Something Random

[Mercutio]

For the messy desk people, a photo of Al Gore's home office.
Note the layers and layers and layers and layers of awesomeness.

Also, check out that monitor setup he's got.

 

[ddrueding]

This new "mega tunic" thing which is supposed to be all in fashion right now is BS; it just makes everyone look pregnant.

 

[Mercutio]

Here in the midwest, we don't get fashions until a couple years after you coastal people are done with them.
I have never heard of a mega tunic.

 

[CougTek]

Fashion?

 

[Howell]

This new "mega tunic" thing which is supposed to be all in fashion right now is BS; it just makes everyone look pregnant.

Bring back the 60s man! They do take the shape out of shapely.

 

[Pradeep]

Are we talking the return of:

 

[Mercutio]

Objective: Build a basic Shuttle SFF system.

OK. Screw Shuttle.
Antec NSK2400

Super-easy build. Takes normal parts. Well ventilated. Nearly silent. Has spiffy channels for all your cables instead of wadded-up shoebox mess. Looks like home audio equipment. PERFECT for an HTPC.

I've done three of them now and the total build time is about five minutes. I even fit three hard disks in one, using some rails.

These things are teh awesome.

 

[ddrueding]

Not SFF. Desktop/HTPC? Yes, but much larger than a Shuttle and more expensive than the basic ones. It does look good though. I normally use Silverstone for my HTPCs, but Antec has a new one with a 7" touchscreen on the front that looks interesting.

At first I thought you were talking about the Aria. I built 2 systems using those, one for personal use and one for a client. Had thermal issues with both. Mine was understandable; 3 750GB HDDs, high-end video card, maxed CPU and RAM, additional sound card, etc. But his was a fairly basic machine.

 

[CougTek]

What about the NSK3300? It only has a 300W SFX PSU, but it's efficient and sufficiently ventilated for a low-power box.

 

[Mercutio]

The NSK3300s are my standard classroom box. They're lovely, but they need another string of SATA power connectors.
They are also very, very quiet.

Arias do have thermal problems. One of the things that convinced me to dump the shoebox form factor was my inability to properly cool one.

 

[ddrueding]

I love living so close to Antec and 3Ware's offices; UPS ground = next day delivery. We even use the same UPS routing warehouse.

 

[CougTek]

You guys have really nothing to say since yesterday. If anyone has a stupid question to ask, now would be the time. The forum has been dead today.

 

[Mercutio]

I had a long day and many, many people were trying to get me angry enough to break out the strangling gloves.

 

[timwhit]

I ran the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge tonight. Time for 3.5 miles (5.63k) was 26:45, not the best time, but I was dying at the end, so I think I ran fast enough.

I have never been in a race with 22,000+ people, it is truly a staggering number of people to run all at the same time.

 

[ddrueding]

My machine was down while I was working on my new array, then I went rock climbing while it was rebuilding (just added the sixth drive to an existing RAID-5). I can hear the drives cranking away, but it's still at 0%. I suspect this will take a long time...

 

[Bozo]

Been tyying to find the reason my computer won't boot with 4GB RAM installed. 2GB good. 3GB good. 4GB crap.

Bozo :joker:

 

[ddrueding]

I suspect this will take a long time...

It took 2 days to move the data off the hard drives (I had enough space elsewhere to hold all but ~700GB of it). Then I created a 5-drive RAID-5 array in a few minutes. Copying the 700GB back to the array @ ~55MB/sec (in Vista) took about 3.5 hours. Adding the now free drive to the array looks like it will take about 2 days, then moving the remaining >2TB of data back from network storage will probably take another 4 days...this is a hell of a process...

 

[MaxBurn]

Sounds like an excellent reason against RAID5 to me. I plan to get rid of mine and replace it with a pair of these gignormous drives that are available now sometime this year.


Anyone have something interesting going on for the long weekend?

 

[Bozo]

Weekend = Having the family over for a cook-out.
Monday = I'll be at work.

Bozo :joker:

 

[ddrueding]

Wedding on Saturday where I've been asked to perform. Sailing Sunday. Working Monday.

5+ disks with minimal performance requirements are the only reason to use RAID-5 IMHO. For 3-4 disks, the hassle isn't worth saving a couple drives (over RAID-10). But for my 6 drive array, it would take an additional 4 drives to get a RAID-10 of the same size; that is simply crazy for my modest requirements.

Of course, the first thing is to switch to the largest single drives, that makes everything easier.

 

[Mercutio]

We've had this argument before. I would rather buy lots of moderately priced disks than one large one. As long as I have ports available, two 500GB drives are a better deal than one 750GB.

I use RAID10 or RAID0 arrays and spread multiple copies of my data across multiple locations. I haven't actually lost any data in a very long time and I'm not waiting days for that shit to rebuild.

My weekend plans mostly involve a lot of sleeping and wishing I had a grill so that I could grill things. And wishing I had a girlfriend so I could... well, you know.

 

[LOST6200]

OK, boruing. Evryobody has fled, evn thuogh only at 4Pm.

 

[Fushigi]

You just need better RAID cards.

 

[Mercutio]

I mostly do SoftRAID, actually. Do you know how hard it is to peg even one modern CPU on a File/Email/Proxy server? Might as well use some of that processing power to handle parity calculations or whatever.

 

[ddrueding]

Considering I'm using one computer for everything (small apartment), I don't want my CPU busy doing RAID-math.

I think the card I have is pretty good (see sig).

 

[Mercutio]

Since we've established that you don't like laptops, does that mean you're setting up Wyse or Compaq Windows terminals all over your apartment?

 

[CougTek]

Wyse terminals cost upward to 400U$ each. Thanks but I'll pass.

Used Compaq Evo SFF boxes are easy to find and cost less than 175$ with relatively modern components. In fact, I use a Compaq Evo SFF as my main machine and I still haven't waited long enough to think about tearing it off from below my desk and throwing it thru the nearest wall. That's better than most other computers I've owned.

 

[Mercutio]

Older winterms go for south of NOTHING on Ebay. You can get one for $25 with the power adapter if you look. If you've got a nice Windows or Linux server you can have a zero noise, zero heat internet rig for little more than the cost of a display.

 

[Buck]

I'm not at my final goal yet, but I managed to reach 8.5 miles today. Now my knees need a rest.

 

[ddrueding]

I have 1 desktop/server and 2 laptops (one for me, one for the GF). I'm trying to talk the GF into letting me mount an LCD near the bed and mirroring my main display, but she saw that I had done the same in my last GF's house, and doesn't like the parallels. The main system has 2 keyboards/mice (one USB, the other bluetooth) and also drives the projector and 2 soundcards, so I can play games while she watches movies/TV.

I just finished dancing for a couple hours, but we need to get up at 7AM tomorrow to make the wedding in time (in Carmel). Not my idea of a fun Saturday.

 

[ddrueding]

Yay. I'm able to copy from the RAID-5 to the RAID-0 at over 100MB/s sustained. That makes me happy.

 

[Mercutio]

I'm not at my final goal yet, but I managed to reach 8.5 miles today. Now my knees need a rest.

Congratulations Buck!

8.5 miles of what?

 

[ddrueding]

Porn. He's gaining on you

 

[Mercutio]

Went to the video store just now.
I got to hear some dumbass complaining about the fact that he showed Jesus is Magic (note those plot keywords) to his saved, christian family.

I stood there and tried not to laugh. Mr. Evangelical told the 18-year-old behind the counter he was going to hell unless he gave the guy a refund and destroyed the unholy work of the jewess.

He actually said "jewess".
Out loud. In public.

I asked him if he read the back, or even the front of the DVD box. He sputtered something about false advertising.

It was highly amusing.

 

[LunarMist]

That show looks like a filthy (R-rated) stand up comedy act, so it is understandable that many people would be offended. However, the user should have read the box more carefully or checked it out online.

 

[ddrueding]

Jewess is passable, I actually had a lesbian friend who referred to herself as the sexy jewess (you've got to own it ). But saying "you are going to hell unless I get a refund" is truly hilarious.

 

[CougTek]

Babelfish doesn't help me to translate "jewess". People as idiotic as this imbecile aren't even worth the two bullets that should be used to cure them.

 

[MaxBurn]

Older winterms go for south of NOTHING on Ebay. You can get one for $25 with the power adapter if you look. If you've got a nice Windows or Linux server you can have a zero noise, zero heat internet rig for little more than the cost of a display.

I am completely ignorant of this market. Can you get something handheld with a touch screen?

 

[ddrueding]

The new google maps streets view catches my apartment and my car. Neat.

 

[Mercutio]

I am completely ignorant of this market. Can you get something handheld with a touch screen?

I don't think so. I'm talking about little things that are the size and shape of a home router. They have little ARM or MIPS processors in them, 32 or 64MB RAM and just enough smarts to talk to an X, RDP or Citrix server.