post: journal entry week beginning 25 November 2024

docs/posts/2024/november/25.md

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+---
+title: Making use of Black Friday
+date: 2024-11-25
+authors:
+  - practicalli
+categories:
+  - practicalli
+tags:
+  - clojure
+---
+
+
+Black Friday as a concept is confusing as it no longer has anything to do with a specific Friday and currently seems to cover at least 2 weeks of promotions.  I did get some good prices even before Black Friday actually started.
+
+[Adventures with SSD and NAS Versions](#nas) kept me busy over the weekend, resurrecting an older NAS unit with Solid State Drives for a very quiet media storage device.
+
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+
+## NAS
+
+Resurected a Thecus N3200 Pro Network Attached Storage (NAS) unit and learned some new Linux commands and more about NFS along the way.
+
+The Thecus N3200 was previously used as storage for an Linux entertainment system powered by ..., connected to a normal TV.  The Thecus had 3 x 3.5" hard drives which gave up to 4TB if used in a RAID 5 configuration.   The NAS was bought many many years ago so not the fastest by a long way, but it was fast enough to stream music and video from.
+
+There was some noise from the 3 hard drives it supported, although it was only heard when not playing something. The fan in the Thecus NAS was fairly quite, so the theory was that with SSD drives then the NAS should be very quite indeed.
+
+I bought 3 SSD drives to create a RAID 5 array in the Thecus NAS.  I found the [fanxiang 2TB SSD SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5″ drives](https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/page/FE43E2DD-6E3C-4C69-AA45-BEBBC94A81C5?ref_=ast_bln) were at a reasonable price on Smile.amazon.co.uk.  These SSD's had good reviews and it will be interesting to see how well they last.
+
+The fanxiang SSD are 2.5" size, so a [SABRENT 2.5" to 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Adapter Converter mounting Frame](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00UN550AC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title) was used to fit them into the Thecus Nas.
+
+The Thecus NAS provides clip-in rails to fit the drives into the drive bay, with a thumbscrew on each rail to securely fit the drive without need for a tool (other than your finger and thumb).
+
+Using the Web console, it was very simple to create a RAID 5 array, although it did take more than a day to build the RAID 5 array, with all the parity checking.
+
+!!! INFO "RAID 5 used as reliability of disks is an unknown"
+
+Once the RAID array was build, then there was a handy utility to create a shared folder which could be exposed via NFS, allowing me to write and read files from the NAS.
+
+!!! NOTE "Create local directory for NFS share mount point"
+    ```shell
+    mkdir /media/Entertainment
+    ```
+
+As the Thecus N3200 Pro is quite old, there hasnt been a firmware upgrade in quite some time.  Therefore the NAS only had NFS version 3 (NFS 4 is not common).  This did prevent me from connecting with the usual NFS share commands.  I found that adding the `vers=3` (or its alias `nfsvers=3`) as an nfs mount option made it all work nicely.
+
+!!! NOTE "Define mount points for NFS shares"
+    ```config title="/etc/fstab"
+    nas:/raid0/data/Ents    /media/Entertainment     nfs    defaults,user,noauto,nfsvers=3,rsize=8192,wsize=8192,timeo=14,intr
+    ```
+
+Any changes to the `/etc/fstab` file should be reloaded using the `systemctl daemon-reload` command
+
+!!! NOTE "Reload fstab mount points"
+    ```shell
+    systemctl daemon-reload
+    ```
+
+In nautilus file explorer the mount points are shown, so clicking on them I could start adding my files and backing up my laptops.
+
+
+
+## Book List
+
+I have time to read and reread some of the physical books before I dispatch them to one of the book buying companies for a second chance at life.
+
+- The Goal - Goldratt
+- Its Not Luck - Goldratt
+- The Mythical Man Month (20th anniversary edition) - Fred Brooks
+- Death March
+- Agile Retrospectives (there is a 2nd edition to read)
+
+
+Career progression
+
+If you believe you are ready and everyone already considers you at the next level, then it should be trivial to convey to management that a promotion is due.
+
+A bragging document is a self-organised history of achievements during work.  The primary purpose is to identify if there are gaps that could be addressed that would prevent a promotion.
+
+## Retrospective notes
+
+Every team and every individual has the potential to enhance how they work
+
+Potential
+Purpose
+Goal
+
+Dont have to improve constantly, but a continual review of the situation (situational awareness) is important for growth
+
+
+Data points
+- automated processes
+  - are they causing a constraint
+  - do we understand how they work
+  - are there optimisations that could be made
+- testing
+  - is the test run time a constraint / blocker
+  - can tests be continually run (watch for changes in specific tests or logical parts of the code base)
+  - does test run time deter tests from always running
+
+- was the current work more or less challenging than expected ()  - careful this doents get into a time aspect
+
+
+
+What we did well / should do more of
+- what makes us successful already
+- what helps us build on more success
+
+What didnt work so well / should do less of or stop
+- what slows us down or prevents success
+- do we know why we are doing these things (motivation / drivers)
+
+
+
+---
+Thank you.
+
+[:globe_with_meridians: Practical.li Website](https://practical.li){target=_blank .md-button}
+
+[:fontawesome-brands-github: Practical.li GitHub Org](https://github.com/practicalli){target=_blank .md-button}
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+
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