Back-to-earth

* Finally finished my tax and accounting filings for last year, so that's something off my mind. If I had been making vault-fuls of cash I would have been more into it, but I made so little outside my salary that the effort put into it was really not worth it. Anyway that's behind us now.
* On the news side, the first version of the Naviblog service prototype (version 0.3) is nearly ready (so we're still at the v0.2 stage), and I'm now working on the maps required to display the positioning info. It's the last link in the chain and with that, we'll be able to start wheeling and dealing with the big boys... Well, that said, it's still an early beta version (which means it doesn't have much functionality and hardly stands up straight), but it's one small step for man, one giant leap from what we had before. (ie. nothing)
* Reading up now on how we can set up our server environment as a "cluster" of computers, giving our future users a high-availability service at a minimum of cost. In this scenario/model, various low-end computers help share their computer resources across the board so that when one server machine can't take the load, another machine takes up the slack. But reading an informed piece on the subject threw a lot of cold water on my lukewarm dream of setting it up asap:
"How can you make sure that a cluster experience is successful? One good way is to walk into the cluster-building project with open eyes and realistic expectations, knowing the why, what, and how of the project. Before you start, have a good reason for building the cluster (why), understand the integration of the required hardware and software components (what), and apply good design and planning practices (how) that can minimize issues with your cluster.
We must avoid what I call pile o' hardware syndrome—the mistaken belief that buying all of the necessary components for a cluster and piling them on the floor in the computer room will spontaneously and miraculously generate a functional cluster. Hope is not a strategy." - Robert Lucke, Informit.com
* Mmm, time to play catch-up... (again)