Master and server

The server that handles the Daily News blogs was ailing yesterday. The blogs themselves were up, but all processes required to actually post to those blogs were not running.

The point: Server reliability, robustness and security is paramount. All that is made harder when the server is involved in Web-intensive applications that require the running of CGI and ASP scripts -- basically small programs -- in addition to the basic feed of data over the Internet. I sound like I know what I'm talking about, but really I'm just stabbing in the dark and working from the experience I have.

The next point: You learn by doing. Getting your hands dirty with technology, Trying to make it work and do what you want it to do is the best way -- and for me the only way -- to get a handle on computers, gadgets and how to keep them ticking.

That's why ... wait for it ... the next 10 blog entries (all backed up from yesterday), including this one, are all being made with Firefox on Ubuntu Linux, running from the CD drive in a Dell Optiplex GX 520. It's running like a ... clock. Just ticking away. I've got the entries saved on a USB thumb drive (a freebie in the mail -- thanks Hyatt Hotels & Resorts for 128 MB of storage).