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Slowly taking form again. OK, form is there, noz waiting for content.
2008-05-28 ^:
Weather - -
It's been raining all night but it does stop at sunrise. While the clouds are never far away it does stay dry (9°C ^_^ 28°C)
Self - -
I don't usually post YouTubes but I like this one.
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-27 ^:
Weather - -
Soft rain has been coming down all night and it doesn't look like stopping. (9°C ^_^ 28°C)
Self - -
Finally, at the end of the month I put the correct calendar up. On the blog-top anyway, I'll do the index-calendar later.
That's the problem with quick cut-n-paste jobs, copy a month, change the title and everything is OK. Not.
News - -
The arms race will never be finished but it's another shields up against crackers.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/26/microsoft_hp_sql_injection_tools/ )
- -
Opening doors to creativity but I doubt there will be many fancy names popping up and coming in regular use. Oh, I can see Microsoft going for the .MS while Google picks up .BLOG and some. I don't see Russia dropping the ..RU more likely it's keeping that and adding the Cyrillic version.
Anyway, good to see some action at ICANN.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/26/icann_approves_customized_top_level_domains/ )
- -
When is two months late equal to early? Yep. Virtualisation takes hold of deadlines as well.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/26/hyper_v_microsoft_hypervisor/ )
- -
Every body know that Vista is not a success. Most people claim it's to much of a resource hog. But if you notice that Intel isn't picking it up you realise the power requirements aren't the only thing working against Vista. Surely Intel has enough performance in house to run it.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/26/intel_says_no_to_vista/ )
- -
Planetary billiards. Probably not the last theory about Mars but a reasonable one to explain the North-South difference.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/26/mars_impact_crater/ )
(Mail Remarks about words)
2008-06-26 ^:
Weather - -
Nice thunderstorm in the morning. Well, actually not much storm about it, just some leisurely rain and a few lazy rolling thunders. Of course after rain comes sunshine and soon its hot and humid. Sweltering. (9°C ^_^ 28°C)
Wurk - -
Error here, error there. The problem finally is that we got an order (entered by client) for over 600 Billion units to be put on a single truck. Now admittedly the units are small, there fit about 100.000 units on a pallet.. But that is still an unfull lot of pallets to fit.
The error is only noticed because each pallet needs a label and people expected just 10 labels but the printer didn't stop after 10. So our programs must be in error.
News - -
The police, your friend.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/23/police_photographer_stops/ )
- -
Fighting for jobs is becoming expensive.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/25/ibm_north_carolina_data_center/ )
- -
Going green on Power supplies. Dell is the first to go for an efficiency label here. I think even better efficiency could be had by dropping the voltage on motherboards. Most chips are dropping to well below the 3V rate in order to keep consumption and heat down, yet the mobo still wants 5 and 12V input. That means you actually have two independent powerconverters; one stepping from 240V down to 12V (PSU) and another stepping down from 12V to 3V (or 2V or anything else). There is a loss on every conversion.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/25/dell_80_plus_gold_power_supply/ )
- -
Yes licencing is a problem for cloud computing.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/25/att_cloud_computing_dirty_secret/ )
But a probably bigger problem holding back the clouds is that most people, even the advocates, see clouds as big collections of servers. They see the cloud from a computing consumer point of view. A real cloud should, I think, should be seen as a more open P2P style thing, more distributed than concentrated. More investment should go in fast and safe communication links rather than in big server farms. What makes the internet strong is that there is no real single point of failure that can take it all down. If you build a cloud in a big centralised "data center" your cloud can go down with a plain single event. Building a dispersed cloud would mean it keeps being available even when something goes wrong in one or a couple of places.
(Oh, with "single incidence" I am not thinking about terrorism, people's pet security topic. Nope. Most new big data centers are being build in places with cheap and if possible naturally (Green you know) power. But most of those places are not safe. The best place for wind-generators is on coastlines, also known as tsunami areas. Geothermal power is cheap, but usually in some volcanic active area. etc. )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-25 ^:
Weather - -
Nice thunderstorm in the morning. Well, actually not much storm about it, just some leisurely rain and a few lazy rolling thunders. Of course after rain comes sunshine and soon its hot and humid. Sweltering. (9°C ^_^ 28°C)
News - -
So XP is going down as planned. With a slightly extended OEM life.
( http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/06/24/xp_vista_windows_roadmap/ )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-24 ^:
Weather - -
It is getting rather hot around here. (9°C ^_^ 29°C)
News - -
Few companies use Notes as a database for critical information. It's more used as a repository for all the handy and important but hard to organise stuff. And email. so to most it looks like an easy to replace tool.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/24/salesforce_notes_migrations/ )
- -
Going core-crazy. Though for SUN that's not crazy, it's just going on in the direction they have been going for years already. And while going over a dual core is a bit pointless for a normal desktop box on the server side it's not pointless at all. Whether it's going to boost SUN up to a higher level though is doubtful.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/23/sun_niagara_k2/ )
- -
Pirate Bay is really taking on the Swedish Government. SLL and encryption are not unbreakable but if everything is sealed the plain snooping that the government wants to do will be rather difficult.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/23/the_pirate_bay_ssl/ )
- -
Using old chips has its distractions. Time to upgrade your swipe-card systems. Notice that the design is just over 10 years old. Now imagine an ID system with embedded RF chips. That needs to be upgraded every ten years. Auch.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/23/dutch_clone_oyster_card/ )
- -
Maybe Microsoft should buy Rackable. Well it sounds all positive but I doubt many of the current rackable customers will like the idea of MS being at the helm. An other point missed is that if MS buys it will send a signal to the likes of IBM, Acer and the other Dells that they need to refine their offerings.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/20/microsoft_rackable_buy/ )
- -
I remember the old trick of putting Linux on a boot able floppy. Getting it to run off a USB stick is neat and this new Mandriva version looks very good as well, not a limited system here.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/20/mandriva_spring_flash/ )
- -
Guilty untill proved unguilty. Yes, that's how the RIAA wants the system to work. And that's how it will work eventually. In a silent world.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080623-mpaa-actual-p2p-distribution-often-impossible-to-prove.html )
- -
(Remarks about words)
2008-05-23 ^:
Weather - -
Warm and humid. And not very comforatble. (9°C ^_^ 25°C)
Self - -
Half day off. But I got the same amount of work to finish. :sigh:
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-20 ^:
Weather - -
This time the morning looks bright and summery. (8°C ^_^ 22°C)
- -
More info about the AMD low-power chip. I get the idea that AMD is not aiming at the ultra portable market. Well it would work well enough for EeePC style notebooks and desk tops but for iPhone sized devices it's not suited.. But with the memory controller integrated and especially the hyperTransport bus it clearly is more computer-oriented then the others. I can see it as a good candidate for file and storage servers for networks or other servers that don't need massive computing resources. It also would fit well in thin clients and small desk tops where the low power aspect is interesting to run fan-less.
Another point to consider is that, if the assumption Ars puts forward that it's basically a standard scaled down Athlon is true, it might be easily up-clockable. It also could become a precursor for low-power high performance items. If it is just a slightly modified Athlon I can imagine a dual or quad core version. Say a quad-core ship at around 30W and a new market opens.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080619-amd-may-be-planning-its-own-cpu-to-compete-with-nano-atom.html )
News - -
Whatever sells.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/19/dell_energy_smart_dig/ )
- -
Bitkeeper loses another big player. Maybe time to reconsider the way it works
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/19/mysql_dumps_bitkeeper/ )
- -
Screw it. EeePC desktop seems to be dropping Linux. Well, not exactly dropping but Windows moves to first place, getting in the win-by-default position again. Without that it would probably dwingle so now I wonder how much MS is investing in it, I don't think it pays Asus but it might well give out XP for free.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/19/eee_box_uk_date/ )
- -
Synchronising their new generation launch, the new AMD and nVidea cards come out about the same time. The result will be that the previous top range cards will drop in price like shooting stars.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/19/amd_launches_next_get_gpu/ )
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/16/gtx_200_series_gpu_launch/ )
- -
Programmers corner. For Apple programmers.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/19/cocoa_frame/ )
- -
The difference between making-available and distribution is very fine. But important.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080619-profs-tell-thomas-judge-making-available-isnt-distribution.html )
And the RIAA is dropping suits all over the place and changing topic wherever they can.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080618-dishonesty-and-a-missing-pc-riaa-dropping-umg-v-lindor.html )
Looks like they are not comfortable.(Remarks about words)
2008-06-19 ^:
Weather - -
It looks more like autumn than summer. What with low grey clouds and a sharp almost cold wind. But the clouds do lift and break up. (7°C ^_^ 22°C)
- -
I always preferred SuSE even though it wasn't always the easiest distro around. The new 11 sounds good.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/18/open_suse_11_review/ )
- -
More Linux. It's interesting to note that people are not just begging MS to keep old systems (XP) on life-support. With Linux old systems already had a longer life cycle than the MS stuff, now they are getting an extension as well.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/18/red_hat_summit_2008_rhel_roadmap/ )
- -
Sun pops up on the HPC scene again. After a long absence.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/18/sun_constellation_small/ )
- -
IBM stays top dog in the HPC game though. And HPC "game" is the right term here, cause it gets at the top with a games processor.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/18/ibm_roadrunner_top500/ )
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080618-game-and-pc-hardware-combo-tops-supercomputer-list.html )
- -
On the one hand we see graphics chips being used to run calculations out of the graphics field. On the other hand we find FPGAs helping out with calculating.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/18/xtremedata_xd200i/ )
- -
Finally we get some more news about AMDs answer to Atom. But if it doesn't provide a huge performance advantage it's not going to be a success. It consumes more than the Intel part and that is already at the high end for small devices.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/18/amd_bobcat_details/ )
- -
At the same time it's rolling it's three and four core beasties around.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/18/review_amd_phenom_x3_x4/ )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-18 ^:
Weather - -
I's almost as clear a day as yesterday. Almost. (8°C ^_^ 21°C)
News - -
EeePC, growing up and speeding up a bit as well. Yep the 901 has hits the test bench.
One of the interesting points is that the brand new Atom isn't faster than good old (aged) Celeron M. Well, not on a clock by clock comparison. It is much more power efficient, that's right. And it clocks higher so you do get better performance.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/17/review_eee_pc_901/ )
- -
I mentioned the nVidea Tesla yesterday,. Today AMD puts its Firestorm beside it. There doesn't sound to be much difference in the game, doesn't it?
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/17/amd_firestream_9250/ )
- -
Meanwhile games stuff is growing out of the game boxes. Not that you are likely to find a discrete Sell based graphics card soon. But it certainly wants to play in the same ATI / nVidea market.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/17/toshiba_rebrands_spursengibe/ )
- -
Turning the EeePC into a games box? Not really and yet. The main point is that you don't have to sit beside the power box that drives the game. So if you run a dual quadcore box with 16GB or ram and 6 high speed disks you are likely having an array of fans running. You can put that jet-engine beating noise box in a separate room and play the game in a quiet environment.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/17/crysis_on_eee_pc/ )
- -
Gay or straight? It's all in the brain.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/17/amygdala_research/ )
- -
Energy storage is probably more important than energy generation.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080617-energy-storage-to-smooth-green-power-sources.html )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-17 ^:
Weather - -
Good morning sunshine. Good morning bird song. (7°C ^_^ 22°C)
News - -
So, you'd better check up your computer even if it's just a temporal job thing.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/16/forensics_clear_child_abuse_suspect/ )
- -
Parallel processing hits the scene. Yep, Intel is proud of its dual core and upcoming quad core chips AMD boasts about its quad en future six core jobs. Say what? NVidea swings around 240 cored on a single die.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/16/nvidia_tesla_10/ )
- -
Yes, they are great for high performance computing tasks. But they also work well in graphic cards. Not for slimline of nini boxes though.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/16/gtx_200_series_gpu_launch/ )
- -
These small 2.5inch SAS drives are developed for blade servers. But they sound perfect for notebooks and even desktop systems. It is not clear though that they are a good options for servers. Not yet.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/16/dell_powervault_md1120_storage_expansion/ )
- -
I remember RM from the eighties. They never actual made their own machines but they rebranded other peoples boxes (even the old Acorn) and supplied them to education in England. With the odd selling to the public.
They are still alive and now rebranding the EeePC. Perfect for education. Sadly they go for the XP moddel.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/16/rm_relaunches_eee_900/ )
- -
It looks silly but it could well be the new toy for big men playing with GIJoes
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/16/humvee_of_the_skies/ )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-16 ^:
Weather - -
The morning looks promising with some hazy mist but clear skies. Better than the weekend, most of that was dry. With most meaning it never rained more than ten minutes per hour. An combined four hours of rain a day ain't bad or is it? (7°C ^_^ 22°C)
Wurk - -
User1 : I write a mail for you but you didn't read it.
User2 : what mail?
User1 : the one I write. but you don't read it so I deleted it.
User2 : how can I read it if you delete it before sending?
User1 : *headdesk* I need a holiday ...News - -
Let's hope Open Solaris brings more competition. The problem for Linux these days is that it has Windows beaten on every technical issue. So the only competition is amongst different brands of Linux. Infighting. Of course there is the possibility that OpenSolaris will merge further and further into Linux and turn into another Linux brand. Not that that would be a bad thing.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/open_solaris_review/ )
- -
More about Open Solarinux ...
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/ian_murdock_open_solaris/ )
- -
Tricky traffic spikes. The biggest problem I see is that lots of sites are advertisement-funded and that means they need reliable click-trough statistics.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/avg_scanner_skews_web_traffic_numbers/ )
- -
An IBM kick at MS Office is unlikely to be felt in Redmond. Not directly that is. But if it is successful in booting MS out of IBM it will be a signal heard all over the tech world.
And I think it's time to take a look as Lotus Symphony. Last time I looked was in the mid eighties of the previous century. I guess the current Symphony is a wee bit different ^_^.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/ibm_staff_ditch_microsoft_office/ )
- -
If you want a bigger house you now have the right excuse. A 108 inch LCD TV.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/13/sharp_monster_lcd/ )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-13 ^:
Weather - -
The rain stopped. But it remains grey and cloudy so it might just start again. (7°C ^_^ 22°C)
Wurk - -
Friday the 13th
Work is no worse then ususal :)
- -
The new harier is flying. Flying fast even. But not likely to be a big success story.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/12/f35b_supersonic_jump_jet_first_flight/ )
- -
Unreadable domain names are coming. ICANN has been working on it for a while now so the Russian push for Cyrilc isn't big news. Maybe shocking for American nationalists.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/12/cyrillic_domain_names/ )
- -
Gog makes you stupid.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/12/god_boffins/ )Google makes you stupid.
( http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google )Does this mean Google is God?
- -
AMD and Intel working together? OK I chocked there for a bit.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/12/amd_havok_co_op/ )
- -
Opera moving up. And about time to, Mozilla has all but caught up on it.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/12/opera_95_release_preview/ )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-12 ^:
Weather - -
The weather is back to normal. It's drizzling and grey. (10°C ^_^ 22°C)
News - -
The Vista fiasco is sinking in. Though some still don't -want to- see what is wrong.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/11/windows_vista_charles_dibona/ )
- -
Apple is staying with StrongARM for the iPhone while everybody half expected they would go Atom-ic.
Funny thing is that PA Semi does ARM designs but also has some PowerPC design expertise and MIPS knowledge in house. So Power may make a comback at Apple after all.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/11/steve_jobs_spills_pasemi_beans/ )
- -
Transaction processing tit-for-tat. Nice benchmark figures for the Power6, while just as meaningless as usual the difference with the competition is rather big. Half as many cores and 50% higher performance look promising. That 5GHz is paying off apparently.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/11/ibm_power6_tpcc/ )
- -
Upgrade alert.
OpenOfice and Skype need to be checked.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/11/openoffice_update/ )
- -
Bigger waffles. And 45cm is very big indeed. The needed investment is big as well. Big and risky enough that no one dares go it alone.
( http://www.technewsworld.com/story/chips/62895.html )
- -
EeePC sized boxes are piling on the market. iPhone sized appliances are popping up everywhere. And they all need low power, small size chips to run at. And the usual suspects line up to sell those. Intel, VIA and ARM (nVidea and others) are all playing but also strategic staying out of each other's way.
( http://www.technewsworld.com/story/63266.html )
( http://www.technewsworld.com/story/63217.html )
( http://www.technewsworld.com/story/63238.html )
I am missing AMD (with its MIPS based chips) and IBM/Sony (Power and Cell) though.
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-11 ^:
Weather - -
We should be over the top of the 'good' weather according to the weather parrots. What they mean is that it's going to be normal warm in stead of to warm. (10°C ^_^ 24°C)
News - -
Thin is in. Well, the HP beats the Apple Air though it doesn't look as thin. And while slightly better it seems to make a similar connection trade-offs.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/10/voodoo_air_challenger/ )
- -
Dropping the PowerPC code form the OS sounds logical for Apple, they aren't making Power boxes anymore.. It will probably provide a serious speed-boost and make maintenance on SnowLeopard easier. Of course they cannot simply drop the PowerPC users so upgrades and fixes for the current version will have to be provided for a couple of years more. And of course by the time the last PowerPC box has died they will switch processor again :)
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/10/apple_skinny_snow_leopard/ )
- -
AMD out end Intel IN? Nah, Cray isn't switching over to Intel, the AMD chips are to good and with better to come the won't drop it. But the Barcelona delay was painful and they will not suffer that again. So now they are working with Intel, trying to get it up to par on the AMD HT interconnect.
( http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207402549 )
- -
Twelve cores. AMD ups the count. Taking a page out of Intel's book they get to 12 by linking two 6-core chips in a single package. I remember the original system schemas about their HyperTransport, being able to connect up to 8 chips without needing support and glue chips. I don't know whether anybody actually made those 8 chip boxes. That were 8 cores and now you can beat that by a single 'chip'. Of course if you can link 8 chips with 12 cores each ... ::blink:: ::blink:: ... ::core-gasm::
It's also improving the interconnects and prepping a couple of new core designs. Hight time for those.
( http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207600531 )
(Remarks about words)
title="Mail Me">Remarks about words)
2008-06-09 ^:
Weather - -
It's rather warm but also windy so it doesn't deel oppressing. (12°C ^_^ 28°C)
Self - -
Extra comment on the networking.
I have an ADSL modem at home directly connected to my main box. Like most normal people. Notice I live alone so I don't actually need internet access on more than one box at a time. I actually don't need all the computers here and practically never run more than one at a time anyway.
I also don't use the other boxes often, most of them are old AMD K6 and K7 things that I just keep around. Not very modern but nice to play with, there is nothing on the disks that needs saving. And keeping them away from the internet means they are safe. Perfect firewalled.
But with the new box installed I wanted to see whether it worked on the network, I have had problems linking Linux to the network.
Actually I have never been able to get a Linux box to work on the network, I never got further than confirming that the Ethernet adaptor worked. No, that's not a problem with Linux, just a big lack of network skill on my side.
Notice I don't get all my Windows boxes networked reliably either, they do the typical Windows trick, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and a reboot changes the situation. The only reliable networking I do is using Win98, that always connects.
W2K is rather flaky, it always burps up authority and security issues and half the time it doesn't want to play, just rebooting without touching any setting tends to fix or break the network. XP always sees the other boxes but doesn't want to talk to them.
The MacMini is another story of course it wants to work but nobody on the network talks Apple so there,s no one to play with.
But this time it worked. So I tried to hang the modem on it. After a couple of (unsuccessful) tries I ended up with internet available on five computers at the same time ... :blink: :blink: ... first time ever I succeed at that. Notice that was two Linux boxes, two Win98 and one W2K box. My main box (w2K) and notebook (XP) don't play ball, and I didn't try the MacMini.
I am back to direct connection on my main box without internet on the rest. The setup was not good anyway, I had the modem directly on the network. No firewall, no security. Nice experiment but not a situation I want to keep running.
- -
Everyone knows it. Dell says it. MS cannot drop XP. The Dell trick if giving Vista away free with a copy of XP may eventually work better than all the marketing from Microsoft itself.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/09/windows_xp_dell_second_reprieve/ )
- -
Processors are fast and powerful enough. Time for software to learn to run in stead of crawl. Intel has been pushing for better Multitreaded software, now AMD adds some muscle.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/09/amd_multi_core_coding_deals/ )
- -
An eight socket board with quad-core Opterons. Hopefully drool-resistant..
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/09/amd_opeteron_se_processor/ )
- -
Opera already was one of the safest browsers around. And it is getting better.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/09/drive_by_download_defences/ )
- -
Another patent case. With a wrong conclusion. It is, as the court decided ridiculous that with Intel paying a licence to LG and that Intel's clients should pay the same licence again. So far so good. Maybe the court should have turned the argument that if one of Intel's clients has to pay up that LG has to refund Intel. Could be fun. But LG's argument that patent exhaustion doesn't apply to patented methods should make it clear that methods shouldn't be patentable in the first place.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080609-scotus-keeps-lg-from-double-dipping-on-method-patents.html )
- -
While we all know the only use for patents is fighting bar-brawl like disputes.
( http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/06/09/hp_acer_patent_settlement/ )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-09 ^:
Weather - -
It's gone bee tropical. It rained a lot last weak so everything is wet and soaked. Yesterday is was warm and today it's warm and getting warmer. Hot 'n humid. (10°C ^_^ 24°C)
Self - -
I just got a new computer.
A cheap one.
Well, not dirt-cheap but for a quad-core with 3GB of memory and a 500GB disk it was cheap. It also came with Windows Vista preinstalled. So I pulled out that disk. I want to run Linux on it but I am not so confident about using it on a main box yet. So I pull out the original hard disk for safekeeping, If things go bad I can put it back in and run Vista. (Backup-plan.)
So I pull out the disk and plug a new one in.
Mistake here. I bought two external USB disks of 500GB each because they were cheaper than standard disks. I opened the box and found it were Seagate Barracuda SATA drives, 500GB, 7500rpm. The good stuff. I still wonder how they can sell an external drive, which includes a power converter, extra packaging, a USB to SATA converter and usually a manual and CD for less than the same sized naked disk. But I don't mind cheaper disks :).
Untill I try to use them as standard disks. They just won't work.
As external disk they work fine so the disk itself is OK, but it just didn't want to play as a primary disk internally. I tried some Linux (SuSE, Ubunto) and Windows (W2K, W98) flavours unsuccessfully. Hell, I even tried DOS. The problem seems to be that the disk is hardwired for being a slave. I don't know whether the typical master-slave settings in SATA are the same as those in the old EDI setup but you still got the pins that can be jumpered (but of course no jumpers are supplied) on most SATA disks. Except on these.. There are no pins or tabs or anything, just the power and SATA interface.
Well, no problem, I had another 500GB SATA disk sitting idle (another story here) so I popped that in. This is a Samsung disk, running at 7500rpm so I doubt there is a performance difference with the Seagate. And I can use the Seagate either as external drive trough the slow USB interface, or as a second disk cause as a second disk it works, it just isn't usable as a boot device.
Anyways I now got a nice quad-core power box with Ubunto installed. Time to get familiar with Linux on a user level and move it in to be my main box.
On a sidenote. For a while I had internet on the LAN, with Linux boxes included.
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Strange reasoning. AMD is doing much the same thing as what IBM is doing.. But they bash IBM because it's using a Power core in their Cell chips and that isn't strong enough. Hmmm, last time I looked the Power cores were beating out Opterons and I doubt the situation has drastically changed.
The way things are going with processors does look interesting though.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/06/moore_cell_amd/ )
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The EeePC desktop looks ready for the market. And it is smaller than the typical thin-client boxes.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/06/moore_cell_amd/ )
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External graphics is a funny concept. I don't think this is going to be sold as a stand alone unit. Well, maybe but while not proprietary it's yet another connector to be added somewhere on the already overcrowded sides or back. I do expect it to be built in into docking stations and port-replicators though. About time those get some intelligence built in.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/06/amd_launches_xgp/ )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-06 ^:
Weather - -
It's reluctantly dry. Still to warm and humid for comfort (10°C ^_^ 24°C)
News - -
Flash in a disk. Two strategies for using SSD. The Symetrix style looks simpler and less advanced, just treating them as jet another disk in the array and adding speed to the balancing equation. No change is needed when, in the future all spinning disk are replaced by SSD. The Sun strategy looks more complicated but more performance optimised.
Nothing prevents the use of both strategies at the same time. It may not be cost effective but performance won't suffer.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/05/emc_and_sun_ssd_strategies/ )
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Stack them up en dump them in a bath. Well that's what IBM does with it's chips. Shorter paths mean lower energy loss and lower latencies so that's good. And adding liquid cooling should make higher stacks possible. Water cooling has two big advantages. One, it cools much better than air. And two it's easier to transport the heat out, with air you end up blowing hot air from the processor over the memory, or you try to cool the processor with air heated by the memory.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/05/ibm_chips_liquid/ )
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080605-ibm-demonstrates-water-cooling-for-3d-processors.html )
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I love the Mini-ITX boards. And they are updating the specs. I'll just see when I can get my hands on one. With a small RAID card in the PCI slot you can build a lovely small home storage box.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/05/via_launches_mini_itx_2/ )
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Mini-PCs flood in but the success is stretching Intel's supply
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/05/computex_scc_redux/ )
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A mix up of police and WarnerBros may influence any court decisions later on.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080605-investigator-controversy-surfaces-over-pirate-bay-case.html )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-05 ^:
Weather - -
It's reluctantly dry. Still to warm and humid for comfort (10°C ^_^ 24°C)
Wurk - -
We got a messy situation at work.
There are two different groups here, The T and W group, working for separate parts of the business. The parts are more or less independent, much like the air force and the navy are independent, with completely different requirements and business processes. And different computer models. (I am in the W group.)
Some 20 years ago they started off from the same basis, RPG programs, DB2 database, AS400. We are all still using that of course though in those 20 years we made some progress, mostly organic changes to the databases and additions, changes to programs. Some more modern programming techniques were introduced piecemeal. An organic growing system has problems though. At one point for the W groups it was decided to dump the system and build a new one.. Starting from scratch both with a new database, new programming and all the (at the time) modern programming techniques. That project ran for a couple of years but during that time the business didn't stand still. By the time the project reached some testable phase it was decided to not move W over to it cause that would mean to much work. Always a problem when you move the goal posts after starting a project, either you bend the projects along the way and miss the deadlines or you don't touch the project and reach the deadlines and miss the target.
The T group however picked up most of the project's results and worked up from there.
So now the W group has a good working system with lots of dinosaur and fossils embedded in it. And a whole bunch of corpses waiting to jump out of hidden closets. While the T group has a good working system with no dinosaur and just a few recent fossils in it. Oh and a couple of corpses and closets. The T group was running up against technical problems (old green-screen terminals can't show enough data) so they started to move over to Java. W doesn't have that problem yet, so Java, while on the horizon, is still far off..
W is still working with old style programs on a duct-tape style database. This is slowing us down considerably of course so it's decided to finally move up and switch W over to the better, more modern system. So W must start using the parameter and basic code structure that is now in use in T.
But our data doesn't fit the data structures setup for T. So there is a lot of political fighting comming up.
Fun in a box.
Self - -
News - -
Practically MS wants one server per customer. At least. And getting that number of servers build will be a problem. Embrace and enhance ... or playing catch-up ?
I thought the Cloud idea was a kind of internetlike thing where every PC connected becomes a server so that you don't need a big server room where everything is packed together.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/04/microsoft_datacenter_millions/ )
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The mini-notebooks are spurring action in the the Linux camp. So we are not just getting more choice among the boxes but also more choice among the OS styles
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/04/ubuntu_netbook_remix_demonstrated/ )
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080604-hands-on-with-the-ubuntu-netbook-remix.html )
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The point here is that Symbian isn't better than the others. But it is useful and friendly, you can do with it what you want so there is no need to try to break in.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/04/symbian_security/ )
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Self-replicating is just a kind of side effect.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/04/reprap_machine/ )
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I have never been impressed with tablet PCs. They weigh way to much to be used as a typical paper notepad. The bulk, weight and uncomfortable handling means you always remind yourself you are carrying something very delicate and expensive so you pay more attention to the tool than the work. The applications are mostly standard desktop stuff with an awkward interface bolted on cause the market is to small to develop real tablet programs.
But these small ones may be a step forward. Taking the EeePC format they drop a lot of the unnecessary bulk. And the price is low enough to deploy in serious numbers, putting them back into the tool rather than gadget category. And getting the volume up will hopefully spur some extra action and attention to the software market.
To be real tablets they need to change further still of course. A bigger screen is one needed thing, something in the A4 paper size category. Sure there is a market for smaller screens, but anything smaller than A5 (7") drops into the personal/gadget market. Picking an A4 sized screen means it looks and works much like a pad of papers or forms. Just make it rugged and more or less scratch-free and you're a step closer.
Another step needed for A4 /A4 sized tablets is to drop the keyboard. Not from the package, we cannot live without keyboards yet, but put a wireless keyboard in so you can use it actually as a paper like notepad walking trough the factory collecting notes and information and use the keyboard back in the office. The folding over keyboards they all have today are interesting cause they are always available but they add to much bulk and weight.
Oh, and the weight has to get down further.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/04/gigabyte_unveils_sub_tablet/ )
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Nothing excitingly new about AMD's Puma line up. It is pretty good. The best part though is the 'external GPU' design. It sounds an ideal companion for the mini-notebooks turning them into usable allround desktop boxes. Just add a big screen and an external GPU to your desk and your 9 inch road companion becomes a big screen athlete.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080604-amd-launches-puma-aims-to-gain-ground-in-the-mobile-market.html )
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Looking at the details you notice all most everything except the name has change in the PS3
( http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/playstation-3-blu-ray.ars )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-04 ^:
Weather - -
It's reluctantly dry. Still to warm and humid for comfort (10°C ^_^ 24°C)
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I ave always been an Acer fan so this EeePC style box from Acer directly hops to the top spot of my wish list.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/03/acer_launches_one/ )
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Asus keeps pumping up the EeePC. the screen growing again. I hope not everyone will follow the trend here. 10 inch is really the maximum size, going any bigger loses you so many portable points that a regular notebook looks more effective.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/03/asus_eee_1000/ )
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Nice start from AMD. Trying to regain lost ground on the notebook market.. Maybe that Puma code name is also a stab at Apple.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/04/amd_puma_laptop_platform/ )
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MS facing the world rejecting Vista. Over 20 number OEMs are working with Microsoft on this the question here is how much is it costing MS to keep them from full scale falling out to Linux.
The bad news for MS is not just that it indicates that Vista is not practical. It indicates that the direction Vista went into is not the right one. Their first reaction was to refocus work on the next version to make sure it wouldn't need a similar hardware hike over Vista as that one did over XP. Promising it won't hike further. But now they must be realising that isn't good enough to save Windows. It must be hard for the MS managers these days. They see Linux competing everywhere and suddenly the standard reaction of adding flashy features and integrating more functions is back firing.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080603-microsoft-forced-to-offer-xp-for-ulcpcs-vista-shafted-again.html )
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Notice a trend here?
Sandisk is expanding it's SSD business
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/03/sandisk_intros_pssd/ )Sun is diving into Flash.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/03/sun_charges_into_enterprise_flash/ )Samsung goes for large capacity, disk replacements using Flash. And good looks.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/03/samsung_promises_256gb_ssd/ )Seagate looking into Flash chips for drives
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/03/samsung_promises_256gb_ssd/ )Intel pushing solid state disks.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/23/intel_centrino_2_ssd_push/ )- -
Getting dense with jets. Photonic jets and data-density here.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080603-photonic-jets-could-increase-optical-disc-capacity-tenfold.html )
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-03 ^:
Weather - -
Even after yesterdays thunderstorm the clouds aren't empty. So it is still raining in the morning. Drizzle. (11°C ^_^ 25°C)
News - -
Sunshine in an IBM
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/03/themis_t2bc/ )
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The front door is locked but please follow the neon arrow to the open back door. Well, that's how HP security work.
( http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/06/02/hp_laptop_bios_security/ )
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Another security slip. Can't go flying while carrying a gun now can you?
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/02/transformers_t_shirt/ )
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Bigger batteries are coming on, at a cost. And w BIOS update to reduce consumption. Still a long way off from workday-endurance for the EeePC, but it moves in the right direction.
( http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/02/asus_eee_pc_battery_swap/ )
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Low power integrated designs are hot. And nVidia has a good one here. Yes' it's up against Intel and some other big folk but it's out early ready to grab part of the market.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080602-tegra-nvidias-play-for-intel-arm-and-the-mid-market.html )
At the same time Intel tries to cover the whole market with a few real chips and a whole bundle of carrots. But Intels puts more emphasis on processing power and in that way on classic computer models. The disadvantage for Intel is that it's business model is not flexible. ARM has the advantage here cause it sells more that you can integrate with whatever you want. It's unlikely that Intel will licence the Atom core for inclusion into a chip combined with a nVidia graphics core or an other parties memory controller.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080602-tegra-nvidias-play-for-intel-arm-and-the-mid-market.html )
The whole story looks grim for Microsoft. Very few of the devices using these new ships are capable of running Vista, let alone it's successor. The only system they have capable for those is an old version of Windows (W2K or, gasp, Win98) or WinCE. But neither of those is ready for the type of devices coming. And Linux is ready and capable for those.
(Remarks about words)
2008-06-02 ^:
Weather - -
Light grey. The best weather for work. (11°C ^_^ 25°C)
-News -
Trust Microsoft. Well, at least they have tons of experience in security slip-ups to recognise one when they see it. And if it is not one they made themselves they are ready to tell the world. Seeing Apple do just like they used to must be great.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/31/microsoft_warns_against_apple_safari/ )
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So if you reprint documents from US government web sites you may end up in prison on terrorosim charges.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/30/notts_al_qaeda_manual_case/ )
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One terrabyte WORM disks look like perfect backup media. A bit over-the-top for music but interesting for un-compressed film.
( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/28/call_recall_optical_drive/ )
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Should you Sync or save? Backing up is another story still. Well actually they are all three different chapters in the same book. A storage cloud sounds interesting but it is not something that will materialise out of plain air. I expect different vendors to produce different clouds ~an Apple clouds, a Windows cloud, some penguin clouds~ and it's very likely to produce lots of thunder and lightning when they hit each other.
Once things settle down though it might be wonderful. Cause you would always have all your files available and updated and backed up. Effortless.
Or it might be a nightmare. Because obviously different clouds will have to interact and some of your neighbours porn may well show up on your cloud uninvited. And your data may find it's way in clouds other then your own.
( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080601-syncing-vs-saving-and-the-case-for-a-home-storage-cloud.html )
(Remarks about words)
A day you don't learn something is a wasted day.
A day you don't teach something is a lost day.