The Lone Sysadmin

I’m looking for a portable way to boost cell phone signals when I’m in places that I only get a bar or so of reception and can’t maintain a connection. By “portable” I mean I’ve been considering going as far as mounting an inexpensive repeater in my Jeep. ThinkGeek sells a “USB Cellphone Booster” which looks intriguing, and I’ve seen other versions of it specifically for in-car use. Has anybody used one of these? Do they work? They’re out of stock, which is probably a good sign.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Dear Readers,

Has anybody ever had a server get too cold? I’ve seen them get too warm, but there’s very little data about the cold end of things. Can anybody tell me what happens?

I’m mainly talking about servers. We do have some IBM tape drives that don’t like the cold, but that’s understandable. In the cold I’d expect issues with fans, especially the cheap ones with sleeve bearings. What else?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Dear readers,

You folks are full of good ideas, so here’s my latest question. I’m rethinking workflow for my group of 20+ admins, so the customers we interact with have a nice single point of contact and the admins have a good idea of what’s in the queue for work. I’m looking for tools to help us. How we’ve lived this long without something to help us is a real wonder.

The tool needs to be able to accept email and web-based requests. It would be nice if it could have some logic in it so that the customer could help direct who gets the request by choosing the OS and (perceived) priority. It should be fairly lightweight overall. I don’t want to have to slog through a ton of pages to close a ticket, or spend longer on the administrivia than the request took to complete.

There’s the venerable RT. What else is out there that’s cool, easy to use and run, and helps more than it hurts?

:-)

Popularity: 7% [?]

I love asking you folks stuff, mainly because you’re full of good answers. You’ve helped me find bars in San Francisco, portable KVM dongles, and so on. Now I ask for another favor: help my friend Jon find a place to go on a honeymoon (please, get him out of here!) :-)

I think I’ve narrowed it down to a few choices:

* Hamanasi, in Belize
* Tiamo, on South Andros Island in the Bahamas
* Manchebo, on Aruba

I’m still undecided. I need more information, maybe I need more options. Manchebo seems nice, but mainstream, but easiest. Hamanasi has Mayan ruins and other adventures that don’t exist elsewhere, but getting there will likely be a 19-hour multi-hop adventure. Tiamo is less of a flight adventure, has wonderful snorkeling and water, but (maybe this is a positive?) doesn’t have any modern toys.

If you ask me, no modern toys is always a bonus, at least until the time comes when you really want a hot shower and a cold beer.

“I want somewhere green, somewhere nice to the locals, somewhere not a sterile American environment. But, most of all, somewhere with drinks, a beach, and clear blue waters (presumably, for me, on the Caribbean.). Given the nature of the trip, I would prefer somewhere all inclusive so that if we don’t want to care about anything, we don’t have to.”

Any suggestions? I suspect thoughts not involving the Caribbean would be welcomed, too, as long as diving is a possibility.

Popularity: 6% [?]