We are reaching that time when the radio-active isotopes from Fukushima start to wash up on the beaches of the west coast, and as it happens those of us between Portland and Vancouver will get the brunt of it.

I can’t help but wonder if it isn’t more than coincidence that the US Government has passed legislation to make death records unavailable to the public.

They claim it is to prevent fraud, but any fraud that it would prevent isn’t new.  What is new is that we’ll probably see a gradual creeping up of the rates of leukemia and other bone cancers as we take radioactive cesium into our bodies through the food chain.

I don’t know how big of a problem this will be in reality as information that is available on the Internet is totally wild ranging from there will be no effect to it will be the end of humanity.  I think the most likely scenario is somewhere in-between.

I don’t own a Geiger-counter and they’ve gotten quite expensive lately so I’m not likely to own one in the near future.  But that seems to be the only reliable way to get a handle on what we’re actually being exposed to.

It doesn’t seem like we’re going to get honest information from our government.

If you get an e-mail telling you that your password will expire in 3 Days or some such, it is not from us, it is a phishing scam trying to get your login credentials here.

We do not use password aging here.  On sites that do use it, I tend to choose bad passwords since I’ve got to think them up on the spot and have them be something memorable, and I think that is the case for most people, others probably write them down where other people can get them.

For Mac users, Chicken VNC is another way you can get a remote desktop from our server on your computer allowing you to use graphical applications here.

Instructions for connecting are at: http://www.eskimo.com/shell/visual/chicken.html.

X2Go provides a remote desktop from our server on your computer.

X2Go is a replacement for NX which is based upon the NX 3.5 libraries. X2Go includes support for sound (though on a Windows system I tested it on, it tended to stutter).

Unlike other NX clients, X2Go doesn’t require installing a key. Setup is extremely easy on Linux.

On Windows it requires Ming X-server and installs it as part of the installation process.

On MacOS, it requires XQuartz which you must install.  It is reported to work under Leopard and Snow Leopard but does seem to work under Lion where it has key mapping issues similar to OpenNX.

X2Go setup instructions are at http://www.eskimo.com/shell/visual/x2go.html.

We will have to reboot and image all the machines Saturday morning just after midnight.

There will be about a 15 minute downtime of everything and then individual services will go down for 15-20 minutes.  I’m hoping a two hour window will be enough time to complete everything but if not, we may need more time Sunday morning.

The reboot is necessary to load the latest Linux kernel, and the images to capture the machines in their current state in case one needs to be restored.

OpenNX is another NX client that can be used to access our graphical user interface and get a full Gnome or KDE desktop from our server on your computer.

Please see: http://www.eskimo.com/shell/visual/opennx.html

Tonight’s maintenance activity is complete.

No machine has taken 3.5 client off of their website.  The 4.0 client can be made to work, although the setup is somewhat less obvious.

I’ve created a new web page for the 4.0 client.  If you would like to take advantage of our graphical applications and get a full Gnome Desktop from our server on your computer, please see:

http://www.eskimo.com/shell/visual/nx40.html

Tonights maintenance didn’t go entirely smooth.  Machines are having problem syncing time with ntp and ntpdate when they come up.  It’s a flaky intermittent weirdness that is difficult to troubleshoot.

As a consequence I didn’t get the backup of the web server done, so I’m going to do that Sunday morning shortly after midnight.

I also will be available after approximately 11am Saturday morning owing to how long this took and how late I’m getting to bed (which will be just after this post).

Because of the work I will be doing late Friday and early Saturday, I’m going to sleep in a little later Friday morning, I should be here by around 11AM.  If you call and don’t get an answer, please leave a message with your name, login, telephone number, and the nature of your call and I will return your call as soon as I am up and alive.

You can also e-mail support@eskimo.com.