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Yooman rights? Yooman rights! I don't need no yooman rights! I ain't foreign and I ain't done nuffink wrong.

Michael "Teachers are the Enemies of Promise" Gove is going to give us a nice British Bill of Rights instead. They did promise to stop their supporters voting for Nigel and the bigots. Nigel didn't resign after all.

And Gove is going to be working with Theresa May, who will be pushing through the Snoopers Charter.

And the kickings are about to begin.

Here in Blighty, we're having a General Election on Thursday 7th May.

This time around, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party has conceded that it will probably lose votes to UKIP.

Oh dear.

Last night was amazing.

You know those moments where you really connect with someone else? When you see them in a new light and everything is great? My wife and I had one of those moments last night.

It was a beautiful evening that felt like summer. My wife had the day off, and had picked up some burgers, beer, and wine for dinner. We started talking about our life, the future, poly, and kids. It was a truly happy moment for me. We imagine a future where my wife can go traveling with someone who likes traveling more than me while I stay home looking after the kids. We talk about opening our own business (a recurring dream we have had for years and years). I told her that I feel like my life is just starting.

Our one year wedding anniversary is coming up pretty soon. We talked about how our relationship was before we got married versus after, and it seems like we were different people then. Much more immature. Much worse communication. Less connection. It's amazing what can change in a year.

My other relationship is progressing very well too. We saw each other again last weekend, and had a great time again. I'm seeing her again on Thursday (for our 4th date). There is a definitely a spark there, and I feel that there is a very good chance that we will have sex that night - my first new sexual partner in over 12 years.

I am happy and loving life. It's been a long time since I've felt this happy.

-- Snow

So...

Shortly after my last entry, I met a girl on Tinder. We met for drinks and and ended up chatting for a few hours. She is also poly and has a couple other partners. She's very smart and opinionated. We had a great time and arranged to meet again.

Last night, we met again for dinner at a fancy restaurant. She showed up in a super sexy dress and I couldn't take my eyes off her. We had another great time and are planning on seeing each other again this weekend. I can't wait!

Admittedly, it was pretty weird to be all fired up from a great date and then coming home to my wife. We cuddled in bed like we always do, but my mind was racing thinking about my date. It kinda felt wrong. My wife there with her head rested on my chest while I think about my date with the other girl.

I don't know what else to say, as things are still really new. New Relationship Energy (NRE) is intoxifying. Its something I haven't felt for over a decade, and I'm really excited by it! More updates to come. Hopefully good ones!

-- Snow

I have been long impressed with Soylentils. We have forked the beast, beat the dead horse, spanked the monkey, and did something to llamas. So now it think it would be a good time to keep track of our contributions to internet culture. As some are aware, these are usually referred to as memes. I believe the term derives from Mimesis, an ability to copy. As such, many things on Soylent news are copies of earlier Slashdotisms.

Here are some examples:

In soviet russia

I, for one, welcome . . . . overlords!

Frost Piss!

(and this one needs to die)

What I am looking for are memes unique to Soylent News, such as that we are made of people, or referring to members as Soylentils, which just sounds so nutritious and healthy. One other example I am aware of the the term "soyled" as a replacement for "slashdotted". Not sure if we actually have this ability, but it is something worth pursuing. Any other memes, trends, recurring expressions, whatever, that are unique to Soylent News? Soylent minds want to know!

Oft times such things are inadvertent. Just yesterday we had a Fine Article that ended up saying that failure to vaccinate dogs lead to many of them parishing from global worming. OK, that may not stick.

Personalities? We have our own ---I will not name names, but everyone knows who they are. The most nortorious gewg_, the slightly less nortorius and more whining _Anti_gewg_!! And of course. . . no, I said I would not name names, and I only named these two because they are not names, only names posted under AC posts, which could be, and probably are, only me.

So chip in! The sooner we identify memes. the sooner they die! Wait, that is not my intent! I want them to live! Live like quotes from "The Princess Bride" or references to "Firefly" or "Serentity", or anything Monty Pythonesque, and possibly mandatorially XKCD. This is what culture is made of, this is what we are, and we need some way to bring the less culturally sophisticated up to speed, besides ridicule and mod-bombing (if such a thing actually exists). What are the uniquely Soylentilish turns of phrase, a Soylent reference, a Soylental dismissal? I will try to keep a record, so that in the distant future, they will know that we were Soylent, and we were mighty!

It's been roughly 3 months since my last entry, so I figured it's time for another update...

My wife and I have spent a lot of time over the last few months reading everything about non-monogamy that we could get our hands on. It's been pretty great actually because prior to that, we hadn't really read the same books before. I had earlier done a review of 'Opening Up', and that book really only scratched the surface of the whole poly thing. I have since read 'More Than Two', 'The Polyamorists Next Door' (which focuses more on poly with kids), and have recently started 'The Ethical Slut'.

These books go into much more detail on the actual workings of a poly relationship. Things like time management, being poly with kids, and dealing with stigma. It's been great to read the books, and then discuss them with my wife to see where we stand.

While both my wife and I have been addicted to learning all about poly, we still have no practical experience. It's all just theory at this point in time. We really just want something to happen.

I've been continuing my online search for women, with abysmal results. I've been trying to improve my look, with some success, but its had a negligible difference as far as the dating scene is concerned. It's honestly been very, very depressing for me, as mentioned in my previous journal entry. I've spent many, many hours viewing profiles and trying to think of good messages to send. 80% of them don't even respond, and 19% do respond but it doesn't go anywhere. I acknowledge that I am looking for a very, very specific person and so the odds are already stacked against me, but it's really hard not to take it personally.

Some days are worse than others (of course) and on the bad days when I'm moping around the house, my wife has been amazingly supportive and tries to pick me up. Without her, I would be dangerously depressed. I could go into a rant about online dating and the imbalance of power between the sexes, but I'll save that for another day.

I'm really all about equality in a relationship, and as such, my wife has the exact same liberties that I do. I would never have one set of rules for me, and another set of rules for her - she is also free to pursue extra relationships, and it's something that I would like to see her do. Thankfully for my sanity, she is not interested in pursuing on her own right now. She wants to see how things go with me first. If she was actively looking, I think it would pretty hard to see men lined up around the block while I get nothing but crickets. As I read more about polyamory, I realize that this is a pretty common problem for men.

In other news, my wife has had her IUD taken out and we have been doing natural birth control planning for the last couple months. Talking about a Baby or Poly has basically been the focus of our life for the last year. Lots, and lots of talk and theory, but nothing real yet, which is frustrating us both. We are both just really anxious for something to happen, and when it does, I'll post it here.

-- Snow

Irritable Duncan "Trust-me-I-know-what-I'm doing" Syndrome reckons that, when he and the rest of the Conservative Party are re-elected in this May's General Election, he'll make £12 billion (US$17.8 billion) of welfare cuts but he won't tell us before the election what these cuts will be, Allegedly, it's "Not relevant."

There aren't that many poor, sick, disabled and needy left un-kicked, but it's highly amusing that thousands of people in one of the world's most highly-developed countries are having to resort to food banks.

Goodness only knows how much worse it will get if the loony right UKIP get some seats. Anyone but an imbecile can see that they'd vote with the Conservatives on many issues or even form a coalition.

So hurry up and vote Tory to keep the hopeless, sneering socialists down.

God save the Queen etc.

Hello, fellow Soylentils! Please come into my journal, as we prepare to discuss the pertinent issues of our times.

Two issues: Toxic posters. As much as I love Ethanol_Fueled, his charm, such as it is, wears of rather quickly. But he is a prince compared to gweg_troll, the single (if that)-minded racist who is oh so concerned about all rational people modding him down because he is, in fact, indubitubly, a racist. But there is still worse, my fellow Soylentils, MikeeUSA, the wanna be rapist of children, really need to be, well, exiled from our community. I suggest multiple SPAM mods, IP banning, and &*%*%$#$($@%#$^$&*/.

Part of what makes the internet such a tool for progressive politics is that it allows the recidivists to come out and state their positions. Yes, the fact that African Americans commit more crime per capita proves, well, that correlation is not causation. Poor people commit more crime, and African Americans tend to be in that demographic. Gee! I wonder why? See, it's %*^*^%&$&%s racism that creates the conditions that confirm racism. Boy, are you racists stupid! Ever read (excuse me for accusing you of being literate) Huck Finn? Jim was better man that any of you wannabe crackers could ever be.

Second, (notice I actually skipped Eth? That is because he is asleep on a mattress of dubious provenance right now) I want to see MikeeUSA on the Sex Offender Registry, because if he is not already on it, he definitely will be soon. This is one seriously sick person, one of those that cannot be cured by any know psychotherapy or time behind bars. So we, and the rest of the internet, need to find him, identify him to the authorities, and have him put into protective custody. I do not make this demand lightly, I know that Mighty Buzzard and others will defend personal rights to a point, but not to this point. The Bible says, "Blessed are the peace-makers". Never does it say, "blessed are the perverted pedofiles who quote the Old Testament". See?

So there is my "nice" journal, discussing pleasant topic which all might engage at their leisure. And we will just have to accept that modding has a clear "reality" bias, because, as Stephan Colbert put it,"reality has a clear liberal bias". So, as the great! Philosopher Hegel said, "reality's bias is just reality, so it's not a bias at all."

The recent poll topic and my current project got me thinking about what kinds of (perhaps to some, seemingly ancient) storage technologies people still actually USE, say, on a daily basis?

I'm currently rotating out some old SCSI disks from my servers as a matter of routine maintenance but, get this, replacing them with the same make and model of disk drive after more than a DECADE of operation. :)

About 17 years ago, I was already using SCSI disks for most of my important or high-performance personal and server duties. Some Quantum Atlas 2GB and a few Seagate 4GB and 9.1GB Barracudas were already in the "stable" of disks (remember, this was a time where SCSI disks were still extremely expensive and most of mine were bought second-hand) and I had the opportunity to purchase still-sealed 10-pack boxes of factory-refurbished Seagate ST19171WC for a reasonable price that were surplus EMC Corp. warranty-exchange disks, so I picked up four or five boxes.

I've been using these for all my important server system disks ever since. Since they were refurbished, I've always used Jörg Schilling's excellent (but certainly old-school) sformat utility to do my own LLF and a full 14-pass read/write verify (pattern test with C6DEC6DE/6DB6DB6D/00000000/FFFFFFFF/AAAAAAAA/55555555/4A536368) before I put them in operation. I've (knock-on-wood) yet to have a single one of them that passed that test fail in actual operation. I've had a few out of that lot NOT pass the test and be shelved, and a couple more that passed but made funny noises or something so never got used. Maybe three or four, perhaps five have been bad out of the box so far? I've also sold a few of these fully tested ones over the years to people for ciritical things like POS system server disks, etc. It looks like I still have two more un-opened boxes of them left. :)

That was, or is turning out to be, a lifetime-buy. I'm pretty sure I'm as stocked-up as I'll ever need to be on 9.1GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM SCSI disks. :)

I just ran out of ones I had tested the last time I tested a batch, (in 2002 for goodness sakes,) so I pulled the last five out of the currently open box and they're just finishing up testing now (it takes the better part of a day, and these are disks that are so small you can read or write the whole disk in about 12 minutes). Each one gets put into a DEC Storageworks BA350 "canister", tested thoroughly using sformat, then labelled with the disk model number, sequence (these next three will be ST19171WC numbers 24-26,) and serial number then it's ready to be put into service.

Why am I still using such ancient disks, you ask? Because they're SO DAMN RELIABLE!

Check out this SMART data from one of the ones I'm rotating out of active service:

Device: SEAGATE SX19171W Version: 9D32
Serial number: LA504199
Device type: disk
Local Time is: Thu Mar 12 00:15:45 2015 MDT
Device supports SMART and is Enabled
Temperature Warning Disabled or Not Supported
SMART Health Status: OK
Elements in grown defect list: 0
Vendor (Seagate) cache information
    Blocks sent to initiator = 663,190,551
    Blocks received from initiator = 4,197,805,002
    Blocks read from cache and sent to initiator = 74,883,847
    Number of read and write commands whose size <= segment size = 427,411,568
    Number of read and write commands whose size > segment size = 74,334
Vendor (Seagate/Hitachi) factory information
    number of hours powered up = 121,022.40
    number of minutes until next internal SMART test = 80

Error counter log:
  Errors corrected by ECC (fast): 42,800 (read); 0 (write)
  Errors corrected by ECC (delayed): 65 (read); 0 (write)
  Errors corrected by re-read/writes: 56 (read); 0 (write)
  Total errors corrected: 42,921 (read); 714 (write)
  Total correction algorithm invocations: 51,869 (read); 1,387(write)
  Total uncorrected errors: 17 (read); 3 (write)
  Gigabytes processed: 3,124,939.477 (read); 2,149.276 (write)

Non-medium error count: 0
Device does not support Self Test logging

Yes, you read that right.... 121,022.40h of pretty much contunuous operation (!) AND still going strong... AND this is in a server!

This drive only had a few thousand hours on it when I got it and it was a fairly early one to be put into operation, so almost 14 years of continuous operation!

Now, in my humble opinion, that's downright impressive. :)

That drive was even one that was moved with the system powered on and running from one server room in one building to another server room in another building when we moved offices so I wouldn't ruin my >1000 day server uptime... It was only offline from the internet for about 20 minutes. :)

At about 3am, those (I think there were three) servers and StorageWorks disk racks were un-racked, loaded onto a trolley cart, along with a big UPS then unplugged from the internet, wheeled to the elevator, down to the van, loaded up, driven over to the new office, unloaded onto the trolley, wheeled to the elevator, up to the new server room, plugged into the waiting switch port and the command run to re-route those IPs to that leased line from the other. Only then were they re-racked at the new location... All with the power applied, though I think I did spin down all except the running system disks for the actual van ride but this one is one of the system boot disks.

Ahh, the fun we self-administered-network System Operators have when we go to ridiculous lengths to out-do even ourselves. :)

THAT'S why all my important boxen still have an old Adaptec, Tekram or QLogic SCSI card in them, even if it's in the lone PCI slot they still put on a motherboard these days, and a good ol' DEC StorageWorks disk rack attached to them (where I can easily plug in one of my tape drives, etc. too, very handy, those old StorageWorks BA350 beasts.) They may be alongside 12 x 2.0TB SATA drives in RAID arrays providing most of the actual storage, but the boot disks, the logs, the home directories, my personal files and important stuff? Still somewhere on some spinning rust on an "obsolete" parallel-SCSI disk. They're awfully slow by today's standards but still plenty quick for many applications, especially when you stripe across several disks.

The majority of them are those 9.1GB Barracudas but I'm also still running some 72.8GB Cheetahs, some 36.4GB Fujitsu 10Ks and a few really old 4GB, 2GB and I even just noticed I still have a vintage DEC RZ26L with the FreeBSD ports tree and /usr/obj on it in one of the racks for one of the backup mail servers. LOL, that one is a 1GB, probably a Quantum drive assembly and FAR too old to have SMART capabilities so I have no idea of the number of hours on it. LOTS! It deserves to be retired and put on a shelf with all my <GB CDC WRENs and 2-3GB Seagate Elites (5.25" Full-Height SCSI space-heaters for those of you who don't know what those are,) or perhaps encased in lucite and enshrined or something.

Well, these next three disks are on pass 13 of 14 in the verify cycle so I'll conclude this session of Vintage-Tech-Memory-Lane and get ready to move some disks.

If you have similar stories of ancient storage technology still in regular use, please share below!

Begun, this grand experiment is. We have had some whose feefees were hurt by moderation, which is strange, since moderation should be by definition moderate, or at least moderating. But maybe we have the opposite effect occurring. Not to say that the extreme views are prevailing, but the noise to signal ratio seems to be increasing. I must confess, bear with me here, that I actually used the "disagree" mod, to disagree with someone objecting to the "disagree" mod. Perverse, yes. Uncalled for? I think not! Mod me the same if you disagree!

But all this belies the dysfunctional state of debate (or the more polite term, discourse) in America. Yes, I specify America, as in the United States of, because of the rank corruption of political discourse by the one percent, combined with a uniquely American anti-intellectualism that discounts scholarship, research, learning, schools, teachers, and basically anything that requires some effort to understand. Americans are lazy. Unfortunately, they have added scared to the repertoire. But I assume that Soylent News includes more than cowardly Americans who have to run of to former Russian Colonies.

So, topic of the day: Faith. Do you believe that free and unfettered argument will get us all closer to the actual truth? Or do you reject the same because of the possibility that your position will lose the debate?