• Easy to use
• Lightweight

Other things to come here soon include:

• SGI O2 workstation - specs unknown, but it will be my first bit of SGI kit and I'm looking forward to playing with it! I'd be quite keen to get hold of an Octane/Octane2 or Indigo2 really, but they're a bit less practicle.
• NEC 18“ TFT - eBay purchase, will be collecting Thursday evening. This will likely be a second display as it apparently has 'a few dull spots' but thats not a great issue for a secondary display. Ideally I'd wish to replace my Cornerstone P1500 21” CRT with a 19“-22” TFT, but thats unlikely to be soon. So a 18“ TFT will suffice (especially at £31!). If the 21” CRT goes pop, the 18“ TFT will be useable I'm hoping.
• ADDS 12” Serial Console - A friend in Leeds is going to try to see if she can get this running, if she can then it will mean a lot less hassle really in many respects. Also will make 15“ CRT and PS2 keyboard downstairs a bit redundant too, as server can then be controlled by serial port (as can the Sun Ultra5 workstation and SGI O2 workstation). Seeing if I can get a suitable serial port switch of some kind to have them on the same serial console might be worthwhile.
• 8port Gbit Switch - finally going to make use of the fact my server, Quicksilver and Athlon64 all have Gbit on them, Rob's PC does too, so it should speed the home network up, especially as the server has dual gbit.
• Sony 6mp cybershot digital camera - another ebay buy. Finally will have my own digital camera! no longer will I be limited to my mobile phone!

Also recently aquired have been a couple of HP printers (Photosmart 7350, Deskjet 950C) and a HP Scanner (6200C). The scanner being very useful as it is Mac compatible (with VueScan), and means the 6100C is now redundant). The Printers both work fine under Linux (CUPS) and on Mac OS X, which is pretty handy really. They were free too!

I still haven;'t gotten round to sorting updates and so on out for the site, need to get home test sites up and running and and then migrate. Needs to be done pretty soon I am suspecting. I am thinking about the posibility of making the site more blog-orientated and moving the more static information to a different area/theme/layout. That way entries about tech stuff will be more prominant and my boring interests and so on will be linked to elsewhere.

In Other News, my iBook has suffered a trackpad fault, which i am awaiting replacement parts to fix. I've also taken the opportunity to get a 120Gb hard drive for it, as I'll have to strip it down to change the trackpad.

I've also added 2 500Gb Samsung SATA2 drives to my server, in a neat 4 3.5” in 3 5.25“ cage. It keeps the drives pretty cool too by having a 120mm fan on the front. I've got them set up as a RAID5 (yes with two drives!). I've also used them to change the 3x36Gb drives to a RAID5 volume, which means I lose 36Gb of capacity, but also means I can survive one of the drives dying.

Plan now is to get 1 or maybe 2 more 500Gb SATA2 drives to add to the array (which will increase it from the current capacity of 465Gb to almost 1.5Tb!!

As well as that I can hopefully get 4 74Gb SCSI drives to upgrade the SCSI subsystem drives from 4 36Gb SCSI drives, if I change one drive at a time, then rebuild I should be able to grow the raid5 volume online to take advantage of the new space. that'd be very welcome.

I'm thinking about the posibility of getting a Sun Storedge D1000 to go on the server, allowing me to add upto 12 SCA drives to the system, even more storage, and as I've got a couple of spare 36Gb drives already... and if I upgrade to the 74Gb drives, then I'd be able to set up a 6x36Gb RAID5 or maybe RAID6 array. Plenty of network storage then!!! Of course this'll make a bit of a noise... but it is int he back room, so not much of an issue...

As well as this I've gotten xfsdump/xfsrestore figured out and have been making xfsdumps to tape of the root and home dirs, as well as the Music.

Speaking of Music, I've now got nearly 200Gb of sorted music... getting a bit big ;) still about 100Gb to go!

Recently went to Cabbage in Leeds again (at the Leeds West India Centre). Fantastic night. If you like psy-trance, progressive trance or ambient/chill then check it out. Chris Nanook and Chris Purusha were great in the main room. And were followed by a abosolute stormer of a set by Scorb!

Following Scorb was Kulu resident DJ, Bez 23. He looked to be enjoying himself on those decks! and damn rightly he should of been as he played the most banging set I've witnessed.

Psy-trance parties are still a bit of a new thing to me, but I love them! I get to dance for about 8 hours, and do it in great company to really envigorating music. Really does me good I think. If you get the chance check it out!!!

Kelly

[posted with ecto]

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