Chris Alley
Engineering notes, systems architecture, hardware reverse engineering, storage arrays (Dell EqualLogic), and vintage project archives.
Featured Tech Support & Storage
View all →PS6100 semi-catastrophic failure
A drive failed, at 4:00 on a Friday (2 weeks ago)ā¦ Then at about 11 that night, the rebuild failed. I thought it was the end of the world; especially since weār...
MS nixes the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility
If youāve ever seen the error: āThe feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailableā, youāve probably had to use the Windows Installe...
Delete Old IIS Logs
I did some digging for a quick script to delete old IIS logs for a web host that uses IIS. Yes, there are some web hosts that use IISā¦ but not too many that STI...
Dead Phone
That pile of parts is what a 3ft drop to concrete will get you and your HTC-8525ā¦ I dropped my phoneā¦ Good news, i suppose, is that the screen is fine. But does...
Hardware & DIY Projects
View all →Arduino
If anyone was wondering where I disappeared to for the last few daysā¦ I got an Arduino for christmas. This web based thermometer was an easy start, but I need s...
Wiring Fail
Another wonderful surprise as we progress with our closet project. Who needs wire caps, insulation or electrical tape? Not our houseās previous ownerā¦ He just s...
Deck Project
Google SketchUp of our deck project… Getting started… Taking down the old crappy cover Pulling old planks… Two Thirds Done… 40ft of ...
Latest Articles & Commentary
Browse complete archive →Never assume no one reads the comments in your code
So, a few years back a client of mine was very excited about their recent uptick in web traffic, though it wasnāt very clear why. The client had just finished a...
The Day We Fight Back
Regardless what you think of Edward Snowden, his actions illustrate one thing clearly: The data collected by the NSA is rife with potential for abuse. No matter...
The Bieber Algorithm
So I had to reverse engineer some software we use at the office the other day. It uses a hash to store its current users in a table, and we needed a way to moni...
Equallogic Command Line
Well, we had another failure late last month. The rebuild went fineā¦ and quickly since I had another disk on hand. That disk was supposed to be replace the othe...
EqualLogic with a questionable drive
Wellā¦ last month we had one drive completely fail, which is what these arrays are supposed to protect against. However, when this happened, there were enough ba...
PS6100 semi-catastrophic failure
A drive failed, at 4:00 on a Friday (2 weeks ago)ā¦ Then at about 11 that night, the rebuild failed. I thought it was the end of the world; especially since weār...