Wesley's Tool-Box - News:Tool-Box

Wesley on TV: SBS Live Today

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:16:00 +0900

Well, there you have it, folks. I was on national TV for about 10 minutes on 'SBS Live Today' show, in the segment named 'Today People' which came at the last part of the show. Television watchers catching the show live could see it at around 6:10 PM, Korea Standard Time, November 26, 2008. It's so good to know that a more recent footage of myself is recorded in the archives of television broadcast.

Yikes! Downtime

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:16:28 +0900

One week I leave the server let roam free, it goes down in 8 hours. Heh...
Sorry for all those of you who tried to access the website this week. I've gotten it running again now.

Transition is complete

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:00:00 +0900

I have relieved the old G4 Mac mini of its Tool-Box.info web server functions for the final time on 7PM, July 10, 2008, as all my websites have finished transitioning to iMac. The Mac mini faithfully served as the server for Tool-Box.info for 1100 days - just over 3 years.

Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever owned a system lasting that long fully intact in my 20 years of computing life. Emphasis on 'owned', since some systems that I gave away to other people have lasted longer. The things I keep around rarely last over a year. One big exception was this Altec Lansing speaker set that I kept around for 9 years until iMac's internal speakers made it unnecessary. Anyway, the Mac mini was originally bought to be modified into a portable system. But in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't butcher it as a part of my ongoing experiment with small form factor computers. I might have moved back to Windows world after tinkering with it for a couple of months if that happened.

Instead, the system served me well as a solid desktop Mac platform - it took me a while to get accustomed to the Mac way of things, but once I cleared the entry barrier, I found more interesting things to do with it, especially because OS X is a UNIX. Using a Mac became part of my life and Mac mini was no longer just some compact computer to toy around with - it became my primary system. It became my web server.

It had an excellent run throughout all these times, and I hope it will find new purposes (or perhaps a new owner) eventually, since it's working fine just as ever.

Server transition nearly complete

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:08:29 +0900

The recently acquired 24-inch iMac system will be the new server for future hosting of Tool-Box.info website. The site has seen significant back-end updates (I think the comment function is un-broken now, for example) with the transition. However, I'm not willing to completely turn things over just yet.

Therefore, iMac will be connected on XiGL.net line for the time being while final testing is done. Old site on Mac mini will still be on Tool-Box.info line, but it will not be updated. All new entries will be put on the new server as of July 9, 2008. The testing is in progress if you're looking at this entry and are at XiGL.net instead of Tool-Box.info.

Image uploading works now, apparently.

One of the things that didn't quite work was the image uploading part. After about 3 hours of struggling, it seems to be functioning correctly. Hopefully, this will be the last show-stopper.

Server connection may move today

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:03:43 +0900

Internet connection linking the Tool-Box.info server may relocate later today.
I'll be attempting to move the server physically accordingly, so please excuse the downtime.

Moving to new home

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:06:00 +0900

I got a new house to live in a bit south of where I'm currently living in. Since I use two internet connections, one of them was relocated to the new house. Sadly, the place does not yet get FTTH service, so I'm reverted to VDSL Lite speed of relatively slow 12Mbps down / 4Mbps up. That'll have to do for now, but a call to ISP may be in order for boosting speed...

Anyways, it seems that the disconnecting of that line disrupted the line connecting to the webserver as well, at least temporarily. The DNS updater stopped working in the meanwhile, so the website experienced unintended downtime. That was weird, but I got around to fixing it.

The Toon-Box may be on a hiatus for a couple of days because the computer I work on to create it is offline, pending relocation. That means xigl.net website is offline as well. Hopefully, all will go well and I should have stuff back online before the week is over.

System maintenance of sorts

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 07:23:55 +0900

I'm tinkering with my work computer (the other Mac mini) right now, so I can't access the tool I use to make The Toon-Box today. Hopefully, I'll be able to resume tomorrow.

WesleyC.com moved to Tool-Box.info

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 23:18:49 +0900

As the 5-year hosting contract for WesleyC.com with Netsvill has come to an end, I have set up Wesley's Tool-Box website to be able to connect from both Tool-Box.info and WesleyC.com domains. By doing so, the Pyongyang Metro website will continue to be accessible from the old WesleyC.com URL, making the transition completely seamless, while enabling any attempts to connect to any other URL for WesleyC.com to come to the front page of Tool-Box.info instead of a 404 page or a redirect.

Whaddaya know, it's Friday the 13th

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 12:44:52 +0900

When you least expect it...

Calendar rolls around, and it's yet another Friday the 13th time. So far the weather has been splendid, a sputtering spring shower from the sky contaminated with yellow dust from - who else? - China has been gracing the field for a while. My throat hurts a bit for no particular reason. And I don't think I'll be able to get much work done today.

At least I get to see a Cirque de Soleil performance (Quidam) tomorrow with my lovely girlfriend. Hope it'll cancel out any bad voodoo I get today.

Oh, and I HATE SPAM. I've been clearing out a gutload of spamblock log from my server. 500MB? Unbelievable. So spam somewhere else, losers.

False ad, or pragmatic compromise?

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:16:00 +0900

Hot on the heels of last week's Hanaro line upgrade, the KT line got the boost as well yesterday. This means that both lines are now on FTTH, getting maximum 100Mbps on each direction. Curiously, both links share the same UTP cable up to my room, then 4 of the lines are pulled for KT link, while the other 4 remaining serve Hanaro link. Because the Hanaro FTTH line installation was already done, the KT servicemen simply worked on the existing line in my room.

This has an interesting consequence, however. Read on.
Continue reading "False ad, or pragmatic compromise?"

Hanaro line is back up

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:59:23 +0900

The technicians just finished fixing the line problem and went out. Instead of bringing in a new modem, they did an entire overhaul of the line, replacing VDSL with FTTH (Fiber To The Home). It's getting about 95Mbps on both up and downlink. To do this, they connected my server to Hanaro's router installed for the apartment complex directly with CAT5 UTP cable, instead of using the phone line, then using a modem like VDSL did.

Maybe I should contact KT about upgrading their VDSL connection to my room with FTTH as well. Oh, and I'll be hiking up another mountain this weekend with my GF... so no Toon-Box in the weekend.

Modem broke down

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:38:51 +0900

Tool-Box.info is connected through a Hanaro Telecom line, but apparently the modem decided to stop working from about six hours ago. HT has verified that the line itself is clean, so it will dispatch a technician tomorrow afternoon. Therefore I've temporarily rerouted the connection to my other line, which is provided by KT. This line is used by xigl.net, but since that's lower priority than Tool-Box.info, xigl.net will temporarily redirect to tool-box.info:81 until the issues are resolved.

The Toon-Box will take a break

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 13:54:09 +0900

I'm off to other worlds in this long Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) holidays, so I won't be updating The Toon-Box for the next two weeks or so. Hang in there!

XiGL.net is now open

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Tue, 30 May 2006 10:36:00 +0900

XiGL.net, a companion site to Tool-Box.info, is now open for business. The name is supposed to rhyme with 'jiggle'. It's an experimental site made purely with Apple iWeb. Because of the highly integrated nature of this tool with iPhoto, which I use to manage my vast pool of photos, I might be maintaining a photo gallery on that website instead of here. I just had the basic pages set up, so go take a look.

The Toon-Box will be suspended for some time

wesley96@gmail.com (Wesley) — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 23:20:35 +0900

Due to personal circumstances, The Toon-Box series will be on a hiatus for now. I hope to come back soon.