my half-arsed attempt at blogging
Archive for July, 2008
Dell Order Checking: via cron
Jul 31st
Ok. So let’s start off with a fairly obvious statement. I’m indolent. And I can write scripts. This is a dangerous, nay, perilous pairing…
So, with this existing laptop really getting on my nerves, and the lack of email coming from Dell regarding the new ‘un I ordered, I thought I’d tidy up some diff-scripts used $ELSEWHERE, and re-appropriate for quick-and-dirty order-tracking.
Fairly simple: fetch a web-page, in this case the order page (which is accesssible with the order number & email address used for the order), compare it with an existing copy (should it exist), and mail specified addresses when/if there are changes. Do this whenever (@hourly works fine for me), and forget about website visiting.
Bingo.
So, erm, just in case anyone else wants it (yes, the licensing blurb is probably about the same length as the code itself, i dunno why I bother, but maybe someone’s got some hints/tips/comments…), ‘dell-order-status‘ (it’s a tidied up version of the one I’m actually using, so i may need a nudge to update the web-version if I change the one in use)
OS Updates
Jul 30th
Dontcha just hate doing them?
Particularly when there’s the whole big fun of package updates, and it taking about six iterations of the various tools to get things up and running properly again?
Ach well. Mainly done now. Urfgh.
Shame about freebsd-update(8) not wanting to play ball: my guess is that the SINGLE SERVER was over-loaded.
