http://www.natecarlson.com/blog Wed, 07 May 2008 04:37:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en uh, ok? http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/05/06/guitar-hero-3-embedded/ The other day, I ran across oDesk, which is a site where contractors ("Providers") can offer their services and clients ("Buyers") can find them. Providers can take free tests to show their skills. The site also facilitates payments, etc. Quite interesting - I'll have to try it out at some point. ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/04/02/odesk-online-melting-pot-for-consultantscontractors/ As many of you know, I'm a big fan of XenEnterprise as a virtulization platform, as it's based on open source software, and just makes it a lot nicer to manage. For some reason, it just seems to make a lot more sense to me than VMware ESX when I'm ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/03/31/xenenterprise-41/ Last night, Minneapolis was the first stop on Skillet's Comatose tour, with Thousand Foot Krutch and Decyfer Down. It was at Club 3 Degrees, which is a small Christian club on 1st and 5th downtown. Tiff and I went with a friend, and met up with one of my ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/03/28/i-think-i-might-be-a-panhead/ So, SuperTarget had asparagus on sale for $.99/lb. Tiff and I both love the stuff, so even though it wasn't in the greatest shape, we picked some up. I usually buy asparagus in the frozen, ready-to-steam bags, and it tastes good. However, this time it was fresh asparagus, and I ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/03/23/i-will-never-steam-asparagus-again/ A few weeks ago, a coworker pointed out Mosso, which bills itself as "The Hosting Cloud". Looks like a really interesting service - basically like shared hosting that will scale forever; no need to worry about individual servers, etc. If you are just hosting a generic php/rails/etc site that gets a ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/03/14/mosso-the-hosting-cloud/ Last week, my HTC Kaiser dropped off my belt in a cold, cold parking lot, and sat there for about four hours before I was able to come back and get it. Gah! It worked OK, except for a big crack on the bottom half of the screen. Gah! After ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/02/24/bust-your-phone-need-a-temp-replacement-quick-att-customer-youre-in-luck/ ok, this site is cool: http://www.revfad.com/flip.html http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/02/11/%c2%a1un%c9%9f-si-%c7%9dpo%c9%94iun-%ca%8do%ca%8d/ So. I was hanging some speakers in our living room. And managed to punch a hole in the wall. [I was pounding in an anchor, and the wall gave way. Sigh.] This weekend I decided to patch said hole. I learned some things about myself and drywall patching: 1) If the piece is just ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/01/28/nate-drywall-mistake/ A friend invited me to a new site - Notchup. Basically, you set up a profile, post some details, and in theory employers who are looking for employees like you will actually pay to interview you. Interesting! I might be a little bit more interested in listening to recruiters if ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/01/22/interesting-concept-in-recruiting/ Place of purchase: Surdyk’s Title: Champignon Brie (Mushroom) Description: Champignon Brie is a German import with a rich, mushroomy flavor and a silky interior. Enjoy with a German Gewurtztraminer wine and crusty french bread. Comments: I haven't ever been a huge brie fan, but Tiff and I figured we'd try this one. Still not my ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/01/13/cheese-review-champignon-brie/ Place of purchase: Surdyk's Title: Marieke Gouda, Thorp, WI Description: This farmhouse gouda is crafted from raw milk by Marieke Penterman, who learned to make cheese in Holland. This is the most authentic gouda made in the US: the sweet and nutty flavor intensifies with age, making it an excellent pair with toasty ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/01/13/cheese-review-marieke-gouda/ Place of purchase: Surdyk’s Title: Porter Cheddar, Ireland Description: Irish Cheddar from Cahill Farm, lightly flavored with Porter. Butter and caramel flavors in finish. Comments: We first had this one at Kevin and Amy's, and like it enough that we picked up some in our cheese outing. We were just as happy with it ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/01/13/cheese-review-porter-cheddar-ireland/ Tiff and I recently did dinner with Kevin and Amy. It was excellent. Tiny chickens are good! In any case, they got us totally addicted to two things: cheese and lambic. Both are highly recommended. ;) In any case, this is just a note that we're planning on ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/01/13/cheesy-reviews/ Where I live (Savage, MN), I don't have much of a choice for high-speed internet other than Mediacom. They are the local cable company.. I don't qualify for DSL, the wifi services in the area don't reach me, and a T1 is just too expensive (and slow!). Unfortunately, they have been ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2008/01/09/why-must-mediacom-be-so-terrible/ Well, the project that I've been working (with a large team) on for the last two months or so at work has finally gone into public beta - check it out at slantly.com. Basically, slantly is a site where you can post an opinion, and other people can either agree or ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2007/12/15/new-site-launched-slantlycom/ I've received a few requests over time about how to manage a Dell PowerVault 660F from Linux hosts, most recently from a nice guy named Robert. He reminded me that I really should post some information on this here, as it can be hard to find. Standard Disclaimer: If you follow ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2007/12/10/powervault-660f-management/ Tiff and I took her brother out to dinner at Fogo de Chao in Minneapolis this weekend. It was great! None of us had been to a churrasco-style restaurant before, so we didn't really know what to expect. The meal starts with a serve-yourself salad bar, which was filled with most ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2007/11/12/fogo-de-chao-yum-yum-yum/ As many of you know, I've recently moved positions at work, and am now the primary systems administrator for an extremely smart group of people who are working on rolling out some new products. Nifty technologies we've been working with: Hadoop Ruby on Rails Amazon EC2 Other cool technologies we've looked at, but are not ... http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2007/11/07/changing-with-the-times/ AT&T (ex-Cingular) has now turned 3g on in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area! What a pleasant surprise after getting the WM6 treatment yesterday. ;) They've made me a happy customer. http://www.natecarlson.com/blog/2007/11/01/att-is-just-rocking-3g-in-minneapolisstpaul/