Cleaning an Old Computer

For the past several years I have had an unused computer sitting under my desk at work. The power supply failed and I never bothered to replace it. Instead my company just got me a new Linux desktop and my change in responsibilities meant that I didn't need anything off the old one. This week I finally got tired of having a useless computer and so I had our IT department take the old computer away. I also asked them to pull the hard drive out and see if we could pull anything off it. They couldn't and so I resigned myself to have lost anything of importance off that computer. As a last-ditch effort, we put the drive in a new computer and tried to boot it. Guess what? That worked.

Going through the files on the old computer disk felt like traveling back in time. It reminded me of how my current work is so different from the work I originally got hired to do. My old disk had about 57 Gigabytes of files. I sorted through it rather quickly and copied import stuff to my relatively new Linux box. Anything that I knew I didn't need, I deleted. Then just to be safe, I saved everything else and will put it in a safe place in case I need it again.

Cleaning off an old computer is something I usual when I get a new one. I often find that I place more value in stuff I won't actually need. Having my useless computer sitting under my desk helped me realize that I should be a lot more discerning the next time I have to clean up an old computer. After all, if I have not needed something in a 2-year period, chances are I won't need it any time soon.

Solving Problems Together

This evening I was at the office until 10pm solving a problem. We had two very important pieces of hardware in our data center behave strangely and that caused some serious problems with our environment. At first we didn't realize the extent of the problems and at 5pm I thought I would be stuck at the office for another hour. It turned out to be a bit longer than that.

Initially I was busy watching two other operations engineers bring systems back online. I could look at my monitoring dashboard which is nothing more than a list of descriptions with a number next to each line of text. I could see services starting back up and my massive data warehouse escaped without any issues. Then I was asked to check out a number of much smaller databases and I realized the extent of the damage to our system.

I didn't really notice time passing as a number of us all worked together solving the technological issues. Some guys hung around even though they could have gone home. Why? Because they would have wanted us to stick around if the roles were reversed. Eventually some really did have to leave because of family commitments and nobody faulted them for it. In the end, there were three of us on the phone solving the last of the issues and we all hung out until we were sure everything was working correctly.

Now I won't claim that my coworkers are perfect and that everything is all roses and sunshine where I work. However it was comforting to have a great team of engineers sticking around to make sure everything got put back to normal. That helped make staying late a lot easier. Thanks guys.

Compounding Problems

Today I had a busy day at the office and tomorrow doesn't look like it will be much better. There were some changes we made to our server infrastructure and ran into two problems. Unfortunately I need to make some more changes but those will have to wait. The last thing I want to do is compound the problems.

I was sailing back from Hawaii when I discovered "The Law of Compounding Problems." The law is based on the idea that serious accidents don't happen on their own but are a series of smaller ones that grow into something big. For instance, it is important to keep all ropes or lines on a sailboat properly stowed so that if a wave hits the boat and someone stumbles, they don't get tripped and fall overboard.

This law can be applied to computers as well. Perhaps you install new memory at the same time you upgrade your computer's operating system only to discover it now won't boot. Then you are left trying to figure out if the memory was installed wrong or if there is something with the new operating system. Throw in a third variable and fixing the problem can be almost impossible. That is why you want to ensure that you make sure each update to your computer works before adding something else.

Today we were able to isolate both of our problems. This allows us to fix them one-at-a-time without having to try and figure them both out at the same time. We still don't have solutions, but have some ideas. Once we get them taken care of, then I can make my changes.

Low Tide

This morning I was riding my bike to work on the path shown in the picture above and it was very low tide (unlike in the picture). Along the bike path are several piers that go out into the water. They are not much more than a couple of planks of wood and are used mainly by kids doing a bit of fishing. I have often thought about stopping on the way home and taking a walk out on one of the piers. After my ride today, I don't think that is a good idea.

At low tide, it is about a quarter of a mile walk from the bike path to the water. This leaves the piers totally exposed and you can see their supports. Salt water is a very corrosive environment and some of the supports have been eaten away to the point that they are little more than toothpicks. One or two are completely gone. At high-tide it is impossible to see the decay that has taken place and it is easy to assume the pier is safe.

Computers can sometimes be like those piers at high tide: it is tough to see what is going on underneath. Most of the time, that is fine because computers are fairly reliable. However sometimes things go wrong. Computers can easily pick up a virus and so a scan should be done on a regular basis. Hardware can also fail and so it is important to pay attention to errors you get. Hard disks are the most common component to fail and should be replaced at the slightest hint of a problem. Cooling fans and power supplies are also components that can fail. While it is rare to have memory go bad, it can happen.

Unless some maintenance is done, someday soon, one of the piers I ride by on my way to and from work is going to fail. If someone is on it when it does, then he or she is going to get wet and/or muddy. Don't neglect your computer and let the same thing happen to you. While you may not get wet, you may lose some cherished pictures from your digital camera or important documents. If your computer is getting old, be sure to make a backup of your irreplaceable files. Most importantly, pay attention to any error messages you get. It could save you some grief in the future.