Lego Galaxy Squad

Nathan helped me put together my Christmas present. And by "helped", I mean I actually got to assemble a few pieces of it.

I'd never heard of this series before, seems to be quasi-mecha-like. Of course you can't have mecha without enemies, so the kit provides you with a couple of giant insects to fight. I don't know why we have to portray humans fighting any alien life they happen to come across, so I asked Nathan why we couldn't say the humans and the insects were working together on something. Nathan looked vaguely horrified at the idea -- I guess it's too strange a concept for a nine year old.

Math: Dell PowerEdge 1950 G3 Power Consumption

Sorry for the potato quality.

When I posted my feeling-pleased-about-myself post about the Dell's RAM, I got a lot of static on Reddit for buying such a power-hungry computer. I didn't think it could be that much, but nothing settles arguments like data.

So, the homelab electricity usage. This Kill-A-Watt currently feeds my Dell 1950, the Bell internet gear, a small switch, a POE injector feeding a Ubiquiti access point, and a Sunfire X2200. The Dell is the lion's share of this load.

The potatoes show you that this has consumed 206 kWh in 478 hours.

The math shows us that works out to 0.43 kWh/h, or an average load of 0.43 kW. That works out to 10.34 kWh per day, which at $0.10 per kWh works out to $1.34 (update: MATH: $1.02) in electricity per day, or $31 per 30 day month. Depending on the month, this could be anywhere from 1/3 (spring/fall, no heat or A/C) to 1/5 (summer, full-time A/C) of my daily load.

I don't have the exact numbers, but the Sunfire draw is a fraction of the Dell's. My current plan is to send the Dell to the colo facility where power is wrapped up in the hosting, and do my "homelab"-ing there across the internet, and use the Sunfire as the firewall at the house. That requires a lot of juggling though since the current firewall is a VM inside the Dell.

In conclusion: the power draw on these PowerConnect 1950s is quite high. For me, $1/day isn't a huge amount of money, but it does mean I spend per year in electricity what I paid for the computer in the first place. This is something important to consider when looking for homelab equipment.

Early Easter

Too early. This is my first trip to the grocery store in a while so I don't know how long this stuff has been out -- but I think its still too early.

Some Days, I Tell You...

Some days it's hard enough without your tools actively fighting against you. This BSoD happened twice, both times when I rebooted a switch while watching its console through a USB-to-serial dongle. Never seen that happen before. This USB-to-serial is a piece I've had with me for 15 years now and has been one of the most reliable pieces of kit I've had, but maybe it is finally too old for use.

In totally unrelated news, minicom on Fedora Core 25 still sucks as bad as it did 15 years ago with RedHat (non-enterprise) 6.

First Time Since The Rebuild

Today was my first day on Landsdown Park since the big OSEG rebuild. I seem to think the last time was when Alex and I went to a '67s game -- and yep, it was 2011.) Since I had arrived nearby with some time to kill, I decided to take a walk around the site to see what's what.

The parking garage is unexpectedly narrow inside. It is all decked out with the same redlight/greenlight parking spot availability lights that are in the City Hall parking garage, except these are new enough to still be in service, resulting in a ceiling that is unexpectedly festive. Parking is more expensive than typical downtown is at $20 for the day. And the narrowness of the lanes caused a couple of other drivers -- in more than one instance -- to get in each other's ways, not to the point of collisions, but to the point where the drivers of the large pickup trucks were squealing their tires as they left the scenes.

Above ground everything seems to be exclusively paving stones ornately laid out with traffic lanes on them -- not exactly asphalt, but paradise paved nonetheless. The whole thing seemed to be laid out with the same crowd control tricks seen at Disney -- controlled sightlines, wide open walkways, and robust fittings designed to withstand the crushing use of a game day crowd.

It was a dreary day weather-wise but there is little on the site to combat such impressions.

If there's one thing you can do at Landsdown, it's eat. And presumably drink. I hear that the Teriaki Express isn't doing well -- and probably not surprising given that the typical non-game-day crowds probably don't pay the bills -- but there are a ton of bars and restaurants for your pre- or post-game drinking and snacking needs. Plus a fitness store, a movie complex, and a bank. But not much else.

It was interesting to visit after all the fuss. Frankly with the parking being what it is, I doubt even the super-deluxe movie theatre will get me out here recreationally. I might do a football game some time -- something I should probably do at least once -- but the volume of people also doing the football game means that public transit is mandatory, and the available transit for games is boosted to something approaching usefulness before being dropped to the standard level of mediocrity for regular days.

Today On The Testbed

Palo Alto PA-200 Firewall

....well that's certainly different.

Clean Teeth

Nathan visits the dentist. Verdict: dirty teeth, no new teeth, but no cavities. Good show!