Life’s rough — I’m not complaining, I guess it’s just common sense at some point that life gets rough.

Sooner or later, you’re going to come up against a brick wall. You can try to move it all you want, but the best you’re going to do is take a few chunks out of it here or there.

What you want to avoid is having that brick wall collapse on you. So I guess what I’ve learned over the past few days is that sometimes walking away with the things you need in tact, and the ability to continue to do the things you feel are important — walking away with that is almost like winning. Hell, it’s better than losing.

Life - in the end - isn’t about winning and losing, it’s about what you do with the time you have. As long as you can continue to do those things you love to do, or be with those you care about, then who really gives a shit?

It’s 4-30 on a Thursday afternoon (I’m a night owl you know), but I’ve been up all day getting ready for Old Vinnie’s birthday and running errands - so I’ve had a lot of time to think about ‘crap’ in general. After all that ‘thinking’, I’m reassured of my decision — keep the things that actually matter, and to hell with the rest.

Let me hear you scream like you want it.
Let me hear you yell like you mean it.

If you’re gonna go down,
– go loud,
– go strong,
– go proud,
– go on,
– go hard, or go home.

Let me hear you scream.

Summer 2010 - “Scream” debuted to my utter blissful praise. It’s a great album. It’s very ‘Ozzy’ in character, and a suitable followup to “Black Rain”. ‘Life Won’t Wait’ and ‘Fearless’ are truly classic tracks, although you can hear a bit of what I’m thinking is Auto-Tune in the background… I’d almost rather hear Ozzy sound harsh and a little shitty… I respect someone with as much time doing what he does best, and would not hold the pitfalls of age against him at all. I realize, however, that he is committed to putting out killer quality studio albums, and if he feels he needs Auto-Tune than so be it. His live vocals are still stellar though, just wish he’d realize it.

http://www.ozzy.com

I don’t do this for fame, not for you.  I do this for me.It soothes my soul and keeps my sanity.

I’ll only be here for today, puttin my misery on display.

… your lips, your breath up against my skin.

I don’t know any other way, and I’ll be gone by the break of day; puttin my misery on display.

– Gary Allan.

 Got on my dead man suit, my smilin’ skull ring,

my graveyard boots, and a song to sing.

I got a song to sing; it keeps me outa’ the cold.

I’ll meet you down further on up the road.

One sunny morning, we’ll rise I pray,

and I’ll meet you again further on up the road.

I been out in the desert, doin’ my time,

searching through the dust for something I don’t know…

– Johnny Cash.

 I don’t wanna live in yesterday, cross my heart until I die.

Don’t wanna know just what tomorrow may bring, because today has just begun.

No-matter whatever else I’ve done, I’m here for you.

– Ozzy Osbourne.

 My heroes have always been cowboys, and they still are it seems.

Sadly in search of and one step behind of themselves and their slow movin’ dreams.

Cowboys are specials with their own brand of misery; they could die from the cold in the arms of a nightmare knowin’ well that their best days are gone.

Old worn our saddles and old worn out memories with no-one and no place to stay.

My heroes have always been cowboys, and they still are it seems.

– Willie Nelson.

fieldgate_dm3_reporter is an open-source GPL’d utility, written in pure Python (version 2.5 or greater required), compatible with Linux / Unix / Windows / etc. etc… that allows you to gather data from existing MySQL databases, and export it via email (SMTP) in XML format to an Endress-Hauser Supply Gate DM3 server.

Until now, most persons were faced with duplicating their data gathering… one set of sensors for their internal storage or device monitoring (whether it be inventory, levels, temperatures, whatever…) and one set for reporting to their supplier via E&H’s DM3 servers.  Or, in the least, 2 sets of transmitters, or an RTU (real time unit) attached to their existing sensor array(s).

Now, provided your telemetry is stored in tidy MySQL databases (as it should be if you’re using mod_openopc and S.E.E.R. to automate your operations!!) you can snapshot the current database values and export them to E&H’s servers… all in software.

Once you’ve setup the program (via the ‘options.opt’ global settings file), you can simply call it as a scheduled task (via Cron in Linux or Task Scheduler in Windows), every few hours, or every few minutes (whatever you desire).

You can download the latest tarball here… http://download.spinellicreations.com/fieldgate_dm3_reporter 

So after 6 months of rebuilding, System and Environment Effective Reports has sprung back to life.  Internally, it’s live in Active Production, running 24-7, and doing wonderfully (I’d stand for nothing less).  Publicly, the active subversion snapshot as of May 24th, 2010 is offered as a Pre-Release.  It’s stable, tested, and modularly complete.

You can download the Pre-Release here… http://download.spinellicreations.com/seer/

Docs are included, however, they’re sparse as of date;  global and local options are stashed in the ‘./config’ subdirectory, and must be edited for both the system and the individual System Models.  Each model will also have its own global and local options files.

Primarily that’s the reason why it’s not called a full Public Release — the full User Documentation has not been written yet.

Be advised, if you’re using S.E.E.R. and mod_openopc to perform a significant amount of I/O or comm, then you’ll need a suitably robust server to run it on.  mod_openopc / S.E.E.R. system requirements are as follows…

ABSOLUTE MINIMUM -

– Architecture - i386

– Host Operating System - Red Hat Linux (or variant) v. 5-2 / Fedora 7 Moonshine 32-bit

– Guest / OPC Operating System - Windows XP Pro SP2 32-bit

– Processor -  2.0 – 2.2 GHz AMD Athlon Thunderbird / Barton or 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Single Core
– Memory - 2 GB DDR PC3200 400 MHz
– Disk Space - depends on the size of your database (how much data you wish to store). Plan on no less than 1 GB per machine per year of retention, at an absolute minimum. Your mileage will vary greatly. (1,000 tags yields about 3 gigs per month - again, this is all relative).

SUGGESTED PLATFORM -

– Architecture - x86_64

(note: this is for the host OS, your OPC Server should reside on a dedicated 32- bit machine, or in a 32-bit virtual machine within your host OS. This is for OPC Automation compatibility assurance).

– Host Operating System - Red Hat Linux (or variant) v. 5-4 / Fedora Core 11 Leonidas 64-bit

– Guest / OPC Operating System - Windows Server 2003 R2 32-bit

– Processor - 2 each – AMD Opteron 3rd Generation Barcelona Quad Core @ 2 GHz or better.

– Memory - 32 GB DDR – 800 Mhz ECC Registered Server Memory

– Disk Space - depends on the size of your database (see above).

– Virtual Machine - at this time, we are recommending Sun Virtual Box, as VMWare Virtual Server is no longer supported under newer Linux / Unix releases due to new glibc builds and the decision by VMWare to phase out Virtual Server Free Edition. Sun Virtual Box is easier / faster / and ultimately better suited anyway (in our experience)… and it is also freeware.