Geekin' 2014

[greatbear]

Trying to make the best of my unwilling homebody-ness, I've taken the opportunity to do some upgrading of my implements of computing and music, and in this case, there's a lot of overlap. Last year I replaced the troublesome Onkyo receiver with, well, another Onkyo. I have to admit that the company treated me well, repairing the unit twice well outside of warranty at no cost to me. If I had to do it, it would've needed a board that costs about a grand. I got the latest model (TX-NR5010) because it fit a bit better into the overall use I wanted for the home theater, and the old 5007 will become the center of a second system downstairs. All I need to do is haul away a metric cubic shit-tonne of junk down there and reclaim the space. The studio setup got its final upgrade with the Mackie monitors and audio controller. That was years in the making, and I decided it was time to finish it off and begin making the best use of the equipment. A lot of time and a fair amount of money sent on the enjoyment of music. If it seems a bit sudden it's because I honestly feel I don't have many good years left to truly enjoy music as I know it. My hearing is slowly failing, and apparently as my body falls apart in other ways, the treatments for those ailments have a nasty side effect on my hearing. So, rather than suffer in silence, I will keep listening until I can no longer listen. I might go deaf next week, or it will be several years, but that part of my life will apparently have a soundtrack. In addition to satisfying my urges as a long-time audiophile and a (sadly, lapsed) musician by doing this at the homestead, Jeff and I will continue to head off to concerts, shows, performances of all sorts. It is so good for the soul, after all.

I've also taken on the needed upgrades for some of the computers and especially the rather involved network that ties it all together. A few years ago the LAN got upgraded to gigabit ethernet in order to handle the high-definition video and audio flying around the cables, and I eventually began running into problems as to where to keep all this digital goodness. I demoted my main server to file server duties, and today installed a Synology 8-bay NAS to handle both the backing up of the various PCs on the network as well as the main repository of the various media. I threw a pair of 4TB drives in it to start with, and it's running nicely. The NAS has a total of 4 gigabit LAN ports that can be aggregated for a fourfold increase in throughput. The main file server as well as my monster Xeon workstation have paired LAN ports, and I need to add another switch eventually to handle all the cables. I knew I should've gotten more than a 24-port switch. I will get another, similar switch and heap all the high-bandwidth stuff on it, and team two or three ports between switches as a trunk to handle the traffic. It should be able to handle 4K video without trouble. Beyond that, I doubt if I will need much more. Unless the thing becomes sentient and starts making demands, that is.

This weekend is special here in the Land o' Mayhem, and I'm gonna be a happy chappy with having a 4-day weekend with Jeff. It's Groundhog Day, after all, and we do some celebrating. I hope to make the best of it.

Comments

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Enjoy that four day weekend!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I plan to!

[budmassey.livejournal.com]

* I demoted my main server to file server duties, and today installed a Synology 8-bay NAS *


SWOON!

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

Is that nasty talk for a computer geek? Lol

[budmassey.livejournal.com]

Oh god. That's geek porn.

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

"I demoted my main server to file server duties, and today installed a Synology 8-bay NAS

Boom-chucka, waa-waa.
Boom-chucka, waa-waa.....

[mh58.livejournal.com]

Sigh ... I had wanted something like the Synology, but got started with the FreeNAS setup using ZFS. So now the desk-side server farm is a Plex server, NAS and the Asterisk PBX server. All the media is on the NAS (main share is 4TB for media, remaining 12Tb for backups, ISO storage, etc.) The newest is the Asterisk/FreePBX server and still working on that one. Since we don't have any 4K service demands, this is enough for us now.

Who knew telephony was so odd - especially with older phones. Tom got a Cisco 7960 and 3 7940's cheap, so they are the starting blocks - or stumbling blocks as the case may be. I've ordered a newer technology phone to play with as well.

Back to work (swirls chair around to work desk). :)

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

The Synology box can be outfitted with Asterisk, and I already have Plex running on it. Telephony here is strange, I have fiber just for POTS after all these years of downright ancient, dissolving copper that kept my internet life a pure hell from '95 to '02, and my BBSing before that a frustrating endeavor. I have a tiny box I will throw Server 2012 on soon just to have an outside-facing gateway of that nature, the old server running 2003 will keep going for a long time, that homemade box (you saw it) has been wonderful for most of the time it's been running.

[ricksf.livejournal.com]

I think I'm fortunate that you're not closer. As it is, my geek-age is barely under control. And that typically because my knowledge of the esoterica of networks and such is quite limited (I'm too lazy to learn more). I manage to keep most of my home theater lusts under control but that wall too would crumble as well under you tech onslaught.

My mom warned me about bad men like you...

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

LOL, well, I am trying to keep from going totally overboard with it. It makes us happy for now, the next upgrade to the HT will probably be a new TV, but I can wait that out for a good while yet.

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

Four day weekend! Woo hoo!

About your music and your inner soundtrack. Do you hear it in your head? When I travel I don't bring ear buds and listen to music as most do. My brain plays it back to me. Is that what you'll rely on layer, if your hearing gets worse?

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I'm one of those odd folks that can literally play back music in my head as if I had headphones on. Earworms, unfortunately, can take on Dune-sized proportions as a result. Those beasts can get annoying! :)

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

I can do the same thing. I understand the earworm problem!

"Walk without rhythm....."

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

I can play music in my head, as well, which is a pain in the ass sometimes-like when I'm nowhere near the computer to be able to play the song that "I Can't get it out of my head."

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

It has downsides, earworms can drive me nuts! lol

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too!

One time recently, I couldn't get "Incense and Peppermints" by The Strawberry Alarm clock out of my head! That went on for a few days...

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Phil,

Just wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday and hope that you're having splendid loving celebration with Jeff! Just know you are in my thoughts!

HUGS!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much Neil!

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Danke!

[merlinwon.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday, Handsome Man!! In hopes you have a great year ahead! :)

♥

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Thankies!

[champdaddy.livejournal.com]

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

With you here, that's a given. :)