Friday: This is why I need more robots

I was sitting at work, and went to check my email (which lives at home).  The terminal connected there didn't respond at all, making me think that the network connection at home had dropped.  However, I could ping my ip address correctly, and the cable status said that everything was working fine.

The nice thing:  the webcam/raspberry pi/security bot kept making the scheduled hourly image tweets when it detected that my phone was gone (which enables security mode) and that my laptop wasn't responding (due to the wireless being down).  This led to the diagnosis that the dvr/mailbox/rss database server/storage box/wireless router had crashed.  That sucks, as it runs a bunch of things.

The panic moment:  an hour or so after the big computer crashed, the hourly image tweets stopped showing up.  I think this happened because it hit the daily "save security images to the backup disk attached to the big box" part of the script.  Since that's a NFS mounted partition, it hung until the disk became available again.

So the obvious improvements:   First, the pi needs to check to see if the big box is up, and monitor its status as well.  Second, it would probably be a good idea to move the webcam back and up, so it checks the front door, but also can see the computers as well.  That way I can verify that there aren't any major (fire) issues.  Third, it'd be nice to wire up a reset switch to connect to the pi's IO ports.  That way, if it loses contact with the big box, it can attempt to reboot it.  Since those are both connected to the wired internal network, that doesn't have to be concerned with wireless interference.

• I noticed that in the wording as well.  Basically, there's no limit until 2015, and whatever we have borrowed until March 2015 becomes the new limit, unless prior action is taken.  This makes it a fixed date issue, not a fixed money issue.
• This article is dumb, because the argument is basically, "google is mean for not installing their fiber in poor neighborhoods," but the author never brings up the obvious solution that fiber is infrastructure, and infrastructure should be built and supplied by the government, so people aren't subject to the profits of a company.
• "Rectify its coverage"? That's pretty much how you know you're trying to run a dictatorship.  And no, this is a different situation from the previous argument.  Venezuela nationalized their oil production, but although they have a sovereign wealth fund (basically the good way to manage resource based money), it's not a very...good?  Transparency of 1, been in operation for 15 years and has less than a billion dollars?  Look at Norway.  Complete opposite.  Especially since Norway produces like half of what Venezuela does.  The point is, nationalization makes sense for some things, but you then also have to not run a country where you say things like the press needs to "rectify its coverage."
• That list doesn't mention Honolulu, but it seems it's already playing here.  Next weekend it opens at the theater next to sushi, so I'm probably going to wait until then.
• Professor Oak.