A Server Monitor

I can't believe that I haven't been doing proper server monitoring. Well, that had to come to an end. I didn't like any of the monitoring apps out there and I did as a good code primate should and wrote my own. Here is my own server monitor and module written in and for Ruby. It outputs in XML format.

You write a simple XML configuration file, and call the app via the commandline specifying where the config, output, and XSL template are (cross-domain issues with XSL are fun!).

What are you waiting for?

http://code.google.com/p/rubyservermonitor/

Tabbed Pages with CSS and Javascript

It's been done before many times, but here's my stab at it. This took me far too long, as my javascript and CSS skills are severely lacking (I like backend stuff better, what can I say?).

What we have here is a horizontally styled list acting as a navigation bar, and a set of hidden divs shown when appropriate.

Source here.

Must-Have DVD Apps

DeVeDe: DVD Authoring Tool
k9copy: DVD9 to DVD5 copier
Thoggen: Rip DVD to OGG video

Hard Drive Performance and hdparm

Ok, I don't invest that much cash into my computer. Heck, I haven't purchased new (or used) computer hardware for myself in almost 2 years. My computer is at least 6 years out of date. Its slow.

Well, a RAM stick went out and I am down to 512MB, can we say SWAP???. So I checked out the ouput from hdparm and I had a nasty surprise. 8.59 MB/sec!!!

hdparm to the rescue.

$ hdparm -c3 -m16 -d1 -u1 -X70 -k /dev/hdb

37.99 MB/sec!!!

That should improve performance significantly!

Note: These settings are for a Seagate Barracuda 80GB

$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/hdb
...
ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: ST380021A
Serial Number: 3HV291LP
Firmware Revision: 3.19
...