Welcome!
My name is Daniel Howard. Born in 1976, I grew up in the Chicago Public Schools, earning an International Baccalaureate diploma. After the US Army judged me Unfit for Military Service, I enrolled at the University of Illinois, earning a Bachelor's Degree in English Rhetoric, with a minor in Computer Science.
I have lived (mostly) in the Silicon Valley since 1999. I am married, with two sons. I have served on Sunnyvale's Planning Commission, seeking to improve our access to housing and sustainable transportation. Lately, I volunteer with the Scouts.
I enjoy writing, and I have been publishing on the web since 1995. You can browse/follow my profile on Mastodon, which is mirrored to Bluesky. On occasion, I also post to my YouTube channel.
Also see: Kagi Small Web if you enjoy
discovering new independent web sites.
See also: the "Everything" page if you would
like to flip through this site forever.
Recently Posted
Recent Field Trips: M200 and Barry Lyndon
Of even more obscure appeal than a hundred year old railcar is a fifty year old Kubrick film.
I heard honking in the distance. It was a blue Tesla purchased since Elon did his Hitler salute. The driver for which I have the least empathy. He got closer and honked some more.
How To Blacklist a Disk on Linux
Use case:
- you have a server with a bad disk
- and low urgency to replace the disk
- automation which detects and uses available disks
- also, the drive numbering is non-deterministic at boot
- so you want that disk to not be used until you get around to replacing it
Forcing Together a Broken RAID5 with mdadm
Scenario:
- a 4-disk
mdadm-based software RAID5 - one disk fails: the RAID5 continues to function in a degraded state
- one attempts to replace the failed disk, but pulls (hot swap) an active disk instead
A theme I experienced yesterday is the human need to make.
The Last Show with Stephen Colbert
The news has become such a grind. A friendly face samples the day’s crimes, chews a few bites into a bolus of rage, breaded in wry humor with a tangy glaze of hopeful frustration, and pops it down my exhausted, slack-jawed maw. Between All the Star Treks and Stephen Colbert, the Paramount+ subscription made sense for me. But I have watched All the Star Treks and tomorrow I will have watched All the Colberts.
I canceled my annual Paramount+ subscription, which would have renewed in early June.
Cañon City has a tourist railroad. I gave the Royal Gorge Route Railroad a pass.
The place was hand-built in the middle of nowhere in defiance of the government and its pesky permitting and construction safety standards. You visit very explicitly At Your Own Risk.
Yeah, I had a great time!
“Up and up twists and turns and curves and well-plowed snow and ice, and freezing water streaming across the road way. Occasional wild animals and oncoming cars, nobody passed me and I passed nobody. Much of the time it was me, the car, and a blue-gray sky going on twilight. Where the scenery of the afternoon had been beautiful, the scenery of early evening was transcendent. It felt very much as if I had drove clear up into some special realm where we mortals are allowed to tread only in times of fair weather, and with great caution.”
I smacked my hand on the table in agreement, “Yes! It is important to be polite!”
“You know, Older Son has toured the interlocking before, strapped to my chest.”
