January 24, 2010

There were 3 posts published on January 24, 2010 (this is page 1 of 1).

Weekend (and week) recap

Let’s see. I had a birthday this week, turning 41. Had an after-hours meeting every day except Friday, when I took Travis to his piano lesson. Monday evening it was a meeting with the head of a major local institution. Tuesday it was a city council meeting. Wednesday it was the Raleigh CAC meeting. Thursday it was a contentious Parks Board meeting.

Saturday morning I had a conference to work in Durham, but cut it short to watch the end of the kids’ basketball games. Kelly’s parents arrived around that time and we spent some time visiting with them. Travis and his grandfather built a dinosaur out of the trash can and parts found around the garage. Kelly’s parents took the kids to dinner while we headed out to Papa Mojo’s for Cajun dinner and dancing. We got back late but had fun doing it.
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Linux’s networking stack gets confused

I just saw this unusual response when I pinged my local server:

root@sundowner:/etc/network# ping maestro
PING maestro (192.168.3.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2091 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2094 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=2077 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=2040 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=2043 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=2051 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=2046 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=1065 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=63.8 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=1.39 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=1.35 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=1.53 ms

The odd thing about this is that the first 8 responses actually returned in less than one second, in spite of ping reporting times over 2000 ms. For the math-impaired out there, 2000 ms equals two seconds.

I don’t know why Linux was reporting a ping response returning in two seconds when it actually returned in less than one second (and most likely a fraction of a second). It’s very strange.

Looks like we’re in for nasty weather

Yesterday afternoon I had just sat down in the recliner when my weather radio began sounding. I found this quite odd as a glance out the window showed calm winds and sunny skies. As soon as I’d reset my radio and sit down again, it would sound again! It turns out it was a flash flood warning – for today. I guess the NWS wasn’t taking any chances in alerting the public.

The forecast calls for up to three inches of rain to fall tonight:

* FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH MONDAY MORNING
* WIDESPREAD RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF ONE TO TWO INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS THE PIEDMONT OF NORTH CAROLINA THIS EVENING THROUGH MONDAY MORNING… WITH ISOLATED HIGHER AMOUNTS UP TO 3 INCHES POSSIBLE IN ANY EMBEDDED CONVECTION.
* THESE RAINFALL AMOUNTS ARE LIKELY TO PRODUCE RAPID RISES ON AREA CREEKS AND STREAMS. IN PARTICULAR… CREEKS THAT TEND TO RISE QUICKLY WITH HEAVY RAIN… INCLUDING CRABTREE CREEK IN THE TRIANGLE… BUFFALO CREEK IN THE TRIAD… AND CROSS CREEK IN FAYETTEVILLE… MAY EXPERIENCE FLOODING. HIGH WATER IS ALSO POSSIBLE IN URBAN AND POOR DRAINAGE AREAS. MAINSTEM RIVERS INCLUDING THE HAW… TAR… NEUSE… AND ROCKY RIVER ARE ALSO LIKELY TO SEE RISES OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS.

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