I’ve discovered collectd, which is a pretty comprehensive logging daemon. I’m using the ping plugin to attempt to get some data on when (and hopefully why) the Internet connection here in the apartments starts being worse than usual. The graphs aren’t incredibly clear, and it’s not as simple as lots of packet loss anymore – even so, TF2/Counter-Strike can be unplayable, especially later at night. I’m pinging the gateway on the other side of the DSL connection, as well as a few servers around the US. I wonder if the spikes later on are what’s causing the problem, but I don’t know if that’s due to more network load from us or in general.
My classes are interesting, but I have enough work that I feel like I’m always behind. I like political science though – questions such as what the role of government is in free speech, or what free speech is fascinate me.