Search results

  1. Mercutio

    Shingled drives and backup hardware

    They're LSI 9211s, either Dell or IBM branded but flashed to standardized firmware. They're well behaved for SATA or SAS but work with hot-swap bays, external enclosures and SAS expanders. There are faster controllers in the world but nothing is really better in terms of compatibility or price...
  2. Mercutio

    Shingled drives and backup hardware

    It's actually OK for my needs. Things get added. Things never get removed. It doesn't matter if it's slow unless I'm doing a bulk copy.
  3. Mercutio

    Shingled drives and backup hardware

    This is a straight copy between two Windows Server Storage spaces. One consists of 7x5TB SMR drives (20TB array) + 500GB cache drvie. The other is a pair of 4x4TB Ultrastar 7k4000s. The drives are connected to a pair of LSI SAS controllers (the two external drives are in an external SAS chassis...
  4. Mercutio

    No Shingles 6GB Drive

    Well that'll be a slight improvement!
  5. Mercutio

    This is the thread for the discussion of interesting apps.

    Which one? I like the Sense V2 clock. I also like "Authentic Weather" but the novelty factor isn't high enough to make me actually use it.
  6. Mercutio

    No Shingles 6GB Drive

    Are you sure you want an 18TB RAID5 given the mathematical certainty of having a hard read error during an array rebuild of a data set that large? I try not to make RAID5 arrays larger than 12TB. SD, as far as I can tell, the "intentional messing with firmware" is limited to those Eco-type...
  7. Mercutio

    Best movie you've seen

    I think the plan is one Star Wars movie a year going forward from now until the end of time.
  8. Mercutio

    OwnCloud

    I've used it for limited personal needs. I found that it was faster for me to use btsync most of the stuff I thought would not be OK in Google Drive.
  9. Mercutio

    Best movie you've seen

    No Jar-Jar. Does not suck. DOES manage to be funny in moments without being over the top or breaking tone. Magic was captured. You know that "Chewie, we're home."-moment from the trailers? Yeah. The whole movie has that.
  10. Mercutio

    Best movie you've seen

    New Star Wars is spectacular. You probably already know that. I am telling you anyway. I got to see it twice tonight. I don't think 3D is necessary (I appreciated the color reproduction of a non-3D screen) but I did also pay for an IMAX ticket and I do think the larger screen is worthwhile even...
  11. Mercutio

    Best movie you've seen

    I've seen it once and I'm waiting for the second showing to start now. I'm not going to spoil anything yet.
  12. Mercutio

    Something Random

    My uncle and my father both have some. The guy my dad dealt with had a chess timer by his phone to track time because $600/hour adds up even 2 minutes at a time.
  13. Mercutio

    Something Random

    There is a human infant in my apartment right now. It is seven months old. Mostly it seems to fall over from a sitting position and/or try to put its toes and/or whatever parts of the nearest cat it can reach into its mouth. Quoting Tron would be a distinct improvement.
  14. Mercutio

    Max Practical Spped of Wi-Fi G

    A best-case rule of thumb is that your maximum throughput will be about half the rated maximum claimed by the spec. 1/3 the speed is probably more realistic and, again, it depends on the number of active clients and sessions, the transceiver and antenna arrangements and even more environmental...
  15. Mercutio

    Something Random

    I just get a couple people who live around the Westmont store to meet me over there when I need cheap i5/i7s in exchange for $5 worth of Starbucks. Sometimes they don't have the stock I want and that's when I make the extra trip to Fry's. I don't like Fry's as well though.
  16. Mercutio

    Windows Security Game Over

    At one time at least, Microsoft sold high security Windows configurations to governmental organizations. I suspect they get to review code even if they rest of us don't.
  17. Mercutio

    Windows Security Game Over

    I suspect there will be a patch before too terribly long. You have an external firewall and don't expose your home PCs via any remote services other than Plex, right? I'm more concerned about how far back Microsoft will patch or address this vulnerability. I have more not-R2 (Vista's cohort)...
  18. Mercutio

    Something Random

    Yeah but Fry's definitely isn't so bad when it's selling an i7 CPU for $100 less than Amazon or at least price matching what the local Microcenter is doing. Which is really handy since Microcenter doesn't like selling anyone two of the same CPU in a month.
  19. Mercutio

    Windows Security Game Over

    The service exists and it's still running, so yes, this impacts home PCs as well. If you're on the Public firewall profile and have no User accounts with(!) a password (and therefore don't use any Windows file sharing or the like), you're much more safe than a Windows server. Safety decreases...
  20. Mercutio

    Windows Security Game Over

    Anything that does network authentication. Even if you're implementing someone else's Single Sign on toolchain, it still ultimately has to authenticate through Kerberos and that's real, real bad.
  21. Mercutio

    Can't install Office 365

    You absolutely NEED to go and change the info to stuff you control ASAP. I know several people who can't change their Microsoft account info because some random person set their account up five years ago and now they can't prove they own the account to Microsoft's satisfaction.
  22. Mercutio

    Windows Security Game Over

    That's super-ugly. How does something like that pass a security audit in the first place?
  23. Mercutio

    Shingled drives and backup hardware

    Just to support Tea's observations, it's about 12x faster for me to copy 20 10GB files than it is for me to copy 100 200MB files. I'm not sure what the drive firmware could be responding to though, since no one drive should have more than 1/5 of the data for any one file in the array, regardless...
  24. Mercutio

    Shingled drives and backup hardware

    I pulled my SMR drive array (7x5TB RAID6 + 500GB SSD) out to copy it to a set of off-site drives and reads seem HIGHLY inconsistent now where before I felt they were really fine. Short writes, up to maybe 20GB, are fast to incredible, able to sustain 250MB/sec (probably the max write speed of...
  25. Mercutio

    Factory reset: Thinkpad Yoga S1

    On a standard drive with Windows installed, the x00000098 error would mean that your BCD folder is hosed for some reason. Startup Repair usually fixes that, or you can actually manually run BCDedit and fix it by hand. Since you're running it on a flash drive with no other disk, it sounds like...
  26. Mercutio

    Windows 10

    I have that happen every once in a while off a sysprep install. Usually I can bring up task manager and restart the stuck process.
  27. Mercutio

    All In One Scanner/Copier/Fax/Printer

    Every December, my company runs a series of crafts classes for the holiday season. From my perspective, these classes serve mostly to annihilate any and all printers that are set before those classrooms. In past years, I've just bought a few of whatever and let them die. This year, I just...
  28. Mercutio

    Amazon associates affiliate program feedback

    Sadly, I made my big bundle of stupid purchases last week.
  29. Mercutio

    question External Keyboard sleep in Windows 10?

    Does the Yoga have multiple USB ports? What if you went to a powered USB hub and then to your keyboard?
  30. Mercutio

    Windows 10

    Somebody had to be the fall guy for Ballmer.
  31. Mercutio

    No sound on ADI SoundMAX AC'97

    Yes. Especially ones that were new in 1997.
  32. Mercutio

    This is the thread for the discussion of interesting apps.

    I use Drive Autosync and manually move files into a couple specific folders in Google Drive when I need to deal with something than needs careful handling, like a specific receipt or card. I don't need to do those things THAT often so I'd rather manage the occasional file than bother with using...
  33. Mercutio

    Linux Domain Controller

    I've set up Samba for use as a DC, primarily in the context of centralizing password changes and basic policy management. I probably still have one or two machines from the early 2000s still running out in the world. Setting it up for the size of environments I'm dealing with was relatively...
  34. Mercutio

    UPS for server room

    On a mildly related topic, Amazon and Newegg were both offering APC BGE70 "home network" UPSes for $20 last week. They're meant to run your router, cable modem and maybe a phone or something for around 4 hours. I'd never heard of that product line prior, but it's a solid idea and possibly a...
  35. Mercutio

    problem USB flash drive refuses formatting, due to write protection

    A flash drive is usually cheap enough to be considered disposable. Even the 128GB USB 3 drives I carry are only worth about $25 these days.
  36. Mercutio

    question External Keyboard sleep in Windows 10?

    Maybe look under Advanced Power Settings, at the USB Selective Suspend? On a white box system, I might be inclined to go look for a firmware USB power management setting, but I doubt the Yoga would have such a thing.
  37. Mercutio

    PC Gaming = World of Suck

    The Dell Venue can't handle Wii games. My i5 NUC will, but I don't have internal antennas to pair the Wii controller with its bluetooth adapter. Also, I signed on to play the beta version of Unreal Tournament and Epic is giving away a game called Shadow Complex. Looks like you don't have to do...
  38. Mercutio

    vB4 Default Style Changed

    The biggest problem I have with the default theme is that there isn't much contrast between the light bluish grey of "unread" threads and the regular grey of read threads. Thank you for fixing it regardless.
  39. Mercutio

    10TB hard drive

    SMR seems fine for its intended purpose. Even two or three 8TB drives are cheaper than an LTO changer and work really well for infrequently accessed, near-line storage. Don't use it for anything time-sensitive and it's pretty good.
  40. Mercutio

    Microsoft Moving to Per-Core Licencing for Server 2016

    If they're smart, not-Oracle. The Oracle license model is "You tell us you want to use Oracle. We come back every few months with new reasons you should be giving us money." Of course, just like using Windows as a desktop OS or Adobe for content creation, you go where the expertise is, and the...
  41. Mercutio

    PC Gaming = World of Suck

    The main thing I've learned so far is that every goddamned console needs a completely different gamepad and none of them are like any of the others. I have a MAME-style 6 button controller, a PS3 controller and what I've come to understand is a Super-Nintendo-style 14-button controller, but none...
  42. Mercutio

    Microsoft Moving to Per-Core Licencing for Server 2016

    I wonder what the pricing difference will be between Server 2016 and Azure instances.
  43. Mercutio

    Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro gripes (v. it's turrible)

    I actually like doing documentation. Especially when I'm getting my hourly rate for doing it. :D
  44. Mercutio

    Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro gripes (v. it's turrible)

    If it's not a big deal where you have a real computer as home base, what makes anyone think it's an adequate station for engineering work? Whose bright idea was it to buy those and are you sure you want to work for them? The Surface Pro is actually great for a lot of applications. I use mine...
  45. Mercutio

    Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro gripes (v. it's turrible)

    With my Surface Pro, I mirror the screen to an external display and use a USB keyboard and trackball when I can. Having it as a small portable device for presentation needs works well enough and I can get by with the Type cover and trackpad if I have to, but it's never ideal. I don't think I...
  46. Mercutio

    PC Gaming = World of Suck

    My project for this weekend: figure out a decent recipe for RetroPi. I have several Pi2s and a few different gamepads sitting around. As I understand it the big challenge is getting gamepad configs right for more than one emulator, but if I can figure out two or three emulators, a Pi2, case, 8GB...
  47. Mercutio

    Windows Home Server / Home Server OS

    One thing I can now say for sure: FreeNAS runs like ass on a dual core Atom with a maximum of 2GB RAM.
  48. Mercutio

    Something Random

    I had a haul like that a few months ago when I found out the Seattle Public library was selling all the almost-impossible-to-find CDs included with issues of BBC Music Magazine from the last 20 years through Discogs. I bought I think 44 discs. They're all safely ripped now, so I guess I can sell...
  49. Mercutio

    10TB hard drive

    Did they ever address the issue with inconvenient screw placement on the Helium drives? IIRC there's no middle screw, which can make mounting the drives a PITA.
  50. Mercutio

    Smartphone and plan advice (v. clean slate)

    The S5 was probably Samsung's best overall phone. It's a solid choice. As far as a plan, you might want to look to see what you could do for a Verizon-based MVNO if you're not planning to be a big mobile data user. There's going to be a huge change in coverage by moving to Tmobile.
Top