Tag Archives: Computer

30 Days of Geek – Day 10 – Picture, screenshot and specifications of your primary computer.

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CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 940 Processor (4 core a 3GHz, in winter overclocked to 3.2GHz)
GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 260+
RAM: 4x2GB DDR2 800
HDD: 2x500GiB
Monitor: 2×19″ Widescreen – 2880×900

Really I overclock it for shits and giggles, I have no need for so much CPU time, so boinc/world community grid is constantly running in the background.

I feel running Linux the 8GB of RAM is unnecessary, however when running Windows along with some games it is handy to have. I’m looking at dropping my HDD space down to 500GiB and configuring up a NAS to store everything other than the OS. I would take a picture but it’s in a plain case with no cool mods.

Hard Drive Down

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Just getting a quick post in before the end of the month. As you may notice by the picture, a hard drive in my server failed. Luckily this was a backup drive in a LVM which actually wasn’t being used, so there was no data loss. As you can see the damage to the drive is quite large (the most I’ve ever seen in pulling a drive apart). LVM wasn’t too nice to me though. I was quite disappointed that LVM failed to notify me of the drive failure, and/or recognise that there was a problem and mount things in read only, instead LVM continued on it’s merry way, until I found the source of the “clicking” noise in the computer room. Once I worked out which drive it was I had to remove the inode and get LVM to remove it and carry on.

From this, I think there needs to be some improvements for LVM. LVM should have some sort of error detection on drives and send out alert emails. LVM should also do data redundancy. I know LVM isn’t designed to do either, but it seems logical. I want something like a Drobo, but for free running on Linux or FreeBSD. Something where the hard drives can be what ever size they want with redundancy with error reporting. This is just a dream….

I’m also getting into my Uni work, starting two courses, Foundations of Business Computing and Data Communications. Both seem fairly boring so far but I’ll see how it goes.

Openfiler

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So I’ve wanted to setup a file server for home to backup two laptops, and a desktop machine and to store data like Music and Movies (Mum has the whole Stargate collection now on DVD and I’m thinking of ripping them for a backup copy). Previous servers I’ve made or setup have been loud, noisy and chew lots of power. This server is actually a Dell Optiplex that was on death row (ready to be sent to the dump) that I was able to rescue.

Hardware wise it’s just a 1.8ghz, 512mb of RAM, gigabit network card and 20GB hard drive. I’ve added a 40GB hard drive and a 320 GB hard drive for the moment to play with.

It’s quite a nice and quite server and I have ordered a 1TB hard drive and SATA card for the server, from Jack, which will provide me with a decent amount of storage.

Software wise I’ve been trailing Openfiler for the server which is an amazing file server bundle that runs on rPath linux. It uses all the new linux hard drive stuff, like LVM and software RAIDs, and has HTTP, NFS, RSYNC, FTP and SMB support for protocols, which is really nice.

The interface for openfiler is just awesome. You can easily add new partitions, and take snapshots of drive. You can manage all the access rights and everything from the web interface. It’s really really nice.

It still needs a bit of work, I had to hit the terminal a few times to fix some bugs, add new users and resize some partitions. The instructions for install are a littler unclear, like when your partitioning, I don’t think you are ment to partition the parts you want to share.

I don’t like the fact it runs on rPath linux and the way it’s made only for rPath, as this means that you have to have a dedicated server for files and nothing else. Most of the time my file server will be idle so I may aswell make it do something else.

It’d be really nice if it was just a package like software, like a gentoo ebuild or a deb package. That aside it’s really nice software and worth a look at.

As for backup software for Windows Vista, it really does suck. The Vista backup tool tries to backup your whole drive, which I don’t want it to do, and it doesn’t back up everything, just documents and the like, which is really annoying. On the other Vista machine I’ve used SyncToy from MS which is a nice piece of software, and so far it has been working well.

I’ll trial these and report back at the end of the testing period.

Ekiga

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Last week I have been messing around with Ekiga 2.8 (or something) calling and video calling people. It was loads of fun and it ran well. The interface however was lacking awesomeness for its day and I was really surprised to see a wicked looking GUI on the Ekiga website. This is where my adventure began.

I first tried the released beta, and after figuring out how to compile (which was clearly stated on the wiki, however the documentation included within the package said the opposite) i attempted to compile, which failed, I then tried the latest snapshots which also failed. I ended up getting a combination of the 15th and 17th snapshots compiled, however it would segfault straight away. I also found out the hard way that there configuration scripts are dumb, and all previous signs of old libraries must be burnt in a fire and that make clean doesn’t actually work.

I then got some other snapshots to compile, although video support would not work, and it was only today when they released the 3.0.1 beta was I able to get video support working.

I’ve included a screenshot of me talking to Hamzah, although his Cam wasn’t included in the screenshot due SDL (from what I gather). Ekiga 3.0.1 seems more stable and nice to use, and feels more skypey. It also ties into libnotify or libsexy (I can’t remember which is which) and does a good job when people are calling you.

Really really nice, and for all you’s wondering my sip is sip:TheSkorm@ekiga.net . ekiga.net provides the best steaks in town, erm, I mean they provide the best STUN service around.

My GPG Key – Write this down

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Start GPG

From this post onwards I will be GPG signing my posts to ensure there is no tweaking, the flickr image to the left contains my flickr key both in image format and in text format, and at the end of this post, I will include the gpg public key aswell. GPG is a brilliant way to ensure your shit is actually yours and nobody has tampered with it.

Everything between the start and stop blocks will be signed, not including the html.
My public key is…

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (Darwin)
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=/raH
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Stop GPG
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (Darwin)

iEYEARECAAYFAkin4S8ACgkQ2Tnf7yyC15vXEACg3NoZM0Y3hrwfFZ9edG20rijp
iCcAn2BaUjvTA5PADBKI1t2up125aORi
=p7AV
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Why I love the Idea of ZFS

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Bonwick said, “Populating 128-bit file systems would exceed the quantum limits of earth-based storage. You couldn’t fill a 128-bit storage pool without boiling the oceans.” Later he clarified:
“Although we’d all like Moore’s Law to continue forever, quantum mechanics imposes some fundamental limits on the computation rate and information capacity of any physical device. In particular, it has been shown that 1 kilogram of matter confined to 1 litre of space can perform at most 1051 operations per second on at most 1031 bits of information.[10] A fully populated 128-bit storage pool would contain 2128 blocks = 2137 bytes = 2140 bits; therefore the minimum mass required to hold the bits would be (2140 bits) / (1031 bits/kg) = 136 billion kg. To operate at the 1031 bits/kg limit, however, the entire mass of the computer must be in the form of pure energy. By E=mc², the rest energy of 136 billion kg is 1.2×1028 J. The mass of the oceans is about 1.4×1021 kg. It takes about 4,000 J to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Celsius, and thus about 400,000 J to heat 1 kg of water from freezing to boiling. The latent heat of vaporization adds another 2 million J/kg. Thus the energy required to boil the oceans is about 2.4×106 J/kg * 1.4×1021 kg = 3.4×1027 J. Thus, fully populating a 128-bit storage pool would, literally, require more energy than boiling the oceans.”

Taken from wikipedia.

TheSkorm @ PCYC

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Ok, I finally updated the “The Skorm @ PCYC” Website. It now has a new layout which is both CSS and HTML valid. YAY!. I’ll add a picture gallery and admin area soon and possibly even boards :>. The whole website has been remade from bottom up usings suggestions and techniques I learned at NCSS.
Anyway I’ve come up with a new python program for you’s though source code will not be revealed. Here is the out put. It’s amazing what you do when between sleeping, LAN’ing, playing spotlight, and just hanging.

 >>> coolcheck(’michael’)
‘This person is kewl’

That’s with my name, now with my sisters.

>>> coolcheck(’zoe’)
‘This person is NOT kewl.’

Don’t you just love python…