Posts by Brent Ozar

Got my game face on. I’ve always been the kind of guy to make strange faces and noises while programming, and working at home has increased my wackiness. While testing a new stored procedure, the webcam caught me with my fist up, getting ready to give my computer the finger if it didn’t succeed. I…

The database server is undergoing maintenance at work, so I’ve got a few minutes. (And no, the machine pictured here isn’t the server.) I surfed over to Tom’s Hardware, one of my favorite review sites, and they’ve got an excellent evaluation of the new mini-ITX motherboards from Via. Mini-ITX is a relatively new compact form…

Did some updating on the site today. Redid some of the navigation stuff, added plain-text HTML navigation at the bottom of the site, scanned some new photos from our most recent NYC and New Orleans mini-vacations, modified the front page to show the blog photo alongside blog entry, and set up SSL so I can…

Wireless networks that don’t work are especially frustrating. I’m stuck at Kaveh Kanes waiting for the monthly HoustonWireless meeting. For the last hour, I’ve been struggling with the wireless internet connection here, changing my settings every which way but loose, trying to get it to work. No dice. Can’t even get my wired connection to…

Fall down go boom. Lost a CPU in my dual-cpu server last night after I went to bed. For the last couple of weeks, the temperature monitor on it had been reading 195 degrees F, but I thought it was a mistake, since I could put my finger on it without yelping in pain. Either…

I finally got a digital camera. I’ve been putting it off because I couldn’t justify spending even $100 for a digital camera that can’t take better pictures than my traditional camera. (I still can’t find a camera under $500 that outshoots my Kodak.) Anyway, I got an el-cheapo $40 SiPix Blink II because it was…

Hmmm, I’ve finally run out of USB ports. I’ve been a firm believer in USB – it’s a simple, easy-to-use connection standard that accommodates a lot of peripherals. Today, I ran out of USB ports. I’ve been using a USB keyboard, mouse, webcam, radio, printer, and scanner, and the straw that broke the camel’s back…

Rough week. The site’s been down for a while, and it’s a funny story. I moved the server to my office in Dallas so that it wouldn’t be down while I moved apartments this past week. Then, oh sweet irony, what happens? The office network goes down hard. Mail still isn’t getting through to my…

I’m downtown at Kaveh Kanes, the coffee shop where HoustonWireless meets (tonight, as it happens), and the place is actually hopping. People are all over this place, and most aren’t doing wireless-related things. At the same time, everybody seems to wander over to the computer to check their email sooner or later, and you have…

Just call me Brent Millionaire. For the last week, Erika’s been excited about this new show on Fox called Joe Millionaire. It’s a direct ripoff of The Bachelor with the interesting exception that the guy in question isn’t actually well-to-do: he’s a construction worker making $19k a year, just pretending that he’s recently inherited fifty…

I’m proud to announce the newest member of our family. He’s an inch and a half long, he weighs two ounces, and he’s a natural born swimmer. We haven’t named him yet, though. Erika got us another baby turtle, which brings our aquatic family up to three. He’s a wee fella, and I can’t wait…

I got my laptop almost a year ago, and as much as I love shopping, I can’t justify getting a new one. I’ve got a Thinkpad T21 with a P3-866, a 30gb hard drive, and a great screen with 1400×1050 resolution. My boss just got a new Toshiba, which got me thinking about laptops again,…

Two surprises about my blog yesterday: First, I did a search on Google for “blog aspx” and my page came up fifth. Whoa. Wasn’t expecting that. I mean, if you search for Brent Ozar then I come up fast, and I know I get tons of hits from search engines, but that one was odd.…

Well, that didn’t take long. Mandrake 9 installed extremely quickly, detected my video card & network card, and then kept exploding after I logged in. Restarted the system twice, still couldn’t shake the segfault blues, so I’m downloading RedHat 9 now. Like Scarlett said, tomorrow is another day.

Never let it be said that I’m not open minded. I’m giving Linux yet another chance. I picked up a Gigabyte dual-CPU motherboard last weekend from Directron, and before I set it up as my new web/sql server, I figured I’d throw Mandrake 9 on there and see how she works. The hardware is pretty…

I love it when a plan comes together. My favorite Houston computer shop, Directron has Saturday clearance sales periodically, and I always go just to check out the goodies. Every time, I find something cheap and neat to play with, and yesterday’s sale was certainly no exception. They offer an assortment of open-box motherboards for…

Almost done with the car computer again. I was halfway through building my own little control panel for the driver’s side door pocket when I gave up. In Erika’s words, it would look ghetto, so I bought a $100 programmable keypad from Fry’s. It just so happens that their X-Keys Desktop model exactly fits my…

I bought my first pantyhose yesterday. I’ve been trying to figure out why nobody sells the right filter refills for my Fluval 404 aquarium filter, which has been doing a bang-up job of removing turtle poop. Yesterday, a nice Petco staffer told me why: everybody buys women’s pantyhose, cuts it up into bags, and uses…

Almost there… Got my car computer almost ready to install. I need to do the wiring inside the car, and then I’m set. I ended up scoring a D-Link DWL-520 wireless ethernet card for $40 at Microcenter, which was a heck of a bargain. Hadn’t expected to put one in for the first draft, because…

Finally getting around to building my car computer. I’ve always wanted a computer in my trunk to house my MP3 collection, check my email when I’m in range of a wireless network, check traffic maps, and so on. I’ve been futzing around with this for months, off and on, accumulating little pieces of gear. I…