Having a disk fill up is a real bummer, for a website, everything grinds to a halt and honestly it can be a little scary. So here's a few tips to help find files that are big and growing.

du is pretty awesome at finding the files listing what is big, unfortunately it took me a long time to figure out how to view the folders totals in a directory without showing the files inside of that directory. So the following command roughly means "du" disk usage "-s" summarize add up the contents of the directories "h" show it in human readable format "/usr/" du -sh /usr/* Shows: 12K /usr/aquota.user 258M /usr/bin 76K /usr/doc 12K /usr/etc 8.0K /usr/games 27M /usr/include

This that helps gt you in the right direction a good command to move to is something like: du -k /usr | sort -n | tail -10 which outputs the files in the top ten big files in the /usr directory.

That's a helpful start, perhaps even faster can be done through, find /usr -size +100k This helps finds files that are bigger than 100k. Sometimes finding the recent files is also a helpful tool for defining what has been changing lately. find /usr -mtime -3

Things that I've found that grow to the point of causing me problems on a Red Hat System that I administer. /var/lib/mysql/ sometimes there are binary log files (bin files) here that grow and grow and grow /var/log/ can also get a little out of hand, but this can ususally be solved by just manually rotating your log files. /usr/ can have session files that don't get freed from the disk until the webserver is restarted, very difficult to find.

I have held off getting a new netbook for quite some time, ever since Matt got a netbook by signing up with the Royal bank, I've been feeling pretty tempted to get one.  They`re like a real computer (not just a smart phone) but they don't burden a person like a full size laptop.  So with the most recent vacation the time arrived, to get one.  After some digging around, I decided to try the eeePC 1001P from staples.  Definitely, not the cheapest netbook in the choice of available models, but it had a few features that I really liked.

1. Splashtop.  8 seconds to being ready to surf the web or talk on skype.  I like that.  Waiting to boot up is a bit of a bummer.
2. Battery life is reportedly quite long.  They advertise 11 hours, but everyone who tests it says that you're more likely to get 7.5-8.  still 8 hours is a ton and I like that feature.
3. New processor and expandable RAM, Atom N450 for the processor and expandable to 2 GB of RAM with a 250 GB hard disk.  Honestly, I have no idea how they do it.
4. Price, this turned out to be less important to me in the end.  I could have gotten something for $250 refurbished from futureshop, but I ended up spending my birthday money to get the eee, largely for the reasons mentioned above.

I've started tinkering already, and I'm working on installing Debian on the system so that I'll be able to dual boot windows 7 and Debian.  Jo appreciates having a windows option for accessing some of the government sites that are built around IE and it's handy to have windows around to do IE testing for work.  I'll post my step by step update once I get the Debian install up and running, just need a little more time!

Somehow I never realized just how far it is to get to Hawaii, so in case your equally challenged, from Vancouver to Honolulu you're looking at a 6 hour flight (or longer if you’ve got a brutal head wind).  Vacations are something I seem to have a love/hate relationship with, I do enjoy visiting new places, I like meeting new people and experiencing new things.  That said it does feel a bit luxurious to fly off, spending a considerable resources to just get away from the everyday.  I think there is a part of me that simply feels that I don't quite deserve it when there are so many people who aren't able to do likewise, and it spends the earths resources at a somewhat ridiculous rate.  How do vacations (to Hawaii) fit in with sustainability and social justice?  What is there to be gained in the traveling to these far off places from those perspectives?

On the other hand, traveling does have some redeeming qualities that need to be acknowledged, it helps a person disconnect themselves from their day-to-day life and gain some perspective on what is happening.  It also provides an opportunity to meet people in a different location and culture and gain a better understanding of them and how they understand the world.  This understanding IS important it helps us to humanize people groups that we could just as easily demonize if we didn't have any first hand experience that helped us to understand their point of view.  Traveling also educates and gives a person common experiences that they can use to build stronger relationships with those that they travel with.  This trip is Joanna and I heading off to spend some time together and to meet up with some friends from Victoria and spend some time away and together.  I hope that this will help me to build a stronger relationship with Jo's friends and make them my friends as well.  So there's the two sides that I see of the coin and part of my struggle with vacations.

And I am looking forward to doing some body surfing, surfing, snorkelling, hiking, spending time in the sun, reading and relaxing.  Time for some fun!!

Originally written on the plane back from our trip!

Friday - Arrival in Waikiki

Anytime I fly out of Vancouver I'm reminded that it is a plnaes,trains and automobiles affair. After working a half day, we drove out to Ryan and Ali's place, got a ride to the ferry, rode the ferry to Tsawassen, bus to the Skytrain station, Skytrain to the airport (I love the express to the skytrain, skytrain to airport, feels like it is as quick as driving, and so much smarter) then finally the plane to Honolulu. WE got in fairly late, and stepped off the place to feel the immediate change in humidity and warmth. The airport experience wasn't completely awesome. As we were walking down to the baggage racks I asked Joanna if she had her passport and we stopped to make sure that she did. She did, ok great. We walked a little farther and headed down the stairs to the baggage claim area. Uh oh, when Jo was looking for her passport she left her book on the table. No biggie, we'll walk back and get it.... No we won't. The airport guard who just watched us walk down 10 of the steps of the stair case, won't let us. He repeatedly tells us we have to get the agent to come up the steps to get the book. sigh... We just about left it and just went, but we got in touch with the Westjet agent, who was indeed able to walk back up find the book and bring it down. So that ended well, but it was a bit of an off-putting start. Anyways, caught the shuttle into town, got to the hotel checked in, hit the local ABC store (how can you not hit one they're everywhere) and picked up some things for a museli breakfast.

Joanna's take: omigosh that book thing was frustrating! I wasn't yet in my relaxed vacation state and the obsurdity of not being able to what back up 10 stairs I just walked down made me feel slightly insane. Jeff, as always, was the picture of calm. The book had been a gift from Auntie Susie and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it on the trip. When Jeff says picked up "some things" at the ABC, he's partly referring to a bottle of Pina Colada which we went back to the room and sipped over ice on our 7th floor porch overlooking a busy Waikiki street.

Saturday - Farmer's Market and Hiking Diamond Head

There's a ton of great info stuffed into these little tourist books that are everywhere in Waikiki. REading through This Week in Oahu, we found a Farmer's Market was happening at the local College Campus near Diamond head. So we buzzed out there on TheBus and walked around. I love farmers markets! Even though it was only going on 10:00 I still felt it was right to eat some roasted corn and a sausage on a bun. Is there ever a bad time for that? The corn was interesting, it had lemon butter and a not-too-spicy chili powder sprinkled on top! WE bought some big avocados and limes, which as it turned out we didn't get to eat and had to leave at the airport. Darn no fruits and vegetables on international flights rules...

Then we quite literally crossed the street and hiked up the Diamond Head crater. Pretty neat hike, I was keen to get up in the air a little bit to get a little bit of perspective on the city. Somehow there is something that I feel like I start to understand from looking at a place from a height that seems to elude me when looking at it on the map. I really enjoyed one fellow who had toted his ukulele to the top look out and played a quick tune on it as a celebration of reaching the summit. Then to the beach and finally to a little Italian restaurant near our hotel, where there was a fellow playing music as we munch through our pizza. We all joined in for a sing-a-long of that classic Hawaiian tune, "For a good time call, 8675309" and collectively discussed how the many prank calls have been made to that number in every area code...

Joanna's take: This was a great first day for our vacation. The weather the first few days was the best if clear, brilliant blue skies is what you're after. To observe this day via beverages, it started with Mango black tea, a delicious iced Kona coffee at the Farmer's Market, several sips of water from fountains that frequently dot the parks and beaches, a glass of beer on the beach before dinner serenaded by a local musician, a small Pina Colada in the room, and finally some watery white wine with our Italian pizza. I love vacation.

Sunday - Swimming, Church on the Beach, Swap-a-meet, Honolulu Festival Parade

Swimming in Waikiki wasn't quite as awesome as I had built it up in my mind to be. The beach while it's sandy on shore turns to rocks/coral chunks almost immediately once you get in the water. (why was I not told?) so going for a swim looks a lot like quickly doing the rock dance until you get to water deep enough to swim in and then going for it. That said the water is very nice and warm. I really appreciated that.

We went to a church service on the beach which was fun and grueling. The heat just kills me at some point, in spite of adequate sunscreen. The service had two good reminders for me. One that worrying really amounts to not truly believing that God loves me. That was a good reminder. Actually that wasn't even part of the sermon, that was the pre-sermon. The second point of learning, escapes me at the moment, which just goes to show that brevity is sometimes very effective, the pre-sermon was maybe 4-5 minutes, the sermon a good 25-35.

Off to the swap-a-meet, which it turns out is quite a long bus ride from Waikiki, took us roughly an hour on the 42 bus to get out to the swap-a-meet. The Swap-A-Meet itself is held surrounding the aloha stadium and has a ton of stalls, fresh fruit, t-shirts, souvenirs, plants, sunglasses, etc. We picked up a few little things for ourselves and some of the peeps back in Canada. One long bus ride back to Waikiki later we were just in time for the Honolulu festival parade ( what timing!) we took up a spot just at the head of the parade opposite the announcers. Marching bands, marching bands, I love marching bands!! Also a LOT of Hula groups. I'm hereby coining the term "destination parade" this is a parade where many participants come from great distances to participate (and have a holiday), this was a destination parade. So many groups from East Asian countries bringing their Hula troops to participate, it was nice to see. Joanna and I did have to laugh after listening to the announcers say "this group is very thankful to be hear and very excited to be fulfilling their lifelong dream of doing the Hula in Hawaii" so many times. It's started a new joke. At any particular experience, you say "Jeff/Joanna is very happy to be here and fulfilling his/her lifelong dream of _________ in Hawaii" where the blank is whatever activity we were doing at the time, ie waiting for the traffic light to turn green in Hawaii. Hmm... it was funnier at the time. Guess you had to be there...

Joanna's take: The real sermon of Sunday morning did remind us that everyone is aware of their death and they're not particularly keen on it. The Pastor was summarizing 6 things that are true about all humanity based on the parable of the rich young ruler. What I took from it is that we shouldn't be shy about sharing God's love and plan because even people who appear to "have it all" in terms of worldly success and riches, are still looking for true meaning to fill their God shaped hole. I was in a bad mood by the time he finished speaking because it took him 40 minutes to give a 10 minute sermon, it was hot, there was an alter call and his tone of voice made me feel like shouting "talk to me like you think I have a brain!!!!!" Anyway, my attitude sucked about that, and I suspect that Pastor has a deep and true relationship with God.

The swap meet was also our only attempt at the local shrimp, fried in butter and seasoning salt. Totally delicious.

Originally written on the plane!

Monday - Snorkeling Hanauma Bay, Alice in 3D

I do like taking the bus. We took it out to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling! It was a bit of a long run but we got there. The bay itself is very beautiful and the snorkeling was pretty good too! We had some great luck and saw some Moorish idols lots of parrot fish and other tropical types as well as an eel (I think it was a moray eel, but I'm not 100%), no turtles unfortunately, but I think we would have had to go to deeper water for that. The reef is very close to the beach (nice) but the water is REALLY shallow (~2 feet in lots of places) which makes it tough to stay off the reef. The effects are pretty obvious, most of the coral is dead, apparently they have a million visitors each year!! Word up, a million people are very hard to keep off the reef.

Back in town, we decided to head out to a movie. After attempting to go to the $1 theatre, which has apparently been closed for years, we ended up at the Ward 16 on Ala Moana Blvd and took in a quarter pound hot dog and Alice in Wonderland in 3D. What a fun show. I liked it, although I do have a bit of penchant for nonsense.

Joanna's take: Gorgeous day. I've never really been snorkeling before. In the first minute I kept thinking, I need to come up for air. That passed but after the first 10 minutes I realized I was clamping down my teeth so hard it was making my jaw sore. Relax. Breath. I also discovered I need to get sunscreen everywhere. There were a few odd little spots missed that seemed quite baffling.

The $1 theatre excursion was quite hilarious. I'm sure the bus driver wondered why the heck we were getting off at the deserted "restaurant row" but the evening worked out beautifully. After the movie, my first 3D experience, we ate at Boca. It's a family style Italian restaurant that I would absolutely go to again. Every menu item is either small or large, for 3 or 6. Great party place I'm sure!

Tuesday - Pearl Harbour, Switching Hotels and the Beach

It just seems wrong to come to Oahu and not go to Pearl Harbour, so we did it. I was thinking the my Uncle Rob would probably love this place. Lots of interesting sites with such heavy historical significance. We visited the main site, watched the film, rode the boat out to the Arizona memorial and went on board the submarine Bowfin. I left the place feeling amazed in a few ways, one, just that it all happened seems amazing, I guess I am so separated from war that it feels just crazy that it actually takes place at all. Not to be cheesy, but I really do hope that people can always look for solutions to conflicts that avoid war. Secondly, it's amazing how quickly animosity has been replaced. The Japanese did the bombing but I didn't notice any feelings of animosity towards them, not in the exhibit itself or in the people there. Third, boy did things line up well for the attack that day, the Japanese really blew up a lot of American equipment.

We got back to the hotel and had to pack up our stuff and head down to the other end of Waikiki, we had decided to split our stay up between two hotels just for a change of pace. The new hotel was down at the Diamond head end of the beach. Turns out the water is equally warm at the new hotel! Perfect, we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and swimming then went out to a Japanese steak house for dinner with Kiersten, John, Nicole and Adam.

On the way back to our hotel we past Yogurtland. 14 different kind of frozen yogurt all for $0.42/ounce. What a heavenly place

Joanna's take: The video at Pearl Harbour was incredible. It seemed like they had a lot of video footage from the actual events. Who had the presence of mind to get out their camera in 1941? I came away from the day feeling that everyone needs to hold in balance the love for their country and their love for humanity. One thing that globalization and the gift of rapid air travel has accomplished, is giving us friends and family the world over. I just finished reading 3 Cups of Tea which largely takes place in Pakistan and Afghanistan. North America needs a few more friends and relatives there to get rid of the dehumanized Muslim form the American war machine is able to whip up support to destroy. They are our new Japan.

It was great to have some friends from Victoria in town! Our new hotel was much more chic with a distinctly Asian flourish. Even the walls were thin like Asian paper. Very noticeable at night with the rifraf outside and early in the morning with the small children across the hall.

I love Yogurtland! I can't wait to go back!

Wednesday - Surfing, St Patrick's Day, Chinatown, Block Party

We were going to rent a car and do the North Shore with Kiersten and co. but it turned out that there wasn't any rentals available (should have planned ahead a day) so we decided we would try our hand at surfing... Hoo boy, that was a tough morning. Joanna, got beat up on the coral and I ended up ride my board into the reef and damaging the nose.... Let's just leave it at that. There's lot's of people surfing at Waikiki but I think next time I'll just boogie board. We decided our all day surf rental was over at noon.

Luckily, that's when the St Patrick's Day parade started. We watched from our favorite restaurant in Waikiki , Lulu's (the only one (outside of Yogurtland) to get a repeat visit). Had a good lunch and watched the green and orange walk by. We bussed it down to Chinatown, seems we timed it a little badly as by 5pm most of Chinatown was closed for the day, but we did manage to find a bead store that was still open and Joanna made a few deals there. We stumbled into a Filipino restaurant for dinner, which turned out to be ultra salty fare. Dear Filipino's is all your food so salty?

Then the blessing of the IRish must have been upon us as we walked up the block to an outdoor block party. Woohoo, Dueling Rakes started the evening with a little Irish music and the Elephant brought out the sing-a-long rock tunes (as well as some of their own!) it was awesome! A lot of fun to get a chance to dance around outside to some great music!

Joanna's take: The live music was definitely the highlight of this day. I haven't been to an outdoor, live concert since Pemberton (I think) and it was a real treat to have a Bud, listen to the bands and watch the people. All types of people come out to that type of thing. There were a few young moms with babies, older couples in their 60s, and everything else in between. I'm also thankful to be out of the meat market. Many young girls dressed to impress, or at least get attention, were bouncing around. There's an emptiness hidden within the fun. I simply got to enjoy the music.

I really liked Lulus. I really disliked the Filipino restaurant. The latter did have a juke box however and we were treated to everything from Maria Carey's Sweet Fantasy to a soulful Jesus loves me. Eclectic.

On the way back from the concert we snagged out first Express bus. Note to us: find the Express bus routes at the beginning of a trip. They are much faster! It got us back in time to hit Yogurtland again. Yum.

Thursday - North Shore, Pineapples and Waimea Bay and the Coast

Got up early, we rented a convertible! Mustang Convertible, thank you aeroplan miles! We headed up to the Dole Plantation in time to arrive just before it opened. We paid the big dollar to ride the little train around the plantation. Which served to remind me that, I'll probably not be growing pineapple any time soon. 18 months to first fruit. Sheesh! It really makes me feel like a chump about begrudging $6 for a pineapple at home.

We buzzed up to Waimea Bay and beyond to grab some food from the local grocery store. Hurray the local grocer. I love seeing what is on the shelves in far off places. We picked up some edible souvenirs and some lunch then headed to Sunset beach to watch the surfers for a bit. Pretty chopped up surf, but they were still getting some reasonable rides. Then we headed back to Waimea Bay for a swim. I love Waimea Bay. I'm sure everyone says that. It was really nice. The waves were fun but not huge (thankfully) so we did a bit of body surfing and beach reading.

We headed back to Hale'wii to check out the market, I got one dynomite snow cone and we heard the Artis family band. That was cool, a family of folks playing funky music in a studio at the side of the market. I like!

We have a convertible we have to take the long way home. So we drove the East Coast, it was great awesomely steep cliffs covered in green. Back into town, we parked around the aqua palms and spa and then proceeded to walk nearly all the way back to our hotel to find some dinner with Kiersten and co. Then... Yogurtland!

Joanna's take: Definitely a highlight of the trip. I've never driven a convertible any considerable distance so this was a real treat. Blaring the heat and the tunes over the Oahu coast with the wind in my hair was exhilarating.

I enjoyed learning a bit about Pineapples. They're best if the eyes on the outside are uniform and large, the bottom is not brown and the fruit is firm all over. So much for the one trick I had which was to yank on the sprigs protruding from the top! The weather was coolest in the morning so the Dole experience was a little chilly but overall worth it. It's good to see where our food comes from. 3 pineapples from each plant over 42 months means this fruit, originally from Paraguay, is an absolute treat!

Our lunch was probably one of the best we had due to it's simplicity and the deliciousness of the guacamole and bread. The town we visited after Waimea beach reminded me of Tofino. I could live there but a quick look at a real estate shop displayed regular homes at around $800,000+.

Friday - Goodbye Oahu, Mahalo!

Today, has been a simple day, get up go swimming in the ocean, pack up head to the airport, say Goodbye to our avocados (see Saturday) and now we're on the plane!

Joanna's take: Fastest plane ride ever. I felt like we had been in flight for about 2 hours when we started our decent. I finished 3 cups of tea, the book not the real thing - airplane bathrooms are too awkward to get to - had a short nap, typed and bit and whammo we were home! I love coming into Vancouver. I had been up at 4am due to the loud wailing of a man in the street, which somehow Jeff slept through, and went downstairs to the lobby. I called Fairmont and was able to book us at the Fairmont Airport using a complimentary coupon I had. Talk about convenient!

To sum up, it was a lovely, warm, relaxing, tropical vacation. I would definitely go to Hawaii again, though we should try to hit up some other countries first. I enjoyed the cleanness of the water and streets, and the simplicity of English as the primary language. Camping would most certainly be an option in Oahu. And now, onto the adventure of our regular lives....

Joanna had picked up this book a couple years ago and given it a read, and on our recent vacation I decided that this would be my fiction book for the trip. It was an intriguing book. The book tells the story of an autistic boy trying to solve the case of a dead dog he found in his yard. Through the mystery you begin to get a better look into who he is, and who the rest of his family is. In the end, the dog ends up becoming kind of a detail and the interactions between the people in the boys life become the interesting part of the book. And interesting it is. The relationships as seen through the lens of the autistic boy take on a simple and straight forward flavour that is refreshing.

I didn't notice until nearly the end of the book but a LOT/ALL of sentences start with the words "And then" which does really give the book a style which I in the end suppose is autistic.

I do want think that I understand autism a bit better than I did when I started reading the book. Without really knowing too many people with autism and none of them that well, it is hard to say whether the insights are accurate. But it feels like I may have a slightly better understanding of autism.

I would recommend this book to others. It held my interest and in hindsight seems like it was both entertaining and enlightening.

This was the other book that I managed to plow most of the way through and then finish off on arriving home. It was an interesting read all about the changing way of the world, given the decreasing cost of working together and increased communication. The book looks at how people are using the web and using it well to do things that were previous to the web and social tools on the web impossible.

I feel like the central theme was this idea that we've made it easier and easier for people to contribute to various projects on line and as a function of that there are a) a lot of neat things that catch on and then acquire enough participants to do something useful, with most of the particpants putting in a little bit of effort and a few dedicated folks who are really giving it. Clay walks through a few examples of this that are pretty well known, digg, wikipedia, flickr where people can contribute a very little bit to the project given the appropriate tools and together make something that is really pretty awesome.

As a participant in a few of these systems it is pretty interesting to have someone do a deconstructive work on the social and technological systems that are at play in these new systems and start to personally get a better understanding.

A FEW of the topics that Clay picks up and runs with.

• It is way easier to find and form groups then it used to be. Wierd little groups can and (now) will for around any topic that you can think of largely because the interested people can find each other!
• The power law seems to rule the online world. There is always a few people who are very committed and contribute a LOT to any project and then a LOT of other people who drop by and contribute a little. Obviously the tools need to make this possible and in the end often it is the collection of small contributions that end up making the bulk of the work.
• In order to avoid the "tragedy of the commons" the tools need to make it far easier for the active members of any community to protect the good stuff that is being built then it is to destroy/vandalise it
• Transactional Costs are so much lower on the internet with many people contributing a little often for free that the cost of organizing or even trying to organize things are hardly possibe/worth it (developing a system of organization and then trying to communicate that system to all the particpants) so the tools need to make it very easy for people to organize things and then... it's best to just go for it!

I left this book feeling like it was time for an ordained mission that I should start working on, using where appropriate all the tools that the book had highlighted. So I guess that means that book was educational enough to be inspirational. Not sure the author was going to inspirational... but there you go. Now to find the time and energy to get out there and get involved Ah the constant challenge.

The book hosts a good mix of anecdotal and applied theory for helping describe these social phenomenon that are getting to be the new norm. For anyone who is going to be working or developing a site online I would recommend reading this book.