Work has begun in earnest on release 2 of pkenagy.com.  I figured since the site has remained basically unchanged in 8 years, it was probably about time for a significant redesign.  All input is welcome, if most likely ignored.  It looks like the hardware is all up and working, and should be ready for beta testing soon.  Just in case you managed to forget my rambling paragraph from a few weeks ago on this subject, let me recap briefly for you.  The new webserver is a Linksys NSLU2, attached to an external 250 gig Seagate drive.  After a detailed perusal of the NSLU2 description, I’m sure you are saying right at this very moment, “But that’s not a webserver, it’s a NAS!!!”  Ahhhhh, but that’s where the REAL fun begins.  You go to this site and download their “unslung” firmware, follow their not-so-simple instructions, and presto, you’ve got a webserver that fits in the palm of your hand.  Flashing that new firmware was the hard part… “Hmmmm, should I really take my spiffy new $200 toys and render them useless the first day I have them?”  Yes, yes I should.  All went well luckily, and so far I’ve managed to get to the point of a working webserver with PHP support, an FTP server, with SSH access to the server.  Perl/CGI support isn’t going so well, still working on that.  I would guess a Windows box set up to run these same services could be up and running in about 20 minutes and 3 or 4 clicks of a mouse; I probably spent the better part of my weekend trying to get them working on this little thing.  I probably learned more Linux in the past three days than the past three years.  Fun stuff man.  As soon as I can weasel Ed into making me a PHP template for the site, it should progress rapidly.

So, anyway, what did we do last weekend?  Friday I was kind of sick, so I stayed home and slept.  At some point I woke up and started working on the web site described in tedious detail above, and that went on well into the night.  Thus ended Friday.

Saturday I got up early and again started cipherin’ away on my new site.  Never should have got started on it; It pretty much wasted my whole day.  But it was nasty weather out anyway, so I didn’t miss out on much I figure.  Around 5:00 or so we headed south to Peculiar, and had some pizza at Mom’s house.  My youngest niece was in town so we had to get a visit in.  She’s up and walking around, screaming unintelligible 1-year-old stuff, and eating pizza!  We visited for a few hours, and then went to the Plaza for Ed’s birthday party.  I should probably interject a rather sad situation that occurred at said birthday party.  I made a reference to the passing of the great Buck Owens, and not one single person in attendance knew who I was talking about.  One youngster even asked “Is that the guy Bob Huggins replaced?”  Sigh.  So I clarified my statement with “No, Buck Owens, from Hee Haw!!!”  Again, blank stares.  Granted, I don’t imagine any of them were born during the Hee Haw days, but I thought EVERYBODY recognized Buck Owens as an American icon.  Just a little commentary on the state of the youth today.  What can ya’ do.  Anyway…

Sunday, I again started hacking away on my new webserver, but then the weather started getting nice so I turned it off before I wasted another entire day on it.  I took Gabe over to the neighbor’s house for a “play day” with his dog, while I did a little Spring tuneup on my mower.  I got the lawn mowed and knocked out a few other mundane household chores, and then met Todd down at the Brooksider to watch the afternoon basketball games.  I am pleased to say I am still (somehow) leading my bracket, despite the untimely demise of Connecticut.  After basketball, Todd and Susan came over and we made pizza and watched the Sopranos.  This may, however, have been the last of the “Soprano Sunday” parties.  I simply cannot take another lame episode.  Somebody better get whacked, and I mean soon.