Sorry, it's been awhile since we did this.  I think it took a couple hours for each drive, so the process definitely took some time.  It's best to be done if you can have someone plug a drive in, wait, do the other drive, etc without having to sit around for the whole process.

dudes! you're awesome!!! thank you for posting this. it is EXACTLY what i needed. i am growing a 2x73gb scsi raid1 mirror on CentOs 5.0 to 2x300gb scsi raid1 mirror on a dell 2800. yes, the server is a beast, but oh so durable. never a prob with the hardware at all!

mdadm and resize2fs are totally cool and get around the dell perc gui. i will post back to let you know how i come out. btw, what kind of time did it take you to sync both of the new drives?

I'm thinking about ditching my Subaru WRX.  The main reason?  More space.  I love my WRX; it hasn't let me down (although there are those close to me that feel that my rate of 1 accident/yr since purchase is too high) but there just isn't enough space with our growing family.  A sub-compact care is very cramped with adults in the back seat; and having two car seats back there might be problematic.  The trunk space isn't very good, either.

So while searching for a larger car, I also wanted something more fuel-efficient.  I'm not sure if fuel-efficient is the same as energy-efficient, but that's the best I can do right now on mainstream technologies (no hydrogen-electirc-gas hybrids for now).  I know this means leaving my "high-horsepower low-curb-weight" (car insurance's words) vehicle behind, but I didn't want a little econobox, either.

So research into hybrids that are room lead me to three main choices: the Chevy Mailibu, the Toyota Prius, and the Toyota Camry (the Nissan Altima was eliminated due to not being available in PA).

The Mailibu was eliminated due to it's very weak hybrid system - it can't run off only its electric motors, so it's fuel savings is drastically reduced; to the point of pretty much being useless (especially given the cost difference over non-hybrids).

So that leaves the Toyota Prius and Camry.  While the Prius is definitenly the main contender here, I'm looking into the Camry mainly because it is slightly larger and has higher overall horsepower.  It should make for a more luxourious ride over the Prius as well.  It does have lower EPA MPG estimates (33/34 for the Camry vs ~44 for the Prius) but this is still a significant improvement over my ~25MPG in my WRX.  Since I don't have a commute any more Tiff might become the primary driver of the vehicle which will definitely help compared to her 20MPG Jeep Liberty.

Fitzgerald Toyota in Chambersburg has a fully-loaded Toyota Camry Hybrid coming into stock in about a week that I'm going to go test drive.  With all the options it comes very close to $32k, but I should be able to trade my WRX in for $12-14k and financing the rest at 0% APR shouldn't be a problem.

I'll be speaking at CPOSC this October in Harrisburg, PA.  I will being giving a talk about Mozdev's architecture and history; about how it has grown over time from an all-volunteer effort to my current employment with Mozdev and where Mozdev is going.  I plan to go over some of the architectural changes that have come about through its lifetime and how we've tackled certain challenges.

Registration at CPOSC is limited to 100 people and seats are going quickly.  The conference is being held Sunday, October 19th in Harrisburg, PA; if you're interested in coming I'd recommend signing up soon!

Wow; none of those things are in the correct order.

Going backwards (and the first event of this blog, considering when it started) is the replacement of my living room HTPC.  It's been acting funny for some time (ignoring a lot of IR input) and locked up mid-week last week.  I opened it up to find the north/south-bridge heatsink laying on the bottom of the case.  I fixed that, but I believe damage has already been done as the PS/2 ports no longer function and USB devices only work intermittently (my IR receiver is USB).  Last night I finally ordered a new Socket AM2 motherboard, Athlon X2 CPU, and RAM to replace the internals due to not being able to find a good deal on a socket 939 motherboard to reuse my existing CPU and RAM (look for craigslist items soon!).

The next most-recent thing was setting up a car lift at my father-in-law's place yesterday.  He purchased one at the Carlisle Corvette Show this weekend and I went along to watch the disassembly and help set everything back up.  The thing is pretty slick, and I already know I need to use it to look under my WRX for an hole in the exhaust.  That took the bulk of the afternoon to tear down, transport and assemble, but given it's job I think that's pretty good!

Friday a lot of my camera gear arrived, but I didn't get to play with it until Saturday since we were visiting my parents Friday evening after I helped Tiffany setup her classroom some.  The Nikon D40 is a great little camera that has some great potential.  Most people's reactions have been "too many buttons" while I find the available buttons great and in intuitive places that faciliates quick and easy changes when you need them.  The Canon SD870is showed up and Tiff thinks she'll enjoy using that much more than my S2 is, so hopefully there'll be more pictures with me in them soon!  I also picked up a Kata DR-467 backpack that ended up being a little larger in-person than I had anticipated, but is incredibly light and well-designed.  I'll try to post a better review once I've had a chance to use it in some more situations.  Right now I'm pretty much using my Crumpler 4 Million Dollar Home which is a great bag for an SLR + accessory (flash in my case).  The Canon S2 is should be up on craigslist soon, as well.

Last Thursday Brady and I went for a hike in what I call "North Mountain" (which is actually "Bower Mountain" of the Blue Mountain chain according to the DCNR maps of Tuscarora Forest) on Bower Mtn Road; it was a nice 7ish Mi hike that's relatively flat and has been done a number of times before (one of which is an infamous "pipeline" hike that last well into the night with no flashlights or other ambient light) but was exceptionally dusty this time due to recent roadwork.

I have a doctor's appointment today to renew my allergry meds and have the doctor look at my elbow.  I've had this pain in my left elbow for probably over 1 year and a half now; it seems like it's pressure related; possibly the nerve being pinched.  It's especially problematic when I lean on my elbow (which I do frequently when sitting at my desk) or when I do some prolonged activity like driving for a couple hours.  We'll see what they say.

Our 35/36 week prenatal checkup is this Friday as well as Jocelyn's 18 month well-baby checkup.  She's been relatively cold-free this summer since she hasn't been at day care, but that starts back up tomorrow with school starting.  I imagine she's due for some shots as well, so that might be a "fun" visit.

Tiff and I are looking forward to an evening out after our prenatal appointment on Friday.  We've tried to make sure we go on a "date" once a month since Jocelyn was born, but it typically ends up being 1 1/2 to 2 months.  While we can individually go do things (either with Jocelyn or by ourselves) fairly easily, it's much more difficult for both parents to get away to do things.  Who knows; maybe this is my chance to see The Dark Knight!

Ever since Sam posted his Nikon D50 on Craigslist I've had the bug to get into SLR photography.

I need to justify this somehow; I do it by claiming it's to photograph the new baby since the last photos were poorly lit. Other than indoor photography, I'm also into outdoor photography; so my subjects are typically landscapes or family. My Canon S2 IS is great, but I'd like something that is more sensitive to low-light conditions without flash, has support for indirect flash when needed, a stronger flash for outdoor portraits, and has a wider-angle lens. I'm not going to find that in P&S territory, so DSLR it is.

A lot of the reviews I've read say that the Nikon D40 is a great starter camera (despite others trying to convince me to start with the D70). I'd like something that has a good sensor and is lightweight and it seems to fit the bill well.

At the same time, I need to have something that's convenient to carry, so I plan on getting a Canon SD870IS. This will probably help Tiffany take some more photos too since she's a little intimidated by even my S2 IS; the buttons are laid out very well on this camera and the UI is very intuitive, so I hope it's intimidation factor is quite low.

Additional things I plan on getting to make it easier to get my camera around:

• Kata DR-467 backpack - for carrying my laptop, camera, and camcorder to family functions and my camera on hikes
• Nikon SB-400 Speedlight Flash for bouncing the flash indoors and stronger front-lighting outdoors

I still have my Crumpler 4 Million Dollar Home bag which will be nice for carrying just the SLR around.

I expect my Canon S2 IS to go up on Craigslist shortly after I place this order, get your reservations in now if interested.

Found here (who found it here who found it here).

Great touchpad configuration, very usefull.